Bible Dictionary
Siloam, Pool of
The Pool of Siloam was a reservoir southeast of Jerusalem, receiving water through a long underground channel. Jesus sent the man born blind to wash there, and he returned seeing.
Definition
The Pool of Siloam was a reservoir southeast of Jerusalem, supplied intermittently through a subterranean channel from the Fountain of the Virgin. Water passed from the pool through a rock-cut channel toward the gardens below.
Biblical Usage
Jesus sent a blind man to wash at the Pool of Siloam, and the man received his sight. The pool is also connected with the gently flowing waters of Shiloah mentioned by Isaiah.
Historical Background
The channel was about 1,750 feet long, while the pool measured about 53 feet by 18 feet and was 19 feet deep. An inscription in the conduit described its construction from both ends; the work has been associated more probably with Hezekiah’s reign.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Sent or sending. Here a notable miracle was wrought by our Lord in giving sight to the blind (John 9:7-11). It has been identified with the Birket Silwan in the lower Tyropoeon valley, to the south-east of the hill of Zion. The water which flows into this pool intermittingly by a subterranean channel springs from the “Fountain of the Virgin” (q.v.). The length of this channel, which has several windings, is 1,750 feet, though the direct distance is only 1,100 feet. The pool is 53 feet in length from north to south, 18 feet wide, and 19 deep. The water passes from it by a channel cut in the rock into the gardens below. (See EN-ROGEL.) Many years ago (1880) a youth, while wading up the conduit by which the water enters the pool, accidentally discovered an inscription cut in the rock, on the eastern side, about 19 feet from the pool. This is the oldest extant Hebrew record of the kind. It has with great care been deciphered by scholars, and has been found to be an account of the manner in which the tunnel was constructed. Its whole length is said to be “twelve hundred cubits;” and the inscription further notes that the workmen, like the excavators of the Mont Cenis Tunnel, excavated from both ends, meeting in the middle. Some have argued that the inscription was cut in the time of Solomon; others, with more probability, refer it to the reign of Hezekiah. A more ancient tunnel was discovered in 1889 some 20 feet below the ground. It is of smaller dimensions, but more direct in its course. It is to this tunnel that Isaiah (8:6) probably refers. The Siloam inscription above referred to was surreptitiously cut from the wall of the tunnel in 1891 and broken into fragments. These were, however, recovered by the efforts of the British Consul at Jerusalem, and have been restored to their original place.