Do you accept Jesus, the man?

@SparkleLeaf Sometimes the Truth is simply the Truth and we don't need silly explanations. Had Jesus been born a hermaphrodite I am certain it would have been recorded. He was seen naked multiple times by His disciples.

@hippyjoe1955 We are talking about two different kinds of intersex here. It may not be logical, but "hermaphrodite" is now considered a derogatory term when talking about a person with the form of intersex called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, or CAH. Also sometimes a person with CAH will have the genetics of one sex but the "equipment" of another, with no readily apparent physical characteristics to indicate there is anything out of the ordinary. I made a mistake with the Google AI image I posted, as it is incomplete and perhaps misleading. A person can have XX chromosomes and a penis only. I don't really think Yeshuah was one of those. But if one proceeds from the assumption that he was the product of just one human parent, his mother, that could explain why he looked like a "he."

The truth is simply the truth: Legends grew around the first-century founder of a doomsday cult. A big part of that was misapplying Hebrew scripture to make it appear he was the fulfillment of prophecy. Part of that was a misunderstanding of the words Isaiah had written about a young woman naming her son Immanuel within Isaiah's lifetime. The concept of the Son of Man, or messiah, wouldn't be introduced until much later by the prophet Daniel.

The original post was just a silly meme intended to make people think about intersex people and maybe have a chuckle at the idea of inserting that idea into Christian mythology. We are both overthinking it.

@walabby The "mistranslation" is really more of a misinterpretation. Isaiah was talking about a young woman who was already pregnant at the time he wrote it, saying she would name her son Immanuel. Yeshuah is not Immanuel any more than George is Michael. Isaiah not only didn't mean the messiah would be born of a virgin, he wasn't saying anybody would nor was he talking about the messiah at all.

At any rate, the myth is the myth. The myth is that Yeshuah the Nazarene was born of a virgin.

@SparkleLeaf I recall a rabbi once explaining, in a radio programme, that Mary was originally descibed by an old Hebrew word that would simply mean "young woman".

As a theological riddle I often wondered why poor Joseph was more or less sidelined.

As the entire tradition was patriarchal from the ancient Hebrew "prophets" onwards, maybe even before their time, I would have thought it more have been logical to have given Joseph some sort of Divine intervention making one of his "seed" (as they said in those days) being that of Someone Special.

Although that still relegates Mary to being "only" Jesus' grower and mother, it might have prevented the cruel "Immaculate Conception" myth later developed by the Mediaeval Church to excuse its mysogyny and its notion that children are born full of sin due to the way they are started.

It was also have made the narrative slightly less incredible than parthenogenesis; although of course that principle would have been totally unknown two millennia and more ago.

@ArishMell you misspelled "def." 😃

@SparkleLeaf Sorry! You've lost me there. I have no idea what "def" means :-)

I assume you mean in place of "daft" but "daft" is what I meant and wrote.

@ArishMell "Def" is 90s slang. It means "terrific." I was just going for a colorful comment.

@SomeMichGuy Sometimes genetic females are born with penises

@SparkleLeaf Contemporary testimony is that Jesus was male and there is no reason to think otherwise.