Eunuchs in the OT, Part 1
Introduction and Summary
HOMOSEXUALITY IN THE BIBLE
Key Passages: 2 Kings 9-24; Jer 34-41; Isa 39:7, 56:3-5; Dan
1; Est 1-7; Neh 1-2, Gen 37-40, 1 Sam 8:15
By Bruce L. Gerig
John McNeill in The
Church and the Homosexual (1976) notes that the term “eunuch” in the Bible
is not only used in its literal sense referring to males who have been
physically castrated, but “also in a symbolic sense for all those who for
various reasons do not marry and bear children” (cf. Matt 19:12).1 Most people
have never met a real eunuch, although many GLBT people today may know a
male-to-female transsexual who has had the operation. Also, perhaps a million hijras (mostly trans, intersex, and
gay persons who have willingly chosen to be totally castrated) are estimated to
live in India today (Zeka),2 and
eunuchs still serve in harems and holy places throughout the Muslim world
(Scholz).3 Eunuchs are found in the pages of the
Bible, as well, and everywhere throughout the ancient Near East, described
and pictured in historical records.
Yet, not all castration was the same: Some males were “clean cut,” that is, they had both their
penis and testicles removed. Many more
eunuchs in ancient times were “partial castrates” who had only their testicles
removed, by cutting, tying or dragging.
Other partial castrates did not have their testicles removed but rather
permanently damaged, by crushing, twisting or bruising. A smaller number had only the penis cut
off, while no harm was done to the testicles.4 Into the
last category perhaps also fall cases that resulted from warriors who wanted to
take home ‘war trophies’ (cf. 1 Sam 18:27) and so castrated the dead corpses of
their defeated foes. For example, the
Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah (thirteenth century BC, 19th Dynasty) recorded on a
memorial that he collected 6,359 uncircumcised penises after defeating an invading
Libyan army, along with additional penises from children of the chief, brothers
of the priest, and other special persons.5 Total
castration done to a live person was a dangerous process, with a high mortality
rate (sometimes losing three out of four castrates),6 resulting from infection, bleeding to death, or scarring
and closing of the urethra duct.7 Fortunately, the more common form of
castration in the ancient Near East involved only removing or injuring the
testicles,8 which prepared a
male for harem service.9 Robert Biggs concluded from his studies
of Assyrian incantations that boys were usually made into eunuchs by crushing
their testicles.10 Kathryn Ringrose (2007) notes that boys
castrated before puberty remained
beardless with a fresh complexion and with fat deposits characteristic of
women. They often seemed to exhibit
unusually long arms and legs and a tall, frail frame. Their voices did not ‘change,’ but remained high
pitched. Their hair appeared thick
and luxuriant and did not fall out as they aged; and their beauty was admired
since they preserved their youthful look for longer than usual. Total castrates, if they survived the
initial operation, were fitted with a small (lead) pipe that kept the urethra
open after the removal of the penis.
However, they often faced lifelong urinary tract problems; and all eunuchs
in time suffered from premature aging, osteoporosis, and diabetes.11 Reay
Tannahill notes that the agony and shame felt by males castrated against their
will can hardly be imagined. For
example, Sima Qian (Ssu-ma Ch’ien, 145–c. 90 BC), who was “sent to the
silkworm house” to be castrated after being accused of attempting to mislead
the Chinese emperor, wrote eight years later how he still sat “in a daze,”
sweat drenching his clothes as he thought of his shame and wishing only that he
could “hide away in the farthest depths of the mountains.” Still, Qian went on to become the Grand
Historian of the Han court.12
The Hebrew word saris
(Strong H5631, plural: sarisim)
in the OT derived from the Akkadian expression sha reshi, which literally meant “he who is head, chief” and
referred to court officials who served the king.13 Yet,
over time sha reshi also became an expression meaning “turn into a
eunuch,” and especially after 1000 BC both the Akkadian and Hebrew words were
increasingly used in a specialized sense to refer to castrated officials.14 Saris
appears forty-seven times in the OT, including four times as rab-saris
