Help! Joseph of Arimathea.

[Polaris]

Isn't he a pastor?

Also thanks. I'll save that for a future read. I was not aware of many who favored such a late date for that book...the other books in the NT of course, they have a large number of scholars who prefer the 2nd century completion dates.

So what that he is a pastor?

You do need to evaluate somebody's position by the strength of their arguments, not wither they have the "proper qualifications" or not.


Anyway David Trobisch has argued for the compilation and editing of the whole New Testament by Polycarp. As Trobisch argues, Polycarp along with that, heavily edited the Gospel of Luke, wrote the Book of Acts , along with the Pastoral Epistles as a way of refuting the macronites.

I would subscribe to a 2nd century date for acts on the basis of a character named Tertullus who is the prosecuting lawyer hired by the Jewish high priests in Acts 24. That name is so much like that of the church father Tertullan, who was said to have been a laywer.

I actually place Acts at 66-67 CE based primarily on it not having historical references past that date. I would assume if it was compiled later, they would have included other information. But that begs to question why these dates were not included when they started editing later on.