Common Era

Common Era, abbreviated as CE, is one of the designations for the world's most commonly used year-numbering system. The numbering of years using Common Era notation is identical to the numbering used with "Before Christ / Anno Domini" (BC/AD) notation, being the current year in both notations and neither using a year zero. Common Era is also known as Christian Era and Current Era, with all three expressions abbreviated as CE. (Christian Era is, however, also abbreviated AD, for Anno Domini.) Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for "Before the Common Era", "Before the Christian Era", or "Before the Current Era". Both the BCE/CE and BC/AD notations are based on a sixth-century estimate for the year in which Jesus was conceived or born, with the common era designation originating among Christians in Europe at least as early as 1615 (at first in Latin). wishing to be sensitive to non-Christians, because Common Era does not explicitly make use of religious titles for Jesus, such as Christ and Lord, which are used in the BC/AD notation. Among the reasons given by those who oppose the use of Common Era notation are claims that its propagation is the result of secularization, anti-supernaturalism, religious pluralism, and political correctness. Some suggest Common Era designation is not sufficiently culturally neutral, because it does not remove the birth of Jesus as the era marker, leaving the focus on an event significant to Western civilization. Dionysius labeled the column of the Easter table in which he introduced the new era "Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi" Numbering years in this manner became more widespread with its usage by Bede in England in 731. Bede also introduced the practice of dating years before the supposed year of birth of Jesus, and the practice of not using a year zero. In 1422, Portugal became the last Western European country to switch to the system begun by Dionysius. Era" (from the Latin word vulgus, the common people, i.e. those who are not royalty), to distinguish it from the regnal dating systems typically used in national law. The first use of the Latin equivalent (vulgaris aerae) discovered so far was in a 1615 book by Johannes Kepler. and again in 1617. A 1635 English edition of that book has the title page in English - so far, the earliest-found usage of Vulgar Era in English. A 1701 book edited by John LeClerc includes "Before Christ according to the Vulgar Æra, 6". A 1716 book in English by Dean Humphrey Prideaux says, "before the beginning of the vulgar æra, by which we now compute the years from his incarnation." A 1796 book uses the term "vulgar era of the nativity".

The first so-far-discovered usage of "Christian Era" is as the Latin phrase aerae christianae on the title page of a 1584 theology book. In 1649, the Latin phrase æræ Christianæ appeared in the title of an English almanac. A 1652 ephemeris is the first instance so-far-found for English usage of "Christian Era".

The English phrase "common Era" appears at least as early as 1708, and in a 1715 book on astronomy is used interchangeably with "Christian Era" and "Vulgar Era". A 1759 history book uses common æra in a generic sense, to refer to the common era of the Jews. The first-so-far found usage of the phrase "before the common era" is in a 1770 work that also uses common era and vulgar era as synonyms, in a translation of a book originally written in German. The 1797 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica uses the terms vulgar era and common era synonymously. In 1835, in his book Living Oracles, Alexander Campbell, wrote: "The vulgar Era, or Anno Domini; the fourth year of Jesus Christ, the first of which was but eight days", and also refers to the common era as a synonym for vulgar era with "the fact that our Lord was born on the 4th year before the vulgar era, called Anno Domini, thus making (for example) the 42d year from his birth to correspond with the 38th of the common era..." The Catholic Encyclopedia uses the sentence: "Foremost among these [various eras] is that which is now adopted by all civilized peoples and known as the Christian, Vulgar or Common Era, in the twentieth century of which we are now living." "the common era of the Mahometans", "common era of the world", "the common era of the foundation of Rome". When it did refer to the Christian Era, it was sometimes qualified, e.g., "common era of the Incarnation", "common era of the Nativity", or "common era of the birth of Christ".

Some Jewish academics were already using the CE and BCE abbreviations by the mid-19th century, such as in 1856, when Rabbi and historian, Morris Jacob Raphall used the abbreviation in his book, Post-Biblical History of The Jews. As early as 1825, a different abbreviation, VE, had already been in use among Jews to denote years on the Western calendar.

