That nativity scene sitting on your relative’s coffee table may be lying to you (sort of). And I think that’s OK.
If you’ve witnessed any modern illustration of the birth of Jesus—whether by movie, show, play, or dusty and dismembered figurines—you likely noticed the packed house that came to visit the coming messiah in that old stable a few thousand years ago.
The classic nativity scene usually displays the man of the hour in infant Jesus (somehow not crying), Mary, Joseph, a few shepherds, a wide variety of seemingly tame farm animals, and the famous “wise men” who brought gifts with names that we all struggle to pronounce.
But just like popcorn hanging on Christmas trees, one of those things doesn’t belong.
OK—if stringing some Orville Redenbacher across pine branches is your tradition, I’m only kidding—it just seems impractical; I digress. But what really may not fit on the literal Christmas day stage are those nameless wise men, which may have been more or less than three in number (yes, the Bible never says how many wise men there were (and yes—all of our minds are being blown right now)).
How Old Was Jesus When the Wise Men Came?
Not only were the wise men likely not at Jesus’ birth, they may not have actually arrived on location with their gifts until Jesus was anywhere between a few months and two years old. (Now, I’ve been late to my fair share of birthday parties, but these guys take the cake—and eat it, too).
How can we deduce this exactly? Don’t worry; my source is not “trust me, bro.”—we can simply go to the origin reference of the story itself, told in two different passages of scripture, one from the Gospel of Matthew and the other from the Gospel of Luke.
Our first clue of their absence from Jesus’ birth (what the nativity scene portrays) comes from the differentiation of Jesus’ age in the stories. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is described as a “babe” on the day of his birth. The original Greek word for babe is “brephos,” which means ‘newborn child’ or ‘infant.’ In Matthew, however, we saw that when the wise men encounter Jesus, he is described as a “young child,” with the original Greek word being “paidion,” which means ‘little boy/girl.’
Furthermore, the actual location of where Jesus was born and where it says the wise men met him seem to be different. In Luke’s account, Jesus is said to have been laid in a manger upon his birth (a type of structure that would be in a stable), whereas when the wise men arrived at the scene, in Matthew’s account, it is said Jesus was in a “house.”
Lastly, neither Matthew’s nor Luke’s accounts mention the characters that the other accounts list. Luke never speaks of wise men being present at Jesus’ birth, and Matthew never says shepherds are in attendance when the wise men arrive. Unless Luke hates wise men and Matthew has some beef with shepherds, I think it’s safe to say there’s no reason they wouldn’t have noted the additional characters.
An Understandably Excused Absence
So, yes, these wise men were likely a bit late to the birthday bash, but in their defense, they didn’t get an invitation in time. They also didn’t have access to Subaru Outbacks or Google Maps, and their camels (if that was their pack animal of choice) could only go 40 miles per hour in short bursts. Additionally, most scholars believe these men traveled from modern-day Iran, nearly one thousand miles from Jesus’ birthplace in Bethlehem—so, yeah, not a hop, skip, and a jump away. Talk about commitment to gift-giving!
So, how old was Jesus when the wise men came? We can make some educated guesses, but I don’t believe these details are a game-changer to the sacredness of the birth of Jesus or the true intentions of your grandma’s nativity setup (please don’t flush her figurines down the toilet to prove a point).
What does matter? What the wise men traveled for weeks (or months, or years) to see. The God of creation, coming to dwell among us all—at just the right time.
Disclaimer: This article is 100% human-generated.
