Joe Rogan Experience #2549 - Jared Diamond · Aired Sep 3, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
The Gospel of Mark was written approximately 20 years after the death of Jesus.
The finding
What the evidence shows
This understates the actual gap by about half. Mainstream biblical scholarship dates the Gospel of Mark to around 70 CE, tied to its reference to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple during the Roman Jewish War, which puts it roughly 40 years after Jesus's traditionally dated death around 30 CE, not 20 years.
Read the supporting source · ehrmanblog.org ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that the Gospel of Mark was written approximately 20 years after the death of Jesus?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. This understates the actual gap by about half. Mainstream biblical scholarship dates the Gospel of Mark to around 70 CE, tied to its reference to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple during the Roman Jewish War, which puts it roughly 40 years after Jesus's traditionally dated death around 30 CE, not 20 years. Jared Diamond said it (matched by voice) on Joe Rogan Experience #2549 - Jared Diamond, aired Sep 3, 2026, at 14:16. The supporting source is ehrmanblog.org, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
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- Editorial context review
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- One selected claim from the episode
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