Cupbearer (Hastings' Dictionary)

An officer of considerable importance at Oriental courts, whose duty it was to serve the wine at the table of the king. The first mention of this officer is in the story of Joseph (Gn 40''"), where the term rendered ' butler ' (wh. see) in EV is the Heb. word above, ren- dered in other passages cupbearer (Arabic es- sdki).

The holder of this office was brought into confidential relations with the king, and must have been thoroughly trustworthy, as part of his duty was to guard against poison iu the Icing's cup. In some cases he was required to taste the wine before presenting it. The position of Nehemiah as cupbearer to Artaxerxes Longimanus was evidently high. Herodotus (iii. 34) speaks of the office at the court of Cambyses, king of Persia, as ' an honour of no small account,' and the narrative of Neh.

shows the high esteem of the king for him, who is so solicitous for his welfare that he asks the cause of his sadness (2'^). The cupbearers among the officers of king Solomon's household (1 K 10°) impressed the queen of Sheba, and they are men- tioned among other indications of the grandeur of his court, which was modelled upon courts ot other Oriental kings.

The Rabshakeh, who was sent to Hezekiah (2 K 18"), was formerly supposed to have been cupbearer to Sennacherio, but the word (np\f^3n) means chi^ of the princes (see Del. on Is 36', and Sayce, HCM p. 441). Among the Assyrians, the cupbearers, like other attendants of the king, were commonly eunuchs, as may be seen from the monuments ; and such was the case gener- ally at Oriental courts.

The Persians, however, did not so uniformlv employ eunuchs, and probably never so degraifed tlieir own people or tlie Jews who served tliem. Certainly, Nehemiah was not a eunuch. Herod the Great had a cupbearer who was a eunuch (Jos. Ant. XVI. viii. 1). H. Porter.