Note: This piece has been updated based on a comment about the difference between sex and gender.
Back in January, a fellow Christian blogger, Chuck McKnight, wrote a post considering whether Jesus could have been intersex. The gist of the argument is that if Jesus were conceived from a virgin woman, he would’ve developed with only XX chromosomes. As McKnight wrote, “When virgin births occur in nature, they usually result in a child that is either female or intersex.”
The Intersex Society of North America defines intersex as “a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.”
When McKnight shared his post on Facebook, several comments were outright dismissive of the idea, and one person called it a “silly little article.” I haven’t gotten those words “silly little article” out of my head since.
What angered me in reading that comment (and others) on McKnight’s post, was the refusal — whether conscious or subconscious — to consider what it might mean to intersex people not only if Jesus were intersex, but to even entertain the notion that he could be.
Why must it be silly to imagine that an embodied version of God could be anything other than a cis-gendered man?
For centuries, Christians and religious scholars have debated whether there was a literal Garden of Eden or a virgin birth. Did God or an angel of God truly come down and wrestle with Jacob? Dare I even consider whether Jesus (or even Lazarus) truly rose from the dead? Churches have split over these questions, and non-Christians laugh at religious naiveté.
God has always spoken just as much, if not more, through the human imagination — through dreams, fantasies, and possibilities — than through any solid encounter.
Imagination is one of the most important aspects of faith itself — the ability to ask what if.
What if God cares about our suffering? What if God actually hears me? What if there’s something more than the reality I see around me?
I’m currently reading James Cone’s The Cross and the Lynching Tree. One of Cone’s central arguments is that it takes theological imagination, rooted in empathy, to imagine the suffering of others and how it relates to one’s faith. This is especially true of the connection between the suffering of African Americans via lynching, and the suffering of Jesus via the cross. Cone writes:
The crucifixion of Jesus by the Romans in Jerusalem and the lynching of blacks by whites in the United States are so amazingly similar that one wonders what blocks the American Christian imagination from seeing the connection.
What could seeing Jesus’s suffering in others accomplish? If Christians had seen this connection in the heyday of the American lynching practice, perhaps they would have been more likely to take seriously the acute and always present threat to black lives.
Perhaps, as well, white Christians could’ve imagined a black Christ, not a figure that merited pity or needed saving, but a leader and redeemer. Such a thought sends white supremacy into a tailspin.
The same imagination, rooted in empathy, is needed when it comes to understanding the experience of intersex individuals.
Amnesty International reports that an estimated 1.7% of children across the world are born with variations of sex characteristics:
Many of these children undergo surgery in an effort to ‘normalise’ them, despite the fact that these interventions are often not emergency-driven, invasive and irreversible. These children are too young to consent at the time of the intervention and their parents are often not given adequate information and support to make an informed decision about what is best for their children. Such practices can constitute gross violations of their human rights.
These surgeries and early gender assignment can lead to “serious emotional and physical trauma to the individual, and often results in significantly reducing sexual sensitivity. It can also very often result in the loss of fertility, and can in some cases cause urinary tract problems.”
But you should really hear about this from them.
What is needed to improve the rights of intersex individuals is first off an acceptance of individuals who are born outside of the binary. For some, this acceptance might require a leap of imagination. A leap of compassion and love. And then, act.
The question of whether Jesus could be intersex has been a question posed within queer theology for the past two decades. Is it “silly little queer theology” as well?
Theologian Susannah Cornwall wrote that considering an intersex Jesus raises questions about the way that his maleness is woven through our faith.
Challenging his sex would mean reconsidering the foundational argument of why Roman Catholic and Orthodox priests can only be men, as well as reconceptualizing Jesus’s role as the bridegroom. Cornwall quoted a submission to the Church of England House of Bishops’ 2011 working party on women in the episcopate:
In presiding at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper or Mass, the priest, acting in persona Christi, sacramentally re-enacts the saving sacrifice of Calvary … At the altar, the priest represents Christ the bridegroom, and this sacramental sign is lost entirely when the celebrant is female.
