Claim from MSNBC

[Mr. Cube]

[code]
Name  Born Died Lifespan
========================================
Anaxagoras 500BC 428BC 72
Anaximander 609BC 547BC 62
Anaximenes 585BC 525BC 60
Aristotle 384BC 322BC 62
Democritus 460BC 370BC 90
Demosthenes 384BC 322BC 62
Empedocles 490BC 430BC 60
Epicurus 341BC 270BC 71
Gorgias  483BC 375BC 108
Heraclitus 535BC 475BC 60
Hippocrates 460BC 380BC 80
Philolaus 480BC 405BC 75
Plato  427BC 347BC 80
Protagoras 481BC 420BC 61
Pythagoras 582BC 496BC 86
Socrates 469BC 399BC 70
Thales  635BC 543BC 92
Xenophanes 570BC 470BC 100
Zeno  490BC 430BC 60

Avg. lifespan of a Greek philosopher: 73
[/code]

I bet the gospel authors' lifespans weren't much different.

I got the birth and death years from the wikipedia.

Edited December 8, 2004 by Mr. Cube

[Crusader_4]

Further to that the quality of life in the Roman Empire was not to be met until the imperail ages of Europe so it is not unlikely to say that John wrote his gospel or that the gospels are innacurate because of the dates taht is an absurd claim especially as one studies ancient texts. The biblical gospels are known for being written so close to the event it is difficult to find another text in the ancient world that does that besides Roman Government papers.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='Aluigi' date='Dec 8 2004, 01:31 AM'] John Mark was never considered to be an APOSTLE. The only authors claimed to be APOSTLES were Matthew (they assumed he was the tax collector who turned apostle named Matthew, but it never actually said that. John is the one people believe on faith that it was St. John the Apostle, scholarship says it to be unlikely but if it wasn't it is most likely one of St. John's disciples.

John Mark was a disciple of St. Peter.

Luke was a contemporary of the Apostle St. Paul, perhaps young compared to St. Paul so that he would have lived to write the gospel.

Very likely: St. John Mark (whom St. Peter calls his 'beloved son') and St. Luke wrote the gospels. St. John Mark knew Peter, Peter knew Mary, St. John Mark had stories. St. John Mark's mother's house (according to very ancient tradition) housed the Last Supper, St. John Mark's mother thus likely knew Jesus and Mary.
St. Luke was probably fairly young at the time of St. Paul. He was surely in contact with all of the Apostles. He was surely in contact with St. Paul, likely to have met St. John and even Mary.

About the authorship of St. John and St. Matthew less is known, it is thought that St. Matthew was just expanded from St. Mark; whatever, there's still a very direct line to the Apostles and to Mary. St. John was either written by the Apostle himself or by a community he founded. [/quote]
Not exactly.

Church Fathers said Matthew was first, and written in Aramaic Hebrew, then translated into Greek. Mark and Luke wrote around the same time, both before the fall of Jerusalem. John wrote Revelations about the Fall of Jerusalem, then he wrote the Gospel from the Island of Patmos after the year 100 AD