1 00:00:00,374 --> 00:00:06,992 This right here is a fresco by Raphael of Plato hanging out with his best student Aristotle 2 00:00:06,992 --> 00:00:12,370 And you may or may not know that these two fellows along with Plato's teacher Socrates 3 00:00:12,370 --> 00:00:15,904 are considered the fathers of Western philosophy, 4 00:00:15,904 --> 00:00:18,168 but that's not what this video is about. 5 00:00:18,168 --> 00:00:23,253 This is actually just a small little video about different dates or better 6 00:00:23,253 --> 00:00:28,169 different ways to specify dates or dating machinisms. 7 00:00:28,169 --> 00:00:35,574 And so if you were to look up Plato's birth you might get either 428 or 427 8 00:00:35,574 --> 00:00:37,404 but we'll go with 428 - 9 00:00:37,404 --> 00:00:40,872 if you were to look up Plato's birth 10 00:00:41,349 --> 00:00:46,405 you might see it written as 428 BC 11 00:00:46,405 --> 00:00:52,444 or you might see it written as 428 BCE 12 00:00:52,444 --> 00:00:55,657 and the natural question is: what's the difference here? 13 00:00:55,657 --> 00:00:59,080 They both have BC but this one has an E and it's the same year right now. 14 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:04,240 And the answer is that these are referring to the exact same year in history 15 00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:07,993 but the acronyms here do stand for different things. 16 00:01:07,993 --> 00:01:13,061 BC literally stands for Before Christ 17 00:01:13,292 --> 00:01:17,436 so the date is written 428 BC. 18 00:01:17,436 --> 00:01:22,658 The implication is that this is 428 years before the birth of Christ. 19 00:01:22,658 --> 00:01:25,236 We'll see in a second that that's not exactly right 20 00:01:25,236 --> 00:01:29,033 but that's what the implication is. If someone writes BCE 21 00:01:29,033 --> 00:01:32,373 they're saying something very different. The B still stands for before. 22 00:01:32,373 --> 00:01:42,037 So the B still stands for Before. But the CE. The C in CE does not stand for Christ anymore. It now stands 23 00:01:42,037 --> 00:01:52,122 for Common. And so the CE part is Common Era. 24 00:01:52,214 --> 00:01:57,971 Even though it's not referring to Christ any more, there is kind of intention here 25 00:01:57,971 --> 00:02:02,034 so that it is less religious than the term Before Christ 26 00:02:02,034 --> 00:02:04,910 it is still kind of putting an importance on Christ's birth 27 00:02:04,910 --> 00:02:09,576 because it is saying that the Common Era is the time period after the birth of Christ 28 00:02:09,576 --> 00:02:11,775 which we'll see in a second isn't exactly right 29 00:02:11,775 --> 00:02:15,367 but it's essentially the same exact dating sheme. 30 00:02:15,367 --> 00:02:18,578 One not directly referring to Christ, 31 00:02:18,578 --> 00:02:21,578 one that is directly referring to Christ. 32 00:02:21,578 --> 00:02:27,837 Similarly, this right here is a painting of Christopher Columbus 33 00:02:27,837 --> 00:02:29,502 and if you would look up in history books 34 00:02:29,502 --> 00:02:31,177 you'd know what was his first voyage 35 00:02:31,177 --> 00:02:34,657 and when did he first show up in the New World 36 00:02:34,657 --> 00:02:38,834 fighting an island in the Bahamas you would see it written as 37 00:02:38,834 --> 00:02:44,102 either 1492 or AD 1492 38 00:02:44,102 --> 00:02:49,908 or 1492 CE. 39 00:02:49,908 --> 00:02:53,238 And once again these are all referring to the same year 40 00:02:53,238 --> 00:02:55,769 just using different acronyms. 41 00:02:55,769 --> 00:02:57,906 One of them is a little bit more religious 42 00:02:57,906 --> 00:03:00,330 or more directly refers to Christ 43 00:03:00,330 --> 00:03:02,435 and one is a little less religious. 44 00:03:02,435 --> 00:03:06,769 So AD some people think it refers to After Death -- 45 00:03:06,769 --> 00:03:09,044 it does not refer to After Death. 