Was Rebekah a child of three years when Isaac married her?

1 The Biblical Facts

The following scriptural facts are used to establish Rebekah’s age at her marriage to Isaac.

• 1. Sarah was 90 when Abraham was 100 (Genesis 17:17).

• 2. Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5).

• 3. Sarah died at aged 127 (Genesis 23:1-2).

• 4. Isaac was 40 when he married Rebekah (Genesis 25:20).

Two further facts are necessary inferences from the above four facts

• 5. Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born (conclusion from 1 and 2 above)

• 6. Isaac was 37 when his mother Sarah died (because 127-90=37)

These six facts alone do not supply sufficient information to work out Rebekah’s age when Isaac married her.

2 The Tradition

In order to make any calculation of Rebekah ’s age at marriage, it is necessary to make assumptions that cannot be substantiated in scripture.

These assumptions are tradition. We reject this tradition because Jesus said that "the word of God is invalidated for the sake of tradition" and called those who teach such tradition "blind guides" (Matthew 15:6).

Two more “facts”?

The tradition takes certain events as happening at the same time. These events are: the binding of Isaac on the altar in Moriah (Genesis 22:9); Abraham informed of Rebekah’s birth (Genesis 22:20-23); and Sarah’s death aged 127 (Genesis 23:1-2).

If these events did all happen at the same time, within just a few weeks, then two more necessary inferences could be added to the six facts above...

• 7. Since Isaac was 37 at his mother’s death, he was 37 when Rebekah was born.

• 8. Since Isaac was 40 when he married Rebekah, Rebekah would be 3 when the marriage took place (because 40-37=3)