what C.E. and B.C.E mean?
What do the notations B.C. and A.D. each mean?
Discuss any controversy you find about this change.
How were these abbreviations decided upon (a group? an individual?)
Why did time notation change from B.C. and A.D. to these new notations?
THESE QUESTIONS CAN MAY BE ANSWERED AS DESCRIBED BELOW
CE stands for "Common Era." It is a relatively new term that is
experiencing increased usage and is eventually expected to replace AD.
The latter is an abbreviation for "Anno Domini" in Latin or "the year
of the Lord" in English. The latter refers to the approximate birth
year of Yeshua of Nazareth (a.k.a. Jesus Christ). CE and AD have the
same and value. 2004 CE = 2004 AD.
BCE stands for "Before the common era." It is eventually expected to
replace BC, which means "Before Christ." BC and BCE are also identical
in value. Most theologians and religious historians believe that the
approximate birth date of Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus) was in the fall,
sometime between 7 and 4 BCE, although we have seen estimates as late
as 4 CE and as early as the second century BCE.
Of course, one can always interpret the letter "C" in CE and BCE as
referring to "Christian" or "Christ's." The Abbreviations Dictionary
does exactly this. 1
"Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia" states that the new notation is
used by "Many non-Christians or secular persons." However, we suspect
that the majority of users are actually Christians who want a notation
that does not offend or distress persons of other religions. 2
The word "common" simply means that this is the most frequently used
calendar system: the Gregorian Calendar. There are many religious
calendars in existence, but each of these are normally in use in only
a small geographic area of the world -- typically by followers of a
single religion.
Groups in favor of CE/BCE:
The Ethic of Reciprocity (the Golden Rule) suggests that one should
not intentionally cause unnecessary pain to other humans. We should
treat others as we would wish to be treated. Since only one out of
every three humans on earth is a Christian, some theologians and other
authors felt that non-religious, neutral terms like CE and BCE would
be less offensive to the non-Christian majority. Forcing a Hindu, for
example, to use AD and BC might be seen by some as coercing them to
acknowledge the supremacy of the Christian God and of Jesus Christ.
Consider an analogous situation: the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance. The
most recent version of this pledge includes the phrase: "Under God."
Imagine what a Wiccan (who believes in a God and a Goddess), or many
Buddhists and strong Atheists ( who do not believe in the existence of
God) feel when having to recite those words. Consider how a Christian
would feel if the pledge read "Under Buddha" or "Under Allah."
Although CE and BCE were originally used mainly within theological
writings, the terms are gradually receiving greater usage in secular
writing, the media, and in the culture generally.
A group and individual opposed to CE/BCE:
Many Christians, particularly from the conservative Protestant wing of
that religion, are distressed at the new terms. Some feel that AD and
BC have been in use for centuries and that this tradition should be
respected. Others see the switch to CE and BCE as just one more
example of non-Christian religions being given precedence over
Christianity.
At its year 2000 convention at Orlando FL, the Southern Baptist
Convention approved their Resolution 9: "On retaining the traditional
method of calendar dating (B.C./A.D.)." With reference to the
popularity of the CE/BCE nomenclature, it stated, in part: "...This
practice is the result of the secularization,
anti-supernaturalism,religious pluralism, and political correctness
pervasive in our society." 3 "The traditional method of dating is a
reminder of the preeminence of Christ and His gospel in world
history."
The resolution recommended that Southern Baptist "individuals,
churches, entities, and institutions....retain the traditional method
of dating and avoid this revisionism. 4
Ben Johnson of Hampden Academy in Maine suggests a number of reasons
why he prefers AD and BC.
Some are:
The term "common era" does not appear in Webster's Ninth New
Collegiate Dictionary.
Better events to choose to represent a major change in human history
would be: The invention of agriculture, circa 10000 BCE
The invasion of Europe by Persia in 491 BCE
The birth date of Alexander the Great who conquered most of the known
world in 356 BCE.
Augustus becoming Emperor in 27 BCE.
Columbus arrival in America in 1492 CE
The end of World War 1 in 1918
The end of World War 2 in 1945.
The date when Yuri Gagarin entered space in 1959 CE.
The labels AD and BC have lost their religious meaning; few even know
what the abbreviations stand for.
All of the older history books use AD and BC.
The terms CE and BCE both contain the two letters "CE," making them
more difficult to distinguish from each other.
There is currently a split between academics -- who generally use
CE/BCE -- and the general public who currently use AD/BC. This split
widens "...the rift between learning and the common man." 5
WHEN THESE ABBREVATIONS BEGAN TO BE USED?
In about C.E. 523, the papal chancellor, Bonifatius, asked a monk by
the name of Dionysius Exiguus to devise a way to implement the rules
from the Nicean council (the so-called "Alexandrine Rules") for
general use.
Dionysius Exiguus (in English known as Denis the Little) was a monk
from Scythia, he was a canon in the Roman curia, and his assignment
was to prepare calculations of the dates of Easter. At that time it
was customary to count years since the reign of emperor Diocletian;
but in his calculations Dionysius chose to number the years since the
birth of Christ, rather than honour the persecutor Diocletian.
Dionysius (wrongly) fixed Jesus' birth with respect to Diocletian's
reign in such a manner that it falls on 25 December 753 AUC (ab urbe
condita, i.e. since the founding of Rome), thus making the current era
start with C.E. 1 on 1 January 754 AUC.
How Dionysius established the year of Christ's birth is not known (see
section 2.10.1 for a couple of theories). Jesus was born under the
reign of king Herod the Great, who died in 750 AUC, which means that
Jesus could have been born no later than that year. Dionysius'
calculations were disputed at a very early stage.
When people started dating years before 754 AUC using the term "Before
Christ," they let the year 1 B.C.E. immediately precede C.E. 1 with no
intervening year zero.
Note, however, that astronomers frequently use another way of
numbering the years B.C.E. Instead of 1 B.C.E. they use 0, instead of
2 B.C.E. they use -1, instead of 3 B.C.E. they use -2, etc.
It is frequently claimed that it was the venerable Bede (673-735) who
introduced B.C. dating. Although Bede seems to have used the term on
at least one occasion, it is generally believed that B.C. dates were
not used until the middle of the 17th century.
In this section I have used C.E. 1 = 754 AUC. This is the most likely
equivalence between the two systems. However, some authorities state
that C.E. 1 = 753 AUC or 755 AUC. This confusion is not a modern one,
it appears that even the Romans were in some doubt about how to count
the years since the founding of Rome. |
