Anno Lucis (“in the Year of Light”) is a dating system used inMasonic ceremonial or commemorative proceedings, which is equivalent to theGregorian year plus 4000. It is similar toAnno Mundi.
For example, a dateAnno Domini (AD) 2025 becomes Anno Lucis (AL) 6025.[1] Thiscalendar era, which would designate 4001 BC as 'year zero', was adopted in the 18th century as a simplification of theAnno Mundi era dating system used in theHebrew calendar and borrowing from other ideas of that time regarding theyear of creation.
After theMasoretic text was published, dating creation around 4000 BC became common, and it was received with wide support.[2] Proposed calculations of the date of creation, using the Masoretic from the 10th century to the 18th century, were numerous and fluctuated by many decades.[3] Notably,Isaac Newton's calculation pointed at the year 4000 BC.[3]
Among the Masoretic creation estimates or calculations for the date of creation,Archbishop Ussher's specific chronology dating the creation to 4004 BC became the most accepted and popular in Protestant Christendom, mainly because this specific date was attached to theKing James Bible.[4] The Hebrew Calendar has traditionally, since the 4th century AD byHillel II, dated the creation to 3761 BC,[5][6] in accordance with theSeder Olam Rabbah compiled byJose ben Halafta in AD 160, and in agreement withThe Remaining Signs of Past Centuries, in which the Muslim chronologistal-Biruni identifiesanno mundi as 3448 years before theSeleucid era, but not withSeder Olam Zutta, which dates it to 4339 BC and was compiled in AD 804.[7]
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