YOUTH. The ancient concepts of childhood and youth are very imprecise. No term exists in Heb. or Gr. for adolescence or puberty and the concepts of youth are very vague indeed. Generally a woman is styled “virgin” or “maiden” until marriage, regardless of age, and a man is a youth from infancy to manhood sometime after twenty-one years of age. A variety of Heb. terms are rendered by youth in the various Eng. VSS. The most common Heb. term is נְעוּרִים, H5830, “youths,” as an age group and a sing. form, נַ֫עַר֮, H5853, masc. “lad” which occurs some 235 times in the OT (Gen 14:24, et al.) and נַעֲרָה֒, H5855, fem. “lass” often “maid” (Gen 24:61, et al.) and even “prostitute” (Amos 2:7). Less frequent but important is the pl. form עֲלוּמִים, H6596, (KJV) “youth” (RSV), “youthful” (Job 20:11, et al.). This word is the pl. of the term tr. “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 and elsewhere. Another term so rendered is בְּחוּרִים, H1036, “youth.” The masc. pl. tantum occurs only in Numbers 11:28, while the fem. בְּחוּרﯴת, H1035, “youth” occurs only in Ecclesiastes 11:9; 12:1. A large number of other terms are rendered “youth” by the KJV, but many of them have other more central meanings.

In the NT the only term for “youth” is the classical Gr. νεότης, G3744, literally “freshling,” “newling,” and by extension youth in the sense of “strippling.” It is commonly used in the LXX for the Heb. terms noted above. It occurs in the NT only in Matthew 19:20; Mark 10:20; Luke 18:21; Acts 26:4 and 1 Timothy 4:12. In the Gr. concept of παιδεία, G4082, (Heb 12:11) education and discipline are valuable if not inseparable parts of the maturation of the individual. This concept of immaturity is found frequently in the NT (1 Cor 3:1, et al.). It is not apparent in the OT, for the OT characterizes the early period of the Israelite monarchy as the youth or childhood of the nation (Hos 2:15). Whereas in the NT the congregation of the Lord is now mature and the object lessons of the old covenant are no longer needed (Gal 3). In neither the OT nor the NT can numerical ages be assigned. Generally children were weaned at about two and half to three years and became responsible at thirteen years. Under the neolithic tribal arrangement of the patriarchs marriage for a man of forty was not unusual; in the NT, the Graeco-Roman usage seems to predominate. There is little evidence that the Gr. terms are any more than broadly equivalent to the Heb.