December 14, 2025

I've always been taught that Jesus was about one year old when the wise men came. Did you know that the Bible never says how old Jesus was when they visited him to bring gifts? They use different words from Luke-"babe"-to Matthew-"young child"-to distinguish age, even though they have nearly the same meaning. They stayed in Bethlehem until after the wise men came. Now, why wouldn't they have gone home after his birth and paid their taxes? So maybe it was only a day or so after his birth that they came to visit while they were still there and waiting on Mary's recovery. It would be nice if, when we were told a Bible story, the teacher would make the distinction between what is biblical and what is speculation. Now you know that there is no biblical evidence of his age. 

Here's some food for speculative thought: What if these Magi were the ancestors of the magicians from Babylon, and they learned of the prophecies about the Messiah's birth through Daniel? I bet he taught them about the One True God; they believed and passed that information on to their children. As we begin to connect the dots, the picture becomes clearer. God is very orderly, and everything included in the scriptures has a purpose, so this idea is not too far-fetched. Another note to clarify the story: The Bible doesn't say how many Magi came to visit, only that there were three kinds of gifts. So, the three wise men idea is made up; we don't know how many came. Since we are still in speculative thought, being poor, I'll bet God had them bring all those gifts to give them the ability to move to Egypt to escape Herod's order to kill all the babies under the age of two. 

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew 2:11