"Wasn't [the New Testament] written like 300 years after Jesus?" No, the New Testament wasn't written 300 years after Jesus. You're probably referring to 325 AD, when the Council of Nicea officially recognized the New Testament as having been written by God. By then, Christians had known and been reading the New Testament as God's Word already for 200 years. Please pay close attention to the dates below on when the New Testament was written: Acts, the fifth book in the New Testament, is a methodical account of the early church that was written by a doctor named Luke when he served as the assistant to and the note taker for the Apostle Paul. 62 AD was when Paul was martyred in Rome. 64 AD was when the Emperor Nero burnt Rome and blamed the fire on Christians to launch the Roman persecution of Christians. 70 AD was when the then general and future emperor Titus sacked Jerusalem. When Luke ends Acts, Paul had just arrived in Rome to start his 2-year imprisonment prior to his execution. Acts ends without mentioning any of the major events above, which indicates that it was written around 60 AD. Luke begins Acts with, "The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach..." (Acts 1:1) The “former account” Luke referred to was what we call today the Gospel of Luke, which was also written to this man named Theophilus: "Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed." (Luke 1:1-4) The delivered eyewitness accounts Luke mentions above are the Gospel of Matthew, written by one of Jesus' twelve Apostles, and the Gospel of Mark, written by the note taker for the Apostle Peter. Estimating 3-5 years between Acts and Luke, and another 3-5 years between Luke and Matthew & Mark dates three of the four Gospels to 50-57 AD, which is only about 20 years after Jesus' ascension. Some of the other New Testament books were written before and some after these Gospels, but all were written by eyewitnesses of Jesus or their note takers, and read by people who were also eyewitnesses and could validate their details.
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