why the B.C. ?

Dumb question ? I don't care. It is one I've had forever that I can't ever seem to get logically answered.
When reading of events in the B.C. era of ancient time, I believe the acronym refers to before christ ? So if the year 0 was when christ was here how was it known to say the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668 -633 B.C.) that christ being here in some 600 odd years would be year 0. I don't see how that would be possible so how was it known to those of that era when it was they were here ? How were dates recorded before there was a B.C. I guess is what my question boils down to ?
Flame away if you must .

Flagg dad......

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a reply to: fotsyfots

They used a different calendar?

originally posted by: NthOther
a reply to: fotsyfots

They used a different calendar?

Bingo you win a Kewpie doll.

Taken from Wikipedia on the Hebrew Calendar:

Past methods of numbering years Part of a series on the History of Israel The Western Wall, Jerusalem Ancient Israel and Judah Prehistory Natufian Canaan Israelites United monarchy Northern Kingdom Kingdom of Judah Babylonian rule Second Temple period (530 BCE–70 CE) Persian rule Hellenistic period Hasmonean dynasty Herodian dynasty Kingdom Tetrarchy Roman Judea Middle Ages (70–1517) Roman Palaestina Byzantine Palaestina Prima Secunda Caliphates Filastin Urdunn Kingdom of Jerusalem Ayyubid dynasty Mamluk Sultanate Modern history (1517–1948) Ottoman rule Eyalet Mutasarrifate Old Yishuv Zionism OETA British mandate State of Israel (1948–present) Timeline Years Independence Arab–Israeli conflict History of the Land of Israel by topic Judaism Jerusalem Zionism Jewish leaders Jewish warfare Related Jewish history Hebrew calendar Archaeology Museums Flag of Israel.svg Israel portal vte Before the adoption of the current Anno Mundi year numbering system, other systems were used. In early times, the years were counted from some significant historic event such as the Exodus.[61] During the period of the monarchy, it was the widespread practice in western Asia to use era year numbers according to the accession year of the monarch of the country involved. This practice was followed by the united kingdom of Israel,[62] kingdom of Judah,[63] kingdom of Israel,[64] Persia,[65] and others. Besides, the author of Kings coordinated dates in the two kingdoms by giving the accession year of a monarch in terms of the year of the monarch of the other kingdom,[66] though some commentators note that these dates do not always synchronise.[59] Other era dating systems have been used at other times. For example, Jewish communities in the Babylonian diaspora counted the years from the first deportation from Israel, that of Jehoiachin in 597 BCE.[67] The era year was then called "year of the captivity of Jehoiachin".[68] During the Hellenistic Maccabean period, Seleucid era counting was used, at least in Land of Israel (under Greek influence at the time). The Books of the Maccabees used Seleucid era dating exclusively,[69] as did Josephus writing in the Roman period. From the 1st-10th centuries, the center of world Judaism was in the Middle East (primarily Iraq and Palestine), and Jews in these regions also used Seleucid era dating, which they called the "Era of Contracts [or Documents]".[19] The Talmud states: Rav Aha bar Jacob then put this question: How do we know that our Era [of Documents] is connected with the Kingdom of Greece at all? Why not say that it is reckoned from the Exodus from Egypt, omitting the first thousand years and giving the years of the next thousand? In that case, the document is really post-dated! Said Rav Nahman: In the Diaspora the Greek Era alone is used. He [Rav Aha] thought that Rav Nahman wanted to dispose of him anyhow, but when he went and studied it thoroughly he found that it is indeed taught [in a Baraita]: In the Diaspora the Greek Era alone is used.[70] The use of the era of documents (i.e., Seleucid era) continued till the 16th century in the East, and was employed even in the 19th century among the Jews of Yemen.[71] Occasionally in Talmudic writings, reference was made to other starting points for eras, such as destruction era dating,[71] being the number of years since the 70 CE destruction of the Second Temple. In the 8th and 9th centuries, as the center of Jewish life moved from Babylonia to Europe, counting using the Seleucid era "became meaningless", and thus was replaced by the anno mundi system.[19] There is indication that Jews of the Rhineland in the early Middle Ages used the "years after the destruction of the Temple".[72]

Hebrew Calendar Wikipedia

The AD/BC is a European invention that was started about 300-400 AD if I’m not mistaken.
Prior to that every culture that recorded time used their own point of reference, the romans had it from the start date of Rome which had year one at about 750BC by our calendar, the Jews are in about year 4500 and Muslims use the date of when Muhammad got to Mecca or something similar and I think there upto about 1400-1500.

