The Date Before Jesus Christ Was Born ?

Question

Before the year 1 A.D. , how did people know the date.?
Did people who were living in say 99 B.C., know that JC was going to be born 99 years hence ?

OK. Historians can refer to dates before 1 A.D., but how did the people who lived then, refer to the date ?

Sorry Martin K !
There was no year 0 !!
After 1 B.C. followed 1 A.D.

Answer 1

The calendar was conceived during the Roman Empire, and the "years" were established long after that. They just needed a starting point, and they based this on religious happenings...ie jesus birth.

No....in 99 bc, they did NOT know that it was that date. Actually, the years are approximated to the best of their knowledge, but probably not exact.

Good question

Answer 2

First of all, Jesus wasn't born in 1 AD--it was probably about 5 BC--the person who calculated the dates for the calendar, about 300 years later, got his times mixed up. And no, they didn't use B.C. The Jews used the calendar they use now, and the Romans counted years based on who was the Emperor (ex--the Fourth Year of the Reign of Caesar Augustus). I'm sure there were as many different ways of counting time as there were civilizations.

Answer 3

Mathematically, I do not know if there is really a year 0 (zero).

Time event 0 would be the moment that Jesus was born (ignoring miscalculations by monks).

The full year before this is --1 (1 BC).

The full year after this is +1 (1 AD).

I think that 0 is the time of an event.

But I may be wrong.

Answer 4

"Christ" is only the English representation of the Greek translation of the Hebrew "Messiah." that's a identify we Christians declare matches Jesus. Logically, subsequently, Jesus would were born contained in the three hundred and sixty 5 days following the three hundred and sixty 5 days a million B.C. the actual shown actuality that he probable wasn't basically means that when this relationship device replaced into devised, it replaced into in accordance with defective computation. that's a competent clarification for utilizing BCE extremely of B.C. and CE extremely of A.D. (yet another reliable reason is each and each and every of the non-Christians utilizing those dates.)

Answer 5

people in BC years didn't refer to the year that way, and even after Christ was born people didn't refer to the years as "AD" People in different countries counted the years in different ways. Usually they based the years off some major event or by who was ruler at the time. Japan and a lot of Asia for example counted their years accourding to the Chinese zodiac, such as "the year of the Dog." 2006 is the year of the Rooster.

Answer 6

The Roman year was also based on the years since the founding of Rome in 753 BC. Years were reckoned "since the founding of the city," in Latin "ab urbe condita," abbreviated AUC. This standard continued in Christian usage for a few centuries before the BC/AD standard emerged.

Answer 7

Each Nation had their own set of years. Like the Jews their year is now somewhere in the 5000, so at the point it was 1AD, it would have been sow where about 2999. Other Nations kept a note of the year by calling it by the Kings Name and then by how many years he Ruled, so in the case of Ramaseys it would read in the 4th year of Ramaseys reign.

Answer 8

The birth of JC started civilization, and before then no need for dates were necessary. The tyranny that ruled then, required nothing but brawn, and the might to implement it. Civilization has taught us to behave in a controlled and documented way, and because we got smarter, we are to-day able to kill our enemies and not care who gets married to whom. I believe that civilization has served us well in the past. but now, we must move on and find a way to survive our greed and envy that our children are inheriting. Religions could help but we do not teach beliefs any more in schools. We are now fighting in world war three in our pickups, and SUV's. the four Lane roads are the battlefields, and if you need fuel you can stop at a fast food arch, or bucket, to re-energize the will to try and be faster then any one else in the passing lane. The future is somewhat clouded,because the heavens are full and the alternative is not a likely choice. so slow up, or speed down, you may get lucky and find a third place to begin your after life. do not except any guaranties, for only a non-civilized outlook will sustain your efforts to keep up.
Thank Bill Gates for the next 1000 years, for there will be no more. Mother nature is angry, she is in control, and she knows that humans can not destroy the earth, but the more they try the less humans will remain, to bring in a mutually agreeable society.

Answer 9

They didn't know that. A.D and B.C was what the Romans put in after his death, not before it. These days, the year before his birth would be considered: 0 B.C

Answer 10

They usually referred to it by counting from the reign of the current king or emperor - eg "fifth year in the reign of Julius Caesar", that sort of thing.

Until fairly recent times, most people didn't have the view of time as being a progression, so they didn't really need to pinpoint a historical event by its exact year. For them there was just recent history, and the old days.

(One minor point - the poster above who referred to AD as being "after death" is sadly wrong. It doesn't date from Jesus's death, which is 33AD - in fact it's Latin and stands for "Anno Domini", "the year of our Lord". Those of us who aren't Christian prefer to use BCE and CE anyway - (Before the) Common Era.)