How old was Joseph when he married Mary?

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No one really knows for sure. A lot of people just guess or make up random ages. Ask 20 different people and you will get many different answers. A lot of artwork portrays Joseph and Mary as roughly the same age, but this is most likely untrue.

In those days, life expectancy was much shorter due to a variety of reasons (diet, disease, healthcare, hard labour, etc) so girls were married and had children at younger ages than they do today. We would think of men in those days as pedophiles as they married and had sex with girls who were much younger than 18 years of age.

According to some accounts, Mary was around 12-14 years when she was married to Joseph. It doesn't appear as if it was her choice. More like she was given to him. Joseph himself was thought to be much more elderly. Some guess he was in his forties, while some Roman Catholics say that he was as old as 90. It is likely that they say this to remove any doubt that Joseph may actually have been the father of Jesus.

Regardless, it is unclear. It seems however that Joesph was a much older man and that Mary was just hitting puberty.

First answer by ApostleRichardSkoff. Last edit by Jwd12. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributorrecommended]. Question popularity: 2 [recommend question].