I have no complaints, personally, about society permitting consensual marriages at biblically young ages. I don’t mean Koran which was plain warped with its 6 year old child brides and such. But when well into puberty. 12 or 13 for a girl, 13 or 14 for a boy. They (typically the boy) also undertook to support the spouse through a trade at that age. None of this living in parents’ basements.
But not all biblical marriages occurred at the earliest possible date, and yet the love smitten suitor somehow managed to behave himself until the night of the wedding day. And the folks in the lead story were how old??? They were clearly playing around, not just a case of can’t wait.
The point is that in Biblical times it was possible for a man to be established in a trade and capable of supporting a family within just a few years of puberty.
That is not true today in America. Most people would consider it irresponsible for Americans to marry as teenager. People today typically have an extra decade of hormone driven temptation to deal with before they feel prepared to begin a family. Asking them to remain chaste for a decade is very different from Biblical times.
Society still does allow marriages that young but it requires consent of both the underage person’s guardians and a presiding judge. Look at age of consent laws and read the whole statutes.
As an earlier poster pointed out it is much harder to be established in employment at that age, although it is not impossible I guess especially if one of the pair is old enough to drive.
This wasn’t two kids though, and whineyboy was 32 going on 15 when this happened.