Siloam

A place mentioned, apparently, four times in Scripture: (1) Is8" the waters of Shiloah ' (n^wn 'shooting forth' or 'sent forth' ; B -tiXwd/i, A 2iXud/i ; Luc, Aq., Svmm., Theod. -i\ud ; Vulg. Siloe). (2) Neh 3" ' the pool of Siloah ' (RV Bbelah, n^^'n ; BA KoXv/xfiriOpa tuv kuSIuv : • piscina Siloe). (3) Jn 9' ' the pool of Siloam ' («. toC ZiXud^i; natatoria Siloe). (4) Lk 13* 'the tower in Siloam ' (6 Trvpiyot 4v rif SAudyu ; turris in Siloe).

The Rabbis and early Jewish travellers use the word with the article (mS-p.i Iuish-Slul6ak) as in the Bible. Josephus gives the name as 2i\wd, StXioSt, and SiXwd/j ; the Greek Fathers have SiXwd^ ; and the Latin Fathers, following the Vulgate, have Siloe and Syloe ; Arabic '.4 m Siltnin.

Excepting the statement in Neh 3" that the wall of the ' pool of the Shelah ' was close to the king's gardens, which were on the south side of Jerusalem, and the fair inference that the wall of the pool formed part of the fortifications of the • Shelah Is pomlbly a oomipt form of the earlier ShUDai, due to a change in the pronunciation, or In the Hpcllinp of the word during tlif pcriixl that interM-nwi liotween Isiiiali anil Ni'hcniiali.

The nii-aniin; ot nhelah in IKhriw in 'dart,' Init in Tahnudic Hebrew 'akin' ; and the L.\.\ adopted the latter interpretation. They and the earlier Rabbid appear to have reganJed the pool of the Shelab, or of the ' ■beep-akina,' u being distinct from the Vool of SUoam. city, the Bible gives no indication of position. Ju.sephus, on the other hand, distinctly states [BJ V. iv.

1) that the spring {irriy^) of Siloam was at the end or mouth of the Tyropoeon ravine, which separated the hill of the upper city and the lower hill. This position is indicated in other passages (BJu. xvi. 2; V. iv. 2, vi 1, xiL 2; VI. viiL 5), and agrees with the statements of Jerome, who writes of the fans Siloe as flowing ' in radicibus Montis Moria' (in Matt. 10), and 'ad radices Montis Zion ' (in Is. 8) ; and also as watering the fardens of Hinnom and Tophet {in Jer. 8. 19 32'').

he Bordeaux Pilgrim (A.D. 333) and all later pilgrims place Siloam near the mouth of the valley that runs through the midst of Jerusalem, and there is every reason to believe that its general position is represented by the present 'Ain Silwdn and Birlrt Suwdn.

The Birket Silwdn, situated in the narrowest part of the Tyropceon ravine, is an artificial pool, which receives its supply of water, by transmission through a roek-hewn tunnel, from the 'Ain Sitti Mariam, or Fountain of the Virgin — an inter- mittent sprin" in the Valley of the l^idron. A little below the B. Sihvdn, at the very mouth of the ravine, which is here closed by a dam of masonry, there is a second and larger pool, known as the Birket el-Hamra.

This pool, long filled with soil, and now an open cess-pit, received the surplus waters of SUoam oefore they were utilized in the irrigation of the gardens which once tilled the open space below the junction of the Tyropoeon with the VaUey of the Kidron. The Fountam of the Virgin, the only true spring at Jerusalem, Ls very generally identified with GlHON, and the changes made in tlie distribu- tion of its waters are intimately connected with the history of Siloam.

* After the capture of Jeru- salem by the Hebrews, possibly during the reign of Solomon, the water of the spring was impounded in a reservoir in the ^f idron Valley, and used for irrigating the king's gardens, which filled the valley to the south. "This reservoir, the site of which is lost, is called by Josephus (BJ v. iv. 2) 'Solomon's Pool.' After a time the water was carried by a rock-hewn coniluit (discovered by Dr. Schick, PEFSt, 1886, p. 197 «. ; 1891, p. 13 11".)

down the west side of the ^idron Valley, and through the extremity of Mt. Moriah, to a pool in the Tyropax)n, so that it might be more accessible to dwellers in the lower parts of the city.

To this conduit, with its sliglit fall and gently flowing stream, Isaiah possibly referred when lie compared (Is 8") ' the waters of Shiloah that go softly ' — typical of the unseen working of God and of the prosperity that would follow the confidence in Jehovah which he was urging upon the people — with the turbulent waters of the mighty Euphrates overtlowing their banks, — an emblem of the overwhelming violence of the great world-power, As.syria, with which the people were seeking alliance.

