It's been 4 months since my A History of Marriage - Part 1 , but I've finally gotten around to the second part. In Part 1, I discussed marriage traditions of pagan/superstitious origin, and the origin and history of marriage licences. In Part 2, I'm looking at marriage age, cousin marriage, and avunculate marriage (marriage of a man to his niece, or a woman to her nephew). MARRIAGE AGE (Note: the following is intended purely as a neutral history lesson - I'm not endorsing or condemning anything.) Today, we become adults at 18, and for many that is (or should be) the minimum marriage age. Has that always been the case? In ancient times, minimum marriage/adult age (if there was one) varied. Among the Israelites/Jews, it was generally considered to be around 13, although even that wasn't standard - as evidenced by the following Biblical passages: In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. ...
