I've heard it said that the accounts we have of Christs life and
ministry in the Gospels were actually written many years after the event.
(About 40 years or so). Is this correct?? If so, why the big time delay??
I know all scripture is inspired of God, so the time of writing is I suppose
un-important, but I still can't help be curious!

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Ivan Thomas Barr 

Contact me at u9126619@athmail1.causeway.qub.ac.uk

[The Gospels aren't dated, so we can only guess.  Luke's prolog is
about the only thing we have from the author describing his process.
The prolog sounds like Luke is from the next generation, and had to do
some investigating.  There are traditions passed down verbally that
say a few things about the composition of the Gospels.  There are
debates about how reliable these traditions are.  They certainly don't
have the status of Scripture, yet scholars tend to take some of them
seriously.  One suggests that Mark was based on Peter's sermons, and
was written to preserve them when Peter had died or way about to die.
One tradition about Matthew suggests that a collection of Jesus words
may have been made earlier than the current Gospels.  

In the ancient world, it was much more common to rely on verbal
transmission of information.  I think many people would have preferred
to hear about Jesus directly from someone who had known him, and maybe
even from someone who studied directly under such a person, rather
than from a book.  Thus I suspect that the Gospels are largely from a
period when these people were beginning to die.  Scholars generally do
think there was some written material earlier, which was probably used
as sources for the existing Gospels.

Establishing the dates is a complex and technical business.  I have to
confess that I'm not sure how much reliance I'd put on the methods
used.  But it's common to think that Mark was written first, around 64
AD., and that all of the Gospels were written by the end of the
Century.  A few people vary this by a decade or so one way or the
other.