i) The claim is often made that Mary may have been as young as 12 years old when she got married. It was the custom back then for girls to marry very young.
ii) However, that may be anachronistic. One issue is whether the age of childbearing has changed. This is partly complicated by definitions. From the little I've read, puberty used to be a longer stage in maturation than it is today.
iii) In addition, I've read that a boy's voice used to break later, around 17, than happens today, in the developed world.
iv) In girls, there's the distinction between the onset of puberty and menarche.
v) Since, moreover, Jesus was virginally conceived, the issue of Mary's sexual maturity is moot in that regard.
So there are lots of questions and ambiguities surrounding the issue.
Good post!
ReplyDeleteJust to add to Steve's post:
1. Puberty is primarily about hormones leading to physiological and anatomical changes in boys and girls.
2. Even in puberty, there's s a distinction between pre-puberty (adrenarche) and true puberty. The difference is between different types of hormones. Such as gonadotropins (e.g. LH, FSH) and gonadal sex steroids (e.g. estrogen, testosterone).
3. In girls:
a. Thelarche. Puberty is considered to begin when the girl forms breast buds (thelarche). On average this is at 9.5 years old.
b. Pubarche. After thelarche, girls generally get pubic hair (pubarche).
c. Menarche. After pubic hair, girls generally get their first period or menstruation (menarche). On average this is at 12.5 years old.
4. Ovulation (discharging an egg) is necessary to be fertile. Usually ovulation overlaps with menarche. But not necessarily always.
5. The average duration of puberty is 3-4 years. So the duration of puberty is from approximately age 9.5 to age 12.5-13.5.
6. However all this is data from the US.
There are slight variations in other developed nations like Europe.
There are more significant variations in the developing world. Especially third world nations.
I imagine puberty in 1st century Israel was more akin to a modern third world nation than to the US.
And all these are still just averages. Even in the modern US, there's a wide range.
And just to be clear, I agree with Steve that the age of childbearing could have changed. Most the medical data we have on puberty is from - what? - the mid-20th century at the earliest? Maybe interesting cases as far back as the 19th or even 18th centuries, but how reliable is that data? In terms of modern medicine, I imagine the best data is from around WW2 until today.
DeleteHowever, all this means we're just assuming things from c. 1940 to today are the same as they were c. 1 AD. But is that assumption warranted? Maybe, maybe not.