Christian era. When did the new era begin? Why and when time began to be divided into "our era" and "BC"

Where did the Christian era come from, which is currently used in most countries of the world?

The multiplicity of time calculation systems caused great inconvenience. In the VI century. there was a need to finally establish a single system for the majority of the cultural peoples of that time.

In 525 AD e., or in the year 241 of the era of Diocletian, the Roman monk Dionysius the Small, a Scythian by origin, was engaged, by order of Pope John I, in calculating the so-called "Easter" - special tables to determine the time of the Easter holiday for many years to come. He was to continue them from the year 248 of the era of Diocletian.

Christians considered Diocletian their worst enemy for the persecution they were subjected to during his reign. Therefore, Dionysius expressed the idea of replacing the era of Diocletian with some other one related to Christianity. And in one of his letters, he proposed to continue to count the years from the "Christmas".

Based on completely arbitrary calculations, he "calculated" the date of the birth of Christ and declared that this event occurred 525 years ago, i.e. in 284 BC of the era of Diocletian (284 + 241 = 525), or in 753 from the "foundation Rome." If we take into account that the Paschalia of Dionysius begin from the year 248 of the era of Diocletian, then this should correspond to 532 from the "Christmas" (284 + 248 = 532).

It should be emphasized that for more than five centuries, Christians did without their own chronology, did not have the slightest idea about the time of the birth of Christ, and did not even think about this issue.

How, then, was Dionysius able to calculate the date of the birth of Christ, an event that he claims took place more than five centuries ago? Although the monk did not leave any documents, historians have tried to reconstruct the entire course of his reasoning. Dionysius probably proceeded from the gospel tradition that Christ was born in the days of the reign of Herod. However, this is implausible, since the Jewish king Herod died in the fourth year BC. Obviously, Dionysius also had in mind another gospel tradition that Christ was crucified at the age of 30 and resurrected on the day of the so-called "Annunciation", which is celebrated on March 25th. From the gospel legend it follows that this happened on Sunday, on the day of the "first Christian Easter."

Then Dionysius began to look for the year closest to his time in which March 25 would fall on Easter Sunday. Such a year was to come in 38 years, i.e., in the year 279 of the era of Diocletian and correspond to 563 AD. e. Subtracting 532 from the last number, Dionysius "established" that Christ was resurrected on March 25, 31 AD. e. Subtracting 30 years from this date, Dionysius determined that the "nativity of Christ" occurred in the first year of our era.

But where did the number 532 come from? Why did Dionysius take it away from the number 563?

The clergy call it the "great indiction". It plays a big role in the calculation of Easter tables. This number is the result of multiplying the numbers 19 and 28: 19 x 28 = 532.

The peculiarity of the number 19, known as the "circle of the moon", is that every 19 years all the phases of the moon fall on the same day of the month. The second number - 28 - is called the "circle of the Sun." Every 28 years, the days of the month fall again on the same days of the week.

Thus, every 532 years, the same numbers of months will correspond to the same names of the days of the week, as well as the same phases of the moon. For the same reason, after 532 years, Easter days fall on the same numbers and days of the week. This means that the first Easter Sunday, March 25, was in 31, and it was repeated again in 563.

The absurdity of trying to establish the date of the birth of Christ is so obvious that even many theologians were forced to admit it. So, when in 1899 at a meeting of the Commission of the Russian Astronomical Society on the reform of the calendar, the issue of Christian chronology was raised, the representative of the Holy Synod, Professor of the Theological Academy V.V. The Commission may decide. Scientifically, the year of the birth of Christ (even only the year, and not the month and date) is impossible to establish. It is clear that this statement, made at a closed meeting, was not widely publicized.

Thus, it is irrefutably established that Dionysius did not have any data about the birth of Christ. All the gospel dates to which he refers are contradictory and lack any credibility.

The chronology proposed by the monk Dionysius was not accepted immediately. For the first time, the official mention of the “nativity of Christ” appeared in church documents only two centuries after Dionysius, in 742. In the tenth century. the new chronology began to be more often used in various acts of the popes, and only in the middle of the 15th century. all papal documents necessarily had a date from "the birth of Christ." True, at the same time, the year from the "creation of the world" was also indicated without fail.

The ruling classes and the clergy adopted the Christian chronology because it contributed to the strengthening of faith in the existence of Christ. Thus, the current chronology is completely arbitrary and is not associated with any historical event.

In Russia, the Christian chronology was introduced in 1699 by the decree of Peter I, according to which, “for the sake of agreement with the peoples of Europe in contracts and treatises”, after December 31, 7208 from the “creation of the world”, they began to consider 1700 from the “Christmas”.

There are two ways of counting years - historical and astronomical. One of the shortcomings of the Christian chronology by many historians is that its beginning falls on relatively recent times. Therefore, many issues of history and chronology related to the highly cultured countries of the ancient world were considered for a very long time in more ancient eras, in particular, “from the foundation of Rome” and “from the first Olympiads”.

Only in the XVIII century. English scientists began to use the account in years before the "Christmas" (ante Deum - before the Lord or abbreviated "a. D." We used the abbreviation "before R. X." In English, "B. S." - before Christ (before Christ). In Latin, the designation "from R. X." corresponds to "A.D", which means "Anno Domini" (year of the Lord). However, this method of counting should imply the presence of a zero year - 3, -2, - 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, etc., but it is not in our calculation. And this circumstance must be taken into account when performing chronological operations. For the first time, the conditional identification of the year preceding the first year AD with zero was proposed in 1740 by the French astronomer Jacques Cassini (1677-1756) in his works "Elements of Astronomy" and "Astronomical Tables". Thus, all other years BC, of course, except zero, began to be denoted by negative numbers. Such an account of years, in contrast to the historical one, it was called the astronomical account.In it, the numbers of all years BC in absolute value will be one less than the historical count. The "Cassini Rule" should be taken into account when translating the years of various eras and the numbers of the Olympiads. In the count of years for the Olympiads, which are described above, the year is indicated by the serial number of the Olympiad and the ordinal number in the current four years. The era of the Olympiads corresponds to 776. BC. Therefore, the translation of the dates of this era to the modern chronology can be made using the formula:

era entity view feature

A \u003d 776- ((H-1) * 4 + (T-1)),

Where A is the desired date, H is the number of the Olympiad, T is the number of the year in the four years.

If it is known that the end of the Peloponnesian War took place in the 1st year of the 94th Olympiad, then, substituting the value in the formula, we get:

A \u003d 776 - ((94-1) * 4 + (1-1)) \u003d 404

Indeed, the war ended in 404. BC.

Christian era

Where did the Christian era come from, which is currently used in most countries of the world? How did the chronology appear, according to which the seventies of the 20th century are now going?

The multiplicity of time reckoning systems caused great inconvenience. In the VI century. there was a need to finally establish a single system for the majority of the cultural peoples of that time.

In 525 AD e., or in 241 of the era of Diocletian, the Roman monk Dionysius the Small was engaged in the calculation of the so-called "Easter" - special tables for determining the time of the Easter holiday for many years to come. He was to continue them from the year 248 of the era of Diocletian.

Based on completely arbitrary calculations, he “calculated” the date of birth of the mythical Christ and stated that this event occurred 525 years ago, i.e. in 284 BC of the era of Diocletian (284 + 241 = 525), or in 753 from “ foundations of Rome. If we take into account that the Paschalia of Dionysius begin from 248, the era of Diocletian, then this should correspond to 532 from the “nativity of Christ” (284 + 248 = = 532).

How did Dionysius manage to calculate the date of the birth of Christ - an event that, according to him, took place more than five centuries ago? Although the monk did not leave any documents, historians have tried to reconstruct the entire course of his reasoning. Dionysius probably proceeded from the gospel tradition that Christ was born in the days of the reign of Herod. However, this is implausible, since the Jewish king Herod died in the fourth year BC. Obviously, Dionysius also had in mind another gospel tradition that Christ was crucified at the age of 30 and resurrected on the day of the so-called "Annunciation", which is celebrated on March 25th. From the gospel legend it follows that this happened on Sunday, on the day of the "first Christian Easter."

