the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Eunuch
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Eunuch. 2 Kings 9:32; Esther 2:3; Acts 8:27. In the strict and proper sense eunuchs 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 masters or mistresses, the word was occasionally employed to denote persons in such a position, without indicating anything respecting their manhood. The word "eunuch" is employed by Christ, Matthew 19:12, in various senses to designate: 1. Those who are naturally incapacitated; 2. Those who have been mutilated; 3. Those who voluntarily abstain from marriage in order to devote themselves more exclusively to the interests of the kingdom of God.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Eunuch'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/e/eunuch.html. 1893.
