Decisions that provide Before Christ calendar dating versus our modern Anno Domini epoch shape present history. Hindsight provides an opportunity to discover the magical aspects of time. BC to AD calendar changes have substantial sources when we compare two ends of a broken yardstick. Study the new covenant to seek the patch.

Jesus and AD Calendars

Anno Domini (After Divinity) is abbreviated AD.  Common Era is similarly written CE.  Year numbering is important to evaluating time with Julian calendar or the widely used latter, Gregorian calendar dating.  "Year zero" does not exist in both systems, giving the sequence 1 BC followed by AD 1.  Conception or birth of Jesus starts counting years in AD or CE reckoning.  Post dating the Christian era was formulated in 525 AD for distinguishing Easter calculations.  St. Bede applied notations translated to mean Before Christ in 725 A.D.  He and other Latin writers were attempting to date the world in Creation terms.

Easter computations have greatly influenced church history.  Maintaining proper seasonal configuration has always been the goal behind adjustments.  Constantine and the First Council of Nicaea established the rules for Easter celebration in 325 AD.  Easter was defined as the first Sunday after the full moon following the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox.  Other canonical and early church matters were argued and decided.

Jewish Passover references from the Bible (Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:7-20) had always indicated springtime and generally the lunar/solar calendar was used for dating Easter.  Juxtaposition of two very different calendars had consequences.  Passover was a movable Jewish festival that Roman solar calendar adherents tried to fixate for Easter purpose.  Constantine arranged for official Easter recognition while seeking personal salvation.  Early Christianity experienced a dual outcome.  The ever-expanding Holy Roman Empire was finally gathered, to some degree, under a theological Easter umbrella.  Secondly, two different groups conformed to enable dual calendar time streams: the Julian calendar, Orthodox path and the Roman Catholic path.  Roman Catholicism coupled with the Julian calendar spread the word of Christianity throughout the world.


Roman solar calendar progression had a spillover effect.  Jewish persecution reared its ugly head.  In the fourth century, Hillel II was pressured to establish a fixed calendar based on mathematical and astronomical calculations.  This calendar, still in use, standardized the length of months and the addition of months over the course of a 19-year lunar/solar cycle.  Based upon the Greek Metonic cycle, the lunar calendar synchronizes with solar years.  Taxes could now be exacted ostensibly with the same frequency throughout the Roman Empire.

The Crusades, European Monarchies and evolving Catholicism shared the Julian calendar until more Easter corrections became necessary.  Orthodoxy continued using the Julian calendar with minor variations.  In 1582, the Julian calendar was modified by Pope Gregory XIII.  Calendar reckoning excluded ten days to align the vernal equinox with Easter celebration.  October 4, 1582 was followed the next day by October 15, 1582.  Trends during medieval era Protestantism were fueled by the Gregorian calendar modification.  Apparitions of the Virgin Mary, the inquisition and the turmoil in Europe caused by Protestantism all were manifestations of the Holy Spirit pouring out to past and future.  Once again, the heavens respond to calendar changes.  Calendar amendments again punctured the outer insulation offered by the solar calendar and the eternal realm of God responded.  Further proclaimed in the Gregorian calendar was a leap day alteration.  The previous Julian calendar included a leap day addition every four years.  The vernal spring, celestial equinox was slipping into summer.  The leap day addition modified the end of February.  Gregorian calendar adjustments stipulated that leap day additions would be omitted in those centurial years not evenly divisible by 400-years.  The year 1600 included a normal leap day.  The years 1700, 1800 and 1900 skipped leap day inclusion to further correct the gradual drift of the equinox date into summer.  Our revised Gregorian calendar incorporated a provision to add leap day in the year 2000.

Superimposing the Gregorian calendar over past calendars, striking contrasts can be drawn.  Day and night, count as one day from the beginning until now.  Judaism observes the Sabbath on Saturday and Christians recognize a Sunday Sabbath.  Five days remain in the week for work, business and commerce.  Mesoamerican calendars include many cultural variations of the representative 260-day-Tzolken-sacred-year.  We evenly disperse 260-days separately in the modern calendar year.  Five business days multiply in 52-weeks for 260-days.  Our secular calendar applies 260-days for modern government and commercial matters, excluding holidays.  Saturday and Sunday of each week multiply for 104-days in 52-weeks.  Compared to the 364-day-Ethiopic-calendar, 104-days nearly equal the remaining 105-days left every year.  Twelve months averaged at 30-days each still provide 360-days.  Although a separate 360-day length of year is not present in the Gregorian solar calendar, science and technology perpetuate the 360-degree circle.  Our last week of the year, between Christmas and New Years is a reserved holiday week.  Countless anniversaries recognize every conceivable subject in substitution for ancient numerical matching themes.  Pharaonic Egypt inserted leap days every four years.  We continue this trait in the Gregorian calendar.  The Antediluvian Calendar of Genesis incorporates 400-year-l/s-cycles I synonymously refer to as Mayan 400-year Baktun cycles.  Our modern Gregorian version follows a 400-year pattern that omits three of four leap days during centurial years.  Time itself has not changed, only the methods of calendar layers are different.

Two different calendar systems ushered in the period we have come to know as the New Testament era.  While other lunar or lunar/solar systems continued unabated, the Roman calendar experienced stark contrast preceding and during the lifetime of Jesus.  Hindsight provides an opportunity to discover the magical aspects of time.  Consider two lengths of a broken yardstick that are patched together.  Before Christ reckoning may underscore political upheaval as a consequence of human behavior.  Divine intervention occurs upon history and a new covenant begins.  After Divinity results in our modern half of the yardstick.  Secular calendar change mixes Judaism with Christianity and continues to change the world.

Are you a pastor, educator or a student of the Holy Bible?  Timeemits.com seeks anointed people to review and contribute to the Ages_of_Adam ministry.  Ancient lunar/solar calendars like the Jewish and Mayan calendars provide the background to understanding early time.  Ancient calendars of the Holy Bible use differences between the moon and sun, numerical matching and a 364-day calendar year to describe X-number of days that match with X-number of years.  Ages_of_Adam is a free read at timeemits.

Clark Nelson is webmaster for http://www.timeemits.com/Get_More_Time.htm, author of Ages_of_Adam and sequel, Holy_of_Holies. Copyright 2011 Clark Nelson and timeemits.com  All Rights Reserved. URL http://www.timeemits.com/tat/Jesus_and_AD_Calendars.htm