Deuteronomy 23:1

Mutilation was performed by the two methods here specified—crushing and excision. The exclusion of persons who had suffered this from the congregation, i . e . from the covenant fellowship of Israel, the πολιτεία τοῦ ισραὴλ ( Ephesians 2:12 ), was due to the priestly character of the nation. Israel was a kingdom of priests ( Exodus 19:6 ), and the admission into it of one in whom the nature of man, as made by God, had been degraded and marred, would have been unfitting; just as all bodily blemish unfitted a man for being a priest, though otherwise qualified (Le Deuteronomy 21:16 -24). This law, however, was one of the ordinances intended for the period of nonage; it had reference to the outward typical aspect of the Israelitish constitution; and it ceased to have any significance when the spiritual kingdom of God came to be established. Even under the theocracy, eunuchs were not excluded from religious privileges; they could keep God's Sabbaths, and take hold of his covenant, and choose the things pleasing to him, and so be part of the spiritual Israel, though shut out from the fellowship of that which was outward and national (cf. Isaiah 56:4 ).