the books of the old testament n or hebrew bible had been in circulation as oral history for 1,000 years before the birth of jesus. they were told to the as a whole in the second century before the christian era. in the same way, the sayings and stories of jesus were first s passed down and preserved by word of mouth. pf it s one of the great mysteries of church history, that we don t always know ly exactly how they spread. archaeologist jonathan reed and biblical scholar john dawson are co-authors of excavating jesus, and in search of paul. we do not know who actually wrote matthew, mark, luke and john. those are names attributed to those writings in the second century. but very, very early were written down and the sources foe the gospels can be around the at 50s, so that s more than 20 rly years. there are no first editions o of the gospel. t the originals were lost, worn out or destroyed. hat does survive are just scrapi