How old was the Virgin Mary when she gave birth to Jesus?

I heard this limerick from a woman as well when I was about 20, I loved it. I'll send you a PM. Just don't think I'm a terrible person.

Don't worry. I've been around the world a few times and have seen the best and the worst of humanity. I've visited over 80 countries; I think that's more than most pilots.

You don't have to go around the world to see that, CI, you are living it, heavy on the latter.

Did your military mates give you any skull ashtrays for your birthdays?

Have you noticed how cheerful ol camroc gets when he indulges his/her superiority fantasy? I find it refreshing.

How would one know? Am I on camera?

Cicerone knows exactly what I mean and he knows that it isn't a fantasy.

Did you live in one village all your life? What did you learn?
I remember being told about a village on the hill in South America that we saw where they lived all their lives there.

What are you going on about, Cicerone? South America only has one hill?

You are pretty ignorant. Trust me on this.

Way too big a stretch, Cicerone. How can a fella who avoids things adults should address be trustworthy?

Fourteen or fifteen

Liberal thinkers try to say that young girls were married off at extremely young ages in Bible times (like the age you mentioned 12, 13,- 16), but we do not see that at all as the general rule in Bible times. God Himself set the age of being accountable for life decisions at 20 years old.  Numbers 14:28-30 says, "Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun."   Maybe that is why Jacob was willing to work 7 years for Rachel's hand in marriage, because she had not quite reached 20 years old, yet. We do not know, because it does not say. Genesis 29:18 says, "And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter."

The most important decision of life is salvation and then serving the Lord. The next most important decision would be marriage.  It is hard to imagine that God would condone the marrying of girls under the age of 20, when He considers that the age when He holds people accountable for their life decisions.   After watching young people grow up and leave home, I would never encourage young people to marry before the age of 20 years old.  I have seen some young people greatly change after they graduate from school.  It is good to wait a few years and see what direction they are really going to choose in life.

Based upon the fact that God holds young adults accountable from 20 years old and up, God would have never put such an important decision before Mary, as to whether she would be willing to bear the Messiah, unless she was at least 20 years old.  God does not violate His own principles.  Luke 1:34-38 says, "Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?  And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.  And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.  For with God nothing shall be impossible.   And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.

Girls weren't the ones who decided to marry. It was their parents decision who and when

The most important decision of life is to be kind and generous to all living things.

That age, 20 years old, applies solely to men. At that age, 20 years old, a man can marry or being a soldier. Not before.

But, such age, 20 years old, doesn't apply to women.

Actually, in the middle of the desert, men were the ones murmuring against Moses, not women. Men were the ones sent to fight as soldiers, not the women.



No, Jacob was dumb.

Jacob tried to buy Rachel with hard work from his part, that was a stupid move.

Are you saying that Jacob fell in love with a child?

In those years, societies knew more about biology than today. If the "girl" started to have her period, then she was already a woman capable of having children. Biology 101.

The idea of Jacob working hard waiting for a child girl to grow up and marry her, excuse me but such idea sounds funny, if not ridiculous.



Your views are from the 21st century modern era, the biblical records are from the 1st century and before.

In those times, women didn't make the decisions.

Who knows if Leah, the older sister, ever loved Jacob, but she was his wife. As a daughter, she obeyed her father to lie with him and be his wife, she didn't obey her heart and less, she didn't make "decisions" about it.

In those years there weren't elementary school. high school, etc.

The expected longevity was 100 plus years, but what killed more people were diseases, infections, etc. Many died because savage animals, wars, etc.

Today, the expected longevity is 80 years plus, and more percent of people make it, not because we are stronger than those men in the past but because we have antibiotics, medicines, surgery, etc, which will help us to live longer. If those men in the past had our current technology to help our health status, the majority of them should have lived easily 120 years plus.

Starting families in great numbers was necessary because farm was the primary source of living, and after any infection because a dead body in the pound or accidents when working, etc. the need of starting families when young was recommended.

