Chamberlain
Chamberlain (סָרַיס, saris', 2Ki 23:18; Es 1:10,12,14; Es 2:3,14-15,21; Es 4:4-5; Es 6:2,14; Sept. regularly εὐνοῦχος, twice σπάδων, all signifying castrated; in other places it is translated "eunuch," or "officer"). The term appears to have been applied to officers confidentially employed about the person of the sovereign; thus Potiphar, who was also captain of the guard, in the Egyptian court, is styled thus (Ge 37:36; Ge 39:1). It probably also occurs in the title Rabsaris (q.v.). The title "chamberlain" (οἰκονόμος), in Ro 16:23, probably denotes the steward or treasurer of the city, called by the Romans the quaestor. The Vulg. renders it by arcarius, which was the title of a class of inferior magistrates, who had the charge of the public chest (area publica), and were under the authority of the senate. They kept the accounts of the public revenues. (See Reinesius, Syntagm. Inscr. p. 431; La Cerda, Advers. Sacr. cap. 56; Elsner, Obs. Sacs. 2, p. 68; and a note by Reinesius to the MAarmora Oxoniessia,' p. 515, ed. 1732.) Blastus is said in Ac 12:20, to have been "the king's (Herod's) chamberlain" (ὁ ἐπι τοῦ κοιτῶνος τοῦ βασιλέως), by which is probably meant his personal attendant or valet de chambre. It was a post of honor, which involved great intimacy and influence with the king. The margin of our version gives "that was over the king's bedchamber," the office thus corresponding to that of the praefectus cubiculo (Suetonius, Dom. 16). SEE EUNUCH.
