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Chronicon Paschale
The ''Creation Era'' was gradually replaced in the [[Orthodox Church]] by the ''[[w:Anno Domini|Christian Era]]'', which was utilized initially by Patriarch [[Theophanes I of Constantinople|Theophanes I Karykes]] in 1597, afterwards by Patriarch [[Cyril Lucaris]] in 1626, and then formally established by the Church in 1728.<ref>"Οικουμενικόν Πατριαρχείον", ΘHE, τόμ. 09, εκδ. Μαρτίνος Αθ., Αθήνα 1966, στ. 778. (''Religious and Ethical Encyclopedia'').</ref> Meanwhile as Russia received Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium, she inherited the Orthodox Calendar based on the ''Creation Era'' (translated into Slavonic). After the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the ''Creation Era'' continued to be used by Russia, which witnessed millennialist movements in Moscow in AD 1492 (7000 AM) due to the end of the church calendar. It was only in 1700 that the ''Creation Era'' in Russia was changed to the [[Julian Calendar]] by Peter the Great.<ref>Prof. Charles Ellis (University of Bristol). [http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5547 Russian Calendar (988-1917)]. ''The Literary Encyclopedia''. 25 September, 2008.</ref>. It still forms the basis of traditional Orthodox calendars up to today. September AD 2000 began the year 7509 AM.
==Important Early Calendars==
: * the [[w:Olympiad#Era|Greek]] (''Era of the Olympiads'').
Pliny the Elder, the Great Roman erudite scholar, attempted<ref>Historia Naturalis, XVIII, 210.</ref> to promote the Roman calendar as modified by Julius Caesar (i.e. the [[Julian Calendar]]) at the same level, as a ‘fourth calendar’.<ref>Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis. [http://www.buzzle.com/articles/gueze-ethiopian-the-counterfeit-millennium.html Gueze – ‘Ethiopian’: the Counterfeit Millennium]. Sept. 8, 2007.</ref>.
==Earliest Christian Sources on the Age of the World==
The earliest extant Christian writings on the age of the world according to the Biblical chronology are by [[w:Theophilus of Antioch|Theophilus]] (AD 115-181), the sixth bishop of Antioch from the Apostles, in his apologetic work ''To Autolycus'',<ref>Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol.2, pp.118-21.</ref> and by [[w:Sextus Julius Africanus|Julius Africanus]] (AD 200-245) in his ''Five Books of Chronology'' <ref>Ante-Nicene Fathers. vol.6, pp.130-38.</ref>. Both of these early Christian writers, following the [[Septuagint]] version of the [[Old Testament]], determined the age of the world to have been about 5,530 years at the birth of Christ.<ref>Fr. [[Seraphim Rose]]. ''GENESIS, CREATION and EARLY MAN: The Orthodox Christian Vision''. St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, CA, 2000. p.236.</ref>.
From a scholarly point of view Dr. Ben Zion Wacholder points out that the writings of the [[Church Fathers]] on this subject are of vital significance (''even though he disagrees with their chronological system based on the authenticity of the [[Septuagint]], as compared to that of the [[w:Masoretic Text|Hebrew text]]''), in that through the Christian chronographers a window to the earlier Hellenistic biblical chronographers<ref>The Hellenistic Jewish writer Demetrius (flourishing 221-204 B.C.) wrote ''On the Kings of Judea'' dealing with biblical exegesis, mainly chronology, who computed the date of the flood and the birth of Abraham exactly as in the Septuagint, and who established the ''' ''ANNUS ADAMI'' ''' ; Eratosthenes of Cyrene (275-194 B.C.) represented contemporary Alexandrian scholarship; Eupolemus, a Palestinian Jew and a friend of Judah Maccabee, writing in 158 B.C., is said to have been the first historian who synchronized Greek history in accordance with the theory of the Mosaic origin of culture. By the time of the first century B.C., a world chronicle had synchronized Jewish and Greek history and had gained international circulation: Alexander Polyhistor (flourishing in 85-35 B.C.); Varro (116-27 B.C.); Ptolemy of Mendes (50 B.C.); Apion (first century A.D.); Thrasyllus (before A.D. 36); and Thallus (first century A.D.) - all cited chronicles which had incorporated the dates of the Noachite flood and the exodus.</ref> is preserved:
:An immense intellectual effort was expended during the Hellenistic period by both Jews and pagans to date creation, the flood, exodus, building of the Temple... In the course of their studies, men such as [[w:Tatian|Tatian of Antioch]] (flourished in 180), [[Clement of Alexandria]] (died before 215), [[w:Hippolytus of Rome|Hippolytus of Rome]] (died in 235), [[w:Sextus Julius Africanus|Julius Africanus]] of Jerusalem (died after 240), [[Eusebius of Caesarea]] in Palestine (260-340), and Pseudo-Justin frequently quoted their predecessors, the Graeco-Jewish biblical chronographers of the Hellenistic period, thereby allowing discernment of more distant scholarship.<ref>Dr. Ben Zion Wacholder. ''Biblical Chronology in the Hellenistic World Chronicles.'' in '''The Harvard Theological Review''', Vol.61, No.3 (Jul., 1968), pp.451-452.</ref>.
