Eunuch
VIEW:44 DATA:01-04-2020
EUNUCH.In the proper sense of the word a eunuch is an emasculated human being (Deu_23:1), but it is not absolutely certain that the Heb. sârîs always has this signification, and the uncertainty is reflected in our Eng. tr. [Note: translate or translation.] , where officer and chamberlain are frequently found. It is interesting to note that the group of scholars who rendered Jeremiah for the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] adhered to eunuch throughout: unhappily the Revisers have spoiled the symmetry by conforming Jer_52:25 to 2Ki_25:19. The following reasons, none of which is decisive, have been advanced in favour of some such rendering of sârîs as officer or chamberlain. 1. That Potiphar (Gen_37:36) was married. But actual eunuchs were not precluded from this (see Ter. Eun. 4, 3, 24; Juv. vi. 366; Sir_20:4; Sir_30:20 etc.). And the words in Gen_39:1 which identify Josephs first master with the husband of his temptress are an Interpolation. 2. That in 2Ki_25:19 etc. eunuchs hold military commands, whereas they are generally unwarlike (imbelles, Juv. l.c.). But there have been competent commanders amongst them. 3. That the strict meaning cannot be insisted on at Gen_40:2; Gen_40:7. Yet even here it is admissible.
The kings of Israel and Judah imitated their powerful neighbours in employing eunuchs (1) as guardians of the harem (2Ki_9:32, Jer_41:16); Est_1:12; Est_4:4 are instances of Persian usage; (2) in military and other important posts (1Sa_8:15, 1Ki_22:9, 2Ki_8:6; 2Ki_23:11; 2Ki_24:12; 2Ki_24:15; 2Ki_25:19, 1Ch_28:1, 2Ch_18:8, Jer_29:2; Jer_34:19; Jer_38:7; cf. Gen_37:36; Gen_40:2; Gen_40:7, Act_8:27, Dan_1:3 does not of necessity imply that the captives were made eunuchs). For the services rendered at court by persons of this class and the power which they often acquired, see Jos. [Note: Josephus.] Ant. XVI. viii. 1. But their acquisitions could not remove the sense of degradation and loss (2Ki_20:18, Isa_39:7). Deu_23:1 excluded them from public worship, partly because self-mutilation was often performed in honour of a heathen deity, and partly because a maimed creature was judged unfit for the service of Jahweh (Lev_21:20; Lev_22:24). That ban is, however, removed by Isa_56:4-5. Euseb. (HE vi. 8) relates how Origen misunderstood the figurative language of Mat_19:12; Origens own comment on the passage shows that he afterwards regretted having taken it literally and acted on it. See also Ethiopian Eunuch.
J. Taylor.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
("bedkeeper".) Generally used of those emasculated in order to satisfy the jealousy of masters who committed to them the charge of wives, concubines, and the female apartments. Sometimes implying the high office of "chamberlain," without such emasculation (1Ch_28:1). Even the kings of Israel and Judah had eunuchs, probably foreigners (2Ki_9:32; Jer_38:7). Ethiopians were then, as Nubians now, often so employed. The chief of Pharaoh's cupbearers, and the chief of his cooks, were eunuchs; Potiphar was an "eunuch" (so Hebrew of "officer") of Pharaoh's (Gen_37:36; Gen_37:41). So the Assyrian Rabsaris, or chief eunuch (2Ki_18:17).
So in the Persian court there were eunuchs as "keepers of the women," through whom the king gave commands to the women, and kept men at a distance (Est_1:10; Est_1:12; Est_1:15-16; Est_2:3; Est_2:8; Est_2:14). Daniel and his companions were, possibly, mutilated so as to become eunuchs to the Babylonian king (2Ki_20:17-18; Dan_1:3-7). In Mat_19:12 our Lord uses the term figuratively for those who are naturally, or who artificially, or by self restraint, have become divested of sexual passion (1Co_7:26; 1Co_7:32-34). Our Lord permits, but does not command or recommend, celibacy as superior in sanctity to wedlock; "he that is able to receive it, let him receive it."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Eunuch. "The English form of the Greek word which means bed-keeper. In the strict and proper sense, they were the persons who had charge of the bed-chambers in palaces and larger houses. But, as the jealous and dissolute temperament of the East required, this charge to be in the hands of persons who had been deprived of their virility, the word eunuch came naturally to denote persons in that condition. But as some of these rose to be confidential advisers of their royal master or mistresses, the word was occasionally employed to denote persons in such a position, without indicating anything of their proper manhood." ?Abbott.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
The word signifies, one who guards the bed. In the courts of eastern kings, the care of the beds and apartments belonging to princes and princesses, was generally committed to eunuchs; but they had the charge chiefly of the princesses, who lived secluded. The Hebrew saris signifies a real eunuch, whether naturally born such, or rendered such. But in Scripture this word often denotes an officer belonging to a prince, attending his court, and employed in the interior of his palace, as a name of office and dignity. In the Persian and Turkish courts, the principal employments are at this day possessed by real eunuchs. Our Saviour speaks of men who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven,
Mat_19:12; that is, who, from a religious motive, renounced marriage or carnal pleasures.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
