"I will make him an help meet for him" - Timeline for the Very Early Christianity

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Timeline for the Very Early Christianity

The critical timeline for the very early Christianity:

33-48 AD Peter: Becomes the leader of the remaining disciples who had been with Jesus – Acts 1:16-26

34 Paul: Conversion on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9)

34-36 Paul: Spends three years in Qumran to get a source document for future Gospels where the mission of Christ Jesus was recorded, since Christ Jesus had come out of Qumran to the River Jordan to see John the Baptist before his mission as the Son of God.

36 Paul:  Returns to and flees Damascus because of persecution; visits Jerusalem and meets with Peter, James and the apostles

49 Peter and Paul meet with each other again in Jerusalem

54 Peter: 'leading around a wife', presumably moving from place to place in missionary work (I Corinthians 9:5)

57 Paul: At Jerusalem (Acts 21:15-25), Paul gets arrested in the temple and causes a mob

60 Paul: Arrives in Rome (Acts 28:14-16) to stand his trial; however allowed to preach the gospel without hindrance for two whole years in his rented house (Acts 28:30-31) for nominal house arrest.

61 Luke writes the Acts as evidence for defending Paul in the coming trial, since if Paul should be judged to be guilty by the Roman authority, catastrophic influences would be caused among the very early Christians in Rome, etc. 

62 Peter arrives at Rome to save Paul; Luke and Mark write their Gospels based on the source document Paul had and words of Jesus Peter remembered as evidence for defending Paul in the trial

62 Paul: Released from Roman imprisonment

64 Fire of Rome.  Peter, Paul, and other Christians executed in Rome

65 Matthew writes his Gospel based on the source document, Mark and Luke to make Christians look like having a strong tie with Judaism as evidence for defending Christians from the Roman authority

66 Revolt in Judea begins

70 Destruction of Temple ends Judean revolt

72 John writes his Gospel based on the source document, Mark, Luke, and Mathew to establish Christianity separated from Judaism and make the Roman authority understand Christianity

79 Monte Vesuvio erupts

80 John writes the Book of Revelation getting inspiration from the volcanic disaster


So, the Gospels were all written in response to major incidents in that era: the trial of Paul, the execution of Paul, Peter, and other Christians by Nero, and the fall of Jerusalem; and even the Apocalypse by John was written in response to the volcanic disasters of Mt. Vesuvio regarded as punishment by the God.

Accordingly, these documents were different from the beginning from other various Christian documents written in that era due to their direct linkage to Paul and Peter.



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Gen 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Gen 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

"all the children that were in Bethlehem" - Success of Runaway is More Important

Around Tokyo

Success of Runaway is More Important

Kim Jong-Nam, a half-brother of the North Korea dictatot Kim Jong-Un, was assassinated in Malaysia.  Two women (from Vietnam and Indonesia) who played the overt attackers were arrested while four to five men believed to be the true North Korean assassination team are still at large.  

The point at issue is that true assassins always prepare the method of running away and hiding themselves.

In the JFK assassination in 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald did not run away soon after the act of the assassination.  Later he went back to his boarding house and started to run away by walking neighbor streets in Dallas to be eventually arrested in a movie theater just several miles away from his boarding house.

Oswald looks like a very foolish man.  Did he believe that he could escape the police just running away on nearby streets after shooting and killing a US President from his workshop and leaving his rifle in the 6th floor of the Texas school textbook repository building?  Did Oswald venture into assassination of JFK while believing that he would never be arrested?

Previously, Oswald had been stationed as a Marine in a US air base around Tokyo.  He had been assigned to a kind of operation of U2 spy jets.  Then, he had learnt Russian and immigrated into the USSR after retirement from the Marine.  He had married a daughter who had a relative of some high-ranking official of the Russian military.  Then Oswald with his Russian wife had returned to the US.  Oswald then played a pro-Castro civilian while having a linkage with an anti-Castro ex-FBI executive.

