BC vs BCE
BC and BCE are two dating systems that show some difference between them. The difference is good enough to know them as distinct and separate. As a matter of fact, BC is written after the year number. It is also grounded on the Julian or the Gregorian calendars.
It is important to note that BC was actually coined by Dionysius Exiguus in the year 525 AD. In fact, the dating system BC should be expanded as ‘before Christ’. It is interesting to note that the notation BC was followed for a long time until recently when the notation was challenged.
Since Christ is believed to have been born around 7 BC, the very usage of AD gets purposeless. This is the reason why the notation BC was challenged some time ago. If both BC and AD start with the year 1, then there can be no year ‘zero’ in any of the dating systems.
Hence a new dating system called the BCE was formed. It is important to know that BCE can be expanded as ‘Before the Common Era’. This is the main difference between the two dating systems, namely, BC and BCE. The BCE notation has not removed the year ‘zero’ from it. The same is true in the case of CE, as well. The years after Christ’s birth were simply referred by the notation CE.
CE referred to the ‘Common Era’. It is believed that both BCE and CE developed not for the use of the Christians, but for the advantage of the non-Christians. Thus, BCE is the notation used for the sake of the non-Christians, or for people who do not know who Christ is. Thus, 100 BC is nothing but 100 BCE for the non-Christian. These are the differences between BC and BCE.
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