At a later period the winding rock-hewn tunnel which connects the Fountain of the Virgin with the Birket Silwdn was made, and the water of the spring was collected in the two reservoirs in the "Tyroijceon Valley. The execution of this remark- able work may be ascribed with much probability to Hezekiah, who, prior to the Assyrian invasion, stopped ' the upper sjiring of the waters of Gihon, and brought it straight down to (or on) the west side of the city of David' (2 Ch 32», cf.

2 Ch 3'2, Sir 48"). In June 1880 a Hebrew inscription (see Literature at end) in old Semitic character wa discovered on the east side of the tunnel, about 25 ft. from its exit at Siloam. The inscrijition records that the tunnel was excavated from both ■The Targ. Jon., Pcsb., and Arab. VSS read 'Shiloah' fot 'Oihon'lnl K 133. ^ 516 SILO AM SILVER ends, that the workmen met in the middle, and that tlie length was 1200 cubits.

* Tliere is no name of any king, and this, witli the absence of a date, seems to indicate that the inscription was cut hy one of the workmen employed, and had no otticial character. The form of the letters is not opposed to the view that the tunnel was made during the reign of Hezekiah. The serpentine course of the tunnel is attributed by M.

Clermont-Ganneau {Lcs Tomheaux dc David et des rois de Juda et le Tunnel- A qnednc dc Siloe, 1897) to the prior exist- ence of the rock-hewn tombs of the kings, wliich he places immediately north of the great southern bend. The view that this curve is due to design, and not to accident or bad workmanship, is sup- ported bj' the existence of shafts from the surface which determined its direction at two important points {PEFSt, 1882, plan, p. 123).

Excavation has shown tliat the present BirJcet Silwdn has been constructed witliin the limits of the ancient pool of Siloam. The original pool measured 71 it. from N. to S. and 75 ft. from E. to W., and was for the most part excavated in the rock. A flight of rock-hewn steps led do^vn to it from the city, and it could be emptied by a sluice- gate at its southern end. After the return from the Captivity, possildy during the reign of Herod, a covered arcade, 12 ft. wide, 22J ft.

high, and roofed with larfje flat slabs of stone, was erected in the pool, and ran round its four sides. This was prob- ably the condition of the pool when Christ told the blind man (Jn 9') to go and wash 'in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent).' + In the 5th cent, a three-aisled church waa built, with its high altar directly above the point at which the stream issued from the tunnel, and its south aisle over the northern arcade of the pool.

The church was entered from the north, on which side there were an atrium, and a narthex with a flight of steps leadinj; doivn to the level of the north aisle. It appears to have hecii the work of the empress Eudocia, who is said to have included the pool of Siloam within the city wall. In the reign of Justinian the basilica was converted into a domed church, I which is noticed by Antoninus Martyr (c. 570), the only pilgrim who mentions a church at Siloam.

§ Tlie church must after- wards have been destroyed, probably during the Persian invasion (C14), for it is not again mentioned (Bliss, Ezcavatuttis at Jerusalem, pp. 132-210 ; Quthe, ' Ausgrabungen bei Jeru- salem,' in ZDPVv. p. 52 ff.) The larger pool, Birkct el-IIamra,\\ has not been completely examined, but excavation has shown that it is partially cut in the rock, and that the dam of masonry at its lower end, wliich has a thickness of 20 to 8 ft.

, and is strengthened by buttresses, is at one point 44 ft. high. The con- struction of the dam, and the manner in which its masonry is bonded into the rock at either end, shows that, like the dam of the Birket Israil, it formed part of the defences of the city (Bliss, I.e.) The pool is probably the work of llezekiah, and referred to (Is 22") as the mikveh, or 'ditch (IIV reservoir) between the two walls for the water.s of the old pool.'

The dam is apparently the wall of the 'pool (birekhah) of the Slielah ' repaired by Shallun (Neh 3"). This pool is mentioned by the Bordeaux Pilgrim, by Antoninus Martyr, and other pilgrims, and, in the Middle Ages, it was frequently called Natatoria Siloe, to distinguish it from the upper pool of Siloam. The tunnel and * Conder, in his very complete description of the tunnel (PEFSt, 1882, p. 122ff.), gives its length as 1706-8 ft., or, »rpro.viMiately, 1200 cubits of 17 in.

