Bible Dictionary · C
Chamberlain
A confidential servant of the king (Gen 37:36; Gen 39:1). In Rom 16:23 mention is made of “Erastus the chamberlain.” Here the word denotes the treasurer of the city, or the quaestor, as the Romans styled him. He is almost the only convert from the higher ranks of whom mention is made (comp. Acts 17:34). Blastus, Herod’s “chamberlain” (Acts 12:20), was his personal attendant or valet-de-chambre. The Hebrew word saris, thus translated in Esth 1:10, Esth 1:15; Esth 2:3, Esth 2:14, Esth 2:21, etc., properly means an eunuch (as in the marg.), as it is rendered in Isa 39:7; Isa 56:3.
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
