This chart lists what the current year would be in 4 out of hundreds of calendars humanity has created over antiquity; each with a different epoch. On this January 1st the year could be 1925, 1731, or 2768 just as easy as 2015. When the clock turned midnight on Dec 31st most people accepted the year is 2015 without giving it a second thought, but if you dive into the how, the story becomes interesting.
A monk named Dionysius Exiguus, from what is today the county of Romania, invented the Anno Domini (AD) dating system in the year 241 Anno Diocletiani (not to be confused with Anno Domini). Before Exiguus, the Roman Emperor Diocletiani created the dating system Anno Diocletiani base on the year marking his reign. Before Diocletiani the years were denoted by Ab Urbe Condita (AUC), in which the epoch represents the founding of Rome.
Exiguus disliked the legacy of the Emperor Diocletiani, and for good reason; cruelty towards Christians was the norm during Diocletiani's reign. Exiguus set out with a goal to change the epoch to one based on the birth of Jesus Christ to remove the legacy of Diocletiani. However calculating the birth date was not an easy task, Exiguus did not have access to historical or government records contemporary to time of the stories in the Gospels that mention Jesus’ life. Secular accounts of Jesus's life were plenty however these were each written after the acceptance and public endorsement of the Gospels. Meaning all secular accounts were good for comment only; knowing this Exiguus based on his calculations on the Gospel of Luke itself. Using Luke as the baseline proved to be a difficult task as well, the book is not dated by the authors, and the authors of Luke are anonymous. Further, the Coptic Pope Theophilus fully destroyed the Library of Alexandria 134 year earlier, and Rome had fallen 50 before Exiguus' time of 1278 AUC; marking Exiguus era as a time of very limited information. Exiguus had to make his calculations without the benefit of adequate historical records.
Luke 3:1 is dated to the 15th year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Historical records note that Tiberius took reign in the year 768 AUC. Luke 3:2 tells of a vision that John the Baptist had to baptize the people of the land. Luke 3:21 reads "When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too". It is recognized within the Christian religion the baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. Luke 3:23 "Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry." -- It is most likely Exiguus took these four verses of Luke, tied them together, made the assumption each verse was closely related in timing, and concluded 1 AD equates to 753 AUC.
However, conjecture may be used to suggest Exiguus based the year from the authoring date of the Book of Luke. The view at the time of Exiguus was one that Luke is a contemporary account of Jesus' life. Today we know that the Gospel of Luke originated between the year 833 and 853 AUC. Using this view Dionysius calculations resulted in an 80-100 year mistake! For simplicity, the error is rounded to 90 years in the chart above. I am not stating "the 90-year error is factual." Rather I am stating conjecture leveraged for the writing and reading of religious history, such as the date which we use today, is well employed. Our current dating system is the result of conjecture or best guess. Therefore, the validity of this a 90-year mistake shares an on par probability to the precision of Exiguus' date.
Anno Domini is a best guess, but that did not stop the adoption of Anno Domini. Anno Domini was adopted, over time, by most of the world. The adoption was not overnight. The Roman Catholic dominated countries completed the adoption between the 11th to 14th centuries, with Portugal trailing in 1422 Anno Domini; followed by Northern Scandinavia, India, Russia and finally China.
While Two Thousand & Fifteen could be the result of a calculation error made by a monk from Romania 1490 years ago, in the end “the date” is only what we agree it is. Thus, the possible mistake doesn't have meaning other than defining a number of pixels in the lines on the chart. But the idea can make one wonder, how many epochs are in use today? Islam has one, which you are sure to guess, is based on Muhammad instead of Jesus, and the current year is 1436 AH. Assyrian calendar: 6764, Bengali calendar 1421; Byzantine calendar 7522, Chinese calendar 4710, Korean calendar 4347, Hindu’s have three, and humanity has used hundreds if not thousands more. The newest of which may be digital time defined in the UNIX world. As Einstein taught us, time is relative to where one stands (or moves). The only time relative to everyone you know, have ever known, and will ever know (at least for now) is the epoch of the Earth: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100406-new-earth-epoch-geologic-age-anthropocene/
A monk named Dionysius Exiguus, from what is today the county of Romania, invented the Anno Domini (AD) dating system in the year 241 Anno Diocletiani (not to be confused with Anno Domini). Before Exiguus, the Roman Emperor Diocletiani created the dating system Anno Diocletiani base on the year marking his reign. Before Diocletiani the years were denoted by Ab Urbe Condita (AUC), in which the epoch represents the founding of Rome.
