The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
This passage is part of what biblical scholars refer to as the Hebrew Purity Code, a system of rules for social behavior and dietary consumption intended to "purify" the body and spirit in God's eyes. Taken together the prohibitions of the Purity Code amount to arbitrary cultural taboos as contrasted with the more profound moral precepts of the Ten Commandments. Biblical scholars and theologians warn of the danger of selective interpretation of the Bible in a way which upholds some passages while ignoring others and overlooking the broader context. Other authors point out that what "pertaineth unto a man" and what garments "pertain to women" have undergone continual change throughout history. Judged strictly by Hebrew standards the entirety of modern civilization would appear to violate the Purity Code.
Now, turning to this scripture in particular, we need to consider first the Hebrew language and secondly the historical setting.
First, the Hebrew word used in this scripture is translitered Geber and literally means a Strong Man or Warrior. The more general term for a male human being was zakar. So it is likely this scripture may have been referring specifically to those who were fighting men. Since men were frequently called on to defend the community in warfare
Let's also note what else Deut. 22 tells us.
*It tells you what to do when you find someone else's cattle (verses 1-4).
*It tells you what to do if you find a bird's nest on the ground (verses 6-7).
*It tells you that you have to put a railing around your roof to make sure nobody falls off of it (verse 8).
*It tells you not to plant more than one kind of seed in the same vinyard (verse 9),
*not to hitch your plow to an ass and an ox at the same time (verse 10),
*NOT TO WEAR CLOTHING OF MIXED FIBERS (verse 11 -- look, more potential alt.clothing.lingerie content!! -- "Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, AS OF woollen and linen together" (King James version, emphasis mine), and
that your clothing has to have fringes on it (oh, how sixties -- verse 12).
*It tells you what to do if a man claims that his wife was not a virgin when they married, and *what to do if he's right and what to do if he's wrong (verses 13-21).
*It tells you that adulterers must be put to death (verse 22).
*It tells you that a woman betrothed to someone who has sex with someone other than her betrothed, in a city, and doesn't cry out, shall be put to death (verses 23-24).
*It tells you that if a woman is raped in a field where there's nobody to hear her cry out, you kill the rapist but not the victim (verse 25-27).
*It tells you that if a man lies with a woman who is not already betrothed, they have to get married (verses 28-29).
*Finally, it says you mustn't sleep with your father's wife (verse 30).
In fact, the very next scripture tells what to do if you see a nesting bird in the path. Further on in the scripture are rules for building houses, planting fields and making clothes. One might just as well, take Deut 22. 8 out of it�s historical context and condemn all who live in houses without a parapet on the roof or take verse 9 to mean one may not wear clothing with a mixture of fabric. So, one must look at scripture as a whole to understand it�s meaning and applicability to one�s life.
Of course, all of this is actually irrelevant to transsexualism. If your brain tells you that you are female although your body is male, (or vice versa), and you wear the clothing opposite your biological sex, then you are wearing the clothing that is congruent with your gender ... you are not wearing the clothing of the opposite sex.
If someone points 22:5 at you, tell them. When was the last you wore a mixture of garnment in your outfit? Or had fringes on the four corners of you clothing? This passage was for only that culture at that time. The bible is not a cafateria you can't pick and choose which laws you want and which ones you don't want. It must be read within the historical context it was given.
Jesus didn't speak about cross-dressing as such, but he did speak a word of liberation for another kind of transgender people, that is eunuchs. By the way, as one measure of oppression, the word eunuch appears over 60 times in Greek and Hebrew scripture but the modern translations use the word only a dozen times, at most. In Matthew 19:12, Jesus is recorded as overturning one of the 651 laws which kept eunuchs from entering the temple and instead welcoming eunuchs to the kindom of heaven, whether they were born that way, whether they were castrated as punishment, or whether they castrated themselves for the kindom of heaven.
Here are also some passages that refer to eunuchs:
Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus. And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, 'See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?' And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. -- Acts 8:35-38
Let not the eunuch say, 'Behold, I am a dry tree.' For thus says YAHWEH: 'To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off.' -- Isaiah 56:3-5
We are taught, and rightly so, as Christians, That we are created in the Image of God. I submit that this is not as so many humans presume, something physical. Rather, this Image of God in which we are created is purely spiritual image. You see, God is SPIRIT and has no one physical being. Thus God has no physical image.
Now, God being Spirit sees not what is external in our physical sense, and in the physical realm which was made merely to support and sustain the spirit beings we are while we are living in the physical. I have come to believe, it is essential for us to be the spirit beings, within the confines of this physical realm in which God has placed us, in just the way God made us to be. For those of us who find being different an essential element of our being true to our creation, we must be different in order to be as God intends us to be.
The original texts in 22:5 have been mistranslated as well, this website explains it more:
http://gendertree.com/Bible%20Verses.htm
Thats it! The only passages that are wrongly used to condemm transgenderism is the one in Duetoronomy and 1 Corinthians which is explained in the Bible and Homosexuality where malokio is wrongly translated as effeminate.
May you embrace what God made you to be and worry not what the world thinks. For the world didn't accept Jesus either because of its judging ways. The bible is being used now, how the Pharisees used it in Jesus's time. Just treat them with love and wisdom. It is a most wonderful thing to be able to use love for your enemies and Love in everything. Thats is the way of the Lord and no evil can overcome that.
