LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Andrew Pullin <andrew@hotspurbgc.com.au>
  To  : linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
  Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 22:34:47 +1030

Re: Merry Millenium ;))

Hi All,
    Using the allegedly flawed calendar we have in use today
:

Please bear with me -

    " In those days Ceasar Augustus issued a decree that a
census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was
the first census that took place while Quirinius was
governor of Syria.) " Luke 2:1-2

Ceasar Augustus : Gaius Octavius was born on September 23,
63 BC,  he died on August 19, 14AD. Encyclopedia Britannica.

    " After Jesus was born in Bethlehem  in Judea, during
the time of King Herod, ..." Matthew 2:1

HEROD THE GREAT, Latin HERODES MAGNUS (b. 73 BC--d.
March/April, 4 BC, Jericho, Judaea), Roman-appointed king of
Judaea (37-4 BC). Encyclopedia Britannica.

    " When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the
Magi (Wise Men), he was furious, and he gave orders to kill
all the boys in Bethlehem  and it's vicinity who were 2
years old and under, in accordance with the time he had
learned from the Magi. " Matthew 2:16

Star of Bethlehem  : celestial phenomenon mentioned in the
Gospel According to Matthew as leading "wise men from the
East" to the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Natural events that
might well have been considered important omens and
described as stars include exploding stars (novae and
supernovae), comets (Halley's Comet was visible in 12 and 11
BC), meteors, and planetary conjunctions--i.e., apparent
close approaches of two or more planets to each other.
The year of Jesus' birth is uncertain but can be narrowed
down to probably between 6 and 4 BC. The biblical account
indicates two sightings of the star, one before the wise men
began their journey (probably from Babylonia or Persia) and
the other near their journey's end, when the omen "came and
stood over where the young child was." A celestial object
near the horizon of any given observer might be considered
by him as pointing out some spot on Earth below.

Chinese annals record novae in 5 BC and 4 BC; in the early
17th century, Johannes Kepler advanced the view that the
Star of Bethlehem  may have been a nova occurring in or near
some conjunction of bright planets.

Several striking planetary conjunctions also took place
within 10 years of the chronological point now taken as the
beginning of the Christian era. A triple conjunction in
early 6 BC, in which Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn stood at the
points of a triangle, has often been mentioned as a possible
explanation of the star. Prior to that, in 7 BC, Jupiter and
Saturn were for eight months within three degrees of each
other and three times within that period passed within one
degree. Several years later, on June 17, 2 BC, the bright
planets Venus and Jupiter would have appeared to observers
in Babylon to have merged just before setting in the general
direction of Bethlehem  to the west.

Encyclopedia Britannica

    So. Augustus called the census in the time of Herod.
Herod died in 4 BC (these dates are supposed to accurate and
verifiable by some other method). The wise men told him they
saw the star about 2 years prior to seeing Herod. Various
celestial phenomena about that time. Herod killed all
children under the age of 2 accordingly, and died sometime
after. So this puts the birth at least at 5-6 BC in real
terms. This means that the Y2K actually occurred in 1994 AD,
or 1993 if you want to be argumentative. AD means Anno
Dommini, NOT After JC Died, my Latin is rusty, but not THAT
rusty. And finally, strictly speaking the end of the year
should be at Midnight on December 24th, not 7 days after if
it is an exact number of years after JC's birth, but that
date is dodgy anyway since it was selected by some early
Christian church leaders to replace the Pagan ceremonies of
the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere anyway. Not
to mention that the Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Indian,
Arabs, and the Mayans, just to name a few, all have
different calendars, that they still use (not sure about the
Mayans), and the Khymer Rouge instituted the Year 0 (or 1 if
you want to argue) in about 1979AD in Cambodia. Just for the
hell of it, the last I heard, the shortest measurable period
of time is about 16 femptoseconds (which is ten to the minus
some number, ie small)

    Here endeth the lesson.

        Andrew. (Asbestos suit with internal Oxygen supply
ready).

-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Pittard <vk5ham@seol.net.au>
To: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
Cc: Linux SA <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
Date: Sunday, 2 January 2000 20:05
Subject: Re: Merry Millenium ;))


>Hi all - have been vaguely following this thread (which I
innocently
>started) - have to raise a contentious issue here - at the
risk of
>offending heaps of people ;))
>
>Michael Lunnay wrote:
>>
>> It all comes down to the fact that there was no year 0,
there was 1 BC
>> followed by 1 AD. Therefor 1 plus 2000 means that the 3rd
millenim starts
>> 0:00:01 January 1st 2001.
>>
>Now ...... :) as I recall from Sunday School, J.C. lived to
be 32 years
>old or thereabouts. SOOOOOOOooooooooo.... there must have
been 1BC then
>1 to 32DC (DC=During Christ) & then 1AD 1 year after he
died! You cant
>just leave out 32 or so years btw...SO... what was the
period of time
>called between when he died and 1 year later (which
theoretically is the
>true 1AD) and what did people (anywhere/everywhere) call
their years
>while JC was still alive - hmmmmmmmmm ....so, there could
not have just
>been 1BC THEN 1AD....for example those living in africa
were totally
>oblivious to what was going on in rome/jerusalem etc
therefore they
>certainly werent aware it was 1BC or 7DC or 1AD
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm! And then
>Pope Gregory the whatever screwed things around in his
Papal Tardis & so
>if you discount what he did its still mid 1999 or something
isnt it. AND
>then, since when can humans ever keep their shit together
long enough to
>actually accurately the passing of time... so it is really
proably 1983
>or perhaps 2019!
>
>But I digress.....Now, JC died... start the clock.... 1
year later it
>becomes 1AD, 2000 years later it is 2000AD which is 2001
years since JC
>died (therefore the year we call 2000 is actually 2001SJCD
(since jc
>died)
>
>It is also interesting to note that hexadecimal notation
has been used
>throughout history..
>eg/ 1BC 0BC/0AD 32DC 1AD etc ad infinitum ad nauseum ;)
>
>And for those of you who got this far... seriously, who
gives a toss -
>its called 2000, last year was 1999 and an excellent year
for fireworks
>makers &  the computer industry... the advent of 2000 was
an excellent
>opportunity to get pissed & party on and life is to short
to debate what
>frigging year/century/millenium it is or isnt.... THIS WAS
MY THREAD & I
>STARTED SO NOW I END IT ;)
>Phil
>Happy 02/01/2000AD or 02/01/2032SJCWB (since JC was born)
or
>02/01/2001SJCD (since JC died)
>
>PS: For god's sake take this in the spirit its intended ;-)
>
>
>---much snipping ;)>
>> >At 09:27 1/01/00 +1000, Richard Sharp wrote:
>> >
>> >>0 is the first number in the units, ten is the first
number in the tens,
>> >>100 is the first number in the hundreds, and 2000 is
the first year in the
>
>--
>LinuxSA WWW: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/  IRC: #linuxsa on
irc.linux.org.au
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