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8th August 2012, 02:56 PM
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Reps: 172,795,030,754,333,280 (power: 172,795,030,754,358) | | | Yes they did and they often married to men who where much older.
But you have to understand something about God and about ancient cultures.
The first thing you have to understand is that God is actually quite open to different traditions regarding marriage. He sets down what marrage is and what it is for. He has a few boundries as to who should marry who. . . but for the rest of it, he lets the culture decide a lot of things.
In ancient cultures most people didn't even make it to live into their 40's. In these cultures reproduction and the creation of children was WAY WAY more important to marriage then it is today in our western world.
So girls would often be married to a guy as soon as her first period hit, AKA she was able to reproduce.
The guy would be married later on when he was able to take care of a family.
The marriage was not for love but to produce more people, because death came so early and so often in that time that people had to have a lot of children in order to keep up.
Think of it this way. . . had they waited to marry women off until they where 26 or 28 years old. . . HUMANITY WOULD HAVE DIED OUT COMPLETLY.
For the very survival of the species it was absolutly necessary to marry women early, in their teens.
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9th August 2012, 07:26 PM
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Reps: 554,459,768,657,341,120 (power: 554,459,768,657,354) | | Originally Posted by Luther073082  Yes they did and they often married to men who where much older.
But you have to understand something about God and about ancient cultures.
The first thing you have to understand is that God is actually quite open to different traditions regarding marriage. He sets down what marrage is and what it is for. He has a few boundries as to who should marry who. . . but for the rest of it, he lets the culture decide a lot of things.
In ancient cultures most people didn't even make it to live into their 40's. In these cultures reproduction and the creation of children was WAY WAY more important to marriage then it is today in our western world.
It may have been the case that some cultures may have had a lot of people die young, but usually the low average lifespans we project on past populations takes into account large infant morality rates that pull the lifespan numbers down really low. In ancient Greece, there were some people living up into their 90's. |
9th August 2012, 07:33 PM
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For poor people i.e. most people life was hard, sometimes brutal, and often very short. We must not impose modern values back onto more ancient times.
John
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10th August 2012, 10:20 AM
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Reps: 172,795,030,754,333,280 (power: 172,795,030,754,358) | | Originally Posted by LinkH It may have been the case that some cultures may have had a lot of people die young, but usually the low average lifespans we project on past populations takes into account large infant morality rates that pull the lifespan numbers down really low. In ancient Greece, there were some people living up into their 90's.
True some wealthy people did make it that far. But most did not.
Even if you count infant mortality as the reason for the low average lifespan (which i don't think it is by itself), it's yet another reason why women had to be married young. If a large percentage of your children don't make it to adulthood, then you have to keep having children for quite a while in order to have a few that do.
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"Many Christians suppose that it makes no difference which church group a Christian joins, and they act accordingly. When they come to a place where any kind of Protestant church is found, they join it as members. There are people who were successively Reformed, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, depending upon the place where they lived. And we should not be surprised when this happens among the sects, for they are not certain about their distinctive doctrines, because they are not grounded in God's Word." - Franz Pieper |
10th August 2012, 10:37 AM
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Reps: 1,996,000,212,931,623,680 (power: 1,996,000,212,931,641) | | | The average age at death in the days of Caesar was something like 28. (This number is affected by infant mortality rates that were very high.) If you managed to survive to age 15, you would live to age 52 on average.
If true, you didn't have long to get a family going.
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15th August 2012, 02:38 AM
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Reps: 1,492,334,356,687,554 (power: 1,492,334,356,688) | | | Yes they did at that age, and why not?
Times have changes. In older times, a woman need only be able to have children, care for them, and care for a home. And the men? They need only be able to be physically strong enough for a man's job, say 16-18. That was all just fine.
But now, to be good providers men have to have an education, high school with a good trade, or college, and women are expected to finish high school before thinking of marriage. That doesn't make the younger ages any less wrong, just more unlikely.
I have recent male ancestors who might have been imprisoned for their romance with my females ancestors today. But in their time, it was fine, and they had a healthy marriage, and raised a great family. |
9th January 2013, 10:39 AM
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Reps: 10 (power: 0) | | Originally Posted by Fireflies Depends on the ancient culture. Some cultures had the men wait till they were 20 or so, while others waited until 30s upwards. Mainly, it was the men's job to provide a house, food, etc. and establishing it before taking on a wife/children. In some cultures (like the ancient Jews) men weren't considered full, reasoning, adult men until 30s and 40s. While women prepared for marriage as soon as they were able to bear children. The reason being, a couple was supposed to have as many children as possible. One, to continue the heir line and two, because many children died young.
Not saying that God didn't oppose it, I see it the same as many other things that God laid out in the beginning but allowed humans to make their own choices (whether they were right or wrong). God outlined in the beginning that marriage was for one man and one woman. Not only did humans disregard the "adult" part but they disregarded the monogamy.
I disagree citizenthom on the part about people waiting to have sex simply because of parents. Study for yourself and find that children and teen bodies aren't made to physically withstand childbirth. Science shows us that and common sense shows us that teenagers really aren't ready to make "children-bearing" decisions. The brain doesn't fully finish lining up until you hit 20 anyway.
Wait a second! The Bible seems to go AGAINST letting our culture mold what's sin and not sin.
Romans 12:2
2 Corinthians 6:17
Hebrews 13:8
Malachi 3:6
I don't get why Christians say that a 51 year old man marrying a 16 year old girl was okay in 1000 AD but not in 2013 AD.
Sin isn't a function of time  |
9th January 2013, 02:36 PM
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Reps: 270,347,872,502,837,536 (power: 270,347,872,502,844) | | I've always heard the men were around age 30 or older and the girls were 12-15 which is disturbing :/
There was just a news story about a man (in another country) who is in his 80s and was married to a MUCH younger girl. But she left him and now he wants to marry a 15 year old. He says its because he wants someone with (my words) a high sex drive. >.> Creepy on so many levels. Not sure if he married her or not though. It doens't say.
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9th January 2013, 04:50 PM
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Reps: 99,699,007,587,121,184 (power: 99,699,007,587,123) | | | When my maternal grandparents got married he was 21 and she was 14. They had 3 children and a 50+ year marriage before his death. My wife and I were both 19 when we got married and this year is 10 years. She is getting her doctorate and I work full time / go to school part time. Granted we have not children, but getting married early you can still go to school.
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