John - The New Testament dates from the earlier books at around perhaps 50AD at the earliest. The majority was written between 50AD and 100AD. Which isn't so far off from the times when Jesus was supposed to have lived (and died). In fact, studies have dated BC (B-Day

) at having been pehaps 5 years later than initially assumed. Being that he was supposed to have lived for 33 years... that puts his death at around 38AD. So if books were beginning to be written by his apostles 12 years later (though its not really so easy to tell?!?), then thats not such a long amount of time.
Realise in comparison, that books about earlier Greek figures and what not are generally dated several hundred years after the events they describe. But anyways. I find the Vedas to be very interesting as well. But they were caried through oral tradition for so long before actually being committed to writing. For possibly thousands of years

Anyways, thats a whole other subject I'd guess.
Hope thats a good kinda busy in your life