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SEPP ROTHWANGL

THE COSMOLOGICAL CIRCUMSTANCES AND RESULTS OF THE ANNO DOMINI

INVENTION: ANNO MUNDI 6000, GREAT YEAR, PRECESSION, AND

END OF THE WORLD CALCULATION

ABSTRACT

The Anno Domini yearly count, invented in the beginning of the 6th century, were influenced

by mixture of ancient world concepts, astronomical aspects, calendrical cycles, and

apocalyptic teleology.

AD counts the years since a date of Christ’s fictitious incarnation at the former annual vernal

equinox on 25th March and was presented by Dionysius Exiguus as a new Easter computus

titled “CYCLUS DECEMNOVENNALIS DIONYSII”. AD was invented, because the

Cosmic Year 6000 of Julius Sextus Africanus’ chronicle was reached and caused end-time

fever. Basied on doctrines of late antiquity like the Great Year with the eternal return,

millennialism, the Gospels, and the Apocalypse the AD years focused on the world’s end at

an alignment of all planets in year 2000 of the newly invented count. The date of Christ’s

incarnation was adjusted by the medieval value of precession 2000 years before that

alignment.

This article is a work in process of the book STARTIME (Rothwangl, soon published) and

demonstrates that the dating of Christ’s incarnation by the Anno Domini Years is the result of

a cosmological and astrological quest for the world’s end in the world view of late antiquity

and early Christianity. The aim of the quest was to find a future alignment of all classical

planets, which would mark the end of the world according the Great Year doctrine. After

having forecast such an alignment, due to the astrological concept of the precessional ages

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and by the medieval constant of precession, exactly 2000 years before that alignment the date

of the incarnation by the AD-Years was established.

This also explains why the AD-Years, focusing on the incarnation of Jesus Christ, as

established at beginning of the Sixth century by Dionysius Exiguus, diverge from historical

data, such as the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC, and is not synchronized with early

historiographies.

If we investigate the circumstances and reasons that influenced Dionysius to invent the new

Anno Domini count we find the following facts:

A) The Occurrence of Africanus‘ Cosmic Year 6000, which caused a calendric world`s

end at the beginning of the Sixth century.

The Cosmic Year (Anno Mundi) of Iulius Sextus Africanus is an early Christian temporal

concept based upon interpretation of the Bible, according to which the Lord created the world

in six days, which are equated to 1000 years each.

Ps. 90:4: For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch

in the night.

2 Peter 3:8: One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Of the Sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; and God made the works of His

hands in six days, and He ended on the seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it.

Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He meaneth this, that in six

thousand years the Lord shall bring all things to an end; for the day with Him signifieth a

thousand years; and this He himself beareth me witness, saying, Behold, the day of the Lord

shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years,

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everything shall come to an end.

And He rested on the seventh day. This He meaneth; when His Son shall come, and shall

abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun

and the moon and the stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day.

Barnabas 15:3-5

To date the moment of creation the lifetime of Jesus and an end-time prophecy were drawn in

comparison:

I John 2:18: Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so

now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour.

Writing in the first half of the third century, Origen, in his Commentary on Matthew,

employed the analogy of the twelve hours of the day to divide the whole of biblical history

into ages. Accordingly, he locates Noah at the third hour, Abraham at the sixth, Moses at the

ninth, and, finally, Christ at the eleventh hour. (Declercq, 2000)

The Christian Old Testament (2. Moses 25) tells that the Ark of the Covenant was 2 1/2 cubits

long, 1 1/2 cubits wide, and 1 1/2 cubits high. Irion (Hieron) of the court of Constantinople

and Hippolytus both interpreted these dimensions, amounting to 5 1/2 cubits, as symbolic of

the 5,500 years. (Mosshammer, 2009)

The first Christian Chronography of Africanus (3rd century) used these comparisons to date

Christ’s birth to the year 5500, figuering the fictitious creation in this way:

• The world lasts 6000 years.

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• Christ came in the 11th of 12 hours,

• 6000 : 12 * 11 = 5500

• Thus Christ came in the year of the world 5500.

