How old will JESUS be on 25 December 2010?

Answer 1

If the question refers to the Jesus that we think it does, then we probably

should stay away from it altogether. But wisdom is one weakness that has

so far eluded us, so here we go:

The season, date, and year of Jesus' birth are by no means unanimously agreed.

Some of the problems include:

-- Shepherds don't "watch their flocks by night" in December around the Holy Land.

-- There was no particularly unusual visual astronomical event in the year Zero.

But there was in the year 6 BCE, right in the part of the sky and in the constellation

where the three kings reported seeing it.

-- If we're not mistaken, Mary and Joseph were traveling on the Passover pilgrimage,

which always coincided closely with Spring in the northern Hemisphere, not Winter.

-- The calendar that we're using now, in 2010, has been altered and generally

messed with several times in the past 2,000 years. The whole matter is very

complex, but if there's one thing of which we can all be absolutely certain, it's

this:

January 1 of the year 1 was definitely NOT exactly 2,010 years before 1/1 of 2011.

In any case, maybe we can Dodge the whole issue by pointing out that while the

birth- and death-dates of historic figures are often commemorated long after their

passing, cultures generally don't continue to count the historic figure's age after his

demise. The Christian world continues to commemorate Jesus' birth, as well as his

death and whatever closely followed it. But it's pretty well documented that he died

around the age of 33 or so, and most organized Christian movements have been

satisfied to leave it at that.