-1- Eunuchs and the Postgender Jesus: Matthew 19:12 and ...

done on this verse among biblical interpreters 1 in the last 50 years, and what has been
done continues to view this verse as an instruction favoring celibacy. However, two
significant developments with respect to the ongoing interpretive reception of this verse
have made it necessary to revisit alternative possibilities.
-2-
The first of these developments is the dawning awareness in modern Christian
communities of new forms of sexuality and sexed identity. One need only consider the
struggles within Presbyterian and Episcopalian traditions concerning the place and role of
homosexuals and transgenders within their communities to understand how far we have
come since the Stonewall riots and Christine Jorgenson. What were once considered
severely deviate psychoses have now entered mainstream Christianity. These groups are
demanding to be received with dignity and respect, as part of God’s own creation. How
one understands and views human sexuality and sexed identity will predetermine one’s
response to these demands.
Second is the recent research into ancient forms of sexuality and sexed identities
spurred on by recent work in Queer theory and history. 2 Literature about ancient
masculinities, eunicism, medicine and moral philosophy have brought a new light to old
and overlooked data. What has developed is a new appreciation of how cultures of the
Mediterranean viewed sexual practices and their meaning for placing individuals in
society. In light of this, significant new perspectives can be brought to the literature from
the ancient world regarding the perceptions about and roles played by eunuchs as sex-
gendered identities.
1 On the other hand, see the recent work in culture criticism of G. Taylor, Castration: An Abbreviated History
of Western Manhood (New York: Routledge, 2000).
2 I will not tax the reader with the numerous and growing citations in these areas of exploration, but simply
point to some representative works, e.g., J. Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity,
10 th Anniversary Ed. (New York/London: Routledge, 1999). E. Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet
(Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992). D. Halperin, One Hundred Years of
Homosexuality: and Other Essays on Greek Love (New York/London: Routledge, 1989). M. Foucault, History
of Sexuality, 3 vols. (Los Angeles/London: Vintage, rpt. 1990 - 1992).