Sanhedrin 54b – No, the Talmud Doesn’t Say You Can Have Sex With Nine Year Olds.
The Quote
A Jew may have sex with a child, as long as the child is less than nine years old.
– Sanhedrin 54b
The Reality
The Talmud says no such thing. The “quote” is based on a purposeful misconstruing of the discussion in the Talmud.
The Talmud on Sanhedrin 54b discusses the prohibitions regarding homosexual sex and bestiality. On the page, it discusses the number of prohibitions one violates if one engages in these types of sexual relations, both as the active participant and as the passive participant.
At one point, the Talmud presents an argument between two different opinions (Rav and Shmuel) regarding whether or not a man who allows a minor (under nine) to sodomize him violates one of the prohibitions since a child’s sexual acts are not considered full-fledged sexual acts.
But at the end of the day, all parties agree that such an activity is prohibited. There is no one on this page of the Talmud, or anywhere else, who permits having sexual relations with a child under nine. All that is being discussed here is whether or not someone who does this unwittingly must bring a sacrifice as an atonement. Saying that the Talmud says that it is permitted is completely wrong and not supported in the text at all.
Summary:
This is a purposeful misstatement of what the Talmud says. Nowhere does it say that such an act is permitted. The matter under discussion is how many prohibitions a person violates for such an act and whether or not he must bring a sacrifice (or multiple sacrifices if there are multiple prohibitions) for unwittingly committing this act.