46 00:03:09,044 --> 00:03:11,913 Because if you think about it if you have years before the Christ and 47 00:03:11,913 --> 00:03:18,503 if you start numbering years after his death how would you number the years during his life? 48 00:03:18,503 --> 00:03:21,769 So AD does not stand for After Death. 49 00:03:21,769 --> 00:03:29,027 It stands for Anno Domini. 50 00:03:29,134 --> 00:03:31,444 Which literally means -- Anno means year 51 00:03:31,444 --> 00:03:36,664 and Domini means Lord or the Lord or the year of our Lord 52 00:03:36,664 --> 00:03:43,997 and one anno domini 1 AD would be the year of Jesus Christ's birth 53 00:03:43,997 --> 00:03:46,577 so not after death, it stands for Anno Domini 54 00:03:46,577 --> 00:03:51,579 but literally Year of our Lord, so year since that Jesus was born. 55 00:03:51,579 --> 00:03:56,664 With year one being the... implicitly starting with his birth. 56 00:03:56,664 --> 00:03:58,378 And we'll see in a second that's not exactly right. 57 00:03:58,378 --> 00:04:04,411 CE stands for Common Era. 58 00:04:04,411 --> 00:04:08,913 Once again, 1 CE is the same thing as AD 1, 59 00:04:08,913 --> 00:04:14,437 sometimes, we now write AD 1492 or we write 1492 AD, 60 00:04:14,437 --> 00:04:18,077 all referrig to the exact same thing. 61 00:04:18,077 --> 00:04:23,593 Now, all of these things refer to... you know, when we say 428 BC 62 00:04:23,593 --> 00:04:27,080 it implies 428 years before the birth of Christ, 63 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:32,075 1492 AD that's in the Year of our Lord 1492 64 00:04:32,075 --> 00:04:36,441 and it implies 1492 years since the birth of Christ, 65 00:04:36,441 --> 00:04:40,246 but the reality is that we're not really quite sure 66 00:04:40,246 --> 00:04:44,249 when Christ was born and so these aren't exactly. 67 00:04:44,249 --> 00:04:47,992 You know, Columubus didn't sail across the Atlantic 68 00:04:47,992 --> 00:04:51,974 exactly 1492 years after the birth of Christ. 69 00:04:51,974 --> 00:04:58,502 Most historians put the birth of Christ at 7-2 BC or BCE 70 00:04:58,502 --> 00:05:00,703 depending on how you want to view it. 71 00:05:00,703 --> 00:05:03,637 Remember, BC is Before Christ, which is little ironic, 72 00:05:03,637 --> 00:05:05,774 because we're talking about the actual birth of Christ, 73 00:05:05,774 --> 00:05:08,914 BCE is Before the Common Era. 74 00:05:08,914 --> 00:05:15,703 And they put his death at 30-36 AD which is 30-36 in the Year of our Lord, 75 00:05:15,703 --> 00:05:19,171 that's what this stands for, Anno Domini, 76 00:05:19,171 --> 00:05:22,323 or in the Common Era, CE. 77 00:05:22,323 --> 00:05:30,241 Now, some people they obviously don't like the BC/AD naming mechanism 78 00:05:30,241 --> 00:05:32,906 because it's explicitly referring to Christ and every year 79 00:05:32,906 --> 00:05:36,170 it makes Christ the central figure in all of history, 80 00:05:36,170 --> 00:05:41,260 so they'll say this is clearly too Christian 81 00:05:41,260 --> 00:05:48,368 and they would prefer the less Christian naming scheme 82 00:05:48,368 --> 00:05:54,460 where we use BCE and CE. 83 00:05:54,691 --> 00:05:58,325 But lot of people would still say: hey look, ok, you changed... or, you know 84 00:05:58,325 --> 00:06:00,168 first of all some Christians wouldn't like this 85 00:06:00,168 --> 00:06:03,746 that you removed the direct references to the birth of Christ 86 00:06:03,746 --> 00:06:07,378 or being the years since Christ's birth, 87 00:06:07,378 --> 00:06:12,908 but even here some people would complain that 88 00:06:12,908 --> 00:06:15,332 althought you've removed the direct reference 89 00:06:15,332 --> 00:06:18,502 that this is saying Before the Common Era and the Common Era, 90 00:06:18,502 --> 00:06:22,170 even though you've removed the direct reference, it still makes Christ's birth 91 00:06:22,170 --> 00:06:24,994 the central thing in all of history. 