Can someone explain why JW's use, "BCE, CE, etc" ???

by WingCommander 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  WingCommander

  I always thought this weird, even as a child. I think I remember asking, but never really getting an answer. What does the "E" stand for when they use dates like "607 BCE", etc? If I remember correctly, they also use "CE". What the hell does that mean?

  I swear, everything has to have it's own spin or secret religious meaning within this religion. Anything to make it appear that they are somehow chosen above everyone else, or that they are special since know one knows what the hell they are babbling about. Alot of grandious holier-than-thou doublespeak if you ask me. But anyway, can someone clear this up for me?

  Thanks,

  Wing Commander
• 

  Zico

  CE = Common Era (AD)
  
  BCE = Before Common Era (BC)
  
  They mean the same thing as AD and BC. I have no idea why they choose to use them instead, but it makes little difference.
• 

  Honesty

  The Watchtower Society iprefers BCE over BC because it takes Christ right out of the neat little equation they have put together since 1879.
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  GermanXJW

  In German, the same abbreviations were used in the German Democratic Republic, so when I used them at school I was asked if I was from the GDR. :-/
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  daystar

  If I recall correctly, it was because when the A.D./B.C. system was being created, they made a mistake on the year and Jesus actually died a few years after 0 A.D.
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  LongHairGal

  Wings:
  
  I can tell you why they use these terms BCE (before common era) and CE (common era) instead of BC.
  
  BC means before Christ and they do not want to be lumped together with "Christendom" [rolls eyeballs]. The same also goes for their use of of the term Hebrew Scriptures instead of Old Testament and Christian Greek Scriptures instead of New Testament.
  
  They simply differ for the sake of being different.
  
  
  LHG
• 

  Sunspot

  I swear, everything has to have it's own spin or secret religious meaning within this religion. Anything to make it appear that they are somehow chosen above everyone else, or that they are special since know one knows what the hell they are babbling about. Alot of grandious holier-than-thou doublespeak if you ask me.

  This is exactly how I feel too. The "elitist" attitudes and being so arrogantly "proud" of NOT using the same (clear and understandable; from the TMS) terms that "dreaded Christendom" or the rest of the civilized world uses.

  Annie
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  under_believer

  The Witnesses did not invent the terms "BCE" and "CE". But they do dovetail nicely into their beliefs and doctrines, which minimize Christ. The terms, whatever they used to mean, are now synonymous to "BC" and "AD". But "BC" means "Before Christ" and "AD" is Anno Domini, which is Latin for "The Year of Our Lord".

  Switching to the secular terms takes Christ out of the picture nicely. I imagine that since the term "AD" was coined by a Catholic monk, they may consider it to have roots in false religion, as well, though BC was coined by a secular historian and doesn't exhibit the same complaint.
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  Finally-Free

  The descriptions of exhibits at the Royal Ontario Museum here in Toronto use B.C.E. and C.E. as well.

  W
• 

  Butters

  Also it has to do with the birth of Christ, not the death. Daystar you mentioned AD 0 being a few years "after" his death or something. As underbeliever correctly asserted, it is in reference to the latin descriptions (before the birth and after the birth, or more correctly "year of our lord")... Shalom