Some Eunuchs Are
Gay Men Or Lesbians

Eunuchs are gay.

What On Earth Is A Eunuch?

The Ethiopian Eunuch baptized by Philip.

Acts 8:38 says "they went down both into the water," which is not portrayed by the artist. Eunuchs were often gay men or lesbian women. Why do some Christians believe that? The word eunuch, in the New Testament, is from the Greek word eunouchos, eun, for bed, and echein, to keep.

A eunuch is literally ‘a keeper of the bed.’ Eunouchos conveys the idea of superintendent of the bedchamber, bed keeper, bed guard.

The definition of eunuch may also include a man incapable of marriage, not sexually attracted to women or unwilling to marry a woman.

What does it mean to be a eunuch?

1. It could mean incapable of heterosexual marriage because the eunuch is same sex attracted and thus, not interested in heterosexual marriage.

2. It could mean asexual, not feeling sexual attraction toward either sex.

3. In rare cases, eunuch could refer to one born with genital defects which make siring children impossible, although this condition is not mentioned in scripture.

4. A eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven is a man who is capable of marriage but voluntarily abstains from marriage in order to better serve God.

Some eunuchs are gay
The Greek word eunouchizo

The Greek word eunouchizo literally means to castrate a man. In ancient times, castration was accomplished by crushing the testicles to make them inoperative or by cutting off the testicles. Sometimes, the penis was also removed in the castration process. Without testicles, a man is incapable of producing sperm and is therefore incapable of procreation.

Eunouchizo is used historically and in scripture to refer to castrated men and uncastrated men, one class of whom, Jesus described as born eunuchs, who had not been physically castrated by man. That is one important reason some Christians believe eunuchs are gay men and women.

Eunouchizo is also sometimes used metaphysically, to describe one who voluntarily abstains from traditional marriage but is not physically castrated.

The Hebrew word saris

The Hebrew word saris. According to the Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Hebrew Lexicon, the Hebrew word for eunuch is saris and its derivatives. Saris is believed to be an Assyrian loan word. The phonetic pronunciation is (saw-reece'). A secondary meaning of saris, from the Hebrew, is to castrate but Jesus speaks with divine authority when He teaches that not all eunuchs are castrated, Matthew 19:12.

According to Jesus, some eunuchs are born that way, in distinction from a man who has been physically castrated or a man who voluntarily abstains from marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

Jewish rabbis in ancient times used the word saris to describe both castrated individuals and uncastrated individuals, men the rabbis referred to as natural eunuchs. The Hebrew word saris-eunuch, is found 45 times in the Old Testament, translated in the King James Bible as eunuch 17 times, chamberlain 13 times, officer 12 times and Rabsaris, 3 times. Eunuchs are mentioned 10 times in six verses in the New Testament.

Some Eunuchs Were Gay Men

Is that a biased assertion by gay Christians attempting to alibi our sin or is there scholarly support for such a statement?

Interestingly enough, Dr. Robert Gagnon, tenured Professor of Greek and New Testament Exegesis at Pittsburg Theological Seminary and prolific anti-gay evangelical Christian author, admits on his website, that “born eunuchs” in the ancient world were probably gay.

Dr. Robert Gagnon,

Pittsburg Theological Seminary

"Probably "born eunuchs" in the ancient world did include people homosexually inclined, which incidentally puts to the lie the oft-repeated claim that the ancient world could not even conceive of persons that were congenitally influenced toward exclusive same-sex attractions." - Dr. Gagnon

Based on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 19:12, the first category of eunuchs Jesus mentioned includes gay men.

"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.”

John McNeill,

in The Church and the Homosexual, p. 65, states concerning Matthew 19:12,

"The first category - those eunuchs who have been so from birth - is the closest description we have in the Bible of what we understand today as a homosexual."

Many scholars reject the truth that some eunuchs are gay, insisting instead that eunuchs were always castrated men or men born with genital birth defects, which rendered them incapable of siring children. Scholarly conjecture that a eunuch can only be a physically castrated man or a genitally deformed man but never a physically intact gay man is only conjecture. It has no basis in fact.

