the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Encyclopedias
Salem
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or 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. 'ÎεÏοÏ
Ïαλήμ). 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.
These files are public domain.
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Salem'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/s/salem.html. 1901.
