Does the Bible provide an age of consent?

The short answer is, "No." That begs the questions, what does the Bible say about the timing of marriage? A lot!

The Bible offers a guide to life with directions of varying flavor. Some rules are statutory, with special numbers and days and years counted out. Much of the sacrificial system was of this nature. Other rules are wisdom-based. The latter give guidelines that may depend upon the situation for implementation. Within the wisdom-based rules are riddles and parables. God did this as a test, to see who is willing to study His Word carefully enough to uncover what is hidden and put it into practice.

When contemplating an age of consent for marriage, there are many considerations. Here are some:

1. physical maturity (reaching puberty)
2. emotional maturity
3. occupational maturity (knowing how to cook, keep house, grow crops, care for children)
4. relational maturity (friendships as well as marriage)
5. availability of a suitable mate
6. God's will

The first is obvious. Many cultures work around the fifth by pre-arranged marriages, giving the couple enough time to grow up before marriage while securing an agreeable arrangement.

The sixth is mysterious and not subject to rules. It is covered by Song of Songs.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    by the gazelles or the does of the field,
that you not stir up or awaken love
    until it pleases. (Song of Songs 2:7)

That leaves the second, third and fourth: emotional, occupational and relational. People do not mature at the same rate in these areas. Thus it takes wise families and cultures to recognize when a person is old enough to get married.

There is a Bible passage that touches on this. Ecclesiastes 3 gives a framework for human development. It divides life into seven phases, each phase consisting of four "times". A person who reaches the 28th time is fully mature and can serve as a leader in their community. A person who reaches the 12th-15th time is ready for marriage. There is a large window, to account for variations in how fast people mature.

The seven phases are:

1. Security. Birth to age 7. A time to be born, die, plant, uproot.
2. Ability. Ages 7 to 14. A time to kill, heal, break down, build up.
3. Stability. Ages 14 to 21. A time to weep, laugh, mourn and dance.
4. Amity. Ages 21 to 28. A time to cast away stones, gather stones, embrace and refrain.
5. Opportunity. Ages 28 to 35. A time to seek, lose, keep, cast away.
6. Community. Ages 35 to 42. A time to tear, mend, keep silence, speak.
7. Loyalty. Ages 42 to 49. A time to love, hate, for war and peace.

Each of the times is a parable, some more obvious than others. For example uprooting is becoming a refugee due to war, famine or social exile and undermines an infant's security. Break down and build up are phrases I learned from the Navy and describe basic training, corresponding to parents teaching their children life skills and requiring chores. Learning these skills is the first part of acquiring occupational maturity.

The critical times for emotional maturity are weep and laugh, when teenagers learn verbal self control, and mourn and dance, when they learn physical self control.

The first two critical times for relational maturity are casting and gathering stones, which means cooperation in the physical tasks of life. This can mean in friendships, dating relationships or marriage.

The next two critical times for relational maturity are the times to embrace and refrain from embracing. This is when a young adult must master choosing healthy and rejecting unhealthy friendships and eventually marriage partners.

Once married, the next challenges are finding and keeping a job (seeking and losing opportunities) and acquiring, saving or spending money and resources (keeping and casting away resources). In our day, people are choosing to wait longer to get married, trying to establish themselves in their careers. Perhaps they are heeding this parable: "Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house." (Proverbs 24:27) That parable means to make progress in your career (preparing your fields) before building your house (starting a family).

To round out the phases of life, the Community phase is challenging. Tearing and mending is about the fracture of friendships and learning forgiveness, while being quiet is for listening, which comes before speaking. They are about maintaining open lines of communication.

Finally, the Loyalty phase is the ultimate one. Love and hate are our attitudes of loyalty: who is on my side and who is on the other side. War and peace are our demonstrations of loyalty: warring against enemies and living at peace with our friends.

In such a framework for human growth and development, the time for marriage becomes clear.

• In prosperous times and for a mature person with wise and loving parents and good family support, "a time to dance" can be a wedding dance at age 19-21.
• For a person slower to mature, whether because of rebelliousness, poor parenting, poverty or genetic factors, age 22-27.
• In times of famine, economic depression, war, or other disruptions, it is better to wait until firmly established in a good paying job. Thus marriage should wait until age 28-31.

By reading the circumstances of your background, community and personal development, you (or your parents) have the tools you need to read from God's plan for the times of life and decide when it is wise to get married.

Of course, sometimes the whole world gets stuck in one of these times and the choice is taken from you. The people of Ukraine are stuck in "a time for war". During the COVID-19 pandemic, the whole world was stuck in "a time to refrain from embracing" due to social distancing. With all that going on, God was wise not to set a hard and fast count of years. We would be wise to follow His guidelines, though.

I'm limiting this response strictly to the question of does under-age marriage occur in the bible? Here I take the 'age of consent' to mean marriage. This isn't to be interpreted within the context to the background to the question, i.e. relating to the Qur'an (Koran), that is for a different site altogether.

There is no under-age marriage in the bible within their social norm, i.e. the age they were considered adults. On the contrary there were a number of "social structures" (a euphemism for murderous revenge in some cases) throughout the bible to block under-age marriage. Point 2 directly speaks about the issue of "age of consent", points 1 and 3 are background and not directly relevant.

1. Jacob's marriage to Rachel makes it clear there was a system of patriarchy that blocked the marriage for years.

2. The Song of Songs 8:7 and 8:10 makes it clear a woman's right of choice was important, in addition her brothers would protect her against under age marriage

⁸ We have a little sister who in our view is too young for marriage. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for? ⁹ If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.

Note the italicised words have been paraphrased. One of the two interpretations of Song of Songs is Solomon wants the young woman as another wife. She turns him down for an elusive shepherd Song of Songs 8:7,

If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house* for love, it would be utterly scorned.

*, under this interpretation the house is King Solomon's. She speaks later of a what appears to be Solomon's "brides price" of a 1000 shekels (a lot money), which she rejects (Song of Songs 8:12). Thus, its the woman's choice even against a king, and she also disputes her brothers' opinion she's too young to marry.

3. The protection of the sister from sex crimes by the retribution of her brothers is a repeat theme of the bible. The first example Genesis 34:24 onwards is an attempt by the perpetrator at a forced marriage by the rape of Dinah. The brothers response is let's just say ensure the suitor (perpetrator) is ineligible. In addition, the failure to punish Amnon for the rape of Tamar 2 Samuel 13, who was Absalom's sister, led to his murder 2 Samuel 13:29 at Absalom's command.

Point 3 in particular is well terrible, but under-age marriage - this being the social norm within the bible - doesn't happen.