In the novel, the Handmaids’ role is based partly on Rachel’s handmaid named Bilhah.
The biblical relationship between Rachel, Bilhah and Jacob supplies one of Gilead’s principal justifications for reproductive servitude. In Genesis, Rachel is unable to have children, so she gives her handmaid Bilhah to Jacob as a surrogate. Bilhah bears two sons, Dan and Naphtali, whom Rachel claims within her household.
Margaret Atwood’s novel draws on this story to show how Gilead turns a religious text into political authorization for controlling fertile women. The regime presents Handmaids as participating in a supposedly sacred arrangement, while the narrative exposes the coercion and violence behind that claim.
A common mix-up is Hagar, another biblical servant whose story is also connected with surrogate motherhood: Abraham has a child with Sarah’s handmaid Hagar. Leah’s handmaid is Zilpah, not Bilhah. Rachel’s association with Bilhah is the specific source for the Handmaid system named in the question.
In Gilead, Handmaids are assigned patronymic names such as Offred, formed from “of” plus the household Commander’s first name. The naming system reinforces their treatment as property rather than as independent people.