HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BIBLE
BIBLE STUDY
14
In previous sections we have examined positive examples of homosexuality in scripture from the points of view of Jonathan and David, and Ruth and Naomi. As required of their culture, all four lived in heterosexual marriages. Also true of their culture, romantic love was not necessarily a component of the marriage relationships, so their marriages did not of necessity exclude them for consideration as homosexuals. Their love and devotion to their same-sex partners was the determining factor.
The language of the scriptures, however, clearly identifies one of the four as bisexual. David, the beloved of God, lamented Jonathan’s death with the words, I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women. (2 Samuel 1:26) David’s bisexuality is revealed not in the fact that he was married, but in the fact that he also loved a married woman (or at least lusted after her), to the extent that he murdered her husband to have her.
In the eleventh chapter of 2 Samuel, we read that one evening a sleepless David took a walk on the roof of his palace. From his vantage point he witnessed a very beautiful woman bathing. She turned out to be Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s military officers. David had her brought to the palace and slept with her.
When David found out that Bathsheba was pregnant, to cover her infidelity he called Uriah from the battlefront on the pretext of determining how the war was going, but with the specific intention that Uriah would go home and sleep with his wife, so that the coming baby would be assumed to be his. Uriah, however, out of sympathy for his troops, determined not to avail himself of any pleasure denied those still on the battlefield, and refused to go home.
Frustrated and angry, and not willing to subject Bathsheba with any taint of wrongdoing through her pregnancy, David sent Uriah back to the front and instructed the commander to place Uriah where the fighting was fiercest, then withdraw the rest of the troops and leave Uriah to die. Uriah did die, and David brought Bathsheba home and married her.
God soon sends the prophet, Nathan, to confront David with his sin, and David repents, but God, through Nathan, tells David that calamity will be with David the remainder of his life. Not long after the birth of the son of this union, the child becomes ill and dies. For the rest of his life, David is plagued by pain and heartache brought on by divisions in his family.
In spite of all that happened, David never turned away from God. Likewise, God never turned away from David. In spite of David’s many sins, David would eventually recognize the error of his ways and repent, and God always forgave him. It must be noted, however, that though David committed many sins, and though God took David to task for those sins, his bisexuality wasn’t one of those sins. Nowhere does scripture upbraid David for his relationship with Jonathan, or for David’s bisexuality.
Who are eunuchs, and what do they have to do with GLBT folk? Further, do the scripture passages which speak of eunuchs also speak to transgendered people?
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance defines the word rendered eunuch in the Hebrew as caric, and says it is from an unused root meaning to castrate; a eunuch; by implication, valet (especially of the female apartments), and thus a minister of state: (sic)–chamberlain, officer. The Christian scriptures use two words which were translated into English as eunuch: eunouchizo which means to castrate (figuratively, live unmarried) and the word eunouchos; from eune (a bed) and scheo meaning to hold (meaning in different instances) possession, ability, contiguity, relation or condition, be possessed with); a castrated person (such as being employed in Oriental bed chambers); by extension an impotent or unmarried man; by implication a chamberlain (or state officer).
The Bible Almanac (pp. 324, 328, 329) tells us that eunuchs were court officials during David’s reign, and the prophet, Jeremiah "…lists them as men of rank with princes and priests (Jer. 34:19). Earlier, such men took Ahab’s message to the prophet Micaiah, summoning him to appear before the king (1 Kings 22:9.)"
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Vol. 2, pp. 201, 202), indicates that …eunuchs…were known not only as bodyguards or domestics, but also as palace officials, statesmen and military generals.
In other words, eunuchs were considered to be people of distinction, rank and power. They were trusted servants and/or court officials. Because of their lack of sexual interest in women (either because they were castrated, or they simply weren’t attracted to women (read gay?), they served as servants in the women’s quarters (harem). They were trusted to deliver important messages and often acted as go-betweens for rivaling factions, even negotiating treaties. Some were military commanders.
In Matthew 19:12 Jesus tells us that there are three kinds of eunuchs: those that are "…eunuchs because they were born that way; others (who) were made that way by people; and others (who) have renounced marriage because of the realm of heaven."
"Eunuchs who were made that way by people," can be fairly easily identified as those who were physically castrated, either as a result of capture or as a result of punishment, or simply as the need for eunuch servants arose.
(Eunuchs who) have renounced marriage because of the realm of heaven were others who would have chosen to forgo marriage so that they could focus solely on serving God and studying the scriptures. It is believed that the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes, were an example of this category of people.
Who, would you suppose, are "…eunuchs because they were born that way?" Some scholars believe that this passage would refer to hermaphrodites, or those who are physically deformed. However, we must remember that Jesus, when He was speaking these words, was speaking to His disciples–simple, illiterate fishermen for the most part–people who hardly would be versed in such physical anomalies.
However, if we can agree with the "one-in-ten" model of a ratio of GLBT folk to heterosexuals, then the disciples certainly would have known some. (Persecutions of homosexuals don’t appear to have begun much before the fourth century, C.E.) In fact, in the twenty-second chapter of Luke, he reports that Jesus sent Peter and John to make preparations for Passover. When they asked, "Where do you want us to prepare for it? Jesus replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you." (Luke 22:10A). The Oxford Annotated Bible tells us, “…a man carrying a jar of water would be doing woman’s work and would be easily noticeable.” This verse surely leaves room for interpretation that the encounter was with either a gay man or transgendered person–proof positive that the disciples surely would have known GLBT people, and would have realized that these are the eunuchs to whom Jesus referred.
Deuteronomy 23:1 tells us: No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of God. (NIV)
Among the reasons cited for this proscription was that castration was contrary to the divine order in creation; and that not to have children was considered a disobedience of God’s command to "be fruitful and multiply." (Gen. 1:28). Verses 2 thru 6 likewise indicated that certain foreigners were to be excluded from participating in temple worship.
We find in the words of the Prophet, Isaiah that those previously excluded in the Deuteronomic law, are now to be welcomed into God’s house:
Isaiah 56:3-5
Let no foreigner who has joined him or herself to God say, "God will surely exclude me from God’s people.” And let not any eunuch complain, "I am only a dry tree.” For this is what our God says: "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant–to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.” (NIV)
Here we find the Prophet saying that what is important to God is that people honor God by Sabbath worship and by acts of righteousness, justice and mercy, contradicting the previous edicts of ritual impurity (emasculation) or childlessness (the dry tree). Indeed, those who keep God’s covenant will be treated with great esteem, Isaiah says.
The Daily Study Bible Series: Isaiah’s author, John F. A. Sawyer, writes:
"…the eunuchs–and with them we are no doubt intended to include women, lepers and other outcasts–are told that membership of Israel depends not on physical or ritual matters, but on obedience: (A person) is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal (Rom. 2:29; cf. Deut. 30:6). The phrase Yad vaShem, "a monument and a name" (vs. 5), has been applied to the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem where the six million victims of Nazi persecution, not all of them Jews but including gypsies, homosexuals and other outcasts, are remembered. The new converts will be given a name above every name, as citizens of the new Jerusalem and inheritors of the promises to Abraham and his descendants…In the new age, the criteria for admission into the Temple will be moral and spiritual criteria, not social or political or racial. The Temple is open to all. In Paul‘s famous words, (Galatians 3:28-29) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ‘s, then you are Abraham‘s offspring, heirs according to the promise."
And well we might add: "gay or straight."
This ends today’s study. Next week: Eunuchs Part 2