---
title: Matthew 19:12
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-19-12/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-19-12.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 19:12
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 19:12

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> For there are eunuchs who were born that way; others were made that way by men; and still others live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs on account of the Kingdom of the heavens. Let the one who can make room for it make room for it."

## JW Usage

Matthew 19:12 receives little JW commentary in apologetic contexts. The "eunuch for the Kingdom" category is treated as an option for celibate service to Jehovah, with no special emphasis. Where the verse is engaged, it is read as Jesus permitting voluntary celibacy for Kingdom-focused service — comparable to Paul's "as I am" advice in 1 Corinthians 7.

## Protestant Usage

Matthew 19:12 functions in the birthday-ban argument as a reductio against Origen's idiosyncratic anti-birthday theology. Origen — whose Homily on Leviticus 8 the rs book sometimes cites against birthdays — read Psalm 51:5 to mean conception itself is sinful and that only sinners rejoice over their own birth. Origen also took Matthew 19:12 literally enough that he reportedly castrated himself to ensure Kingdom-focused celibacy. The Fifth Ecumenical Council posthumously declared Origen heretical in AD 553 (for pre-existence of souls, universal reconciliation, and other positions). Building a Christian rule on Origen's idiosyncrasies is theologically precarious by anyone's standard. The wider church kept the Nativity of John the Baptist (June 24, attested from Ambrose, Augustine, and Chrysostom) and the Nativity of Christ (Christmas, attested in Rome by AD 336). Neither would exist if Origen's anti-birthday position had been the church's settled view.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Birthday Ban — A Rule Generalised From Two Pagan Tyrants](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/birthday-ban-extrabiblical-canon.md) — Romans 14:5-6 / Jeremiah 20:14 / Job 3:1 [Practice]