The Hellenistic Jewish writer Demetrius (flourishing 221-204 B.C.) wrote ''On the Kings of Judea'' which dealt with biblical exegesis, mainly chronology; he computed the date of the flood and the birth of Abraham exactly as in the [[Septuagint]], and first established the '' '''Annus Adami''' - Era of Adam'', the antecedent of the Hebrew ''World Era'', and of the Alexandrian and Byzantine ''Creation Eras''.
===Alexandrian Era===
The ''Alexandrian Era'' of [[March 25]] 5493 BC was adopted by church fathers such as [[Maximus the Confessor]] and [[Theophanes the Confessor]], as well as chroniclers such as [[w:George Syncellus|George Syncellus]]. Its striking mysticism made it popular in Byzantium especially in monastic circles. However this masterpiece of Christian symbolism had two serious weak points: historical inaccuracy surrounding the date of [[Resurrection]] as determined by its [[Pascha|Easter]] computus,<ref>In the commonly used 19‐year [[Pascha|Easter]] moon cycle, there was no year when the Passover (the first spring full moon, Nisan 14) would coincide with Friday and the traditional date of the Passion, March 25; according to Alexandrian system the date would have to have been Anno Mundi 5533 = 42(!)AD.</ref> and its contradiction to the chronology of the [[Gospel]] of [[Apostle John|St John]] regarding the date of the [[Crucifixion]] on Friday after the Passover.<ref>Pavel Kuzenkov (Moscow). ''[http://www.wra1th.plus.com/byzcong/comms/Kuzenkov_paper.pdf How old is the World? The Byzantine era κατα Ρωμαίους and its rivals]''. 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London 2006. p.2.</ref>
===Chronicon Paschale===A new variant of the ''World Era'' was suggested in the ''[[w:Chronicon Paschale|Chronicon Paschale]]'', a valuable Byzantine universal chronicle of the world, composed about the year 630 AD by some representative of the Antiochian scholarly tradition.<ref>Pavel Kuzenkov. ''[http://www.wra1th.plus.com/byzcong/comms/Kuzenkov_paper.pdf How old is the World? The Byzantine era κατα Ρωμαίους and its rivals]''. 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London 2006. p.2.</ref> It had for its basis a chronological list of events extending from the creation of Adam to the year A.D. 627. The chronology of the writer is based on the figures of the Bible and begins with 21 March, 5507. For its influence on Greek Christian chronology, and also because of its wide scope, the ''"Chronicon Paschale"'' takes its place beside [[Eusebius of Caesarea|Eusebius]], and the chronicle of the monk [[w:George Syncellus|Georgius Syncellus]]<ref>[[w:George Syncellus|George Synkellos]]. ''The Chronography of George Synkellos: a Byzantine Chronicle of Universal History from the Creation''. Transl. Prof. Dr. William Adler & Paul Tuffin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.</ref> which was so important in the Middle Ages; but in respect of form it is inferior to these works.<ref>Van der Essen, L. ''[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03730b.htm Chronicon Paschale]''. In '''The Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent)'''. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908.</ref> By the late tenth century the ''Byzantine Creation Era'', which had having become fixed at [[September 1]] 5509 BC since at least the seventh century (differing by 16 years from the Alexandrian date, and 2 years from the ''Chronicon Paschale''), had become the widely accepted calendar of choice ''par excellence'' for Chalcedonian Orthodoxy.<ref>
In Oriental Orthodoxy by contrast, the [[w:Coptic calendar|'''Coptic (Alexandrian) Calendar''']], used to the present day by the Coptic Orthodox Church and rooted in the older Egyptian calendar, is based on a totally different era, called the ''[[w:Era of Martyrs|Era of the Martyrs]]'' (''Anno Martyrum'', unrelated to the ''Annus Mundi''), beginning on [[August 29]], 284, its year one.
