I think they even worked the bloody time that Adam had his surgery out image Of course if you're waiting for the end of the world you need to know when it started! Curious that they didn't just adopt the Jewish calendar since they'd done it all already. It does have a lot to do with Christianity because Jews were expecting their End of the World around then and had to keep recalculating it as each date passed. So it's a fair bet that there is some relevance to Christian origins in there somewhere, new religion for the new age of Pisces and all that. Besides, I am fairly sure that Herod the Great was just as aware of it and planning to set his own empire up expecting Rome to go back into civil war once Augustus died. Only Herod snuffed it first.

God created man and man created God. So is it in the world. Men make gods and they worship their creations. It would be fitting for the gods to worship men. (Gospel of Philip: Logion 85: 1-4)