ū?nuk (סריס, ṣārı̄ṣ; σπάδων, spádōn; εὐνοῦχος, eunoúchos): Primarily and literally, a eunuch is an emasculated man (Deu_23:1). The Hebrew word ṣārı̄ṣ seems, however, to have acquired a figurative meaning, which is reflected in English Versions of the Bible where ?officer? and ?chamberlain? are found as renderings (compare Gen_37:36; Gen_39:1, where ṣārı̄ṣ is applied to married men; Est_4:4). The barbarous practice of self-mutilation and the mutilation of others in this way was prevalent throughout the Orient. The religious disabilities under which men thus deformed labored under the Mosaic law had the effect of making the practice abominable to the Jews as a people (Deu_23:1; Lev_22:23-25). The law excluded eunuchs from public worship, partly because self-mutilation was often performed in honor of a heathen god, and partly because a maimed creature of any sort was deemed unfit for the service of Yahweh (Lev_21:16; Lev_22:24). That ban, however, was later removed (Isa_56:4, Isa_56:5). On the other hand, the kings of Israel and Judah followed their royal neighbors in employing eunuchs (1) as guardians of the harem (2Ki_9:32; Jer_41:16), and (2) in military and other official posts (1Sa_8:15 margin; 1Ki_22:9 margin; 2Ki_8:6 margin; 2Ki_23:11 the King James Version margin; 2Ki_24:12, 2Ki_24:13 margin; 2Ki_25:19 margin; 1Ch_28:1 margin; 2Ch_18:8 margin; Jer_29:2; Jer_34:19; Jer_38:7; compare Gen_37:36; Gen_40:2, Gen_40:7; Act_8:27). Josephus informs us that eunuchs were a normal feature of the courts of the Herods (Ant., XV, vii, 4; XVI, viii, 1). From the single reference to the practice in the Gospels (Mat_19:12), we infer that the existence and purpose of eunuchs as a class were known to the Jews of Jesus' time. There is no question with Jesus as to the law of Nature: the married life is the norm of man's condition, and the union thereby effected transcends every other natural bond, even that of filial affection (Mat_19:5, Mat_19:6). But He would have His hearers recognize that there are exceptional cases where the rule does not hold. In speaking of the three classes of eunuchs (Mat_19:12), He made a distinction which was evidently well known to those whom He addressed, as was the metaphorical use of the word in application to the third class well understood by them (compare Lightfoot, Horae Hebrew et Talmud; Schottgen, Horae Hebrew, in the place cited.).
How Origen misunderstood and abused the teaching of this passage is well known (Euseb., HE, VI, 8), and his own pathetic comment on the passage shows that later he regretted having taken it thus literally and acted on it. His is not the only example of such a perverted interpretation (see Talmud, Shabbāth 152a, and compare Midrash on Ecc_10:7). The Council of Nicea, therefore, felt called on to deal with the danger as did the 2nd Council of Aries and the Apos Canons (circa 21). (Compare Bingham's Ant, IV, 9.)
It is significant that Jesus expresses no condemnation of this horrible practice. It was in keeping with His far-reaching plan of instilling principles rather than dealing in denunciations (Joh_3:17; Joh_8:11). It was by His positive teaching concerning purity that we are shown the lines along which we must move to reach the goal. There is a more excellent way of achieving mastery of the sexual passion. It is possible for men to attain as complete control of this strong instinct as if they were physically sexless, and the resultant victory is of infinitely more value than the negative, unmoral condition produced by self-emasculation. These ?make themselves eunuchs? with a high and holy purpose, ?for the kingdom of heaven's sake?; and the interests created by that purpose are so absorbing that neither time nor opportunity is afforded to the ?fleshly lusts, which war against the soul? (1Pe_2:11). They voluntarily forego marriage even, undertake virtual ?eunuchism? because they are completely immersed in and engrossed by ?the kingdom of heaven? (compare Joh_17:4; 1Co_7:29, 1Co_7:33 f; 1Co_9:5 and see Bengel, Gnomon Novi Test. in the place cited and Clement of Alexandria., Strom., iii.1ff). See MARRIAGE.
Literature
Driver,? Deuteronomy,? ICC, Deu_23:1; Commentary on Mt, in the place cited. by Morison and Broadus; Neander, Ch. Hist, II, 493; Wendt, The Teaching of Jesus, 72ff; The Expositor, IV, vii (1893), 294ff; Encyclopedia Brit, article ?Eunuch.?
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
This word, which we have adopted from the Greek, has, in its literal sense, the harmless meaning of 'bed-keeper,' i.e. one who has the charge of beds and bed-chambers; but as only persons deprived of their virility have, from the most ancient times, been employed in Oriental harems, and as such persons are employed almost exclusively in this kind of service, the word 'bed-keeper' became synonymous with 'castratus.' In fact there are few eastern languages in which the condition of those persons is more directly expressed than by the name of some post or station in which they are usually found. The admission to the recesses of the harem, which is in fact the domestic establishment of the prince, gives the eunuchs such peculiar advantages of access to the royal ear and person, as often enables them to exercise an important influence, and to rise to stations of great trust and power in Eastern courts. Hence it would seem that, in Egypt, for instance, the word which indicated an eunuch was applied to any court officer, whether a castratus or not (Gen_37:36; Gen_39:1).
Authority would be superfluous in proof of a matter of such common knowledge as the employment of eunuchs, and especially of black eunuchs, in the courts and harems of the ancient and modern East. A noble law, which, however, evinces the prevalence of the custom prior to Moses, made castration illegal among the Jews (Lev_21:20; Deu_23:1). But the Hebrew princes did not choose to understand this law as interdicting the use of those who had been made eunuchs by others; for that they had them, and that they were sometimes, if not generally, blacks, and that the chief of them was regarded as holding an important and influential post, appears from 1Ki_22:9; 2Ki_8:6; 2Ki_9:32-33; 2Ki_20:18; 2Ki_23:11; Jer_38:7; Jer_39:16; Jer_41:16. Samuel was aware that eunuchs would not fail to be employed in a regal court; for he thus forewarns the people, 'He (the king) will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyard, and give to his eunuchs [A.V. 'officers'] and to his servants' (1Sa_8:15).
