Ever notice many scholarly historical publications (and sometimes this blog as well) appends year dates with B.C. / A.D. – or in some cases B.C.E. and C.E.? Ever wonder what it means, suspecting that the world’s not actually 2,000 years old? The abbreviation B.C. stands for “Before Christ”; A.D., contrary to popular belief means not “after death” but “anno domini” – “year of our lord.” (and the less religious abbreviation splits up Common Era from Before Common Era.) Jesus did not teach the splitting of eras that way; nor was it taught in the bible; instead it comes from the 6th century (A.D.), when a Christian monk created a new table for celebrating Easter.

This day, January 1, in 0001, according to Dionysius Exiguus, by way of a Ceasar, a Pope and sixteen centuries, marked the beginning of the new era.

How Exiguus, living more than 570 years of the event he was marking, calculated the death of Christ is unknown. Most scholars today agree Jesus was actually born somewhere around 6 to 4 B.C. Nor was January 1st always the accepted start of the new year: although Julius Ceasar established January 1 as the start of the lunar new year, that tradition was broken around the time Exiguus published his new Easter Table. For a millennia the new year was celebrated alternately on December 25 (date of Jesus’ birth), or March 1 (Feast of the Annunciation) or Easter.