“And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ( 2 Kings 20:18).“And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ( Isaiah 39:7).The prophesies in these two (identical) verses likely refer to castration.

Some biblical accounts imply a eunuch’s castration such as in Isaiah 39:7 and 2 Kings 20:18. This term is used as an official title also in Jeremiah 39:3 and Jeremiah 39:13. Rab-saris means “chief eunuch,” specifically to an Assyrian or Babylonian king. In 2 Kings 18:17, more literal translations like the ESV, KJV, NASB, and CSB use the term “the Rab-saris” instead of “chief officer,” used in the NIV, or “field commander,” which is used in the NLT. But no physical condition of castration or impotence is mentioned, nor is it likely because Potiphar had a wife ( Genesis 39). For example, Potiphar was an officer ( saris) to Pharaoh ( Genesis 37:36). The word eunuch can refer only to the title of a court officer or important official to a ruler. “Since some of these important officials, in certain cultures, were castrated because of their occupations (such as guarding the harem), it is not surprising that, by a quite normal process of semantic change, the expression came to denote a castrated man.” Eunuch Meaning: Four PossibilitiesĪs a eunuch was someone in charge of the bed chamber(s) in a palace or large home, “jealous” Eastern rulers often required the eunuch to be one “deprived of their virility,” as Smith’s Bible Dictionary expresses. When deciphering the root words and original meaning of saris, it’s uncertain if the word originally meant “unable to procreate” or “castrated.” It’s possible the role of the saris may have influenced this meaning later to include impotent or castrated.

But in Hebrew, wherever saris is used, the word refers to an important person who is not necessarily castrated.

The Greek translation, eunouchos, means (1) chamberlain, keeper of the bed-chamber of an eastern ruler, (2) a castrated person, or one who voluntarily abstains from marriage.

Eunouchos is also used four times in the New Testament. Of those 45 occurrences, the Greek Septuagint translates it as eunouchos 31 times in the OT. Saris (or cariyc) is the Hebrew word for eunuch, occurring 45 times in the Old Testament (OT). In the Bible, the Hebrew word saris (eunuch), refers to a man in some sort of service to a ruler, but castration isn’t always a part of the story. But this lifestyle isn’t the only representation of a eunuch.

Eunuchs in the Bible are typically defined as castrated men placed in charge over a king’s harem of wives and concubines.

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