The word "confusion" must have been invented to describe how difficult it is to unravel ancient calendar dates. For eons it seems every nation had its own calendar. Dates were established by the number of years of the ruler. For instance, Ezra 1:1 reads, "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia . . . ," in Luke 3:1 we read, "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar..." and in Daniel 2:1 we find, "And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar..." Here we have examples from Persia, Rome and Babylon, all using different calendars, and noting their important events by who was ruling at the time. As you can easily see, the responsibility of matching all of these calendars is a major task, especially when you consider that scholars sometimes only have bits, pieces and fragments to work with.

It would have been very helpful for us if God had hung a large counter in space at the beginning of Creation that counted year one, year two, and so on continuously. Then, all the Bible records would have been dated the same and it would be a simple manner to know exactly how long ago any event happened. But no such counter exists (that we know of). Consequently it was not until relatively recent times that nations marked time with a continuous series of years numbered consecutively from one starting point.

The need for a calendar that everyone could refer to was obvious, and Jesus Christ provided the benchmark upon which to base such a calendar. Simply stated, the scholars decided that history was to be divided into everything that happened before Christ and everything that happened after Christ. For those who wished not to acknowledge Christ, the terms B.C.E. and C.E. are used. The terms stand for Before the Common Era and the Common Era.

As an aside, in 1650-58, Archbishop James Ussher published a dating system known as A.M. ("in the year of the world"). By his reckoning, the first day of creation was A.M.1. His system was an attempt to clarify the lack of a dating system in the first books of the Bible. It gives the interval between any year and the creation, but it gives no clue to its location in the B.C. scale. Although, today, his work is outmoded by more than three centuries of increasing knowledge, the dates are generally useful for positioning approximate timing of Bible events

Blessings in your study of God's Word!

Marvin Hunt

There is never a charge for my articles, and if you have a good reason, there is no limit to how many you may request. However, if you find them valuable you may want to order my latest book, History, Mystery and Facts About the Bible. Order at 1-800-845-7618 (ext. 301). You may also order from Amazon.com. Proceeds from the book go to support this ministry.

Blessings!
Marvin Hunt

Http://www.biblehistory.com

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