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Bible Dictionaries
Handmaid
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or HANDMAID.—‘Handmaid’ (Luke 1:38; ‘handmaiden,’ v. 48; in the American Standard Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘handmaid’ in both passages) answers to the Gr. δούλη, which means literally, as the (Revised Version margin) shows, ‘slave.’ In the LXX Septuagint rendering of Hannah’s vow (1 Samuel 1:11), which is clearly echoed, almost cited, in Lk., δούλη represents the Hebrew ʼâmâh, which, with the Aramaic equivalent ʼamta and the Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] amtu, seems to have been a common Semitic designation of a female slave in Canaan and the neighbouring countries. It was sometimes used in courteous self-depreciation (1 Kings 1:17, 1 Samuel 25:24 f., 1 Samuel 25:28; 1 Samuel 25:31; 1 Samuel 25:41; the letter of an Assyrian lady in Johns’ Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters, p. 378), and then was naturally applied to relation to God (the above-mentioned vow, also Psalms 86:16; Psalms 116:16). In the Aram, text, which probably underlay the Song of the Virgin, ‘handmaiden’ would be ʼamta with suffix (Pal. [Note: Palestine, Palestinian.] Lect. of Gospels, 1899, p. 234). The use of the word in the Gospels illustrates the Oriental habit of describing man as the slave of God, of which there are so many examples in the OT (Psalms 19:11; Psalms 19:13, Nehemiah 1:6; Nehemiah 1:11 etc.), in the so-called Babylonian Penitential Psalms, in ancient Semitic names—Obadiah found both in the Bible and on an ancient seal, Abdeel (Jeremiah 36:26), Abdiel (1 Chronicles 5:15), Abednego (Daniel 1:7), Abd Ninip (Tell el-Amarna Letters, No. 53, Winckler), ‘Abd Ashtoreth (KAT [Note: AT Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Test.] [ZW] 129); and in names current in the Holy Land at the present time, such as Abdallah (for many examples from southern and central Palestine cf. PEFSt [Note: EFSt Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1904, p. 155, and 1905, p. 48f.). These illustrations, however, refer mainly if not entirely to men. In connexion with a list of personal names collected from various Moslem villages in the south of Palestine (PEFSt [Note: EFSt Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1904, p. 155), it is remarked that female names of the type of Abdallah have not been found. Still it must always have been easy for an Oriental woman to call herself ‘the handmaid’ of Deity. The transition from the courteous to the religious use would be readily effected.
W. Taylor Smith.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Handmaid'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/h/handmaid.html. 1906-1918.