Is it lost, or do we get to reimagine it in a way that’s more empowering to women, to trans, nonbinary, and intersex individuals?
A similar question: what gets added to the metaphor of the church and Christ as bride and groom when we consider the power of lifelong unions between people that don’t fit into tidy boxes regarding sex and gender?
So could Jesus have been intersex?
Edward Kessel, emeritus professor of biology at U of San Francisco was possibly the first to propose Jesus was intersex in his paper for the Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation in 1983.
If Jesus was born from a virgin mother, he would have been conceived with two X chromosomes and been born a chromosomal female. To have been born a male, then, would require a sex reversal in the womb — something not out of the question according to Kessel. However, his explanation of how and why sex reversal occurs, which has to do with a gene known as the H-Y gene, goes over my head.
Kessel also looks at the plausibility of a virgin birth by explaining the history and commonality of parthenogenesis: unisex reproduction, which occurs in many species across the animal kingdom. Occurrences have even been found in mammals as spontaneous anomalies, although none of the reported cases were carried to full-term.
Depending on your definition of far-stretched, his theory of the virgin birth may not be: “If Mary’s conception of Jesus was parthenogenetic, the Holy Spirit may have provided by some natural means the triggering environmental stimulus, e.g., simple cold shock that worked so well in animal studies.”
Kessel makes a mistake, however, by summarizing Jesus as a perfect human being because he lacks what Kessel refers to as “physical or psychological imperfections.” These imperfections are the biological and psychological traits of intersex and bisexual individuals. By completing a perfect sex reversal and by being seen as heterosexual, Jesus still fit into what Kessel considered a proper societal role.
Kessel himself lacked the theological imagination to consider how an intersex Christ might actually be more perfect.
Without genetic evidence, we can’t know the biological sex of Christ. However, we must continue to ask this and other questions that are impossible to answer. That is the essence of an active, imaginative, and inclusive faith.
Church of the Scarlet Letter 
Jera, i followed chuck mcnight’s article to your site and am stumped by the term “cis-gendered” which both he and you use without any explanation, thereby throwing me for a loop. i googled and found that cisgendered was designed to be a complement (not compliment!) to transgender and i must plead guilt to being one of these folks. my question becomes: why do we keep dual-izing ourselves, besides its a seductive tendency to divvy up the world like that. i suss (brit slang for suspicion) that its better if we accept each other as folks on a spectrum of sexuality and spirit..cheerio from an old phreak in san jose ca
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Walter, thanks for both educating yourself and commenting! Happy for the dialogue. I’m thinking about two things. The first is that I totally agree that sexuality and gender are both spectrums. In fact, I believe being a cis-gendered man or woman are only two of many many already-named options: two-spirited, intersex, transgender, a-gender, gender non-conforming. And not everyone who identifies as trans identifies in the same way.
But until everyone, regardless of how they identify, has equal rights to their body and safety, I think it’s important that we call out places of privilege. There is privilege and power and safety in identifying (or even passing) as a cis-gendered person. It’s important that we acknowledge and change that. At least 28 people were murdered in the US alone simply for being transgender.
It’s similar to the conversation around whiteness. Why should the options be white vs nonwhite? Why that dualism? And yet, that’s how much of the world’s power is distributed. Should we stop using the word white? We can’t until we completely abolish white supremacy.
I constantly wonder whether the world would be a better place if we were able to stop labeling ourselves, period. But then, there is healthy pride in our identity points. I’m so proud to be queer, and being a Christian means something to me. I’d love to hear more people’s thoughts around this.