Yet the approach of the fatal Cosmic Year 6000 occurring 500 years after Christ’s birth

caused end-time fever among the believers.

At the turn of the fourth to fifth centuries, i.e., precisely the moment when the barbarian

invasions may have stirred up apocalyptic anxieties, the North African bishop Julius

Hilarianus, for instance, wrote a treatise ”On the Duration of the World,” in which he

calculates 5530 years from creation to the Passion of Christ, and 369 years from that event

until the consulate of Caesarius and Atticus (AD 397); there remain, so he concludes, 101

years to go before the Resurrection of the dead. (Declerq. 2000)

To avert end time fever and to sustain religious credibility several strategies were applied by

the church:

A1. Shifting the era of creation to the past in order to show that the dreaded year AM 6000

had long passed, as the chronicler John Malalas did by identifying the year 6000 with the

passion of Christ.

A2. Rejuvenating the age of the world and shifting the year AM 6000 into the future, which

was the method of the fourth century chronicler Eusebius. Influenced by Jerome, Eusebius

delayed the birth date of Christ by three centuries to AM 5199.

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A3. Starting a new counting of the years from another fictitious point in time: Christ’s

incarnation. Dionysius Exiguus made the most widespread attempt at this when he created a

new temporal hinge point for counting the years: Anno Domini, Year of the Lord.

Dionysius created a new Easter cycle starting with AD 532 and established in this way a new

yearly count, but gives no concrete hint how and why he made his invention.

If we take the narrative of the Bethlehem star of the Gospel as a historical fact, we have the

dilemma that Herod the Great died in 4BC, and therefore the AD years do not represent

precise historical fact and in addition do not go conform with any contemporary chronologies.

The Adjustment of the “anni ab incarnatione Domini nostri Iesu Christi” by Dionysius

Exiguus

…Because the blessed Cyril began his first cycle in the 153rd year of Diocletian and ended

his last cycle in the 247th year of Diocletian, we have to start in the 248th year [i.e. 532 AD]

of this man, who was a tyrant rather than emperor.

However, we did not want to preserve the memory of an impious persecutor of Christians in

our cycles, but chose rather to mark the times with the years from the incarnation of our Lord

Jesus Christ [i.e., 532 AD], so that the commencement of our hope will appear more familiar

to us and the origin of the redemption of mankind, that is the Passion of our Redeemer, will

shine in a more glorious way.

(CYCLUS DECEMNOVENNALIS DIONYSII)

B) Doctrines that influenced Dionysius’ adjustment of AD:

1. The cosmological concept of Antiquity (Great Year)

2. The idea of Jesus‘ return at a conjunction of all planets

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3. The astrological connection of Jesus with the current new heliacal vernal equinox

constellation Pisces symbolized by the acrostic ICHTHYS

4. The Apocalypse of John of Patmos and its allusion to the seven planets and precession

B1) The Great Year Doctrine of Antiquity

There exist dozens of ancient cites of a common multiple of the planetary periods as for

example Plato tells. This doctrine, called apokatastasis pantoon, was based upon the idea that,

when the planets return to the same position as at the beginning, everything would repeat

itself (Waerden, 1952, pp. 129-155), as Eudemos a pupil of Aristotle tells. From Berossos,

Cicero, Seneca, Heraclitus Stoicus, Macrobius, and Nemesius we have similar citations (de

Calatay, 1996)

... and hence they [humankind] can scarcely be said to know that their [i.e. the planets’, ed.]

wanderings, being infinite in number and admirable for their variety, make up time. And yet

there is no difficulty in seeing that the perfect number of time fulfills the perfect year when all

the eight revolutions, having their relative degrees of swiftness, are accomplished together

and attain their completion at the same time, measured by the rotation of the same and

equally moving [i.e. the equator, ed.].

Plato --Timaeus 39 c-d

There is a common multiple of all orbital times, the large year; at its expiration all planets

are again in the same place.

