What Do BC and AD Mean?

Different civilizations have marked the passage of time throughout its existence; it did not start with the Roman Empire. Usually, particularly in the ancient times, a people group tracked history based on their own culture. It would be based on their own understanding of the origin of their people, of key events in their civilization’s history, and their perspective on what the most important world events were.

Jesus’ earthly life and ministry occurred during the Roman Empire, during the life and reign of Caesar Augustus. Israel was run by the Herodian family on behalf of their powerful benefactors, since the Herodians had asked Rome to help them get control of the region during conflict, and Rome never left. Herod Antipas was the tetrarch - one of three rulers in the region - in power for most of Jesus’ life and all of his adult ministry.

After His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the Book of Acts gives the account of how faith in Jesus as the Messiah, come to redeem people from their sins, spread rapidly. Because most of Europe, the middle east, and even into areas of Asia were under the dominion of Rome, which had its own set of gods and belief systems, people became suspicious of this rapidly growing belief system they perceived as a cult.

Christians were persecuted for a few centuries as the Roman Empire began to decline, blamed for when disasters struck, and used in gladiatorial entertainment as victims. Three-hundred years after the birth of Jesus Christ, the Roman Emperor converted to Christianity, legalizing the religion. It was also in this century when the Empire split into the Eastern and Western empires. It became normalized, and even the official religion of Rome. Over the next two centuries, the church became more formalized and accepted. It also began to create culture as the Roman and Eastern Orthodox churches spread.

In the sixth century, in an area that is now in Romania, a monk named Dionysius Exiguus - or Dionysius the Humble - began to track the histories of the Roman consuls and tracking Easters in order to create a calendar system based on the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Documents seem to indicate he was motivated to create this new way of seeing history because a common misconception of the time was the Jesus would return 500 years after Jesus’ birth.

Anno Domini (AD) became the term to track the years since Jesus’ birth, and Before Christ, shortened to BC, for the years leading up to it. AD is tracked with increasing numbers, and BC with decreasing numbers, acting as a countdown.

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While Christians are always looking for the return of Christ, there have been periods of time where people believed His return was imminent. Some track the appearances of special moons, some look at wars in certain regions of the world, and others dissect the Book of Revelation over and over again.

Because of key verses in the Bible, during the first few centuries after Christ returned to the right hand of the Father, Christians believed the Second Coming could be any day. Some of these verses include:

Matthew 24:36 - “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”

Matthew 25:13 - “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

Revelation 22:7 - “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

When the thinker Augustine was alive, there was a rush of suicides because people mistakenly believed that Jesus would return if enough people went to Him. During the life of Dionysius Exiguus, they believed that numerology dictated that Jesus would return 500 years after His birth. As a monk who studied the Bible in the original Greek, Dionysius Exiguus disagreed. If the documentation supporting the theory that dispelling this belief was his motivation is correct, then He wanted to establish the timeline of the birth of the Lord, providing it had already been 500 years, and that people could follow the Apostle Paul’s advice to the Church in Thessalonica,

“Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,  for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12).

Like the church in Dionysius’ day, the Thessalonians believed that Jesus could return shortly, in their lifetime, so some believed they could quit their jobs and just wait. Paul discouraged this mentality, because ultimately, no one knows when Jesus will return. Being faithful with what God has given is more important than staring at the clouds waiting to hear a trumpet blast, since it serves the Lord. By creating a calendar that is focused on the time before and after the life of Christ, Dionysius showed that God worked through thousands of years before the incarnation, and will continue to work until the Second Coming.

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One of the earliest documented uses of an alternative to AD was in 1615. Mathematician and scientist Johannes Kepler wrote in a book, "annus aerae nostrae vulgaris” which translated to “year of our common era.” Vulgar use to be a term which referred to things that were common, rather than lewd or inappropriate.  Kepler was a Protestant, so He was not intending to use this term as an alternative to the AD and BC systems of dating.

Over time, particularly in the 20th century, the term Common Era arose as a way to track time without acknowledging the reality of the life of Jesus Christ. Instead of tracking the time before the Common Era as the time Before Christ (BC), it became Before Common Era (BCE). The general justifications for this system include that the Roman Empire united the western world into a common way of thinking, that imposing a Christian calendar on non-Christians is imperialistic or theocratic, and that it is more inclusive to use this terminology. However, this system of describing the calendar is no different than AD and BC. They are just substitutions for the same way of dating.

For those who know God and have a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, the incarnation of the Messiah – the Christ – is the most important event in history. Valuing this moment in time keeps Christians focused on what matters most in life. It is also uplifting when times are difficult to see how God’s timing worked from the Fall of man to the incarnation, and how patient He is since the Ascension, so that everyone may have an opportunity to repent of their sins and have a relationship with Him.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with the CE/BCE system, since it tracks time the same way, it tries to pretend the life of Christ can be ignored, or even pretend He did not exist despite evidence of His life, even outside the Bible. Keeping Jesus a part of the cultural zeitgeist is a way to point people to Him. When the conversation about AD verses CE comes up, use the opportunity to evangelize, and share the truth of the love of God.

Sources

Declercq, Georges. Anno Domini The Origins of the Christian Era. Ann Arbor: the University of Michigain Press, 2008.

Goodman, Martin. The Roman World 44BC- AD 180. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Mosshammer, Alden. The Easter Computes and the Origins of the Christian Era. Oxford: Oxford, University Press, 2008.

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