Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1955-12-21


. love for ice cream.
people date from the day of his
BIRTH
We know something of the
origin Of the go-cal!ed Christian
or Common Era. The dating OF
the years had formerly been
counted from the founding OF
the city Of Rome in the yen
which, in our present reckoning
is called 753 &c. The prcSen,
division Of the year into y ar
hitrarv mouths. with 365 days in
the year and a provision for IN
extra day each fourth year. was
inaugUrated ut the order of Julius
Caesar on January /. 10 Be.
which corresponds to 100 a.u.c.,
The letters being the Authorization
II "ab urbc ,ondita" from
he city having been founded
or from the founding Of the city,
Even after the establishment
Of the Christian Era, il did not
'0wo at once into general use,
The first official record of lis
use in England is found in Il
grant for a bit of land by Acthcl-
acrt. k:0g Of Kent. Cor n monas-
.CEy i'm Canterbury. in COS AID.
The practice was not common un-
IL the Council Of Chelsea ordered
i. IN the ninth century. Iven
then there were some departures
from the custom. Some preferred
to date from important events
'~ lo II history. Written in the
Scottish statutes are notation
following these examples: AT
Aberdeen in Lent next after the
coming in Scotland Of Vivian the
Lcgatc of the Apostolic See"
Iactuallv I177 ADD and AT
Stirling on the Monday next be-
fore the feast Of Saint Marrary;
the Ma;:icn next after the frs.
cremation Of philip king OF the
French Cor 1880 ADD. Official
documents Of the United States
Government are dated an the
year Of the Independence Of the
United States o" although
fortunately. the regular calcndlr
yea in the Dionysian Era is also
included.
The year Of the birth of Jesus
should have been called the year
O. not |. This is evidence of the
Roman influence. because the
Romans always counted by the
inclusive method. We find il
for example. in the ScriDtura
statement (Sain. Matthew 2O:1g'
that Jesus rose from the toni
ON the third day after the Cruel
.rixion. Actually. it was ONLY tw'
days. but the Greek and Roman
custom was to count the frs
/; day also. so their "third day i
: what we would call two day
. later"
7. The year o should have bee
inserted between BIC. and
,'A.D.. but it was not. There j
no zero year in history and thi
: causes confusion when someon
begins to worry about when tn
end of a century should be ccle
brated.
- But Dionvsius ExiCuus ca
hardly be blamed for not usin
"a zero year. because no one
: Europe. in his day, knew tina
here was such a thing as tn
p, number zero, The Hindu mathC
. maticzns introduced the svmbt
. and Hk idea Of zero and it wa
,, not used in Europe until sever,
j centuries had passed, after Lior
ysius.
u While the Dionysian Fra pre-
: tends to have begun with u
.vcar Of the birth Of Jesus, "
II lean by no means be sure that
s docs. because il hinges on on
yonc statement - that Of Clemcl
= Of Alexandria. And. when v
g really search for It, we fiji
IS that there is the very stronge
b evidence that Tire Christian Fl
d docs not begin with the birth
y Jesus.
IS We can be sure that Jcs'
was born when Herod was kir
re in Judaea and Caesar August
at was emperor in Rome. IT
T. Scriptures make these fac
" quite indisputable. But the
S two reigns overlapped by mo
than 25 years and we must,