The Bible contains over 3,100 unique, named characters. And we get intriguing stories about unnamed characters, too. I appreciate this collection of the names that these characters have been given in other religious texts. We honor people by using their names when we tell their stories. Even this list doesn’t have a name for the man carrying water, the one who led Peter and John to the upper room.

This man was on my mind as I skimmed through my last few articles to consider what to write about this month. I realized I’d unconsciously offered you a brief menu of scripture’s gender transgressions. I wrote about the Last Supper, when Jesus kneels like a woman or a slave to wash his friends’ feet. That night he offers his own body and blood as food and drink for his followers. In that article I also quote Paul’s birthing imagery about the Spirit. I was focused on fasting and Gaza, not thinking about gender.

The month before I wrote about the stew Jacob trades with his brother Esau for his birthright. I was focused on the scarcity surrounding these siblings, which inspired trickery and selfishness, not on Jacob’s gender transgressions. He’s the smooth and hairless one cooking while hairy and deep-voiced Esau is out hunting. Read more about Jacob’s gender expressions from a transgender perspective here.

Jesus doesn’t just defy gender norms by speaking with women in public, touching and healing women, standing up for women. Jesus kneels like a woman or a slave to wash others’ feet.

Jesus feeds his disciples with fish on the beach, feeds a multitude with enough trust to share their baskets, feeds his friends with his own blood and body. Art for a millennia has shown Jesus’ side wound as a vulva – even giving birth. His wound has been painted as a breast that offers nourishment. Someone who feeds with/of the body evokes the feminine. Read about and see examples of this art in this article by Jacqueline Jung. If you only want to get to that art, scroll about halfway down. Here’s another place to read and see more art. 

The story of the Last Supper has at least one more gender-transgressing character.

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.’ They asked him, “Where do you want us to make preparations for it?” “Listen,” he said to them, “when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house he enters and say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher asks you, ‘Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there.” So they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal. (Luke 22:7-13)

Quaker biblical scholar and activist Peterson Toscano brings this character to life at 49:51 in his show, Transfigurations.

May your love of scripture and stories accompany you into curiosity about these minor characters and the nuances of cultures and their symbols.

With Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, later this month, we pray for fresh ideas, renewed opportunities for peacemaking and open hearts and minds. This recipe celebrates the freshness and sweetness of the New Year, with some foods you may have ripe in your garden or find in a farmers’ market.

Recipe: Bright, sweet, crunchy, refreshing and zesty cucumber and corn salad

Ingredients

4 medium cucumbers, trimmed 
(no need to peel unless you taste the skin and it’s unpleasantly bitter)
1 cup corn (fresh, frozen or canned)
1 tablespoon sesame, chia or poppy seeds
½ teaspoon sesame oil (toasted if available, but not necessarily)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, or another vinegar you like
1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
Pinch of salt and black pepper

Instructions

1. Cut cucumbers in half lengthwise (or even quarters, if you’re using a larger cucumber), and then slice into thin chunks.
2. Mix together sliced cucumbers, corn and seeds in a pretty salad bowl.
3. Add to a jar (a clean, empty peanut butter or jam jar works if you don’t keep jars around) the sesame oil, olive oil, vinegar, lime or lemon juice, sugar or honey, salt and pepper. Shake to combine, and then pour over the salad and mix.