I am not aware of any other legitimate evidence that places the writing of Mark’s Gospel after 70 AD. I say ‘legitimate’ because there are arguments made that Mark copied from Josephus, who wrote later. However I see these arguments as mistaken in details and more wishful thinking than real.
One example is that Mark says that the Temple buildings will be all knocked down. Josephus describes the towers of the city as demolished. The argument usually tries to make Mark talk about the city and not the Temple, as he clearly does. Any argument to the contrary ignores both Mark’s plain language and his ongoing fig tree imagery.
Another is that both Mark and Josephus describe the death of John the Baptist. Yet the details each provides are significantly different. This points to separate sources. i.e., historical accounts. After all, where did Josephus get his information about it?
Other arguments I have seen are likewise inappropriate.
While I am unable to provide evidence outside the Gospels of a post-Temple origin of the Olivet Discourse, it would seem very clear that Mark wrote no earlier than the late 60s. There is a school of thought than places Mark in the early 40s but that does not appear tenable. The main argument for an origin in the 40s is that the description of the world in which Jesus lived differed greatly from the world of the 60s and definitely the 70s. Yet the tradition is that Mark got much of his material from Peter in prison in Rome in the 60s, Peter of course would recall how things were when Jesus was alive.
In addition, it is clear that Mark read 1 Corinthians usually date in the range 53-57 AD. His Last Supper narrative is closely related to the Lord’s Supper institution (on the night Jesus was betrayed Paul tell us) described in 1 Cor 11, combined with Paul’s earlier reference to Jesus as the Passover sacrifice. The result is that Mark has the trial of Jesus
planned for the first night of Passover complete with all the attendees and witnesses. This would never have happened. Mark got his Last Supper story from Paul in 1 Cor, not from Peter.
In his Olivet Discourse, Mark mentions persecutions of Christians, which he also mentions elsewhere.
Mark 13
12 And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
This sounds similar to the events described by Tacitus concerning the persecution of Christians following the fire in Rome in 64 AD.
But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called "Chrestians" by the populace.
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Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.
https://www.livius.org/sources/content/tacitus/tacitus-on-the-christians/
Recall that Mark addresses his Gospel both to Gentiles, explaining Jewish customs, and to Jews, with subtle references that only Jews would ‘get’. A mixed community of Jewish and Gentile Christians sounds like the community in Rome that Paul wrote to. If so, in the later 60s they would be very familiar with the Neronian persecutions and not miss the reference.
In his Olivet Discourse, Mark refers to the abomination of the desolation, probably Caligula’s attempt to put his own statue in the Temple in 40 AD. Yet he also has “let the reader understand”. Mark uses subtleties elsewhere to make his points. Why would he need to nudge the reader at this point is he were writing in the early 40s when this was a very recent event? But writing in the late 60s he might very well want to jog the reader’s memory.
I am of the opinion that Mark provides a reference to an event that took place in 67 AD during the Jewish revolt. I see in the ‘I am Legion’ narrative in Mark 5 a connection with the battle of Gamla.
Mark 5
1They came to the other side of the sea, to
the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of
the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus,
Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9
And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 And
he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country[/b][/u]. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission.
And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
Compare to this.
Country of the Gerasenes
The town itself is not named in Scripture, and is referred to only in the expression, "country of the Gerasenes" (Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26,37; see Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek, Appendix, 11). This describes the district in which Christ met and healed the demoniac from the tombs, where also took place the destruction of the swine. It was on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and must have been a locality where the steep edges of the Bashan plateau drop close upon the brink of the lake. This condition is fulfilled only by the district immediately South of Wady Semak, North of Qal `at el-Chucn. Here the slopes descend swiftly almost into the sea, and animals, once started on the downward run, could not avoid plunging into the depths. Many ancient tombs are to be seen in the face of the hills. Gerasa itself is probably represented by the ruins of Kurseh on the South side of Wady Semak, just where it opens on the seashore. The ruins of the town are not considerable; but there are remains of a strong wall which must have surrounded the place. Traces of ancient buildings in the vicinity show that there must have been a fairly numerous population in the district.
https://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/gerasa-gerasenes.html
What does this have to do with Gamla?
Josephus also provides a detailed description of the Roman siege and conquest of Gamla in 67 CE by components of legions X Fretensis, XV Apollinaris and V Macedonica.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamla#Siege_of_Gamla
Here is how Josephus describes the end of the siege.
…the Romans got up and surrounded them, and some they slew before they could defend themselves, and others as they were delivering up themselves; and the remembrance of those that were slain at their former entrance into the city increased their rage against them now: a great number also of those that were surrounded on every side, and despaired of escaping, threw their children and their wives, and themselves also down the precipices, into the valley beneath, which, near the citadel, had been dug hollow to a vast depth.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-4.html
From 67 onward, X Fretensis fought in the war against the Jews.
…
In 70, X Fretensis took part in the siege of Jerusalem
…
When X Fretensis arrived from Syria, it occupied the Mount of Olives, in front of the Temple. The soldiers of this legion had a special incentive to fight: they had been defeated by the Zealots in 66, and wanted revenge.
…
The emblem of the legion, a boar or pig, was visible on several places and must have been intended to humiliate the Jewish population.
https://www.livius.org/articles/legion/legio-x-fretensis/
Elements of the legion X Fretensis, whose symbol was a pig, took part in the siege of Gamla where many Jews died falling down a steep cliff. How much of X Fretensis took part? There were three legions represented. In that era, a legion consisted of about 5300 men plus calvary plus offices plus some specialized auxiliaries. If the force attacking Gamla were the size of a legion, commanded by a Legio familiar with handling a unit of that size, the ‘pig’ soldiers involved may very well have numbered 2000.
Nobody has a herd of swine numbering 2000 that they let walk around on their own in a region where there are steep slopes. The number 2000 is not incidental. The demons call themselves Legion. They beg not to be sent out of the country but are dispatched in the form of pigs falling to their deaths down a cliff.
I see a revenge fantasy where Jesus will dispatch the hated X Fretensis legion and the Romans in general by expelling them from the country or killing them. When will this happen? When Jesus is revealed as “Son of the Most High God”. I have argued elsewhere that when the high priest asks Jesus if he is the “the son of the Blessed One” he means the revolutionary, Roman expelling type of Messiah. And Jesus answer Yes I am.
This would put the writing of this portion of Mark at sometime after 67 AD, when the full details of what happened at Gamla were known in Rome. Since X Fretensis took part in the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and were associated with the destruction of the Temple, it would not seem to be much of a stretch to infer a post 70 AD date for writing this passage to further single out the ‘pig soldiers’ as symbolizing the Romans forces as a whole.
The object under discussion is essentially a Mystery.
