how was time before "Jesus"?

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SS69

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So currently we are in the year 2007 A.C. That is to say 2007 years ago Christ was born. Modern time is kept this way. All years from the year Jesus was born ascends and precedes the suffix A.C. (after christ). Any years before Christ descend as they get closer to the date of Christ's birth. For example, 17 B.C. is 17 years before Christ's birth.

My question is how were the years kept before this? Obviously they had no idea Jesus was on his way so they werent keeping time in reverse. Were the years even dated at this time? I'm not entirely sure when humans began keeping such records. Is our current time system something that was set in place years after the coming of Jesus?
 
Sage
What you’re referring to is the Gregorian calendar, which is just one type of calendar. There is also the Hebrew calendar, the Julian calendar, the Hindu calendar, the Chinese calendar, the Iranian calendar, the Islamic calendar, the Ethiopian calendar, the Egyptian calendar, the Maya calendar, the Germanic calendar, the Runic calendar, etc. etc. etc. Note that many of those calendar systems existed long before Christ was born.
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One of which was not the Islamic calender. :p
I'd bet on the Hebrew calender and the Chinese calender being two fo the older calenders in that group. 👍

Also, after Christ is not reffered to as "AC."
A.D. is the proper term and I believe it stands for "Ano Domity" (sp?) (think it means year of the lord).
"B.C." does mean Before Christ but most of the time we use "B.C.E." which stands for "Before Common Era."
 
SS69
My question is how were the years kept before this?
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Many ancient civilizations kept track of the sun, especially before fire was invented/discovered. Nearly everything had to be done in the daylight; perhaps they started to realize that sun's position in the sky during rise and setting was relative to the amount of daylight in a day. And then they saw the moon change shape each day during the month, until it disappeared. some even took note that the position of certain groups of stars could determine the approximate time of year.

Were the years even dated at this time? I'm not entirely sure when humans began keeping such records. Is our current time system something that was set in place years after the coming of Jesus?
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I suppose years were counted by the changing of the seasons; since agriculture was important for feeding as well as determining when animals were present for hunting. In time, every civilization needed to have someone to determine what time of year was best for hunting, planting, gathering, cultivating, and when these cycles repeated themselves in relation to the positioning of the sun and moon, the idea of years were born.

How years were recorded in many civilizations, and where the starting point began was probably different from culture to culture; some were determined by the rule of the land (when the leader took power, when a nation or tribe was created). Many nations/cultures had their own system of recording years; but eventually most of the world picked up on the Common Era in the past 50 years, as international business and trade has spread out.

Mostly, the Middle East and China keeps their own system of years based on their own astrological calendars: Isreal has their own system, "1" being when the world was created. the Islamic calendar keeps "1" as the year Muhammad the Prophet was born (just like Christ). Japan keeps the same New Year's day as does Western Civilization, but the year is based on the emperor in charge (although Common Era year is also used).
 
And just to complicate matters, Christ was born not sooner than 8 BC, and not later than 2 BC.
 

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