May 5, 2019
In
Academic, Uncategorized
The Emasculate Connection
“…Matthew must have had in mind the practitioners of a pagan cult active in the Greco-Roman world during Jesus’ lifetime, a cult whose geographical location would have made contact with Matthew inevitable and whose practices included self-castration. Furthermore, Matthew’s decision to include the “eunuch” passage was meant to demonstrate Jesus’ view of “symbolic castration for the kingdom of heaven” as an option for those able to rise to it—an ascetic model.”