Bible Question:
how can one be born in 1105bc and die in 1015bc |
Bible Answer: elohim7 - Without getting into all the technical business involving the world's calendars, past and present, let's try to simply things by saying that the Advent of Christ is the zero year point between B.C. and A.D. That's not precisely accurate, but it will do for our purposes. There was no designation of B.C. before Christ was born. Various ancient civilizations reckoned time by using different reference points in their history. ...... But back to the explanation of why B.C. dates count down and A.D. dates count up. Using the birth of Christ as a reckoning point between what we call B.C. and A.D., if a person happened to be 30 years old at the time Christ was born (let's call it A.D. 0), then he was born 30 years before Christ or 30 B.C. If he got married when he was 20 years old, he was married in 10 B.C. -- not 50 B.C. And if he died at age 60, that would mean he died in 30 A.D., not 60 A.D. A.D. is the abbreviation for Anno Domini, meaning "in the year of our Lord. B. C. simply means "before Christ." So both designations are ways of reckoning time, with the reference point being the date of Jesus' birth. Most biblical scholars have long believed that Jesus actually may have been born in 3 or 4 B.C., but no one knows His exact date of birth. But I promised not to get into the technicalities of calendars and such, so I'll leave it as is in hopes that it helps more than confuses. --Hank |