The earliest New Testament manuscripts are notoriously difficult to date, with informed guesses sometimes differing by more than a century. But even the most optimistic scholars would not claim to know of a fragment of any New Testament book that comes from the first century and could, therefore, have been handwritten by its assumed author (Matthew, Paul, etc.) or by his contemporary. This applies also to the recently debunked “first-century Mark” (Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5345). Establishing precise dates of secular documents, on the other hand, is often possible, because these everyday writings may contain a date or a historical clue […]