Under these circumstances, the eunuchs were probably obtained from a great distance, and at an expense which must have limited their employment to the royal establishment: and this is very much the case even at present.
In Mat_19:12, the term 'eunuch' is applied figuratively to persons naturally impotent. In the same verse mention is also made of persons 'who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake;' which is a manifestly hyperbolical description of such as lived in voluntary abstinence (comp. Mat_5:29-30); although painful examples have occurred (as in the case of Origen) of a disposition to interpret the phrase too literally.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Eunuch
(εὐνοῦχος) has, in its literal (Greek) sense, the harmless meaning of "bed- keeper," i.e., one who has the charge of beds and bed-chambers; but as only persons deprived of their virility have, from the most ancient times, been employed in Oriental harems, and as such persons are employed almost exclusively in this kind of service, the word "bed-keeper" became synonymous with "castratus." Castration, according to Josephus (Ant. 4:8, 40), was not practiced by the Jews upon either men or animals, SEE BEAST; yet the custom is frequently referred to in the Bible by the Hebrew term סָרַיס(saris', Sept. εὐνοῦχος; Vulg. spado; A.V. "eunuch," "officer," and "chamberlain," apparently as though the word intended a class of attendants who were not always mutilated), which (from the Arabic root saras, to be impotent ad Venerem) clearly implies the incapacity which mutilation involves (Isa_56:3; Sir_20:20 [21]), and perhaps includes all the classes mentioned in Mat_19:12, not signifying, as the Greek εὐνοῦχος, an office merely. The law, Deu_23:1 (comp. Lev_22:24), is repugnant to thus treating any Israelite; and Samuel, when describing the arbitrary power of the future king (1Sa_8:15, marg.), mentions "his eunuchs," but does not say that he would make "their sons" such. This, if we compare 2Ki_20:18; Isa_39:7, possibly implies that these persons would be foreigners. It was a barbarous custom of the East thus to treat captives (Herod. 3:49; 6:32), not only of tender age (when a non- development of beard, and feminine mold of limbs and modulation of voice ensues), but, it would seem, when past puberty, which there occurs at an early age.
Physiological considerations lead to the supposition that in the latter case a remnant of animal feeling is left, which may explain Sir_20:4; Sir_25:20 (comp. Juv. 6:366, and Mart. 6:67; Philostr. Apoll. Tyan. 1:37; Ter. Eun. 4:3, 24), where a sexual function, though fruitless, is implied. Busbecq (Ep. 3:122, Oxf. 1660) seems to ascribe the absence or presence of this to the total or partial character of the mutilation; but modern surgery would rather assign the earlier or later period of the operation as the real explanation. (Comp. Juv. 12:35; Philo, Opp. 2:264; Mishna, Yebaimh, 8:2; Deu_23:2; see Gesenius, Thes. page 338; Paul. AEgin. 6:68; Fischer, Proluss. page 497; Pierer, Medic. Realw. I, 2:63.) It is total among modern Turks (Tournefort, 2:8, 9, 10, ed. Par. 1717, taille fleur de ventre); a precaution arising from mixed ignorance and jealousy. The "officer" Potiphar (Gen_37:36; Gen_39:1, marg. "eunuch") was an Egyptian, was married, and was the "captain of the guard." The Jewish tradition is that Joseph was made a eunuch on his first introduction to Egypt; and yet the accusation of Potiphar's wife, his marriage and the birth of his children, are related subsequently without any explanation. (See Targum Pseudojon. on Gen_39:1; Gen_41:50; and the details given at 39:13.) On the Assyrian monuments a eunuch often appears, sometimes armed and in a warlike capacity, or as a scribe, noting the number of heads and amount of spoil, as receiving the prisoners, and even as officiating in religious ceremonies (Layard, Nineveh, 2:324-6, 334.) A bloated beardless face and double chin is there their conventional type. SEE ATTIRE.
Chardin (Voyages en Perse, 2:283, ed. Amst. 1711) speaks of eunuchs having a harem of their own. If Potiphar had become such by operation for disease, by accident, or even by malice, such a marriage seems, therefore, according to. Eastern notions, supposable. (See Grotius on Deu_23:1; comp. Burckhardt, Tramv. in Arab. 1:290.) Nor is it wholly repugnant to that barbarous social standard to think that the prospect of rank, honor, and royal confidence might even induce parents to thus treat their children at a later age, if they showed an aptness for such preferment. The characteristics as regards beard, voice, etc., might then perhaps be modified, or might gradually follow. The Potipherah of Gen_41:50, whose daughter Joseph married, was "'priest of On," and no doubt a different person. (See Delphini, Eunuchi conjugium, Hal. 1680.)
The origination of the practice is ascribed to Semiramis (Amm. Marcell. 14:6), and is no doubt as early, or nearly so, as Eastern despotism itself. Their incapacity, as in the case of mutes, is the ground of reliance upon them (Clarke's Travels, part 2, § 1, 13; Busbecq, Ep. 1:33). By reason of the mysterious distance at which the sovereign sought to keep his subjects (Herod. 1:99; comp. Est_4:11), and of the malignant jealousy fostered by the debased relation of the sexes, such wretches, detached from social interests and hopes of issue (especially when, as commonly, and as amongst the Jews, foreigners), the natural slaves of either sex (Est_4:5), and having no prospect in rebellion save the change of masters, were the fittest props of a government resting on a servile relation, the most complete organs of its despotism or its lust, the surest (but see Est_2:21) guardians (Xenoph. Cyrop. 7:5, § 15; Herod. 8:105) of the monarch's person, and the sole confidential witnesses of his unguarded or undignified moments. Hence they have in all ages frequently risen to high offices of trust. Thus the "chief" of the cup-bearers (q.v.) and of the cooks of Pharach were eunuchs, as being near his person, though their inferior agents need not have been so (Gen_40:1). (Wilkinson [Anc. Egypt, 2:61] denies the use of eunuchs in Egypt. Herodotus, indeed [2:92], confirms his statement as regards Egyptian monogamy; but if this as a rule applied to the kings, they seemed, at any rate, to have allowed themselves concubines [page 181].
