Ante Christum Natum

The abbreviation BC (rarely BC. , Or BC ) stands for the term " BC ". It is used to count years of historical events that took place before the birth of Jesus Christ. Example: " Octavian received in the year 27 BC by the Roman Senate conferred the title of Augustus. " Equivalent to the abbreviations BC are (english before Christ; " BC " ) and AC (Latin ante Christ [ natum ]; " before [ the born ] Christ ").

Similarly, the addition of AD ( " AD "; rare AD or AD,. ) Stands for annual figures, which are counted from the supposed year of the birth of Jesus. Example: " The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was destroyed 262 AD by the Goths in the year." Accordingly, the Latin term Anno Domini is ( "in the year of the Lord " ) is used, abbreviated as AD. Example: " The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was destroyed AD 262 by the Goths. "

Description

The terms and abbreviations AC and AD, on which the German versions are based BC and AD were established at the beginning of the Christian era. Although other abbreviations also take Jesus' birth year as a reference point for the annual census, but bypass the emphasis of the Christian context. These are BCE ( " BC " ) and CE ( " BCE " or " our time ") and vd Z. ( " before Christ " ) and n d. Z. ( " after the turn of time "). You correspond in English BCE ( before [ the] Common Era; "before the usual age" ) and CE ( [of the] Common Era, " the usual age" ).

In connection with the radiocarbon dating of the abbreviation cal BC (English calibrated before Christ ) is in use. The prefix cal states that the annual statement, which was first determined by radiocarbon dating approximation, was determined years exactly by a tree-ring calibration.

The Christian Context: Pros and cons

The use of abbreviations Christian is not without controversy because of its religious context. Specifically, in some more secularized countries or in countries with a strict separation of church and state, this type of annual designation is often rejected. In such cases, in the German-speaking countries, the abbreviations BCE and CE, and Z. v. d n or d Z. preferred. These abbreviations found in non-Christian publications and especially in the GDR good use. However, there is, for example, in the Arab- Islamic world, in addition to the Islamic calendar used officially in the translation of the Christian era as miladi, which means as much as " after birth [ of Christ ] ."

By proponents of Christian influenced abbreviations is argued that the terms " our era " and " the turning point " towards the Christian faith are pretentious and the underlying basic Christian veiled symbolic. It should also be historically sachgemäßere formulation according to Christ.

In the French -speaking world to handle the problem, in part, that the annual numbers before the beginning of the Christian era, are provided with a negative sign. Since the Christian era no year zero knows - to 1 BC followed by 1 AD -, consists in putting on a signed calendar, the risk of calculation errors.

Normalization of dates

In the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria and Switzerland used to be considered the norm DIN 1355th In it, the use of BC and AD was made ​​mandatory. Meanwhile, the date format in the European standard EN 28601 is set in 1992. The range of ISO 8601 1988 standard derived is fully applicable for Germany and Austria. In her will no longer be on a dating respect before or after Christ.