the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Siloam
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Sil´oam or Shiloah (; ). Neither of these passages affords any clue to the situation of Siloam; but this silence is supplied by Josephus, who makes frequent mention of it as a fountain (De Bell. Jud. v. 4, § 1, 2), and indicates its situation at the mouth of the valley of Tyropoeon, where the fountain, now and long since indicated as that of Siloam, is still found. The pool of Siloam is within and at the mouth of the valley of Tyropoeon, and about eighty paces above its termination is that of Jehoshaphat. The water flows out of a small artificial basin under the cliff, the entrance to which is excavated in the form of an arch, and is immediately received into a larger reservoir, fifty-three feet in length by eighteen feet in width. The water passes out of this reservoir through a channel cut in the rock, which is covered for a short distance; but subsequently it opens and discloses a lively copious stream, which is conducted into an enclosed garden planted with fig-trees. The small upper basin or fountain excavated in the rock is merely the entrance, or rather the termination of a long and narrow subterranean passage beyond, by which the water comes from the Fountain of the Virgin. This has been established beyond dispute by Dr. Robinson, who, with his companion, had the hardihood to crawl through the passage. It is thus proved that the water of both these fountains is the same, though some travelers have pronounced the water of Siloam to be bad, and that of the other fountain good. It has a peculiar taste, sweetish and very slightly brackish, but not at all disagreeable. The most remarkable circumstance is the ebb and flow of the waters, which, although often mentioned as a characteristic of Siloam, must belong equally to both fountains. Dr. Robinson himself witnessed this phenomenon in the fountain of the Virgin, where the water rose in five minutes one foot in the reservoir, and in another five minutes sunk to its former level. The intervals and the extent of the flow and ebb in this and the fountain of Siloam, vary with the season; but the fact, though it has not yet been accounted for, is beyond dispute.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Siloam'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/s/siloam.html.
