JC - Chapter 6

In this chapter, Elder Talmage paints a great picture of the religious and political conditions, associations, and leadership at the time of Christ.  But what I found interesting was that this period was considered "the meridian of time".  Moses recorded of the days of Lamech -

"For they would not hearken unto his voice, nor believe on his Only Begotten Son, even him whom he declared should come in the meridian of time, who was prepared from before the foundation of the world."  (Pearl of Great Price | Moses 5:57)

Of the meridian of time, Elder Talmage explained -

"The term “meridian,” as commonly used, conveys the thought of a principal division of time or space;c thus we speak of the hours before the daily noon as ante-meridian (a.m.) and those after noon as post-meridian (p.m.). So the years and the centuries of human history are divided by the great event of the birth of Jesus Christ. The years preceding that epoch-making occurrence are now designated as time Before Christ (b.c.); while subsequent years are each specified as a certain Year of our Lord, or, as in the Latin tongue, Anno Domini (a.d.). Thus the world’s chronology has been adjusted and systematized with reference to the time of the Savior’s birth; and this method of reckoning is in use among all Christian nations. It is instructive to note that a similar system was adopted by the isolated branch of the house of Israel that had been brought from the land of Palestine to the western continent; for from the appearance of the promised sign among the people betokening the birth of Him who had been so abundantly predicted by their prophets, the Nephite reckoning of the years, starting with the departure of Lehi and his colony from Jerusalem, was superseded by the annals of the new era."