1976

RE-DATING THE NEW TESTAMENT

(1919-1983)

Prepared by Paul Ingram and Todd Dennis

"One of the oddest facts about the New Testament is that what on any showing would appear to be the single most datable and climactic event of the period - the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, and with it the collapse of institutional Judaism based on the temple - is never once mentioned as a past fact. "

For my father

arthur william robinson

who began at Cambridge just one hundred years ago
to learn from Lightfoot, Westcott and Hort,
whose wisdom and scholarship remain the fount
of so much in this book

and my mother

mary beatrice robinson

who died as it was being finished
and shared and cared to the end.

Remember that through your parents you were born;
What can you give back to them that equals their gift to you?

Ecclus.7.28.

All Souls Day, 1975

CONTENTS

	Preface
	Abbreviations

I	Dates & Data
II	The Significance of 70
III	The Pauline Epistles
IV	Acts & the Synoptic Gospels
V	The Epistle of James
VI	The Petrine Epistles & Jude
VII	The Epistle to the Hebrews
VIII	The Book of Revelation
IX	The Gospel & Epistles of John
X	A Post-Apostolic Postscript
XI	Conclusions & Corollaries

	ENVOI0
	*Index of Names*

PREFACE

I really have no more to say than thank you — to my long-suffering secretary Stella Haughton and her husband; to Professor C. F. D. Moule from whose New Testament seminar so small a seed has produced so monstrous a manuscript, on which he gave such kindly judgment; to my friends, Ed Ball, Gerald Bray, Chip Coakley, Paul Hammond and David McKie, who advised or corrected at many points; and finally to Miss Jean Cunningham of the SCM Press for all her devoted attention to tedious detail.

John Robinson

Trinity College
Cambridge

ABBREVIATIONS

AF	*Apostolic Fathers*
*Ant.*	*Antiquities*
AP	*Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha*
*ASTI*	*Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute*
*ATR*	*Anglican Theological Review*
Bb	*Biblica*
BJ	*Bellum Judaicum*
BR	*Biblical Research*
BZ	*Biblische Zeitschrift*
*CBQ*	*Catholic Biblical Quarterly*
CH	*Church History*
*Chron.*	*Chronologie der Altchrislichen Litteratur (see p.4 n. 8)*
CN	*Conjectanea Neotestamentica*
*CQR*	*Church Quarterly Review*
DR	*Downside Review*
EB	*Encyclopedia Biblica*
*ed(d).*	*editors(s), edited by*
*EGT*	*Expositor's Greek Testament*
EQ	*Evangelical Quarterly*
ET	*English Translation*
*ExpT*	*Expository Times*
FG	*The Four Gospels*
*HBC*	*Handbook of Biblical Chronology*
*HDB*	*Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible*
HE	*Historica Ecclesiastica*
HJ	*Heythrop Journal*
*HJP*	*History of the Jewish People*
*HNT*	*Handbuch zum Neuen Testament*
*HTFG*	*Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel*
*HTR*	*Harvard Theological Review*
*HUCA*	*Hebrew* *Union College* *Annual*
IB	*Interpreter's Bible*
*ICC*	*International Critical Commentary*
*IDB*	*Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible*
*INT*	*Introduction to the New Testament*
*JBC*	*Jerome Biblical Commentary*
*JBL*	*Journal of Biblical Literature*
*JEA*	*Journal of Egyptian Archeology*
*JRS*	*Journal of Roman Studies*
*JSS*	*Journal of Semitic Studies*

*JTS*	*Journal of Theological Studies*
*KEKNT*	*Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar über das Neue Testament*
*NCB*	*New Century Bible*
*n.d.*	*no date*
*NEB*	*New English Bible*
*n.f.*	*neue Folge*
*NovTest*	*Novum Testamentum*
*n.s.*	*new series*
NT	*New Testament*
*NT Apoc.*	*New Testament Apocrypha*
*NTC*	*New Testament Commentary*
*NTI*	*New Testament Introduction*
*NTS*	*New Testament Studies*
OT	*Old Testament*
*par(s).*	*parallel(s)*
PC	*The Primitice Church*
*PCB*	*Peake's Commentary on the Bible*
PL	*Patrologia Latina*
PP	*Past and Present*
RB	*Revue Biblique*
*RBén*	*Revue Bénédictine*
RE	*Review and Expositor*
*RHPR*	*Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses*
*RHR*	*Revue d' Histoire des Religions*
*RSR*	*Recherches de Science Religieuse*
*RSV*	*Revised Standard Version*
*SBT*	*Studies in Biblical Theology*
ST	*Studia Theologica*
*TLS*	*Times Literary Supplement*
*TLZ*	*Theologische Literaturzeitung*
TR	*Theologische Rundschau*
*tr.*	*translated*
TU	*Texte and Untersuchungen*
*USQR*	*Union Seminary Quarterly Review*
VC	*Vigiliae Christianae*
VE	*Vox Evangelica*
*v.l.*	*varia lectio*
*ZNW*	*Zeithchrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft*
*ZTK*	*Zeithchrift für Theologie und Kirche*
*ZWT*