Both Joseph and Mary were in their teens. Joseph was about 18-20 years old at the time of Jesus’ birth, and Mary was about 13-14 years old. But According to The History of Joseph the Carpenter, composed in Egypt between the sixth and seventh centuries.
Joseph was about 18-20 years old at the time of Jesus’ birth, and Mary was about 13-14 years old. But According to The History of Joseph the Carpenter, composed in Egypt between the sixth and seventh centuries. Joseph was 90 when he married Mary. So there is no real evidence of how old Joseph was when he married Mary.
Jewish women were betrothed at the somewhat younger age, usually fourteen. It can be assumed that both Joseph and Mary were young, even though apocryphal stories depict Joseph as an elderly widower” (Life and Times of Jesus Christ, Questions and Answers, p. 11). “The age for marriage was quite early in Israel.
We do know Mary would have been a young virgin when she had Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew tells us, “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit” ( Matthew 1:18 ).
How old was Mary when she conceived Jesus?
Continue Reading. Mary was about 10 when she conceived Jesus and Joseph was 90. Remember, Mary was placed in the temple for service to God by her parents when she was 5. She was living in the inner chamber called the Holy of the Holies, where only the chief priests are allowed.
Probably The Virgin Mary was 13 and Joseph 91 when Jesus was born. At the Annunciation, I believe the Roman Cath. Continue Reading. Just to be clear, Mary had Jesus with the Holy Spirit, not Joseph, through sex. However, the sperm of Joseph was used with a Holy Ghost egg, not Mary’s egg.
Mary appears in the gospels (she is at the crucifixion) and she is mentioned once in Acts, so she clearly lived 33+ years after Jesus’ birth but that Joseph died some time between 12 and 33 years after Jesus’ birth. There was a very late manuscript called the “Protoevangelium of James” which was written circa 180–200 CE.
So Joseph was most likely well younger than 90 in order to have sired those other children, though again some say that these were his from a previous marriage, or that the translation actually means they were cousins, those these explanations seem to emanate from the need to keep Mary a virgin after Jesus’ birth.
If this contradicts with modern beliefs that Mary (BVM) was 14 years old or so, that is because many pagan traditions had gods descending and impregnating young virgin girls. But that is not what the Bible and secular sources of the first centuries say. Marrying at such an early age was not part of Hebrew tradition.
For example Jesus’s cousin Simon who followed James the brother of Jesus, as Bishop or Superintendent of the ekklesia or Legislative Assembly in Jerusalem, lived more than 100 years old and was then martyred for his firm, unbending belief in Christ.
Luke 1:38 says that both she and her cousin Elizabeth (Elisheva in Hebrew), mother of John the Baptist, became pregnant when in ‘old age’ (Greek in their gera — the term used in geriatrics). Both had been married for many decades — ‘betrothed’ of the KJV means ‘married’ in Jewish/ Hebrew law and custom.
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