I've done one post defending Transgender people Biblically already.
In Hebrew, certain grammatical rules make some names pretty indisputably either Masculine or Feminine names. The most well understood by me being that names ending with a Heh or Tav tend to be Feminine.
Now this can complicate looking at names in English since both those letters have other letters that seemingly sometimes become the same letter in English, like Tav and Teth both becoming a T and/or Th. There are two names for example that become Noah in English. The Patriarch of the family that survived The Flood was a Noah ending in a Het, so Masculine. But the daughter of Zelophead was a Noah ending in a Heh and thus Feminine. Selah and Terah of the ancestors of Abraham ended with Het so those are Masculine names.
Sometimes however a name that seems unambiguously of one Gender, is seemingly used by individuals of the other Gender.
The first Shelomith in The Bible is in Leviticus 24 and is clearly a woman. Later however a few Shelomiths seem, in the KJV translation at least, to be males. Like the one in Ezra 8:10 or 1 Chronicles 26. 2 Chronicles 11:20 lists a Shelomith among the children of Rehoboam, I believe that was a daughter because of my Song of Solomon theory, but others are inclined to assume only sons are named in verses like that.
I'm suggesting that maybe sometimes apparently confusing uses of certain names are evidence of Transgender people in The Bible. In many cases it can be unclear whether The Bible is recording the name given at Birth/Circumcision, or a name taken later. So it may not always be easy to guess which kind of Trans a person they could have been.
Also plenty of verses translate "Ben" in a way that suggests it can be gender neutral, especially when used in plural (Children), even though the default is to translate it Son. And also be aware that sometimes translations include more pronouns then the Hebrew and Greek text imply. Often Gender pronouns appear only because of preconceived notions about the Gender of the person being refereed to.
However "begating" offspring I do believe refers strictly to the technically male role in reproduction, and so anyone who "begat" offspring must have been assigned Male at birth. Just as "bearing" children refers to the female role.
So you're about to read the result of me going through the 1 Chronicles genealogy looking for examples.
Elishah ends with a Heh, Elishah was of the children of Javan son of Japheth (Japheth ends in a Teth so it's masculine).
Raamah ends with a Heh, but The Bible avoids using "begat" when referring to Sheba and Dedan as Raamah's sons. So at first I thought I had an example here, but it turns out Raamah could easily be a Cis woman. Or maybe a Transman or Non-Binary.
Diklah of the children of Joktan ends with a Heh. As does Havilah, a name the pops up among Cush's children also. But Jerah ends in a Het and is also the Semetic name for the Moon, always viewed as masculine by the Semitic near east. Hazarmaveth ends with a Tav.
Dumah of the children of Ishmael also ends with a Heh. No examples of Dumah being described as negating anyone however. Isaiah 21:11 however associates Dumah with Seir, a region many tied to Edom. I've cited before Bill Cooper 's After The Flood saying the Idumeans descended from Dumah not Edom. I could see a documentary hypothesis proponent suggesting Dumah and Edom as conflicting Genesis origins for the same nation, since the name possibly share a common root.
Esau married a daughter of Ishmael, (possibly two depending on how you view the different accounts of his wives), in Genesis 36 a daughter of Ishmael bares him sons. Could it be Dumah and one of the wives of Esau were the same person?
Kedamah also ends with a Heh, in this case Kedamah can even be explain as a feminine form of Kademon, which means "East", east of the Jordan is mainly where the Ishmaelites originally settled. But perhaps most surprising is how the first born of Ishmael, Nabojoth, ends with a Tav.
Of the children and grandchildren borne to Abraham by Keturah. Shuah ends in a Het so is a masculine name. But Ephah ends with a Heh,, and is later the name of a Concubine of Caleb in 1 Chronicles 2:46. Eldaah ends with a Heh as well. But I'm still searching for an example of one who begat children to make my case airtight.