, and states that the point of junction wa.s 944 ft. from the Siloam end. See aino PEFJletn. 'Jerusalem,' p. Si5. t On the play upon the meaning of the word, and on the pftrallelism between 'the sent one' and 'the sent water,* see Risil on Is 8. I The position of the church with regard to the pool is not unlike that of St. Mary in probatica, in the Pool of Betliesda near the Church of St. Anne. ft The church is also mentioned in the life of St. Peter the Iberian (409-488).

I This name is derived from the hard red cement full of pounded pottery which is used for lining cisterns, and is locally called hamra. the pools are possibly referred to in 2 Ch 32*, Ii 22», and Sir 48". The water of Siloam is described by Josephus aa bein" sweet and abundant (5/ V. iv. 1); and by the Kabbis, who attributed digestive properties to it, as being clear and sweet. On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, water from the spring was poured upon the altar (Neubauer, Giofj.

du Talmud, p. 145 f.) In 985 Mukaddasi, a native of Jerusalem, calls the water ' fairly good ' ; but the author of the Marasid (c. 1300) says that it was then no longer sweet. Writers of the 15th and 16th cents, call it brackish but wholesome.

As the sprin" depends upon the annual rainfall for its supply, the water, which percolates through vast accumulations of refuse, must to a certain extent be impure, but it is still used for drinking pur- poses by tlie villagers of Silwdn and by tlie poor of Jerusalem. In consequence of the miracle wrought on the blind man, the water and pool are held in much honour by Jews, Christians, and Moslems.

Healing properties, especially in the case of eye diseases, have been attributed to tlie water from the early days of Christianity, and numerous legends have gathered round it. (Chris- tians believed that it came from Shiloh or from Mt. Zion ; Moslems, that on the night of 'Arafat it came underground from the holy well, Zemzem, at Mecca.

A small perennial stream flows from the Fountain of the \ irgin to the Pool of Siloam, and its volume is increased, at uncertain times, by a sudden rush of water from the spring. The Bordeaux Pilgrim, Jerome (in Is. 8'), and most of the pilgrims, write of the increased flow as periodic ; but in reality it varies greatly, and is dependent upon the rainfall and the season.

During a wet winter the stream swells two or three times a day, whilst in summer the rise takes place only once in two or three days. All knowledge of the tunnel through which the stream runs was lost for several centuries, and it was first rediscovered in the 13th cent. It may perhaps even be inferred from the silence of Josephus that the Fountain of the Virgin was unknown to him, and that it was first opened, after its closure by Hezekiah, some centuries later.

After the capture of Jerusalem by the Arabs a village sprang up in the valley below the pool. In 1047 Nasir-i-Khusrau found an endowed hospital, with salaried ph,vsicians, and man.v build- ings, erected for charitable purposes, near the spring. Karly in the 12th cent, there was a small monasterv at Siloam, but about 1300 the buildings were in ruins, and the irrigated gardens, wliich had been bequeathed by one of the Khalifs to the poor of Jerusalem, had disappeared.

By the middle of the 17th cent, the pools were filled with rubbisli, and the tradition, which had lingered into the 16th cent., that a church dedicated to the SaTvator Uiuminator had once stood above the mouth of the tunnel, was lost. The village of Siloam, Kefr Sihrdn, on the left bank of the Kidron Valley, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, is of comparatively recent growth. Christian anchorites, and afterwards .

Moslems, are alluded to as living in the caves ; but (^uaresniius, in the 17th cent., is the first to distinctly mention the village by its present name (Guy ie Strange, PaL under the Moslems ; Tobler, Die SiluahqtteUe und der Oetberg ; P.P. Text Society translations). The ' tower in Siloam ' (Lk 13), of which nothing further is known, may have been one of the tower in the city wall near the pool. LrrSRATURR.

— The principal authorities for the site and the description of the pool have been cited in the article. For the inscription and its nearing on the history of the Ileb. alphabet, see esp. Driver, Text o.f Sajniu^I, p. 14ff". (with fa/'jiinilf. tran- scription, and translation) ; Weir, Short Iligt. of the lleh. Text of OT, 9ff. ; Euting in Ges.-Kautzsch's Heb. Oram.; Socio (plate 8 in ZDPV iv., and, in an amended form. Die Siloahin' schrift, Freiburg, 1899) ; Lidzbarski, Handb. d. nordsein.

Epi- graphik, 1S98 : cf. Oheyne In PB, ' Isaiah,' 143. C. W. WIL.SON.