3. Adjoining Vilkuje of the Same A'«7Me.^East of the Kedron, right opposite the rough gray slope extending between Deraj and Silwan, above the kitchen-gardens watered by Siloam which supply Jerusalem with vege- tables, is the village which takes its name from the pool — Kefr-Silwdn. At Deraj the Kedron is narrow, and the village is very near the fountain. Hence it is to it rather than to the pool that the villagers generally betake themselves for water. For as the Kedron widens considerably in its progress southward, the Kefr is at some little distance from the Birkeh. This village is unmentioned in ancient times; perhaps it did not exist. It is a wretched place for filth and irregularity; its square hovels all huddled together like the lairs of wild beasts, or, rather, like the tombs and caves in which savages or da>moniacs may be supposed to dwell. It lies near the foot of the tliird or southern height of Oli- vet; and in all likelihood marks the spot of the idol- shrines which Solomon built to Chemosh and Ashto- reth and Milcom. Tliis was " the mount of corruption" (2 Kings xxiii, 13), the hill that is before (east; before in Hebrew geography means east) Jerusalem (1 Kings XI, 7); and these "abominations of the Moabites, Zido- nians, and Ammonites" were built on "the right hand of the mount," that is, the southern part of it. This is the "opprobrious hill" of Milton {Par. Lost, i, 403); the " mons oifensionis" of the Vulgate and of early trav- ellers; the MoffS'a^ of the Sept. (see Keil, On Kings); and the Berg des Aergernisses of German maps. In Kamboux's singular volume of lithographs (Col. 1858) of Jerusalem and its Holy Places, in imitation of the an- tique, there is a sketch of an old monolith tomb in the village of Silwan, which few travellers have noticed, but of which De Saulcy has given us both a cut and a de- scription (ii, 215), setting it down as a relic of Jebusitish workmanship. The present village of Siloam occupies the site of an old quarry. Tlie houses are often made simply by walling up an excavation, and sometimes they cling to the scarped face of the cliff. Steps are cut in different parts of the village, originally for the convenience of the quarrymen, and now serving as streets {Ordnance Survey, p. 64).
For further details, see Kobinson, Biblical Researches, \, 460, 492-498; Olin, Travels, ii, 153, 154; Williams, Holy City, p. 378, 379; Barclay, City of the Great King, p. 311 sq. ; Thomson, Land and Book; ii, 524; Jerusa- lem Recovered, p. 20 ; and especially Tobler, Die Siloah- quelle und der Oelberg (Berlin, 1852).
Silva, Samuel oa, a Jewish physician of the 17th centurj', deserves our attention on account of the part he took against Uriel (or Gabriel) Acosta (q. v.). Having succeeded in perusing Acosta's work before it was print- ed— a work in which the Pharisaic tradition was not only attacked, but also the immortality of the soul and the oral tradition denied— Da Silva published his Tradado da Immortalidade da Alma (Amst. 1623), in which he combats the ignorance "of a certain adversary of his time" {de certo contrariador de nosso tempo). In conse- quence of this attack, Acosta published his work £x- amen das Tradigoens Phuristus Conferidas con a Leu
SILVAN us
746
SILYERIUS
Kscrita por Uriel, Jiiristo Ilebreo (ib'u\. 1623), with a rejoiiiiU'r against Da Silva, Com Heposla a hum Samuel ltd Silr(i,seu FtiUo Ctilttmiiiador. Ten years before tlie publication of the Tradailn. l>a Silva published a trans- lation of Jlaimonides' treatise on repentance, Tradadu de la T/ie-gitrali, 6 Coittricion. Traditzida J'ldarra por Palarra da Lim/iia JJebr. (ibid. UU3). See Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 3"24; I)e Rossi, IHzioiiario jStorico deyli Atilori Ebrei (Germ, transl.), p. 2'JG sq. ; Wolf, Hibl. JJebr. iii, 1115; Kaiserling, (Jesch. d. Judeii in I'ortai/al (Leips. 18tj7), p. 2S8; Schudt, Jud. DenJcwurdiijktiten, i, 287.
(15. r.)
Silvanus, an old Italic divinity. The etymology of tile name denotes a si/lraii god, but descriiitions of the qualities and doings of Silvanus indicate that he symbolized tlie life-giving forces of nature generally. He was the god of arable fields as well as of the forests, and in that character watched over the boundaries of fields and presided over their fruit fulness. The law of the aijrimeiuiori (a collection of various instructions re- lating to the surveying of land) even re(iuires that every landed property should possess t/un' Silvani. The for- est, however, would seem always to have been the pecul- iar domain of Silvanus. His loud- resounding voice would be heard to issue from the wood like that of Pan, with whom he was often confounded; and siicritices of corn, pigs, meat, and wine were there presented to him in order to invoke his favorable interference with the welfare of the herds of cattle. I'igs whicii devastated cultivated lieUls were also ottered to him in sacritice. — Smith, Did. of Mytliol. s. v.; Yollmer, Worterb. d. My- thol. s. V.
Silva'uiis (Gra>cized S(\oi'ar(''c,from theLat.«7crt- iiHs for gylvanii.<. "of the grove"), a distinguished Chris- tian teacher, the companion of Paid in his journey through Asia Minor and Greece (2 Cor. i, 19; 1 Thess. i, 1, 2 Thess. i, 1 ; 1 Pet. v. 12); elsewhere (Acts xv, 22, 27, 32, 34, 40; xvi, I'.l, 25, 29; xvii, 4, 10, 14, 15; xviii, 5) in the contracted form Sii^vs (q. v.).