pescatarian09
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Your opinion doesn't matter. The fact is, young marriage was a normal practice in the premodern world, particularly in hotter desert climates, when girls attain menarche at earlier ages than girls living in colder regions.
It is fact that the age of consent in the various regions of the United States before the 20th century was typically 10 or 12, and as high as 14 in some states, or as low as 7 or 8 in others.
It is fact that Medieval Europe, children were married between the ages of 10 and 12, or even younger, and their marriages consummated at puberty.
So all these various peoples, who do not conform to your 21st century standards, you must declare Satanic too.
“Traditionally, across the globe, the age of consent for sexual union was a matter for the family to decide, or a tribal custom. In most cases, this coincided with signs of puberty, menstruation for a woman and pubic hair for a man.
Sir Edward Coke in 17th century England ‘made it clear that the marriage of girls under 12 was normal, and the age at which a girl who was a wife was eligible for a dower from her husband’s estate was 9. The American colonies followed the English tradition, and the law was more of a guide. For example Mary Hathaway of Virginia, was only 9 when she was married to William Williams.
Portugal, Spain, Denmark and the Swiss canons, initially set the age of consent at 10-12 years and then raised it to between 13 and 16 years in the second half of the 19th century. Historically, the English common law set the age of consent to range from 10- 12. In the United States, by the 1880s, most states set the age of consent at 10-12, and in one state Delaware, the age of consent was only 7.
Social and resulting legal attitudes toward the appropriate age of consent have drifted upwards in modern times. For example while ages from 10 to 13 were typically acceptable in Western countries during the mid-19the century, the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century were marked by changing.
I believe that a lot of our current mores come from reluctance to let our children mature mentally as quickly as our bodies do. Keep in mind that not all societies share Western mores. And to my surprise, until the latter part of the 19th Century, Children in the Western nations were engaged and married at a much earlier age. The trend to give children more time to mature is relatively new.
In his book, The Emphatic civilization, (Penguin, NY, 200) Jeremy Rifkin points out that the concept of adolescence only emerged during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first three decades of the twentieth century. Society started to think of childhood as extending beyond puberty, into the later teenage years. Before that, children were considered to graduate into adulthood with the onset of puberty.”
Source: What’s Wrong in America: A Look at Troublesome Issues in Our Country By Arthur Siccan
You must also accept that most Bible scholars accept that the age of Mary (may God be pleased with her) was 12, and that of Joseph was 80 or 90. It is no use quoting a singular source, that contradicts the swathes of other evidence. Both the "History of Joseph the Carpenter" and the Infancy Gospel of James quote Mary as being twelve years of age, the latter of which was accepted as being valid by the early Church fathers.
“…His eldest son was James, surnamed Oblias—that he begat him when he was about forty years old: after him he had another son named Jose, then Simeon and Judas, and then his two daughters Mary and Salome: after his wife’s death he continued many years a widower, and about fourscore years old [eighty] married Mary. Besides Epiphanius, several other of the Greek fathers have given into this same opinion, viz. Hilary, Chrysostome, Cyrill, Euthyymius, Theophylact, Cecumenius, and generally, as bishop Peaterson says: ‘all Latin fathers till Ambrose, and the Greeks afterward; from which it is very evident that the account of Joseph’s age and family, which is in the Gospel of the Birth Mary, and the Protevangelion of James, met with very general credit among ancient Christians.”
“I might, add here, that the learned annalist cardinal Baronius, in his surprising apologies for the Virgin Mary, (…) cites many of the fathers as giving credit to its accounts, and particularly as to that of her being brought at three years of age to the temple, and devoted to its service, (Evang. Mar. c. 4. 6. Protevang. Jacob. C. 7.) and that she continued there eleven years. He says it is testified by Euodius, Gregory Nyssene, Damascene, Germanus bishop of Constantinople, Andreas Cretensis, George Bishop of Nicomedia, and others. See Apparat. Ad Annal. No. 48. And Casaubon’s reflections upon this Exercit. 1. Contr. Baron. Ad eund. Numer.”
Source: A new and full method of settling the canonical authority of the New Testament. To which is subjoined A Vindication of the Former Part of St. Matthew’s Gospel from Mr. Whiston’s Charge of Dislocations, Reverend Jeremiah Jones, Vol. 2, pg. 116
As is written in the first paragraph, these prominent Church fathers accepted these reports as being valid:
1. Epiphanius (310 – 403AD)
2. Hilary (Hilarius) of Poitiers (300 – 368AD)
3. John Chrysostom (Born between 344 and 349 – Died 407 AD)
4. Cyril of Alexandria (376 – 444 AD)
5. Saint Euthymius the Great (377 – 473 AD)
6. Theophylact of Ohrid (also known as Theophylact of Bulgaria) (1055 – 1107 AD)
7. Cecumenius
8. Eusebius (263 – 339 AD)
Thus, to marry children at these ages, was nothing less than the norm of the premodern peoples, and if you will condemn the Prophet of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, for it, then you must condemn all these too, including reports from your own sources.
