Netfriend’s question: What are the dates that the contents of the Old Testament and the New Testament were finally agreed upon? Also the dates the first books were written?

Another netfriend:

Agreed upon by whom?

Seriously, you’ve just asked two questions that biblical scholars have been wrangling about for centuries. You might find the info you want if you go to http://www.drury.edu/ess/values/christianscriptures.html and http://www.drury.edu/ess/values/hebrewscriptures.html

These are two sets of time-lines put together by Dr Charles Ess who teaches at Drury University in Missouri. He uses some fairly standard middle of the road sources for these two tables, though, so you should be pretty safe in quoting them. Note that he uses BCE (before common era) and CE (common era) instead of BC and AD – common in studies in religion and other places where one can’t assume that one’s whole audience is Christian and that they therefore agree that they are living in the year of our Lord.

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