It is a common claim by Islamic Dawah people that Rebecca was only 3 years old when marrying Isaac. The reason they make this utter nonsense claim is to justify that the prophet Muhammad married a 6 year old girl, as if that makes it alright.

The argument goes that Isaac was born when his mother was 90, and his mother Sarah died at the age of 127, when Isaac was 37 years old. (Genesis 17:17;21:2-5;23:1) Before she died, Genesis 22:20-24 mentions that Bethuel became father to Rebecca. And since Isaac was 40 when he married Rebecca, this would mean Rebecca was only 3 years old when Isaac married her. (Genesis 25:20)

This is of course full of inaccuracies and false assumptions, because without lies Islam dies.

We don’t know the interval between Genesis 22 and 23

First of all, we do not know the interval between the events in Genesis 22 and 23. Sometimes the narrative jumps years or decades.

We know that in Genesis 21, Isaac was weaned, which might mean he was around 3-6 years old. And in Genesis 23, Isaac is arguably 37 years old. So the events in Genesis 22 could have happened anywhere between those ages. We know that Isaac was a strong young man when God tested Abraham. But we can’t say he was 37 years old.

Notice that in Genesis 22:19, they are living in Beer-Sheba. But in Genesis 23:2, they are living in Hebron when Sarah dies, a distance of 65km. This signifies that the events are not close in time but that a lot of things have happened in the meantime. This alone invalidates the argument.

News didn’t travel instantly

In Genesis 22:20-24, Abraham gets news about what has happened with his family. At this point he has not seen his family for at least around 40 to 62 years! (Genesis 12:4) Apparently some unnamed traveler came his way who knew both him and his family, and he summarized what had happened since last. In total, 14 people had been born in the last 40-62 years, among them Rebecca. Haran also lies 900 km from Beer-Sheba. So it’s very unreasonable to conclude that Rebecca was born the same day that traveler left home. She was old enough to be known in the community.

Rebecca was a woman

Genesis 24:16,28 calls Rebecca a “bethula” or “young woman”. The word “Bethula” signifies an unmarried woman, which means it is someone who is of marriagable age. Some of our Muslim friends seem to have a problem understanding this fact, but a 3 year old is not of marriageable age.

In Genesis 24:56,57 they ask her if she wants to go with Abraham’s servant to be married to Isaac. What parent or guardian would let a 3 year old decide such a thing?

In fact if you read the account in Genesis 24, there is not a single thing indicating that Rebecca is a child. Everything she says and does and the way people refer to her and speak to her shows that she is an adult woman.

Rebecca was strong

When Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, he prayed to God that whichever young woman would give him a drink and water his camels would be the one chosen by God. Rebecca not only gave him a drink, but also watered his camels. Abrahams servant had ten camels. (Genesis 24:10) And a camel can drink 200 L (53 US gal) of water in three minutes. That’s 2000 liters or kilograms of water. So Rebecca went back and forth to the well, carrying up to 2000 kilograms of water in her jar. And our muslim friends would have us believe that a 3 year old would be able to do that? Such a 3 year old must be built like the offspring of Arnold Schwarzenegger and a tank. I don’t even think a 3 year old could lift one single jar of water.

So the idea that Rebecca was 3 years old is insane to say the least.

Christians don’t follow Isaac as an example

Suppose muslims are right. Suppose that there was only 3 years between when the messenger came to Abraham and when Sarah died. Suppose that Rebecca was born exactly when the messenger was leaving, and he just had time enough to learn the name of the newborn before he left, and then rode at maximum speed for 900 km to deliver this news. Suppose they called a 3 year old a “woman” of marriageable age, and asked her opinion on major life decisions. Suppose said 3 year old was stronger than Superman at that age. Suppose all these nonsensical things were true. Suppose Rebecca actually was 3 years old when Isaac married her.

It still would mean absolutely nothing.

Why?

Because Christians do not follow Isaac as a morally perfect example.

However Muslims DO follow Muhammad as a morally perfect example, and Muhammad DID marry a 6 year old, and DID have sexual intercourse with her when she was 9 years old. That is the “perfect moral example” that Muslims follow.

The only reason Muslims make this argument is because they KNOW that what Muhammad did was evil, morally reprehensible, disgusting, and totally unacceptable at any time and place in history, but they want to justify it by pointing to what other irrelevant people supposedly did. As if the fact that there might have existed worse persons than Muhammad would somehow mean that he was a shining beacon of moral superiority.