Jesus may have been a hermaphrodite, claims academic

[cleanhippie]

Dr Susannah Cornwall claimed that it is “simply a best guess” that Jesus was male. Her comments, which are bound to provoke fury in some quarters, were published in response to the ongoing debate about women bishops in the Church of England.

Dr Cornwall, of Manchester University’s Lincoln Theological Institute, describes herself on her blog as specialising in: “Research and writing in feminist theology, sexuality, gender, embodiment, ethics and other fun things like that.”

In her paper “Intersex & Ontology, A Response to The Church, Women Bishops and Provision”, she argues that it is not possible to know “with any certainty” that Jesus did not suffer from an intersex condition, with both male and female organs.

In an extraordinary paper she says: “It is not possible to assert with any degree of certainty that Jesus was male as we now define maleness.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9116974/Jesus-may-have-been-a-hermaphrodite-claims-academic.html

A bit more reading at the link...

[dmallind]

1. When you have a character amalgamated from several myth traditions, any crap like this

can have a case made for it. It's still utterly baseless - like asking how much Romeo weighed or whether King Arthur was circumcised. Because the stories about the same character don't mesh perfectly because of the disparate nature of the storytellers, just about any wild speculation can be indulged.

[stopbush]

6. Yep. You'd think they'd spend their time proving Step One - that Jesus actually existed

before moving on to the creative guesses.

Oh, wait. Jesus' existence is also a creative guess.

[COLGATE4]

2. It is not possible

to assert with any degree of certainty that Jesus was not an extraterrestial being as we now define extraterrestial. Academic overreach reaching the point of silliness, chasing itself down a rabbit hole of its own invention.

[FarCenter]

3. If Mary was a virgin, Jesus should have been female

Parthenogenesis produces females.

[dmallind]

5. Surely though divine powers include those of an axolotl

to change gender as population demands it. Even a parthogenically produced messiah could then adopt male traits.

[FarCenter]

7. Artificially producing a male would make god sexist

Besides, axolotls are a species with female heterogamety.

Interestingly a female ZW converted to a male can be bred with a normal female ZW to produce a 3 to 1 ratio of females to males (a ZZ male, two ZW females, a WW female which does not normally occur.).

Amphibian sex determination and sex reversal
http://vipersgarden.at/PDF_files/PDF-1355.pdf

[HereSince1628]

9. That would be true if Jesus was a whip-tailed lizard.

My impression of him from the legends is more along the lines of his being a "whipper-snapper."

I prefer to see such "scientific mistakes' in western scripture as indicators of the limitations of knowledge and culture at the time the legends were codified.

The discovery of chromosomes is only about 150 years old. Clearly the weavers of Jesus legends hadn't a clue about chromosomes. And they lived in a place where the contemporary culture called for a male demigod rather than an incarnation of an earth-mother.

Imagine how both sides would be thinking if--without knowledge of chromosomes--the original stories had been about a virgin that produced a demigoddess?

[laconicsax]

10. No, it would be true regardless.

Parthenogenesis in XY species results in female offspring. There's no way around it.

The "scientific mistakes" in scripture are indications that it is BOTH the result of limited knowledge AND not true.

[HereSince1628]

11. I guess my humor was too Sheldon-esque

Unfortunately regarding the truth, you and I feel that way, but fundamentalists aren't constrained by mere rules of nature.
They have an 'wild card' that allows them to ignore the constraints of nature: the infinite capacity of an omnipotent deity.

[WingDinger]

4. WOnderful. Birther conspiracy theories. His mother KNEW he would be president.

So, got his birth cert in hawaii. He was a closet Muslim{hermaphrodite, that never had a gender check}. As he was born in a manger. Certainly, they could have slipped a fake phallus in at the Bris.

There is sparse corroboration of Jesus even existing in the flesh, let alone his junk.

[laconicsax]

8. A couple thoughts

First,


Second, this could explain why Jesus was named "Jesus" and not "Emmanuel" as the passage in Isaiah that supposedly prophesies him claims. The kid's born, and upon seeing what would be a very unfamiliar, unknown, and unexpected condition, the parents exclaimed "Jesus Christ!" and the name stuck.

[FarCenter]

12. Reminds me of the time I saw a guy with "Jesus is my boss" on his cap

My guess is he worked for a Hispanic?

[Angry Dragon]

14. Where do you think they got rapture from??

[Humanist_Activist]

13. Maybe he was a shapeshifter, like Loki or Zeus. n/t

[Iggo]

15. Jesus may have existed,

But I doubt it.