In A Trustworthy Gospel: Arguments for an Early Date for Matthew’s Gospel, I argued that Matthew was published in Greek within roughly a decade of the resurrection for the benefit of Jewish believers, coincident with the events in Acts 10–11, as Peter and Paul began their outreach to the Gentiles.…
Thomas Birks’ 1852 book, Horæ Evangelicæ, encourages us to seriously consider much earlier dates for the Gospels than is presently popular. In Birks’ day, liberal German theologians (e.g., David Strauss) were characterizing the Gospels—”not as real histories, but as a collection of early legends that had their origin in ideal…
The Gospel of Mark offers Greek translations for a variety of Aramaic words. What does this tell us about Mark's intended audience? Many scholars claim that Mark's translations demonstrate that his audience was not familiar with Aramaic. However, if we look closely at how both Mark and Matthew handle the…