If Acts uses Josephus as a source, as has been proposed, then it must have been composed after 93 CE; the social situation is one in which the faithful need "shepherds" to protect them from heretical "wolves", which again reflects a late date.c. Paul does not express any wish to revisit the church in Galatia, which he founded, and so some scholars believe the letter dates from the end of his missionary work.The letter concerns the question of whether Gentile converts are required to adopt full Jewish customs.c. A genuine Pauline letter, it mentions "Caesar's household," leading some scholars to believe that it is written from Rome, but some of the news in it could not have come from Rome.The four tables give the most commonly accepted dates or ranges of dates for the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, the Deuterocanonical books (included in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox bibles, but not in the Hebrew and Protestant bibles) and the New Testament, including, where possible, hypotheses about their formation-history. Table II treats the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible books, grouped according to the divisions of the Hebrew Bible with occasional reference to scholarly divisions. Table IV gives the books of the New Testament, including the earliest preserved fragments for each.This table summarises the chronology of the main tables and serves as a guide to the historical periods mentioned.

The five books are drawn from four "sources" (distinct schools of writers rather than individuals): the Priestly source, the Yahwist and the Elohist (these two are often referred to collectively as the "non-Priestly" source), and the Deuteronomist.560 BCE; but some scholars have termed his reasoning inadequate, and the history may have been further extended in the post-exilic period.Scholars recognise three "sections" in the Book of Isaiah: Proto-Isaiah (the original 8th century Isaiah); Deutero-Isaiah (an anonymous prophet living in Babylon during the exile); and Trito-Isaiah (an anonymous author or authors in Jerusalem immediately after the exile).This is based on three strands of evidence: (a) the setting of Matthew reflects the final separation of Church and Synagogue, about 85 CE; (b) it reflects the capture of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE; (c) it uses Mark, usually dated around 70 CE, as a source.There is evidence, both textual (the conflicts between Western and Alexandrian manuscript families) and from the Marcionite controversy (Marcion was a 2nd-century heretic who produced his own version of Christian scripture based on Luke's gospel and Paul's epistles) that Luke-Acts was still being substantially revised well into the 2nd century.