What do BCE and CE mean and why don't I use BC and AD?
The designations, BCE and CE correspond, year-for-year, to the more widely used, BC and AD time delineations.
BCE stands for Before the Common Era and CE means Common Era.
Around 500 CE, a debate raged on how to calculate the day of Resurrection Day. As part of the debate, Dionysius Exiguus calculated the day of Christ's birth, labeling that year "1 AD" and the previous year "1 BC." (Note: there is no year 0, so the 21st century started in 2001.)
This dating system didn't catch on for another 400 years, so it's been widely used for only a little over half of the modern era.
Furthermore, "new" evidence, since Dionysius did his calculations, places Jesus' birth in 4 BCE, or possibly earlier. So, if He was born 4 Before Christ. . . we have a bit of a conundrum.
Finally, when was there a time before Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word?
For these reasons, I am not threatened by the BCE/CE designations and use them in my writings.
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