Anno Mundi

Anno Mundi (Latin: "in the year of the world"), abbreviated as AM or A.M., refers to a Calendar era based on the Biblical creation of the world. Numerous efforts have been made to determine the Biblical date of Creation, yielding varying results. Besides differences in interpretation, which version of the Bible is being referenced also impacts on the result. (see Dating creation)

The Hebrew calendar era is used within the Jewish communities for religious and other purposes; and the Byzantine calendar has been in general use at one time in the Orthodox Churches and several Eastern European countries.

Two dominant dates for creation using such models exist, about 5500 BC and about 4000 BC. These were calculated from the genealogies in two versions of the Bible, with most of the difference arising from two versions of Genesis. The older dates are based on the Greek Septuagint.[1] The later dates are based on the Hebrew Masoretic text.[2] Patriarchs from Adam to Terah, the father of Abraham, are said to be older by as much as 100 years or more when they begat their named son in the Septuagint than they were in the Hebrew or the Vulgate (Genesis 5, 11). The net difference between the two genealogies of Genesis was 1466 years (ignoring the "second year after the flood" ambiguity), which is virtually all of the 1500-year difference between 5500 BC and 4000 BC.

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Jewish tradition

Since before 3925 AM (165 AD), years in the Hebrew calendar have been counted from the Creation year based on the calculation in the Seder Olam Rabbah of Rabbi Jose ben Halafta in about 160 AD.[3] By his calculation, based on the Masoretic Text, Adam was created in 3760 BC. However, Halafta's dating was not universally accepted by all Jewish communities. Even in 1000 AD, the Muslim chronologist al-Biruni mentioned three different epochs used by various Jewish communities being one, two, or three years later than the modern epoch.[4] In 1178 AD, Maimonides included all the rules for the calculated calendar and their scriptural basis, including the modern epochal year in his work, Mishneh Torah.

Today, the rules detailed in Maimonides' code are those generally used by Jewish communities throughout the world.

Greek tradition

Early Christian chronographers have also calculated Creation. Their computations were based on the Septuagint, which was the Greek version of the Old Testament in general use by Christians until a translation in c. 405 into Latin, called the Vulgate, which translated directly from the Masoretic Text, came into general use in Western Christianity.

Earliest Christian chronology

The earliest extant Christian writings on the age of the world according to the Biblical chronology are by Theophilus (AD 115-181), the sixth bishop of Antioch, in Apology to Autolycus (Apologia ad Autolycum),[5] and by Julius Africanus (AD 200-245) in his Five Books of Chronology.[6] Both of these early Christian writers followed the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, which was the version in use by most Christians at the time.

Theophilus presents a detailed chronology “from the foundation of the world" to emperor Marcus Aurelius.[7] His chronology begins with the Biblical first man Adam through to emperor Marcus Aurelius, in whose reign Theophilus lived. The chronology puts the creation of the world at about 5529 BC: "All the years from the creation of the world amount to a total of 5,698 years."[8] No mention of Jesus of Nazareth is made in his chronology. Seraphim Rose corrected the date to about 5530 BC, to recognise that there is no year 0.[9]

Dr. Ben Zion Wacholder points out that the writings of the Church Fathers on this subject are of vital significance (even though he disagrees with their chronological system based on the authenticity of the Septuagint, as compared to that of the Hebrew text), in that through the Christian chronographers a window to the earlier Hellenistic biblical chronographers[note 1] is preserved:

An immense intellectual effort was expended during the Hellenistic period by both Jews and pagans to date creation, the flood, exodus, building of the Temple... In the course of their studies, men such as Tatian of Antioch (flourished in 180), Clement of Alexandria (died before 215), Hippolytus of Rome (died in 235), Julius Africanus of Jerusalem (died after 240), Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine (260-340), and Pseudo-Justin frequently quoted their predecessors, the Graeco-Jewish biblical chronographers of the Hellenistic period, thereby allowing discernment of more distant scholarship.[10]

The Chronicon of Eusebius (early 4th century) and Jerome (c. 380, Constantinople) dated Creation to 5199 BC.[11][12] Earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology for Christmas Day used this date,[13] as did the Irish Annals of the Four Masters.[14]

