Why did we set 18 as the age of majority?

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I’m not asking this from a biology lens, I get that aspect, but more from the sociology/anthropology lens. My question is which culture started using 18 as this hard cutoff, when, and under what reasoning.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Historically, the Jewish Talmud is the oldest historical document that sets 18 as an “age of majority” because that’s when King Josiah decided he was old enough to make correct monetary decisions as a judge.

Shabbat 56b, “Rather, in every judgment that he issued from the age of eight, when he was crowned, until the age of eighteen, he returned the money to the parties whom he judged liable, due to concern that in his youth he may not have judged the cases correctly.”

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