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Bible Dictionaries
Siloam
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or SILOAM.—Josephus (BJ v. iv. 1) places the spring at the mouth of the Tyropœon Valley. This, and references of later writers, point to Birket Silwân, on the slope S. of the Temple area. A larger pool, Birket el-Hamra, now almost filled up, lies lower in the valley. Birket Silwân is built within the rock-hewn space occupied by the original pool, 75 ft. × 71 ft. The water was approached by steps cut in the rock. In NT times a covered arcade within the pool, 22½ ft. high and 12 ft. wide, ran round the four sides. From ‘Ain Sitti Maryam, the Fountain of the Virgin, on the slope below the eastern battlements, a conduit led the water to the pool; but, probably in Hezekiah’s time, a tunnel was cut through the rock, and the fountain apparently covered over, as Josephus does not seem to have known it apart from Siloam. An inscription in ancient Heb. characters was found on the wall of the tunnel in 1880, which gives an account of the cutting. The tunnel is about ⅓ of a mile in length. It is bent as if to avoid obstructions. Two shafts to the surface, at important points, would afford guidance as to direction.
The spring is intermittent. During the rains it may flow twice a day, but in the late summer, once in two days. Such springs are held in superstitious reverence, and credited with power to heal many diseases. Josephus pronounces the water good and plentiful, and says that this and other fountains flowed more copiously after falling into the hands of Titus.
The phrase ‘tower in Siloam’ (Luke 13:4) perhaps indicates that this part of the city was called Siloam, ‘the tower’ being part of the adjoining wall.
A church was built above the pool in the 5th cent., and later was altered by Justinian. Ruins, possibly of this building, block a great part of the pool.
On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, water from this fountain was poured on the altar (Neubauer, Géog. du Talm. [Note: Talmud.] 145). In the 10th cent. the water was ‘good’ (Mukaddasi); it is good no longer, percolating, as it does, through vast accumulations of refuse. The village of Siloam, Kefr Silwân, on the E. slope of the valley, over against the pool, dates from post-Arab times. Its handful of poor inhabitants still use the impure water for domestic purposes.
W. Ewing.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Siloam'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/s/siloam.html. 1906-1918.
