Did Jesus Have a Functioning Set of Nuts (Testicles)?
What I find totally odd in the Gospels is that Jesus, who is held up by the evangelical community as the true example for the ideal man (one which all Christian males should pattern their own lives after) has no sexual drive; none at all. One would think that the part of Jesus that was totally 100% human would have been influenced by the male hormone testosterone.
Fact is, that not only Jesus, but all the males (and a few females) who followed him, be they as few as 12 or as many as 70 (Luke 10: 1), all seem to be asexual as well. If the Gospels wanted to portray the real facts, the reality of his very human nature must have at least given Jesus some type of sexual drive which had an emotional outlet. Moreover, Jesus’ disciples who Jesus often rebukes for not having faith (Matt. 6: 30, 8: 26, 16: 8) are portrayed as faithless men who, never-the-less, maintained an asexual life totally happy about preaching a coming Kingdom they never understood anyway.
To complicate matters, in Matthew 5:28 Jesus states in: “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” is very problematic for the heterosexual male, but easy to understand if one is indeed gay. As the late New Testament scholar John A. T. Robinson 1919 – 1983 (Lecture at Trinity College, Cambridge and author of “Honest to God” 1963) once told a student who had ask him about Jesus’ hard statement in the above verse on adultery said: “Committing adultery in your heart is not as much fun as actually doing it in life.”
Christian history tells us that Christian men did struggle with a New Testament which portrays the ideal man as asexual be it Paul (“it is better for a man never to touch a woman” 1 Corinthians 7: 1), to Jesus (For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake." Matt. 19: 12), or the Book of Revelation where the 144,000 were undefiled by women (Rev. 14:4).
However, unlike the sexual denial in the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible endorses not only polygamy, but considers concubines and prostitutes as normal sexual outlets for the male. Books like the Song of Solomon are so highly erotic to the point where Roland Murphy (who authored the commentary in Fortress’ Press Hermeneia Commentary series) felt that it had it’s origins in an ancient Israelite brothel.
We are told by Eusebius in Book IV of his Church History that Origen castrated himself (based on Jesus’ statement in Matt. 19:12) to keep himself pure. We are also told in personal works such as those of Saint Anthony (251-356) in Life of Anthony, written in Greek around 360 by Athanasius of Alexandria (as well as writings from other desert monks) that they struggled daily with their sexual desires which they often would label as Satanic. Even the great orthodox theologian Augustine (354 - 430) Bishop of Hippo, who, before his conversion, had fathered children with other women stated after his Christian conversion that “Sometimes I find myself reaching out to scratch the itching sore of sin.”
Paul boastfully states in I Corth. 10:13 “No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Yet this is no more based on reality than Jesus’ own extreme views on sex and adultery.
The reality of Jesus in the Gospel tradition is, in fact, not reality. This asexual Jesus who is followed by asexual disciples (though Peter is said to have had a wife, he apparently had little use for her after he met a man named “Jesus”) has caused human sexuality to be one subject ministers and priests just don’t talk about. And when the frailties of "sinful human nature" are perched, churches almost always bury their wounded leaders who follow the natural command of God in Genesis to be “fruitful and multiply”.
On the other hand, the denial of human sexuality has damaged the lives of innocent children and their priest as in the case of the scandal in the Catholic Church in American.
So, does it matter if Jesus had a functioning set of nuts? It matters in the fact of reality; both the natural drives of life and fact of total forgiveness.
Fact is, that not only Jesus, but all the males (and a few females) who followed him, be they as few as 12 or as many as 70 (Luke 10: 1), all seem to be asexual as well. If the Gospels wanted to portray the real facts, the reality of his very human nature must have at least given Jesus some type of sexual drive which had an emotional outlet. Moreover, Jesus’ disciples who Jesus often rebukes for not having faith (Matt. 6: 30, 8: 26, 16: 8) are portrayed as faithless men who, never-the-less, maintained an asexual life totally happy about preaching a coming Kingdom they never understood anyway.
To complicate matters, in Matthew 5:28 Jesus states in: “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” is very problematic for the heterosexual male, but easy to understand if one is indeed gay. As the late New Testament scholar John A. T. Robinson 1919 – 1983 (Lecture at Trinity College, Cambridge and author of “Honest to God” 1963) once told a student who had ask him about Jesus’ hard statement in the above verse on adultery said: “Committing adultery in your heart is not as much fun as actually doing it in life.”
Christian history tells us that Christian men did struggle with a New Testament which portrays the ideal man as asexual be it Paul (“it is better for a man never to touch a woman” 1 Corinthians 7: 1), to Jesus (For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake." Matt. 19: 12), or the Book of Revelation where the 144,000 were undefiled by women (Rev. 14:4).
However, unlike the sexual denial in the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible endorses not only polygamy, but considers concubines and prostitutes as normal sexual outlets for the male. Books like the Song of Solomon are so highly erotic to the point where Roland Murphy (who authored the commentary in Fortress’ Press Hermeneia Commentary series) felt that it had it’s origins in an ancient Israelite brothel.
We are told by Eusebius in Book IV of his Church History that Origen castrated himself (based on Jesus’ statement in Matt. 19:12) to keep himself pure. We are also told in personal works such as those of Saint Anthony (251-356) in Life of Anthony, written in Greek around 360 by Athanasius of Alexandria (as well as writings from other desert monks) that they struggled daily with their sexual desires which they often would label as Satanic. Even the great orthodox theologian Augustine (354 - 430) Bishop of Hippo, who, before his conversion, had fathered children with other women stated after his Christian conversion that “Sometimes I find myself reaching out to scratch the itching sore of sin.”
Paul boastfully states in I Corth. 10:13 “No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Yet this is no more based on reality than Jesus’ own extreme views on sex and adultery.
The reality of Jesus in the Gospel tradition is, in fact, not reality. This asexual Jesus who is followed by asexual disciples (though Peter is said to have had a wife, he apparently had little use for her after he met a man named “Jesus”) has caused human sexuality to be one subject ministers and priests just don’t talk about. And when the frailties of "sinful human nature" are perched, churches almost always bury their wounded leaders who follow the natural command of God in Genesis to be “fruitful and multiply”.
On the other hand, the denial of human sexuality has damaged the lives of innocent children and their priest as in the case of the scandal in the Catholic Church in American.
So, does it matter if Jesus had a functioning set of nuts? It matters in the fact of reality; both the natural drives of life and fact of total forgiveness.