Mary Wasn’t A Blue-Eyed, Blond-Haired Madonna
Throughout the centuries, artists have tended to romanticize Mary. She has a pious, porcelain-skinned appearance, blue eyes, and blond hair. The actual Mary, on the other hand, was a muscular peasant girl whose everyday life was controlled by work and physical labor. She would have looked like a typical Palestinian woman, with brown eyes, dark hair, and an olive complexion. Furthermore, there is no proof that she was even physically appealing, let alone divinely gorgeous. And the whitewashing of Mary and other Biblical heroines reveals more about European notions of racial superiority than it does about ancient Judea’s reality.
Mary Was Presumably Young When She Married Joseph
Traditionally, women were married at the commencement of puberty in order to make the most of their childbearing years. As a result, Mary was most likely engaged to Joseph about the age of 13. Mary was almost certainly a fresh-faced adolescent when she gave birth to Jesus, as she got pregnant during this time. The patriarchal laws of the time most likely required that Mary and Joseph’s marriage be arranged by their fathers first, with their mothers influencing proceedings behind the scenes. Marriage was ultimately a business agreement in ancient times. Its stipulations, according to Matthew 1:20 and Luke 1:27, included a negotiable “bride price” owed to Mary’s family, mostly to compensate for the loss of her labor.