1st BOC show of the new century!

[Eric Siegerman]

On Fri, Jan 21, 2000 at 08:50:38AM -0800, Horse Whisperer wrote:
> >If you can prove to me that Jesus was born exactly 1,999 years ago,
> >I'll believe you.
>
> Can you prove he was born exactly 2,000 years ago?  AFAIK current thought
> has it that accepted ideas of Jesus' birthdate are somewhere between 30 and
> 100 years out, making a bit of a mess of every calendar  system used by
> Christians so far.

Well, Dionysius Exiguus missed by a few years, but not quite that
many.

If you believe the story about Herod wanting to off Jesus, he had
to be born before Herod died in 4 BC.  (That's Herod the
not-so-Great, by the way; his son, Herod Antipas, is the one the
Bible credits with finishing the job.)  But if you believe the
story about the census and the trip to Bethlehem and the manger
and all, it has to be about 6-7 AD, when the census in question
took place.  1 AD is right out.

On Fri, 21 Jan 2000 17:15:51 -0000, Tim Stephenson wrote:
> > >Besides, most people partied this year. I'd
> > >celebrate the new millennium next year, but who wants to party with a
> > >bunch of physicists and mathematicians? ;)
> >
> > Probably their mothers.  And other physicists.
>
> Me!  my wife is a mathematician, and she completely agrees with the 2001
> argument.

Of course.  That is, technically, when the new millenium will
begin.

But 2000 years since what wasn't the birth date of a prophet I
don't worship anyway?  Who cares!  What mattered to me was what
mattered to most people, I guess.  It was when the odometer
rolled over a couple of weeks ago, however meaningless an event
that was in historical or mathematical terms.  It was the simple
fact of never again being able to write "19xx", and the thought
of how *much* water had passed under the bridge since the last
time that left digit changed.

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        erics at telepres.com
|  |  /
Microsoft Lego would have square pips.