About Jesus' Birth

In those days girls were usually betrothed at 12 years old, and married by the time they were 14, so Mary was probably 13 or 14 when the angel appeared to her.

The angel who appeared was the Angel Gabriel but when he was on the earth, his name was Noah - the same from the flood.

Mary's Hebrew name was Miriam. The name Mary was from Arabic. There were many, many girl babies who were named Miriam/Mary because of the scriptures that said that the mother of the Messiah would be named Miriam/Mary. So when a woman found that she was with child, if she had a girl, she would name her Miriam/Mary in hopes that she would be the chosen one.

Mary had been taught the scriptures. She was familiar with the prophesies and so accepted Gabriel's message to her with love and humility. We need to be ready when we are called to something extraordinary or unexpected and respond as she did.

As soon as it became apparent that she was pregnant, the small town gossip began. It continued throughout the pregnancy and throughout Jesus' life. During His ministry, people would say to him, "We be not born of fornication!"

When the scriptures refer to Joseph of "Joseph, son of David", it means Joseph of royal birth. Mary and Joseph were both direct descendants of the royal line and if they had not been living in captivity, would have been heirs to the throne, as well as their firstborn son.

It was Joseph's job, as the betrothed man, to build a home for them to live in before they got married. He was busy with that.

When Mary was beginning to show too much, she went to see her older cousin, Elizabeth. Elizabeth immediately knew that Mary's pregnancy was divine, so they were able to be together and support each other through a difficult time for Mary.

Finally Joseph found out about Mary being pregnant and was greatly troubled by it util the angel appeared to him. It is a credit to his character that he believed and accepted Mary (he could have had her stoned to death) and married her.

It is interesting that the best account of Jesus' birth is from Luke. That is the account most quoted and with the most details, however, Luke wasn't one of the original apostles of Jesus. He wasn't an apostle until after Jesus died. Laurel believes that he probably went to visit Mary after Joseph had died and she was a widow, living with the apostle John, who Jesus had asked to watch over her like she was his own mother. In those days the first born son was the one in charge of caring for the mother if their father died. That's why Jesus had to assign someone to care for Mary after His death.

Anyway, Luke probably visited Mary to get the full account. How else would he know that Mary "pondered all these things in her heart" and other details that sound like they come from Mary.

When the wise men found Jesus, they were, by then, living in a house; it was several years later.

We know that Jesus had brothers and sisters. We have the names of his brothers, but regarding the sisters, the scriptures only say, "all of his sisters", so we know there were three or more.

None of His brothers believed in Him during His lifetime, but after  His resurrection, he appeared to James first and then they believed and were faithful followers and apostles.