Eunuch (Hastings' Dictionary)

0")ij is rendered in AV eunuch, otiicer, chamberlain. The employ- ment of eunuchs in Oriental courts was one of the base accompaniments of polygamy and despotism. The harems of the inonarciis were committed to their charfje, and they frequently superintended the education of young princes. Much inlluence was thus at times acquired by them in allUirs of state (see Rawlin.son, Anc. Mon. iv. 175).

They were often closely connected with the palace intrigues, which played so important a part in Oriental history. It seems that the Heb. word was also used in a wide sense of persons not emasculated, who held offices which were usually entrusted to eunuclis. Such is probably its use in the case of Potiphar (Gn 39' ; Whiston's Jus. Ant. X. X. 2n.) Where tlie word occurs in 1 and 2 K, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether it bears its proper or its derived signilication.

Hero- dotus (viii. 105) says that 'among the barbarians eunuchs are more valued than others on account of their perfect fidelity,' and instances the case of Hermotimus, who was highly esteemed by Xerxes. Xcnophon (Cyrnp. vii. 5. GU 11'.)

, in giving the reasons why Cyrus employed them, alludes to the alleged fact that their having no domestic ties rendered them capable of peculiar devotion to the interests of their masters, and of gratitude to those who conferred honour and consideration upon them They also naturally adhered to one able to protect them, as they found themselves objects of contempt to other men.

He denies the allegation that they are lacking in vigour and excellent qualities, and illustrates their tendencies by the ca.se of ' dogs, which, when castrated, cea.se to desert their masters, but are not at all less fitted for watching and the chase.' The Law of I)t 23' (cf. Lv 22=») attaches a religious st igma to the condition. (See, for the prob. grouml of this. Driver on Dt 23').

The prediction in 1 S 8" was designed to intimate the deterioration of the 794 EUODIA EURAQUILO Dational life consequent upon the establisliraent of the kingdom, througli the adoption of unsanctioned Gentile customs. Ace. to Herodotus (vi. 32), the Persians made eunuchs of tlie goodliest of the youth of captured countries ; but as to whetlier Daniel and his companions were thus treated by the Bab. conquerors, no absolutely certain conclu- sions can be reached (cf. 2 K 20"' **).

Eunuchs were in the coui-ts of the Herods in our Lord's time (Jos. Ant. XV. vii. 4; XVI. viii. 1); hence His allusion to them (Mt 19'-) as familiar to His hearers. See ETHIOPIAN EuNUCH. G. Walker. EUODIA, AV Euodias {EvoSla, fem. form of Evoolos. Both names are found in Gr. literature and on the inscriptions. The Euodias of AV seems to liave arisen from a mistake of the translators, who took EioStav for the accusative of the mas- culine form Ei'oSfas, and regarded it as the name of a man).

— A Christian woman of Philippi, whom the Apostle Paul beseeches ' to be of tne same mind in the Lord ' with another Christian woman named Syntyche (Ph 4''). They may have been deaconesses, or women of some position in whose houses the brethren were accustomed to meet. The language of St. Paul suggests a religious difference rather than a private quarrel (Ph 2"). They may have represented difi'erent types of piety, or may have differed on some question of church life. St.

Paul begs a certain Syzygus, or, as some critics think, an unnamed ' true yoke-fellow,' to help forward the work of reconciliation, being mindful of the former services of these women to the cause of the gospel (Ph 4'). The theory of Baur, Schwegler, andVolkmar, that Euodia and Syntyche are symbolical names for Jewish and Gentile Christianity, is now generally abandoned. A mode of speaking so mysterious is out of harmony with the general tenor of the Epistle. J. GiBB.

EUPATOR {EiwiTwp, 1 Mac 6" etc., 2 Mac Q?" etc.), the surname of Antiochus v., son and successor of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes. See ANTI- OCHUS V. EUPHRATES (n-i?, Ei/^pdri)?)— The Euphrates was called Pura-nun, ' the great water,' or simply Pura, 'the water,' in Sumerian, tlie pre-Semitic language of Chalda?a (cf. Gn lo"). From this tlie Semitic Babylonians derived their Purat or Purattu with the feminine suffix. Puiat is the Heb.

