No Nuts? No Problem!

Abstract

This article applies a “crip reading” to the story of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26–40. First, insights from disability studies theory and crip theory are used as a hermeneutical lens to scrutinize the socially constructed meanings of the eunuch’s bodily “stigma.” The eunuch, it is argued, is a disabled – a crip – character because his body is marked and he does not display the culturally valued ability to procreate. Second, this article shows how the meaning of bodily signs of castration and circumcision change from the Hebrew Bible to Acts and suggests that the story of the Ethiopian eunuch holds a special place in Luke’s renegotiation of bodily signs. Finally, this article explores the destabilizing potential of the story and argues that a crip Christ who defies both norms of masculinity and norms of ability emerges from the eunuch’s reading of Isaiah 53.