New Testament that Luke the Evangelist, an associate of St. Paul who was probably not an eyewitness to Jesus' ministry, wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles. Scholars are also divided on the traditional claim that Mark the Evangelist, an associate of St. Peter who may have been an eyewitness to Jesus' ministry, wrote the Gospel of Mark. Scholars are more divided over the traditional claim that Matthew the Apostle wrote the Gospel of Matthew and that John the Apostle wrote the Gospel of John. Opinion, however, is widely divided on this issue and there is no widespread consensus.
New Testament circulation by the end of the first century. Scholars hold a wide spectrum of views on exactly when the books of the new testament were written, with non-fundamentalist scholars tending to argue for later dates, and more conservative scholars arguing for an earlier one. Most contemporary scholars regard Mark as a source used by Luke (see Marcan priority). If it is true that Mark was written around the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, around 70, they theorize that Luke would not have been written before 70. Some who take this view believe that Luke's prediction of the destruction of