Exiguus disliked the legacy of the Emperor Diocletiani, and for good reason; cruelty towards Christians was the norm during Diocletiani's reign. Exiguus set out with a goal to change the epoch to one based on the birth of Jesus Christ to remove the legacy of Diocletiani. However calculating the birth date was not an easy task, Exiguus did not have access to historical or government records contemporary to time of the stories in the Gospels that mention Jesus’ life. Secular accounts of Jesus's life were plenty however these were each written after the acceptance and public endorsement of the Gospels. Meaning all secular accounts were good for comment only; knowing this Exiguus based on his calculations on the Gospel of Luke itself. Using Luke as the baseline proved to be a difficult task as well, the book is not dated by the authors, and the authors of Luke are anonymous. Further, the Coptic Pope Theophilus fully destroyed the Library of Alexandria 134 year earlier, and Rome had fallen 50 before Exiguus' time of 1278 AUC; marking Exiguus era as a time of very limited information. Exiguus had to make his calculations without the benefit of adequate historical records.
Luke 3:1 is dated to the 15th year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Historical records note that Tiberius took reign in the year 768 AUC. Luke 3:2 tells of a vision that John the Baptist had to baptize the people of the land. Luke 3:21 reads "When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too". It is recognized within the Christian religion the baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. Luke 3:23 "Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry." -- It is most likely Exiguus took these four verses of Luke, tied them together, made the assumption each verse was closely related in timing, and concluded 1 AD equates to 753 AUC.
However, conjecture may be used to suggest Exiguus based the year from the authoring date of the Book of Luke. The view at the time of Exiguus was one that Luke is a contemporary account of Jesus' life. Today we know that the Gospel of Luke originated between the year 833 and 853 AUC. Using this view Dionysius calculations resulted in an 80-100 year mistake! For simplicity, the error is rounded to 90 years in the chart above. I am not stating "the 90-year error is factual." Rather I am stating conjecture leveraged for the writing and reading of religious history, such as the date which we use today, is well employed. Our current dating system is the result of conjecture or best guess. Therefore, the validity of this a 90-year mistake shares an on par probability to the precision of Exiguus' date.
Anno Domini is a best guess, but that did not stop the adoption of Anno Domini. Anno Domini was adopted, over time, by most of the world. The adoption was not overnight. The Roman Catholic dominated countries completed the adoption between the 11th to 14th centuries, with Portugal trailing in 1422 Anno Domini; followed by Northern Scandinavia, India, Russia and finally China.
While Two Thousand & Fifteen could be the result of a calculation error made by a monk from Romania 1490 years ago, in the end “the date” is only what we agree it is. Thus, the possible mistake doesn't have meaning other than defining a number of pixels in the lines on the chart. But the idea can make one wonder, how many epochs are in use today? Islam has one, which you are sure to guess, is based on Muhammad instead of Jesus, and the current year is 1436 AH. Assyrian calendar: 6764, Bengali calendar 1421; Byzantine calendar 7522, Chinese calendar 4710, Korean calendar 4347, Hindu’s have three, and humanity has used hundreds if not thousands more. The newest of which may be digital time defined in the UNIX world. As Einstein taught us, time is relative to where one stands (or moves). The only time relative to everyone you know, have ever known, and will ever know (at least for now) is the epoch of the Earth: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100406-new-earth-epoch-geologic-age-anthropocene/