92 00:06:24,994 --> 00:06:28,764 But this is the convention whether people like it or not 93 00:06:28,764 --> 00:06:32,663 in order to have the same reference point 94 00:06:32,663 --> 00:06:35,914 and theologically it's difficult to switch it, this time, 95 00:06:35,914 --> 00:06:38,665 every one has essentially settled on this. 96 00:06:38,665 --> 00:06:41,703 So it's really just a matter of letters, 97 00:06:41,703 --> 00:06:44,506 which naming scheme you pick. 98 00:06:44,506 --> 00:06:46,576 The whole point of this video is that you don't get 99 00:06:46,576 --> 00:06:50,259 confused between BC and BCE, that you don't think that 100 00:06:50,259 --> 00:06:53,507 AD stands for After Death, it stands for Anno Domini, 101 00:06:53,507 --> 00:06:56,991 the Year of the Lord or the Year of our Lord 102 00:06:56,991 --> 00:07:00,035 and CE stands for Common Era. 103 00:07:00,035 --> 00:07:04,575 This and this are referring to essentially the same count, 104 00:07:04,575 --> 00:07:09,445 after the birth of Christ, or the theoretical birth of Christ 105 00:07:09,445 --> 00:07:11,835 which we don't really know when it actually happened, 106 00:07:11,835 --> 00:07:17,704 it probably did not happen at the beginning of 1 AD or 1 CE. 107 00:07:17,704 --> 00:07:25,436 These two things both also refer to the same direction in the timeline. 108 00:07:25,436 --> 00:07:27,999 One last thing I want to point out is that 109 00:07:27,999 --> 00:07:30,307 there is no year zero. 110 00:07:30,307 --> 00:07:36,034 So if you take either of these naming schemes, you have... 111 00:07:36,034 --> 00:07:38,906 so let's go very close to the years one. 112 00:07:38,906 --> 00:07:42,660 So there is at some point this theoretical birth of Christ 113 00:07:42,660 --> 00:07:44,580 which is probably not the actual birth of Christ, 114 00:07:44,580 --> 00:07:50,236 but at that theoretical point, right at that point 115 00:07:50,236 --> 00:07:55,170 you have 31 December of the previous year, 116 00:07:55,170 --> 00:08:04,110 all of sudden now you have 1 January 1 AD or CE 117 00:08:04,110 --> 00:08:17,770 and the year before that was 1 BC or BCE, 118 00:08:17,770 --> 00:08:19,643 depending on how you wanna refer to it. 119 00:08:19,643 --> 00:08:22,914 So there is no year zero in this scheme. 120 00:08:22,914 --> 00:08:25,702 And the last thing I want to emphasize, 121 00:08:25,702 --> 00:08:27,044 and it might be obvious to you, 122 00:08:27,044 --> 00:08:31,912 is the larger number you have here, 123 00:08:31,912 --> 00:08:33,657 the further back you're going in time. 124 00:08:33,657 --> 00:08:35,581 Because this is saying how many years 125 00:08:35,581 --> 00:08:37,436 before this theoretical birth of Crhist, 126 00:08:37,436 --> 00:08:42,436 and obviously, the larger numbers the further you're going off 127 00:08:42,436 --> 00:08:44,778 into the future. And if you want to figure out 128 00:08:44,778 --> 00:08:48,502 how many years passed between Plato's birth 129 00:08:48,502 --> 00:08:54,168 and Columbus's sailing across the Atlantic to find the New World, 130 00:08:54,168 --> 00:08:57,660 you would say: well, look at it, it took 428 years to go 131 00:08:57,660 --> 00:09:02,437 form Plato's birth to this theoretical birth of Christ 132 00:09:02,437 --> 00:09:06,707 and there is another 1492 years to wait until Columbus gets his ships together, 133 00:09:06,707 --> 00:09:09,662 so the total number of years would be, 134 00:09:09,662 --> 00:09:14,036 428 years to get to Christ from Plato's birth 135 00:09:14,036 --> 00:09:20,172 and then you have another 1492 years to wait for Columbus, 136 00:09:20,172 --> 00:09:22,103 so it's eight plus two, that is ten, 137 00:09:22,103 --> 00:09:25,571 as you can see I just want to add a little arithmetic in this video, 138 00:09:25,571 --> 00:09:28,823 so one plus two plus nine is twelve, 139 00:09:28,853 --> 00:09:32,433 and then we have nine, one plus four plus four... 140 00:09:32,433 --> 00:09:36,157 so 1920 years between the Plato's birth 141 00:09:36,157 --> 00:09:40,157 and Columbus sailing across the Atlantic.