I want to know why does the years go down in times of BC EX. 7 BC > 8 BC as time increases.AD numbers go up.

Question

Well for example in AD (after the death of christ) I think thats what AD stand for?The year 2000 is followed by 2001,02,03. etc. But for BC (before Christ, or before common era) The Year 300 BC is followed by 299, 298,and 297. when did the first year start and when did the numbers changed from going down to mark time ,to going up as we know it today?

Answer 1

Yes, when it's B. C., you're counting down to the birth of Christ. Part of the reason is that we don't KNOW when the first year started--how old is the earth? How old is the human race? (Or do you subscribe to Bishop Ussher's calculations that place the creation of the world at sundown on October 23, 4004 B. C.? In that case, one could argue that we're winding down the year 6010. For why it's not 6011, keep reading.)

A. D. stands for "Anno Domini," Latin for "in the year of [our] Lord." Since a calendar based on the birth of Christ wasn't developed until about 500 years after his life, it may very well not be exactly right. More recent scholarship has placed that birth anywhere from three to six years earlier.

Iin any case, the scholar who worked out that date, Dionysius Exiguus, established as the year 1 the year in which he thought Christ had been born. The previous year was 1 B.C. In other words, there ws no year 0. So although the difference mathematically between 1 and -1 is 2, the time from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. is only ONE year. Thus when you calculate the time between a year B.C. and a year A.D. (or C.E.--Common Era), you add the two numbers and then subtract one.

That's probably more than you wanted to know!

Answer 2

The BC years (Before Christ) are counted backwards because the notion is that "Year 0" occurred with the birth of Christ. It's like counting up to 0 from negative numbers. 1200 BC is like -1200. Add one and you have 1199 BC (or -1199) and so on.

After the birth of Christ, the years were counted incrementally (Year 1000, 1001, 1002, etc)

Hope that helps