When did the concept of "from the birth of Christ to the birth of Christ" appear in history?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:

The chronology from the Nativity of Christ was introduced in 525 by the abbot of one of the Roman monasteries, Dionysius Exiguus. Prior to this, in the Roman Empire and in the first Christian centuries, the reckoning was carried out from August 29, 284 AD. e. - from the beginning of the reign of Emperor Diocletian (about 243 - 313 AD). The Romans called it "the era of Diocletian". With the victory of Christianity, this chronology began to be called era of martyrs because Diocletian was a cruel persecutor of Christians.

In 531, the 95-year paschal compiled by Archbishop Cyril of Alexandria (376-444) ended, which covered the period from 153 to 247 of the era of Diocletian (respectively: from 437 to 531 AD). Dionysius the Lesser, at the behest of Pope John I, was to compose a paschal for the next 95-year period. In 525 (241 of the Diocletian era) he made the calculations. Dionysius took the year 532 (248 of the era of Diocletian) as the beginning of a new 95-year Paschalia. At the same time, he proposed abandoning the era of Diocletian, and leading the chronology “from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (“ab incaratione Domini nostri Jesu Christi”). According to his calculations, the Nativity of the Savior of the world corresponded to 754 from the founding of Rome. The new chronology was adopted by the Church during the reign of Emperor Charlemagne (742 - 814).

Dionysius Small by origin is a Scythian. He was a learned monk, knew the Holy Scriptures well, was fluent in Latin and Greek. He compiled collections of canon law, which for a long time guided the Western Church.

The beginning of the modern Christian chronology was laid in the Early Middle Ages. Until the first half of the 6th century, the era of Diocletian was widely used. The counting of years was conducted from 284, when he was proclaimed the Roman emperor. Despite the fact that Diocletian was one of the organizers of the persecution of Christians, this chronology system was also used by the clergy to calculate the dates for the celebration of Easter. Later it was called the "era of the martyrs" and is still used by the Monophysites in North Africa.

In 525, the Roman abbot Dionysius the Small, who, on behalf of Pope John I, compiled the Easter tables, decided to abandon the system of chronology based on the date of the beginning of the reign of the persecutor of Christians. He proposed a chronology from the Nativity of Christ. Dionysius, based on the Gospel of Luke, proceeded from the fact that Jesus was about 30 years old by the time he began to preach. His crucifixion took place on the eve of the Jewish Passover under the emperor Tiberius. Using the already existing method for calculating Easter, the abbot calculated that the Resurrection of Christ falls on March 25, 31 from his birth.

Many researchers believe that Dionysius the Small made a mistake in his calculations. Thus, the date of the birth of Christ was shifted several years ahead. This opinion was shared by the first persons of the Catholic Church. In the summer of 1996, in one of his messages, Pope John Paul II confirmed that the historical date of the Nativity of Christ is unknown and in fact he was born 5-7 years before our era. Benedict XVI also considered Christian chronology based on incorrect calculations. In 2009, in the first part of Jesus of Nazareth, he wrote that Dionysius the Lesser "miscalculated by several years." The birth of Christ, according to the pope, took place 3-4 years earlier than the date set.

The chronology system developed by Dionysius the Small began to be used two centuries after its creation. In 726, the English Benedictine monk Bede the Venerable in his work “De sex aetatibus mundi” (On the six ages of the world) first used the chronology from the Nativity of Christ to describe historical events. Soon the new chronology spread widely in Europe.

Already in 742, dating from the Nativity of Christ first appeared in an official document - one of the capitularies of the Frankish majordomo Carloman. This was probably his independent initiative, not connected with the works of Bede the Venerable. During the reign of Emperor Charles I the Great, the counting of years "from the incarnation of our Lord" was widely used in official documents of the Frankish court. In the 9th - 10th centuries, the new chronology became firmly established in European royal decrees and historical chronicles, the Christian era began to be used in the acts of the papal office.

