“When did the events described in the Bible happen?” and “When did the biblical text in something resembling its present form come to be written?”
The second question is much more complicated.
One of the most useful ways to approach the subject is to recognize that there are several different scholarly answers, depending upon whether one follows traditional Jewish and Christian views, conservative evangelical scholarship, older historical-critical scholarship, or more recent literary and historical approaches. Even among critical scholars there is considerable disagreement. Dating an ancient biblical book is rarely like dating a modern document with a publication date. Scholars are usually trying to reconstruct a process of composition, editing, compilation, and transmission.
For example, traditional Christian interpretation can place Genesis in the time of Moses, around 1446 to 1406 BCE, while mainstream critical scholarship generally sees Genesis as the final literary product of traditions that developed over many centuries and were brought together during the first millennium BCE, with substantial portions belonging to the exilic or postexilic period.
The basic problem: Genesis is not necessarily one “writing event”
This distinction is crucial.
When someone asks, “When was Genesis written?”, there are actually several questions hidden inside it.
When were the stories first told?
When were particular traditions first written down?
When were those traditions combined?
When did an editor give them something approaching their present form?
And when did the final text become sufficiently fixed that later scribes were essentially copying rather than substantially rewriting it?
These dates can be hundreds of years apart.
The story of Abraham, for example, may preserve very old traditions. That does not mean that the literary story about Abraham was written during Abraham’s lifetime. Similarly, the story of the Exodus may preserve memories of ancient Israelite traditions while the literary form in which we now encounter it may have emerged much later.
This is why biblical scholarship increasingly speaks of traditions, sources, layers, editors, and literary formation rather than simply asking who “wrote” a particular book.
Three major approaches to dating the Protestant Bible
There are roughly three broad approaches that you will encounter.
The traditional approach
The traditional Jewish and Christian position attributes the Pentateuch to Moses. On this view, Genesis through Deuteronomy were substantially written during Moses’ lifetime, traditionally in the fifteenth or thirteenth century BCE depending upon one’s chronology of the Exodus.
A conservative evangelical reconstruction based on an early Exodus date therefore places Genesis roughly around 1446 to 1406 BCE.
This remains a significant position among conservative Christians.
The classical historical-critical approach
Beginning especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, scholars increasingly noticed apparent contradictions, repetitions, differences in vocabulary and theology, and changes in style within the Pentateuch.
The famous Documentary Hypothesis attempted to explain these by identifying several underlying sources traditionally designated J, E, D, and P.
In its classic form, J and E were relatively early, Deuteronomy was associated with the seventh century BCE, and the Priestly material was associated particularly with the exilic or postexilic period. The sources were eventually combined into something resembling the Pentateuch we know today.
More recent scholarship
Modern scholarship has become considerably less confident about the neat J, E, D, P model.
Many scholars still believe that Genesis and the Pentateuch contain multiple layers of tradition and composition, but they disagree about exactly how those layers should be identified and dated.
Consequently, you will sometimes see scholars saying that Genesis contains material that is very ancient, while its final literary shaping belongs much later, perhaps during the Persian period or even somewhat later.
That is an important distinction.
Genesis
Genesis provides perhaps the best illustration of the problem.
The traditional answer is approximately 1446 to 1406 BCE, assuming Mosaic authorship and an early Exodus.
The older critical model would place its principal sources much later. In one classic reconstruction, the Yahwistic material was associated with roughly the tenth or ninth century BCE, the Elohistic material with the eighth century, and Priestly material with the sixth or fifth centuries. These materials were subsequently combined and edited.
Many contemporary scholars would avoid giving Genesis one precise date. A reasonable broad description is:
Ancient traditions → written traditions during the monarchy → major exilic/postexilic shaping → final Pentateuchal form in the Persian period or somewhat later.
This means that saying “Genesis was written in 550 BCE” is misleading, just as saying “Genesis was written by Moses in 1400 BCE” can be misleading from the standpoint of critical scholarship.
The more nuanced answer is that Genesis is a composite work whose traditions and literary layers originated at different times.
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
The same issue applies to the remainder of the Torah.
Conservative scholarship generally treats all five books as substantially Mosaic and therefore dates them to Moses’ lifetime.
Historical-critical scholarship sees a much longer process.
Exodus contains ancient narrative and legal traditions but also extensive Priestly material.
Leviticus contains particularly prominent Priestly and Holiness traditions.
Numbers combines narrative, law, genealogy and census material from different periods.
Deuteronomy is especially important because its theology and language are closely connected with the later biblical movement known as the Deuteronomistic tradition.
A common critical dating places an early form of Deuteronomy in the seventh century BCE, associated in some way with the reforms of King Josiah around 622 BCE.
The final form of the Pentateuch is then generally placed later, particularly in the exilic or Persian period, although the precise reconstruction remains debated.
Joshua through Kings
Something very interesting happens after Deuteronomy.
Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings are often studied together because scholars see substantial theological and literary connections among them.
The resulting scholarly concept is the Deuteronomistic History.
The basic idea is that someone or some group of editors shaped Israel’s history according to the theological principles found in Deuteronomy.
The story begins with Israel entering the Promised Land, proceeds through the period of the judges, the monarchy, David and Solomon, and eventually ends with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile.
The traditional chronology would place the writing of these books much closer to the events themselves.
Critical scholarship generally sees a more complicated process:
older stories and traditions → written historical records → Deuteronomistic editing → further exilic/postexilic editing.
