Timeline Dividers

The meaning of BC and AD recently came up in conversation. It’s come up a few times in fact….and you know what that means…it’s time to do a blog entry about it! 🙂

And, in case you think that knowledge like this has no practical application, you’re wrong. Understanding these terms allowed me to win points on the quiz game at Dave & Busters! That’s some real-world usage, right there!

BC & AD

I guess that most people would recall from History class seeing the letters BC and AD attached to dates. BC stands for “Before Christ” and AD is short for the Latin “Anno Domini” which means “In the year of our Lord”.

These two abbreviations are used to divide history into two parts: the time before the incarnation of Jesus and the time afterwards. Since the first coming of Christ is considered by Christians to be the pivotal event in human history, all dates are recorded in relation to it (although the original calculation for this date is probably a little off – it was probably closer to 2 BC).

Not only that, it was also common in the ancient world to measure time from the ascension of a king. For example, you see in the Bible we are often told that an event took place “in the third year of the reign of king so-and-so”. How appropriate it is, then, that Christians measure time based upon the arrival of the King of Kings into this world in the Incarnation!

BCE & CE

BCE and CE are often used as secular alternatives to BC and AD. CE is an abbreviation of “Common Era” and BCE stands for “Before Common Era”. Sometimes the “C” stands for “Current” or “Christian”.

Okay, you may now go impress your friends at Dave & Busters 🙂