Quote:1) Mark’s Gospel dates from around AD 65.
Lots of HJ types use the Little Apocalypse of Mark 13 as an excuse for dating it to 70 at the earliest. To refresh your memory:
Quote:13 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
Since rational people dismiss prophecy as horseshit this becomes the terminus a quo for mark.... the earliest possible date. The problem is that it requires a stretch. Josephus who was present at the siege gives a rather grandiose version of the battle and the subsequent fire which left the city a burned out ruin. Parts were cleared and served as a permanent base for the X Legion which was moved from its base in Syria to Judaea. The 10th was tasked with cleaning up the few remaining jewish enclaves such as Masada. Now markie claims that the godboy said "not one stone here will be left on another." Normally this could be dismissed as hyperbole but in this particular case it did eventually happen. Emperor Hadrian ordered the ruins of the city to be leveled and a new Roman city, Aelia Capitolina, built on top of it. So leveling the rubble to form a foundation for the new city would have meant that "not one stone will be left on another" DID happen. Only it happened closer to 130 AD as opposed to 70.
Shortly thereafter the resentment of the jews boiled over into the Third Jewish War which was brutally suppressed and the (remaining) jews were then kicked out of Judaea. We also see the spectacle of the ensuing gospel accounts becoming more and more anti-semitic which, after 3 revolts probably had the Romans pretty pissed off.