Thus, Joshua may preserve very old traditions while the theological framework through which the story is interpreted may belong substantially to the monarchic and exilic periods.
Psalms and Proverbs are even more complicated
The Psalms cannot really be assigned one date.
Some individual psalms may be quite ancient, while others appear to come from the monarchy, exile or postexilic period.
The Book of Psalms is therefore an anthology, not a book written by one author at one time.
The same is true of Proverbs.
There are collections attributed to Solomon, collections associated with other sages, and later editorial collections.
Consequently, scholars may date individual sections centuries apart even though they now appear together in one book.
The Prophets
Here the dating process becomes somewhat easier because many prophets can be connected with particular historical circumstances.
For example:
Amos:
eighth century BCE
Hosea: eighth century BCE
Isaiah: principally eighth century BCE, but with later material
Micah: eighth century BCE
Jeremiah: late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE
Ezekiel: sixth century BCE
Haggai: approximately 520 BCE
Zechariah: primarily late sixth century BCE, with some sections debated
Malachi: probably fifth century BCE
But even here there is an important complication.
A prophet may have lived in the eighth century BCE while the book bearing his name continued to be edited and expanded for generations.
Isaiah is the classic example.
Many scholars distinguish between material associated with First Isaiah, material associated with the Babylonian exile often called Second Isaiah, and later material sometimes called Third Isaiah.
Thus the question becomes not simply:
“When was Isaiah written?”
but:
“When were the various Isaianic traditions written, collected, edited and combined?”
That is a much more sophisticated question.
Daniel demonstrates why dating matters
Daniel is one of the most fascinating examples.
The book presents itself in the setting of the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BCE.
Traditional interpretation consequently places its composition in the sixth century BCE.
Many critical scholars, however, believe that the book reached its final form much later, during the second century BCE, particularly around the persecution of Jews under Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
The difference is enormous.
It changes Daniel from being primarily a sixth-century prophetic document about future events into a second-century work using stories set in the past to speak about its own contemporary crisis.
This is one of the most consequential examples of how dating affects interpretation.
The New Testament has a much narrower window
The New Testament is considerably easier to date than the Old Testament because the entire collection was produced within roughly the second half of the first century CE, although individual dates remain disputed.
A commonly accepted scholarly sequence is approximately:
Paul’s undisputed letters: 49 to 60 CE
Mark: around 65 to 75 CE
Matthew: around 80 to 90 CE
Luke: around 80 to 90 CE
Acts: around 80 to 90 CE
John: around 90 to 100 CE
Revelation: around 90 to 95 CE
The precise dates remain debated.
For example, there are scholars who argue for substantially earlier dates. Jonathan Bernier’s 2022 study, Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament, argues that many New Testament writings should be dated 20 to 30 years earlier than the dates commonly assigned to them by contemporary critical scholarship.
That illustrates an important principle: there is no single scholarly consensus date for every biblical book.
A preliminary chronological map
If your goal is to understand the Protestant Bible as a historical library, rather than simply as the 66 books in their canonical order, a useful preliminary map would look something like this: Period Major biblical developments Before 1000 BCE Ancient oral traditions, early poetry, songs and stories 1000 to 900 BCE Early monarchic traditions, royal traditions, early wisdom 900 to 700 BCE Development of J/E traditions, early prophetic literature 750 to 600 BCE Major eighth and seventh century prophets 650 to 550 BCE Deuteronomistic activity, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, exile 550 to 450 BCE Major Priestly shaping, postexilic Torah formation 500 to 400 BCE Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and later Hebrew Bible developments 400 to 200 BCE Further development of wisdom literature and other writings 200 to 100 BCE Daniel and late Second Temple literature 50 to 60 CE Paul’s undisputed letters 65 to 75 CE Mark and perhaps other early Christian traditions 70 to 100 CE Matthew, Luke, Acts, John and other New Testament writings 90 to 100 CE Revelation and some of the latest New Testament writings
This is deliberately a broad scholarly map, not a claim that every scholar would agree with every date.
The most important insight
I think the most useful way for you to approach this for Thirdwell.org is not to create a single list saying “Genesis = X BCE, Exodus = Y BCE, Matthew = Z CE.”
That gives an appearance of precision that the evidence does not support.
Instead, I would construct a “When Was the Bible Written?” series that presents several levels of dating for each book:
Traditional date
The date implied by traditional Mosaic, prophetic or apostolic authorship.
Conservative scholarly date
The date favored by contemporary conservative Jewish or Christian scholarship.
Critical scholarly date
The approximate range favored by mainstream historical-critical scholarship.
Major scholarly alternatives
Important minority theories that move the date substantially earlier or later.
Why scholars date it there
The linguistic, historical, archaeological, literary and manuscript evidence.
What the date means for interpretation
This last category is particularly important because dating can dramatically change how a biblical book is understood.
For example, whether Daniel was written in the sixth century BCE or the second century BCE profoundly changes how one reads its prophecies. Whether Deuteronomy is Mosaic or associated with seventh-century BCE Judah changes how one understands the religious reforms of Josiah. Whether Genesis is regarded as a Mosaic composition or a later compilation changes how one understands the relationship between oral tradition, Israelite history and the final biblical text.
And perhaps most importantly, the Bible did not suddenly appear as a finished book. It is better understood as a library that grew over many centuries, preserving ancient traditions, responding to changing historical circumstances, and repeatedly being interpreted and edited by successive generations.