Today, having you living in the city sending children to school, you can't see your son marrying at the age of 20, neither your daughter, you will recommend for them to obtain a career, finishing university, finding a job, travel, and later to get married.

That is you in today's world.

That was not Abraham or Jacob or the mother of Jesus in those past centuries.



Your opinion is not based on any fact that biblical women were under the custom of 20 years of age for marriage.

That is your personal opinion based on your erroneous interpretation of the bible.

Mary could be 14 years old or, 20 years old or, 30 years old, and being a virgin. She could be 14 years old or, 20 years old or, 30 years old, and get married.

I cannot say as to her actual age, although my musings as i have tried to comprehend the scriptures relating to her pregnancy make me wonder if what is being described is the victim of sexual grooming. certainly the bits in pauls gospel seem to mirror cases of grooming that i see. I have always considered the idea of the immaculate conception as a fiction introduced in order to heighten Jesus's otherness. If it were an actual event then it seems to me that mary would never have doubted and that there would be mention of this by jesus and james. I often think that the confession of Simenon reflects an idea of forgivness and healing which could well be that salvation of isreal that he speaks about.

The great grandfather of the biblical Jesus was Yehoshua/Jesus III, who was the high priest in Jerusalem from 36 to 23 BC and is believed to have been murdered at the orders of Herod the Great. The sonless Yehoshua, had three daughters, Joanna, Elizabeth and Anna/Hanna, whose mother was from the tribe of Asher.

Knowing that his Zadokian lineage would become extinct unless his daughters were placed with future husbands according to the Torah, he married them off to chosen husbands.

Joanna, was betrothed to Joachim from the non-royal genetic lineage of David. The second daughter of Yehoshua III, was Elizabeth. This was the Elizabeth, who, at a very advanced age was to become the mother of John the Baptist in 7 BC, a year before the birth of Jesus and some 16 years after the death of her father ‘Yehoshua/Jesus III,’ in 23 BC, and she was betrothed to a Levite priest by the name Zacharias of the priestly course of Abijah.

The young Davidian prince Heli, [Alexander Helios III] the son, or adopted son of Mattathias ben Levi, was chosen by Yehoshua/Jesus III the high priest in Jerusalem, as the candidate to marry his daughter Hanna/Anna.

Jehoshua III, the High Priest until 23 BC, is supposed to have died three years before the birth of his grand-daughter ‘Mary.’ It is believed that it was his death that ended his period as high priest in Jerusalem in the year of 23 BC, this would mean that Mary was born in 20 BC, the same year as the birth of Philip the son of Herod and his young Jewess wife, ‘Cleopatra.’

Mary’s father, Heli, a Davidic and Hasmonean prince, called Alexander Helios III, was apparently executed in 13 B.C., in the world where many Davidian aspirants, as the “young lions of Judah”, were eliminated by the cruel and tyrannical King Herod the Great., Etc.

Therefore, Mary would have been 7 years old when her father Heli was murdered in 13 BC, and 14 years old when she gave birth to Jesus, who was sired by her half brother Joseph the son of Heli, and who was born in 6 BC, two years before the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC, making Mary about 47 years old when Jesus, the first of her three biological sons, was crucified.

It’s worthwhile to note that Mary was probably no more than fifteen or sixteen years old. That was a very marriageable age in those days.

Thomas Nelson, On This Holy Night: The Heart of Christmas (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2013).

When Mary gave birth to Jesus, she was no longer a virgin.

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION IS A DEFINED DOGMA OF THE CHURCH WHICH REFERS TO MARY'S CONCEPTION in her mother's womb.
By a singular gift of God, she was preserved from any stain of original sin, which prepared her to carry Jesus in her womb. These words are frequently mis-applied to the conception of Our Lord.

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, WHICH IS A DEFINED DOGMA OF THE CHURCH WHICH REFERS TO MARY'S CONCEPTION, has nothing to do with Mary's conception, which was the result of her union with her half-brother Joseph, who were both sired by Alexander Helios, by different mothers.