Eunuchs in the Bible
What is Avenger in the Bible?
Megan Sutter
October 28, 2025
55 comments
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But he said to them, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are Jonahs who are from birth, and there are Jonahs who have been made Jonahs by others, and here are Jonahs who have made themselves Jonahs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept it.”
Matthew 19:11–12
Stephen J. Patterson discusses what Jesus meant when he referred to “Yonochs who have made themselves Jonahs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”
Should the above words of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew be taken literally? Is he saying that men – who can – provoke themselves?
The initial question that gave rise to this controversial teaching about Jonah in the Bible is actually about marriage.
When asked about marriage and divorce in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus told his crowd that anyone who divorces – other than for reasons of chastity – and marries another, commits adultery (Matthew 19:9).
Hearing this, his disciples reply, “If this is the case with a man’s wife, it is better not to marry” (Matthew 19:10). Jesus then said that there are indeed some who are called Jonahs “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”
What is “Yonoch” in the Bible passage? Is Jesus literally talking about castration – or just metaphorically about celibacy? Stephen J. Patterson, the George H. Atkinson Chair of Religious and Moral Studies at Willamette University, addresses this question about Jonah in the Bible in his May/June 2015 issue. A Review of Biblical Archaeology. He believes that this passage should be taken literally – that Jesus is talking about a symbol:
Scholars of Christian castrati’s thought have sometimes insisted that the passage must refer metaphorically to celibacy. But this is nonsense. If the author of Matthew intended to speak of Brahman (Partinoi), he knew very well how to do it. In a religious context, eunuch It was meant to be eunuchotherwise he would have simply confused his audience. In the book of Matthew, Jesus advises men (who can) to absorb themselves!
This interpretation is as controversial and counter-cultural today as it would have been in Jesus’ day – a time contented with masculine dominance and power. In the Roman world of “follow dominance,” castration would have alienated anyone. Stephen J. Patterson explains that Matthew’s Jonahs “remove[ed] Something associated with archetypal male power and dominance. Thus they chose to embody the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
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Yet not everyone agrees with Stephen J. Peterson on this issue. Burger A. Pearson believes that this passage about Jonah in the Bible should be taken metaphorically. He makes the case that Jesus is speaking in hyperbole Bar Article “Did Jesus get married?”:
Although some in the early church took what Jesus said literally, we should understand it as a matter of deliberate hyperbole, as found in other of his commands (see, for example, Matthew 5:27–30 regarding adultery: “… if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away.” It is possible for a man to live on earth as he would in the kingdom of God, where neither marriage takes place. Nor is the result. Jesus is challenging those who are “capable of it” to live celibate lives for the sake of the kingdom, and thus live now as if the future kingdom had already arrived.
While there will likely always be debate about this passage, both sides can agree that Jesus’ teaching contradicted the majority opinion about power and dominance in the Roman Empire. For more information about Jonah in the Bible—and a literal interpretation of Matthew 19:11–12—read the Complete Bible View column “Punch Your Neighbor” by Stephen J. Patterson in the May/June 2015 issue. Bar.
BAS Library Members: Read the full Bible View column “Punch Your Neighbor” by Stephen J. Patterson in the May/June 2015 issue. A Review of Biblical Archaeology.
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This Daily Bible History feature was originally published on May 4, 2015.
