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Is it the official teaching of the Orthodox Church that this (or any other date) is the true date of creation? That is, is this defined by one of the ecumenical councils? I am doubtful about the first sentence of the article. --[[User:Fr Lev|Fr Lev]] 14:55, October 9, 2008 (UTC)
: Point well taken thanks Father. I have tried to rework the article to reflect this. Would appreciate anyone's help in the section "Church's Position". Thanks, [[User:Angellight 888|Angellight 888]] 00:05, October 10, 2008 (UTC)
Last week, in Istanbul, I was chatting to various locals who do not prefer the terminology "Byzantium" but rather referred to it as "Rum" or Rumanos Orthodox (I am not sure if I understood the word/spelling and I know what they said is not to be confused with the Rumanian country) ... Does anyone have any knowledge on the correct word they were referring to and the thinking behind it? I would be interested to learn more ... do we have an article on OrthodoxWiki about this - [[User:Ixthis888|Vasiliki]] 00:47, October 29, 2008 (UTC)
:Hi Vasiliki!! Welcome back hope you had a fantastic trip! Yes, the first footnote in the article refers to this:
:''"Eastern Roman Empire. The term Byzantine was invented by the German historian Hieronymus Wolf in 1557 but was popularized by French scholars during the 18th century to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire. The citizens of the empire considered themselves Romaioi ("Romans"), their emperor was the "Roman Emperor", and their empire the Basileia ton Romaion ("Empire of the Romans"). The Latin West designated the empire as "Romania", and the Muslims as "Rum".''"
: Since this Era (calendar) was used by the Orthodox Church until 1728 in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and until 1700 in Russia, and since the word "Byzantine" is not as historically accurate, I was wondering if it would be better to rename the article more generically as "Orthodox Creation Era"? (Using a title such as "Era of the World" is a little more ambiguous because the Hebrew Calendar also uses their own World Era with a different date). The current title as is does reflect the historical origins of the Era better though.
:Cheers,
:[[User:Angellight 888|Angellight 888]] 14:03, October 29, 2008 (UTC)
::Thanks! I had an amazing time overseas and was fortunate to venerate MANY of our Saints - it was a trip filled with obstacles but also filled with the miracles that only God can provide and I have many wonderful photos to share with family and friends and, when I am ready to upload, OrthodoxWiki can take ownership of these ...
::This is an interesting topic ... personally, I have no idea what the correct answer should be but I can only point you in the direction of a phone call to a Orthodox Theological department to ask for clarity. These schools usually have many textbooks that you can cite from ...Good luck. [[User:Ixthis888|Vasiliki]] 22:44, October 29, 2008 (UTC)
===Rename - Era===
Research has shown that it will be much more accurate to rename this article '''"Byzantine Creation Era"''', since it was actually an Era -- An era (Latin ''aera'') is a sequence of years that is reckoned from a definite point in time, which is called the epoch (Greek ''εποχη'').
For example, some ancient eras / dating systems / calendars included the:
* "Era of the Olympiads",
* "Era of the City of Rome"
* "Era of the Greeks" (Seleucid Era) [Annus Greacorum, AG]
* "Enoch Calendar"
* "Era of Adam" [Annus Adami, AA]
* "Jewish Era".
In the Christian period examples include the
* "Era of the Incarnation" [Annus Incarnationis, AI]
* "Christian Era" [Anno Domini, AD],
* "Alexandrian Era",
* "Era of the Martyrs",
* '''"Era of the World" (Era of the Creation) [Annus Mundi, AM]'''
See also: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica - [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Calendar List of Calendars] at Wikisource.
[[User:Angellight 888|Angellight 888]] 21:40, October 17, 2008 (UTC)
== 5508 BC or 5509 BC? ==
The corresponding page on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etos_Kosmou, states that the Byzantine world era began on 5509 BCE instead of the 5508 BC mentioned here. Is there any basis for selecting one over the other?
On the page http://homepage.mac.com/paulstephenson/trans/scyl2.html, which is footnoted in the article, a note states that "By the time Skylitzes wrote a unified system was widely recognized, according to which the world was created 5508 years before the Incarnation, or more precisely on 1 September 5509 BC". It also states that "31 August 1999 ends the year AM 7507". Which would make Sept. 1, 1999 the beginning of the year AM 7508, and September 1, 2008 (old style) the beginning of the year AM 7517.
