Can somebody please explain the chronology of B.C., A.D., etc.?

Question

I'm confused about the time periods: A.D. B.C., C.E., and B.C.E. I don't understand which order they go on. And how did they switch from one to the other? Wasn't one counted backwards (For example, 10...9...8...7...). Can somebody please explain this all to me? Thank you so much!

Answer 1

AD and CE are the same, as are BC and BCE. AD/BC (anno domini/before christ) have names based on Christ, CE/BCE (common era/before the common era) don't. That's the only difference.



BC/BCE counted backwards (high numbers down to 1), then AD/CE counted up (1 up to high numbers). There was no year zero.

Answer 2

B.C. stands for Before Christ and is a countdown of the years to the year in which Christians believe that Jesus (the son of God) was born. After that is became A.D. which stands for Anno Domine (Latin for, in the year of our lord) and began counting up to where we are now. C.E. stands for Common Era and is identical to the A.D. counting. B.C.E is Before Common Era and is identical to the B.C counting.

Answer 3

Hey, maybe it'll help if you know what they stand for;



A.D. = Anno Domini, Latin for "In the year of our Lord". Everything after Jesus Christ is A.D., for example this year is 2009 A.D. (Think of Christ's time as Year Zero)



B.C = Before Christ, speaks for itself really. This counts backwards because if it's 900 B.C, then it's 900 years before Christ, so 100 years later it would be 800 B.C, which would be 800 years before Christ.



B.C.E is the same as "B.C." but stands for "Before the Common Era" - preferred by non-religious people.



C.E is the same as "A.D." but stands for "Common Era", also preferred by non-religious people because it doesn't refer directly to Christ.



So in short - B.C or B.C.E. is before Christ/before the Common Era, and counts backwards.

and therefore A.D or C.E. is after Christ/the Commone Era, and counts forwards.

Answer 4

ok, firsties, advert stands for Anno Domini, meaning "interior the 365 days of our lord", i think of. The non-religious version is CE which stands for ordinary era. yet particular, advert ability after Jesus' death. even inspite of the incontrovertible fact that he would have died earlier or later, yet that doesn't actually remember. i've got faith thoroughly in God and Jesus and each little thing, yet from a distinctive standpoint, the advert/BC calendar incredibly proves not something in any respect. One, there is a few scientific/archaeological info that Jesus did actually exist, so debate over that's not that considerable. the main factor is not any remember if he became God's son and if he did each and every of the failings the Bible says he did, yet besides. with the aid of how, "maximum" human beings do not call it a fairytale. yet human beings returned then have been religious too, and despite the fact that if the advert/BC calendar would by some ability teach Jesus existed around that era (that's already retty proved), it does not teach he became God's son or magical in any way. i've got faith he became/is yet that comes right down to faith. maximum heavily with your question, i think of, the BC and advert calendar became invented in 525 advert with the aid of Dionysius Exiguus, long after Jesus had died, so incredibly no person would understand precisely whilst it occurred.

Answer 5

AD is after the death of christ i think, BC is before christ? and CE is common era. i'm not really sure how it works out... i think BC goes backwards and when it reaches 0 you start AD? BCE is before common era... i think that some people didn't like AD and BD so they switched the names so CE is really AD and BCE is really BC... but im not sure anymore. someone explained it to me once but i cant remember