What does B.C. or B.C.E really mean?

Question

I was taught that B.C. meant before christ. Then I was told that it meant before common era. So what does it really mean?

Answer 1

B.C. means "before Christ" or, that is, before the year traditionally considered the year of his birth. But the majority of people around the world are not Chirstian and don't like having to measure time by someone else's religion. So they call it B.C.E. meaning "Before Christian Era" or "Before Common Era" which is less offensive. They also use, C.E. for "Common Era" rather than A.D. (Anno Domini - "year of our lord" in Latin)

Answer 2

These answers show where people's minds are at. They become derogatory and incorrect when someone doesn't have the same "value" as they do.This has nothing to do with "some atheist " it was about inclusion and trying to find a way everyone could date things without referencing a biased minorities "great date".If you're hindu or Buddhist or Jansenist or any of the other dozen or so religions or maybe just have not been colonized by a European country your references in istory may be very different.The Romans used Ab Urbe Condita Human beings really don't change much -when they don't look at what they do . BCE simply puts everyone at the same reference while respecting that Christ's birth is not the be-all and end all for all the diversified people's on the planet. I am an American but Ithink that it basically keeps the calendar as it was is great. True historians ,geologists have completely different ways of talking about time so there is no finality even in this simple issue. have enough sense to know the world did not begin with European or Hebrew ideas. It's a big world people. GROW UP!

Answer 3

B.C. means Before Christ. B.C.E. means Before Common Era. Not all countries/people recognize the birth of Christ as the beginning of dating historical events. (This includes Jewish history).
So, it's not all "secular" and scientists trying to take Christ out of history. That's bunk.

B.C.E. and C.E. (Common Era) still follow the same dates as those who use B.C. and A.D.

Answer 4

B.C. does mean Before Christ. You are correct there. But a few years ago, someone realized that the birth of Christ wasn't a marker for a large number of people in the world -- Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Siks, and a long list of etceteras -- and the scientific community wanted something that would be universally meaningful. So they came up with Before the Current Era. The only trouble with that, is no one is quite sure when the current era begins. Some people still use the birth of Christ as a marker, and date the current era from then. Others move it up a notch and date it from about the 1800s. And frankly, while it may be politically correct, it would be much easier to work with a fixed date, even if they said, on an international scale, TODAY is the beginning of the Current Era. Next year will be +1 CE. That way, everyone would start at the same place and would have something in common to refer to. But, nobody asked me....

Answer 5

Bce Meaning

Answer 6

BCE = Before the Common Era (recent change)

BC = unknown but probably Before Christ

Today's calendar has ties to Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century who computed the date of easter. He took the year 1 BC as the beginning of the previous cycle before Christianity. Ruling cycles and eras were common ways to measure dates. Year in Latin is Anno and Lord in Latin is Domini, hence AD. I could not find in my research any reference to what the Latin would have been for beginning of the previous cycle, so I don't know the origin. BC is known as Before Christ in English. At the time of Julius Cesear, their era was known as "from the foundation of Rome" or Ab Urbe Condita in Latin. It was set at what is now 753 BCE.
Dionysius did not know the exact date of Christ's birth, but wanted to be sure Christ was alive in 1 AD and it is now assumed the the actual date is between 4 and 7 BCE, probably in September.

Common probably refers to the use of 365 days in a year, which is now common except for leap year. The earth orbits the sun every 365 1/4 days approximately.

Not everyone in the world is Christian, so new designations were made. CE and BCE

Answer 7

Being politically correct must mean giving up American values, or your values as a person so as to not make other people uncomfortable, at the cost of "we the people". So if anyone who comes to America feels uncomfortable, LEAVE. For the most part all of the political correctness happens when we have too many politicians, who get paid too much, and seem to feel they can decide for everyone what is right and what is wrong. Me, I decide for myself and tell the Washington yahoo's to do something uncomfortable. You may leave this up to your imagination as to what they can do!

Answer 8

B.C. means Before Christ and B.C.E. means Before the Christian Era.

Answer 9

The volleying of these answers is laughable. Everyone still use BC...before Christ.

Answer 10

B.C. is before christ (i am sure it is before his birth) then people tried to get rid of all christian things in history so they tried to get people to forget or if they did not want to use Christ then BCE before common era was used which means the exact same thing. BC = BCE

like the other person said, BC does not mean before christ it is latin. that is NOT TRUE BC does not have a latin definition or root.

Answer 11

Well BC means before Christ that would be for christen. BCE means before common area which every one uses.