# Youngest Biblical marriage of named characters **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2015, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898 "2015-11-07T14:51:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drew870mitchell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drew870mitchell/32/3946_2.png) [@drew870mitchell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drew870mitchell)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/1 "2015-11-07T14:51:11Z")
Who are the youngest named married couple in the Bible? I tried googling but only got pages about general practices of the times. I’m looking for a passage which gives specific names and ages, or at least, a named couple whose marriage age can be reasonably confirmed from some other source. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/2 "2015-11-07T23:38:50Z")
There aren’t that many named women in the Bible, and most of them are just one-offs in genealogies, and thus we know next to nothing about them. Any ages from external sources will just be conjectures. I’m not even sure there is an answer to your question. As in, I’m not sure there any named married couples in the Bible that your criteria at all. There can be no youngest if we don’t have the age of both spouses. The best bet is just Mary and Joseph, if only because there are other works that give an age to Mary when she married, claiming she was 14. But they give no age for Joseph, only calling him an old man (as he had been previously married), and they seem to greatly post date the gospel account. However, for a general answer the question you seem to be implying, Jewish tradition has that marriage cannot occur before the Bar Mitzvah and the Bat Mitzvah, making the youngest for a man and woman to be 13 and 12, respectively. Of course, with arranged marriages, it’s possible they were betrothed before that point. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/3 "2015-11-08T00:55:00Z")
Well, there are at least some genealogical lists in the Bible which list how old the father was when the child was born, and those children are presumably legitimate, so that puts some bounds on the ages at marriage. The problems are that, first, those lists usually only list one parent (almost always the father), and second, the characters in those lists are often attributed with superhumanly high ages, not youth as you’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/4 "2015-11-08T02:08:37Z")
Adam & Eve, married from the instant of Eve’s creation? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/5 "2015-11-08T02:10:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, there are at least some genealogical lists in the Bible which list how old the father was when the child was born, and those children are presumably legitimate, so that puts some bounds on the ages at marriage. The problems are that, first, those lists usually only list one parent (almost always the father), and second, the characters in those lists are often attributed with superhumanly high ages, not youth as you’re looking for. Yeah, I thought of those, too, and noticed they mostly stop after the ages start becoming more reasonable. And, yeah, it’s only one parent. And since I didn’t make it explicit before, I would assume that, if he could have only the age of one spouse, he would prefer that of the wife. It’s young wives that are the subject of child marriage, usually. People don’t get up in arms about young husbands. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/6 "2015-11-08T04:51:24Z")
Are we allowed to use non-canonical gospels? The Infancy Gospel of James claims that Mary was 12 when married to Joseph. [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancyjames.html](http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancyjames.html) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/7 "2015-11-08T06:49:40Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > However, for a general answer the question you seem to be implying, Jewish tradition has that marriage cannot occur before the Bar Mitzvah and the Bat Mitzvah, making the youngest for a man and woman to be 13 and 12, respectively. Of course, with arranged marriages, it’s possible they were betrothed before that point. Bar and Bat Mitzvahs are post-Biblical so this isn’t relevant. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/8 "2015-11-08T08:36:07Z")
After Mary, the best known woman in the Bible must surely be Ruth. I found this: > [@](#): > > The total time Naomi was in Moab was about ten years (Ruth 1:4). Ruth’s approximate age can be surmised from this. The earliest she would have been married would have been age 14 (which would not be unusual for the Moabites); otherwise, due to promiscuity, the girl would often not have been a virgin at the time of marriage. > > [Ruth, The Story of Right Man/Right Woman](http://www.biblenews1.com/ruth/ruth.htm) Of course Ruth was not Jewish when she married the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/9 "2015-11-08T20:53:14Z")
I think that the list of best-known women in the Bible probably goes something like Mary, Eve, Mary, Martha, Mary, Esther, Delilah, and only then Ruth. Veronica might even be in there somewhere, despite not even being in the Bible. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/10 "2015-11-08T23:44:06Z")
Sarah and Hagar … or perhaps these two are the ones who _should_ be best known, considering the affairs in that part of the world today. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/11 "2015-11-08T23:59:51Z")
