We are all familiar with the terms B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini—in the year of our Lord) as a way of distinguishing the eras before and after the coming of Jesus Christ. We may also be familiar with the non-Christian terminology of B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (the Common Era). What those two ways of referring to the same thing share in common is that they presume the same calendar—by which I mean they presume the same way of dating Jesus’ birth.
But as any New Testament scholar will tell you, this presumption doesn’t stand on very solid ground because we know something about the timing of the death of Herod of Great, and clearly Jesus had to be born before Herod died, or those Christmas stories in Matthew 1-2 are wide of the mark. Scholars will tell you, based on evidence from Josephus and other contemporary sources, that Herod died somewhere around 4 B.C. It may have been a little before then, or it may have been a little after then, but in any case, it was well before what we now call “the beginning of the Christian era.” This in turn means that Jesus was born in B.C., which of course sounds very odd. How could Jesus be born “Before Christ,” inquiring minds want to know. As it happens, it’s all because of a monk known as Dionysius Exiguus (the latter Latin word meaning “the humble”).
Dionysius was born in Scythia Minor, which means somewhere in Romania or Bulgaria, and he lived from about 470 to 544 A.D. He was a learned monk who moved to Rome and became well known for translating many ecclesiastical canons from Greek into Latin, including the famous decrees from the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon. Ironically, he also wrote a treatise on elementary mathematics. I say ironically because what he is most famous for is the “Anno Domini” calculations that were used to number the years of both the Gregorian and the adjusted Julian calendars. The crucial point is that he dated the current consulship of Probius Junior as 525 years after “the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” To be honest, we have no idea how he made this calculation, but it was a momentous one. It became the basis for our modern calendar separating B.C. or B.C.E. from A.D. or C.E. Interestingly, there may have been a theological reason for Dionysius arguing for this computation; namely he wanted to silence those who were suggesting that Jesus would return exactly 500 years after the birth of Jesus. Wrong, said Dionysius, that ship has already sailed.
It was not, however, until the famous Venerable Bede of Durham, England, adopted Dionysius’s “Anno Domini” calculations to date the events in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731, that the calendar of Dionysius became the standard one that we follow even until today.
One final note: Dionysius did not calculate for a 0 year between B.C. and A.D., and so every century in our era begins with the year 1. For instance, the 21st century did not begin with the year 2000 but rather with the year 2001. What this shows is that moderns can become just as confused as ancients when it comes to reckoning times and eras. We shouldn’t be too hard on Dionysius. You’re only as good as your sources of information, and, in any case, what really matters for Christians at Christmas is not so much when Jesus came but that he came and changed the world.
We are all familiar with the terms B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini—in the year of our Lord) as a way of distinguishing the eras before and after the coming of Jesus Christ. We may also be familiar with the non-Christian terminology of B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (the Common Era). What those two ways of referring to the same thing share in common is that they presume the same calendar—by which I mean they presume the same way of dating Jesus’ birth. But as any New Testament scholar will tell you, this presumption doesn’t stand […]
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