Tower of Siloam
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The Tower of Siloam was a tower that existed at Siloam near Jerusalem in ancient times. The tower evidently fell before or during the time of Jesus of Nazareth, with substantial loss of life. For many years, the only evidence that there was a Tower of Siloam was its single mention in the Christian Bible, which occurs in Luke 13:4. However, more recently archaeological excavation has revealed what some Biblical scholars believe to be the ruins of the tower.
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[edit] The fall of the tower and its significance
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The Tower of Siloam in the Gospel of Luke records a discourse of Jesus which addresses the apparent fact that disaster falls upon the just as well as the unjust:
- 1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." (Luke 13, from New International Version translation)
For extended discussion of this issue, see problem of evil.
Assuming that these words represent an actual utterance of Jesus and were not a later interpolation, it is clear that Jesus takes the view that the worst sinners were not specially singled out for disaster, either in Pilate's slaughters or under the falling tower.
Aside from this, it is difficult to determine what were Jesus's views on the problem of evil. One possibility is that Jesus simply does not know why God permits the innocent to suffer (although, by virture of His claims about Himself, he was never confused nor without knowledge in matters of which He spoke, being God the Son), but is rhetorically invoking the ever-present possibility of sudden, random death as a way of urging his followers to repent. Another is that Jesus believed that none of the eighteen killed by the falling tower had repented, and that is why God permitted the tower to fall on them. Yet a third is that Jesus felt that all of humanity is irredeemably sinful, and that God would be justified in causing the Tower to fall on any of us, irrespective of individual differences in sinfulness. Clearly, other interpretations are also possible, the one in context with the rest of the passage being that Gentiles and Jews are equal in the eyes of God.
The bigger message of this passage is that God is powerful enough to achieve multiple different goals with multiple different people in the same situation simultaneously. Every tragedy does not have to be a demonstration of God's wrath.Perhaps God was punishing the men who died in the fall of the tower, perhaps he didn't. You cannot distinguish all the possible intentions of an "evil" occurrence. We do not see the whole picture. The point of the passage is summed up in Jesus' warning "...Repent, or ye too will all perish!".
The Tower of Siloam appeared frequently in online material written by Christian priests and ministers following the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which many people also died, apparently at random, under falling towers.
[edit] Siloam as a location
The place referred to by the word "Siloam" is now the Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem called Silwan, formerly Kefr Silwan, on the east of the valley of Kidron, and to the north-east of the pool. It stands on the west slope of the Mount of Olives.
In 1897 it was stated, "as illustrative of the movement of small bands of Canaanites from place to place, and the intermingling of Canaanites and Israelites even in small towns in earlier times, M.C. Ganneau records the following curious fact: "Among the inhabitants of the village (of Siloam) there are a hundred or so domiciled for the most part in the lower quarter, and forming a group apart from the rest, called Dhiabrye, i.e., men of Dhiban. It appears that at some remote period a colony from the capital of king Mesha (Dibon-Moab) crossed the Jordan and fixed itself at the gates of Jerusalem at Silwan. The memory of this migration is still preserved; and I am assured by the people themselves that many of their number are installed in other villages round Jerusalem" (quoted by Henderson, Palestine).
This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
