Nonbinary genders beyond 'male' and 'female' would have been no surprise to ancient rabbis, who ackn

[icymist]

Nonbinary genders beyond ‘male’ and ‘female’ would have been no surprise to ancient rabbis, who acknowledged tumtums, androgynos and aylonot

“Genderqueer” and “nonbinary” are contemporary terms for people who don’t fit neatly into male or female categories. But acknowledging that not everyone fits neatly into those two groups has a much longer history than you might suspect.

...Rabbinic literature, the body of texts written by Jewish leaders in antiquity, includes several other categories. In these texts, a person with both sets of external genitalia is called an “androgynos,” a term borrowed from Greek. A person with neither is called a “tumtum,” and a person who loses his male sexual organs is called a “saris.” There is also a term for someone whose sex assigned at birth is female but does not develop to female sexual maturity – in some cases, because they develop “male” traits: an “aylonit.”

For example, Genesis Rabbah, a collection of creative Biblical interpretation from late antiquity, records an interpretation of a creation story in the biblical book of Genesis in which God forms the first humans. Genesis 1 includes the phrase, “Male and female He created them,” which many readers interpret to mean that God created a man and a woman.

But some of the rabbis quoted in Genesis Rabbah believed that God had made an androgynos.

MORE at the link
https://theconversation.com/nonbinary-genders-beyond-male-and-female-would-have-been-no-surprise-to-ancient-rabbis-who-acknowledged-tumtums-androgynos-and-aylonot-206827

[raging moderate]

1. Furthermore, Jesus mentioned this fact of life.

These people claim to revere Jesus, but they ignore anything he said that does not agree with their rigid tribal traditions. In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 19, his disciples questioned how people could live up to his idea of marriage totally with both men and women loving and faithful. Jesus briefly mentioned that this is not for everyone. "Some were born eunuchs from their mothers' wombs, and others were made eunuchs by other men, and some have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of serving heaven." The word "eunuchs" was of course from the Greek translation of his words. These people who pretend that all human beings are born either totally male or totally female are going against what Jesus said. And his audience acted as though this was common knowledge. And your post clearly shows that the ancient rabbis all faced this simple fact of life unflinchingly and analytically.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. This is not just in ancient Jewish writings, but recognized in...

many other cultures also. Not always to the best outcomes, though.

[multigraincracker]

3. The world is gray, not black and white.

Words are symbols that divid reality.