THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXX, Issue 141, 16 June 1896, Page 2

THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.

! To thb Bditob ob " The Eveniho; Maiii:' . Sib.— l cannot agree with your correspondent at Blwaka as to the closing of the nineteenth oentury when the olook strikes 1900, A.D., in as muoh as that year has to corns to its termination prior to the event named. The twentieth oeti'tury will nbt commence till January Ist, 1901, as the learned Professor Piazzi Smith has it. Bat, Sir, notwithstanding all that has been written on the subject, I shall consider I have entered on the twentieth oentury should I live:. to sea the lafc of January, 1897> for the following reasons :— '. ■ The common era ot A.D. was", fixed by the Abbot Dionysius Exiguus,' in the sixth century, and assumes the birth of Jesus to have taken place in theyear of the City, Borne, 754,, A more careful examination, however,' of, the historical data proves this to have been about four years ' too 'late 1 The gospel narrative leaves no room to doubt that, the birth of Jesus took place before the death of Herod the Great. Bub there is good reason- to, believe that Herod died in the . year '-'of -Borne, 750, shortly after a notable eclipse of the moon in that year. (Joseph Ant, zvii,- 6). An argument is also deduoible from the presidentship of Oyrenius, as mentioned in Luke ii, 2, lot according to recant investigations this oonld not hare commenced earlier than about four years before the common era of i.v. The early Christian Fathers, Irenoeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and oi later date Eusebius and Epiphanius, ooncui in pi icing it in 751 or 762. They do not, however, appear to have investigated the matter very carefully. That the birth of Jesus Christ therefore was in the year of Borne 750, and mosl probably in the Spring of thai year, z&aj be regarded" as the nearest approximation to the truth' we can arrive at. From the foregoing I am of opinion thai the next year, 1897, will be the first yeai in the twentieth century. I am, etc., T. 8. Nelson, 15th June 1896.