Anno Domini (4 B.C.)

Latin for the “year of our Lord”

The divine Incarnation of Christ (the Holy conception Jesus, the Christ in the womb of His mother Mary) and the subsequent birth of Christ (the Nativity of Christ), is the index event chosen for the western BC/AD dating system. Anno Domini is the Latin phrase for “the year of our Lord”.  For various reasons most historians (including the Patristic Fathers and conservative Christian historians) generally deduce that Christ’s birth day occurred sometime between 7 B.C. and 1 B.C.; generally in 4 or 3 B.C. (which is Eusebius’ date; see Eusebius of Caesarea). Matthew’s gospel states that Jesus’ birth occurred during “the days of Herod the King” (Matthew 2:1).  Herod the Great died in 4 B.C., so presumably the Nativity (birth) of Jesus Christ occurred in 4 B.C.

The Virgin Mary was delivered of the child Jesus (the Christ) while staying in a stable in the town of Bethlehem around the year 4 B.C.  He was circumcised on the 8th day of his life and he was presented at the temple in Jerusalem on the 40th day of his life, where Mary & Joseph presented the required sacrifices for a first born (see the Gospel of Luke).

Simeon takes Jesus in his arm and utters the “Song of Simeon”:

The “just and devout’ man, Simeon of Jerusalem (literally the God-receiver) met Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as they entered the Temple.   Simeon had been visited by the Holy Spirit of God, who told him that he would not die until he had seen God’s Holy Messiah, God’s human incarnation, His Christ; that had been promised from the days of old.  On taking Jesus into his arms Simeon uttered a prayer, (the Song of Simeon, in Latin the Nunc dimittis ^{Luke 2:29-32}), and he gave a prophecy alluding to the crucifixion^{(Luke 2:25–35)}:

“Lord, now let your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen thy salvation, Which you have prepared before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.”

The Marvelous and Mysterious Twin Natures of Jesus the Christ:

By AD 451 at the conclusion of the 4th Ecumenical Council (held at Chalcedon, just across the Bosporus Straight from Constantinople) the incarnation of Christ was understood to be:

“Christ is the eternal Son of God made known in two natures without confusion (i.e. without the two natures somehow combining), without change, without division, without separation, the difference of the natures being by no means removed because of the union, but the property of each nature being preserved and coalescing in one prosopon [person] and one hypostasis [subsistence] – not parted or divided into two prosopa [persons, i.e. two hypostases], but one and the same Son, only-begotten, divine Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

After Jesus was presented at the temple (and revealed by Simeon as the Christ), Joseph and Mary then fled Jerusalem and travel to Egypt (to avoid King Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents) a considerable time later the Holy family returned to their home town of Nazareth, on the north short of the Sea of Galilee, in the province of Galilee (about 100 miles north of Jerusalem), where Jesus was raised, and where he learned the carpentry trade.

Joseph and Mary were a pious and observant Jewish family who often joined their extended family in journeys to and from Jerusalem where they observed the high holy days of their faith.

Note on the Common “MP OY” Abbreviation on Icons of the Virgin Mary:

Note that ΜΡ ΘΥ is an ancient and standard abbreviation of the name of “Mother of God”. When Mother of God is written in Greek it is: Μήτηρ (του) Θεοῦ . If one takes the first and last letters of Μήτηρ (του) (“Mother of”) and Θεο (“God”) one is left with ΜΡ ΘΥ: a line (“titlo”) is often placed over each pair of letters to indicate that it is an abbreviated sacred name.

Meaning of the Term Theotokos:

Theotokos is a Greek term which literally means the Mother of God. In AD 431, the Council of Ephesus decreed that Mary can rightly be called the Theotokos because her son Jesus is both God and man: one divine person with two natures (divine and human) intimately and hypostatically united.

Note on the A.D. – B.C. Dating System:

Every timeline needs a system for noting the progress of time. The western B.C./A.D. system of indexing dates was devised in A.D. 525 by Dionysius Exiguus, (which, BTW, his system has NO year number zero). Dionysius did not like indexing dates by the Regnal Year of particular Roman Emperors. He felt the birth of Christ should be the index year of all human history, and he made his “best guess” about the actual year of Christ’s birth. His guess missed the actual historical date by about 4 years. The A.D./B.C system has been maintained with the index point Dionysius choose ever since.