Eunuch

Occurrences in Scripture

A eunuch was an official who served the king and the royal household closely in the palace. The Revised Korean Version renders the same original terms, depending on context, as hwangwan ("eunuch"), naesi ("court eunuch"), goja ("castrated man"), sinha ("officer" or "servant"), and others.

• Daniel 1: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, ordered Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring youths of Israel's royal family and nobility to be educated (Daniel 1:3). The chief of the eunuchs changed the names of Daniel and his three friends (Daniel 1:7).
• The prophecy to Hezekiah: Isaiah told Hezekiah that some of his descendants would become "eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon" (2 Kings 20:18; Isaiah 39:7).
• Palace eunuchs: Several eunuchs threw Jezebel out of a window (2 Kings 9:32-33). Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian (Cushite) eunuch, rescued Jeremiah from the cistern (Jeremiah 38:7-13). In the Persian court, Hegai had charge of the king's women, and Bigthan and Teresh, eunuchs who kept the door, sought to lay hands on the king (Esther 2).
• Law and promise: Deuteronomy 23:1 stipulates that a man whose genitals have been damaged shall not enter "the congregation of the LORD." Isaiah 56:3-5 promises the eunuchs who keep the Sabbath and take hold of the covenant an everlasting name "better than of sons and of daughters."
• New Testament: Jesus spoke of eunuchs "which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake" (Matthew 19:12). Philip the evangelist explained Isaiah 53 to a eunuch who had charge of the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, and baptized him (Acts 8:26-39).

Background

Many scholars hold that the Hebrew saris derives from the Akkadian ša rēši ("one who is at the king's head," that is, a close attendant). In the courts of the ancient Near East, castrated men were often entrusted with overseeing the harem or serving as the king's close attendants. This practice is commonly explained by the fact that, having no offspring, they posed little risk of aspiring to the throne.

Potiphar, however, who had a wife, is also called a saris (Genesis 39:1; KJV "an officer of Pharaoh"; Revised Korean Version sinha). For this reason many scholars hold that the term could also denote a high official, regardless of whether he had been castrated. The Greek eunouchos is commonly explained as "one who guards the bed."

The "Ethiopia" of Acts 8 refers not to present-day Ethiopia but to the region of Cush (Nubia) on the upper Nile. "Candace" is understood to have been the title of that kingdom's queen.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

Deuteronomy excluded eunuchs from the assembly. Isaiah 56, by contrast, depicts foreigners and eunuchs entering the people of God together and declares that God's house shall be called "an house of prayer for all people" (Isaiah 56:7). Many interpreters read the baptism of the man in Acts 8, who was both a Gentile and a eunuch, as a fulfillment of this promise. Placed between the evangelization of Samaria and the account of Cornelius, the episode illustrates the spread of the gospel toward the ends of the earth.

Interpretation and Debate

• Whether Daniel was castrated: The text does not say whether Daniel and his three friends were castrated. Some Jewish traditions and interpreters, linking the account to 2 Kings 20:18, hold that they were. Those who disagree point to the description of the youths in Daniel 1:4 as those "in whom was no blemish."
• Matthew 19:12: Most churches read this verse as referring not to literal castration but to a life of remaining unmarried for the sake of the kingdom of God. The Catholic Church cites it as one of the grounds for the celibacy of priests and religious. Protestant churches generally regard celibacy as a gift given to some (1 Corinthians 7:7) and do not impose it as an obligation on church officers. According to an account preserved by Eusebius, the third-century theologian Origen followed this verse literally, but the historicity of the report is disputed.
• The status of the Ethiopian eunuch: Interpreters differ over whether he was actually castrated or simply a high official. Opinions are also divided over whether he was a proselyte to Judaism or a God-fearing Gentile.

In the Korean Church

The Korean words hwangwan and naesi are familiar to readers because they call to mind the eunuchs of the Joseon royal court. Because the Revised Korean Version renders the same original term with several different words, however, these distinctions are sometimes explained in Bible study. The account of the eunuch in Acts 8 is frequently cited in sermons on evangelism and missions.