“…What we have in John’s Jesus is not only a “king of Israel” or “king of the
Ioudaioi”, but also a drag king,” he claims in his footnoted and referenced writing. “[Christ] ends up appearing as a drag-kingly bride in his passion.”
Ioudaioi is an Ancient Greek word that commonly translates to “Jew” or “Judean.”
“In addition, we find Jesus disrobing and rerobing in the episode that marks Jesus’ focus on the disciples with the coming of his ‘hour’. This disrobing… does not disclose anything about Jesus’ anatomy,” Liew writes. “Instead, it describes Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. As more than one commentator has pointed out, foot-washing was generally only done by Jewish women or non-Jewish slaves.”
“John is clear that Jesus is an
Ioudaios; what John is less clear about is whether Jesus is a biological male. Like a literary striptease, this episode is suggestive, even seductive; it shows and withholds at the same time.”
An article in the school’s independent student journal called Liew’s interpretations “unconventional.” But this isn’t the first time scholars and theologians have suggested that Christ was a little (or more than a little) queer.
The “disciple whom Jesus loved,” also known as “the beloved disciple,” also appears in the gospel of John. His identity and relationship with Jesus have long been the subject of debate.
Referenced six times in the gospel – yet unnamed – the disciple is often thought to be John the apostle, one of the twelve disciples and the author of the gospel itself. At other times, he’s identified as Lazarus, whom Jesus dramatically raised from the dead.
Whoever he was, some people think the disciple described as reclining on Jesus’ chest at the last supper was his gay lover.