(H7249, H5631) and six times as sar-hassarisim (H8269, H5631), both labels
meaning “chief eunuch.”15 Yet because of the possible double
meaning here (“royal [uncastrated] official” or “castrated official”), many Bible
interpreters were hesitant about
identifying eunuchs in the OT narrative, especially among the Israelites and
even among later Jews who were taken captive and deported to foreign courts and
capitals.16 In English translations, one finds a range extending from
the New English Bible (1970), which translates saris/sarisim as “eunuch(s)” in every instance, to the
Contemporary English Version (1995), which avoids using “eunuch(s)” entirely,
preferring general terms like “officer(s)” and official(s).” Of sixteen English translations
inspected,17 most display a skepticism toward
early references in the Bible, although many acknowledge eunuchs later in Queen
Jezebel’s harem (2 Kings 9:32), in the Babylonian court (Dan 1), in the Persian
court (Est 1–7), and in Isaiah’s two unexpected prophecies about sarisim (Isa 39:7, 56:3–5). Assyriologist
Kirk Grayson (1995) noted that castration has been “virtually taboo in modern
scholarship,” eliciting “very few serious studies,” even though eunuchs have
been documented as an important institution in China, Turkey, Mediaeval Islam,
Byzantium, Greece, the Hellenistic world, later Roman times, Assyria,
Babylonia, Achaemenid Persia, and among the Medes, the Urartus, and the Hittites
(the last two empires located in what is now modern Turkey); and in many of
these civilizations the proportion of eunuchs found among officers was
particularly high.18 Still, many Bible scholars believed
that because of Deut 23:1, which banned genitally wounded males from taking
part in Israel’s worshipping community, castrated males would never have been found
in Israel.19 Yet, one must remember how Jeremiah harshly
condemned God’s people who had forsaken the Lord to serve foreign gods—and
therefore they shall go serve strangers in a foreign land (Jer 5:19). They had stolen and murdered, committed
adultery and practiced perjury (7:9), and brought detestable idols into the
Temple and sacrificed their children on pagan altars (7:30–31). Because
they had not kept the Sabbath, the Lord said he would ‘set Jerusalem afire’ (17:27). So, after breaking so many of the Ten
Commandments (Exod 20:1–17), what would keep apostate Israelite rulers
from disregarding Deut 23:1, if they so chose? Although there is no evidence that Israel castrated her own
people, it is likely, as John Taylor and Norman Snaith suggest, that Israelite
rulers began importing and using eunuchs in imitation of their powerful
neighbors—a general attitude that long characterized Israel (1 Sam 8:5,
Deut 17:14–17, Judg 2:10–12, 1 Kings 11:1–3)20—beginning with Jezebel in the northern kingdom
of Israel21 and then appearing
with the last rulers in the southern kingdom of Judah, in their respective
capitals of Samaria and Jerusalem. With regard to the Jews taken into captivity, one must not forget that
castrating captives for royal court service was standard practice for their conquering potentates. Most eunuchs, brought to kings as
tribute, were war captives or youths who had been kidnapped in slave raids (even
in Israel, cf. Joel 3:4–6).22
After studying historical
evidence for the extensive and widespread use of eunuchs in harem supervision
and other service to kings (e.g., as personal aides, guards, generals, and
governors),23 during the Neo-Assyrian
(883–609 BC), Neo-Babylonian
(626–539 BC) and Achaemenid24 Persian (559–330 BC) empires, which dominated the ancient Near East
during the period of the divided Israelite monarchy (Israel and Judah) and then
later after they had fallen, and also carefully investigating all references to saris/sarisim in the OT (see accompanying articles listed at the end of this article), these
conclusions may be stated: First, it is likely that Jezebel, the princess
from Tyre (a cosmopolitan city with merchant ties to Assyria25) whom King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom took as his queen
in the ninth century BC, introduced eunuchs as harem and possibly other court
servants in Samaria (cf. 2 Kings 9:32).
Second, it is also likely that when saris suddenly reappears as a title among the court retinues of Jehoiachin (or
“Jeconiah,” Jer 29:2) and Zedekiah (Jer 39:1–2, 41:16–17) in Jerusalem near the end of the Southern Kingdom (ca.
