By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

Back in the ancient time, "2001: A Space Odyssey" had just been released to theaters nationwide. The movie was high-tech, for its day, weird, and unsatisfying. Yet, it did get my friends and me thinking and talking about the next century. During all this musing, I calculated how old I would be when the year 2000 rolled around. In horror, I told my friend Steve, "Gosh, I'll be nearly 49 years old! I'll be nearly dead!"
Well, 2000 is here and I'm still kicking, though not as fast or as high as I'd like to.

But why 2000? Why not the year 5935, or some other collection of digits. Why not "the seventh year (or is it the eighth?) of the reign of William Jefferson Clinton? Or even "the year after the Falcons made the Super Bowl and hell froze over?"

Where do we get the number of years? Most people (well, a few at least) know that the "A.D." placed after the year stands for "anno domini," that is "the year of the Lord." So our modern years are numbered according to the single most important event in the history of mankind: the Incarnation of God. God coming to earth, in the flesh, in Jesus Christ. Every event in our world is measured by either how long before or how long after this single event occurred. But who came up with it? Who calculated the year of the Lord's Incarnation?

Enter a remarkable Monk by the name of Dionysius, called "Exiguus" or "the Small." Originally from Russia, Dionysius moved to Rome in 496 and became known as one of the most learned men of his day. Dionysius became famous as a mathematician, an astronomer, a translator, and a canonist. Therfe had been controversy in the Church about how to calculate the day of Easter (Pascha). In the year 525, Pope John I asked the Russian Monk to help solve the problem. In order to accurately calculate the date of Easter for years to come, Dionysius would need a simple and reliable way to number the passing years.

Prior to Dionysius, the years were named according to important historical events (such as the founding of the city of Rome) or the number of years a particular king had been ruling. One of the most widely used methods was the so-called "Era of Diocletian," inaugrated by the Roman emperor Diocletian (245-315 A.D.). Though he was an able administrator, Diocletian is remembered as the fiercest persecutor of Christians in the first millennium of the Church's existence. Dionysius, in his words, "did not wish to perpetuate the name of the great persecutor of the Christians, but rather to number the years from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Using references found in the Gospels, Dionysius calculated, to the best of his ability, the year of the Incarnation of Christ and called this the "year 1 anno domini," or "the first year of the Lord." Those years that were prior to this time were calculated backwards and styled "ante christo" (A. C.) or, in English, "Before Christ" (B. C.). This way of numbering the years slowly made its way into Europe and from there to the rest of the world.

Since the time of Dionysius, scholars have determined that he was about 4 to 8 years off in his calculations. In Matthew 2:1, it is recorded that Jesus was born during the rfeign of Herod the Great, who ruled from 37-4 B. C. So Chrfist would have had to have been born no later than 4 B. C. Luke 2:2 mentions a census by Caesar Augustus (30 B. C. to 14 A. D.) "while Quirinius was governor of Syria." (4 - 1 B. C.). Dionysius made his mistake by misinterpreting Luke 3:23: "And Jesus Himself, when He began His work, was about thirty years of age...". Dionysius interpreted this as meaning exactly thirty years and counted backwards to arrive at 1 A. D.

Incidently, the Incarnation began when Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, not when he was born. So, Dionysius calculated the beginning of Year 1 to be March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation - nine months before December 25.
It is in vogue these days, in some circles, to bow to political correctness and discard the B. C. and the A. D. for the secular terms "before the common era," (B.C.E.) and "the common era," (C. E.). Whatever.

Thanks to the Monk Dionysius, I can take pleasure in welcoming you to Y2K- "Year 2000 of the King!"

Father David Epps is Rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church, Peachtree City, GA. He may be contacted online at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com

(Much of the material for this article was gleaned from "Chronicle," the newsletter of Christ of the Hills Monastery, Blanco, TX)

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