Bible and the Transgender Experience. Linda Herzer
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even in the tenth generation. 4For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on you. 5However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. 6Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.
7Do not despise an Edomite, for the Edomites are related to you. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you resided as foreigners in their country. 8The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord. (Deut. 23:1–8)
The New International Version of the Bible, from which these verses are taken, introduces them with the heading “Exclusion from the Assembly” because this passage has to do with who was in and who was out—who was included and who was excluded from the “assembly,” the term for the sacred gathering of God’s people in that day, similar to the gathering of Christians for worship in churches today. During Israel’s early history, eunuchs and “foreigners” (all people who were not Israelites) were on the “excluded” list.
Was that prohibition binding for all time? No. Within scripture itself we see the prohibition regarding eunuchs and foreigners change over time.
ISAIAH 56:1–7
In Isaiah 56 the prophet writes about how God relates to all those whose actions show that they are following God, including eunuchs and foreigners, the very people who were excluded from the Lord’s assembly in Deuteronomy 23.
1This is what the Lord says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. 2Blessed is the one who does this—the person who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps their hands from doing any evil.”
3Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”
4For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—5to them I will give within my temples and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.
6And foreigners who bind 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 without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—7these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. (Isa. 56:1–7)
Here the prophet Isaiah foretells a time when God will lift the prohibitions on those who were formerly outsiders and outcasts; all gender variant eunuchs and foreigners who love God will be honored and included in the assembly.
ACTS 8:26–39
Moving forward in Jewish history, we see this inclusion come to pass in the New Testament as the good news about Jesus begins to spread. Acts 8:26–39 tells the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.
26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship,
28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31“How can I ,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
34The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. (Acts 8:26–35)
It is important to note that this passage of scripture the eunuch is reading is the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, commonly known as the “Suffering Servant” passage because it foretells what happens during Jesus’s trial and crucifixion. I think it is also important to note that this Suffering Servant passage that the eunuch is reading occurs just three chapters before the preceding passage from Isaiah 56, where Isaiah foretold God’s acceptance of eunuchs. Since Acts 8:35 says that Philip began with that Suffering Servant passage of scripture from Isaiah 53, perhaps Philip ended up three chapters over, in Isaiah 56, telling the Ethiopian eunuch how Jesus demonstrated this radical welcome of eunuchs and foreigners that Isaiah foretold. It seems likely that Philip continued on to chapter 56 because of what happens next.
36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” (Acts 8:36)
The way the eunuch asks that question—“What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”—implies that this person is used to having people and things stand in the way of his full acceptance in society. The eunuch’s boldness in asking that question suggests that whatever Philip shared gave him the courage to believe that he, too, was loved and welcomed and accepted by God. Here’s how the story ends.
38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. (Acts 8:38–39)
Here in the book of Acts, during the early days of the Christian Church, God’s desire to include eunuchs and foreigners in the assembly, foretold in Isaiah 56, comes to pass. A gender variant, probably black, African eunuch is baptized into the family of God!
THE SHIFT FROM EXCLUSION TO INCLUSION
Thus, the Bible clearly shows a change in attitude towards the inclusion of eunuchs in God’s assembly…from Deuteronomic prohibition, to Isaiah’s prophesy of inclusion, to the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch recounted in the book of Acts. Such a movement from exclusion to inclusion mirrors the entire contextual trajectory of the Scriptures in general.
Exclusions concerning Gentiles are another case in point. Much to the surprise of Jesus’ first Jewish followers, God breaks the barriers between Jews and Gentiles by baptizing Gentiles with the Holy Spirit, thus signifying God’s acceptance of them (Acts 10, 11, and 15). Likewise, one of the main reasons Jesus was crucified was because he chose to include people on the grounds of love instead of excluding them on the basis of the Old Testament law.
The fact that the Bible itself shows a historical movement and shift in the Israelites’ understanding of how God would have them relate to the gender variant people of their day suggests that God may also have an accepting, affirming, and inclusive attitude towards the gender variant people of our day. If that is God’s attitude, then gender variant people everywhere should rejoice, and those of us who profess to be Christ’s followers should exhibit the same acceptance, affirmation, and inclusion of gender nonconforming individuals that the Bible reveals.
WHY WERE THERE EXCLUSIVE LAWS IN