Writer’s Diary April 2026

Jesus’ siblings

Joseph and Mary did not have sexual relations until after Jesus was born (Matthew 1:23-25). Several children appear to have been born to them after that (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3), with James possibly being the oldest (suggested simply because he seems to be the most prominent (see Acts 12:17; Acts 15:13; Galatians 1:19; Jude 1:1)). Of course, some people argue that these 7+ children were Joseph’s pre-existing children from a previous marriage, but this seems to be driven by the need to support a doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity rather than any Biblical evidence. I have assumed that these children are all Jesus’ younger siblings, children of Joseph and Mary since the description of them in Matthew 13 suggests that their father was Joseph and their mother, Mary.

Matthew 13:55-56 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?

Furthermore, the report in Mark suggests strongly that Mary was the mother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon as well as an unknown number of sisters:

Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offence at him.

Herod’s plot

When Herod decided to kill all the babies in Bethlehem and surrounds, he chose the age of 2 as the cut-off (Matthew 2:16). Different cultures use different ways of measuring age. The idea of “running” age which we encounter in India, includes any uncompleted years, so that newborn babies could be spoken of as one “running” (except that they can’t run yet). In Australia, our common way of specifying age is based on completed years only. Thus, on the day you turn 25, you have completed 25 years of life. “Running” age will give a number one greater than our completed year reckoning.

“Two years old and under” could be taken with either method of reckoning, although it feels more natural to me for it to be using completed years only. However, in Jewish numbering in the Old Testament, it appears that counting often includes uncompleted time periods. For example, the number of years in the reigns of kings. I should include some examples for this, but none pop to mind.

To locate this story in time, particularly to give Jesus an age, I will assume that Herod’s brutal sentence was to bring death to every boy child that had not yet lived for three complete years, ie. all boys who were 0, 1 or 2 years old, who had not reached the third anniversary of their birth.

How long would Herod wait before he decided that the wise men were not returning as he had requested/instructed them to? It could take up to a week to find the child, but probably not more. If one week were spent admiring the child, they should be back within 3 weeks. However, Herod would be a busy man and may not act immediately. It may be a few weeks before he starts to make inquiries, but his paranoia is unlikely to leave the unresolved threat alone for long.
In all likelihood, Herod would have been making pointed enquiries within two months of the wise men’s first appearance in his court. His decision to use widespread slaughter to eradicate the potential pretender would probably be made within another month.

So how did he choose the cut-off age of two years old?

Presumably he based it on the timing indicated by the wise men, adding a healthy factor of safety to make sure that the unknown, but dangerous child was not allowed to escape.

Herod’s 3-year range suggests to me that the wise men’s information suggested that the newborn king was probably about 18 months old by the time Herod made his move.

Returning to the matter of Jesus’ half-brothers and -sisters, if Jesus was indeed 18 months old when Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt, Mary may already have been pregnant with her second child – her first child with Joseph.

Duration of their journey to Egypt

Deuteronomy 1:2 It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.

Horeb is Mount Sinai in Arabia and Kadesh-barnea is about 80km southwest of Beersheba, in the far south of Israel.

1 Kings 19:8 And [Elijah] arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

Elijah was travelling from one day’s journey south of Beersheba (1 Kings 19:3-4) to Mount Sinai, which should take about 12 days based on the information in Deuteronomy 1:2. If there was no food available on the journey to Sinai, it would probably not have been available for the return journey either. Thus, the 40 days’ journey was probably travelling both to and from Mount Sinai and would include the time spent at Mount Sinai.

We don’t know where Joseph and Mary stayed in Egypt, so we can’t know accurately how long their journey from Bethlehem would have taken, but it was probably in the order of 3-5 weeks.

See more information about Herod on Wikipedia.

Where did Joseph, Mary and Jesus stay in Egypt?

We are not told. In fact, we aren’t even given any hints. All we have is the command to go to Egypt:

Matthew 2:13 “Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”

And then regarding their return:

Hosea 11:1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

Matthew 2:15 “and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, Out of Egypt I called my son.”

History suggests that there were quite a few places throughout Egypt where significant numbers of Jews lived. Mary and Joseph may well have found such a place where they could hide easily, but we don’t know. It seems reasonable to assume that they would not have travelled further than was necessary for them to feel safe from Herod and any spies he may send if he somehow became aware that his target had escaped.

How much notice did God give to Joseph?

God knew from the start that this brutal slaughter was to happen. He could have given as much or as little notice as he chose.

The message the angel gave Joseph in Matthew 2:13 was simple:

“Get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt”

Urgency was demanded. Joseph’s sleep for that night was over and the family must be on the road before dawn.

Was this escape similar to Israel’s escape from Egypt which began at full moon? We don’t know.

If the family had fled very close to the time when Herod sent out his executioners, their absence would have been noticed more than if they had left 1-3 weeks before. This may argue for God giving Joseph the earliest possible notice, perhaps even the night after the wise men had left.

How long did they stay in Egypt?

Joseph and Mary stayed in Egypt until after the death of Herod. Josephus reports that Herod’s death happened shortly after a lunar eclipse (“Antiquities of the Jews” Book 17, Chapter 6, Section 4 with his death described in Chapter 8, Section 1 (see Whiston’s translation from University of Chicago)). The commonly accepted date of this eclipse is 13 March 4BC, however some argue that it refers to the eclipse of 9 December, 1BC (see article on Biblical Archaeology site) since this fits better with the length of reign and age stated by Josephus. At the moment, I’m not sure either way.

We don’t know when Jesus was born, so deducing that Jesus was about 18 months old when Mary and Joseph fled doesn’t help much with anchoring the chronology or determining their length of stay in Egypt..

If we guess that they stayed for only 6 months, then Jesus would have been born in about 6BC or 3BC.

Presumably, Joseph would have been able to find work in Egypt as a carpenter or builder and so feed the family.

What happened to the gifts given to Jesus by the wise men? They may have been used to cover family costs, but I can’t help feeling that it is more likely that they would have been carefully kept for him to use as he chose when he was older. Of course, that would mean they had to carry them down to Egypt with them!