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Common Era

Common Era (also Current Era or Christian Era), abbreviated as CE, is an alternative naming of the traditional calendar era, Anno Domini (abbreviated AD).[3] BCE is the abbreviation forBefore the Common/Current/Christian Era (an alternative to Before Christ, abbreviated BC). The CE/BCE designation uses the year-numbering system introduced by the 6th-century Christian monk Dionysius Exiguus, who started the Anno Domini designation, intending the beginning of the life of Jesus to be the reference date. Neither notation includes a year zero, nor the two notations (CE/BCE and AD/BC) are numerically equivalent; thus "2013 CE" corresponds to "AD 2013" and "399 BCE" corresponds to "399 BC". The expression "Common Era" can be found as early as 1708 in English, and traced back to Latin usage among European Christians to 1615, as vulgaris aerae, and to 1635 in English asVulgar Era. At those times, the expressions were all used interchangeably with "Christian Era", and "vulgar" meant "not regal" rather than "crudely indecent". Use of the CE abbreviation was introduced by Jewish academics in the mid-19th century. Since the late 20th century, use of CE and BCE has been popularized in academic and scientific publications, and more generally by publishers emphasizing secularism or sensitivity to non-Christians. The Gregorian calendar, and the year-numbering system associated with it, is the calendar system with most widespread use in the world today. For decades, it has been the global standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union. The CE/BCE notation has been adopted by some authors and publishers wishing to be neutral or sensitive to non-Christians because it does not explicitly make use of religious titles for Jesus, such as "Christ" and Domin("Lord"), which are used in the BC/AD notation, nor does it give implicit expression to the Christian creed that Jesus was the Christ. Among the reasons given by those who oppose the use of Common Era notation is that it is selective as other aspects of the Western calendar have origins in various belief systems (e.g., January is named for Janus),[16] and claims that its propagation is the result of secularization, antisupernaturalism, religious pluralism, and political correctness.

History
Origins
The year numbering system used with Common Era notation was devised by the Christian monk Dionysius Exiguus in the year 525 to replace the Era of Martyrs system, because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians. event he referred to as the Incarnation of Jesus,
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He attempted to number years from an

although scholars today generally agree that he

miscalculated by a small number of years. Dionysius labeled the column of the Easter table in which [23] he introduced the new era "Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi". Numbering years in this manner became more widespread with its usage by Bede in England in 731. Bede also introduced the practice of dating years before the supposed year of birth
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of Jesus, and the practice of not using a year zero.

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In
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1422, Portugal became the last Western European country to switch to the system begun by Dionysius.

Use of the term "vulgar era"


The term "Common Era" is traced back in English to its appearance as "Vulgar Era" aerae)
[28] [27]

to distinguish it

from the regnal dating systems typically used in national law. The first use of the Latin equivalent ( vulgaris discovered so far was in a 1615 book by Johannes Kepler.
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Kepler uses it again in a 1616 table

of ephemerides, and again in 1617. A 1635 English edition of that book has the title page in English [31] so far, the earliest-found usage of Vulgar Era in English. A 1701 book edited by John LeClerc includes "Before Christ according to the Vulgar ra, 6". incarnation."
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A 1716 book in English by Dean Humphrey


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Prideaux says, "before the beginning of the vulgar ra, by which we now compute the years from his A 1796 book uses the term "vulgar era of the nativity".
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The first so-far-discovered usage of "Christian Era" is as the Latin phrase aerae christianae on the title page of a 1584 theology book. English almanac. Era".
[38] [7] [37]

In 1649, the Latin phrase r Christian appeared in the title of an

A 1652 ephemeris is the first instance so-far-found for English usage of "Christian

