Queering the Ethiopian eunuch
Subtitle: strategies of ambiguity in Acts
By: Sean D. Burke
Series: Emerging scholars; Emerging scholars
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Minneapolis
Language: eng
Number of pages: 195
ISBN-13: 9781451465655; 9781451469882
Copyright date: 2013
Subjects: Criticism, interpretation; Eunuchs; Religious aspects; Ambiguity in the Bible; Bible
Description: "Were eunuchs castrated guardians of the harem, or were they trusted court officials who may never have been castrated? Was the Ethiopian eunuch a Jew or a Gentile, a slave or a free man? Why does Luke call him a "man" while contemporaries referred to eunuchs as "unmanned" beings? Examining a volatile figure in a key place in the narrative of Luke-Acts, Sean D. Burke pulls at questions that have received dramatically different answers over the centuries of Christian interpretation, showing that eunuchs bore particular stereotyped associations regarding gender and sexual status as well as of race, ethnicity, and class. In this innovative book, Burke argues that Luke intended to "queer" his readers expectations to present the boundary-transgressing potentiality of a new community."--Page 4 of cover.
Notes: Revision of author's dissertation from the Graduate Theological Union.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-183) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The meaning of eunuch; title: Queer theory; title: Ancient masculinities; title: Eunuchs; title: Queering Acts; title: Conclusions.