William Lane Craig states, “Although most New Testament critics claim that the gospels were written after A. 70, that assertion, states Cambridge University’s John A. Robinson, is largely the result of scholarly laziness, the tyranny of unexamined presuppositions, and almost willful blindness on the part of the critics.” [1] It would seem that the unexamined presuppositions and assumptions are in need of examining, which is the goal of this article.I will be highlighting the robust, factual and thorough work of both William Lane Craig, and that of J.

I think there are several good reasons to accept this claim, given the historical and textual evidence: The Church Fathers Say John’s Gospel Came Last The first century bishop, Clement of Rome, testified that John’s Gospel was written after the other gospels (according to Eusebius’ History of the Church, Book 4, Chapter 14.7), and Irenaeus, the ancient Bishop of Lugdunum, also affirmed this to be the case (see Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 1).

Later Church Fathers (like Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome) repeated this claim.

How has such a drastic shift in opinion regarding the Fourth Gospel come about?

In large part it has happened because of a shift in scholarly opinion about the interrelationship of the four gospels which placed John’s Gospel late in the first century (actually, it would have been pushed well into the second century, as F. Baur and the “Tbingen School” had proposed around 1835.

Attestation of Johannine authorship is found as early as Irenaeus.