But in some states other chronological systems were preserved for a long time. The countries of the Iberian Peninsula used the Spanish era. The countdown of years in it was conducted from January 1, 38 BC. e., when the region became part of the "Roman world" (Pax Romana). Most of the Iberian states gradually abandoned the Spanish era in the 12th–14th centuries. It lasted the longest in Portugal. Only in August 1422, King Juan I introduced the Christian chronology in the country. In Russia, until the end of the 17th century, the Byzantine countdown from the creation of the world was used. The state switched to a new chronology after the decree of Peter I of December 20, 1699. Greece was the last of the European regions to apply the Christian era. The new chronology was established in the country in 1821 after the start of the war for independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Tridensky Cathedral in the 16th century introduced a new chronology, and the first (if not the only) monument to the new millennium on the new year was the bell tower of Ivan the Great in 1600, built by the then most authoritative monarch in Europe - Tsar Boris

You obviously messed something up. The Romans counted from the legendary foundation of Rome (753 BC), Most other civilizations from the creation of the world, only they had a different starting point, the Jews dated it to 3761 BC. e., Alexandrian chronology considered this date May 25, 5493 BC. The Byzantine calendar considered the starting point September 1, 5509 BC. e., he actually was adopted as a basis by Emperor Basil II in 988. Yes, the year began on September 1 in Byzantium around the year 462, but this was officially recognized in 537. The rest of the calendar, with the exception of the names of the months, coincided with the Julian calendar (adopted under Julius Caesar). The Byzantine calendar lasted until the fall of the empire in 1453. The Gregorian calendar, which replaced it, was introduced under Pope Gregory XIII on October 15, 1582.

Oksana, so I do not deny the use of the Ab Urbe condita reckoning by the Romans. But the fact that the era of Diocletian was used by the inhabitants of the empire for a long time and was used even for some time after its fall is a fact. If you don't believe me, read more here.

I did not set myself the task of telling about all the existing systems of reckoning, since the question was a little about something else. It concerned only the beginning of dating from the Nativity of Christ. And Dionysius the Small calculated this time focusing precisely on the era of Diocletian, and not on the foundation of Rome or any other system.

All other calendars are well covered in this question.

Comment

We need to start with the fact that primitive people represented time chaotically, i.e. sets of unrelated time intervals, the boundaries of which were natural events (thunderstorms / hurricanes, etc.). In the ancient world, the borders of the reign of kings (Egypt) acted as an era, or the account was kept according to EPONIM (Greece, Rome, Assyria) - this is an official by which years are counted. (For example: "in the year when such and such was the archon .."). Archons in Greece, Consuls in Rome, Limmu in Assyria.
In the ancient world, time was cyclical - a spiral.
The linear era familiar to us (universal) appeared with the development of Christianity (so that all Christian communities celebrate holidays at the same time).
In 525. AD the era from the birth of Christ appeared. It was proposed by the monk Dionysius the Small. Prior to this, Easter was calculated on the basis of the era of martyrs (that is, the era of Diocletian (cruel persecutor of Christians), the date when he began to rule on August 16, 284). However, Dionysius made a mistake in the calculations - Jesus Christ was born 5-6 years later than the date that Dionysius calculated. From the 10th century, the Vatican switched to the reckoning from the RH.

In general, the main chronological question of mankind is how to correlate time units expressed as an integer.
There are several basic units of time counting:
1. solar day (24 hours)
2. synodal month (approximately 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 3 seconds - from new moon to new moon)
3. tropical year (365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds) the period from the day of the summer solstice to the next same day.
On the basis of these units of counting time, people began to divide time into segments - calendars appeared - solar (ancient Egyptian) and lunar (Ancient Babylon, Ancient Greece). It is believed that the first such calendars appeared at the turn of 4-3 thousand BC.

The seven-cycle calendar is a relic of the ancient Babylonian calendar, which was considered sacred. In it, every day was under the auspices of a god or goddess, who in turn was associated with certain celestial bodies. This method migrated to Europe, and in 325 a seven-day week was announced to all Christian communities.

24 hours in a day also came to us from the Babylonian calendar, in which the day was divided into 12 parts according to the signs of the zodiac (the night was not divided), such a division came to Ancient Egypt, where the night was divided, thereby doubling the zodiac.

