Justin Tanis, program manager of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said the Bible includes references to transgender people.
Tanis, who studied at Harvard Divinity School and the San Francisco Theological Seminary, is transgender. He was the director of leadership development for Metropolitan Community Churches in West Hollywood, Calif., before joining NCTE in August of 2005.
He said in the Book of Genesis there is an account of a “genderless being” called “adam” created by God. When the being becomes lonely, God divides the being into two separate entities called a male and a female.
Tanis said the Hebrew word “adam” is used in a non-gender specific sense in the fifth chapter of Genesis, an assertion that is backed up by Bruce Ware in his article, “Male & Female Complementarity & the Image of God,” published in the Spring 2002 issue of the Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood.
“In Genesis 5:2, God chooses to name both male and female with a name that functions as a masculine generic,” wrote Ware. “The Hebrew term adam is a masculine term that can be used exclusively for a man, especially in Gen. 1-4, but here is used as a generic term in reference to male and female together.”
Tanis said there are other instances in Hebrew scripture in which trans people are mentioned in Jewish law.
“In Deuteronomy there are regulations against cross-dressing and castration,” said Tanis. “However, one should apply these laws in context. For example, Deuteronomy also forbids eating shellfish, mixing seed in a field or blending fabrics.”
Tanis said that Jesus referred to people born eunuch, with gender differences, and those made eunuchs by human action, by choice or by others.
“There are many stories of Eunuchs in the Hebrew scriptures and in some of the Christian scriptures,” he said. “Eunuchs are accepted as a part of life. The first person baptized in the Christian scriptures was a eunuch.”
Tanis cited the following biblical passages as pertaining to transgender people:
Deuteronomy 22:5
“A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.”
Deuteronomy 23:1
“No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.”
Matthew 19:11-12
“But he said to them, ‘Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’”
Acts 8:26-39
“Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
“Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
“‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.’
“The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.”