From the general beardless character of Egyptian heads, it is not easy to pronounce whether any eunuchs appear in the sculptures or not.) The complete assimilation of the kingdom of Israel, and latterly of Judah, to the neighboring models of despotism, is traceable in the rank and prominence of eunuchs (2Ki_8:6; 2Ki_9:32; 2Ki_23:11; 2Ki_25:19; Isa_56:3-4; Jer_29:2; Jer_34:19; Jer_38:7; Jer_41:16; Jer_52:25). They mostly appear in one of two relations either military, as "set over the men of war," greater trustworthiness possibly counterbalancing inferior courage and military vigor, or associated, as we mostly recognize them, with women and children. (2Ch_28:1 is remarkable as ascribing eunuchs to the period of David, nor can it be doubted that Solomon's polygamy made them a necessary consequence; but in the state they do not seem to have played an important part at this period.)
We find the Assyrian Rab-Saris, or chief eunuch (2Ki_18:17), employed, together with other high officials, as ambassador. Similarly, in the details of the travels of an embassy sent by the duke of Holstein (page 136), we find a eunuch mentioned as sent on occasion of a state-marriage to negotiate, and of another (page 273) who was the Meheter, or chamberlain of Shah Abbas, who was always near his person, and had his ear (comp. Chardin, 3:37), and of another, originally a Georgian prisoner, who officiated as supreme judge. Fryer (Travels in India and Persia, page 1698) and Chardin (2:283) describe them as being the base and ready tools of licentiousness, as tyrannical in humor, and pertinacious in the authority which they exercise; Clarke (Travels in Europe, etc., part 2, § 1, page 22), as eluded and ridiculed by those whom it is their office to guard. A great number of them accompany the shall and his ladies when hunting, and no one is allowed, on pain of death, to come within two leagues of the field, unless the king sends a eunuch for him. So eunuchs run before the closed arabahs of the sultanas when abroad, crying out to all to keep at a distance. This illustrates Est_1:10; Est_1:12; Est_1:15-16; Est_2:3; Est_2:8; Est_2:14. The moral tendency of this sad condition is well known to be the repression of courage, gentleness, shame, and remorse, the development of malice, and often of melancholy, and a disposition to suicide. The favorable description of them in Xenophon (1.c.) is overcharged, or, at least, is not confirmed by modern observation. They are not more liable to disease than others. unless of such as often follows the foul vices of which they are the tools. The operation itself, especially in infancy, is not more dangerous than an ordinary amputation. Chardin (2:285) says that only one in four survives; and Clot Bey, chief physician of the pasha, states that two thirds die. Burckhardt, therefore (fub. page 329), is mistaken when he says that the operation is only fatal in about two out of a hundred cases. SEE HAREM.
It is probable that Daniel and his companions were thus treated, in fulfillment of 2Ki_20:17-18; Isa_39:7; comp. Dan_1:3; Dan_1:7. The courf of Herod of course had its eunuchs (Josephus, Ant. 16:8, 1; 15:7, 4), as had also that of queen Candace (Act_8:27). Michaelis (2:180) regards them as the proper consequence of the gross polygamy of the East, although his further remark that they tend to balance the sexual disparity which such monopoly of woman causes is is less just, since the countries despoiled of their women fur the one purpose are not commonly those which furnish male children for the other.
In the three classes mentioned in Mat_19:12, the first is to be ranked with other examples of defective organization; the last, if taken literally, as it is said to have been personally exemplified in Origen (Euseh. Eccl. Hist. 6:8; see Zorn, De eunachisomo Origenis, Giess. 1708), is an instance of human ways and means of ascetic devotion being valued by the Jews above revealed precept (see Schdttgen, Hor. Hebrews 1:159). Our Savior in that passage doubtless refers to the voluntary and ascetic celibacy of the Essenes (q.v.). But a figurative sense of εὐνοῦχος (comp. 1Co_7:32; 1Co_7:34) is also possible. SEE CELIBACY.
In the A.V. of Esther the word "chamberlain" (marg,. "eunuch") is the constant rendering of סָרַיס, saris, and as the word also occurs in Act_12:20, and Rom_16:23, where the original expressions are very different, some caution is required. In Act_12:20, τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ κοιτῶνος τοῦ βασιλέως may mean a "chamberlain" merely. Such were persons of public influence, as we learn from a Greek inscription preserved in Walpole's Turkey (2:559), in honor of P. Aelius Alcibiades, "chamberlain of the emperor" (ἐπὶ κοιτῶνος Σεβ.), the epithets in which exactly suggest the kind of patronage expressed. In Rom_16:23, the word ἐπίτροπος is the one commonly rendered " steward" (e.g. Mat_20:8; Luk_8:3), and means the one to whom the care of the city was committed. See generally Salden, Otia Theol. de Eunuchis, page 494 sq. SEE CHAMBERLAIN.
