Does The Bible Allow Three-Year-Olds to Get Married?

Does The Bible Allow Three-Year-Olds to Get Married?

In recent debates, a skeptic of the Bible asserted that the Bible condoned marriage to three-year-olds. After hearing this claim, I quickly ran to Google to find what he was referring to as he unfortunately never elaborated. I never found anything concerning the Bible, but, rather ironically, the Talmud which had seemed to be actually making this claim, not the Bible. The Talmud is the book of laws or believes Judaism has.

"Rava said that this is what the Mishna is saying: An adult man who engaged in intercourse with a minor girl less than three years old has done nothing, as intercourse with a girl less than three years old is tantamount to poking a finger into the eye," (Ketubot 11b:6, Trans. William Davidson).

י"אָמַר רָבָא, הָכִי קָאָמַר: גָּדוֹל הַבָּא עַל הַקְּטַנָּה — וְלֹא כְּלוּם, דְּפָחוֹת מִכָּאן כְּנוֹתֵן אֶצְבַּע בָּעַיִן דָּמֵי. וְקָטָן הַבָּא עַל הַגְּדוֹלָה — עֲשָׂאָהּ מוּכַּת עֵץ. וּמוּכַּת עֵץ גּוּפָא פְּלוּגְתָּא דְּרַבִּי מֵאִיר וְרַבָּנַן," (Ketubot 11b:6).

There are defenses of this verse that I will not be getting into here as that is not a Jewish organization, but if anyone does want to hear a Jewish response they can read it (here). The point of this article is not to defame Jews, but to show where his idea actually came from in case someone else had the same question I did.

Works Cited:

Dimitrovsky, Haim Zalman and Silberman, Lou Hackett. "Talmud and Midrash". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Feb. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Talmud. Accessed 12 March 2023.

Image by Kelly Sikkema