Talk:Development of Jehovah's Witnesses doctrine/Archive 3
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606 to 607
I explained my deletion of this part poorly in my edit notes. The Jehovah's Witnesses went from using AD to CE at about the time the previous writer cites as their change in dating things. Since the difference between 606 and 607 is critical for many of their beliefs about time, I removed it, as I believe this alteration was not a doctrinal change, but a shift due to their use of CE vs. AD. I can't remember the specific reference, but here's one that is close, from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society's "All Scripture" book:
Now, since the Common Era did not begin with the year zero but began with 1 C.E., and the calendar for the years before the Common Era did not count back from a zero year but began with 1 B.C.E., the figure used for the year in any date is in reality an ordinal number. That is, 1990 C.E. really represents 1989 full years since the beginning of the Common Era, and the date July 1, 1990, represents 1,989 years plus a half year since the beginning of the Common Era. The same principle applies to B.C.E. dates. So to figure how many years elapsed between October 1, 607 B.C.E., and October 1, 1914 C.E., add 606 years (plus the last three months of the previous year) to 1,913 (plus the first nine months of the next year), and the result is 2,519 (plus 12 months), or 2,520 years. Or if you want to figure what date would be 2,520 years after October 1, 607 B.C.E., remember that 607 is an ordinal number—it really represents 606 full years—and since we are counting, not from December 31, 607 B.C.E., but from October 1, 607 B.C.E., we must add to 606 the three months at the end of 607 B.C.E. Now subtract 606 1/4 from 2,520 years. The remainder is 1,913 3/4. That means that 2,520 years from October 1, 607 B.C.E., takes us 1,913 3/4 years into the Common Era—1,913 full years brings us to the beginning of 1914 C.E., and three fourths of a year in addition brings us to October 1, 1914 C.E.
If anyone has a different source, I am genuinely interested to see it. I might be working with limited information. Babuinu (talk) 04:45, 29 May 2008 (UTC)