608–586 BC), this term referred
to eunuchs and not simply royal “officials,” for which there were other Hebrew terms
available without carrying the stigma of castration. Third, noting numerous historical examples of eunuchs
serving Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian kings as foreign emissaries and military
officers, the sarisim who accompanied
Nebuchadnezzar II to Judah (between 604–586 BC) were surely eunuchs (2 Kings 18:17, Jer 39:3, 13;
NRSV: “Rab-saris”). Fourth, most
translators agree that the sarisim mentioned in Nebuchnezzar’s Babylonian court (Dan 1; REB: “chief eunuch,” but
NRSV: “palace master”) and in Xerxes II’s Persian court (Est 1–7) were all eunuchs. Fifth, all interpreters agree on reading Isaiah’s two unexpected
prophecies about sarisim as referring
to “eunuchs,” the first a divine prediction that certain sons of Judah would one
day be made into eunuchs (Isa 39:7) and the second a divine command reversing Deut
23:1 and in its place inviting all Jewish eunuchs who love God to join his worshipping
community (Isa 56:3–5). Many Bible interpreters fail to
recognize, however, that these Isaiah passages strongly suggest that certain
Jews taken into Exile were castrated to serve various kings. And yet, who? Sixth, Ahikar, the Jewish chief cupbearer to the Assyrian
kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon was certainly a eunuch (Tobit 1:21-22), as was
Nehemiah who served as a cupbearer later to the Persian king Artaxerxes I (Neh
2). Certainly Daniel and the
other handsome, high-born youths whom Nebuchadnezzar took from Jerusalem to
Babylon to become servants in his court (Dan 1) were also castrated, as well as
may have been Mordecai, in the Book of Esther (2:21, 6:10), who seems to have
served as a palace doorkeeper for Ahasuerus (Xerxes I). Seventh, but what about earlier uses of saris(im) applied to Potiphar and to
Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and chief baker (Gen 37:36; 40:2, 7)? There is little hard evidence for
eunuch court officials serving the Pharaoh (especially since Egyptian men
customarily shaved off their beards), although the rare use of this term here
in the OT must mean something and they all seem identified like later Assyrian
eunuchs, both with the term saris, and then with each one’s specific job title given. Saris(im) does not
appear again then in the OT until Samuel describes customs which kings
established in Israel will institute (1 Sam 8:15).
One might expect that most
castrated males lost their sexual passion, although their sexual capabilities
were regularly debated in all palaces that incorporated eunuch servants.26 Even Ecclesiasticus
30:20 (an Apocryphal text written about 180 BC) noted how “a eunuch groans when
he embraces a virgin” (REB). In
fact, if testicles were removed after
puberty, a eunuch could still have an erection, since he continued to
receive testosterone from the adrenal glands, although he was sterile (did not
produce sperm). Even if boys had their
testicles crushed at a young age, some of them still received testosterone from
their testicles, allowing them to have erections. And even totally castrated eunuchs could receive anal
pleasure from the prostate gland, resulting in a sort of climax, but without the
normal ejaculation. Therefore,
some have argued that eunuchs were really castrated to assure that all of the children
born in a harem would be from the seed of the master.27 Whatever
the reasons, some ancients found the smooth, hairless, hermaphroditic bodies of
young eunuchs appealing; and they considered half-man, half-woman a wondrous
union of the two genders, combining charms from both.28 Not
every eunuch was used for homosexual purposes, of course, but many were; and
eunuchs with a boyish beauty were in great demand among certain male elite as
bed partners (Wittfogel, Fürstauer, Seibert, Hopkins, Greenberg),29 even if these men also had wives. With regard to eunuchs being used sexually
by royal women in the harem, the Greek and Roman authors hint at nothing, nor
do any other ancient sources. However, the sexual relationship between Alexander the Great and the
handsome young eunuch Bagoas (formerly a catamite lover of Darius III) is well
documented;30 and the Roman
writer Curtius Rufus (6.5.22) makes it clear that this sexual relationship was
just another Persian royal custom which the Macedonian conqueror took
over. Less well-known is the account
of the sexual passion of the Persian king Artaxerxes (probably one of the later
Artaxerxeses, II–IV)
for an attractive eunuch named Tiradates; and when the eunuch died, the king fell
into a deep despair. Finally, when
his servants arranged for a look-alike female courtesan (high class prostitute)
to be sent into his bedchamber dressed in the eunuch’s clothes, the king
somewhat revived, although he could not enjoy sex with her.31 It
should be remembered that many hijra eunuchs of modern India offer themselves
as prostitutes to men.32 Also, the Kama-sutra (“Short Sayings on Love”), a Hindu text written between
the first and sixth centuries AD and claiming to be based on much older
traditions, expressed the view that all eunuchs, both those who looked more
effeminate and those who looked more masculine, engaged in homosexual activity
to a greater or lesser degree (2.11).33
So how might eunuchs of
ancient times be compared and contrasted with gay men and male-to-female
transgendered individuals today in the West? Indeed, eunuchs in the ancient world were little understood,
were widely viewed as ‘strange’ persons, and were looked upon by many with
scorn and derision. Scott Spencer
(2006) notes how “the effeminate eunuch embodied shame, impotence, and social
deviance” in the ancient world, and was often viewed as “a threatening liminal
figure [neither male nor female],” as “something . . . monstrous [and] alien”
(Herodotus, Historiae 8.106).34 Then Jews,
made eunuchs by circumstances beyond their control, were forced to leave their
families and religious communities behind, and they had to make for themselves
a new home in a new land. As
Ringrose notes, “All historical eunuchs were ambiguous figures.” Their services were valued, and yet
they were often despised. “They
were often objects of desire [because of their youthful, attractive looks] yet
at the same time many found them to be repulsive.”35 As Tom
Horner notes, since these eunuchs had no choice in their condition, there is “a
special pathos to the situation in which those who had been made into eunuchs
in the ancient world were often looked upon with scorn. . . .”36 Yet, there
was also diversity among these eunuchs.