The English phrase "common Era" appears at least as early as 1708, and in a 1715 book on astronomy [39] is used interchangeably with "Christian Era" and "Vulgar Era". A 1759 history book uses common ra in a generic sense, to refer to the common era of the Jews.
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The first-so-far found usage of the

phrase "before the common era" is in a 1770 work that also uses common eraand vulgar era as synonyms, in a translation of a book originally written in German. The 1797 edition of the Encyclopdia [42] Britannica uses the terms vulgar era and common erasynonymously. In 1835, in his book Living Oracles, Alexander Campbell, wrote: "The vulgar Era, or Anno Domini; the fourth year of Jesus Christ, the first of which was but eight days", and also refers to the common era as a synonym for vulgar era with "the fact that our Lord was born on the 4th year before the vulgar era, called Anno Domini, thus making (for example) the 42d year from his birth to correspond with the 38th of the common era..."The Catholic Encyclopedia (1909) used the terms "Christian, Vulgar or Common Era" interchangeably. The phrase "common era", in lower case, also appeared in the 19th century in a generic sense, not necessarily to refer to the Christian Era, but to any system of dates in common use throughout a civilization. Thus, "the common era of the Jews", "the common era of the Mahometans", of the world",
[49] [48] [41]

"common era or "common

"the common era of the foundation of Rome".When it did refer to the Christian Era, it was
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sometimes qualified, e.g., "common era of the Incarnation" ,"common era of the Nativity", era of the birth of Christ".

An adapted translation of Common Era into Latin as Era Vulgaris was adopted in the 20th century by some followers of Aleister Crowley, and thus the abbreviation "e.v." or "EV" may sometimes be seen as a replacement for AD.
[

History of the use of the CE/BCE abbreviation


Although Jews have their own Hebrew calendar, they often find it necessary to use the Gregorian Calendar as well.Common Era notation has also been in use for Hebrew lessons for "more than a century". As early as 1825, the abbreviation VE (for Vulgar Era) was in use among Jews to denote years on the Western calendar.
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Some Jewish academics were already using the CE and BCE abbreviations by the mid-19th century, such as in 1856, when Rabbi and historian Morris Jacob Raphall used the abbreviation in his book, PostBiblical History of The Jews.
[62] [58] [59] [60] [61]

The ratio of usage of BCE to BC, Era to Before Christ

CE to AD,

Common Era to Anno Domini,

and Before Common

in books has changed dramatically between the years 1800 and 2008, particularly

since 1980, with the CE-related variants becoming used more often.

Contemporary usage
Some academics in the fields of theology, education and history have adopted CE and BCE notation, although there is some disagreement.
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The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania,

which is the leading publishing body of Jehovah's Witnesses, has been using CE and BCE exclusively in its publications (except in quotations) since The Watchtower of 15 April 1964. However, in The WatchtowerSimplified English Edition, "the year [or century] ... before Christ" is used for dates before the common era; "the year [century] ..." is used for other dates, except in the context of "before Christ", in [67] which case "the year [century] ... after Christ" is used. More visible uses of Common Era notation have recently surfaced at major museums in the Englishspeaking world: The Smithsonian Institution prefers Common Era usage, though individual museums are not required to use it. Furthermore, several style guides now prefer or mandate its usage. Even some style guides for Christian churches prefer its use: for example, the Episcopal Diocese Maryland Church News. In the United States, the usage of the BCE/CE notation in textbooks is growing.
[56] [68] [69]

Some publications

have moved over to using it exclusively. For example, the 2007 World Almanac was the first edition to switch over to the BCE/CE usage, ending a 138-year usage of the traditional BC/AD dating notation. It is used by the College Board in its history tests,
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and by the Norton Anthology of English Literature. Others


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have taken a different approach. The US-based History Channel uses BCE/CE notation in articles on non-Christian religious topics such as Jerusalem and Judaism. In June 2006, the Kentucky State School Board reversed its decision that would have included the designations BCE and CE as part of state law, leaving education of students about these concepts a matter of discretion at the local level. In 2002, the BCE/CE notation system was introduced into the school curriculum in England and Wales. In 2011 in the UK, the BBC announced it would be using CE/BCE notation on its programmes and website, permitting usage of either notation.
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Numerous British universities, museums, historians, and book

retailers have either dropped BC and AD entirely or are using it alongside the BCE/CE notation.Also in 2011, media reports suggested that the BC/AD notation in Australian school textbooks would be replaced by BCE/CE notation.
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The story became national news and drew opposition from some politicians and

church leaders. Weeks after the story broke, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority denied the rumour and stated that the BC/AD notation would remain, with CE and BCE as an optional suggested learning activity.
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