Biblical Views: The Economics of Family: Changing Biblical Norms

Home > Magazines > BAR > September/October 2010

A recent report by the MacArthur Foundation confirmed what most parents of 20-somethings already know: Young adults in the U.S. are taking longer than previous generations to become financially independent. Those in the 18–34 demographic receive an average of 10 percent of their income from parents, and one-fourth of 25-year-old white males live at home. The median age for a first marriage is now 27 for men and 26 for women, up from 23 in 1980.1 While talk radio pundits and disapproving grandparents blame these delays in reaching the benchmarks of adulthood on permissive parenting and lazy kids, the […]

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Endnotes

Patricia Cohen, “Long Road to Adulthood Is Growing Even Longer,” The New York Times, June 11, 2010.

Cohen, “Long Road to Adulthood Is Growing Even Longer.”

This synthesis draws on the work of: Carol Meyers, Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context (New York: Oxford, 1991); Nathan MacDonald, What Did the Ancient Israelites Eat? Diet in Biblical Times (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008); and Ronald A. Simkins, “Family in the Political Economy of Monarchic Judah,” The Bible and Critical Theory 1 (2004).