I have a picture of an Old Believer calendar from September 2005 that shows that the new year of 7514 from the creation of Adam began on September 14, 2005. This would make Sept. 14, 2008 the beginning of the year 7517 AM.
:Thanks for the info. The ''Creation Era'' actually does span '''two years''' of the ''Christian Era'', from the point of view of the ''Christian Era''. The statement in the article that AD 2000 was 7508 was partially correct (for the first half of the year); however strictly speaking, yes, September 1st 2000 did begin the year 7509 AM, and September 1st 2008 began the year 7517 AM.
:This is supported by the primary sources (in translation) quoted in the article, Skylitzes and Choniates. Choniates refers to AD 1204 as 6712 AM:
::"The queen of cities fell to the Latins on the twelfth day of the month of April of the seventh indiction in the year 6712 [1204]."
:::Sept. 1203 = 6712 AM; Sept. 2008 = 7517 AM
:::'''Apr. 1204 = 6712 AM'''; Apr. 2009 = 7517 AM
:Therefore the following chart for simplicity and clarity can be given:
<small>
:* '''SEP. 5509 BC = 1 AM'''
:* JAN. 5508 BC = '''1 AM'''
<br>
:* JAN. 1 BC = 5508 AM
:* '''SEPT. 1 BC = 5509 AM'''
:* JAN. AD 1 = '''5509 AM'''
<br>
:* JAN. AD 2000 = 7508 AM
:* '''SEP. AD 2000 = 7509 AM'''
:* JAN. AD 2001 = '''7509 AM'''
<br>
:* JAN. AD 2008 = 7516 AM
:* '''SEP. AD 2008 = 7517 AM'''
:* JAN. AD 2009 = '''7517 AM'''
</small><br>
:I will specify this distiction in the article. If you want to add the Old Believer calendar as a source please do so.
:Cheers,
:[[User:Angellight 888|Angellight 888]] 03:46, January 13, 2009 (UTC)
==Clarification - Jews/Hebrews==
Greetings. We are trying to translate the article into Romanian. We've stumbled across this in the first paragraph:
"and was characterized by a certain tendency which had already been a tradition amongst ''Hebrews'' and ''Jews'' to number the years from the foundation of the world".
What do the terms "Hebrews" and "Jews" in this phrase mean? Is it a Judas/Israel kingdoms distinction or something else? We'd appreciate your help. Thank you. [[User:Kamasarye|Kamasarye]] 13:40, October 20, 2010 (UTC)
: See the Wikipedia articles: [[w:Jews|Jews]] and [[w:Hebrews|Hebrews]], in particular: [[w:Hebrews#Hebrews_vs._Israelites_vs._Jew|Hebrews vs. Israelites vs. Jew]]. There is definitely the historical distinction between the people of the [[w:Tribe of Judah|Tribe of Judah]] / [[w:Kingdom of Judah|Kingdom of Judah]] on the one hand, and the [[w:Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Israel]] on the other; see also [[w:History of ancient Israel and Judah|History of ancient Israel and Judah]]. This would be the distinction implied in the article here (''although there are other facets or differences as well, including some [[w:Hebrews#Political_implications|political implications]] from a modern perspective'').
: As a point of interest note also that there is the historical distinction between [[w:Hellenistic Judaism|Hellenistic Judaism]] (which had produced the [[Septuagint]] beginning in the 3rd century BC - Jews of Alexandria and Jewish Diaspora), which group was largely absorbed into or became the Early Christians by the 2nd century AD; and [[w:Rabbinic Judaism|Rabbinic Judaism]]. However this distinction cannot be applied historically or with any equivalency to the Hebrew/Jewish distinction, although it also exists. Hope this helps. [[User:Angellight 888|Angellight 888]] 22:19, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
А
::Thanks a lot, it does help. I'm in for more than I bargained for, though :). Indeed, as the Wikipedia article states, in Romanian we don't distinguish between the (modern) terms Jew, Hebrew, or Israelite - but we do have a biblical distinction between Israelites and Judeans !, so we're OK for this translation :). Thanks again. [[User:Kamasarye|Kamasarye]] 18:04, November 3, 2010 (UTC)
