Common Era (sometimes Current Era or Christian Era), abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini (abbreviated AD). The expression "Common Era" can be found as early as 1708 in English, and traced back to Latin usage among European Christians to 1615, as vulgaris aerae and to 1635 in English as Vulgar Era. At those times, the expressions were all used interchangeably with "Christian Era", and "vulgar" meant "not regal" rather than "crudely indecent". Use of the CE abbreviation was introduced by Jewish academics in the mid-19th century. Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for "Before the Common Era". Since the later 20th century, usage of CE and BCE has been popularized in academic and scientific publications, and more generally by publishers emphasizing secularism or sensitivity to non-Christians.

The Gregorian calendar, and the year-numbering system associated with it, is the calendar system with most widespread usage in the world today. For decades, it has been the de facto global standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union.

The "Common Era" (CE/BCE) notation has been adopted by numerous authors and publishers wishing to be "neutral" or "sensitive to non-Christians" because it does not explicitly make use of religious titles for Jesus, such as "Christ" and Domin- ("Lord"), which are used in the BC/AD notation, nor gives it the implicit expression of the Christian Creed that Jesus was Christ, as part of Christian Supersessionism. Among the reasons given by those who oppose the use of Common Era notation are that it is selective as the entire dating system has origins in various belief systems, and claims that its propagation is the result of secularization, anti-supernaturalism, religious pluralism, and political correctness.

History

Origins

The year numbering system used with Common Era notation was devised by the Christian monk Dionysius Exiguus in the year 525 to replace the Diocletian years, because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians. He attempted to number years from an event he referred to as the Incarnation of Jesus, although scholars today generally agree that he miscalculated by a small number of years. 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.

Use of the term "vulgar era"

The term "Common Era" is traced back in English to its appearance as "Vulgar Era". 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. Kepler uses it again in a 1616 table of ephemerides, 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 (1909) used the terms "Christian, Vulgar or Common Era" interchangeably.

The phrase "common era", in lower case, also appeared in the 19th century in a generic sense, not necessarily to refer to the Christian Era, but to any system of dates in common use throughout a civilization. Thus, "the common era of the Jews", "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".

An adapted translation of Common Era into Latin as Era Vulgaris was adopted in the 20th century by some followers of Aleister Crowley, and thus the abbreviation "e.v." or "EV" may sometimes be seen as a replacement for AD.

History of the CE/BCE notation

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.

The terms "Common Era", "Anno Domini", "Before the Common Era" and "Before Christ" in contemporary English can be applied to dates that rely on either the Julian calendar or the Gregorian calendar. Modern dates are understood in the Western world to be in the Gregorian calendar, but for older dates writers should specify the calendar used. Dates in the Gregorian calendar in the Western world have always used the era designated in English as Anno Domini or Common Era.

Although Jews have their own Hebrew calendar, they often find it necessary to use the Gregorian Calendar as well. Common Era notation has also been in use for Hebrew lessons for "more than a century".

The ratio of usage of BCE to BC and CE to AD in books has changed dramatically between the years 1800 and 2008, particularly since 1980.

Contemporary North America

Some American academics in the fields of theology, education and history have adopted CE and BCE notation, although there is some disagreement. 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. Some publications have moved over to using it exclusively. For example, the 2007 World Almanac was the first edition to switch over to the BCE/CE usage, ending a 138-year usage of the traditional BC/AD dating notation. It is used by the College Board in its history tests, 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.

Rationale

Support

Historically, the use of CE in Jewish scholarship was motivated by the desire to avoid the implicit "Our Lord" in the abbreviation AD.

Proponents of the 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. Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan argued, "[T]he Christian calendar no longer belongs exclusively to Christians. People of all faiths have taken to using it simply as a matter of convenience. There is so much interaction between people of different faiths and cultures – different civilizations, if you like – that some shared way of reckoning time is a necessity. And so the Christian Era has become the Common Era."

It has been noted that the label Anno Domini is arguably inaccurate; "scholars generally believe that Christ was born some years before A.D. 1, the historical evidence is too sketchy to allow a definitive dating."