> [@bob++'s link](#): > > …otherwise, due to promiscuity, the girl would often not have been a virgin at the time of marriage. I’m shocked–SHOCKED–that teenagers in Bible times behaved like teenagers! ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/12 "2015-11-09T00:26:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think that the list of best-known women in the Bible probably goes something like Mary, Eve, Mary, Martha, Mary, Esther, Delilah, and only then Ruth. Veronica might even be in there somewhere, despite not even being in the Bible. Clearly you are not Jewish - we would recognize the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah as the most prominent women in the Old Testament, along with Deborah, Esther, Miriam and of course Ruth and Naomi. (OTOH, there’s a Martha in the Bible?) Although the ages of the matriarchs at marriage are disputed, most of the speculation puts them way out of the running for youngest. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/13 "2015-11-09T00:55:41Z")
Keep in mind that record keeping wasn’t very good at the time. At best, they are guesses. Methuselah living for 969 years is probably a stretch too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/14 "2015-11-09T01:01:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Clearly you are not Jewish Neither are most of the people familiar with the Bible. To be honest, I couldn’t even tell you who Rebecca, Leah, Miriam, or Naomi were. And Martha was the sister of Mary (no, not that Mary, and not that other Mary, the _other_ other one) and Lazarus (that Lazarus, but not that _other_ Lazarus). Apparently there was a name shortage in the early First Century in Israel. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/15 "2015-11-09T05:38:17Z")
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the Patriarchs or, looked at another way, when you pray a la Juive abrahamisaacandjacob" are mentioned almost as often as “ourfatherandgodofourfathers.” (Which is to say, quite often.) More recently the liberal branches of the Conservative movement, I believe, and certainly the Reconstructionist and Reform branches of Judaism have added “sarahrebeccarachelandleah” to the Pantheon, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/16 "2015-11-09T18:29:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Neither are most of the people familiar with the Bible. To be honest, I couldn’t even tell you who Rebecca, Leah, Miriam, or Naomi were. > > And Martha was the sister of Mary (no, not that Mary, and not that other Mary, the _other_ other one) and Lazarus (that Lazarus, but not that _other_ Lazarus). Apparently there was a name shortage in the early First Century in Israel. [Rebecca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca) was the wife of Isaac, mother of Jacob and Esau. [Leah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah) was the sister of Rachel, first wife of Jacob, and mother of six of the twelve tribes of Israel. [Miriam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam) was the sister of Moses, who hid him in the rushes to protect him. [Naomi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_(biblical_figure)) was Ruth’s mother-in-law; when Ruth says, “Whither thou goest, I will go. Thy people will be my people and thy God my God,” she is speaking to Naomi. This is fascinating. I have studied the Old Testament extensively, and knew the Bible stories of these women from when I was a small child. I don’t know much about the New Testament because it is not a part of my religion. But the Old Testament is definitely a part of Christianity. Do Christian children not learn the Old Testament Bible stories? Or are they focused almost exclusively on the New Testament? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/17 "2015-11-09T20:06:12Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > This is fascinating. I have studied the Old Testament extensively, and knew the Bible stories of these women from when I was a small child. I don’t know much about the New Testament because it is not a part of my religion. But the Old Testament is definitely a part of Christianity. Do Christian children not learn the Old Testament Bible stories? Or are they focused almost exclusively on the New Testament? I doubt if Christians know the Bible very well, Old Testament or New. Whether they know the New Testament better than the Old, I couldn’t say. As far as the OP, nowhere in the Bible does it give the age of any named woman at her marriage. All of the calculations rely on extra-Biblical sources for the average age at marriage, and go on from there. Women were considered marriagable when they started to menstruuate. With lower standards of nutrition and lower levels of body fat, that tended to be later than it is today. The details of womens’ lives were not considered as important as those of men. What was important was to marry them off, and start them producing children. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of many OT women who are mentioned apart from their role in producing male figures. [ul][li]Esther[/li][li]The Queen of Sheba[/li][li]The Witch of Endor[/li][li]Delilah[/li][li]Jezebel[/li][/ul]And the last three are evil characters. The rest of the OT women are all important because of their relation to male figures - Ruth and Naomi because they are ancestral to David, Miriam for her relation to Moses, etc. It was a patriarchal society. There are somewhat more female figures in the New Testament who are mentioned apart from being mothers. The Virgin Mary is mentioned because she was Jesus’ mother, but several others are mentioned quite apart from their family position - Mary and Martha, Mary the wife of Cleopas, Lydia the seller of purples who supported Paul, Dorcas, Mary Magdalene, etc. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/18 "2015-11-09T20:08:58Z")
[quote=“Shodan, post:17, topic:736898”] [li]The Witch of Endor[/li][/QUOTE] \*\*Endora \*\*from _Bewitched_? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/19 "2015-11-09T20:46:12Z")
Shodan: > [@](#): > > The rest of the OT women are all important because of their relation to male figures Deborah, Yael and Huldah being notable exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898/20 "2015-11-09T20:56:19Z")
I forgot Yael - she’s the one with the tent peg? Deborah I should have remembered, but I confess with shame that I didn’t remember Huldah at all. My bad. Regards, Shodan [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-biblical-marriage-of-named-characters/736898.md?page=2)