This report doesn't introduce new findings — it pulls together the dates already established across the other reports in this investigation into one place, so the chronology of who-wrote-what-when doesn't require hunting through nine separate pages.
Dating isn't a side detail in this investigation — it's frequently the core of the argument. Paul's letters predating the Gospels is what makes the Paul-vs-Jesus comparison possible at all. The 350-year gap between Jesus and the finalized Trinity doctrine is the entire basis of the doctrinal development report. Daniel's "predictions" turning vague exactly where its real composition date falls is the clearest evidence of when it was actually written. None of these arguments work without a clear chronology — so here it is, in one place.
| Date | Event or text | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| ~1400–400 BCE | Old Testament books composed across this span; Mosaic Law establishes the tithe system | Tithing |
| ~250 BCE | The Septuagint — Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures — begins in Alexandria | Canon Formation |
| ~250 BCE – 68 CE | The Dead Sea Scrolls are copied | Manuscript Evidence |
| ~165 BCE | The Book of Daniel is actually composed, during the Maccabean crisis — centuries after its narrated setting | Revelation & the Apocalyptic Tradition |
| ~27–30 CE | Jesus' ministry | The Historical Jesus |
| ~30–33 CE | Crucifixion under Pontius Pilate | The Historical Jesus |
| ~48–64 CE | Paul's authentic letters — the earliest Christian writings that survive, predating the Gospels | Paul vs. Jesus |
| ~65–70 CE | The Gospel of Mark — earliest of the four Gospels, used as a source by Matthew and Luke | Gospel Authorship |
| ~70 CE | Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple | Revelation & the Apocalyptic Tradition |
| ~80–90 CE | Matthew and Luke composed, both drawing on Mark and a shared sayings source | Gospel Authorship |
| ~80–120 CE | The Didache — earliest Christian community manual outside the New Testament | Discipleship Before Constantine |
| ~90–100 CE | The Gospel of John — latest and most theologically developed of the four | Gospel Authorship |
| ~93 CE | Josephus writes his account mentioning Jesus, later partly edited by Christian scribes | The Historical Jesus |
| ~95 CE | The Book of Revelation, written from Patmos during Domitian's reign | Revelation & the Apocalyptic Tradition |
| ~100 CE | The Pastoral Epistles (1–2 Timothy, Titus) — widely considered pseudonymous, not authentically Paul's | Paul vs. Jesus |
| ~120 CE | 2 Peter — generally considered the latest New Testament document, also pseudonymous | Revelation & the Apocalyptic Tradition |
| ~150 CE | Justin Martyr's account — the earliest detailed description of a Christian Sunday gathering | Discipleship Before Constantine |
| ~180 CE | Irenaeus argues for exactly four Gospels — no more, no less | Canon Formation |
| ~250 CE | Dionysius of Alexandria argues Revelation and the Gospel of John can't share an author, based on the Greek style | Revelation & the Apocalyptic Tradition |
| 313 CE | Constantine legalizes Christianity — the major institutional inflection point | Discipleship Before Constantine |
| 325 CE | Council of Nicaea — Christ's divinity formally defined | Doctrinal Development |
| 367 CE | Athanasius's Easter Letter — first appearance of the exact 27-book New Testament list | Canon Formation |
| 381 CE | Council of Constantinople — the Trinity doctrine reaches its complete form | Doctrinal Development |
| 397 CE | Council of Carthage formally ratifies the 27-book New Testament canon | Canon Formation |
| ~410 CE | Augustine fully formulates the doctrine of original sin as inherited guilt | Doctrinal Development |
| 567–800 CE | Regional councils, then Charlemagne, make tithing a mandatory, civilly enforced obligation | Tithing |
| 1830s | John Nelson Darby develops the rapture doctrine | Revelation & the Apocalyptic Tradition |
| 1970s–present | The American church growth movement standardizes the modern Sunday-service model | The Consumerist Church |
| 1997 | I Kissed Dating Goodbye popularizes the modern Christian courtship movement | Dating, Courtship & Marriage |
| 1947 | The Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered, closing a 1,400-year gap in Old Testament manuscript evidence | Manuscript Evidence |
| 1945 | The Nag Hammadi texts are discovered, revealing the scope of excluded Gnostic writings | Canon Formation |
Not every date on this timeline carries the same weight, and treating them as equally certain would misrepresent the evidence.
| Date type | Confidence level | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Council dates (Nicaea, Carthage, Constantinople) | Very high | Documented historical events with multiple independent records |
| Modern discoveries (Dead Sea Scrolls, Nag Hammadi) | Very high | Directly observed and dated events in recent history |
| Composition dates for Paul's letters | High | Cross-referenced against datable events in Acts and Roman history |
| Gospel composition dates | Moderate-high | Inferred from internal evidence, citation patterns, and relationship to the Temple's destruction — a scholarly range, not a fixed point |
| Old Testament composition dates | Moderate | Often a matter of ongoing scholarly debate, especially for books with multiple authors or editorial layers |
Laid out end to end, a few patterns become hard to miss. The gap between Jesus and the major doctrines built in his name — Trinity, original sin, mandatory tithing — consistently runs three centuries or more. The New Testament itself was written across a much shorter window than most people assume, with the latest books arriving within about ninety years of the earliest. And several practices presented today as ancient or directly biblical — the rapture, the courtship movement, the modern church service format — are demonstrably recent, most less than two hundred years old and some less than thirty.
None of the layers in this timeline are hidden — every date here is drawn from a report elsewhere in this investigation, with its sources and reasoning shown in full. This page is a map of where to look, not a replacement for reading the underlying argument.
Chronology is not a side detail in this investigation — in several of the strongest findings here, the dates are the argument. This timeline doesn't add new evidence; it makes the existing evidence easier to see all at once, and points back to the full report behind every date for anyone who wants the complete case.