Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament
by Jonathan Bernier | Book Summary
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Author: Jonathan Bernier
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This study both relies on and builds on the work of John A.T. Robinson in Redating the New Testament. In that book, Robinson argued that since the New Testament authors never specifically refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, we should conclude that the 27 books that constitute the New Testament all were written before this cataclysmic event. Going beyond the work of Robinson, this study approaches the question of chronology with a threefold procedure, considering issues of synchronization, contextualization, and authorial biography. Additionally, this study adjudicates various theories on the basis of freedom from fallacy, evidentiary scope, and parsimony. With this method of study, "this study concludes that a lower chronology is most fully warranted" (p. 277). |
Jonathan Bernier is a New Testament scholar with a PhD from McMaster University, a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Bernier has taught at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, and he currently teaches at Regis College, which is part of the University of Toronto in Ontario.
In addition to teaching at Regis College, Bernier is the executive director of the Lonergan Research Institute. The Lonergan Research Institute is part of Regis College, and it is devoted "to preserve, promote, develop and implement" the work of Canadian philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984). In addition to Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament, Bernier is the author of The Quest for the Historical Jesus After the Demise of Authenticity (2016) and Aposynagogos and the Historical Jesus in John (2013).
Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament
by Jonathan Bernier
[ Book Summary ]
| Author | Jonathan Bernier |
| Publisher | Baker Academic |
| Date | 2022 |
| Pages | 318 |
Overview:
"This study asks when each of the twenty-seven books that are now collected in the corpus known as the New Testament were written… It will conclude that, with the notable exception of the undisputed Pauline Epistles, the majority of the texts that were eventually incorporated into the New Testament corpus were likely written twenty to thirty years earlier than is typically supposed by contemporary biblical scholars." (p. 1)
This study both relies on and builds on the work of John A.T. Robinson in Redating the New Testament. In that book, Robinson argued that since the New Testament authors never specifically refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, we should conclude that the 27 books that constitute the New Testament all were written before this cataclysmic event.
Going beyond the work of Robinson, this study approaches the question of chronology with a threefold procedure, considering issues of synchronization, contextualization, and authorial biography. Additionally, this study adjudicates various theories on the basis of freedom from fallacy, evidentiary scope, and parsimony. With this method of study, "this study concludes that a lower chronology is most fully warranted" (p. 277).
Jonathan Bernier is a New Testament scholar with a PhD from McMaster University, a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Bernier has taught at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, and he currently teaches at Regis College, which is part of the University of Toronto in Ontario.
In addition to teaching at Regis College, Bernier is the executive director of the Lonergan Research Institute. The Lonergan Research Institute is part of Regis College, and it is devoted "to preserve, promote, develop and implement" the work of Canadian philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984). In addition to Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament, Bernier is the author of The Quest for the Historical Jesus After the Demise of Authenticity (2016) and Aposynagogos and the Historical Jesus in John (2013).