Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the time of the conception and birth of Christ?
She’s always pictured as a young woman, which is consistent with her betrothed state, but I have heard people state (without citing a reference of course) that she was very young – fourteen or fifteen, perhaps.
I’m familiar with the Bible and I don’t know of any statement therein that supports this supposition. Is there such a reference? Or is the suggestion that she was so young consistent with the cultural practices of the times? Or is someone inventing “facts” out of whole cloth?
Has anyone else heard of this and can they give me any basis for the claim?
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
“It’s the same thing,” he said.
I believe that fourteen or fifteen was the typical age for a young woman to marry at that time – it would have been at the beginning of her childbearing years.
“There are more things you don’t know than there are things that I do know. I despair of the imbalance.” – Dr. Morgenes, The Dragonbone Chair
Many of the traditional beliefs of the Christian religion (like the names of the 3 wise men) come not from the books of the canon, but from the books of the New Testament Apocrypha, some of which were canonical at some point in the history of the Church. That they are considered apocrypha does not necessarily mean that they are considered by Christian theologians to be false, but that the evidence in support of their veracity is insufficient to admit them into the canon. The evidence in favor or some books is stronger than others. Some are surely false.
One of the books of the New Testament Apocrypha is The Gospel of the Birth of Mary. In chapter 7 of this version (numbering of chapters and verses is not standardized), Mary is told “in her fourteenth year” (apparently the traditional age) to endeavor to be married. Now, “fourteenth year” is ambiguous. Most people would probably assume it means sometime between the 14th and 15th birthdays. But since the first year of life ends with the first birthday, the 14th year should logically end with the 14th birthday, which is to say, she was 13 years old. In my copy of The Lost Books of the Bible the summary at the head of chapter 5 says “fourteen years old” while in the body of the chapter it says “her fourteenth year.” I would guess it’s supposed to mean that she was 14 years old. The age may be less ambiguous in the original language (Greek?). It’s not exactly clear how much later she became pregnant, but the implication is that it was not long afterward.
See also this version which follows the numbering system of Lost Books of the Bible. The reference to age is in chapter 5, verse 3. Lost Books of the Bible is available from the Barnes and Noble catalog. An even more fascinating read is The Complete Gospels edited by Robert J. Miller.
Work is the curse of the drinking classes. (Oscar Wilde)
The Apocrypha would account nicely for the typical assurance that speakers bring to this subject and explain my overlooking it in my KJV Bible. That’s just the answer I was looking for. (Well, actually I was looking for a birth certificate or driver’s license or something, but this’ll do!)
“But when all was said and done, the winners were Bush and Gore, one of whom will be our next president, unless – and I would not totally rule this out – the Constitution suddenly is discovered to be missing, and it mysteriously turns up a few days later in the White House living quarters, and, lo and behold, the part that limits the president to two terms is GONE.”
– Dave Barry