Eunuchs. In oriental courts the practice prevailed of keeping eunuchs, i.e., male slaves who had been castrated for the purpose, as attendants in the women's quarters of the palace. (The Greek term eunouchos means literally "keeper of the bed".) The Code of Hammurabi men tions eunuchs, and in Mesopotamia they are known to have formed part of the cult of Ishtar and other religious worship. The castration of males for such purposes was not practiced, however, in Egypt, Greece, or Rome, except perhaps occasionally through oriental influence. The references to eunuchs in the Old Testament demand scrutiny, for sometimes they refer to eunuchs in the sense of such bedchamber attendants and the like, while elsewhere they probably do not. In Deuteronomy 23.2 we read that eunuchs are not permitted to become members of the Israelite community, while in later times (e.g., Isaiah 56.3ff.) both eunuchs and aliens are accepted as full members of it. (See also Wisdom of Solomon 3.14.) Jesus ( Matthew 19.12) makes a distinction among three classes: those who are eunuchs by birth, those who are been castrated, and those who "make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven." By the last category is to be understood, of course, those who for religious reasons commit themselves (as did the Essenes and as do Christian monks and others) to abstinence from sexual intercourse. Some Christians in early times (Origen is the most famous example) voluntarily castrated themselves, interpreting the text in Matthew literally, but happily these cases were aberrant and rare. The Italian practice of castrating boys to train them as adult sopranos in the service of the Church ended with the accession of Pope Leo XIII in 1878.

Geddes MacGregor, Dictionary of Religion and Philosophy, New York: Paragon House, 1989