Were the gospels written centuries after Jesus death?

No, the evidence support that the gospel writer were presnt in the first century. There are several key historical events that are absent in the New Testament: the destruction of the Temple, the siege of Jerusalem, and the deaths of Peter, Paul and James. These omissions can be explained if the book of Acts was written prior to AD 61-62. These events are missing because they have not happened yet. We know from the introductory lines of the the book of Acts that Luke's gospel was written prior to Acts.

Paul was able to quote Luke's gopel because it was already written.

The reaonable inference from the circumstantial evidence is that the gospels were written very early in hitory, at a time when the original eyewitnesses and gopel writers were still aliveand could testify to what they had seen. This is why Mark was careful not to identify key players and Paul could reasonably poin to 500 living eyewitneses who could testify to their observations of Jesus's resurection.

While skeptics would like to claim that the Gopels were written well after the alleged life of the apostles and much closer to the councils (Council of Laodicea AD 363) that affirmed them, the evidence indicates something quite different.

Were the gospels forged?

why would they pick Mark or Luke when they could have easily chosen Peter, andrew or James. Mark and Luke appear nowhere in the gospel records as eyewitnesses, so why wouls early forgers chooe these two men to build their lies when there were clearly better candidates.

Matthew

Written between 45 - 50AD. The book was written to convince non-Christian Jews of the truth of the Gospel. It includes the Sermon on the Mount; the Lord's Prayer; the golden rule; the Olive Discourse

Mark

Many schlars beliere Mark's Gospet was written first between 50 and 70AD. Mark was not an eyewitness follower of christ. but he accompnied Peter and recorded all of Peter's recollections about Jesus. the book was targeted primarily to a Gentile audience and was written in Roman, mainly to Roman Christians.

Luke

Written in or before 50-53 AD. the book was written mostly to a gentile audience. Luke has been validated a sa meticulously accurate historian.

John

Written between 80 - 95 AD. The most theological of the Gospels, depicting Christ's deity.