<@Anon-e-moose> #84521
And why did you call Mary a child when the Bible said she was a woman? I can’t remember the verse, but Jesus called a 12 year old girl a little girl. That shows you in ancient Israel 12 year olds were still seen as little girls. However old Mary was, she seem to understand what was going on. I say she was around 18-19 or 18-20. I don’t know, but Mary doesn’t come off being a kid to me. And I find it hard to believe that an all powerful being didn’t cause the betrothal to last for several years for Mary if she was 12-15 when she was betrothed. I believe he did. God is not a man and neither is the Holy Spirit. Only a man would impregnated a 12-15 year old girl. A an all loving God would have cause the betrothal to last until Mary was 18 or older.
Maybe you should’ve read the Bible and did some research* instead of listening to scholars who are guessing and basing their guess either on a mix up or weak evidence. I say mix up because maybe they are mixing Babylonian marriage age with the ones in Israel or assuming it’s the same. There are a lot of sources I read that states that Jewish women and man married later in ancient Israel. Or either that maybe they are basing their guess on some law. The law in ancient Israel does say one can married at 12 and maybe the talmud may said something about marriage at 12. However those things don’t prove that most married around 12-15 or only around 12-15. The talmud is probably the ideal and not the reality.
* (although to be fair I found my sources on google books.You also have to know what to look for and what to type in).
Ps. I find it strange that Mary’s father (or mother) was not a part of this. Girls and women until marriage were under their dad’s authority.