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." In fact, the very short lived French Revolutionary Calendar did just that, making year one the first year of the First French Republic, and rejecting the seven day week (with its connections to Genesis) for a ten day week.

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.

Christian opposition

Because the BC/AD notation is based on the traditional year of the conception or birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the removal of reference to him in era notation is perceived by some Christians as offensive. 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". The Southern Baptist Convention has criticized the use of BCE and CE as being the result of "secularization, anti-supernaturalism, religious pluralism, and political correctness" and encourages its members to "retain the traditional method of dating and avoid this revisionism".

Raimon Panikkar claims that using the designation BCE/CE is a "return... to the most bigoted Christian colonialism" towards non-Christians who do not consider the time period following the beginning of the calendar to be a "common era".

Internet reaction

According to a Los Angeles Times report, it was a student's use of BCE/CE notation, inspired by its use within Wikipedia, which prompted the history teacher Andrew Schlafly to found Conservapedia, a cultural conservative wiki. 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.

Conventions in style guides

The abbreviation BCE, just as with BC, always follows the year number. Unlike AD, which traditionally precedes the year number, CE always follows the year number (if context requires that it be written at all). Thus, the current year is written as in both notations (or, if further clarity is needed, as CE, or as AD ), and the year that Socrates died is represented as 399 BCE (the same year that is represented by 399 BC in the BC/AD notation). The abbreviations are sometimes written with small capital letters, or with full stops (e.g., "BCE" or "C.E.").

The common era year of copyright for films and other media is often expressed in Roman numerals; thus a film made in might be marked as "©}}".

Similar conventions in other languages

Similar attempts to secularize reference to the Dionysian epoch in European and Asian languages have been developed in the context of communist states of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War period.

In the Chinese language, common era (公元， Gong yuan) has been predominately used to refer a western calender without any religious connotation.

The German Democratic Republic introduced the convention of 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 these terms persists in contemporary German to some extent, differing regionally and ideologically. In Jewish contexts mostly "v. d. Z" ("vor der Zeitenwende") and "n. d. Z." ("nach der Zeitendwende") is used.

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 Italy and other Latin countries, the use of "a.e.v." and "e.v.", meaning "Ante Era Vulgaris" and "Era Vulgaris" or "Era Volgare" (common era), is increasing.

In Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Brazil and Angola, the abbreviations "E.C." ("Era Comum", Common Era) and "A.E.C." ("Antes da Era Comum", Before Common Era) are generally used.

In Romania, throughout most of the communist period, the preferred standard was to use the secularised î. e. n. (înaintea erei noastre, before our era) and e. n. (era noastră, our era). After the downfall of Communism and the 1989 revolution, the original convention using î. Hr. (înainte de Hristos, before Christ) and d. Hr. (după Hristos, after Christ) has become more widespread. Alternatively, î. Cr. and d. Cr. are used, mainly due to an alternative spelling of Hristos (Christ) as Cristos, the latter being preferred by the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches.

In Finland, the old terms eKr. (ennen Kristusta, before Christ) and jKr. (jälkeen Kristuksen, after Christ) were largely used until the 1980s but have been mostly replaced during the last couple of decades with terms eaa. (ennen ajanlaskun alkua, before start of chronology) and jaa. (jälkeen ajanlaskun alun, after start of chronology).

See also

Calendar

Before present

Calendar reform

Holocene calendar

Political correctness

List of calendars

Calendar era

Notes and references

External links

Whatever happened to B.C. and A.D., and why? (United Church of Christ)

Category:Calendar eras Category:Chronology Category:Political correctness

ar:قبل الميلاد be-x-old:Наша эра ca:Era comuna cs:Náš letopočet de:V. u. Z. el:Κοινή Χρονολογία (Χρονολόγηση) es:Era Común eo:Komuna Erao fr:Ère commune ia:Era commun it:Era volgare la:Aera Vulgaris jbo:la cabna cedra nl:Gangbare jaartelling no:Common Era pt:Era comum ro:Era comună ru:Наша эра si:පොදු වර්ෂ simple:Common Era sh:Nova era sv:Före vår tideräkning tr:Milat uk:Наша ера