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Asher ben Immanuel Salem

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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• Asher ben Immanuel Salem
• Salem, Asher ben Immanuel

Name of a place, first mentioned in connection with Abraham's return from the battle with Chedorlaomer, when Melchizedek, King of Salem, went to meet him (Genesis 14:18). Josephus ("Ant." 1:10, § 2; "B. J." 6:10), the three Targumim, all the later Jewish commentators, and Jerome ("Quæstiones in Genesin," ad loc., and "Epistola LXXIII., ad Evangelum de Melchisedech, § 2), believing "Salem" to be a shortened form of "Jerusalem," identify it with the latter place (comp. Eusebius, "Onomasticon," s. 'Ιερουσαλήμ). This identification is supported by the expression "In Salem also is his tabernacle" (Psalms 76:2), which undoubtedly refers to Jerusalem. Still Jerome himself, alluding probably to the Biblical indication that Salem was in the neighborhood of the valley called "the valley of Shaveh" (Genesis 14:17), identifies ("Epistola," c. § 7; "Onomasticon," s. "Salem" and "Aenon") Salem with the Salim of John 3:23, now called Salamias, which is situated in the Jordan valley, eight miles south of Scythopolis. The Septuagint reads in Jeremiah 41:5 "Salem" for "Shiloh," correcting into , and referring to Shalem, a city near Shechem (Genesis 33:18). In Judith 4:4 occurs "to the valley of Salem," which Reland ("Palestine," p. 977) suggests should be amended to read "into the valley [the Jordan valley] to Salem." This place is apparently the Salamias of Jerome.