Fourthly, there is the prophetic description of the fall of Jerusalem itself, which seems confused by the Evangelists with that of the Day of Judgment, St. Matthew saying, and both the others implying, that the one would immediately follow the other.[211] Had the Gospels been written after the former event, it is almost certain that the writers would have distinguished between the two; indeed, their not doing so is scarcely intelligible, unless we assume that when they wrote, both events were still future.
[211] Matt. 24. 3, 29; Mark 13. 24; Luke 21. 27.
And this is confirmed by the curious hint given to the readers both in Matthew and Mark to understand, and act on Christ's advice, and leave the city and go to the mountains, before the siege became too severe.[212] Plainly such a warning could not have been written after the siege, when it would have been useless. It must have been written before; so if it is a later insertion, as it seems to be, it proves a still earlier date for the rest of the chapter. Moreover, none of the Evangelists have altered the passage, as later writers might have done, to make it agree with the event; since as far as we know, the Christians did not go to the mountains, but to Pella, a city in the Jordan valley.[213]
[212] Matt. 24. 16; Mark 13. 14; Luke 21. 21.
[213] Eusebius, Hist., iii. 5.
St. Luke, it will be noticed, omits the hint just referred to, and as his account of Christ's prophecy of the siege is rather more detailed than the others, it is sometimes thought to have been written after the event. But this is a needless assumption, for the hint would have been quite useless to Theophilus, to whom the Gospel was addressed; and the prophecy is anyhow no closer than that in Deut. 28., which everyone admits was written centuries before ([Chapter XI.]).
On the whole, then, everything points to our first three Gospels having been written some years before the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70; and most likely by the Evangelists, to whom they have been universally ascribed.
It may also be added, in regard to the Evangelists themselves, St. Matthew the Apostle was a publican or tax-collector, so just the sort of person to keep records, in either Greek or Hebrew.[214] St. Mark came of a wealthy family, as his relative, Barnabas, had some property; and his mother, Mary, had a large house at Jerusalem, where Christians used to assemble, and where it has been thought the Last Supper was held.[215] And the young man who followed from here to Gethsemane was probably St. Mark himself, or he would not have recorded such a trivial incident.[216]
[214] Matt. 9. 9.
[215] Acts 4. 37; 12. 12; 1. 13; Col. 4. 10.