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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Eunuch
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("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 (). Even the kings of Israel and Judah had eunuchs, probably foreigners (; ). 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 (; ). So the Assyrian Rabsaris, or chief eunuch ().
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 (; ; -16; ; ; ). Daniel and his companions were, possibly, mutilated so as to become eunuchs to the Babylonian king (-18; -7). In our Lord uses the term figuratively for those who are naturally, or who artificially, or by self restraint, have become divested of sexual passion (; -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."