What does the AD stand for?

by Jim Coggins

As we look forward to AD 2000, what does the AD mean? A generation ago, there were still schoolchildren who could tell you that AD represents a Latin term, "animal dominoes" or something. Not anymore. As a result, AD is now sometimes replaced by CE (for "Christian Era", or "Common Era").

The term "AD" was created by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus in 525 AD. Before that time, dates were calculated by an individual king’s reign ("In the fifth year of Emperor Augustus", "In the second year of King Henry VIII") or dated from the founding of a kingdom or an empire.

Dionysius noticed that kings died, and even empires vanished (the Roman Empire, after flourishing for centuries had collapsed just the century before). This created confusion, with some people following one calendar, and others another calendar. (This confusion is why Dionysius made a mistake of 4-6 years in trying to calculate the year of Jesus’ birth.) Dionysius therefore proposed establishing a calendar based on a kingdom which would never end. He began counting time from Jesus’ birth.

AD literally means "In the year of the Lord". Thus, this year, instead of being the seventh year of Jean Chretien’s prime ministership, is the 1999th year of Jesus’ reign. In establishing the "AD" calendar, Dionysius was not just finding a convenient starting point for a calendar. He was declaring that he accepted Jesus as his King and that he was a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Those who follow Jesus today, declare the same thing.

A calendar is only a symbol. Yet something significant happens when we consciously decide to join Jesus’ Kingdom and accept Jesus as our King. Just as Dionysius resolved the confusion in the calendar by dating everything from Jesus’ birth, so we resolve the confusion in our own lives by accepting Jesus. We no longer follow Karl Marx or Sigmund Freud or Bill Clinton or the Chicago Bulls or our new girlfriend or existential philosophy or free market capitalism or democracy—systems and people who fail us and prove themselves inadequate, only to be replaced by some new individual or system as fads change. Those who accept Jesus find someone who does not die or change, someone whose words were true 2000 years ago and are still true today, someone who can guide them safely into the future.

.Jim Coggins is editor of Encounter

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