Even Dr. Gagnon admits that "born eunuchs" were probably homosexuals.

When an anti-gay evangelical with the scholarly credentials of Dr. Robert Gagnon, a man who steadfastly opposes all homosexual practice as sinful, admits that the Biblical category of "born eunuch" probably included homosexuals, that is an important admission.

Scripture never says that all eunuchs were

castrated or genitally deformed.

In the Jewish New Testament, translated by David Stern, Matthew 19:12 tells us the first class of eunuchs (born eunuchs) do not marry

“because they were born without the desire.”

According to David Stern’s translation, Jesus says that some males are born into the world “without the desire” to marry a woman. Stern understands a born eunuch to be a man born without the desire to marry a woman.

Now doesn’t that sound like
a gay man, born without the desire
to marry a woman?

According to Jesus, this is a perfectly natural situation, beause the individual is born that way. Being a born eunuch is not the result of personal choice (since they were born that way). And according to Jesus, being “born a eunuch” exempts eunuchs from the Adam and Eve marriage paradigm, Matthew 19:11-12.

If you have friends or loved ones who are gay, you ought to really study Matthew 19:3-12. By (1) exempting gays from the Adam and Eve marriage paradigm and (2) differentiating between eunuchs so born from their mother's womb and eunuchs who voluntarily abstain from marriage, Jesus has left the door wide open for eunuchs/gays to marry each other, i.e., be married in a way not in accord with the Adam and Eve paradigm.

And remember, gay marriage is now legal in all fifty states in the USA and many countries around the world. The analogy to polygamy is helpful here. Although most Christians are against polygamy today, in the Old Testament, polygamy was culturally accepted and legal and many followers of God engaged in it with God's blessing.

Today, gay marriage is culturally accepted and legal and many born again gay Christians are gay married, with God's wonderful blessing upon their marriage.

Have you enough love, mercy and Christian grace in your heart to see how important that is for your gay friends and family?

9 Timeless Truths About Eunuchs

Depiction of a Eunuch Officer About 1749.

1. The term eunuch, in history and scripture, frequently referred to gay men. 
2. The term eunuch, in history, also referred to what we now call lesbians, recognized as such by ancient Jewish rabbis.
3. Eunuchs-gay men, in history and scripture, are often anatomically whole, not physically castrated.
4. Eunuchs in history and scripture are frequently, gay men who feel no sexual attraction toward women. Some eunuchs are gay.
5. Eunuchs are gay men, in history and scripture, who are specifically excluded, by Jesus, from the Adam and Eve marriage paradigm.
6. Eunuchs are gay men, who sometimes married women, in order “to pass,” to fit in culturally.
7. Eunuchs-gay men, historically, were recognized by Rabbis of ancient Judaism, by ancient Roman law and by ancient Christian preachers, as physically intact men, who were born with no sexual attraction toward women, what one ancient preacher, Gregory of Nazianzus, referred to as natural chastity.
8. Eunuchs are gay men in scripture, and were usually outstanding, honorable, brave, Godly men, who occupied a place of great responsibility and spiritual blessing. Do you remember the first Ethiopian eunuch in the Bible in Jeremiah 38:7-13; 39:15-18? He was God's great eunuch hero!
9. Eunuchs are gay men in early church history, who were welcomed into the Eastern church, as pastors, presbyters, deacons and bishops. Some eunuchs are gay.
   

Let us be clear. Not all eunuchs
were gay men or lesbians.

What is clear to students of history is that some eunuchs were gay men or lesbians. Ancient cultures recognized them as such. We provide more information in our eBook:

Gay Christian 101 - Spiritual Self-Defense For Gay Christians.

Helpful Links for further study

This Analogy convincingly validates Gay Marriage.

Four good analogies affirm gay relationships.

Jonathan and David is the greatest human love story in the Bible.

Jesus identified the sin of Sodom and it was not homosexuality.

The Holiness Code was aimed at Israel.

What is a sodomite in the Bible?

The Centurion Jesus met had a boyfriend.

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