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Not the Same Auld Lang Syne
Fri., Dec. 23. 2005 10:36am EST
So what if Jesus wasn't born in December? At the most, you're going to be 364 days off the mark. When we ring in 2006, we'll be several YEARS off! Did you know that scholars believe that Jesus was born somewhere between 4-6 B.C.! How can that be possible, you ask?
We asked Don Venoit of Midwest Christian Outreach to explain:
"The system of numbering years A.D. (for "Anno Domini") was instituted in about the year 527 A.D. by the Roman abbot Dionysius Exiguus, who reckoned that the Incarnation had occurred on March 25 in the year 754 a.u.c., with the birth of Jesus occurring nine months later. Thus the year 754 a.u.c. was designated by him as the year 1 A.D. It is generally thought that his estimate of the time of this event was off by a few years (and there is even uncertainty as to whether he identified 1 A.D. with 754 a.u.c. or 753 a.u.c.).
The question has been raised (by Sean Oberle) as to whether the first Christian millennium should be counted from 1 A.D. or from the year preceding it. According to Dionysius the Incarnation occurred on March 25th of the year preceding 1 A.D. (with the birth of Jesus occurring nine months later on December 25th), so it is reasonable to regard that year, rather than 1 A.D. as the first year of the Christian Era. In that case 1 A.D. is the second year, and 999 A.D. is the 1000th year, of the first Christian millennium, implying that 1999 A.D. is the final year of the second Christian millennium and 2000 A.D. the first year of the third."
We threw all of those topics into "Late December 5 or 6 B.C. (Oh Holy Night)," our parody of the Four Seasons "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)," which is featured on our "New & Used Hits" CD.
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