Alexandrian era

The Alexandrian era, developed in AD 412, was the precursor to the Byzantine era. After the initial attempts by Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria and others, the Alexandrian computation of the date of creation was worked out to be 25 March 5493 BC.[15]

The Alexandrian monk Panodoros reckoned 5904 years from Adam to the year AD 412. His years began with 29 August, corresponding to the First of Thoth, or the Egyptian new year.[16]Annianos of Alexandria however, preferred the Annunciation style as New Year's Day, 25 March, and shifted the Panodoros era by about six months, to begin on 25 March. This created the Alexandrian era, whose first day was the first day of the proleptic[note 2] Alexandrian civil year in progress, 29 August 5493 BC, with the ecclesiastical year beginning on 25 March 5493 BC.

This system presents in a masterly sort of way the mystical coincidence of the three main dates of the world's history: the beginning of Creation, the Incarnation, and the Resurrection of Christ. All these events happened, according to the Alexandrian chronology, on the 25th of March; furthermore, the first two events were separated by the period of exactly 5500 years; the first and the third one occurred on Sunday — the sacred day of the beginning of the Creation and its renovation through Christ.[17]

Dionysius of Alexandria had earlier emphatically quoted mystical justifications for the choice of 25 March as the start of the year:

March 25 was considered to be the anniversary of Creation itself. It was the first day of the year in the medieval Julian calendar and the nominal vernal equinox (it had been the actual equinox at the time when the Julian calendar was originally designed). Considering that Christ was conceived at that date turned March 25 into the Feast of the Annunciation which had to be followed, nine months later, by the celebration of the birth of Christ, Christmas, on December 25.

The Alexandrian Era of 25 March 5493 BC was adopted by church fathers such as Maximus the Confessor and Theophanes the Confessor, as well as chroniclers such as George Syncellus. Its striking mysticism made it popular in Byzantium especially in monastic circles. However this masterpiece of Christian symbolism had two serious weak points: historical inaccuracy surrounding the date of Resurrection as determined by its Easter computus,[note 3] and its contradiction to the chronology of the Gospel of St John regarding the date of the Crucifixion on Friday after the Passover.[17]

Chronicon Paschale

A new variant of the World Era was suggested in the Chronicon Paschale, a valuable Byzantine universal chronicle of the world, composed about the year 630 AD by some representative of the Antiochian scholarly tradition.[17] It dates the creation of Adam to 21 March 5507 BC.

For its influence on Greek Christian chronology, and also because of its wide scope, the "Chronicon Paschale" takes its place beside Eusebius, and the chronicle of the monk Georgius Syncellus[18] which was so important in the Middle Ages; but in respect of form it is inferior to these works.[19]

Adoption of Byzantine era

The Byzantine Anno Mundi era was the official calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church from c. AD 691 to 1728 in the Ecumenical Patriarchate. By the late tenth century the Byzantine era, which had become fixed at 1 September 5509 BC since at least the mid-7th century (differing by 16 years from the Alexandrian date, and 2 years from the Chronicon Paschale), had become the widely accepted calendar by Chalcedonian Christianity. The Byzantine era was used as the civil calendar by the Byzantine Empire from AD 988 to 1453, and by Russia from c. AD 988 to 1700.

The computation was derived from the Septuagint version of the Bible, and placed the date of Creation at 5509 years before the Incarnation. Its year one, the supposed date of creation, was 1 September 5509 to 31 August 5508 BC.

The Etos Kosmou ("Year of the Universe") is the corresponding concept in the Byzantine calendar.

Roman tradition

Western Christianity never adopted an Anno Mundi epoch system, relying instead on the Anno Domini (AD) epoch system, though AM dating continued to be important in theology since such dating was of direct relevance to the calculation of the Last Judgment: Bede, for instance, in De Temporum Ratione, recalculates the birth of Jesus at 3952 AM,[20] "thus postponing the date of the apocalypse over 1200 years to 2048 AD."[21]

Muslim tradition

Neither Muslims nor the Qur'an ever adopted a Anno Mundi epoch system, relying instead on the After Hijra (AH) epoch system in the Islamic calendar.

