How old were Jesus Christ's parents when they had him?

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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lpetrich
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How old were Jesus Christ's parents when they had him?

Post by lpetrich »

That's an issue that I've seen a few times. I've seen some people claim that Mary was in her teens when she had Jesus Christ.

I checked on Matthew and Luke, and they don't have anything definite on that subject.

The age question does cause difficulty for one theory about JC's paternity, that his father was Roman soldier Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera. He was likely born around 22 BCE, and that would have made him about 18 years old in 4 BCE. So he was on the young side at the time. However, if JC's biological father was a Roman soldier named Pantera, he could have been a different one.

Finally, the orthodox Christian theory that it was the Holy Spirit that was JC's biological father. That entity is the Third Person of the Trinity, and since the Christian God is eternal, the Holy Spirit is also eternal, thus making that entity's age infinity. Which creates a rather extreme age mismatch.
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