This chart shows likely dates of composition for the New Testament books. Some are quite exact, while others are more approximate. While none of the books contains a specific date of composition, scholars have managed to assign dates that are fairly accurate. The New Testament was written within a much shorter timespan, more or less in the years between 50 AD and 100 AD. It's easier to answer, 'When was the Bible written?' for the New Testament books. The last Old Testament book to be written was 1 Maccabees, probably written around 100 BC. Scholars say that some of the earliest individual books were written down probably beginning near the end of the thirteenth century BC - perhaps 1200 BC or so. The individual books of the Old Testament were written at different times. In fact, their authorship spans a period of about twelve centuries! It's hardest to answer the question, 'When was the Bible written?' for the Old Testament books. I've used a number of sources for this article, but the bulk of this information can be found in the essays 'General Introduction to the Bible' and 'Introduction to the Books of the New Testament', both found in the Gospels & Acts volume of the Navarre Bible. These volumes also contain a number of excellent introductory essays about the Bible.

The theology faculty at the University of Navarre, Spain, put together an outstanding Bible commentary called the Navarre Bible.

This means that sometimes there isn't a straightforward answer to the question when was the Bible written. Of course, the Bible contains many different books, written at different times by different people. This article contains the likely dates of composition for the various books of the Bible.

Many people ask, 'When was the Bible written?' It's a common question, and the answer shouldn't be so hard to find!

When was the bible written timeline