Who is this guy?

A bit behind in posting this, but back on track after the holiday craziness!  Continuing from last post about "Queering the Bible".

In Acts 8, we read the story of Philip baptizing the Ethiopian Eunuch.   In this story, Philip meets the eunuch on the road to Jerusalem and proceeds to interpret the words from the Prophet Isaiah, and then  proclaims the good news of Jesus,  which leads the eunuch to be baptized.  And we are left with a wonderful story of evangelism and conversion.  But what we often miss, which would not be lost on first century communities, is the impact the character of the eunuch has on the story. 

During that time, the audience would have been familiar with two different types of eunuchs.  The first would have been a court eunuch, who would have been a servant or slave charged with guarding the royal harem.  These servants were usually men who were castrated as young boys.  This forced castration made them “safe” to be alone in the presence of women.  In addition, the timing of their castration (pre or post puberty), would have impacted both the physical and sexual characteristics of those castrated.  The second type of eunuch were men who may or may not have been castrated, but were celibate, sometimes for religious reasons. 

So which type was this eunuch?  We don’t know.   You couldn’t tell by looking at him, and it’s not like you could ask him if he was castrated.  But that is sort of the point, don’t you think?   This foreigner, this person who might be a slave or might be a high court official, whose physical and sexual characteristics may have been changed by castration- is by all definitions an “other”. This eunuch wasn’t a “normal guy”. He didn’t fit into the prescribed definition of male in that society, he could easily be considered queer.  And yet, from what we know, Philip doesn’t ask the eunuch to explain or define himself.  The eunuch is baptized, because he had heard the good news of Jesus.  That was all that mattered.  And this baptism of a eunuch marks a shift in the story.  If a eunuch is baptized, how can anyone be denied baptism?  As the story of Acts continues, we see this message of inclusion influence and expand the mission of the disciples- the message of Jesus is for everyone.  And it all starts with this unknown, ambiguous, queer eunuch.