Asexuality is most simply defined as the lack of sexual attraction (1). People have tried to infer Jesus’ sexuality in the past but allow me to present another take on the subject. Could Jesus in the Christian bible be interpreted as asexual by today’s understanding of the identity?
Jesus
The first and most glaring piece of evidence of Jesus’ possible asexuality is that he was unmarried. He is presumed to have lived to be around 30, and yet remained single and celibate, which would have been very unusual at the time. Also, none of Jesus’ teachings focus on sexuality. It appears that the subject was not that important to him. This could be because other teachings were more important and therefore took priority, or that the topic of sexuality was simply not something that Jesus considered. (2)
It can also be noted that Jesus demonstrated some effeminate characteristics and did not fit the stereotypical heterosexual masculinity. He was depicted as gentle and caring, merciful and empathetic. He was unashamed about expressing his emotions, and openly grieves over people he cares for. Dale Martin, author of Sex and the Single Savior notes that Jesus “seems to enjoy the company of his male disciples a bit more than some would think ‘normal'”(3). He also highlights that “According to Gregory of Nyssa, the central issue in Christian conformity to Christ lies in his apatheia, his lack of passion, the absence of (the vice of) passion and desire” in reference to one’s sexuality. (4)
Lust vs. Sexual Attraction
It is pretty well known that lust is considered a sin in the bible. Jesus was sinless, which means that he could not have lusted. This could be a good indication of Jesus’ asexuality if lust and sexual attraction are in fact one in the same.
Sexual attraction is a natural occurrence for many people. One generally cannot control sexual attraction. (5)
Desire for another person includes not only desire for one’s personal satisfaction, but also for the pleasure of the other person. It also generally includes a desire for the specific person as well, and not just for their physical body. (6)
Lust in reference to sexuality, according to Focus on the Family requires a person to entertain the thoughts that arise from sexual attraction. For someone to lust after another person, there must be semi-conscious consideration of acting or wishing to act on the initial attraction (7). Beyond this, lust is self-centered, and focuses excessively on personal gratification (8).
So, lust and sexual attraction cannot be considered the same thing, meaning that sexual attraction is not inherently sinful. Because of this, Jesus’ sinlessness cannot be used as a determining factor in whether or not he can be considered asexual.
Issue with Labels
One thing we have to consider is how the label of ‘asexual’ may not even be reasonable to place on someone like Jesus. He is said to be fully man and fully God, and while man can fit into various labels, the ‘fully God’ part poses a problem. Can any person excusably place a limiting label on a being considered a God? I feel that trying to do so disrupts the understanding of God being limitless and beyond human conceptualization. (9)
Additionally, the label of ‘asexuality’ simply did not exist during the time in which Jesus is said to have lived. In fact, the term had not been used in the context of human sexuality until around the 1890s. (10)
Conclusion
How people interpret the sexuality of Jesus tells us more about the meaning of sex for them than for some “real” Jesus freed from interpretation
Dale Martin, 2006, pg. 102
Overall, one cannot determine whether or not Jesus was asexual. However, the evidence does not specifically go against the idea either. I believe that how an individual interacts with religion is a very personal experience. Even though I was unable to find a concrete answer, if understanding Jesus as being asexual helps you feel more connected to your own spirituality then by all means let this be something you can hold on to.
Bibliography
1. AVEN, The Asexual Visibility & Education Network, (The Asexual Visibility & Education Network, 2001) Overview | The Asexual Visibility and Education Network | asexuality.org
2. The Holy Bible, New International Version, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: The Zondervan Corporation, 2001)
3. Martin, Dale, Sex and the Single Savior, (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), pg. 94
4. Martin, pg. 99
5. Focus on the Family, Lust vs. Normal Sexual Desire, (Focus on the Family: 2013) Lust vs. Normal Sexual Desire – Focus on the Family
6. Austin, Michael W., The Lost Concept of Lust, (Psychology Today: Sussex Publishers, LLC, 2011) The Lost Concept of Lust | Psychology Today
7. Focus on the Family
8. Austin
10. Feeld Guides, What is Asexuality?, (Feeld: Feeld Ltd, 2020) What is Asexuality? | Definition, History and Asexuals in Pop Culture | Feeld
This was a fascinating presentation! I learned a lot about the vast number of perspectives people have on Jesus, the way he lived his life, his sexual attraction (or lack thereof), and in general how we as a people perceive him. I appreciate the research you did but also the conclusion you came to in the end, that people’s personal relationship with Jesus is truly paramount in the way you see him and his relation to other earthly things. I think the beautiful thing about religion is that it sometimes is truly in the eye of the beholder so I appreciate that your conclusion speaks to that fact. This was an incredibly interesting question to explore and I’d love to see more discussion about this in the future!
