The 8-Gender Story

Back around 1400 years ago....a couple of Jewish Rabbis got together and wrote the Talmud....a collection of 'laws' and wisdom....to be handed down.

So they wrote a page for Talmudic classifications of gender:

1.  Zachar: (male) 

2.  Nekevah: (female) 

3.  Androgynos: (androgynous): Males and females....who had both sexual characteristics (meaning they were bi). 

4. Tumtum: A person whose sexual characteristics are unclear or indeterminate. 

5.  Eilonit hamah: Basically a person who identified as female at birth who naturally develops male characteristics later in life. 

6.  Eilonit adam: A person identified as female at birth who develops male characteristics due to human intervention. 

7.  Saris hamah: A person identified as male at birth who naturally develops female characteristics later in life. 

8.  Saris adam: A person identified as male at birth who develops female characteristics due to human intervention. 

I paused over my reading....realizing around the 6th Century (AD)....this came up and a couple of guys must have spent a month or two talking about this, and folks were giving some pretty crazy stories.

This 'human-intervention' deal?  It's not really described in any detail.  

Trying to associate this with Dybbuk (demonic possession within the Jewish lifestyle)?  No.