OK how did time begin to be numbered as BC with the years descending to zero(cont.)?

Question

and then AD with the years ascending normally?,and what happened in the year one?,what is the "zero year" called in between the too?did people in 2000 BC record that they lived in the year 2000 BC year?or 200 AD?and why has it been changed to CE?

Answer 1

Ok here is what I know. Back when the calendar was developed the Catholic church was very powerful and influential in politics and government (this was before the protestant reformation). Because of this, they were the ones that pretty much set up the whole calendar. So as you might expect, they used the birth of Jesus to be the turning point of the calendar. Anything before that would be noted as BC (before Christ) and anything after AD ("anno domini" which is the Latin translation of (I think) "after God)

Several years after the calendar was developed, it was realized that there were some errors in it all along. The errors were as follows:
-they did not allow for a year zero...in fact there was no year zero at all...if you remember back a few years ago, that was the whole center of the debate of whether the millennium started on 1/1/00 or 1/1/01.
-Jesus was not born in the year zero or even 1AD or 1BC but they believe that he was born somewhere in the range of 4 to 6 BC, therefore the whole calendar was a few years out of whack. However, at this point, it was very difficult to change the calendar. It would be like someone coming up to us and just haphazardly changing the year on us...
-Later on, some people substituted BCE for BC (before the common era) and CE (common era) for AD. My only knowledge of why this was done was due to being more politically correct and not favoring the Christian religion over others.

In regards to your other question, it would depend on who was recording the years (what civilization, etc). Most common people back then did not read and write so it was up to the high ranking officials.

Answer 2

Current time notation was created by a Roman Catholic priest although I forget when. There was no year 0 nor a zeroth century which is why we are now in the 21st century. The concept of 0 had not yet been learned from the Arabs. Since the calendar started with year 1, the birth of Jesus Christ, all dates were AD, Anno Domino, year of our Lord. Dates Before Christ (BC) were numbered back from year 1. Before the creation of this calendar, events were dated from the ascension to the throne of the local ruler or possibly from some memorable natural event.

As for the CE, this stands for Current Era, and allows us to use the same system without the reference to Christ.

Answer 3

It was later decided and done that way by monks and priest who were trying to record history and events based on a wide known event in their lives. Christians at the time where involved in the politics so that was the greatest event for them..kr

And as far as the CE this article explains it all:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/ce.htm

Answer 4

For all the history of this subject, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Anno_Domini#History_of_Anno_Domini
To answer part of your question, there was
no year 0. The years went from 1 BC to 1AD.
Finally, CE is a more neutral version of BC.
It was changed to respect people who
aren't Christians.

Answer 5

Yes, the church created a whole new calendar to reflect the birth of Jesus. The Jewish calendar didn't change, nor did many others.