researching theology . celebrating diversityJesus: 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. It is the key principle behind Jesus' own praxis.(2) '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. In the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, Jesus appears to fit one of the categories of exclusion in Deteronomy 23:1-2, that of an illegitimate birth. Of course, the stories need to be "demythologised" to uncover that understanding. This status is hinted at in the genealogy in Matthew and in the question, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary" in Mark 6:3. Such status is a probable factor in the rejection of Jesus as a prophet among his own townsfolk. (Mk. 6:4-6). The second status, as a eunuch, appears in the trial and crucifixion stories, in which Jesus becomes as one "cut-off" from family, race, culture and his male disciples. 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)Is Jesus one who made himself as a "eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven"? Hard to swallow? In general terms, Jesus crucified is Jesus "cut-off", apparently without issue and a place in the land. 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. Same-sex relationships did not exist in the same social contexts as modern homosexual people. 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). 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, 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. It does not take much imagination to see in that imagery a likeness unto Jesus, as one "cut-off" yet bringing foreigners and Jews alike, to the sacred mountain. Interestingly, 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, the one who made himself as a "eunuch" for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Isaiah 53:7-8 describes the conditions of a eunuch, in that the enigmatic Suffering Servant is portrayed as one humiliated, shorn/cut/ perhaps killed, with no descendents, whose life is "taken away from the earth." This figure is comparable to Jesus at Calvary- as one like a eunuch, that is taken up by Luke in Acts 8:32-33, in which the ambiguity of the Suffering Servant; who is identified as like a "eunuch", and the story of Jesus become significant stories of faith and baptism. The point of this story is that questions of inclusivity are to be answered in terms of faith and righteousness (understood as being "the way" or halakah of Jesus). This story repeats a similar theme from Isaiah 56:4-6 but without conditions. The concept of grace is unconditional, except in being "of the way" of Jesus. This is a new covenental form of grace in which there are no conditions. Those previously considered outside the Law are admitted through the work of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:28;39.) Jesus is shown in solidarity with "eunuchs" and outcasts of impaired sexual status or those outside ordinary patterns of family and procreation. The way" of Jesus is inclusive. It brings in the outcasts through unconditional grace. References:
 © This article is adapted from an essay by W. L. Anderson and is
published here by Tehomot Publications, Port Willunga, South Australia,
2004.Glossary decalogue: (lit. ten words) the ten commandments. halakah: (Hebrew) meaning the "the way" or the teaching of a Rabbi or spiritual leader. praxis: (noun) rules for action; the process of action and reflection that gives rise to deliberate action; > Gk. prassein, accomplish, do.
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