Gospel of Matthew linked to bizarre trail of self-mutilations

WORLD SCIENCE

It hap­pens only spo­rad­ic­ally—a bit more than eve­ry three years on av­er­age, judg­ing by pub­lished med­i­cal re­ports—but that makes it no less dis­turb­ing each time for hos­pi­tal staff faced with the situa­t­ion.

“It” may be de­scribed by cit­ing the most re­cent ex­am­ple, re­ported in a med­i­cal jour­nal last month: that of a 62-year-old man whom physi­cians dubbed Mr. P to pro­tect his pri­va­cy. Mr. P showed up at the emer­gen­cy room of St. Joseph’s Hos­pi­tal and Med­i­cal Cen­ter in Phoe­nix, Ariz., com­plain­ing of a case of “Mat­thew 19:12.” Asked to clar­i­fy, he just kept re­peat­ing the same thing: Mat­thew 19:12.

The nurse on du­ty searched the In­ter­net for Mat­thew 19:12. The re­sult was, to put it mild­ly, wor­ri­some. The Bib­li­cal verse, as she learn­ed, reads as fol­lows.

For there are some eu­nuchs, which were so born from their moth­er’s womb; and there are some eu­nuchs, which were made eu­nuchs of men; and there be eu­nuchs, which have made them­selves eu­nuchs for the king­dom of heav­en’s sa­ke. He that is able to re­ceive it, let him re­ceive it.

As it quickly be­came clear, Mr. P had made this hos­pi­tal vis­it un­ac­com­pa­nied by his pe­nis. That, he ex­plained, he had flushed down the toi­let three days ago af­ter sev­er­ing it with a pock­et knife. His tes­ti­cles were al­so ab­sen­t—re­moved four years ear­li­er at Mr. P’s re­quest by a doc­tor in Mex­i­co.

Matthew 19:12
For there are some eu­nuchs, which were so born from their moth­er’s womb; and there are some eu­nuchs, which were made eu­nuchs of men; and there be eu­nuchs, which have made them­selves eu­nuchs for the king­dom of heav­en’s sa­ke. He that is able to re­ceive it, let him re­ceive it.

Mat­thew 18:8
Where­fore if thy hand or thy foot of­fend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is bet­ter for thee to en­ter in­to life halt or maimed, rath­er than hav­ing two hands or two feet to be cast in­to ev­er­last­ing fire.

Mat­thew 5:30
And if thy right hand of­fend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee: for it is profita­ble for thee that one of thy mem­bers should per­ish, and not that thy whole body should be cast in­to hell.

Mat­thew 5:29
But if thy right eye of­fend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee: for it is profita­ble for thee that one of thy mem­bers should per­ish, and not that thy whole body should be cast in­to hell.

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