Oswald had ability to know that he could not escape the police if he had shot and killed President Kennedy from his work shop, the 6th floor of the building in Dallas, with his rifle and he had left the rifle in the 6th floor while running away.

But Oswald eventually ran away from the building to return to his boarding house, take up a handgun, start to walk around nearby streets, get in a movie theater, and get arrested there (although he might have encountered a Dallas police officer and shot him to death).    

And, finally two days later, Oswald was shot to death in the Dallas Police Department Building by Jack Ruby, a Mafia-associated owner of a strip club.

If Oswald had been a sole assassin of JFK, he should have been prepared for his runaway.  Because the success of runaway is more important than success in killing a target for any assassins.


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Mat 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.
Mat 2:17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,

"as the angels were gone away from them" - Gospels as Court Evidence for Paul

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Gospels as Court Evidence for Paul

Another theory on the Gospels is that some of them were written for preparation for the coming trial of Paul in Rome.

Paul was faced with a trial.  It was the biggest concern for Paul and Luke.  He had to prove that he had been doing just a right thing: preaching the Gospel without an intention to hurt anybody.  So, he had to explain who Christ Jesus was to the Roman authority.  He needed court evidence.  For this purpose, Paul must have asked Luke to write a report about Christ Jesus and their journey to Rome.

The former eventually became the Gospel according to Luke, and the latter eventually became the Acts.

And, as Peter also came to Rome, Peter saw Luke writing these documents.  Then he also asked Mark to write his version of the Gospel based on Peter's witness and the source document Luke used that must have been originally possessed by Paul since he had returned from Qumran.  It is because Peter probably tried to save Paul in the coming trial.  So, he also prepared a report to be submitted to the Roman authority.  And, later this report written by Mark became the Gospel according to Mark.

The most important and imminent matter for Paul and Peter was the trail of Paul by the Roman authority.  Therefore they made the best effort to prepare for it, which was creation of reports on Christ Jesus as evidence of Paul's religious activities.

So, these Gospels were written with expectation to be read by Roman officials.

Probably the Roman officials who read these reports or Gospels did not punish Paul.  But Emperor Nero executed Paul as well as Peter after a big fire in Rome.

But as these reports or Gospels were in the hand of the Roman authority, they were preserved despite the big fire and the turmoil of the execution of Paul and Peter.  So, some of the very early Roman Christians must have been those Roman officials who read the Gospel according to Luke and probably that according to Mark in the process of the trial of Paul.

The truth must be simple but mysterious in a sense.


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Luk 2:15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
Luk 2:16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

"Jesus went up to Jerusalem" - John and the Synoptic Gospels

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John and the Synoptic Gospels

Christ Jesus did not carry the Gospels with Him while He was preaching in Israel 2000 years ago, since no Gospels were written yet.

So, it is unlikely that Peter and Paul preached in Rome with the Gospels at their hands.  Instead, they must have preached like Christ Jesus even if the Gospels according to Luke, Mark, and Mathew had been completed at the time when Peter had joined Paul in Rome after the completion of the Acts by Luke.

Put simply, the Gospels according to Luke, Mark, and Mathew were not written for Paul and Peter.  Then for whom these Gospels were written?  To distribute them to Roman citizens?

Among Roman citizens who came to believe Peter and Paul and thus Christ Jesus, some active followers must have emerged.  And these Roman followers must have preached to other citizens in lieu of Peter and Paul.  In this way, Christianity began to spread among Roman citizens.

But to preach to other citizens, these Roman followers needed some sorts of guidelines.  The Old Testament was however useless for them.  Accordingly, they probably asked Peter and Paul to present some Greek material that would help them preach in Rome.  For this reason, Paul asked Luke and Peter asked Mark to write Greek versions of the Gospel based on the Hebrew/Aramaic source document Paul had and another source Mark had made by hearing words of Christ Jesus from Peter on their journey before they had reached Rome.  

