B.C.E.

Common Era, also known as Current Era, abbreviated CE, [1] |title=History of Judaism 63BCE-1086CE|quote=Year 1: CE – What is nowadays called the 'Current Era' traditionally begins with the birth of a Jewish teacher called Jesus. His followers came to believe he was the promised Messiah and later split away from Judaism to found Christianity|date=2005-02-08|author=BBC Team|work=BBC Religion & Ethics|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation|accessdate=2007-09-08}}</ref> is a designation for the period of time beginning with year 1 of the Gregorian calendar. An earlier date is then designated BCE, described as "Before the Common or Current Era". The numbering of years is identical to the numbering in the Anno Domini system, neither system using a year zero.

The only difference between "BC/AD" and "BCE/CE" is that the term Common Era does not use the religious titles for Jesus ("Lord" and "Christ") that are explicit in "anno Domini" and "before Christ". Originating among Christians at least as early as 1762, Common Era notation has been adopted by many non-Christians, and also by some Christians wanting to be sensitive to non-Christians. The use of BCE and CE has been criticized by some who favor the BC/AD system as being "the result of secularization" and "political correctness".

The abbreviation BCE, just as with BC, always follows the year number. Unlike AD, which traditionally precedes the year number, CE always follows the year number (if context requires that it be written at all). Thus, the current year is written as 2024 in both systems (or, if further clarity is needed, as 2024 CE, or as AD 2024), and the year Socrates died is represented as 399 BCE (the same year that is represented by 399 BC in the AD/BC system). The abbreviations are sometimes written with small capital letters, or with periods (e.g., "BCE" or "C.E.").

Origins

Template:Seealso The Anno Domini system was devised by the monk Dionysius Exiguus, while he was, in Rome, working on a table to establish future dates for Easter. When he devised his table, Julian calendar years were identified by regnal years and by naming the consuls who held office that year. He wished to replace the Diocletian years that had been used, because he did not wish to continue the memory of a persecutor of Christians. In the process, he determined a year for the beginning of the life of Jesus. He gave a method to calculate "annos ab incarnatione Domini nostri Jesu Christi" (Latin for years since the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ). He himself stated that the then current year was 525 years since the incarnation of Jesus.

Some two centuries later in northern England, the Venerable Bede began the process of bringing the AD system Dionysius had invented into general use in Western Europe, when he (Bede) used it to date the events in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731. Bede also used another Latin term "ante uero incarnationis dominicae tempus" ("the time before the Lord's true incarnation"), equivalent to the English "before Christ", to identify years before the first year of this era. According to the General Chronology article in the 1914 Catholic Encyclopedia, usage of AD gradually became more common in Europe in the latter part of the ninth century, and, while it occurred occasionally in papal documents of the time of John XIII (965-972), it was not the rule before the 12th century. In 1422, Portugal became the last Western European country to switch to the Anno Domini system.

The term "Common Era" is traced back in English to its appearance as "Vulgar Era" (from the Latin word vulgus, the common people, i.e. those who are not royalty) at a time when vulgar did not mean "crudely indecent". A 1716 book by Dean Humphrey Prideaux says, "The vulgar era, by which we now compute the years from his incarnation."

The phrase "common era" was used as an English synonym for "vulgar era" at least as early as 1770, in a translation of a book originally written in German. 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 1914 Catholic Encyclopedia uses the sentence: "Foremost among these [various eras] is that which is now adopted by all civilized peoples and known as the Christian, Vulgar or Common Era, in the twentieth century of which we are now living." Sometime in the 1800s, "vulgar" came to mean "crudely indecent" and it was no longer a synonym for "common".

During the 1800s, the phrase "common era", in lower case, was frequently used 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," "the common era of the foundation of Rome." When it did refer to the Christian Era, it was sometimes qualified, e.g., "the common era of the Nativity of Our Lord" or "the common era of the birth of our Saviour."

Some Jewish academics were already using the CE and BCE abbreviations by the mid-1800s, such as in 1856, when Rabbi and historian, Morris Jacob Raphall used the abbreviation in his book, Post-Biblical History of The Jews.

Other associations

An adapted translation of Common Era into Latin as Era Vulgaris (instead of Vulgaris Aera) 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. The Latin word era actually means mistress in English, not era. Crowley deliberately chose "Era Vulgaris" for its association with the notion of "vulgarity", and thus its association with an amoral and un-Christian age.

• NASA: Year dating conventions
• The Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993): A.D., B.C., (A.)C.E., B.C.E.