… If one believes the Pythagoreans, then I will return also in the future, as everything after

its number returns, and I will tell you here again fairy tales, holding this stick in my hand,

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while you will sit likewise before me. Likewise everything else will repeat itself.

Eudemos, Aristotle’s disciple at the Lykaion at Athens

Men usually measure one year only by using the return of the sun, thus with only one star; but

if however all stars return to the same point from which they started, and repeat in long

intervals the same figure of the total sky, then this is called indeed a "turning year";

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Somnium Scipionis, de Rep. VI,24

The year that is called "mundanus” is a true turning-year since it happens by the turning of

the entire universe, unfolding over the longest periods of time; ... [it] is therefore the end of

the Great Year, when all the constellations and all the fixed stars so return from a known

place to the very same place, that not a single star is in a place other than the one in which it

was when all the others were set into motion from their places;

Macrobius, Somnium Scipionis 2,11,8-11

Berossos, the interpreter of Belus, states that the courses of the planets determine the time of

a fire disaster and a flood. A fire on earth will rage if all planets, which move now in different

courses, will gather in Cancer, standing still in the same place (of the sky), such that a

straight line can pass through all their positions. A flood, however, will come if the same

group of planets comes together in Capricorn.

Seneca, Questiones naturales III 29,1

Some people want the conjunction of the seven planets in one zodiacal sign to be referred to

by these words of Homer, and also the universal destruction, whenever this should happen.

He (Homer) alludes to the confusion of the universe when he brings together Apollo, i.e. the

Sun and Artemis, whom we identify with the Moon, as well as the stars of Aphrodite, Ares,

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Hermes, and Zeus. In such a way as not to appear to be ignorant, we have to accept this

allegory more for its persuasiveness than for its veracity.

Heraclitus Stoicus, Quaestiones homericae, 53

Also, the Christian scholar, Clement of Alexandria, writes of this periodical purification by

fire and water, and accuses even Plato and the Greek philosophers of being thieves and having

stolen this idea from the Bible:

Plato also states in like manner that the Earth is purified at certain times by fire and water:

“There have been many destructions … the biggest ones by fire and water” …Then, (Plato)

speaking of the flood: “But when the gods purify the Earth by submerging it, those who are in

the mountains, cattlemen and shepherds, are saved, while the inhabitants of our cities are

carried away to the sea by the rivers. I have shown in the First Stromateis that the Greek

philosophers deserve to be called thieves, for they have taken their main tenets from Moses

and their prophets, without any acknowledgement of debt.

Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, V, 1, 9-10

B2) The idea of Jesus‘ return at a conjunction of all planets

Nemesius gives a report that early Christians believed that during a Great-Year-alignment the

Resurrection of Jesus was expected.

According to the Stoics the conflagration and the destruction of all beings is generated, after

stated periods of time, by the planets, when they come back, both in longitude and latitude, to

the same sign in which each one of them was at the beginning, when the world was first

shaped. Then, from the start the world is restored anew. Since the stars are brought back

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similarly, everything which occurred in the previous period is accomplished, without any

change. There will be again Socrates and Plato and every man, with their friend and fellow-

citizen. They will suffer the same things, and every city, every village and every field will be

restored similarly. This restoration of everything will not take place once, but many times, or,

more exactly, the same things will be restored indefinitely and endlessly. As for gods who are

not subject to destruction, by having witnessed this single period, they will know all the things

that will occur in the subsequent periods. For nothing will be unexpected regarding the things

which occurred previously, but everything will be the same without any change, even in the

tiniest details.

Some people state that Christians imagine the Resurrection by way of this restoration, but

those are completely wrong. For Christ's words instruct that the Resurrection will take place

once and not periodically. (Nemesius, about 400 CE)

In early Christian iconography the scene of the “Meal of the Seven,” (Fig. 1 and 2) found in

several graffiti at the catacombs of Rome represents this cosmic moment expected by early

Christians at the end of time or in the world beyond. This scene mirrors that sitting together at

a common meal, which alludes to the classical Greek symposium after the creation of

humankind by Prometheus. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate an alignment of the classical planet in

the Ptolemaic and Copernican system.

