Was Abishag married to the elderly King David?

“With the foregoing in perspective, we get a clear picture that the young girl who was married to 70-year-old King David, was no older than 12 years and a half”. I (Damien Mackey) have estimated that, with Abishag identified as Tamar, there was still a fair bit of time to run out, so that King David would have been closer to 60, not 70, when he was given Abishag. On this, see e.g. my article: Abishag-Tamar-Shunammite (1) Abishag-Tamar-Shunammite | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Now, Was Abishag married to the elderly King David? Yes she was, according to the following article: https://discover-the-truth.com/2016/09/17/king-davids-marriage-to-12-year-old-abishag-bible/ King David’s Marriage To 12 Year Old Abishag – Bible By Discover The Truth • September 17, 2016 King David in old age was stricken and would not get warm in bed. Even though his servants covered him with clothes and other needs, this did not work. His ‘physicians’ proposed to bring a young virgin to lie in bed with David, so to get him warm again. King David is 70 years old [sic] at the time, the girl they bring over is Abishag. It is said that Abishag became a wife, others say she was a concubine. The predominant view among Christian scholars is that she got married to King David and became a wife. One of the reasons Abishag was brought to David was to cater for all his needs, be that food, washing him, cleaning the house, or his sexual needs [sic], the latter was the main reason. God describes David as someone who was after HIS “heart”: “After removing Saul, he made DAVID THEIR KING. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man AFTER MY OWN HEART; he will do everything I want him to do’.” – Acts 13:22 King David is a Prophet according to the New Testament: “…29 Brothers, I can tell you with confidence that the PATRIARCH DAVID died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 HE WAS A PROPHET and knew that God had promised him on oath that He would place one of his descendants on his throne.” Acts 2:29-30 According to the New Testament, he was an ancestor of Jesus: Matthew 1:1-17, Mark 10:46-48, Luke 3:23-38, Romans 1:1-4, 2 Timothy 2:8, and Revelation 22:16. One of the strange things in this story for a modern reader is how Prophet David being 70 years old, married 12-year-old Abishag. The Hebrew word used to describe Abishag’s age is “Na’arah” (נַעֲרָה). This word according to classical ancient Rabbis refers to girls who are no older than 12 years old. Let’s read the text: “1 Now when King David was old, and stricken in years, they covered him with clothes, but no heat came unto him. 2 Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a YOUNG (NA’ARAH) virgin, and let her stand before the king, and cherish him: and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the King may get heat. 3 So they sought for a fair YOUNG (NA’ARAH) maid throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found one Abishag a Shunammite, and BROUGHT HER TO THE KING.” – 1 Kings 1-3 (1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)) The Hebrew word ‘Na’arah in 1 Kings 1:2-3, Let’s now look at what classical to contemporary scholars say on the Hebrew word ‘Na’arah’. Professor Judith Romney Wegner: “12. Mishnaic law, ‘adult daughter’ (bogeret) means one who has reached the age of twelve-and-a-half years and a day. Between the AGES OF TWELVE AND TWELVE-AND-A-HALF she is a ‘maiden’ (NA’ARAH), liable to keep precepts of Torah but not yet emancipated. Unless married off by her father during this six-month period (as normally happens), she will acquire full autonomy at the end of it.” (Jewish Women in Historical Perspective [Second edition: Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1998] by Judith Romney Wegner, page 95) Anglican Priest Herbert Danby: “1. Cf. Arak. 3:4. 2.Cf. B. K. 8:1. 3. The fifty shekels enjoined in Deut. 22:29. 4. Less than twelve years old. 5. Her father may sell her as a slave. 6. By her violator or seducer. 7. Heb. NAARAH, AGED TWELVE TO TWELVE AND A HALF. 8. Heb. Bogereth, more than twelve and a half.” (The Mishnah: Translated from the Hebrew with Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes [Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, 2011] by Herbert Danby, page 249) André LaCocque who is a Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Chicago Theological Seminary states ‘Na’arah’ designates a girl who cannot “conceive” i.e., pre-pubescent: “…bethulah, NA’ARAH, and almah. It designates a virgin, but also a girl UNABLE TO CONCEIVE ALTHOUGH MARRIED because she is not yet pubescent. In m. Nid. 1:4, the question is raised, ‘Who is the virgin? Any girl who never in her life saw a drop of [menstrual] blood, even though she is married.’ In t. Nid. 1:6, ‘Who is a virgin? Any girl who never in her life, and even if she is married and had children, I call a virgin, until she will see the first drop [of menstrual blood]. It comes out that they did not refer [in the Mishnah] to virgin in respect to the tokens of virginity but a virgin in respect to menstrual blood’ (cf. y. Nid. 1:3, 49a; b. Nid. 8b). …” (Jesus the Central Jew: His Times and His People [SBL Press, Atlanta, 2015] by Andre LaCocque page 187) Mary F. Foskett Wake Forest Kahle Professor of Religion, her studies are the New Testament, she says the word ‘Na’arah’ refers to someone who is twelve and a half years old: “Prescriptions concerning bride-price reveal that virgin females were afforded a higher value than females who were presumed to be sexually experienced. They also provide us with a glimpse of how the Mishnah often understands the place of minor daughters. According to M. Nid. 5/7 and M. Qid. 2.1, a father can claim the fruit of his minor daughter’s labor, annul her vows, and arrange her marriage. Upon reaching the age of twelve and one-half, however, a daughter no longer remains subject to her father’s dominion (M. Nid. 5.7). She either passes the jurisdiction of her betrothed (or spouse) gains legal autonomy. Given the norm of marriage that permeates the Mishnah, the latter case was likely expected to remain in the minority. Ideally, minor daughters were both constrained by patriarchal authority and attributed sexual and reproductive power. As Wegner observes, ‘the young girl possesses one salient characteristic: she is a sexual chattel. Nearly all references to the girl-child under twelve (qetannah) or THE PUBESCENT GIRL BETWEEN TWELVE AND TWELVE AND ONE-HALF YEARS (NAARAH) – unlike references to minor sons- speak directly or indirectly of her sexuality, with particular emphasis on her virginity.’” (A Virgin Conceived: Mary and Classical Representations of Virginity [Indian University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2002] by Mary F. Foskett page 48) Cornelia B. Horn Professor of early Christianity, and John W. Martens professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota: “The dividing line for the marriage of girls becomes clearer in m. Yebamoth 6:10. That passage states that a High Priest was not to marry a bogeret (a girl who had reached the age of maturity), but only one younger than that. The bogeret, defined by commentators as a girl of twelve and a half years of age, was set apart in m. Ketuboth 3:8 from the Katanah (less than twelve years and a day) and the na’arah (a girl twelve years and a day). M. Niddah 5:7 schematizes the stages of a girl’s life in much the same manner. The stages of childhood are compared to three stages of the ripening process of a fig. The Mishnah distinguishes between an undeveloped fig, corresponding to the yaldut, the period from three to twelve years; a ripening fig, which indicates THE NA’ARAH, WHO IS NO OLDER THAN TWELVE YEARS AND A DAY; and the ripe fig, representing the bogeret, who is no older than twelve and a half years. These ages are clearly associated with physical sexual maturity, and the concern over what constitutes a ‘pure’ marriage for different groups in Judaism, principally along the line of division between priest or Levite and layman.” (“Let the Children Come To Me”, Childhood and Children in Early Christianity [The Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C., 2009] by Cornelia B. Horn and John W. Martens, page 11) Rabbi Dr. Judith Z. Abrams: “3. You will also need to know the stages a girl goes through in terms of her legal identity in the sages’ system. From birth to twelve years, she I called a ketanah, a minor, and cannot take legal action for herself (neither can a boy, for that matter). FROM TWELVE TO TWELVE-AND-A-HALF SHE IS CONSIDERED A NA’ARAH, A YOUNG GIRL, AND HER FATHER MAINTAINS SOME AUTHORITY OVER HER. From twelve-and-a-half on, she is called a bogeret, an adult woman, and her father can no longer make decisions on her behalf.” (Learn Talmud: How to Use the Talmud–the Steinsaltz Edition [A Jason Aronson Book, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Oxford, 2005] by Judith Z. Abrams, page 123) Professor Rachel Adler: “During this period, all marriages of young girls were arranged by a father or a guardian. Our Mishnah applies to girls in the category of qetanah, a minor under the age of twelve, or in the CATEGORY OF NA’ARAH, BETWEEN TWELVE AND TWELVE-AND-A-HALF YEARS, WHEN THEY ARE PRESUMED TO BE ENTERING puberty. This period seems to have been when most girls were married. A young woman over twelve-and-a-half, a bogeret, had to consent to the marriage and herself received the espousal money and the monetary settelement in her Ketubah in the event of divorce or the husband’s death. Because a qetana or a na’arah would, most likely, have returned to her father’s house, he received the Ketubah money. If married as a qetana or na’arah, but adult at the time of divorce or the husband’s death, she received the sum herself.” (Islamic and Jewish Legal Reasoning: Encountering Our Legal Other [edited by Anver Emon, 2016] by Rachel Adler, page 40) Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rubin: “The Talmud (Yoma 2a) notes that the Kohen gadol would take a new wife before beginning the Yom Kippur service so that he might fulfill the obligation of achieving atonement for his household. Rav Yaakov Meir Biderman, son-in-law of the Sfas Emes, poses the following question. On one hand, we find (Yevamos 59a) an opinion that maintains that the Kohen gadol could marry only a NA’ARAH [A GIRL BETWEEN THE AGES OF TWELVE AND TWELVE AND A HALF]. On the other hand, we find (Shabbos 89b) that a girl under the age of twenty is not considered to punishable. How was it possible for the Kohen gadol to atone for someone who was not culpable.” (Talelei Oros: The Parashah Anthology – Vayikra / Leviticus, selected and compiled by Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rubin [Adapted into English by Rabbi David Landesman, 1997], page 178) And: “NA’ARAH A girl between the ages of twelve years and one day and twelve and a half years plus one day.” (The Gospel of the Nazirenes [B’nai Ysrael Ha’Derech, Netzari Faith, 2015] by Rav Yaakov Bar Yosef page 226) With the foregoing in perspective, we get a clear picture that the young girl who was married to 70-year-old King David, was no older than 12 years and a half.