BC - AD

korgul · 06-04-2003, 07:27 PM

Ok I was sitting here thinking about this today. We all know that the wording for years is, AD means "After Death" and BC means "Before Christ". Right,
So here is one of my questions. How old was christ when he died?
For purpose of example I will say 30 yrs old.
So the day he died started the AD, right?
Ok with me so far, now the day before he was born and before that is known as BC, right.
So what about the years he was alive? Are they counted? What are they know as?

My wife says that he did not become known as christ until like 3 months before he died. Is this correct? I say that the day before he was born is known as BC, during his life is known as ? and after his death is AD.

My reasoning: if the BC starts when he died then how can it be before christ. If AD starts when he was born then how can it be After Death.

korgul

M_Six · 06-04-2003, 08:07 PM

A.D. actually means "Anno Domini", which is Latin for "Year of Our Lord".

See here.

NeoStarO1 · 06-04-2003, 08:08 PM

I think the numbering system of the AD BC was developed much later for terms of references. before BC I don't think they went around saying its 400 bc.

Theophylact · 06-04-2003, 08:11 PM

Well, first of all, Jesus (assuming he was a historical person) was born somewhere between 3 and 8 BCE (that's "Before Common Era, using a nondenominational terminology) and died somewhere around 30 CE.

The notion of counting time from the putative date of Jesus' birth is owing to the monkish scholar Dionysus Exiguus (who, not being familiar with "Arabic" numerals, started the count with the Year one, not the Year Zero, thus assuring thousands of years of dispute about when a new century or millennium begins). But he based his chronology on some mistaken data.

Brainchild · 06-04-2003, 09:05 PM

How about DC??

During Christ

osprey4 · 06-05-2003, 12:06 PM

The calendar doesn't use a year designated "0" (zero) for the same reason that a month does not start with the zeroth day. The calendar designates the first year as year 1 and the year before that as 1 BC.

That Jesus is historical is beyond dispute, except for a few very recent extremist atheists. But you'll not find a serious historian who believes this.

korgul · 06-05-2003, 05:10 PM

Neo - I agree, but it does not explain the years that jesus was alive. What were those years known as?

Theo - so if I said that such and such happened at year 1 , is that the first year as in 0,1,2 or is it the first year after he died? If it is before he died then it would be 1 BC, the next would be 2 BC. When would the AD start then?

Osprey - That is not disputed. I am curious as to why the years during his life are not counted. If they are then what are they known as AD or BC. Either one is not correct.

M_Six · 06-05-2003, 05:19 PM

Since you're not going to read the info from the link I gave you, I'll post it here.

Quote:

Anno Domini, commonly abbreviated "A.D.", refers to the conventional numbering of years in the Gregorian calendar. It uses an epoch based on the traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Quote:

Yet not even the Catholic Church claims that Pope Gregory's calendar starts from the birth of Jesus. Most historians agree that Jesus of Nazareth was born year 4 or 5 before the start of the year chosen as the start of the Gregorian calendar.

So it looks like Christ was born 4 or 5 years before the commonly accepted start of A.D. That still doesn't explain if B.C ends when A.D. begins, but the gap wouldn't be 30 years.

korgul · 06-05-2003, 05:23 PM

M-six actually I did start to read your link. Well started to. But as you said it does not explain the AD BC deal.

M_Six · 06-05-2003, 08:53 PM

Part of the problem here is that no one knows exactly when Christ was born. You would think it would be December 25 about 2000 years ago, but it's a known fact that December 25th was deemed Christmas many centuries after Christ died. The Gregorian calendar attempts to track time back to the approximate birth of Christ, but since that date is unknown, the starting date of the Gregorian calendar was somewhat arbitrary. Why, for instance, is January 1st New Year's Day on the Gregorian calendar, but not on the Jewish, Muslim, or Chinese calendars?

The short answer here is, B.C. until the birth of Christ, A.D. since then.

Here's some food for thought. What if humanity had adopted a calendar based on actual time going back to the earliest recordings of time. What year would it be?