Bede on the Problem of 1 AD

“The Venerable Bede Translates John” by James Doyle Penrose (1862-1932)

The Venerable Bede on reconciling ancient calendars and how he thought our 2 B.C. should really be 1 A.D.

Bede convincingly argued that our present 1 A.D. was incorrect by three years. What we understand as 2 B.C. is the correct year for Christ’s birth. He uncovered the fuzzy Church logic that created this problem. He cited a miscalculation that happened between 550 and 650 A.D. This error has caused calendar headaches ever since.

The Venerable Bede was an eighth-century monk who made a strong effort to collect all the calendar systems he knew about, whether historical or contemporary to his time, and reconcile them into one dating system. This endeavor sounds easy by today’s standards, but it was a massive undertaking.

If any discussion revolves around developing the yearly calendar system, his writings should be consulted. This study focuses on his works as it relates to Christ’s birth, but other pertinent dates fall in as well.

How did he arrive at this conclusion? He did it by comparing different calendar systems and then developing two new time systems – one of them closely parallels the A.D. system in use today.

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