Siloam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The pre-Israelite settlement of Siloam is now the Arab community of Silwan in East Jerusalem, south of the Old City. The ancient community that was built around the "serpent-stone", Zoheleth, where Adonijah gave his feast in the time of Solomon, is the site of the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus healed a man blind from birth as described in the Gospel of John, and of the legendary Tower of Siloam, whose collapse is an admonitory omen mentioned in the Gospel of Luke.

The Siloam inscription was discovered in the water tunnel built during the reign of Hezekiah, in the early 7th century BCE.

Biblical Siloam has been honored, for its healing pool, in the names of many Baptist churches and is commemorated by the US towns of:

• Siloam Springs, Arkansas, the location of John Brown University
• Siloam, Georgia
• West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma