If you should care to examine the literature of your own Church, Snowfall, namely the apocrypha and the Confessions of Augustine of Hippo, you will find it is reported that Joseph (a man of 90 years of age), married Mary (may God be pleased with her) when she was a girl of 12, and that Augustine had expressed his intention to marry a girl of 10 (he writes in his Confessions of her, "she pleased me"), and would have married her two years later, had he not decided to become a priest. Christian literature reports other such marriages, such as those of Rebecca and Isaac, and Jacob's daughter, Dina, to Shechem. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him) was married to Aisha (may God be pleased with her) when she was 6 or 7, and she only began to live with him, when she was 9, after becoming mature. Such was the norm, until half a century or so ago: to marry children at young ages, and consummate this marriage at the onset of puberty. Both historians, and Bible scholars testify to this.
“These early laws specified that a girl consenting to s** had to be at least 10 to 12 years old in most states, with a few specifying ages as old as 14 or 16. In Delaware, the age of consent was seven, based on ancient English laws setting the age squire.”
Teenage S** and Pregnancy, Mike A. Males, pg. 40
"In Medieval and early modern European societies, the age of marriage remained low, with documented cases of brides as young as seven years, although marriages were typically not consummated until the girl reached puberty."
Internet Child P**nography: Causes, Investigation, and Prevention, Richard Wortley and Stephen Smallbon, pg. 10
"United States, the age of consent was much lower. For example, in New York, the age of consent was ten years until 1885. After 1885, age of consent laws changed around the country, reaching 16 in New York in 1889 and 18 in 1895. Prior to these changes the age of consent in most places in the United States was 10 or 12 years.” Prostitution and S** Work, Melissa Hope Ditmore, pg. xxi
“In the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, marriage is considered the natural state for men and women, and although there are certainly instances where Jewish men (and rarely, Jewish women) are not married, this is the exception rather than norm. Most women marry quite young, usually soon after the onset of menstruation, which of course, heralds fertility. Men typically marry later (in their twenties, or even thirties) and this most men are older than their wives.”
What the Bible Really Tells Us: The Essential Guide to Biblical Literacy, T. J. Wray, pg. 146
“A typical adult Israelite male had a life expectancy of forty years. Infant mortality rates were high, perhaps as high as 50 percent. So women typically had two pregnancies for every one child who reached age five. Since the economic survival of the household depended on the production of able-bodied children, women married immediately after puberty and were pregnant or nursing for a relatively large portion of their life.” [20]
Sabbath and Jubilee (Understanding Biblical Themes), Richard H. Lowery, pg. 8
In light of the above information, your choices are twofold. Either, you must denounce as "Satanic" all the peoples of the ancient and pre-modern world that viewed this practice as no less than a cultural norm, including Joseph the Carpenter, or you must accept that you are anachronistically projecting your modern sensibilities onto history in order to score a cheap shot.
well first of all Mary was around 14 years old:
“The
apocryphal writings to which we referred in the last paragraph state that Mary remained in the
Temple after her
presentation in order to be
educated with other
Jewish children. There she enjoyed
ecstatic visions and daily visits of the
holy angels.
When she was fourteen, the
high priest wished to send her home for
marriage. Mary reminded him of her
vow of
virginity, and in his embarrassment the
high priest consulted the
Lord. Then he called all the young men of the
family of
David, and promised Mary in
marriage to him whose rod should sprout and become the resting place of the
Holy Ghost in form of a dove. It was
Joseph who was privileged in this extraordinary way.
We have already seen that
St. Gregory of Nyssa,
St. Germanus of Constantinople, and pseudo-Gregory Nazianzen seem to adopt these legends. Besides, the emperor
Justinian allowed a
basilica to be built on the platform of the former
Temple in memory of Our Lady's stay in the sanctuary; the church was called the New St. Mary's so as to distinguish it from the Church of the Nativity. It seems to be the modern mosque el-Aksa. [47]
On the other hand, the
Church is silent as to Mary's stay in the
Temple.
St. Ambrose [48], describing Mary's life before the
Annunciation, supposes expressly that she lived in the house of her
parents. All the descriptions of the
Jewish Temple which can claim any scientific value leave us in
ignorance as to any localities in which young girls might have been
educated. Joas's stay in the
Temple till the age of seven does not favour the supposition that young girls were
educated within the sacred precincts; for Joas was king, and was forced by circumstances to remain in the
Temple (cf.
2 Kings 11:3). What
2 Maccabees 3:19, says about "the
virgins also that were shut up" does not show that any of them were kept in the
Temple buildings. If the
prophetess Anna is said (
Luke 2:37) not to have "departed from the
temple, by
fastings and
prayer serving night and day", we do not suppose that she actually lived in one of the
temple rooms. [49] As the house of
Joachim and
Anna was not far distant from the
Temple, we may suppose that the
holy child Mary was often allowed to visit the sacred buildings in order to satisfy her devotion.
Jewish maidens were considered
marriageable at the age of twelve years and six months, though the actual age of the bride varied with circumstances. The
marriage was preceded by the
betrothal, after which the bride legally belonged to the bridegroom, though she did not live with him till about a year later, when the
marriage used to be celebrated. All this agrees well with the language of the
Evangelists.
St. Luke (
1:27) calls Mary "a
virgin espoused to a man whose name was
Joseph";
St. Matthew (
1:18) says, "when as his mother Mary was
espoused to
Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the
Holy Ghost". As we know of no brother of Mary, we must suppose that she was an heiress, and was obliged by the
law of
Numbers 36:6 to marry a member of her
tribe. The
Law itself prohibited
marriage within certain
degrees of relationship, so that the
marriage of even an heiress was left more or less to choice.
According to
Jewish custom, the union between
Joseph and Mary had to be arranged by the
parents of
St. Joseph. One might ask why Mary consented to her
betrothal, though she was bound by her
vow of
virginity. As she had
obeyed God's inspiration in making her
vow, so she
obeyed God's inspiration in becoming the affianced bride of
Joseph. Besides, it would have been singular among the
Jews to refuse
betrothal or
marriage; for all the
Jewish maidens aspired after
marriage as the accomplishment of a natural
duty. Mary trusted the Divine guidance implicitly, and thus was certain that her
vow would be kept even in her
married state.”
secondly concerning Joseph’s age:
https://catholicstraightanswers.com/old-saint-joseph-jesus-born/
Thirdly: there is one HUUUGE thing that you aren’t considering, let me give you a hint it’s in Mary’s title, The Holy Virgin Mary. Mary was and is a Virgin.
lastly: the perception of the time is that when a girl was nearly thirteen she become a woman due to her getting her period. Although that seems very icky to me as a modern man at least they had what they believed to be a valid reason. I don’t see any reason in marrying a nine year old.