Era Vulgaris

Usage

Although Jews have their own Hebrew calendar, they often find it necessary to use the Gregorian Calendar as well. The reasons for some using Common Era notation are described below:

Common Era notation has also been in use for Hebrew lessons for "more than a century". The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, which is the leading publishing body of the Jehovah's Witnesses, has been using CE and BCE exclusively in its publications (except in quotations) since The Watchtower of 15 April 1964. More visible uses of Common Era notation have recently surfaced at major museums in the English-speaking world: The Smithsonian Institution prefers Common Era usage, though individual museums are not required to use it. Furthermore, several style guides now prefer or mandate its usage. Even some style guides for Christian churches prefer its use: for example, the Episcopal Diocese Maryland Church News.

In the United States, the usage of the BCE/CE notation in textbooks is growing. and by the Norton Anthology of English Literature. Others have taken a different approach. The US-based History Channel uses BCE/CE notation in articles on non-Christian religious topics such as Jerusalem and Judaism. In June 2006, the Kentucky State School Board reversed its decision that would have included the designations BCE and CE as part of state law, leaving education of students about these concepts a matter of discretion at the local level.

Communist Eastern Germany used v. u. Z. (vor unserer Zeitrechnung, before our chronology) and u. Z. (unserer Zeitrechnung, of our chronology) instead of v. Chr. (vor Christus, before Christ) and n. Chr. (nach Christus/Christi Geburt, after Christ/the Nativity of Christ). The use of the terms still differs regionally and ideologically. In Hungary, similarly to the Bulgarian case, i. e. (időszámításunk előtt, before our era) and i. sz. (időszámításunk szerint, according to our era) are still widely used instead of traditional Kr. e. (Krisztus előtt, Before Christ) and Kr. u. (Krisztus után, After Christ), which were unofficially reinstituted after the Communist period. In Poland generally the only used term is naszej ery/przed naszą erą (of our era/before our era). The terms przed Chrystusem/po Chrystusie (before Christ/after Christ) are possible but nearly never used in contemporary Poland.

In Asia, the Chinese use the term "Common Era (公元)". The Japanese use seireki (西暦), which translates to "Western Calendar". The Koreans use the word Seogi (서기, 西紀), which means "Western Era" for AD/CE and Kiwonjeon (기원전, 紀元前) which is an abbreviation of Seoryok Kiwonjeon (서력기원전, 西曆紀元前) which means "Before the Origin of the Western Calendar".

Rationale

Proponents of Common Era notation assert that the use of BCE/CE shows sensitivity to those who use the same year numbering system as the one that originated with and is currently used by Christians, but who are not themselves Christian.

Grammar

Opposition

Astrobiologist Duncan Steel argues that if one is going to replace BC/AD with BCE/CE then one should reject all aspects of the dating system (including time of day, days of the week and months of the year) as they all have origins related to pagan, astrological, Jewish and Christian beliefs. Steel makes note of the consistency of the Quaker system (now rarely used), which removed all such references, and rejects religious arguments against BC/AD as selective.

Anthropologist Carol Delaney argues that the substitution of BC/AD to BCE/CE is merely a euphemism that conceals the political implications without modifying the actual source of contention. English language expert Kenneth G. Wilson speculated in his style guide that "if we do end by casting aside the A.D./B.C. convention, almost certainly some will argue that we ought to cast aside as well the conventional numbering system [that is, the method of numbering years] itself, given its Christian basis."

Some critics assert that the use of identifiers which have common spellings is more ambiguous than the use of identifiers with divergent spellings. Both CE and BCE have in common the letters "CE", which is more likely to cause confusion, they claim, than identifiers with clearly different spelling. Some groups oppose the Common Era notation for explicitly religious reasons; for example, the Southern Baptist Convention supports retaining the BC/AD abbreviations as "a reminder of the preeminence of Christ and His gospel in world history". One of its "Conservapedia Commandments" is that users must always apply BC/AD notation, since its sponsors perceive BCE/CE notation to "deny the historical basis" of the dating system.

See also

Notes and references

External links

Category:Calendar eras Category:Chronology Category:Political correctness