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Fig. 1and 2: Graffiti in catacombs of Rome. The scene of the “Meal of the Seven”

Fig.3 and 4: Graphical representations of a Great Year alignment in the Ptolemaic geocentric

system (left) and in the modern heliocentric system (right).

B3) The astrological connection of Jesus with the contemporary new heliacal vernal

equinox constellation Pisces symbolized by the acrostic ICHTHYS

Early Christian iconography in catacombs of Rome shows the acrostic ICHTHYS and graffiti

of a fish (Figs. 5 and 6), which alludes to Jesus as the releaser of the new age of Pisces due to

the precession of the equinoxes. As a consequence Dionysius dated the starting point of his

years to the vernal equinox at 25th March, the former feast of Incarnation (now Annunciation).

Figs. 5 and 6: Graffiti from catacomb St. Callixtus, Rome

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The letters ICHTHYS of the Latinized version of the Greek word IXOYS (fish) was

interpreted as Iesous CHristos THeou HYios Soter (Jesus Christus, son of God, Savior).

Early 3rd century Christian writer Tertullianus alludes to Jesus Christ and the new age.

... we, little fishes, after the image of our ICHTHYS, are born in the water. (Tertullian, De baptismo)

B4) The Apocalypse of John of Patmos and its allusion to the seven planets and

precession.

As the great Franz Boll already states Revelation tells of the future cusp from one aeon to the

next. Thus it tells of the shift from the Piscean age to the Aquarian age.

The material... to interpret the Revelation of John... consists of texts and images. Prophecies

like Apocalypse deal with images of the future. ...The Apocalypses tell of events shortly before

the end of this world, or more correctly said, before or at the beginning of a new aeon or

saeculum. (Franz Boll, 1914)

In the introduction, the Apocalypse gives a hint on how to interpret it astrologically.

If we identify the seven stars with the angels, i. e. the ancient deities of the seven communities

of Asia minor, as Revelation itself says, we easily find an allusion to the seven classical

planets.

[Rev 1:20] As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the

seven golden lamp stands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven

lamp stands are the seven churches.

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Revelation explains that the seven stars are the angels (deities) of the seven churches and the

seven letters of the Apocalypse are addressed to these seven churches:

Ephesus: Main antique sanctuary of Artemis = Moon

Pergamon: The famous alter of Zeus = Jupiter

Thyatira: The text mentions the morning star = Venus

Sardis: The text deals with merchants and thieves = Mercury

Philadelphia: Greek Delphi is the sanctuary of Apollo = Sun

Laodicea: = Mars?

Thus Apocalypse addresses the seven classical planets and makes an allusion to the value of

Precession:

Rev 13:11] Then I saw another beast, which rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a

lamb and it spoke like a dragon.

[Rev 13:18] This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the

beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six.

In the Western hemisphere since the end of antiquity the usage of the precessional value 66,6y

each 1° (equal to 666y/10° or 2000y/30°) can be found in the writings of the following

astronomers:

• Theon of Alexandria (4th cent.)

• The tables of the Shah (Zij-i Shah) (6th cent.)

• Al-Khwarizmi, al zij Sindhind (c. 800)

• Tabulae probatae or az-Zig al-mumtan (c. 830)

• Al-Battani, called Albategnius, al-Zij (c. 880)

• al-Sufi, called Azophi (c. 965)

• Al Biruni (973-1048), al Canon al Masud

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• Arabic fixed star catalogue of 1st Oct. 1112 CE (ed. Paul Kunitzsch)

• Libros del Saber von Alfons von Kastillen (1252-1284)

• Judah ben Verga of Lisbon (c. 1470)

There exists a strong indication that in India the value of 1800y/27° (Bennedik, 2007) was

used even before medieval times (Pingree, 1976, p. 112), which equals 2000y/30°. A transfer

of knowledge from India to the occident occured at the end of antiquity, as ascertained by the

9th century patriarch Photius of Constantinople, as well as by Cedrenus in the 11th century.