<br>
The [[w:Ethiopian calendar|'''Ethiopian Calendar''']], itself based on the Alexandrian or Coptic calendar, varies from it in that it uses yet another era, the ''Incarnation Era'', which dates from the Annunciation or Incarnation of Jesus on 25 March AD 9, as calculated by [[w:Annianus of Alexandria|Annianos of Alexandria]], with its first civil year beginning seven months earlier on 29 August AD 8. (The calculations made by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525 placed the Annunciation exactly eight years earlier than had Annianos, causing the Ethiopian year number to be eight years less than the Gregorian year number).</ref>
Dr. Marcus Rautman points out that the seven-day week was known throughout the ancient world. The Roman Calendar had assigned one of the planetary deities to each day of the week. The Byzantines naturally avoided using these Latin names with their pagan echoes. They began their week with the "[[Lord's Day]]" (Kyriake), followed by an orderly succession of numbered days (Deutera, Trite, Tetarte, and Pempte), a day of "preparation" (Paraskeve), and finally Sabatton.
:"Each day was devoted to remembering one or more martyrs or saints, whose observed feast days gradually eclipsed traditional festivals. Kyriake was seen as both the first and eighth day of the week, in the same way that [[Jesus Christ|Christ]] was the alpha and omega of the cosmos, existing both before and after time. The second day of the week recognized [[angels]], "the secondary luminaries as the first reflections of the primal outpouring of light," just as the sun and the moon had been observed during the Roman week. [[John the Forerunner|John the Baptist]], the forerunner (Prodromos) of Christ, was honored on the third day. Both the second and third days were viewed as occasions for penitence. The fourth and sixth days were dedicated to the [[Cross]] with holy songs sung in remembrance of the Crucifixion. The [[Theotokos|Virgin Mary]] was honored on the fifth day of the week, while the seventh day was set aside for the [[Martyr|martyrs]] of the church."<ref>Prof. Dr. [http://aha.missouri.edu/people/rautman.html Marcus Louis Rautman]. ''"Time."'' In [http://books.google.ca/books?id=hs3iEyVRHKsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Gynaikeion+church+-flower+-witches&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0 ''Daily Life in the Byzantine Empire'']. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. pp.5</ref>
==Literal Creation Days==
Around AD 202 Hippolytus held that the Lord was born in the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus<ref>It is likely that his reckoning is from B.C. 43, the year in which Octavian was declared consul by senate and people and recognized as the adopted son and heir of Caesar. Epiphanius, (''Haeres'') also puts the Lord's birth in the 42nd year of Augustus when Octavius Augustus xiii and SIlanus were consuls; and they were consuls in 2 B.C.</ref> and that he was born in 5500AM. In his ''Commentary on Daniel'' he did not need to establish the precise year of the Lord's birth; he is not concerned about the day of the week, the month-date, or even the year; it was sufficient for his purpose to show that Christ was born in the days of Augustus in 5500 AM.
==Accounts in Byzantine Authors==
* 5529 BC<ref>Barry Setterfield. ''[http://www.setterfield.org/000docs/scriptchron.htm#creation Ancient Chronology in Scripture]''. September 1999.</ref><ref>Fr. [[Seraphim Rose]]. ''GENESIS, CREATION and EARLY MAN: The Orthodox Christian Vision''. St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, CA, 2000. p.236.</ref> - [[w:Theophilus of Antioch|Theophilus]] (AD 115-181), Bishop of Antioch.
* '''5509 BC''' - '''Byzantine Creation Era''' or''' ''"Creation Era of Constantinople."'' ''' (finalized in 7th c. AD).
* 5507 BC - ''[[w:Chronicon Paschale|Chronicon Paschale]]'' (ca. AD 630), Byzantine universal chronicle of the world.
* 5500 BC - [[w:Hippolytus of Rome|Hippolytus of Rome]]. (ca. AD 234), Presbyter, writer, martyr.
* '''5493 BC - Alexandrian Era''' (AD 412).
* ''The [[Orthodox Study Bible]]''. St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology. Elk Grove, California, 2008.
* V. Grumel. ''La Chronologie''. Presses Universitaires France, Paris. 1958.
* Van der Essen, L. ''[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03730b.htm Chronicon Paschale]''. In '''The Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent)'''. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908.
* Yiannis E. Meimaris. ''Chronological Systems in Roman-Byzantine Palestine and Arabia''. Athens, 1992.
