When and why did we swap B.C. and A.D. for B.C.E. and C.E.?

Factual Questions
1

I have noticed that over the past few years, in archaeological publications and other scientific journals and magazines, “A.D.” and “B.C.” have been pretty much eliminated in favor of the more politically correct “C.E.” and “B.C.E.” (“Common Era” and “Before Common Era”).

I’m curious to know how this change occurred. Was there a conference at which this idea came up? A paper from a respected scientist? An article that suggested the change? Who started it? Any scientists out there who have the skinny on this?

2

What I wonder is what the vast non-Christian world called them before BCE and CE were invented. They must have had other terms.

3

I found this post in The Humanist Archives which has more information toward answering the OP.


From: Dennis Baron <baron@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: C.E./B.C.E.

Interestingly, perhaps predictably, the standard dictionaries
are of no help on the dating of these abbreviations. The _OED_
defines C.E. (or C. AE.) as Common Era, sometimes Christian Era.
_Christian Era_ was first used in English ca. 1657; the synonymous
_Vulgar Era_ is dated 1716. There are no dates or cites for
_Common Era_ (s.v. CE, Common, Era, Common Era). Webster's 3rd
defines Common Era as `Christian Era.' Webster's II New Riverside
Dictionary defines C.E. as `common era,' but does not define
_Common Era_. The _Random House Dictionary of English_ 2nd ed
defines _Common Era_ as `Christian Era.' And the politically
aberrant _Random House Webster's College Dictionary_ does the
same.

Only Rosten's _Joys of Yiddish_ comments on these abbreviations
that they have long been popular with Jewish scholars who were
uncomfortable with a christological dating system. This I know
from personal experience to be true. Unfortunately I can find
no information to hand on just how long this has been a common
practice, or if it indeed originated with Jewish scholars.
4

Initially we had A.D., Anno Domini, Latin for Year of the Lord.

No one really had a use for “Before the Year of the Lord” until historiography took off as a subject of study after the eighteenth century (which is why, in English, B.C. (Before Christ) was written using English abbreviation.

Archaeology took off as a science at the end of the Nineteenth Century and a method of dating forward and backward from a fixed date became more important. Originally, the dating used was the handy (to speakers of English) labels A.D. and B.C.

While English has taken over as the “common tongue” for a lot of international research, it was fairly clear that a dating system named for the Christian Lord was not appropriate for works that included Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and lots of other people who did not believe Jesus was God.

The primacy of European and American support for these efforts indicated that we would use the same basic calendar in use in Europe and America for dating, but rather than insist on the religious names for the dates, they were re-cast as Common Era and Before (the) Common Era (B.C. and B.C.E.)

(Despite the musings of Science Fiction authors, the use of 1945 as the new “Year zero” for the Atomic Age and Pre-Atomic Age has never come to pass.)

B.C.E. and C.E. are not really new, but they have been getting more publicity as mainstream media catches up to the terminology used in science.

As to non-European societies, they tended to date forward from some significant event (the creation of the world, the establishmnet of some dynasty), just as the Christians did before archaeology and historiography became prominent. (Remember, we originally only had A.D. Jews are currently reckoning year 5761 (from Creation), Muslims are in year 1421 (from the Haj).

5

Neither my 1961 Merriam-Webster 7th Collegiate Dictionary nor my 1983 American Heritage Collegiate Dictionary include C.E. or B.C.E. in their lists of abbreviations, so they were not in “common” parlance as recently as the last 17 years.

On the other hand, James Mitchner has one of his protagonists in The Source stumble over the A.D vs C.E. decision in his first chapter, referring to it as a decision to do archaeological dating in a mixed Christian/Jewish/Muslim work environment, (and uses B.C.E. and C.E. throughout the rest of the book).

The Source was written in the early 1960s (published in 1965).

6

Right on. The Jews have their own calendar which, of course, has no demarcation for the birth of Christ. However, living in a Christian world, they have had to use what is now the Gregorian calendar. Nonetheless, they would not refer to BC or AD, but BCE or CE. It is only of late that this has become more common, perhaps in the deference to the fact that not everyone believe Christ was the son of God.

7

I understand all of that, but it strikes me as a little overly sensitive, to tell the truth.

I mean, by that logic, shouldn’t we re-name the days of the week so that no one who is not Norse is forced to observe “Tiw’s Day,” “Woden’s Day,” “Thor’s Day” and “Frigga’s Day”?

Also (as I stated in another thread), it strikes me as a case of trying to ignore the elephant in the living room. I mean, unless you change the year numbers, you’re still measuring the years before Jesus and after Jesus. Changing the designation from “B.C.” to “B.C.E.” doesn’t change that, does it?

But to keep this in General Questions:

Thanks for the responses. Based on the posts above, it looks like “C.E.” and “B.C.E.” have been around longer than I would have guessed. It sounds like this is something that has been percolating for a while, but has only recently gained ascendancy.

Someone had to come up with the idea in the first place, though. If anyone can dig up the original creator(s) of these designations, I’d still be interested in knowing.

8

At the risk of sounding stupid… I don’t see what being a Christian or non-Christian has to do with it. Don’t non-Christians still believe in the existance of Jesus, even if they don’t believe he was the Messiah? There’s definately proof of his existance, so why couldn’t BC & AD still be used?

9

In that case, I suppose BJ and AJ (Before Jesus and After Jesus) would be OK. But BC and AD both acknowledge divinity, something some of us are unwilling to do.

10

Because BC stands for “before Christ.” Christ is not a name, it’s a title, which means “messiah.” Jews (and others) don’t hold Jesus to be the messiah, even if he did exist.

AD stands for Anno Domini (the Year of our Lord). Jews (and others) don’t believe Jesus is a Lord, even if he did exist.

Zev Steinhardt

11

Darn it curwin, you just beat me by two minutes on that one. That’s what happens when you stop in the middle of composing a reply to get some work done. :slight_smile:

Zev Steinhardt

12

I guess my point is that when people use “B.C.” and “A.D.” they generally give no more thought to the underlying origin of those designations than they give to the origins in Norse religion of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

So why get worked up about it?

(And that’s coming from an atheist.)

13

There’s a difference (slight, yes, but important) between using day names that are based on gods that no one believes in anymore (of course, now I’ll hear from some neo-Norse Pagans in Parma, Ohio), and having your dating system based on the birth of another religion’s god.

Then there’s the matter that the names of days have been anglicized enough so that they are not as “in your face” as “Anno Domini” or “Before Christ.”

14

JosephFinn wrote:

OK, I’ll buy that.

I guess I can live with the “C.E./B.C.E.” thing, for the sake of promoting good will and harmony. :smiley:

15

spoke-,
In hebrew at least, there is no Monday, Tuesday…etc. The literal translation is Day 1 (Yom Rishon), Day 2 (Yom Sheini), Day 3(Yom Shlishi)- Day 6, Sabbath.

I imagine that since the Romans were largely pagan, and had adopted much from the Greeks, as well perhaps they adopted much from other cultures before them that were pagan… That they were the ones who had mostly accepted Jesus as the leader of this new religion, and kept most of their current ways while adopting newer ones again.
The Jews that held fast to their culture and refused Jesus as anything special most probably never used those day names in their own Hebrew then either. Correct me if that seems off or I’m wrong, It seems to make sense to me.