Please explain my confused me like I’m 5 (0r 4 or 6).
I’m no expert but I assume that the year Christ died would be “year zero” (assuming you’re talking about anno Domini (AD) and before Christ (BC)) since we started counting after that.
EDIT: reading more on the topic I might be completely incorrect with my above statement. If someone else knows, please do correct me
EDIT 2: I found this on Wikipedia which talks about a “year zero”
Zero exists, just not for the Gregorian calendar that follows the Anno Domini calendar numbering system (BC/AD). It is very true for Julian calendars that follow the astronomical year numbering system (BCE/CE) as well as Gregorian calendars that follow the ISO8601:2004 standard (no unit), as well as Holocene calendar, and numerous Hindu/Buddhist calendars.
1 BC = 0 BCE = 10000HE -> 1AD = 1CE = 10001HE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_zero
The year of Jesus’ supposed birth was counted as year 1 AD/CE. The year before that is considered year 1 BC/BCE. It’s worth noting that the concept of zero didn’t yet exist back then. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0#History
Probably worth noting that the Gregorian Calendar was an invention of the 16th Century. It was invented to deal with the problems of the Julian Calendar and the creators would have had a firm understanding of the concept of zero. The AD/BC split was all about the assumed year of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth (according to Christian mythology). The year of his birth was set as the first year Anno Domini or “The year of the Lord”. Or the first year where Jesus was kicking about. The year prior to that would therefore be the first year before “Before Christ” was alive, and therefore the year 1 BC.
Especially weird considering that Christmas has been set to December for a long time, so 98% of year 1 AD was actually before the ostensible birth of Christ (I know that scholars now think he was born in April or something, but they probably didn’t always)
Ultimately, they had to set the calendar’s dates based on something. Given the vast hold on Europe which Christianity had at the time, it’s not surprising that the starting date was based on such an important event in the mythology. However, trying to deviate too far from the currently understood order (the Julian Calendar) was likely to end in failure. So, they could either fight the tide of history or just accept a logical oddity. Given all the other logical oddities one must accept for supernatural belief, who’s going to complain about having a holy reason to eat, drink and be merry during one of the most terrible parts of the year?
Zero doesn’t even exist so how would year zero.
Can i state the obvious reflect on if this question even makes sense?
We are currently the 2024 year since we began counting and probably didn’t do so from day 1. Instead we took a significant cultural event and marked it the beginning. Adapting any initial time keeping to it.
We centered the beginning of this count on the life of someone who we cant proof ever existed. Great start.
we have likely been tracking sun cycles from much before but we cant exactly call our time keeping records reliable scientific measurements. Different civilizations and cultures had different ideas, may dispute data and eventually all had to make way for the teaching of the church.
There is no year 0, the calendar is a construct of time But doesn’t keep nor measure it.
One nitpick, Jesus was almost certainly a real figure. There are many records indicating someone with that name was in the area at the time, and that they were executed by crucifixion.
The religious stuff, obviously no way to prove. But as a person, the historical consensus is they existed.
One nitpick, Jesus was almost certainly a real figure. There are many records indicating someone with that name was in the area at the time, and that they were executed by crucifixion.
No there isn’t. There’s tons of people who’ve claimed they’ve found records but ultimately none of them can be produced or are based on other accounts like Josephus who doesn’t ever directly reference Jesus. Further none of his original writing survived. Only reproductions, and the earliest one is from 11th century. Or Tacitus who was born after Jesus was dead. So no direct knowledge or evidence of Jesus as a individual, just a second hand accounting at best. Oh and also, no originals exist. Just copies dated back to the 11th century…
All “evidence” only starts 1000 years after Jesus actually lived… supposedly written by people who were born after Jesus died… and would have written that stuff 50-100 years after his death.
There is no actual archaeological evidence that “Jesus” existed. And a mere 3 references that exist outside of the bible that I’m aware of. All of which are not original manuscripts.
Edit: All of this to say, there is no consensus… and to claim there is consensus on the matter is a christian/catholic claim. Not an actual historical consensus.
Nope. 1 BC/BCE -> 1 AD/CE. That’s just how it was designed.
The concept of zero had not even been discovered at the time the calendar was designed.
Almost. The first recorded use of ‘Zero’ was in Mesopotamia in 3BC/BCE. https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-zero