In Deu_23:1 (פְּצוּעִאּדִּכָּה, one mutilated by crushing, i.e., the testicles, Sept. technically θλαδίας), and also probably in Lev_21:20 (מְרוֹחִ אָשֶׁךְ, one crushed as to his testicles, Sept. partially μονόρχις), the allusion is to a peculiar kind of emasculation still practiced in the East, according to the Greek physicians (Paulus AEgineta, book 6), which consists in softening the testicles of very young boys in warm water, and then rubbing and pressing them till they disappear. As the heathen priests were often thus qualified for office, persons so mutilated were excluded from the Jewish Church. SEE ASHTORETH.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
The kings of Israel and Judah imitated their powerful neighbours in employing eunuchs (1) as guardians of the harem (2Ki_9:32, Jer_41:16); Est_1:12; Est_4:4 are instances of Persian usage; (2) in military and other important posts (1Sa_8:15, 1Ki_22:9, 2Ki_8:6; 2Ki_23:11; 2Ki_24:12; 2Ki_24:15; 2Ki_25:19, 1Ch_28:1, 2Ch_18:8, Jer_29:2; Jer_34:19; Jer_38:7; cf. Gen_37:36; Gen_40:2; Gen_40:7, Act_8:27, Dan_1:3 does not of necessity imply that the captives were made eunuchs). For the services rendered at court by persons of this class and the power which they often acquired, see Jos. [Note: Josephus.] Ant. XVI. viii. 1. But their acquisitions could not remove the sense of degradation and loss (2Ki_20:18, Isa_39:7). Deu_23:1 excluded them from public worship, partly because self-mutilation was often performed in honour of a heathen deity, and partly because a maimed creature was judged unfit for the service of Jahweh (Lev_21:20; Lev_22:24). That ban is, however, removed by Isa_56:4-5. Euseb. (HE vi. 8) relates how Origen misunderstood the figurative language of Mat_19:12; Origens own comment on the passage shows that he afterwards regretted having taken it literally and acted on it. See also Ethiopian Eunuch.
J. Taylor.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
("bedkeeper".) Generally used of those emasculated in order to satisfy the jealousy of masters who committed to them the charge of wives, concubines, and the female apartments. Sometimes implying the high office of "chamberlain," without such emasculation (1Ch_28:1). Even the kings of Israel and Judah had eunuchs, probably foreigners (2Ki_9:32; Jer_38:7). Ethiopians were then, as Nubians now, often so employed. The chief of Pharaoh's cupbearers, and the chief of his cooks, were eunuchs; Potiphar was an "eunuch" (so Hebrew of "officer") of Pharaoh's (Gen_37:36; Gen_37:41). So the Assyrian Rabsaris, or chief eunuch (2Ki_18:17).
So in the Persian court there were eunuchs as "keepers of the women," through whom the king gave commands to the women, and kept men at a distance (Est_1:10; Est_1:12; Est_1:15-16; Est_2:3; Est_2:8; Est_2:14). Daniel and his companions were, possibly, mutilated so as to become eunuchs to the Babylonian king (2Ki_20:17-18; Dan_1:3-7). In Mat_19:12 our Lord uses the term figuratively for those who are naturally, or who artificially, or by self restraint, have become divested of sexual passion (1Co_7:26; 1Co_7:32-34). Our Lord permits, but does not command or recommend, celibacy as superior in sanctity to wedlock; "he that is able to receive it, let him receive it."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Eunuch. "The English form of the Greek word which means bed-keeper. In the strict and proper sense, they were the persons who had charge of the bed-chambers in palaces and larger houses. But, as the jealous and dissolute temperament of the East required, this charge to be in the hands of persons who had been deprived of their virility, the word eunuch came naturally to denote persons in that condition. But as some of these rose to be confidential advisers of their royal master or mistresses, the word was occasionally employed to denote persons in such a position, without indicating anything of their proper manhood." ?Abbott.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
The word signifies, one who guards the bed. In the courts of eastern kings, the care of the beds and apartments belonging to princes and princesses, was generally committed to eunuchs; but they had the charge chiefly of the princesses, who lived secluded. The Hebrew saris signifies a real eunuch, whether naturally born such, or rendered such. But in Scripture this word often denotes an officer belonging to a prince, attending his court, and employed in the interior of his palace, as a name of office and dignity. In the Persian and Turkish courts, the principal employments are at this day possessed by real eunuchs. Our Saviour speaks of men who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven,
Mat_19:12; that is, who, from a religious motive, renounced marriage or carnal pleasures.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
ū?nuk (סריס, ṣārı̄ṣ; σπάδων, spádōn; εὐνοῦχος, eunoúchos): Primarily and literally, a eunuch is an emasculated man (Deu_23:1). The Hebrew word ṣārı̄ṣ seems, however, to have acquired a figurative meaning, which is reflected in English Versions of the Bible where ?officer? and ?chamberlain? are found as renderings (compare Gen_37:36; Gen_39:1, where ṣārı̄ṣ is applied to married men; Est_4:4). The barbarous practice of self-mutilation and the mutilation of others in this way was prevalent throughout the Orient. The religious disabilities under which men thus deformed labored under the Mosaic law had the effect of making the practice abominable to the Jews as a people (Deu_23:1; Lev_22:23-25). The law excluded eunuchs from public worship, partly because self-mutilation was often performed in honor of a heathen god, and partly because a maimed creature of any sort was deemed unfit for the service of Yahweh (Lev_21:16; Lev_22:24). That ban, however, was later removed (Isa_56:4, Isa_56:5). On the other hand, the kings of Israel and Judah followed their royal neighbors in employing eunuchs (1) as guardians of the harem (2Ki_9:32; Jer_41:16), and (2) in military and other official posts (1Sa_8:15 margin; 1Ki_22:9 margin; 2Ki_8:6 margin; 2Ki_23:11 the King James Version margin; 2Ki_24:12, 2Ki_24:13 margin; 2Ki_25:19 margin; 1Ch_28:1 margin; 2Ch_18:8 margin; Jer_29:2; Jer_34:19; Jer_38:7; compare Gen_37:36; Gen_40:2, Gen_40:7; Act_8:27). Josephus informs us that eunuchs were a normal feature of the courts of the Herods (Ant., XV, vii, 4; XVI, viii, 1). From the single reference to the practice in the Gospels (Mat_19:12), we infer that the existence and purpose of eunuchs as a class were known to the Jews of Jesus' time. There is no question with Jesus as to the law of Nature: the married life is the norm of man's condition, and the union thereby effected transcends every other natural bond, even that of filial affection (Mat_19:5, Mat_19:6). But He would have His hearers recognize that there are exceptional cases where the rule does not hold. In speaking of the three classes of eunuchs (Mat_19:12), He made a distinction which was evidently well known to those whom He addressed, as was the metaphorical use of the word in application to the third class well understood by them (compare Lightfoot, Horae Hebrew et Talmud; Schottgen, Horae Hebrew, in the place cited.).
