Good day Worthy Knights,
In this part 69, Anno Domini, Lucis and Ordinis (Wikipedia)
Anno Domini
The terms Anno Domini (AD) and before Christ (BC)are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term Anno Domini is Medieval Latin and means “in the year of the Lord”, but is often presented using “our Lord” instead of “the Lord”, taken from the full original phrase “Anno Domini nostri Jesu Christi”, which translates to “in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
This calendar era is based on the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus of Nazareth, with AD counting years from the start of this epoch, and BC denoting years before the start of the era. There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus of Scythia Minor, but was not widely used until after 800.
The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world today. For decades, it has been the unofficial global standard, adopted in the pragmatic interests of international communication, transportation, and commercial integration, and recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations.
Traditionally, English followed Latin usage by placing the “AD” abbreviation before the year number. However, BC is placed after the year number (for example: AD 2020, but 68 BC), which also preserves syntactic order. The abbreviation is also widely used after the number of a century or millennium, as in “fourth century AD” or “second millennium AD” (although conservative usage formerly rejected such expressions). As BC is the English abbreviation for Before Christ, it is sometimes incorrectly concluded that AD means After Death, after the death of Jesus. However, this would mean that the approximate 33 years commonly associated with the life of Jesus would be included in neither the BC nor the AD time scales.
Terminology that is viewed by some as being more neutral and inclusive of non-Christian people is to call this the Current or Common Era (abbreviated as CE), with the preceding years referred to as Before the Common or Current Era (BCE). Astronomical year numbering and ISO 8601 avoid words or abbreviations related to Christianity, but use the same numbers for AD years.
Anno Lucis
“In the Year of Light” is a dating system used in Masonic ceremonial or commemorative proceedings, which is equivalent to the Gregorian year plus 4000. It is similar to Anno Mundi.
For example, a date Anno Domini (AD) 2020 becomes Anno Lucis (AL) 6020. This calendar era, which would designate 4001 BC as ‘year zero’, was adopted in the 18th century as a simplification of the Anno Mundi era dating system used in the Hebrew calendar and borrowing from other ideas of that time regarding the year of creation.
After the Masoretic text was published, dating creation around 4000 BC became common, and it was received with wide support. Proposed calculations of the date of creation, using the Masoretic from the 10th century to the 18th century, were numerous and fluctuated by many decades. Notably, Isaac Newton’s calculation pointed at the year 4000 BC.
Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of Tanakh in Rabbinic Judaism.
Among the Masoretic creation estimates or calculations for the date of creation, Archbishop Ussher’s specific chronology dating the creation to 4004 BC became the most accepted and popular in Christendom, mainly because this specific date was attached to the King James Bible. The Ussher chronology is a 17th-century chronology of the history of the world formulated from a literal reading of the Old Testament by James Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.
Ussher’s work was his contribution to the long-running theological debate on the age of the Earth. Ussher deduced that the first day of creation fell upon, October 23, 4004 BC, in the Julian calendar, near the autumnal equinox.
Establishing the chronologies is complicated by the fact that the Bible was compiled by different authors over several centuries with lengthy chronological gaps, making it difficult to do a simple totalling of Biblical ages and dates.
After reckoning the years from creation to the last kings of Judah, Ussher used 2 Kings 25:27 to establish the length of time from the creation to the accession of Babylonian king Amel-Marduk (also known as Evil-Merodach). He then used information from Babylonian, Greek, and Roman sources to fix the date of Amel-Marduk’s enthronement at 562 BC (after Nebuchadnezzar’s death), from which he was able to deduce a creation in 4004 BC.
Anno Ordinis
Latin, meaning in the Year of the Order; abbreviated A.’. O.’. The date used by Knights Templar; found by subtracting 1118 from the Vulgar Era; thus, 1930-1118 = 812 and adapted to the Red Cross of Constantine Order by subtracting 312, year of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.
James Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.
4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656