In dating indicated as "BC,"?

Question

what was used as calender dates, as no one knew when Christ was going to be born, before hand.

Answer 1

For the longest time, it was the Julian Calendar that was widely used throughout the Roman Empire but the base year was RESET each time a NEW CAESAR was declared. So the year that Christ was born was determined by WHO the Caesar was during the time He walked on the Earth.

Then many centuries later when the Roman Catholic Church had gained world-wide powers over the entire Holy Roman Empire, it was Pope Gregory who set the calendar to a FIXED DATE ["B.C." and "A.D."] and officially called it the Gregorian Calendar since the 12-13th[?] centuries, which continues to what is widely accepted throughout the World today.

"B.C.", which stands for "Before Christ", is now changed to "B.C.E." [Before Christian Era] by many secularized publications; and "A.D.", which means "Anno Domini" --Latin for 'Year of the Lord'-- has also been changed to "C.E." [Christian Era] as well.

Peace be with you.

Answer 2

The BC/AD split is based on the epoch of Jesus of Bethleham's birth. Other dating systems use different epochs.

For example, the unix time stamp begins at midnight Jan 1, 1970 and counts in seconds. While formally undefined, seconds before that would be negative numbers. This is a valid calender system, even though in 32-bits it will expire soon. Extending the same concept to 64 bits, you'd have enough to date every second back to the beginning of the universe and most of the seconds before the big rip.

As another example, the hebrew calender's epoch is the formation of Adam and Eve, counting lunations (moon cycles) grouped into years since then.

Yet another is the Julian calendar which is vaguely related to the Gregorian, but ends up processing things in vastly different ways.

Practically every culture on the planet places their epoch (that is, the 'beginning' of their calendar) on what is considered the defining event of their civilization. I for one would like to see a calendar who's epoch was the first detonation of a nuclear device or the first successful test run of the atomic pile in the Manhattan Project. Another potential epoch would be the date of the first formal publication of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity (which literally changed all physics as it was known).

Answer 3

The dating system we use was instituted well after the death of Christ. It was not instituted before. Instead of AD and BC, CE, meaning the common era, and BCE, meaning before the common era, are now coming into standard use. Hence the use of AD and BC will at some point go into oblivion.

Answer 4

I believe that was done around 600 A.D. So, not knowing when he would be born was not a factor. Many cultures had their own calendar. The Jews did also. Jesus would have been born somewhere around 3760 J.S.T. (Jewish Standard Time)

Answer 5

up until the late 6th century (by our reckoning), the old Roman years (based on the presumed founding of the city of Rome) were still in effect. What we call 501 AD was called 1250 by the people of that time.

Christian clerics later that century (mis)estimated the birth of their favorite Hebrew.

Answer 6

The calendar was established well after the death of Christ.
I don't remember the number 300 - 500???

Answer 7

Generally things were dated by who was in charge.

For example, if I were to give my birthday based on who was in charge of the US I would give it as February 8 in the 4th year of LBJ's presidency.

A little math and a little history will tell you when that is.

Answer 8

The normal calendar was not invented until a Pope Gregory made it.

Answer 9

The Mayan calendar.

Answer 10

Each indigenous group had their own calendars. The Hebrews had the Hebrew calendar--which is still in use today.