Salem
SALEM
Peace1. An ancient name of Jerusalem, Gen 14:18 Heb 7:1,3, afterwards applied to it poetically, Psa 76:2 .2. A city of the Shechemites, east of Sychar, Gen 33:18 .
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Salem
See Jerusalem, Melchizedek.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Salem
Original name of Jerusalem.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Salem
(SALMANSWEILER)
Also called Salomonis Villa on account of the resemblance of its primitive buildings to Solomon’s Temple.
Salem is an abbey situated near the Castle of Heiligenberg, about ten miles from Constance, Baden (Germany). The abbey was founded by Gunthram of Adelsreute (d. 1138) in 1136 during the reign of Pope Innocent II and Emperor Lothair II. Gunthram also gave the Abbot of Lucelle the necessary lands for the first Cistercian monastery in Alsace, the latter being a foundation of Bellevaux, first daughter of Morimond. Blessed Frowin, formerly the travelling companion and interpreter of St. Bernard, became its first abbot. He had been professed at Bellevaux, and was of the colony sent to found Lucelle; hence have arisen misunderstandings, some maintaining, erroneously, that Salem was founded from Bellevaux.
Under the wise and prudent administration of Blessed Frowin and his successors, the abbey soon became very prosperous. Extensive and magnificent buildings, erected in three squares, and a splendid church were constructed between 1182 and 1311. Salem was noted as the richest and most beautiful monastery in Germany, being particularly renowned for its hospitality. Amongst its greatest benefactors and patrons were Conrad of Swabia and Frederick Barbarossa. The former placed the abbey under the special protection of himself and his successors — hence the title of “Royal Abbey” which was renewed several times under Barbarossa and his successors; Innocent II also took the abbey under his particular patronage. Its growth was continuous, and even after having made three important foundations — Raitenhauslach (1143), Maristella or Wettingen (1227), and Konigsbrunn (1288) — it numbered 285 monks at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Its abbot, from 1454 on, was privileged to confer subdeaconship on his monks. The abbey gradually declined, though it numbered forty-nine priests and thirteen other choir religious in 1698, when Abbot D. Stephen (d. 1725) became Vicar-General of the Cistercian Congregation of Upper Germany. Caspar Oexle, who, as librarian, had increased the library to 30,000 volumes and a great number of MSS., was elected abbot in March 1802; in September of the same year the abbey was suppressed and given to the Princes of Baden, while the library was added to that of Petershausen, and finally sold to the University of Heidelberg. The church became a parish church; the grand tower with its fifteen bells, the largest weighing 10,000 lbs., was destroyed (1805), and the other buildings were used as the grand duke’s castle. Eberhard, its fifth abbot, is honoured as a Blessed of the order. He was made Archbishop of Salzburg, and entrusted with various important missions by the Holy See. Blessed Henry, a lay brother, is also mentioned in the Cistercian menology.
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VON WEECH, codex diplomaticus salemitanus (3 vols., Carlsruhe, 1883-95); PETRI, Suevia eccles. (Augsburg, 1698); BUCELINUS, Aquila imperii benedictina (Venice, 1651); Gallia christ., V; Idea chrono-topo-graphica Cong. Cist. S. Bernardi per Superiorem Germaniam (1720); HAUTINGER, Suddeutsche Kloster vor 100 Jahren (Cologne, 1889); SARTORIUS, Cistercium bistertium (Prague, 1700); BRUNNER, Ein Cisterziensbuch (Wurzburg, 1881); BOTTCHER, Germania sacra (Leipzig, 1874); JANAUSCHEK, Orig. Cisterc., I (Vienna, 1877).
EDMOND M. OBRECHT Transcribed by Stan Walker For Jack and Brigitte Arnold
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIIICopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Salem
(Heb. Shalem’, , peaceful, i.e. uninjured, or whole, as often) occurs in a few passages of Scripture, and in several other notices, as the name of one or more places, although some writers doubt whether it should not in all cases be translated as a simple appellative. It has likewise been usually regarded as commemorated in the name Jerusalen. SEE SHALEM.
1. (Sept. , and so N.T.) The place of which Melchizedek was king (Gen 14:18; Heb 7:1-2). Some have inferred, from the circumstances of the narrative (e.g. Bochart, Phaleg, 2, 4; Ewald, Gesch. 1, 410), that it lay between Damascus and Sodom; but although it is said that the king of Sodom who had probably regained his own city after the retreat of the Assyrians went out to meet () Abraham, yet it is also distinctly stated that this was after Abraham had returned ( ) from the slaughter of the kings. The only clue is that afforded by the mention of the valley of Shaveh (q.v.), which seems to have been the King’s Dale near Jerusalem. SEE ABSALOMS PILLAR.
Dr. Wolff, in a striking passage, implies that Salem was what the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews understood it to be a title, not the name of a place. Melchizedek of old… had a royal title: he was King of Righteousness’ (in Hebrew, Melchi-zedek); he was also King of Peace’ (Melek-Salem). When Abraham came to his tent, he came forth with bread and wine, and was called the Priest of the Highest,’ and Abraham gave him a portion of his spoil. Just so Wolffs friend, in the desert of Meru, in the kingdom of Khiva … whose name is Abd-er-Rahman, which means Slave of the merciful God,’ … has also a royal title. He is called Shahe-Adaalat, King of Righteousness’ the same as Melchizedek in Hebrew. When he makes peace between kings, he bears the title Shahe Sulkh, King of Peace’ (in Hebrew, Melek-Salem).
