Two questions about time?

BC: before christ
AD: anno domini, “year of our lord”

And I am pretty sure that the BC/AD paradigm was only introduced centuries after “year 0”.

If I remember correctly, before our current calendar, people used to measure years by the reign of the ruler. They would say something like “in the fifth year of ‘king so-and-so’, this event happened.”

1) prior to christ, I imagine that they counted years somehow, but since they didn’t know christ was going to show up, it is highly unlikely they called in BC.

2) I have seen BC also as BCE and defined as “Before Common Era”

3) I have often seen AD defined as “After Death”.

Keep in mind that the Aztec calendar goes back to 600BC or earlier, and the Chinese Yellow Epoch calendar back to 2750 BC (approx).

So the entire BC/AD thing is a comparatively recent way of measuring years. All because of some uppity Jew in Nazareth who got himself killed.

BC: before christ
AD: anno domini, “year of our lord”

“After Death”? Really? So what were the 30ish years called between “before Christ” and “after death” then?

It’s an interesting thought, how people related to the past, in the past. The Mayans seemed to have a larger idea of time, even a cosmic sense. I’m sure some peoples concepts were much smaller in scope. Weather cycles, major events, lifespans of dynasties, for example.

AD: Anno Domini. Years were indeed cited by the years of the Ruler. The Bible is full of such references.
It was not Christ who changed the calendar, but the Romans around the time of Christ.
Imagine if Christ somehow made the Romans do this. The lack of considering the actual time of one year (365.2425 days) would be used to show the fallibility of God.

Prior to Christ, different civilizations tracked years differently. Greeks, for instance, used to track years based on Olympics happening. I would imagine most civilizations did this sort of thing…based years on events.