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Dear Jera,
I think the whole point of who Jesus is, His purpose to coming to this earth and the transgender issue is being missed. Jesus is not intersexed as mentioned. Any one can try to find anything in the Bible to prove a point that they want to. Cults do this all the time – they take scripture, twist it and build a theory around it. However, there is only one truth given in scripture and no matter how any one tries to change it, one will be a lie and the other truth. The point is not transgender, gay, homosexual, fornicator, liar, thief, and so on. These things just prove we are all under the bondage of sin and proves we all need a Savior. You are not better, I am not better than any one else. Male, female, blacks, white, etc… are not better than the other. Jesus was not a female HE was clearly a male in scripture. Jesus was clearly spoken of as a male – He. The point here is if you and others will believe what the Bible teaches. There was no confusion as far as His maleness. Just because Jesus was born from a virgin, does not prove anything about intersex. Jesus had a special purpose that no one else had and He was made male. Jesus didn’t/doesn’t create any one a transgender, homosexual, drunk, fornicator, liar, etc… These things are things we do, not Jesus. Jesus calls all these things sin – this is the truth. We are all guilty of sin. We can try to sugar coat things, but the truth is the truth whether we like it or not. Our parents are our parents whether we like it or not. One may have black hair, freckles, or what ever the look whether they like it or not. Somethings are not in our control, but some things are – like choosing to lie, steal, fornicate, have an affair, be homosexual, be transgender. Every thing Jesus created was good, we messed things up. Do you think Jesus would have created the homosexual only to destroy them in Sodom and Gomorrah because they were homosexual? No, of course not. The people in Sodom and Gomorrah were living in sin. They could have been spared if they turned from their sin, but they chose not to. Truth is that people do struggle with the feelings of being homosexual, transgender and so on, these things are real, but feelings do not define who we are. They are just feelings and they can be changed. What if I thought I was a bat, does that make me a bat. Of course not. I am still a female and would probably need some counseling or some help to get over that feeling. What if a man said he feels like a serial killer – this is my identity. Would this be acceptable as a right thing to do. Of course not, this man needs to get some help. He is living in a false identity. I think we all know feelings are quick to change. I will vouch for this in my marriage with my husband. There have been times I felt like I didn’t love my husband any more. When we were going through some hard stuff. However, I chose to love him regardless of how I was feeling and you know what the feelings of loving him came back. So as you can see we can’t base one’s identity or direction in life based on what we feel. One will be led astray if you do. Back to the beginning of this article. The whole purpose to Jesus coming to earth was to become like one of us, to walk in our shoes and ultimately to save us from our sin and eternal destruction from the presence of God. Any one who puts their trust (faith) in Jesus and repents of their sin will be saved and have everlasting life. Blessings to you and all you may read this post.
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LGBTQ readers, I’m responding to you, not the commenter who I doubt would listen to anything I said. For any of you who have heard this message throughout your life and wondered if it was in line with what God thought … I’m here to tell you NO FUCKING WAY. This narrow-minded limited view of faith and God is fear-based. It’s not at all in line with the message of the followers of Christ when you read it in its historical context. And it’s probably not all in line with what you hear in your heart when you listen only for God. If God is all loving (and why would we be interested in a God that’s not), then none of this homophobic nonsense is of God.
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What a fascinating article! I’ve always wondered about the parthenogenesis/ chromosomal issue and appreciate Kessel’s explanation. I would have assumed that Jesus was female, having genes only from Mary. A related, but tangential, issue is that the modern anti-choice dogma states, “This new organism [fertilized ovum] has its own DNA distinct from the mother and father, meaning that it is a unique person.” [liveaction.org] So if Jesus had the same DNA as Mary, how is He a “person”?
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Most folks do not realize the length Catholic bishops have gone to regarding Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus. They assume some 5 or 6 miracles to produce Jesus & protect Mary’s “perpetual” virginity. Miracle: one egg in Mary starts to multiply into a human being without a male sperm. Miracle: G-d creates the Y chromosome so the offspring will be male.
Jesus was circumcised. In the public baths of the time he could not hide that he was Jewish. Also shown when he was crucified naked.
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