So I’ve tried googling this before and I am still so stupid and confused like my brain cannot wrap around how to read these different abbreviations for time and what they actually mean.
The easiest is B.P. (Before present/1950) because I can just do the calculation to turn that into C.E. (Current Era – so like saying 2023 CE is right now, right?), but how do these ways of expressing time translate to one another?
Like for example, A.D. (“in the year of the lord”, but does this translate to C.E.? Are these the same?) 500 vs 500 B.C. (Before Christ? I’m not religious so idk what this really means irl). How are these different and how do they translate into B.P. And C.E. terms? How can I remember which one to use? Explain it to me like I’m 5 and like it’s my first day on the fucking planet. Thank you!
In: 54
AD (Anno Domini) is essentially the years we have now (2023). Anything before 2023 years ago is BC (Before Christ), and it is counted backwards. For example, 2024 years ago would be 1 BC. CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before Common Era) are just alternative names for AD and BC, and they translate exactly. For example, AD 1996 would be 1996 CE.
Edit: BP (Before Present) is used mostly in carbon dating, where the P is Jan 1, 1950 when carbon dating became prevalent, and is also retroactive (e.g., 1900 would be 50 BP).
AD: Anno Domini, which means “Year of Our Lord”. This the same as CE, or “Common Era” which is just the same thing but without a religious reference.
This is based on the guess of the guy who invented the calendar as to the year Jesus was born. This is 1 AD or CE
BC: Before Christ, or BCE “Before Common Era”. This is the year before Jesus was born, according to the explanation above. 1 BC/BCE.
There is no 0 in this system, so it goes 3 BC, 2 BC, 1 BC, 1 AD, 2 AD, 3 AD
Year one has been originally established as the supposed heat of the birth of Christ. So AD is “anno Domini”, meaning “in the year of the Lord”. BC is simply “before Christ” – counting backwards from that year one. Later people figured that tying everything to religious figures is too presumptuous and invented the terms CE and BCE to replace AD and BC correspondingly, meaning “current era” and “before current era”. AD and CE are the same and are the years that we normally use, like the current year is 2023 CE (or 2023 AD). BP is a time scale used mainly in archaeology and the like, and is defined as the number of years before 1950.
Year one has been originally established as the supposed heat of the birth of Christ. So AD is “anno Domini”, meaning “in the year of the Lord”. BC is simply “before Christ” – counting backwards from that year one. Later people figured that tying everything to religious figures is too presumptuous and invented the terms CE and BCE to replace AD and BC correspondingly, meaning “current era” and “before current era”. AD and CE are the same and are the years that we normally use, like the current year is 2023 CE (or 2023 AD). BP is a time scale used mainly in archaeology and the like, and is defined as the number of years before 1950.
AD (Anno Domini) is essentially the years we have now (2023). Anything before 2023 years ago is BC (Before Christ), and it is counted backwards. For example, 2024 years ago would be 1 BC. CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before Common Era) are just alternative names for AD and BC, and they translate exactly. For example, AD 1996 would be 1996 CE.
Edit: BP (Before Present) is used mostly in carbon dating, where the P is Jan 1, 1950 when carbon dating became prevalent, and is also retroactive (e.g., 1900 would be 50 BP).
AD: Anno Domini, which means “Year of Our Lord”. This the same as CE, or “Common Era” which is just the same thing but without a religious reference.
This is based on the guess of the guy who invented the calendar as to the year Jesus was born. This is 1 AD or CE
BC: Before Christ, or BCE “Before Common Era”. This is the year before Jesus was born, according to the explanation above. 1 BC/BCE.
There is no 0 in this system, so it goes 3 BC, 2 BC, 1 BC, 1 AD, 2 AD, 3 AD
Let us not forget about HE, Holocene Era (or Human Era). Arguable the one that makes the most sense. Basically take CE and add 10,000, making this year 12023 HE.
Yes it is not widely know or adopted, but interesting nevertheless.
BC and AD were the original names. People started using BCE and CE to avoid direct religious references. (Actually changing the calendar would be too much trouble, and it turns out that Jesus was probably born in 4–6 BCE, so the divide isn’t *really* as religious as intended anyway.)
Let us not forget about HE, Holocene Era (or Human Era). Arguable the one that makes the most sense. Basically take CE and add 10,000, making this year 12023 HE.
Yes it is not widely know or adopted, but interesting nevertheless.
Historically, our calendar system was based on an event that happened 2023 years ago [1], the birth of Jesus Christ. So we called positive years “after Jesus” and negative years “before Jesus.” [2]
Except…we abbreviated “after Jesus” as “AD” [3] and “before Jesus” as “BC” [4].
Some people are uncomfortable with the religious aspect of “AD” and “BC.” So they proposed instead the name “Common Era” for the beginning of the calendar system everyone uses. So basically:
– “CE” (non-religious) = “AD” (religious)
– “BCE” (non-religious) = “BC” (religious)
So for example:
– The current year is 2023 CE, or 2023 AD.
– Julius Caesar was killed in 44 BCE, or 44 BC.
[According to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era) the CE / BCE abbreviations have been around since the 1700’s. But the CE / BCE abbreviations only started to become popular around 2000-2005 or so. Before then, most textbooks and papers would use AD / BC.
[1] The people who first decided to number years this way tried their best to figure out when the historical event occurred, but they were off by a couple years. But by the time people realized the mistake, too many people were using the calendar system and the mistake couldn’t be fixed.
[2] In response to /u/amazingmikeyc comment, it would be more accurate to say “After Jesus’ birth” and “Before Jesus’ birth”, but I want to keep the main text of my answer short and simple. So this goes in a footnote.
[3] “AD” stands for “anno domini”, that means “after Jesus” in Latin.
[4] “BC” stands for “before Christ.”
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