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Bible Dictionaries
Tower
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or TOWER.—‘Tower’ (πύργος) is mentioned three times in the Lord’s teaching: in the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (Matthew 21:33, Mark 12:1), in the allusion to an accident in Siloam which led to the loss of eighteen lives (Luke 13:4), and in the illustration of the builder who was unable to complete his undertaking (Luke 14:28). Two, if not three, kinds of tower may be referred to in these passages:—(1) The builder who exposed himself to ridicule by beginning what he could not finish (Luke 14:28) may be thought of as building a house. The larger houses in the Holy Land are sometimes provided at one end with a tower-like annex. A good representation of one in the neighbourhood of Sidon is given in the Polychrome Bible (‘Judges,’ p. 59). The ‘alîyyâh or upper storey, seen from a little distance, must suggest a tower rather than a dwelling-house (see also Land and Book, ed. 1874, p. 160). (2) The tower in Siloam (ἐν τῷ Σιλωάμ, Luke 13:4) may have been connected with some fortifications. The walls of ancient Oriental cities were generally provided with towers at frequent intervals. Many illustrations could be given from Assyrian sculptures, and the old wall in the Jerusalem of the 1st cent. a.d. had sixty towers (Josephus BJ v. iv. 3), two of which, Hippicus and Phasaelus, are probably represented to some extent by two of the towers of the modern citadel, the latter being partly preserved in the so-called David’s Tower (Picturesque Palestine, i. pp. 1, 5, 7–11). Edersheim (Life of Jesus the Messiah, ii. 222) suggests that the tower may have been connected with the building of the aqueduct constructed by Pilate with money taken from the temple treasury (Josephus Ant. xviii. iii. 2; BJ ii. ix. 4); but that is unsupported conjecture. If the Tower was situated literally in Siloam, the nature of the ground may help to explain the accident. The village of Silwân, which represents the ancient Siloam, ‘is built on a steep escarpment of rock, on which a building with good foundations would stand for ever; ill-laid foundations would drop their superstructure to the very bottom of the valley’ (Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible , art. ‘Tower’). For the Tower of Antonia see art. Jerusalem. (3) The vineyard tower referred to in the two other passages (Matthew 21:33, Mark 12:1; cf. Is 5:2) can be illustrated from ancient ruins and modern practice. Tristram remarks (Eastern Customs in Bible Lands, p. 139 f.) that ‘in many cases we still find the remains of the solidly-built tower which commanded a view of the whole enclosure, and was probably the permanent residence of the keeper through the summer and autumn.’ Dr. W. Wright observes that every vineyard and garden in Syria has its tower (Palmyra and Zenobia, p. 332 f.). A representation is given in that work (p. 279) of a stone tower in the Hauran constructed of black basalt, with a stone loft at the height of 14 feet, reached by a spiral staircase (see also Porter, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Bethany, p. 18; Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, 421).
Literature.—Besides the authorities cited above, see Heber-Percy, Bashan and Argob, p. 123 ff.; Swete on Mark 12.
W. Taylor Smith.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Tower'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/t/tower.html. 1906-1918.
