Was Potiphar a eunuch

Answer 1

Well, yes and no....the Hebrew word for eunuch was 'saris'. It meant a 'court official', and THIS, Potiphar certainly was. However, often, the word eunuch referred to a 'court official' who had been castrated, usually because his job entailed caring for the women in a king's harem. In Potiphar's case, he was the chief of the body guard, nothing to do with the harems, and he was not a eunuch in that physical sense. For one thing, he was a married man. Genesis 39:1-9. (Another reference to a 'court official'(eunuch/'saris') who was NOT castrated was the Ethiopian Eunuch at Acts 8:27-39. He had been a Jewish proselyte, worshiping at the Temple in Jerusalem, and could therefore NOT have been castrated(Deuteronomy 23:1). He was just a court official (a man in power)under the rulership of Candace the Queen.