For example, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (2002) notes that some eunuchs
(Assyrian) looked very corpulent (muscled) and strong, while others (Persian) appeared
slim and elegant.37 Still, whatever ancient and modern
comparisons might be suggested, gay men and trans people today in the West never
had their sexual organs forcibly taken from them (so their grief results mostly
from homophobic and transphobic reactions or having to bear sexual organs which
they feel do not fit their true gender); also transgenders today have increased
freedom and opportunities to fulfill their full and natural gender desires. Yet, this important parallel remains: Just as God in his grace opened his
arms to Jewish eunuchs in Isaiah 56:3–5, so God today in his grace
invites all GLBT people who love him and want to serve him to become full
members in his spiritual family and worshipping community.
Castration in Ancient Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia
ACCOMPANYING ARTICLES:
Eunuchs in the OT, Part 2: Castration in Ancient Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia
General historical survey
Eunuchs in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (883–609)
Eunuchs in the Neo-Babylonian Empire (626–539)
Eunuchs in the Achaemenid Persian Empire (559–330) and the Book of Esther
Eunuchs in the OT, Part 3: Hunting for Castrates in Israel before the Exile
Debate over terms referring to eunuchs (in the ancient Near East and in the OT)
During the divided kingdoms of Israel (928–722) and Judah (928–586)
Sarisim in the queen’s quarters (Ahab dynasty and near the end of the kingdom of Judah)
Sarisim serving the king (Ahab dynasty and near the end of the kingdom of Judah)
Foreign sarisim who visit Jerusalem (belonging to Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar)
Early uses of saris/sarisim in the Old Testament (in the Joseph, Samuel, and David narratives)
Eunuchs in the OT, Part 4: Hunting for Jewish Castrates during the Exile
Law and grace
Moses’ prohibitions relating to the genitally wounded
Isaiah’s prophecies concerning Israelites who will be castrated
Eunuchs among Israel’s sons
Ahikar during the reigns of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon in Assyria
Daniel and other youths taken to serve Nebuchadnezzar in Babylonia
Nehemiah a cupbearer to Artaxerxes in Persia
FOOTNOTES: 1. McNeill 1976, pp. 64–65. 2. Personal conversation with Alessandra
Zeka. 3. Scholz, p.
26. 4. Penzer, pp. 142–143; Bullough 2002, pp. 2–3; Ringrose, p. 497. 5. James Henry Breasted 1962,
noted in Bullough 2002, p. 6; cf. Scholz, p. 22. 6. Scholz, p. 16. 7. Bullough 2002, p. 3. 8. Ringrose, p. 497. 9. Bullough 2002, p.
4. 10. Robert D. Biggs
1969, noted in Grayson, p. 92. 11. Ringrose, pp. 497–498. 12. Tannahill, pp. 252–253. 13. Brown-Driver-Briggs, p. 710; Grayson, pp. 90–91. 14. Burke, p. 201; Gehman,
pp. 281–282. 15.
Burke, p. 201. 16. Cf. North, p. 87. 17. KJV, Moffatt, RSV,
NASB, JB, NEB, LB, NIV, NKJV, GNB2, NJB, J. Green, NRSV, REB, CEV, NAB. 18. Grayson, p.
97. 19. Cf. Patterson,
p. 635. 20. Taylor and
Snaith, p. 276. 21. Cf.
Patterson, p. 635. 22.
Grayson, p. 95; D. Greenberg 1988, p. 121. 23. Burke, p. 200. 24. Achaemenid was a dynastic family name. 25. Van De Mieroop, p.
207. 26. Ringrose, p.
498. 27. Bullough
2002, pp. 4, 10. 28.
Scholz, p. 18. 29.
Karl Wittfogel 1957, Johanna Fürstauer 1965, Ilse Seibert 1974, Keith Hopkins
1978; all noted in D. Greenberg 1988, p. 123. 30. Lleyellyn-Jones, p. 35; Scholz, p. 82. 31. Llewellyn-Jones, p.
