In the last couple of years the social media apologetic arena has been burning up with the accusation that the Bible says Mary was 12 years old and Joseph was 90 years old when they married, and thus Joseph is a pedophile. I know it sounds unbelievable to anyone who has ever read the Bible, but people actually think this is true. To understand why this has been launched one must understand the history behind the discussion.
Dear muslims, your arguments are welcome. But please bring sensible ones. This one is not one. And even if it was true, only Jesus is the perfect moral exemplar for the followers of Jesus.
Why is This Even a Question?
A certain major world religion has a prophet at its center who is considered the highest moral exemplar. Because of the advent of things like search engines and social media, their holy writings have been made available to the masses. Prior to this followers were only allowed to read the Scriptures and writings in the original Arabic and to trust their leaders as to what their holy writings said. But that has changed.
With that came the discovery of the notable and notorious sexual exploits of the prophet. There are many but one observation that has really stood out, and has not been denied by their apologists such as Zakr Naik and Dr. Yasr Qadhi, is something that is hard to swallow. The prophet by their own writings married a 6 year old and then consummated the marriage at age 9 while he himself was 53 years old (here). (More about Aisha’s age – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02Oz1mciHCA). Hundreds of their own resources confirm this, including their most reliable Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari.
In response to these shocking discoveries, the leaders have admitted that this was the case and that it is therefore acceptable for 9 years old to be married off for sex (Zakr Naik – Here). And in some places even today it is an acceptable practice (here).
Because of the uncomfortableness of this as it is undeniable in their Scriptures, the return rhetoric is that it is no different than Christianity which supposedly has Mary at 12 and Joseph at 90 when they married. This is now everywhere and spreading. People actually believe this to be true which is crazy, and say that the Bible even says this (see above screenshots).
Where This Weird I Comes From
So what does the Bible say about their ages?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Literally…NOTHING.
It does not give us the ages of Mary or Joseph. When people say “The Bible says this…” it is totally made up. Just wild imagination. And if you notice in the videos where it proclaims this, they will not one time quote the Bible. Why?
Because it isn’t there.
What is quoted is only apocryphal literature–sources that are not accepted as historically reliable but are fabrications. Colin over here goes through some of those sources (here).
It would be like taking every weird and variant writing on this paticular faith, proclaiming these falsities, and saying that everything that has ever been written in history is true about Islam. It isn’t acceptable to this faith either. There is da’if for a reason.
Ok…but the Catholics accept this…right?
Nope. Not as Bible.
The apocryphal books quoted for this false claim are NOT even in the Catholic Bible. Now the Catholic Encyclopedia in an article says that a strange, extra writing not accepted as authoritative says this and that it is “of interest.” But the article EMPHATICALLY and STRONGLY says that it is not reliable, not to be trusted, not Scripture, but just of interest.
“the non-admittance of these works into the Canon of the Sacred Books casts a strong suspicion upon their contents; and, even granted that some of the facts recorded by them may be founded on trustworthy traditions, it is in most instances next to impossible to discern and sift these particles of history from the fancies with which they are associated.”
“It will not be without interest to recall here, unreliable though they are, the lengthy stories concerning St. Joseph’s marriag e. (https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08504a.htm).
Yet THIS is the article that is quoted, where the article writer goes into great lengths to say that it is unreliable. Read it for yourself.
I won’t go into the Apocrypha because again, the are NOT accepted sources. Just as Islam has many books that are NOT accepted sources. They are books written several centuries later and are not considered reliable nor were they endorsed by the church or its leaders. Even the ancient historian Josephus mentions that the church did not accept these as legitimate.
But what does the Bible say?
Well as noted previously it says nothing about their ages. At all. Zero. Zilch. We could stop there and those videos would be debunked. But there are some things to understand.
- Woman vs Young Woman.
When Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, Elizabeth says to her, “Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:42). Elizabeth calls her a woman, – γυναιξίν – gynaixin. This is the traditional word for woman (and yes, I studied Greek for 3 years).
When Jesus comes to a young girl, he says, “Little girl, I say to you get up!” Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old – Mark 5:42). The word here used for little girl is Κοράσιον,korasion
If Mary was twelve years old, they would have used the word that was used for twelve years olds (korasion) like in the book of Luke, but Elizabeth refers to Mary as a gynaixin, a woman.
Even Jesus was still considered a “boy” at the age of 12 – Lk 2:42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. - Late Child Producing Age
If Joseph was 90 years old when they married, he would have been 91 when they started having at least 6+ other children:
Mt 13:55-56 – Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all his sisters [implies 2 or more] with us?
Let’s say that Joseph and Mary had kids every year since the time Jesus was born, he would have fathered children up to the age of 97 years old. This does not fit the average life span of the times in which people did not live even close to this age. Additionally it would be against nature that his semen was still potent enough to produce children at this age. - Age of Joseph hurrying to the Temple.
If Joseph was 90, then when Jesus was left behind in the temple at age 12, Joseph would have been 102 years old. Would he really make the long trip to Jerusalem at 102 years old? Not likely. - Apprenticeship at 100?
It says Jesus learned the skills of a carpenter, he probably would have been around 9-10 to start learning that trade from his father. So was his father still be working in carpentry at 100? Perhaps in today’s standards where we have modern health care that could be a possibility, but again in the time of the first century the life span wasn’t 100. It was much, much younger. Joseph getting a full apprenticeship from his father at 100 was unlikely.
The Faith of the Ones Promoting This
- If Joseph was 90 when he married Mary at 12 then let’s think about this. By the teaching of their holy book he never had sexual relations with her and she remained a virgin (Q 21:91 and 66:12). Thus there are no problems. If it is true, he never consummated the marriage according to the Qu’ran.
- According to the main holy book of his religion, in 3 places it says that “Miriam” which is Mary, the mother of Jesus was married to Moses. ??? Not trying to be offensive here, but that would make Mary a thousand years old per the Quran. And pregnant that whole 1000 years. (Here)
- Let’s say that she was 12 years old and Joseph was 90, the fact that she could bear children was a sign that her body was capable to do so. This isn’t the case for a 9 year old pre-pubescent little girl. Bur according to Surah 65:1,4 it is ok to marry pre-pubescent girls and have sex with them (cross reference Surah 33:49) https://answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/iddah.html.
- Let’s say Joseph was 90 and she was 12, we furthermore know that in the Bible Jesus is the moral examplar, NOT Joseph. There are a lot of unpleasant and even things we know about the people of God throughout the Bible, but it was God we all look to for our example, not man. The Bible is full of terrible, sinful people. God alone is righteous.
This is definitely one of those crazy topics, but it seems more and more people believe it. Yes, this is absolutely crazy. Just because someone says “the Bible says” doesn’t mean the Bible says what they say it does.
We actually do need to know what it says and doesn’t say. I encourage you to read the Bible so you can see for yourself the truth.
Go ahead. Read it. I dare you.