How did people living before Christ date the years?

Answer 1

BC was dated before christ because B stood for before, and Christ stood for C.

Obviously, there could not have been a recognizable BC period until the advent and ascension of Christ. Only then was it possible to date historical events from Him. Before His arrival, calendars were kept by religious and civil authorities (Babylonians, Aztecs, Hebrews, Chinese, Egyptians, Romans ) and histories were recorded and prophesies made according to them. Those same calendars were kept and maintained by the same people after He came and went. It is unclear to what extent the year numbers (537, 1921 2144, etc.) of each calendar were promulgated to and practically utilized by their respective general publics. There was an historical tendency for ancient events to have been fixed in time in terms of natural catastrophes, and various kings' and emperors' reigns, e.g. "in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake," etc. It wasn't until early in the 6th century AD after the ascendancy of the Church, and the relative vacuum in civil Rome that the BC/AD convention was rolled out. At this writing, that's just shy of 1500 years.

Answer 2

The calendar using A.D. and B.C.E. was actually not introduced until the middle ages. At that time, there were many different calendars from different cultures, most coming from Greece, Rome, of the Middle East.

Answer 3

2009 is 5768 according to the Jewish calender so I assume that was the standard at the time.

Answer 4

in b.c.