35. 32. Nanda, pp. 52–64; Scholz, p. 27. 33. Horner, p. 140, n.
2. 34. Spencer, p. 355. 35. Ringrose, p. 501. 36. Horner, pp. 68–69. 37. Llewellyn-Jones, p. 24.
REFERENCES:
Brown, Francis, with Samuel
R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs.
The
Brown–Driver–Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, (1906) 2001
and coded with the numbering from Strong’s Concordance.
Bullough, Vern L. “Eunuchs in History and Society.”
In Shaun Tougher, ed., Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond, pp.
1–17. London: Gerald
Duckworth and the Classical Press of Wales, 2002.
Burke, David G. “Eunuch.” In Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., International Standard Bible Encyclopedia,
2, pp. 200–202. Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982.
Gehman, Henry S. “Eunuch.” In Henry S. Gehman, ed., New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible,
pp. 281–282.
Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970.
Grayson, Albert K. “Eunuchs in Power: Their Role in
the Assyrian Bureaucracy.”
In Manfried Dietrich and Oswald Loretz, eds., Vom Alten Orient zum Alten Testament: Festschift fur Wolfram Freiherrn
von Soden zum 85. Geburtstag am 19. Juni 1993, pp. 85–98. Kevelaer: Butzon & Bercker,
1995.
Green, Jay P., Sr., trans. Interlinear Bible: Hebrew–Greek–English. With Strong’s Concordance numbers added above each
word. Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson, (1976) 1986.
Greenberg, David F. The Construction of Homosexuality. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1988.
Horner, Tom (Thomas M.). Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Biblical Times. Philadelphia: Westminster Press,
1978.
Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd. “Eunuchs and the Royal Harem in
Achaemenid Persia (559–331 BC).” In Shaun Tougher, ed., Eunuchs: In Antiquity and Beyond, pp.
19–49. London: Gerald
Duckworth and the Classical Press of Wales, 2002.
McNeill, John J. The Church and the Homosexual. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1976.
Nanda, Serena. Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,
1990.
North, Robert. “Palestine, Administration of:
Postexilic Judean Officials.”
In David Noel Freedman, ed., Anchor
Bible Dictionary, 5, pp. 86–90. New York and London: Doubleday, 1992.
Patterson, R. D. “סריס
(sārîs), official, eunuch.” In R. Laird Harris, ed., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament,
2, pp. 634–635.
Chicago: Moody Press, 1980.
Penzer, Norman M. The Harem.
London: Spring Books, 1936, repr. 1965.
Ringrose, Kathryn M. “Eunuchs in Historical
Perspective.” History Compass 5/2 (2007):
495–506.
Scholz, Piotr O. Eunuchs and Castrati: A Cultural History. Trans. J. A. Broadwin and S. L. Frisch. Princeton: Marcus Wiener, (German
1999) trans. 2001.
Spencer, F. Scott. “Eunuch.” In Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, ed.,
New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the
Bible, 2, pp. 355–356.
Nashville: Abingdon, 2007.
Strong, James, comp. Strongest Strong’s: Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Rev. and corrected by John R.
Kohlenberger III and James A. Swanson. With “Hebrew–Aramic Dictionary–Index to
the Old Testament” and “Greek Dictionary–Index to the New Testament.” Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.
Tannahill, Reay. Sex in History. New York: Stein and Day, 1980.
Taylor, John, and Norman H.
Snaith. “Eunuch.” In James Hastings, ed., Dictionary of the Bible, pp.
275–276. New York:
Charles Scribner’s and Sons, 1963.
Van De Mieroop, Marc. A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000–323 B.C. Malden, MA; and Oxford, England:
Blackwell, 2004.
Zeka, Alessandra. Personal dialogue with the
filmmaker after a showing of her film Harsh
Beauty (2005), on hijras in India, viewed June 10, 2007 at the NewFest film
festival, New York. NY.
TRANSLATIONS: Contemporary English Version,
1995. Good News Bible, 2nd
ed. 1983. Jerusalem Bible,
1968. King James Version,
1611. Living Bible,
1976. James Moffatt,
1922. New American Bible,
1995. New American Standard
Bible, 1960. New English
Bible, 1970. New International
Version, 1978. New Jerusalem
Bible, 1995. New King James
Version, 1982. New Revised
Standard Version, 1989.
Revised English Bible, 1989.
Revised Standard Version,
1952.
©
Bruce L. Gerig, 2008, 2010
