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

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It was precisely due to its general presence that such great rhetorical lengths were
eventually required to overcome the “natural” interpretation of this saying. Those who
wished to condemn the practice it could not dismiss it, since it was the authenticity of the
saying that secured its place: no one doubted Matthew’s authority, and no one doubted
that Jesus called for his followers to become eunuchs. Instead, forced to confront it, those
who would reject its call to castration had to contend with an extremely powerful,
naturalized and self-evident reading that Jesus was calling his followers to perform ritual
castration as a sign of religious devotion and commitment.
The reason for this is clear in the history of religions of the eastern Mediterranean.
Among the most familiar and most ancient forms of worship, tracing its roots to the earliest
expressions of the divine by humankind, was the syncretistic religion of Cybele-
Attis/Magna Mater. By the time of Jesus’ ministry, this religion had already been introduced
into Rome 200 years earlier, but in its various forms could trace itself back to 8th century
BCE Phrygia and beyond. During the period we are considering, its popularity is attested to
not only by the confusing breadth and variety of religious myths of origins, which drew
together the figures of Isis-Osiris, (Syrian) Astarte-Tammuz, (Babylonian) Ishtar-Dumuzi, as
well as figures from both the Roman and Greek Pantheon, including Dionysus or Bacchus.
Its influence throughout the Mediterranean can also be noted considering the numerous
historical sources throughout the period that make reference to it: Pausanius, 70 Arnobius, 71
Ovid, 72 Catallus, 73 Apuleius, 74 Philo, 75 Livius, 76 Lucian of Samosata, 77 and Augustine, 78 just
70 Pausanius, Description of Greece vii.17.10.
71 Arnobius, Adversus Nationes v.5.
72 Ovid, Fasti iv.179, 212.
73 Catallus, Carmina lxiii.
74 Apuleius, Metamorphoses, vii.25-30.