Last week, Huffington Post blogger Suzanne DeWitt Hall penned an argument claiming that based on literal interpretations of the Bible, Jesus was the first transgender man and Eve was the first transgender woman.
Hall frames her column around the issue of transgender bathroom access and complains about Christians who view gender as a biological fact, not a mental construct.
“The worst offenders are the Christian’s who claim to take the Bible literally,” she writes. “If they really did as they claim to do, they would quickly see that Jesus must be, by their own exegetical rules, the first transgender male.”
Now Eve is a fascinating creature for many reasons. The Bible tells us she is the first example of human cloning, which I touched on in this post. But the fun doesn’t stop there. If we take the Genesis account in it’s literal meaning, as conservative Christians demand that we do, she is also the first case of a transgender woman. God reached into Adam, pulled out a bit of rib bone, and grew Eve from that XY DNA into Adam’s companion. She was created genetically male, and yet trans-formed into woman.
Then along comes Jesus and the whole pattern is both repeated and reversed. The first couple’s refusal to cooperate is turned around by Mary’s yes, and the second act of cloning occurs. The Holy Spirit comes upon the second Eve, and the child takes flesh from her and is born. Born of her flesh. Born with XX chromosome pairing. Born genetically female, and yet trans-formed into man.
Hall also asserts that the prefix “trans” — which as defined by a dictionary “means ‘across,’ ‘beyond,’ ‘through,’ and ‘changing thoroughly'” — are great terms to describe Jesus’ teachings.
You can read her entire argument over at Huffington Post.