In ancient Rome, the calendar appeared in the 7th century BC. Originally counted 10 lunar months = 304 days. Numa Pompilius carried out a calendar reform by adding 2 lunar months = 355 days. in the 5th century BC the second calendar reform was carried out, a year later they began to add the thirteenth month of MARCEDONIA, which was inserted between February 22 and 23, it was equal to 20 days. Thus, approximately 365 days were obtained. However, every 4 years, the calendar and astrological New Year diverged by a day. The duration of marcedonia was determined by the priests in ancient Rome. New Year was on March 1st.
The months were named:
martos (from Mars)
aprelis (on behalf of the goddess Apra - one of the names of the goddess Aphrodite), maynos (Maya goddess of beauty)
Junius (Juno - goddess of fertility)
quintilis (fifth)
sexteles (6)
septembrius(7)
octobrius(8)
novembrius(9)
Junoarius (Janos - god of secrets)
februarius (Februarius is the god of the dead, an unlucky month, because an even number of days is 28).
There was no concept of a week. They counted according to the Kalends - the first day of the month.

Julius Caesar stopped all this and a new JULIAN calendar was created in his kingdom - 46 AD: the New Year was moved to January 1 (when the distribution of positions of authority took place), abolished marcedony, 1 day BISEXTUS was inserted into this place once every 4 years (twice the sixth) = leap year. Wed The length of the year was 365 days 6 hours. Quintilis was renamed Julius (January).
In 365, the Julian calendar became mandatory for all Christians. But for 11 minutes it was more than a tropical year, for 128 years a day ran, and by the 16th century 10 days ran.

in 1582 - Gregory XIII the Pope convened a commission (the calendar is the prerogative of the church, because time is the place of God), it was decided on October 5, 1582 to count October 15.

The Gregorian calendar is closer to the tropical year (a few seconds difference), one day in such a calendar accumulates every 3200 years.

If we talk about the history of chronology in Russia, then little is known about the Slavic calendar. Initially, time was tracked seasonally, i.e. simultaneously with agricultural work, the boundaries did not coincide (for example, spring from 23.03 to 22.06). Changes came with the advent of Christianity. Since the end of the 10th century, there have been two New Years - March and September. I will not go into the details of this, I will only say that throughout Russia there was no clear chronology. In 1492, the March calendar was canceled. This is due to the fact that from the creation of the world (5508), 1492 was considered the year 7000, in theory the end of the world should have been, this idea took hold of the Christians so much that they did not even calculate the calendar - Paschalia (years after Easter) after this year.
In the time of Peter the Great, it was discovered that the calendar did not coincide with the Western one. On December 19, 7208 (1699) from the creation of the world, Peter issued a decree on the transition to the era from the RH.

At the end of the 18th century, all European countries adopted the Gregorian calendar, in Russia it was still Julian. Throughout the 19th century, there were many disputes - whether Russia should switch to the Gregorian calendar, and on January 24, 1918, a Decree was adopted on the transition of Russia to the Gregorian calendar, after January 31, 1918, consider not February 1, but February 14. Actually what we have now.

If you have read this long post - know that you have become a little smarter and more patient :)

Not right away. The chronology from the Nativity of Christ, and with it the concept of "our era" appeared about one and a half thousand years ago, when Pope John I instructed the learned monk of Scythian origin Dionysius the Small to compile tables for calculating the day of Easter. In the early Middle Ages in Europe, years were counted from the beginning of the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian (284 AD). Instead of the date of the accession of this pagan and persecutor of Christians, Dionysius the Small took the estimated year of the birth of Jesus Christ as a starting point. He calculated it, guided by the text of the New Testament. (Today it is believed that the monk was wrong by four years, and our 2017 should be 2013.). In the 8th century, a new dating became widespread thanks to the Anglo-Saxon chronicler Bede the Venerable, who relied on the system of Dionysius in his essay On the Six Ages of the World. From the same Bede came the custom of dating events that occurred before the birth of Christ (“before our era”), counting backwards. Gradually, all of Europe began to measure time from the birth of Christ. Russia switched to a new account of "the best for the sake of agreement with the peoples of Europe in contracts and treatises" in 1699 by decree of Peter I.