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Judeo-Christian Traditions

Personal note:  I was raised Roman Catholic and attended eight years of parochial school, being taught by mostly by nuns.  Sunday Mass was a mystical experience for me.  I expecially loved singing the Latin liturgy.  I was so religious as a child that I fantasized about becoming a monk.  Though I abandoned this faith in my turbulent teenage years, I have great respect for the Church, Christianity (excluding fundamentalism), and the Bible.  I’ve compiled some scripture references, observations, and resources that relate specifically to transgender spirituality.

Old Testament

Every scripture reflects the culture from which it arose.  Those scriptures include not only spiritual truths, but also numerous references to cultural and societal norms prevalent at the time and place of the scriptures' origins.  The Bible had its roots in the middle East and reflects that culture’s notion of two discrete genders –

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female He created them.  (Genesis 1:27)

Religious authorities sometimes quote the following verse as scriptural authority for condemning crossdressing –

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment; for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.  (Deuteronomy 22:5)

Unfortunately, this verse is usually interpreted to mean that crossdressing is a sinful act.  Such interpretations ignore the very important context of this section of Deuteronomy.  The passage in which this verse occurs does not refer to sin, but rather describes violations of various cultural rules or norms.  Such violations are strongly discouraged and are therefore called abominations. 

This context becomes obvious by examining other verses in the passage, such as the following that occurs just six verses later –

Thou shall not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen together. Thou shall make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.  (Deuteronomy 22:11-12)

Is it really a sin to wear clothing of mixed wool and linen or without tassels?  These are not sins; they are violations of cultural norms.  Obviously, crossdressing is outside of those cultural norms, but it cannot be considered a sin based on Deuteronomy 22:5.

In an essay examining this verse, Rabbi Tilsen of Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel writes –

While the legal interpretations of this verse from Deuteronomy have been diverse, most of Jewish legal discussion has not taken the verse to suggest a blanket ban or condemnation of what today we call "cross dressing."  (Full text of  Rabbi Tilsen’s scholarly analysis available here .) 

With regard to transsexual gender reassignment surgery (GRS), religious authorities sometimes quote another verse from Deuteronomy to justify its condemnation –

He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 23:1)

Does this verse make castration a sin or a violation of cultural norms?  The correct interpretation becomes obvious when the following two verses are also considered.  These verses exclude many others from the Lord’s temple – those born out of wedlock, those living in the towns of Ammon or Moab, together with ten generations of their descendents.  It would be unreasonable to assume that all these people are sinful.  They are rebuked for violating cultural norms.  Few would disagree that GRS is contrary to most cultural norms, even today, but it cannot be considered sinful based on Deuteronomy 23:1.

This verse and others in the Bible refers to eunuchs, castrated men who were sometimes officials or caretakers.  Does God curse such persons?  Eunuchs can never have progeny, therefore their status in society was greatly diminished.  Nevertheless, God promises enduring respect for eunuchs who follow religious laws –

Let not the eunuch say, 'Behold, I am a dry tree.' For thus says YAHWEH: 'To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off.'  (Isaiah 56:3-5)

From this passage it appears that eunuchs were not religiously condemned, in spite of being gender-deviant.

New Testament

In the New Testament, doctrinal emphasis shifts from the law of Yaweh to the love of Christ.  Accordingly, there is a shift of attitudes about gender, as seen in the teachings of Paul –

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. (Galatians 3:28)

In the Book of Acts, Luke narrates an anecdote describing how eunuchs were accepted into the church through ritual baptism (unlike trans persons today who are frequently rejected by churches) –

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus. And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, 'See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?' And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.  (Acts 8:35-38 )

In addition to the canonical books of the bible, there exist other scriptural texts that are apocryphal, not part of the Bible, but are reputed to record the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.  One such text is the Gospel of Thomas found in the Nag Hammadi manuscript.  It contains teachings influenced by Gnostics who emphasized spiritual knowledge rather than religious dogmas. 

The following passage from the Gospel of Thomas shows us the attitudes Jesus held regarding gender –

Jesus saw babies at their mothers breasts. He said to His followers, "These babies being suckled are like those who enter the Kingdom."

They said to Him, "Shall we enter the Kingdom as children?"

Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the outside to be as the inside, and that which is above as that which is below, and when you make the male and the female into one and the same, so that the man is not man, and the woman is not woman; and when you make eyes to replace eyes, and a hand to replace a hand, and a foot to replace a foot, and a face to replace a face; then you will enter the Kingdom."  (Thomas 22)

Transgender Christianity

The most striking example of transgender spirituality in the Bible is found in Matthew’s Gospel.  In a remarkable passage, Jesus describes a spiritual practice in which men deliberately choose to sacrifice their masculinity for the sake of going to heaven.  According to Matthew –

But Jesus said unto them, “All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given:

For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.

He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” (Matthew 19:11-12)

When commenting on this passage, many religious authorities have interpreted the word eunuch to mean celibate.  But the Greek word eunouchos used by Matthew means “a castrated man.”  If Mathew meant to say celibate, he would probably have used the word hagnos which means chaste and is used elsewhere in the New Testament.

Of course, to become a eunuch for the sake of heaven has figurative meanings in addition to the literal one.  But the strength of the word eunuch suggests much more than mere celibacy.  It points to the transcendence of gender altogether – one's personal identity is cast off, freeing the aspirant to rise above human limitations and dissolve into God's infinite being.  This spiritual principle found in other traditions as well as Christianity.

Some men apparently took Matthew's words literally.  History books record instances of monks who had actually castrated themselves, including the great third-century church father, Origen –

For according to the testimony of Eusebius (Church History 8.1.2), Origen took Matthew 19:12 literally and emasculated himself in obedience to the Lord. While there was dispute earlier about what measure Origen actually took to achieve his end…the reasons given do not seem convincing to me.  Origen, who later was so great in sensing deep and true meaning, in his youth took more than one saying quite literally and drew the logical conclusion (Eusebius 6.3.10). ¹

Origen’s self-emasculation is generally considered a youthful indiscretion driven by devotional fervor.  But the idea of a man sacrificing his maleness for spiritual reasons is widely accepted by Christian theologians.  An excellent example of this acceptance is found in a statement often attributed to Cardinal Newman, but actually written by his younger brother, Francis W. Newman (1805-1897) –

None can enter the kingdom of heaven without becoming a little child. But behind and after this, there is a mystery revealed to but few, namely, that if the soul is to go on into higher spiritual blessedness it must become a woman. Yes, however manly thou be among men, it must learn to love being dependent; must lean on God, not solely from distress or alarm, but because it does not like independence or loneliness. It must not have recourse to Him merely as to a friend in need, under the strain of duty, the battering of affliction and the failure of human sympathy, but it must press toward him when there is no need. ²

Newman's beautiful prose expresses the same sentiments found in the Hindu devotional practices of gopi bhâva and manjari bhâva .