How Origen misunderstood and abused the teaching of this passage is well known (Euseb., HE, VI, 8), and his own pathetic comment on the passage shows that later he regretted having taken it thus literally and acted on it. His is not the only example of such a perverted interpretation (see Talmud, Shabbāth 152a, and compare Midrash on Ecc_10:7). The Council of Nicea, therefore, felt called on to deal with the danger as did the 2nd Council of Aries and the Apos Canons (circa 21). (Compare Bingham's Ant, IV, 9.)
It is significant that Jesus expresses no condemnation of this horrible practice. It was in keeping with His far-reaching plan of instilling principles rather than dealing in denunciations (Joh_3:17; Joh_8:11). It was by His positive teaching concerning purity that we are shown the lines along which we must move to reach the goal. There is a more excellent way of achieving mastery of the sexual passion. It is possible for men to attain as complete control of this strong instinct as if they were physically sexless, and the resultant victory is of infinitely more value than the negative, unmoral condition produced by self-emasculation. These ?make themselves eunuchs? with a high and holy purpose, ?for the kingdom of heaven's sake?; and the interests created by that purpose are so absorbing that neither time nor opportunity is afforded to the ?fleshly lusts, which war against the soul? (1Pe_2:11). They voluntarily forego marriage even, undertake virtual ?eunuchism? because they are completely immersed in and engrossed by ?the kingdom of heaven? (compare Joh_17:4; 1Co_7:29, 1Co_7:33 f; 1Co_9:5 and see Bengel, Gnomon Novi Test. in the place cited and Clement of Alexandria., Strom., iii.1ff). See MARRIAGE.
Literature
Driver,? Deuteronomy,? ICC, Deu_23:1; Commentary on Mt, in the place cited. by Morison and Broadus; Neander, Ch. Hist, II, 493; Wendt, The Teaching of Jesus, 72ff; The Expositor, IV, vii (1893), 294ff; Encyclopedia Brit, article ?Eunuch.?
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
This word, which we have adopted from the Greek, has, in its literal sense, the harmless meaning of 'bed-keeper,' i.e. one who has the charge of beds and bed-chambers; but as only persons deprived of their virility have, from the most ancient times, been employed in Oriental harems, and as such persons are employed almost exclusively in this kind of service, the word 'bed-keeper' became synonymous with 'castratus.' In fact there are few eastern languages in which the condition of those persons is more directly expressed than by the name of some post or station in which they are usually found. The admission to the recesses of the harem, which is in fact the domestic establishment of the prince, gives the eunuchs such peculiar advantages of access to the royal ear and person, as often enables them to exercise an important influence, and to rise to stations of great trust and power in Eastern courts. Hence it would seem that, in Egypt, for instance, the word which indicated an eunuch was applied to any court officer, whether a castratus or not (Gen_37:36; Gen_39:1).
Authority would be superfluous in proof of a matter of such common knowledge as the employment of eunuchs, and especially of black eunuchs, in the courts and harems of the ancient and modern East. A noble law, which, however, evinces the prevalence of the custom prior to Moses, made castration illegal among the Jews (Lev_21:20; Deu_23:1). But the Hebrew princes did not choose to understand this law as interdicting the use of those who had been made eunuchs by others; for that they had them, and that they were sometimes, if not generally, blacks, and that the chief of them was regarded as holding an important and influential post, appears from 1Ki_22:9; 2Ki_8:6; 2Ki_9:32-33; 2Ki_20:18; 2Ki_23:11; Jer_38:7; Jer_39:16; Jer_41:16. Samuel was aware that eunuchs would not fail to be employed in a regal court; for he thus forewarns the people, 'He (the king) will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyard, and give to his eunuchs [A.V. 'officers'] and to his servants' (1Sa_8:15).
Under these circumstances, the eunuchs were probably obtained from a great distance, and at an expense which must have limited their employment to the royal establishment: and this is very much the case even at present.