Aiah and Anah both end with a Heh. Anah is a name that within Genesis 36 seems to be applied to both a male and a female. Being called both a Bath of Zibeon and a Ben of Zibeon. Since it seems possibly Bath is used more strictly gender-wise anyway it's safe to say Anah was a daughter.
Now I enter 1 Chronicles 2, and we reach Judah. Judah ends in a Heh, and Judah begat at least 5 children. But Judah is someone we know enough about that it's hard to imagine the intent was for this name to imply anything Feminine. Nothing in Judah's story seems to suggest Gender Identity being an issue.
And it's a pretty common male name, largely from people being named after this Judah. So this is perhaps where the critics of the hypothesis I'm building here would really see it's Achilles heel. Judah was simply named after the Hebrew word for "praise", which also ends with a Heh. In general, Judith is viewed as the feminine form of Judah. There seem to be less exceptions to the Tav ending implying Gender then the Heh.
This does make me, as someone who is admittedly no where near an expert of linguistics, ask how do Hebrew scholars decide when ending with a Heh is Feminine, and when it is not?
A lot of the exceptions to ending in a Heh being Feminine are for theophoric names ending with Yah or YHWH. Others seems to be when there is a Vav before the Heh, which is the case with the name of YHWH. And that causes to me to wonder if there is a desire among scholars to deny that Yah and YHWH could be technically feminine names. Meanwhile Elah and Eloah are possibly feminine forms of El (God) that are both used of YHWH in the Hebrew Bible.
At any rate the Hebrew word for Praise perhaps ends with a Heh because it's used to praise YHWH who's name ends with a Heh in both long and short forms.
Eleasah is a name that ends with a Heh. 1 Chronicles 2:39-40 says that Helez begat Eleasah and Eleasah begat Sisamai. So I finally found something.
Two of David's children born in Jerusalem are named Eliphelet, but that name ends in a Teth not a Tav.
I've refereed to Shelomith and Shulamith as variant forms of the same Feminine version of Solomon's name, and they both end with Tav. Are the verses with Shelomith that sound like they're referring to Men refering to Transgender people perhaps? I can't be sure. But 1 Chronicles 3:19 does refer to a Shelomith as the sister of her brothers.
Solomon is an interesting name on it's own however. The Hebrew is Shlomoh, an example of a name ending in Vav-Heh. So maybe that name itself could be Feminine? It could be Salma or Salmon is the actual masculine form, Solomon possibly comes from Greek texts combines the names Shlomoh and Salmon.
At no point is Solomon described as Begating any of his children, they're just called Solomon's son or daughters. Naamah the Ammonitess is refereed to as the mother of Rehoboam, but is not described as bearing him per say. Naamah is also never referred to as a Queen or Queen Mother, a fact probably most likely to mean she was one of the Concubines, but still interesting. Naamah is definitely a female name, it ends with a Heh and wa sin Genesis 4 the sister of Tubal-Cain.
I've also often wondered if Solomon might have been Asexual or something, having seemingly less children then his father or son in-spite of having way more wives and concubines.
As King, Solomon definitely presented as male, since The Hebrew Bible has distinct terms for Female Monarchs.
Another name of Solomon's was Jeddiah, the name Nathan the Prophet gave to Solomon. This name is another one that would always been assumed to be male chiefly because it's Yah Theophoric.
There is speculation that Lemuel of Proverbs 31 is a name for Solomon, perhaps specifically the name Bathsheba gave Solomon at birth. It seems like a Male name though there are women in The Bible who's name ends in L, something I didn't want to get into here. Those examples aren't El Theophoric names however.
And at this point it occurs to me I forget something very early on. Right at the start.
Seth ends with a Tav, and Seth Begat Enosh, and many other sons and daughters. Could Seth have been a Transwoman right at the start of The Bible?
This is all speculative, and not at all something I want to build a major Doctrine on. Especially the Solomon part, that's the most speculative. But it's interesting how something Conservative Christians want to reject can potentially make more sense out of some confusing details of The Bible.
