Transcription
Anytime you point out how immoral it was for Muhammad to marry Aisha when she was six and then consummate the marriage when she was nine, Muslims just resort to whataboutism and try to claim that the Bible actually allows child marriage. But this is demonstrably false. Let's get into it.
I'm Michael Jones and this is Inspiring Philosophy, where faith meets understanding. And we're going to settle this debate once and for all and show the Bible does not allow or promote child marriage.
The first thing to realize is Christianity is not like Islam. We don't need large hadith collections that list out everything we're allowed to do and everything we're not allowed to do. The Bible teaches a form of virtue ethics. It tells us the type of virtues that we are to nurture and develop in some right actions we can perform. But we are expected to use our reason to know the right action to take in the circumstances that we are placed in once we've developed our virtues.
So for example, the Bible tells us to do good and not cause unnecessary harm. What that will entail will depend on what is good and what is harmful. And so when we study child marriage, we now know from numerous studies that it is harmful both physically and mentally to children. There's no justification for this harmful practice. So if the Bible tells us to do good and not cause unnecessary harm and we know that child marriage is harmful, then it logically follows that the Bible prohibits child marriage. And Jesus explicitly taught against corrupting children. Child marriage corrupts children. Therefore, it's wrong.
See, Christianity is not like Islam. We are allowed to use what we find in nature to better help guide our ethics. This is why we have a concept in Christianity called the two books. The book of scripture and the book of nature. We use both to help guide us because both were revealed by God.
In fact, God even sets an example for us in Ezekiel 16 which illustrates that child marriage is wrong. God metaphorically refers to Jerusalem as his wife. But notice what he says in verse 7. "I made you flourish like a plant of the field, and you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare. When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love."
Notice that God says the age for love comes after she has fully formed. In other words, when she has completed puberty. We know that girls do not complete puberty until the ages of 15 to 17. So, it makes sense that they're granted the status of adulthood the following year, age 18. And by the way, scholars note that the woman in the passage has completed puberty. Mark Rooker says, "after she had matured beyond puberty, God spread the corner of his garment over her nakedness." Robert Alter says, "The infant girl has passed puberty." Ralph Alexander says, "Under his gracious care, Jerusalem grew to full maturity as a city." Peter Gentry and Steven Wellum say, "much later after puberty Yahweh passes by a second time and sees a young woman ready for adornment in marriage and he marries her."
So God sets the example for us that marriage and love making should not occur until a girl has completed puberty. We know that puberty is not complete for girls until the period of ages 15 to 17. So, it makes natural sense to set the age of adulthood at 18. And this also makes perfect sense with Jesus referring to a 12-year-old as a little girl, not as a woman.
Now, despite what I've showed you, Muslims will try to argue that other parts of the Bible allow for child marriage. Some will say the Bible says Mary was 12 when Jesus was conceived and she was married to Joseph, but this is false. The Bible never states her age. A later work that scholars in the church have deemed to be unreliable called the protoevangelium of James says that Mary was married to Joseph when she was 12 and Jesus was conceived when she was 16. But even if this work was reliable, that was not a normal child marriage because she was married to Joseph to protect her virginity. He was more like a guardian, not a traditional husband. Research on that time period and region shows that girls were marrying on average between their late teens to early 20s. 12 was not the norm, let alone 9 or six, like the abhorrent actions of Muhammad.
Muslims will also erroneously claim the Bible says Rebecca was three when she was married to Isaac. But this is false. The Bible never says this. That calculation comes from rabbis writing several centuries later. And not every rabbi even agreed. The Bible treats Rebecca as a young woman who is able to carry water for 10 camels. I don't know a three-year-old who would have been capable of such an act. Therefore, the Bible depicts her as a young woman, not as a three-year-old. That's absurd. The way that rabbis like Rashi came up with this absurd calculation is that he read into Genesis 22 when Abraham offers up Isaac as the year that Rebecca was born. And based on all the ages that Genesis gives us, he calculated that she was three. But this is absurd. Genesis 22 doesn't say that. It just says sometime after this incident, which could have been a month, could have been 10 years. Abraham was informed of Nahor's offspring, which included Rebecca. That's all it says. It doesn't tell us the year she was born.
Finally, Muslims will bring up Numbers 31, where God commands Israel to make war on Midian for their sin. But Moses says in verse 18, "But all the young girls who have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." But as scholars like Robert Alter and others have noticed, this is not a command coming from God. This is coming from Moses. And we as Christians can simply condemn Moses's actions. As Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." We don't have this teaching in Christianity like in Islam where the prophets cannot commit major sins. In the Bible, the prophets do commit major sins, including Moses. Therefore, we can condemn Moses's commands in Numbers 31. But even with that, Moses is not explicitly commanding child marriage. He just said, "Keep them alive for yourselves," which could have just referred to these girls becoming household servants. Again, it's not good, but it's also not explicit child marriage. You can't read that into the text.
So there is no place in the Bible that God allows or promotes child marriage. In fact, if you study the ethics of the Bible and the example that God illustrates himself, you come away with the idea that God prohibits child marriage because it's evil and harmful. Meanwhile, in mainstream Islam, Muhammad married Aisha when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine. This is evil. And yet the Quran tells us that Muhammad was an excellent moral example when he clearly was not and even allows for child marriage in Surah 65:4. Whereas the Bible clearly prohibits this harmful practice. Now you tell me which book is more likely to be from God and which is more likely to be from the side of darkness.
You made it to the end of this video, which means this message matters to you. If you want to see more content like this reaching people for Christ, you can help make it happen. Your support makes these videos possible. Click the link below and donate today. And if you want to go even deeper, consider joining our Patreon community. You'll get early access to videos, behind-the-scenes content, and a place to connect with others passionate about this mission.