In Mat_19:12, the term 'eunuch' is applied figuratively to persons naturally impotent. In the same verse mention is also made of persons 'who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake;' which is a manifestly hyperbolical description of such as lived in voluntary abstinence (comp. Mat_5:29-30); although painful examples have occurred (as in the case of Origen) of a disposition to interpret the phrase too literally.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Eunuch
(εὐνοῦχος) has, in its literal (Greek) sense, the harmless meaning of "bed- keeper," i.e., one who has the charge of beds and bed-chambers; but as only persons deprived of their virility have, from the most ancient times, been employed in Oriental harems, and as such persons are employed almost exclusively in this kind of service, the word "bed-keeper" became synonymous with "castratus." Castration, according to Josephus (Ant. 4:8, 40), was not practiced by the Jews upon either men or animals, SEE BEAST; yet the custom is frequently referred to in the Bible by the Hebrew term סָרַיס(saris', Sept. εὐνοῦχος; Vulg. spado; A.V. "eunuch," "officer," and "chamberlain," apparently as though the word intended a class of attendants who were not always mutilated), which (from the Arabic root saras, to be impotent ad Venerem) clearly implies the incapacity which mutilation involves (Isa_56:3; Sir_20:20 [21]), and perhaps includes all the classes mentioned in Mat_19:12, not signifying, as the Greek εὐνοῦχος, an office merely. The law, Deu_23:1 (comp. Lev_22:24), is repugnant to thus treating any Israelite; and Samuel, when describing the arbitrary power of the future king (1Sa_8:15, marg.), mentions "his eunuchs," but does not say that he would make "their sons" such. This, if we compare 2Ki_20:18; Isa_39:7, possibly implies that these persons would be foreigners. It was a barbarous custom of the East thus to treat captives (Herod. 3:49; 6:32), not only of tender age (when a non- development of beard, and feminine mold of limbs and modulation of voice ensues), but, it would seem, when past puberty, which there occurs at an early age.
Physiological considerations lead to the supposition that in the latter case a remnant of animal feeling is left, which may explain Sir_20:4; Sir_25:20 (comp. Juv. 6:366, and Mart. 6:67; Philostr. Apoll. Tyan. 1:37; Ter. Eun. 4:3, 24), where a sexual function, though fruitless, is implied. Busbecq (Ep. 3:122, Oxf. 1660) seems to ascribe the absence or presence of this to the total or partial character of the mutilation; but modern surgery would rather assign the earlier or later period of the operation as the real explanation. (Comp. Juv. 12:35; Philo, Opp. 2:264; Mishna, Yebaimh, 8:2; Deu_23:2; see Gesenius, Thes. page 338; Paul. AEgin. 6:68; Fischer, Proluss. page 497; Pierer, Medic. Realw. I, 2:63.) It is total among modern Turks (Tournefort, 2:8, 9, 10, ed. Par. 1717, taille fleur de ventre); a precaution arising from mixed ignorance and jealousy. The "officer" Potiphar (Gen_37:36; Gen_39:1, marg. "eunuch") was an Egyptian, was married, and was the "captain of the guard." The Jewish tradition is that Joseph was made a eunuch on his first introduction to Egypt; and yet the accusation of Potiphar's wife, his marriage and the birth of his children, are related subsequently without any explanation. (See Targum Pseudojon. on Gen_39:1; Gen_41:50; and the details given at 39:13.) On the Assyrian monuments a eunuch often appears, sometimes armed and in a warlike capacity, or as a scribe, noting the number of heads and amount of spoil, as receiving the prisoners, and even as officiating in religious ceremonies (Layard, Nineveh, 2:324-6, 334.) A bloated beardless face and double chin is there their conventional type. SEE ATTIRE.
Chardin (Voyages en Perse, 2:283, ed. Amst. 1711) speaks of eunuchs having a harem of their own. If Potiphar had become such by operation for disease, by accident, or even by malice, such a marriage seems, therefore, according to. Eastern notions, supposable. (See Grotius on Deu_23:1; comp. Burckhardt, Tramv. in Arab. 1:290.) Nor is it wholly repugnant to that barbarous social standard to think that the prospect of rank, honor, and royal confidence might even induce parents to thus treat their children at a later age, if they showed an aptness for such preferment. The characteristics as regards beard, voice, etc., might then perhaps be modified, or might gradually follow. The Potipherah of Gen_41:50, whose daughter Joseph married, was "'priest of On," and no doubt a different person. (See Delphini, Eunuchi conjugium, Hal. 1680.)
The origination of the practice is ascribed to Semiramis (Amm. Marcell. 14:6), and is no doubt as early, or nearly so, as Eastern despotism itself. Their incapacity, as in the case of mutes, is the ground of reliance upon them (Clarke's Travels, part 2, § 1, 13; Busbecq, Ep. 1:33). By reason of the mysterious distance at which the sovereign sought to keep his subjects (Herod. 1:99; comp. Est_4:11), and of the malignant jealousy fostered by the debased relation of the sexes, such wretches, detached from social interests and hopes of issue (especially when, as commonly, and as amongst the Jews, foreigners), the natural slaves of either sex (Est_4:5), and having no prospect in rebellion save the change of masters, were the fittest props of a government resting on a servile relation, the most complete organs of its despotism or its lust, the surest (but see Est_2:21) guardians (Xenoph. Cyrop. 7:5, § 15; Herod. 8:105) of the monarch's person, and the sole confidential witnesses of his unguarded or undignified moments. Hence they have in all ages frequently risen to high offices of trust. Thus the "chief" of the cup-bearers (q.v.) and of the cooks of Pharach were eunuchs, as being near his person, though their inferior agents need not have been so (Gen_40:1). (Wilkinson [Anc. Egypt, 2:61] denies the use of eunuchs in Egypt. Herodotus, indeed [2:92], confirms his statement as regards Egyptian monogamy; but if this as a rule applied to the kings, they seemed, at any rate, to have allowed themselves concubines [page 181].