During the reign of Constantine in the 4th century, Metrodorus, who created a 532-yearly

Easter cycle, visited India to study philosophy with the Brahmins (Mosshammer 2009, p. 199)

An 8th century illustration of Germanicus’ “On the Phainomena of Aratos” in the Codex

Basiliensis (Haffner, 1997) impressively confirms the mediaeval identification of the feared

apocalyptical beast (Fig. 7) with the upcoming age of Aquarius and shows the horned beast

just between Pisces and Capricorn, where one usually expects to find Aquarius.

Fig.7: Illustration of Germanicus’ “On the Phainomena of Aratos”.

Codex Basiliensis, about 800 CE

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C) Conclusion:

Due to the arrival of the year 6000 in the Anno Mundi of Africanus in a year corresponding to

about 500 AD, which caused end-time-fever, Dionysius Exiguus was searching for a future

date of world’s end. He searched for a future alignment of all classical planets by the hand of

the commensurable planetary periods, similar to his Indian contemporary Aryabhata, who

calculated backwards to such an alignment and dated there the beginning of the Indian age

Kali Yuga. The same year, 3102 BCE, we find later in Persian and Arabic chronologies, such

as Abu Mashar’s “Book of the Conjunctions” where it is identified as the date of the Deluge

(Waerden, 1980, pp. 117-131) and makes evident the transfer of astronomical knowledge

between India and the West. Dionysius Exiguus, after having calculated a future alignment,

adjusted 2000 years before this alignment the starting point of his “anni ab incarnatione I.C.”

It has the effect that on May 5th, 2000 a rare close massing of the classical planets occurred

(Fig. 8). B. L. van der Waerden has calculated a very minimal probability (P = 0.026) that in

an interval of 6000 years, a massing of the classical planets within 30° would occur. Thus it

appears that Dionysius, based on the cosmological (Great Year) and religious (Six Day

Creation, Apocalypse) doctrines of his age, centered his AD years towards the alignment of

the year 2000 because of an expected end time together with the return of Christ.

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Fig. 8: Planetary massing of 5-5-2000 (Skyviewcafe) JDN 2451670. Right ascension: Moon

3h 55m; Sun 2h 51m; Mercury 2h 34m; Venus 2h 14m; Mars 3h 55m; Jupiter 3h 0m; Saturn

3h 11m

REFERENCES

Susanne Bennedik, Die Siebenplanetenwoche in Indien. Dissertation. Bonn 2007. p. 456,

URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:5-11153,

URL: http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/diss_online/phil_fak/2007/bennedik_susanne

Franz Boll, Aus der Offenbarung Johannis. Hellenistische Studien zum Weltbild der

Apokalypse. 1914

Godefroid de Calatay, Annus Platonicus. A Study of World Cycles in Greek, Latin and

Arabic Sources. Universite Catholique de Louvain. Institut Orientaliste. Peeters Press

Louvain - Paris. 1996

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Georges Declercq, Anno Domini. The Origins of the Christian Era. Turnhout Belgium. 2000

Mechthild Haffner, Ein antiker Sternbilderzyklus und seine Tradierung in Handschriften vom

frühen Mittelalter bis zum Humanismus. Untersuchungen zu den Illustrationen der Aratea des

Germanicus. Hildesheim. 1997.

Alden A. Mosshammer, The Easter Computus and the Origins of the Christian Era. Oxford

University Press, 2009.

David Edwin Pingree, “The Recovery of early Greek astronomy from India,” Journal for the

History of Astronomy, vol. 7, 1976, p. 112.

Skyviewcafe, http://www.skyviewcafe.com/skyview.php

Tertullian, Ueber die Taufe (De baptismo). 1. Kap. Lob der Taufe. Bibliothek der

Kirchenväeter. http://www.unifr.ch/bkv/kapitel89.htm

Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, Das Große Jahr und seine Ewige Wiederkehr. Hermes 80.

1952. pp. 129-155.

--- The Conjunction of 3102 BC, Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Science

and Medicine, vol 24, 1980, pp. 117-131

Thanks to Mrs. Joan Griffith for English corrections