This was a super interesting project and presentation! I had definitely seen many theories in the internet about Jesus being bisexual or gay and it was really interesting to see the theory that Jesus might’ve been asexual. Overall, I think you did a great job explaining the differences between lust and sexual attraction, and the issues with placing labels on a being like Jesus. I really enjoyed your conclusion that every individual can make the decision about what they think about Jesus for themselves, especially if it helps their faith in any way. Great project overall!
Very interesting topic, it was never something I had given much thought to before. You really got me thinking and I was curious about the Muslim and Mormon views on Jesus’ sexuality, so I did a little more research.
I can’t think of any mainstream Christian or Muslim teachings that Jesus definitely was NOT asexual, but the Mormon Apostle Orson Hyde taught that the wedding at Cana (John 2:1–11) was one of Jesus’ own weddings and that Jesus had three wives, two of them with his mom’s name: Mary Magdalene, Martha, and Mary of Bethany, and that he had kids with them. (Orson Hyde, Conference message, October 6, 1854, Journal of Discourses 2:82); (A Disparity in Doctrine and Theology by E. Roberts, 2011, ISBN 1-4497-1210-X, p. 54); (Inside Today’s Mormonism by R. Abanes, 2007, ISBN 0-7369-1968-6, p. 239).
The New Testament says repeatedly that Jesus never sinned (2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:22, Hebrews 4:15), and in the Judaism of his time, extramarital sexual activity was considered to be a sin, so according to that he never did anything sexual. Similarly, Muslims consider the Prophets, including Jesus, to be without serious sins, and there is no mention in the Qur’an or ahadith of Jesus’ marriage nor any wife/wives, so they believe he did not fornicate. The Shiite belief is that Jesus had no wife or son since Ali explicitly said he was unmarried and had no son. (Leirvik, Oddbjørn (2010). Images of Jesus Christ in Islam (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4411-8662-1. p. 75).
The Talmud pretty clearly considers male masturbation to be a serious sin, on par with murder (Mishneh Torah 21:18), but most of the Talmud was written centuries after Jesus’ death, so I don’t know exactly what first-century Rabbis thought of it. Some, including me, read Matthew 5:30 as a reference to masturbation, and this verse clearly parallels Niddah 13a:1-2, which also says that the arm of a man whose arm causes him to get aroused and emit semen must be severed. This tract of the Talmud is a codification of the pre-existing Oral Torah, and might have been written around the time of Jesus, but was definitely written less than two centuries after his death, so it is reasonable to believe that male masturbation was considered a sin at the time too. However, I have learned that whether someone masturbates does not determine whether they are asexual, so this may not be relevant at all.
Revelation 19:7 read literally says Jesus will marry during the Second Coming, but I am sure people have interpreted it in various ways. Similarly in Islam, a hadith (Wali ad-Din, Miskat Al-Masabih, (tr. James Robson), Vol.II, p.1159; Sahih Muslim, Vol.1, p.92) says Jesus will get married, and according to some, have children when he comes back during the End Times. Some asexual people get married anyway, so that may be irrelevant.
All in all, I don’t know whether Jesus was asexual, but according to mainstream Christianity and Islam, he was definitely celibate and probably was making a conscious choice not to marry, since most men of his time and place would have already been married earlier. This doesn’t mean he’s asexual for sure, of course, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was asexual, not that we’ll ever know.
This is such an interesting presentation! I had never really thought much about Jesus’ sexuality, so it was really interesting to consider whether or not Jesus might have had a non-normative identity. I really appreciate how you left the conclusion open-ended and acknowledged that defining Jesus as asexual might be an important form of religious representation for people.