See also

References

  1. ^ Septuagint, Genesis
  2. ^ Genesis 5
  3. ^ p.107, Kantor
  4. ^ See The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries.
  5. ^ Theophilus of Antioch. Theophilus of Antioch to Autolycus. Book III. Chap XXIV (Chronology from Adam) - Chap. XXVIII (Leading Chronological Epochs).
  6. ^ Julius Africanus. Extant Writings III. The Extant Fragments of the Five Books of the Chronography of Julius Africanus.
  7. ^ Theophilus, Apologia ad Autolycum, Book III Chapters 24-27
  8. ^ Theophilus, Apologia ad Autolycum, Book III Chapters 28
  9. ^ Fr. Seraphim Rose. Genesis, Creation and Early Man: The Orthodox Christian Vision. St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, California, 2000. ISBN 978-1887904025. p.236.
  10. ^ Dr. Ben Zion Wacholder. "Biblical Chronology in the Hellenistic World Chronicles". in The Harvard Theological Review, Vol.61, No.3 (Jul., 1968), pp.451–452.
  11. ^ The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman by Andrew Galloway page 69
  12. ^ Fourth Century (see 327 Eusebius of Caesarea). Archived 2009-10-25.
  13. ^  Howlett, J.A. (1913). "Biblical Chronology". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
  14. ^ from 5194 AM in the Annals at CELT — University College Cork's Corpus of Electronic Texts project has the full text of the annals online, both in the original Irish and in O'Donovan's translation
  15. ^ Elias J Bickerman (1980). Chronology of the Ancient World (Aspects of Greek & Roman Life) (2nd sub ed.). Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press. p. 73. ISBN 0-8014-1282-X. 
  16. ^ Rev. Philip Schaff (1819–1893), Ed. "Era." Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. New Edition, 13 Vols., 1908-14. Vol. 4, pp.163.
  17. ^ a b c Pavel Kuzenkov (Moscow). "How old is the World? The Byzantine era κατα Ρωμαίους and its rivals". 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London 2006. pp.2–4.
  18. ^ George Synkellos. The Chronography of George Synkellos: a Byzantine Chronicle of Universal History from the Creation. Transl. Prof. Dr. William Adler & Paul Tuffin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
  19. ^ Van der Essen, L. "Chronicon Paschale". In The Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent). New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908.
  20. ^ Landes, Richard (1995). Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits of History. Cambridge: Harvard UP. p. 291. 
  21. ^ Duncan, Edwin (1999). "Fears of the Apocalypse: The Anglo-Saxons and the Coming of the First Millennium". Religion & Literature 31 (1): 15–23; 23 n.6. 

Sources

Notes

  1. ^ Eratosthenes of Cyrene (275-194 BC) represented contemporary Alexandrian scholarship; Eupolemus, a Palestinian Jew and a friend of Judah Maccabee, writing in 158 BC, is said to have been the first historian who synchronized Greek history in accordance with the theory of the Mosaic origin of culture. By the time of the first century B.C., a world chronicle had synchronized Jewish and Greek history and had gained international circulation: Alexander Polyhistor (flourishing in 85-35 BC); Varro (116-27 BC); Ptolemy priest of Mendes (50 BC), who is cited by Tatian (Oratio ad Graecos, 38); Apion (first century A.D.); Thrasyllus (before AD 36); and Thallus (first century A.D.) - all cited chronicles which had incorporated the dates of the Noachite flood and the exodus. (Dr. Ben Zion Wacholder. "Biblical Chronology in the Hellenistic World Chronicles". in The Harvard Theological Review, Vol.61, No.3 (July 1968), pp.451–452.)
  2. ^ A calendar obtained by extension earlier in time than its invention or implementation is called the "proleptic" version of the calendar.
  3. ^ In the commonly used 19‐year Easter moon cycle, there was no year when the Passover (the first spring full moon, Nisan 14) would coincide with Friday and the traditional date of the Passion, 25 March; according to Alexandrian system the date would have to have been Anno Mundi 5533 = 42(!)AD.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.