researching theology . celebrating diversity

Jesus: A Defacto Eunuch

a study by Wal Anderson B.A., B.Ed., B.Th.

The Jewish legal codes of the Torah were often interpreted as excluding many groups or classes of people. Among these were men who engaged in same sex acts and eunuchs. Yet the New Testament shows the ministry of Jesus and the mission of the early church reaching out to outcast people. The movement went beyond the accepted norms of society and embraced those on the margins of society such as sinners, lepers, women, children, adulterous women, heretics, foreigners, Samaritans, tax collectors and slaves.

The message of grace is seen in the work of Jesus, who expresses the heart of the biblical tradition as love for God and for one's neighbour(1) . This is Jesus' own way, Jesus' halakah, the way of discerning the heart of the law.(2) It is the key principle behind Jesus' own praxis.

'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:37-40

The radical love for one's neighbour is also shown in the Gospel traditions that show Israel and Jesus doing God's work among outcasts(3) and foreigners.(4) The notion of "neighbour" is a broad, relational term of compassion. It is consistent with the biblical traditions that showed concern for widows and orphans and commanded the Jewish people to feed strangers, for they were also once strangers in Egypt.(5) The Jewish people trace their ethnic, cultural and religious origins to men and women who were once sojourners and foreigners in a strange land.(6) Caring for the foreigner, for widows and orphans and for outcasts is consistent with the biblical injunctions to do justice and to love mercy.(7)

In Deuteronomy 23:1-2, two sexual minorities, eunuchs and those of illegitimate birth, are defined as being excluded from the assembly of the Lord. Regarding the exclusion of eunuchs, similar laws are found in Leviticus 21:17-21; 22:22-24, where sexual blemishes are seen as an indication of impurity and marks the person unacceptable to God. Eunuchs were cut off, Heb. 'karath',(8) from benefits of cult and family life. In this regard they were like childless widows and stand outside the usual patterns of procreation and the blessings of prosperity that came from that.(9) Childless homosexual people stand in the same situation. They are seen a being cursed by God.

The Hebrew word for eunuch, 'saris' (plural, 'sarisim'), appears seventeen times in the Hebrew books of the bible. It is usually taken to refer to castrati; however, its usage refers to a wide class of persons. It included castrated men, court officials, shamans, sages and wise men. Generally, as a class, "eunuchs" serve as subversive elements in the palaces of Israel's enemies. The role of Ebed-melech, the Cushite eunuch who acts to rescue Jeremiah from the cistern (Jer.38:7-13) is such an example. In the NRSV commentary on Jeremiah 38:7, we are told that not all eunuchs were "physical",(10) thus the NRSV commentators apparently know of more than one type of eunuch. However, they do not give any further information. What other types of "eunuch" were there in biblical times? Interestingly, Matthew 19:12 speaks of three classes of eunuch, where it is written,

for there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can. Matthew 19:12

Nancy Wilson uncovers the ambiguity or diversity implicit in the term "eunuch" and recognises that homosexual men are covered by the term.(11) Tom Horner says that some "eunuchs" may have been gay men.(12) An interesting quote from Hippolytus, that sounds very much like Paul's list of outcasts in 1 Corinthians 6:9, reads:

A prostitute, a profligate, a eunuch or anyone else who does things of which it is a shame to speak, let them be rejected.(13)

Like Matthew 19:12, it suggests that the class of eunuchs is a broad one. I am cautious about equating such references to homosexual men. Such interpretations may be examples of reading modern understandings of sexuality back into the biblical texts. What is certain is that in some cases the eunuchs are to be understood as a class of men who are socially emasculated, cut-off from normal social life and activity. For example, Isaiah understands eunuchs to be barren, without off-spring and therefore "cut-off" from society and a generative future in the land. They are a people under a curse.

Yet, in Isaiah 56:4-6, we see a reversal of this situation, in that eunuchs and foreigners are given God's blessing. The curse implicit in the Levitical and Deuteronomic codes, is overturned, in that the excluded ones are counted among the included ones. In fact, Isaiah 56:4-6 contains a new, conditional covenant, in which God will give a three-fold blessing of inclusivity ("in my house and within my walls"), of power or place(14) , and of prosperity and honour ("an everlasting name that will not be cut off"). Significantly, there are no curses, as in other covenant expressions. The conditions of the covenant blessings are also three-fold, "to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant" (Isa. 56:4). Thus, while "cut-off" from eternal life through bearing of children, it is through their faith and obedience that eunuchs are given an honourable, everlasting name that is better than progeny.

The same blessings are also extended to foreigners (Isa. 56:6), who are included under seven conditions, namely to "join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my (God's) covenant (Isa. 56:6). Thus Isaiah 56:4-6 contains ten conditions, in parallel to the decalogue. However, even those requirements are removed in Acts 8:27-39, so that all that remains is faith and practice of "the Way" of Jesus Christ.

References:

1. Lev. 19:18; Mk 12:31; Mt. 5:43; Rom. 13:9-10; Gal. 5:14; Ja. 2:8
2. Vicky Balabanski, "That we may not lose the way: Bible Studies of the 8th Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia, Perth, July 1997. (UTC Publications, Parramatta, 1997.) p. 11.
3. See Mk 7:24-30; Lk. 81-3, 8:40-48; Jn 4:7-42; and also Ps.147:2; Isa. 11:12, 16:3-4, & 56:8.
4. Mt. 8:5-13; Jn 4.
5. Ex. 22:21; Deut. 10:18-19.
6. Gen. 25:20; Deut. 26:5.
7. Lev. 19:33-34; Mic. 6:8; Mt. 23:23.
8. sv Heb. karath 'cut-off', Strong's Greek and Hebrew Lexicon, Logos Bible Study Software, (Logos Research Systems, Oak Harbour, WA, 1993.), which also gives the meaning as 'covenanted', meaning 'to cut-off a covenant', thus the Isaiah 56 usage relates to covenanting as well as to the nuances of castration and being 'cut-off' from the land, family, and social life.
9. Nancy Wilson, Our Tribe: Queer Folks, God, Jesus, and the Bible. (Harper-Collins, New York, 1995.) p. 123.
10. NRSV footnote, 38:1-13, p.1020.
11. Nancy Wilson, Our Tribe. pp.120 - 132. Wilson quotes a French source, B. Botte, "A Propos de la tradition apostolique," Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 33 (1966) p. 37, note 7, who quotes Hippolytus as including homosexual men under the term 'eunuch". See Nancy Wilson, Ibid. p.290, note 6.
12. Tom Horner, Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Biblical Times. (Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1978.) pp. 101 and 124.
13. Nancy Wilson, Op. cit., p.290, note 6, where she quotes G. J. Cumming, Hippolytus: A Text for Students, (Grove Books, Bramcote, Nottingham, U.K., 1987).
14. In Isa. 56:5, the word rendered as "monument" in the NRSV is in Hebrew, 'yd', which can also be translated as 'hand', 'power', or 'place' and is a euphemism for 'penis'.