Eric H

For someone who did not exist or keep a diary, it seems strange that history sets its dates by Christ, BC. AD.

There have been many powerful and influential people in history, how come no one else set the calendar year on their own existence?

He did not invent the calendar, or write the Bible

Maybe he was a greater influence to the people around him during the short time he spent on Earth than we give him credit for.

Peace

Eric

Eric H

Hello lpetrich,

The Romans were heavily into world domination. They already controlled the calendar; a powerful symbol that would keep Rome at the forefront of history and they also controlled Israel.

Why would they concede their hold on time to someone from a nation they had conquered, and also someone whom they had been partly responsible for his death? :huh:

peace

Eric

Jack the Bodiless

Eric H:
...Uh, they did!

Muslims use Mohammed, Buddhists use the Buddha...

IamMoose

Well I dunno .. most of the world uses the Christian calander these days don't they?

funinspace

Uhm, you do realize that the current western dating was adopted at the begining of the 8th century AD? So all references to J(Y)oshua, and his birth at 1 AD didn't exist for almost 700 years. The Romans used the Julian calander. It wasn't until only a remnant of the Roman empire was even left, when the dating changes came. And this egotisical empire was now Christian. And had become a fairly mandatory religion as well. Maybe your "huh" is due to missing allot of historical information?

Others mentioned the creation of the modern calander. Here's a link giving an in depth look at calanders:
http://galileo.rice.edu/chron/gregorian.html

Eric H

Hello funinspace, thanks for your link.

What I was trying to imply from my original post, was the influence Christ had over a conquering nation. Victors write history in the way they want and it seemed that Christ had to influence change whilst being a virtual no one in the eyes of Rome.

Conquering Rome had their Gods on their side due to all their victories, why would they need to abandon their winning Gods? Ok so the Roman Empire was in decline, it still seems a huge shift in beliefs.

Today it might be the equivalent of some dead Iraqi Islamic Cleric from the recent war in Iraq; changing Christian America to Islam, over the next 700 years. Then for America to decide that the Christian Calendar is based on a false premise; and so change the calendar to recognise the new truth.

peace

Eric

funinspace

Not sure how this follows the original thread, but... I still don't see where your point is? Obviously the xian religion had allot of impact on the Roman Empire. And I would say that the Roman Empire had much impact on Xianity.

You don't need to make up anything for your scenario, just take Mohammad. Now look what has changed in places now called Turkey and North Africa, Alexandria, and Laodicia. What are their current predominant religious orientations? What were their predominant affiliations in 600 AD? The Arab world may use our Calendar/years for trade reasons, but they certainly don't do it for reasons of faith. The same can be said of the Chinese.

The short and simple version might be that xianity was absorbed/adopted because it was recognized as a better tool by which to bind people to the state. And Constantine didn't seam real inclined to make the Yahweh god to be his one and only either. From the reading I've done, it seamed more a matter of practicality. And the emerging xian power in Rome seamed to like it's associated growing power very much. Also many kingdoms simply measured time by the number of years into the current kings reign. I don't think it was nearly so static as today. And with trade the way it was back then, it hardly mattered that your neighbors tracked things a little different. Another example of irrelevance of the point could be India. They have a very ancient Xian church there that has stayed miniscule, and had little influence in the 1000+ years there. And if numbers matter, it looks like Muslims will probably out number Christians within 10-20 years.

Crucifiction

Nope. China and India, the two most populous nations on Earth, do not use the Christian calendar.

Toto

Eric has the same question in GRD:

http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=101498

lpetrich

The last I saw, they use the same calendar we do. At least when I checked the official government sites of both India and China.

So what had given you that idea, Crucifiction?