Queering the Ethiopian Eunuch

Sean D. Burke shows that eunuchs bore particular stereotyped associations regarding gender and sexual status as well as of race, ethnicity, and class. Not only has Luke failed to resolve these ambiguities; he has positioned this destabilized figure at a key place in the narrativeas the gospel has expanded beyond Judea, but before Gentiles are explicitly namedin such a way as to blur a number of social role boundaries. In this sense, Burke argues, Luke intended to queer his readers expectations and so to present the boundary-transgressing potentiality of a new community.