From the general beardless character of Egyptian heads, it is not easy to pronounce whether any eunuchs appear in the sculptures or not.) The complete assimilation of the kingdom of Israel, and latterly of Judah, to the neighboring models of despotism, is traceable in the rank and prominence of eunuchs (2Ki_8:6; 2Ki_9:32; 2Ki_23:11; 2Ki_25:19; Isa_56:3-4; Jer_29:2; Jer_34:19; Jer_38:7; Jer_41:16; Jer_52:25). They mostly appear in one of two relations either military, as "set over the men of war," greater trustworthiness possibly counterbalancing inferior courage and military vigor, or associated, as we mostly recognize them, with women and children. (2Ch_28:1 is remarkable as ascribing eunuchs to the period of David, nor can it be doubted that Solomon's polygamy made them a necessary consequence; but in the state they do not seem to have played an important part at this period.)
We find the Assyrian Rab-Saris, or chief eunuch (2Ki_18:17), employed, together with other high officials, as ambassador. Similarly, in the details of the travels of an embassy sent by the duke of Holstein (page 136), we find a eunuch mentioned as sent on occasion of a state-marriage to negotiate, and of another (page 273) who was the Meheter, or chamberlain of Shah Abbas, who was always near his person, and had his ear (comp. Chardin, 3:37), and of another, originally a Georgian prisoner, who officiated as supreme judge. Fryer (Travels in India and Persia, page 1698) and Chardin (2:283) describe them as being the base and ready tools of licentiousness, as tyrannical in humor, and pertinacious in the authority which they exercise; Clarke (Travels in Europe, etc., part 2, § 1, page 22), as eluded and ridiculed by those whom it is their office to guard. A great number of them accompany the shall and his ladies when hunting, and no one is allowed, on pain of death, to come within two leagues of the field, unless the king sends a eunuch for him. So eunuchs run before the closed arabahs of the sultanas when abroad, crying out to all to keep at a distance. This illustrates Est_1:10; Est_1:12; Est_1:15-16; Est_2:3; Est_2:8; Est_2:14. The moral tendency of this sad condition is well known to be the repression of courage, gentleness, shame, and remorse, the development of malice, and often of melancholy, and a disposition to suicide. The favorable description of them in Xenophon (1.c.) is overcharged, or, at least, is not confirmed by modern observation. They are not more liable to disease than others. unless of such as often follows the foul vices of which they are the tools. The operation itself, especially in infancy, is not more dangerous than an ordinary amputation. Chardin (2:285) says that only one in four survives; and Clot Bey, chief physician of the pasha, states that two thirds die. Burckhardt, therefore (fub. page 329), is mistaken when he says that the operation is only fatal in about two out of a hundred cases. SEE HAREM.
It is probable that Daniel and his companions were thus treated, in fulfillment of 2Ki_20:17-18; Isa_39:7; comp. Dan_1:3; Dan_1:7. The courf of Herod of course had its eunuchs (Josephus, Ant. 16:8, 1; 15:7, 4), as had also that of queen Candace (Act_8:27). Michaelis (2:180) regards them as the proper consequence of the gross polygamy of the East, although his further remark that they tend to balance the sexual disparity which such monopoly of woman causes is is less just, since the countries despoiled of their women fur the one purpose are not commonly those which furnish male children for the other.
In the three classes mentioned in Mat_19:12, the first is to be ranked with other examples of defective organization; the last, if taken literally, as it is said to have been personally exemplified in Origen (Euseh. Eccl. Hist. 6:8; see Zorn, De eunachisomo Origenis, Giess. 1708), is an instance of human ways and means of ascetic devotion being valued by the Jews above revealed precept (see Schdttgen, Hor. Hebrews 1:159). Our Savior in that passage doubtless refers to the voluntary and ascetic celibacy of the Essenes (q.v.). But a figurative sense of εὐνοῦχος (comp. 1Co_7:32; 1Co_7:34) is also possible. SEE CELIBACY.
In the A.V. of Esther the word "chamberlain" (marg,. "eunuch") is the constant rendering of סָרַיס, saris, and as the word also occurs in Act_12:20, and Rom_16:23, where the original expressions are very different, some caution is required. In Act_12:20, τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ κοιτῶνος τοῦ βασιλέως may mean a "chamberlain" merely. Such were persons of public influence, as we learn from a Greek inscription preserved in Walpole's Turkey (2:559), in honor of P. Aelius Alcibiades, "chamberlain of the emperor" (ἐπὶ κοιτῶνος Σεβ.), the epithets in which exactly suggest the kind of patronage expressed. In Rom_16:23, the word ἐπίτροπος is the one commonly rendered " steward" (e.g. Mat_20:8; Luk_8:3), and means the one to whom the care of the city was committed. See generally Salden, Otia Theol. de Eunuchis, page 494 sq. SEE CHAMBERLAIN.
In Deu_23:1 (פְּצוּעִאּדִּכָּה, one mutilated by crushing, i.e., the testicles, Sept. technically θλαδίας), and also probably in Lev_21:20 (מְרוֹחִ אָשֶׁךְ, one crushed as to his testicles, Sept. partially μονόρχις), the allusion is to a peculiar kind of emasculation still practiced in the East, according to the Greek physicians (Paulus AEgineta, book 6), which consists in softening the testicles of very young boys in warm water, and then rubbing and pressing them till they disappear. As the heathen priests were often thus qualified for office, persons so mutilated were excluded from the Jewish Church. SEE ASHTORETH.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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