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Religious Studies & Theology vocabulary · History of Religions

BCE

Meaning in religious studies & theology, with examples

/ˌbiː siː ˈiː/abbreviationCore term

In religious studies & theology, BCE means: Short for 'Before the Common Era', a religiously neutral way of marking dates before year 1, used instead of BC; CE (Common Era) is used instead of AD.

In Turkish: MÖ, milattan önce

How it is used

Standard in religious studies and many history journals. The numbers are the same as BC and AD; only the labels change. Write the abbreviation after the year: 586 BCE, 70 CE. Islamic studies often add Hijri dates with AH (1453 CE / 857 AH).

Example sentences

  1. The First Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in the early sixth century BCE.

  2. Most religious studies journals ask authors to use BCE and CE rather than BC and AD.

Common collocations

  • BCE and CE
  • in the fifth century BCE
  • around 500 BCE
  • first century CE
  • religious studiesAn academic field that studies religions from the outside, using methods from history, sociology, anthropology, psychology and philosophy, without judging which beliefs are true.
  • JudaismThe religion, culture and way of life of the Jewish people, based on the covenant with God described in the Hebrew Bible and developed in the Talmud and later teaching.
  • BuddhismA religious and philosophical tradition based on the teaching of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, who lived in northern India around the fifth century BCE.

More terms: History of Religions

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