Those who have used Jn 5:2 to argue for an early date, including William Whiston (1712), Johann Bengal (1742), Nathaniel Lardner (1756), John Wesley (1755), Johann David Michaelis (1795), Friedrich Blass (1907), John A.T. Robinson (1976), Daniel Wallace (1990), Jonathan Bernier (2022), and more recently, George van Kooten (2024),
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For an exhaustive list of scholars who interpret Jn 5:2 as an indication that the Fourth Gospel was written before 70 AD (along with others who reject this approach), see my article,
John 5:2 “There Is in Jerusalem…”
Does the grammar of John 5:2 support an early date for John's Gospel? What have scholars thought about this passage across the centuries down to the present?
www.humbleskeptic.com
In the introduction to his commentary, Weinrich lists several reasons why he believes the Fourth Gospel should be dated before the fall of Jerusalem and concludes with a proposal that it was “composed in Jerusalem during the 40s and [was] taken with John to Asia Minor in the early 50s.36
N.T. Wright (2022)
On episode 144 of his podcast, Wright said, “The current Lady Margaret professor of New Testament in Cambridge, George van
Kooten, is arguing in his new book on John for a much earlier date, a date I think maybe even in the 40s, or certainly the 50s.