So, the Gospels according to Luke and Mark must have been written in order to teach Roman leaders of followers how Christ Jesus had preached but not to be distributed among the general public of Rome.  These Roman leaders learnt the mission of Christ Jesus from these Gospels, and based on them, they preached to other Roman citizens.  Probably they referred to the words and the episodes of Christ Jesus written in these Gospels.  But they did not use the Gospels in a manner that current priests use the Bible in their Mass.  These Gospels must have been a kind of textbooks for Roman Christian leaders since Paul and Peter started their preaching in Rome.  Accordingly, the Gospels according to Luke, Mark, and Mathew are called synoptic Gospels.  In other words, they were not written to disseminate the theology of Christianity but as reference material to support preaching by Roman Christian leaders.

However, after the death of Peter and Paul and the Jewish-Roman War, the situation changed.  There was no more the temple in Jerusalem where Christ Jesus preached and died.  The very early Christianity lost a tie to Judaism and could not rely on Judaism as the the underlying religion that offered basic theology to the very early Christianity.

Therefor John had to write his version of the Gospel with focus on theology.  The Gospel according to John was intended to give religious authority to the very early Christianity by replacing Judaism symbolized by the temple in Jerusalem.  Yet, he had to rely on the source documents having been brought to Rome by Paul and Peter with Mark.  That is why the Gospel according to John depicts almost similar episodes and words of Christ Jesus to those in the synoptic Gospels but presents a very different view on God and Christ Jesus from the synoptic Gospels.

So, the Gospels according to Luke, Mark, and Mathew were written in the era of Paul and Peter when the very early Christianity had still a tie with Judaism.  But with the Gospel according to John, the early Christianity started leaving the tie with Judaism completely behind.

So, from older days, scholars have made distinction between John and the synoptic Gospels.   But they do not seem to clearly understand the reason.  It is because they have not wondered how the Gospel had been preached in Rome by Peter, Paul, and Roman leading followers without the Bible we know today.




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Joh 2:13 And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

"And immediately he arose" - Jesus Himself after Finishing His Mission

Tokyo and Mt. Fuji

Jesus Himself after Finishing His Mission

It is apparent the Gospel according to Luke is canonical or authentic, since it was written by Luke who followed Paul to Rome.  As evidence of his status, the Acts tells the circumstances.

And it is important that the Gospels according to Mark, Mathew, and John tell almost the same episodes about Christ Jesus in similar sequences.  Therefore all these Gospels are thought to be canonical or authentic.  And, since Luke was close to Paul,  Mark, Mathew, and John must have been close to Paul, Peter, or other key figures in the early Christianity.

In addition, if three different Disciples of Christ Jesus had been sources for these three Gospels, the contents of them or depicted episodes of Christ Jesus should have been more different among them.  It is because Christ Jesus had preached for about three years, and if there had been one episode per day, there should have been 1,000 episodes about Christ Jesus in His mission.

 Accordingly, if these Gospels had been based on sources or witnesses uniquely different from one another, the contents of these Gospels must have been more greatly varied among them.  But each of these Gospels has about similar 100 episodes, namely 10% of possible 1,000 episodes.  This could not happen unless the sources of these Gospels had been different.

So, the Gospel according to Luke plays a key role in this study, since its source must have come from Paul.  But strangely, Paul had never seen living Christ Jesus preaching and never witnessed His episodes with his own eyes.  This is a mystery and the most important key to understanding establishment of the canonical Gospels.

My theory is, as posted recently, that Paul got a document describing the episodes of Christ Jesus' mission and how Christ Jesus had carried out His mission.  And, the most likely place Paul got this source document is Qumran around which he traveled for three yeas after his miracle encounter with the spirit of Christ Jesus on his way to Damascus.  And the person who made out the source document in Qumran for Paul must have been a very close one to Christ Jesus or even Jesus Himself after finishing His mission as Christ Jesus.

This theory also implies where Jesus went after the Resurrection from the tomb.  He must have exited the tomb with help from His follower from Qumran, who is depicted as an angel in white or a mysterious young man in some Gospels, and retired to Qumran from which He had come to appear on the River Jordan to witness John the Baptist.  


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Mar 2:12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
Mar 2:13 And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them.