Concept

Anno Domini

Overview

Anno Domini (AD) and before Christ (BC) qualify years in the Gregorian and Julian calendars, whose epoch is the traditional year of the conception or birth of Jesus. AD counts years since the epoch, BC the years before the epoch.

Anno Domini is Medieval Latin for "in the year of the Lord", often read as "our Lord". "BC" is specific to English, and equivalent abbreviations are used in other languages: the Latin form, rarely used in English, is ante Christum natum (ACN) or ante Christum (AC).

This calendar era takes as its epoch the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus. Years AD are counted forward since that epoch and years BC are counted backward from the epoch. There is no year zero; the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. The system was devised in 525, in Rome, by the Eastern Roman monk Dionysius Exiguus, but was not widely used until the 9th century. Modern scholars believe that the actual date of the birth of Jesus was about 5 BC.

To avoid religious associations, many writers and scholars prefer CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before the Common Era) instead of AD and BC.

Astronomical year numbering and ISO 8601 do not use words or abbreviations related to Christianity, but use the same numbers for AD years (but not for BC years since the astronomical year 0 is 1 BC).

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

The period of this fluctuation in usage may be assumed to have been long enough to allow of the requisite diversity of gentile names, while the fact that the number of _gentes_ is always fixed, however far back they can be historically traced, shows that the fluctuation at last hardened into unyielding custom.
Plutarch, Plutarch's Romane Questions
Close in meaning to Anno Domini; the term itself is not named.
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The _prophetical_ book tells in figurative language what shall take place in the Church of Christ up to the time when there shall be new heavens and a new earth. CANONICAL BOOKS. The sixty-six books enumerated above are inspired, and are called the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments. The so-called Apocryphal Books, printed in some editions of the Bible, are not a part of the Bible: they are not inspired…
Martin Luther, An Explanation of Luther's Small Catechism
States what Anno Domini is.
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Truly this arch is not half distinguished in the Scriptures, but if we follow the four connecting links of the differing qualities which are in our composition, to each one of which appears to be appropriated one part of our age, it is divided into four parts, and they are called the four ages.
Dante Alighieri, The Banquet
States what Anno Domini is.
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Philosophers who discussed Anno Domini

Phaedrus the Epicurean

Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Deism.

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