So to answer your question no one in BC thought that the date was BC, they had their own calendars and even now half the world uses a different dating system to the western worlds AD/BC thingy but most will refer back to the western system for international standards.

Sorry that info isn’t more solid but it’s 7:45am here and I’ve been up all night, kinda delirious or else I would have done some googlefu to make it 100% factual and not all rough guesses

a reply to: IkNOwSTuff

If it started about 300-400 AD, what year was it in 100 BC ? 😃

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: IkNOwSTuff

If it started about 300-400 AD, what year was it in 100 BC ? 😃

Depends where you were, if you were in the Roman Empire it was about the year 650, if you were in China it was the year 2500ish.
There wasn’t really any consensus on what year it was till the western Gregorian calendar was adopted worldwide in the last 100 years, due to globalisation it was necessary to have an international standard but many other countries and cultures still use their calendars internally and for religious purposes.
Greece was the last European country to get on board with the current calendar and it was less than 100 years ago, don’t ask me what they used before that haha

a reply to: fotsyfots

BC and AD were commonly used until such a time that they, were'nt so much. Now a lot of people say BCE and CE.

www.druide.com...

originally posted by: ViXxeN
a reply to: fotsyfots

BC and AD were commonly used until such a time that they, were'nt so much. Now a lot of people say BCE and CE.

www.druide.com...

what does the BCE and CE stand for? I know that one culture still uses the years from the date of creation as their time keeping.

a reply to: PhilbertDezineck

Before Common Era

a reply to: ViXxeN
What caused the change from Before to the now common era?

a reply to: fotsyfots

BC stands for Babylonian Correct. Most the Babylonian's were liberals.

originally posted by: PhilbertDezineck
a reply to: ViXxeN
What caused the change from Before to the now common era?

Jesus, actually. Hahaha

They just wanted to be different and protest against religion so they changed the letters.
But because no one would understand them if they changed the actual calendar they just kept the BC-AD one.

So although they are protesting religion they are still using Jesus as the focal point. They have no way of escaping it because nearly everyone else uses BC-AD.

There should be a start date for universal time if the big bang theory is correct.

If the accepted calculations are close then we are somewhere around the year 13 billion 772 million After the Bang.

Our galaxy takes 220 million years to complete a rotation, so the universe has been around for 62.6 galactic rotations. However, the galaxy has only been around for about 13.51 billion years, and so is 61.4 galactic rotations old. That would make it about half way through galactic year 61.

Pick any starting point and any unit of time and come up with your own dating system, seems to be how it works.

originally posted by: ViXxeN
a reply to: PhilbertDezineck

Before Common Era

Which just happens to coincide with the Birth of Christ. What exactly is the Common Era that it references? What else happened at the switch from BCE to CE?

originally posted by: pavil

originally posted by: ViXxeN
a reply to: PhilbertDezineck

Before Common Era

Which just happens to coincide with the Birth of Christ. What exactly is the Common Era that it references? What else happened at the switch from BCE to CE?

Nothing happened. It is simply a more culturally neutral term. Common refers to the calendar commonly used afaik, which is the Gregorian calendar.

If it was up to me, it should be called what it is BGC/GC (Gregorian Calendar).

a reply to: fotsyfots

if the year 0 was when christ was here

There was never any "Year 0".
A.D.1 means the first twelve months after the moment when Jesus was born (notionally taken, for this calculation, as midnight on the 31st of December).
1 B.C. means the first twelve months before that moment.
So there was no need to include a "Year 0" in the calculation- at the most there is a "Point Zero", at midnight on the turn of the year.

People who call this a "mistake" are just failing to understand what the original calculatir was trying to do.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Sort of like why north is "up."

It's a plot! A plot I tell you!

originally posted by: PhilbertDezineck
a reply to: ViXxeN
What caused the change from Before to the now common era?

Caesar happened. BC and BCE era should really be referring to the Caesarian era...not Before Christ or Common Era. But, I digress.