I thought this topic was SO interesting and really left me thinking afterwards. I had never even thought to think about how Jesus may be asexual and after listening to the topics of research you discussed within your project, such as how Jesus never “lusted”, the argument for Jesus being asexual seems like a proficient one – something I’m sure would disturb a lot religiously conservative people. I also really love how you mention at the end of your project how this “Is Jesus Asexual?” question is ultimately something that people should determine on their own. Although not everyone has to accept this concept, it may help a lot of people who identify as asexual feel more liberated.
The concept of Jesus being asexual has never even occurred to me before but the second you started your presentation it made sense to me. I like how you pointed out that none of Jesus’ teachings focus on sexuality which could imply that the topic of sexuality was simply not something Jesus considered. Additionally, I really like the comparison between lust and sexual attraction not being the same as I had never thought about them being different before but your project really helped me understand the difference and why it is still possible Jesus experienced sexual attraction while remaining sinless. I think my favorite aspect of your project was how you don’t try to convince the audience that Jesus is definitely asexual but leave it up to people’s personal opinions and understandings of his sexuality, and instead just provide more information that could help people with their understanding.
I thought this project was so interesting. I had never really considered anything about Jesus’s sexuality before, so the question as to whether or not he was asexual was really interesting to me. I really liked the questions you explored to come to your conclusion because they were not what I would have thought of, but it makes so much sense. I really love the conclusion you came to because it allows for each person to have their own faith journey, which I feel is very healing for a lot of people.
I really appreciated this project as I had never thought about it before. What I specifically enjoyed is the line of argumentation you provided throughout and the active discussion. I felt like I could get behind your thought process and understand the topic better. So yes, with a lot of the things in Christianity the conclusion could be said to be inconclusive, however, I adored the way you turned it into a personal experience. It shows the way religion is personal and I think you opened a new space for asexual people to feel connected. Great job!
I really liked how you compared lust with sexual attraction. Before your presentation, I had kind of assumed they were the same thing. I have heard about other types of attraction, like romantic attraction. I wonder how that would play into the debate over Jesus’ sexuality. Maybe he could be aromantic as well. I think you made a good point asking if we as humans could put a label on a limitless entity. I think religion is really what people make of it, and I definitely agree that Jesus’ sexuality is whatever an individual needs it to be. I thought this was a really meaningful project!
I really liked your take on Jesus’ sexuality and the evidence you provided. I definitely don’t think that Jesus has to be confined to human labels and I find it interesting how many people would probably immediately reject this theory even though none of us will really know what Jesus’ sexuality was. Faith looks different for everyone and is very personal, so I also liked how you left it open-ended and allowed room for differing opinions. Great job!
I had never considered thinking about Jesus being asexual. I think this is such an interesting idea and your presentation really brought new insight into the topic, while also pointing out the issue with labels. I also think that your conclusion really reflected how Jesus is who you want them to be. I have always thought religion should be brought back into the personal (as in what it means to you), so I really enjoyed seeing your last point on the connection back to one’s own spirituality.
Up until this project, I’ve heard a lot of discourse about Jesus’s sexuality, but those were mostly questions on whether or not he was gay. Another common question that I usually hear being discussed is if Jesus was even a man, but I have yet to hear this proposal, and I found it really refreshing.
I also appreciated how you included your own thought processes within the project. I think for concepts like this, where there might never be a firm answer, its important to entertain many explanations or avenues of thought.
Well done!! This was a really fun read!
I really loved the conclusion you drew from your research, because it is true that we can only speculate about the Jesus’s sexuality and the conclusions we often come to are representative of our own view of God, or at least what we want to see when we look at divine figures. I love how your research on this topic came from a place of validating your own asexuality; I thought that was very beautiful. This was really well done! Excellent work!
Mia, your project was super interesting and I could tell that you’re passionate about this topic! I really liked your conclusion – I agree that the meaning that Jesus’ potential asexuality holds to Asexual people is incredibly important and can help provide a strand of Asexual acceptance within the Christian tradition.