Christianity came out of Judaism, so Jesus was a Jew and grew up with the classical Jewish understanding of gender. It’s very easy to assume that Judaism is an exclusively gender-binary religion as the Jewish obligation to observe commandments is traditionally divided along male/female lines: men pray three times daily, while women don’t have to; men put on tefillin, while women do not. We see it in assumed gender roles, in liturgy, in proscribed family responsibilities, and in both secular and religious laws. If, however, we look just a bit deeper into the sacred texts, the Mishnah and Talmud, the ancient Jewish law books that record the rabbi’s teaching on how to put the law into practice, we see lots of references to exceptions that have to be made to account for the people whose gender was not so clear cut. This description from Rabbi Elliot Kukla shows that classical Judaism actually had 6 genders:

Zachar/זָכָר:
This term is derived from the word for a pointy sword and refers to a phallus. It is usually translated as “male” in English.

Nekeivah/נְקֵבָה:
This term is derived from the word for a crevice and probably refers to a vaginal opening. It is usually translated as “female” in English.

Androgynos/אַנְדְּרוֹגִינוֹס:
A person who has both “male” and “female” sexual characteristics. 149 references in Mishna and Talmud (1st-8th Centuries CE); 350 in classical midrash and Jewish law codes (2nd -16th Centuries CE).

Tumtum/ טֻומְטוּם
A person whose sexual characteristics are indeterminate or obscured. 181 references in Mishna and Talmud; 335 in classical midrash and Jewish law codes.

Ay’lonit/איילו נית:
A person who is identified as “female” at birth but develops “male” characteristics at puberty and is infertile. 80 references in Mishna and Talmud; 40 in classical midrash and Jewish law code.

Saris/סריס:
A person who is identified as “male” at birth but develops “female” characteristics as puberty and/or is lacking a penis. A saris can be “naturally” a saris (saris hamah), or become one through human intervention (saris adam). 156 references in mishna and Talmud; 379 in classical midrash and Jewish law codes

Only Male and Female?
So how did we get to this point, where the assumption has become that only male and female exist? It’s a classic example of commonality being equated to superiority. Because male and female are the two most common categories, they were assumed to be “better,” rather than “typical.” As we have come to understand the complexities of gender more and more in secular society, these Judaic classifications are beginning to appear more and more often and we can clearly see that our ancestors were quite progressive when it comes to gender

What does Jesus say?
In Matthew 19:12 Jesus refers to these other genders collectively as Eunuchs.

“For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”