The Common Era

What is it, really?

Most readers will know that the terms BC and AD refer to “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” (Year of our Lord). It is this Christo-centric dating that seems to have the politically correct people all atwitter. So, someone decided that we should all be using BCE and CE meaning “Before Common Era” and “Common Era.” I asked a nun, who was giving a Bible Class online, what was common to the world at that time that was so universal that our calendar is based on it, and she could not answer the question.

In fairness to her, it was a trap question. Whether you use BC and AD or BCE and CE the pivot point remains the same, being the believed birth year of Christ. She couldn’t give that answer because Political Correctness. But there is a reason, and it hinges on the meanings of words and nuances therein.

The reality is the terms BC and AD have not always been in use even when the Gregorian Calendar was promulgated.

The truly interesting question is why this calendar has become the globally dominant calendar. I’m sure your standard issue college student of today would say, “The patriarchy, clearly.” But no. It is just this simple fact: It is the most accurate calendar devised to date. It is used by everyone because it is the best.

It is not the only calendar in use. Please note the below image:

Source

The Mayan calendar is not listed as it is simply structured differently. January 1, 2020 is written as '13.0.7.2.7' for example. And like, what is that anyway?

Well, OK, it is 13 B’aktun (13x144.000 days = 1,872,000 days), 0 K’atun (0x7,200 days = 0 days), 7 Tun (7x360 days = 2,520 days), 2 Winal (2x20 days = 40 days), 7 K’in (7x1 day = 7 days).

I was born on 12.17.3.1.11 or one million eight hundred and fifty one thousand five hundred and eleven days since the last creation. Also note that on 12/21/2012 we switched from 12 B’aktun to 13 B’aktun. You remember, the world was supposed to end that day.

But, I digress.

I will also point out that since the Assyrian 6,772 refers to the same year as Gregorian 2024, that would imply that the year 0 for the Assyrian calendar would be 4,748 BC on the Gregorian Calendar. Except that the Assyrian calendar is a lunar calendar and actually aligns with 4,750 BC.

Yeah, calendars are complicated.

Calendar counting conventions commonly revolved around some event that was important to the people making the calendar. For example what is today called 1 AD (or CE) was once called 753 AUC (Ab urbe condita - meaning “from the founding of the city”) which was based on the traditional date Rome was founded.

Fun Trivia: in 1955 Jean Alkhas fixed the year 4750 BC as the starting point for the Assyrian calendar, citing a French archaeologist, whom he did not name, as stating that a cuneiform tablet dating to 4750 BC mentioned the year of the calming of the great flood and beginning of life.

Well now, that seems globally important…

The practice of counting years according to Christ’s birth did not start until the 5th or 6th century. Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk and linguist used historical documents and simple math to discern when the Annunciation took place and the first year of Jesus Christ’s earthly life began. This method of dating did not become commonplace until the 10th or 11th century. source

Due to an error in the math mentioned above, many believe that Christ was born in 4 BC. Yep, He was born 4 years before he was born! It’s a miracle!

So, just for fun, I looked at Wikipedia for important global events in the year 4 BC.

4 BC Events

• March 13 – Lunar eclipse - important because it was also supposedly then when Herod died and that is the year referred to by Luke and Matthew as the year Jesus was born.

• June 26 – Augustus adopts Agrippa Postumus and Tiberius, who in turn adopts Germanicus. All this is in Rome, which while important was not Global.

• Upon the death of Herod the Great, there is unrest in his client kingdom of Judea. His son, Herod Archelaus, becomes the new ruler. Herod Antipas becomes tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. The governor of Syria, Publius Quinctilius Varus, marches down to Jerusalem from Antioch to restore order; around 3000 jews are crucified. All important to Judea, but not Global.

• Namhae becomes king of the Korean kingdom of Silla. Important to Korea, but, well, you know.

Births

• Approximate date – Seneca the Younger, Córdoban-born Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman and dramatist (d. AD 65)

Deaths

• March or April – Herod the Great, king of Judea (b. 73 BC);^[4] some authors date his death to 1 BC (see Date of Herod's death).

• Antipater, Jewish heir and son of Herod the Great

• Malthace, Jewish woman and wife of Herod the Great

• Marcus Porcius Latro, Roman rhetorician

• Marcus Tullius Tiro, Roman writer, freedman of Cicero

All that comes from Wikipedia - you can look up 3 BC, etc through 1 AD - and not find anything globally common that occurred.

So, what was the Globally Important and therefore Common Event that transpired around 1 CE such that the Calendar should count from that date? Nothing. Except if you think Jesus is globally important. But if you set aside Jesus as part of the patriarchy, and politically incorrect, what do we have to base the global start of an era on 1 CE?

Nothing.

There is nothing globally common which would signify a common era, and thus a logical starting point for counting years in the Gregorian calendar. So, where did the designation “common” come from?

Funny story. Vulgar comes from a Latin word that means… Common.

So, when was “common era” first used? Well, depending on what language you want to focus on, it first appeared in Latin as anno aerae nostrae vulgaris in a book by Johannes Kepler in the year 1615. What’s that mean? “Year of our common era.” Meaning what?

From Wikipedia:
The idea of numbering years beginning from the date he believed to be the date of birth of Jesus, was conceived around the year 525 by the Christian monk Dionysius Exiguus. He did this to replace the then dominant Era of Martyrs system, because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians.^[10]

The practice of dating from the believed date of Christ’s birth was gradually accepted with Portugal being the last country to adopt the convention in 1422.

The term “common era” first appeared in English in 1652. What this means is that contrary to strident warnings to the contrary, BCE and CE are not a communist plot put forth by the woke. They are rather ancient, and actually started due to a desire to have a system that counted years that was stable and not subject to the next monarch or the like. Imagine if our calendar dating system right now meant that we are in Year 3 of Biden. And we would need to look at March 23 of Year 1 of Obama to see when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law. What a nightmare. (double entendre anyone?)

However, we cannot escape this one simple fact. BC/AD and BCE/CE are all counting from the same date. They are equivalent. Why use one over the other? I like this response from Neil deGrasse Tyson:

So, as for me and my house, we will use BC and AD as I want to give credit where credit is due.