Perath, the Old Persian Ufratu, where the pros- thetic u was explained as the word u, 'good, and BO gave rise to the Greek Euphrates. In the OT it is generally known as ' the river ' (e.g. Dt 11-, Ex 2.3^'), it beiu^ the largest and most notable river of Western Asia, and accordingly in Gn 2''' alone of the rivers of Paradise no geographical description is given of it. In Babylonia it was also called ' the river of Sippara ' as well as the Uruttu, a dialectical form of Purattu.

The Euphrates (Arab. Frat) has two sotirces, one of which was called the Euphrates in antiquity ; in Armenian, Yephrat ; while the other, which ri.ses to the south, east, the modem Mur.ld, Su, was termed tlie Arsanias, Arm. Aradzani, Arzania in the Assyr. inscriptions. They rise in two valleys of Armenia, from 6000 to 6500 feet high, tlie one m the Anti-Taurus, the other in Mount Ararat, and unite near Malatiyeh (Melitgng, Assyr.

Melid) in a valley about 2000 feet high, whence they flow east- ward throuj;h a narrow gorge towards S>-ria. From tliis point to the alluvial plain of Babyfonia the fall of the river is about lOOO feet in 700 miles, BO that it is navigable only down stream. The high road from east to west passed it in OT It is disputed whether Jer IS-' really refers to the Euphnte6 see Ewald, ad loc.) times at Birtu (Bircjik) and Carchemish (Jerab'j).

There was another passage at Thapsakos, the Tiphsah of 1 K 4". A little to the south ot Carchemish was Pethor (Assyr. Pitru), on the western bank at the junction of the Euphrates with the Sajur (Assyr. Sagura). Still farther south, but on the eastern bank, it was joined by the Belikh (Assyr. Balikh) and Kliabtlr (Assyr. Kliabur), which came from the land of Gozan (Assyr. Guzanu, 2 K 17"). At the mouth of the Kliabtir was Circesiura (now Karkisia, Assyr. Sirki).

After this the Euphrates receives no more affluents ; but north- ward of Sippara or Sepharvaim it approaches the Tigris very nearly, and by again widening out forms the plain of Babylonia. The Euphrates and Tigris now unite before falling into the sea, owing to the accumulation of silt at the head of the Persian Gulf, but in OT times they still entered the sea by separate mouths.

The water of the Euphrates was dissipated over Babylonia by means of canals for the purposes of irrigation, and at its mouth were great salt marshes, called Marratu by the Babylonians (see Jer 50^). Here lived the Kaldd or Chaldajans, with their capital Bit-Yakin, of which Merodach-baladan was king. LiTERATCaK. — Frd. Delitzsch, Paradieg, 169 f. ; Schrader, KA Ti 34 f. ; Chcsney, Euphratu Exped. vol. i. ; LottUB, Chaldeea and Siutiana ; Layard, .Vtn. and Bab. chs. xxi.

-xxiL ; RawlinsoD, Herodotus, i. Essay ix. A. H. SAYCE. EUPOLEMUS {EvirSKeiws), the son of John, the son of Accos, one of the ambassadors sent to Rome by Judas Maccabseus, after his victory over Nicanor, in order to conclude an alliance between the Romans and the Jews in B.C. 161 (1 Mac 8", 2 Mac 4", comp. Jos. Ant. XII. x. 6).

Eupo- lemus has often been identified with the author of a history of the Jews, written in Greek, which is quoted by Alexander Polyhistor, Clement ot Alexandria {Strom, i. 23), and Eusebius (Prmp. Ev. ix. 30-34). Since the historian Eupolemus seems to have written about B.C. 157, and was almost certainly a Jew, this identification may be correct (comp. Schiirer, HJP II. iii. 203 ff. ). H. A. White.