A case for the early authorship of the Gospels

The city of Jerusalem was destroyed beyond recognition by the Roman legions under Titus and along with it was destroyed the second Jewish temple which was constructed under Zerubabbel and those with him who returned from the exile.

“Jerusalem, once heavily rebuilt by Herod, was still in ruins following the decisive siege of the city, as part of the First Jewish–Roman War in 70 AD. Josephus—a contemporary historian and proponent of the Judean cause who was born in Jerusalem and fought the Romans in that war—reports that “Jerusalem … was so thoroughly razed to the ground by those that demolished it to its foundations, that nothing was left that could ever persuade visitors that it had once been a place of habitation.”^[4] The Talmud (Makkot) tells of Rabbi Akiva and several other sages visiting the ruins of Jerusalem. His colleagues were aggrieved at seeing a fox scuttling out of what had been the Temple’s Holy of Holies as an indication of the desolation, while Akiva laughed, telling them through what many believe to be divine inspiration that one day the Temple will be rebuilt.

“When the Roman Emperor Hadrian vowed to rebuild Jerusalem from the wreckage in 130 AD, he considered reconstructing Jerusalem as a gift to the Jewish people. The Jews awaited with hope, but after Hadrian visited Jerusalem, he was discouraged from doing so by a Samaritan (according to rabbinic sources). He then decided to rebuild the city as a Roman colony, which would be inhabited by his legionaries. Hadrian’s new city was to be dedicated to himself and certain Roman gods, in particular Jupiter.

“The Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt, which took the Romans three years to suppress, enraged Hadrian, and he became determined to erase Judaism from the province. Circumcision was forbidden and Jews were expelled from the city. Hadrian renamed Iudaea Province to Syria Palaestina, dispensing with the name of Judea.^]There is controversy as to whether the anti-Jewish decrees followed the Bar Kokhba revolt or preceded it and were the cause of the revolt.

“Jerusalem was renamed “Aelia Capitolina” and rebuilt in the style of a typical Roman town. Jews were prohibited from entering the city on pain of death, except for one day each year, during the holiday of Tisha B’Av. Taken together, these measures (which also affected Jewish Christians) essentially secularized the city. The ban was maintained until the 7th century, though Christians would soon be granted an exemption: during the 4th century, the Roman Emperor Constantine I ordered the construction of Christian holy sites in the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Burial remains from the Byzantine period are exclusively Christian, suggesting that the population of Jerusalem in Byzantine times probably consisted only of Christians.”

–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aelia_Capitolina

The new testament authors had significant and detailed knowledge about the second temple and the city of Jerusalem.

Since this is not possible after 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed beyond recognition along with the temple, the simple logical conclusion is that the New Testament was written by Jews who lived in Judea and who were familiar with the city of Jerusalem at the time of its existence before 70 A.D.

Any claim to authorship by people or generations  who were not familiar with this city of Jerusalem would be a myth. So the late authorships are a myth as it is impossible with the city of Jerusalem laying desolate from 70 – 134 AD when Hadrian built another city there to house the Roman legions and renamed it as Aelia Capitolina and dedicated to it to the Roman god Jupiter. Any one born after 70 AD would not be able to give details of city of Jerusalem or the temple. Remember Jews were not even allowed to enter the site and this ban was in force until the 7th century AD, giving further evidence to the early authorship of the Gospels.