Counting the Years: BC vs. BCE

BC stands for Before Christ.
AD stands for Anno Domini "In the year of the Lord".
This assumes that Jesus Christ was born in the year, well there is no year zero, the years jump from 1 B.C. to A.D. 1, so when was Jesus born?

It has been determined that Jesus Christ could not have been born any later than 4 B.C. because King Herod was in power at the time (Matthew 2:1) and according to secular records King Herod died in 4 B.C.

However, Luke 2:1-2 offers us what looks like a convincing piece of historical detail when he tells us that Jesus was born at the time of the census of Quirinius, which took place in A.D. 6. Thus we have Jesus born no later than 4 B.C., and at the same time no earlier than A.D. 6. The gospels are littered with such inconsistencies—just further evidence that Jesus never existed.

Thus new names have come into usage to replace B.C. and A.D.

B.C.E. or B.P.-Before the Common Era or Before the Present era (same as B.C.)
C.E.-Common Era (same as A.D.)

A.D. is usually placed before a date, as in A.D. 43.
all other abbreviations, B.C., B.C.E., B.P., C.E., are usually placed after the date.

For example:
70 C.E.    (same as A.D. 70)
490 B.C.E.(same as 490 B.C.)
490 B.P(same as 490 B.C.)


See Our Present Day Calendar

Reference:
1. Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original jesus" a Pagan God?
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