That must have been easier when people married at 12 - 13, eh ?
“During the first century, however, it appears to have been the general rule that young people who were “of age” could arrange their own marriages. A girl was considered of age at twelve years and one day. The Jewish rabbis set the minimum age for marriage at twelve years for the girl, and thirteen years for the boy. A boy should certainly be wed by the time he was eighteen to twenty. “
http://www.gospelgazette.com/gazette/2005/may/page20.htm
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.