Lttk.r aturk.— Carlyle, Sartor liesartvx ; Maeterlinck, rcansi/re of the lUiinhlc; E. A. Abbott, Philochrlstus; Seeley, Ecce ilnmo ; the various Lives of Ciirist ; VV. M. Taylor, The Silence of Jesus (\8di), p. 105; H. P. Liddon, Passiontide Sermons (1891), p. 1.53; W. W. Sidev, The Silent Christ (1003) ; A. Mac- laren, The IIoli/ nf Holies (1890), p. 25,") ; Phillips Brooks, The
Liijht of the World (1891), p. 124.
A. Miller.
628
SILO AM
SIMPLE, SIMPLICITY
SILOAM. — Josephus {BJ V. iv. 1) places the spring at the mouth of the Tyropoeon Valley. This, and references of later writers, point to Birket Silicdn, on the slope S. of the Temple area. A larger pool, Birket el-Uamra, now almost tilled up, lies lower in the valley. Birket Silwmi is built within the rock-hewn space occupied by the original pool, 75 ft. x 71 ft. The water was approached by steps cut in the rock. In NT times a covered arcade within the pool, 22^ ft. high and 12 ft. wide, ran round the four sides. From 'A in Sitti Marijam, the Fountain of the Virgin, on the slope below the eastern battlements, a conduit led the water to the pool ; but, probably in Hezekiah's time, a tunnel was cut through the rock, and the fountain apparently covered over, as Josephus does not seem to have known it apart from Siloam. An inscription in ancient Heb. characters was found on the wall of the tunnel in 1880, v.'hich gives an account of the cutting. The tunnel is about j of a mile in length. It is bent as if to avoid obstruc- tions. Two shafts to the surface, at important points, would afibrd guidance as to direction.
The spring is intermittent. During the rains it may flow twice a day, but in the late summer, once in two days. Such springs are held in super- stitious reverence, and credited with power to heal many diseases. Josephus pronounces the water good and plentiful, and says that this and other fountains flowed more copiously after falling into the hands of Titus.
The phrase 'tower in Siloam' (Lk 13*) perhaps indicates that this part of the city was called Siloam, 'the tower' being part of the adjoining wall.
A church was built above the pool in the 5th cent. , and later was altered by Justinian. Ruins, possibly of this building, block a great part of the pool.
On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, AS'ater from this fountain was poured on the altar (Neubauer, Geog. dit Talm. 145). In the 10th cent, the water was 'good' (Mukaddasi) ; it is good no longer, percolating, as it does, through vast accumulations of refuse. The village of Siloam, Kcfr Silwdn, on the E. slope of the valley, over against the pool, dates from post- Arab times. Its handful of poor inhabitants still use the impure water for domestic purposes. W. EwiNG.
SILVER.— See Money.
SIMEON {1,vfieuv) is a transliteration into Greek of the common Heb. name pyo?', which is first met with as that of the second son of Jacob and Leah in Gn 29^^, where a derivation from ys'^, ' hear,' is suggested.
1. An aged saint (Lk 2-^^-); who took the infant Jesus in his arms at the Presentation in the Temple on the completion of the mother's period of purifica- ti(m, and broke out into an exultant song of praise. Afterwards he foretold to Mary the varied results that would attend the mission of her son.
He lias been identified with a Rabbi of the same name, who is described as the son of Hillel and father of Gamaliel i. ; but the ori'jfinal author (Shabbath, 15a) merely mentions him as inter- mediate between Hillel and Gamaliel as Nasi'ot the Sanhedrin. Beyond that statement, which is not in the Mishna, nothing is known of him ; and the Lukan phrase, ' a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon,' is too modest to allow of identifica- tion with one who was at once the son of Hillel and the leading authority on jurisprudence in the nation. Another legend is preserved in the Gospel of Nicodemvs, to the effect that Charinus and Leuoius, two sons of Simeon, had been raised from the dead, and had been summoned to describe before the Sanhedrin the occurrences they had witnessed in the underworld at the death of Jesus. Their narrative is said to have been afterwards reported to Pilate, who ordered its incorporation in the official Act!< of his procuratorship. This Apocryjihal Gospel is not only of a late date (4th or even 5th cent.), but was evidently com- posed in the interest of apologetics, with a view particularly to represent the resurrection of Jesus as attested by evidence
which even His enemies regarded as irrefutal)le. Until the period of uncritical search for legends in the 13th cent., little historical value was ascribed to the story, which may be con- fidentl3' regarded as destitute of any.
Of the lineage or descendants of Simeon no con- temporary evidence has survived ; and for the man himself St. Luke is our only authority.
Simeon is described as (1) ' righteous and devout,' or conscientious in regard to God and His law (cf. Ac 221^) ; (2) as looking for the Messiah ; and (3) as moved by the Holy Spirit (not merely the spirit of prophecy) to believe that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. Guided by the Spirit to the courts of the Temple, he no sooner saw Jesus there than the words of tlie famous Nunc Dimittis (wh. see) rose to his lips. Whilst Mary was wonder- ing at the meaning of such words, Simeon turned to her and foretold the diverse results of the mission of Jesus. A stumbling-block and an offence to some, it would be the inspiration of a new life to others ; and with her own blessedness would mingle anguish unspeakable. In the issue the deepest needs of many souls would be excited and met, and men's hearts would be probed, enriched, and satisfied. After this brief appearance in history, Simeon passes again into obscurity, leaving only a few imperishable words behind him.