The main opinion, however, current from the earliest ages of interpretation, is that of the Jewish commentators, who, from Onkelos (Targum) and Josephus (War, 6, 10; Ant. 1, 10, 2; 7, 3, 2) to Kalisch (Comm. on Genesis p. 360), with one voice affirm that Salem is Jerusalem, on the ground that Jerusalem is so called in Psa 76:2, the Psalmist, after the manner of poets, or from some exigency of his poem, making use of the archaic name in preference to that in common use (see Reland, Paloestina, p. 833). The Christians of the 4th century held the same belief with the Jews, as is evident from an expression of Jerome (nostri omnes, Ep. ad Evangelum, 7), and Eusebius (in the Onomast. s.v.). Here it is sufficient to say
(1) that Jerusalem suits the circumstances of the narrative rather better than any place farther north, or more in the heart of the country. It would be quite as much in Abraham’s road, going from the sources of Jordan to his home under the oaks of Hebron, and it would be more suitable for the visit of the king of Sodom. In fact, we know that, in later times at least, the usual route from Damascus avoided the central highlands of the country and the neighborhood of Shechem, where Salim is now shown (see Pompey’s route in Josephus, Ant. 14:3, 4; 4, 1).
(2) It is, perhaps, some confirmation of the identity at any rate, it is a remarkable coincidence that the king of Jerusalem in the time of Joshua should bear the title Adoni-zedek almost precisely the same as that of Melchizedek.
2. Jerome himself, however, is not of the same opinion. He states (Ep. ad Evang. 7) without hesitation, though apparently (as just observed) alone in his belief, that the Salem of Melchizedek was not Jerusalem, but a town near Scythopolis, which in his day was still called Salem, and where the vast ruins of the palace of Melchizedek were still to be seen. Elsewhere (Onomast. s.v. Salem) he locates it more precisely at eight Roman miles from Scythopolis, and gives its then name as Salumias. Further, he identifies this Salem with the Salim (q.v.) () of John the Baptist. That a Salem existed where Jerome thus places it there need be no doubt; indeed, the name has been recovered at the identical distance below Beisan by Van de Velde, at a spot otherwise suitable for Aenon. But that this Salem, Salim, or Salumias was the Salem of Melchizedek is even more uncertain than that Jerusalem was so. The ruins were probably as much the ruins of Melchizedek’s palace as the remains at Ramet el-Khalil, three miles north of Hebron, are those of Abraham’s house. Nor is the decision assisted by a consideration of Abraham’s homeward route. He probably brought back his party by the road along the Ghor as far as Jericho, and then, turning to the right, ascended to the upper level of the country in the direction of Mamre; but whether he crossed the Jordan at the Jisr Benat Yakub, above the Lake of Gennesaret, or at the Jisr Mejamia, below it, he would equally pass by both Scythopolis and Jerusalem. At the same time, it must be confessed that the distance of Salem (at least eighty miles from the probable position of Sodom) makes it difficult to suppose that the king of Sodom can have advanced so far to meet Abraham, adds its weight to the statement that the meeting took place after Abraham had returned not during his return, and is thus so far in favor of Salem being Jerusalem. SEE MELCHIZEDEK.
3. Professor Ewald (Geschichte, 1, 410, note) pronounces that Salem is a town on the further side of Jordan, on the road from Damascus to Sodom, quoting at the same time Joh 3:23; but there seems to be no authority for this, nor any notice of the existence of the name in that direction either in former or recent times.
4. A tradition given by Eupolemus, a writer known only through fragments preserved in the Proeparatio Evangelica of Eusebius (9, 17), differs in some important points from the Biblical account. According to this, the meeting took place in the sanctuary of the city Argarizin, which is interpreted by Eupolemus to mean the Mountain of the Most High. Argarizin (Pliny uses nearly the same form Argaris, H.N. 5, 14) is, of course, har-Gerizzim, Mount Gerizim. The source of the tradition is, therefore, probably Samaritan, since the encounter of Abraham and Melchizedek is one of the events to which the Samaritans lay claim for Mount Gerizim. But it may also proceed from the identification of Salem with Shechem, which, lying at the foot of Gerizim, would easily be confounded with the mountain itself. SEE SHALEM.
5. A Salem is mentioned in Jdg 4:4 among the places which were seized and fortified by the Jews on the approach of Holofernes. The valley of Salem, as it appears in the A.V. ( ), is possibly, as Reland has ingeniously suggested (Paloest. p. 977), a corruption of into the plain to Salem. If is here, according to frequent usage, the Jordan valley, then the Salem referred to must surely be that mentioned by Jerome and already noticed. But in this passage it may be with equal probability the broad plain of the Mukhna which stretches from Ebal and Gerizim, on the one hand, to the hills on which Salim stands, on the other, which is said to be still called the plain of Salim (Porter, Handbook, p. 340 a), and through which runs the central north road of the country. Or, as is perhaps still more likely, it refers to another Salim near Zerin (Jezreel), and to the plain which runs up between those two places as far as Jenin, and which lay directly in the route of the Assyrian army. There is nothing to show that the invaders reached as far into the interior of the country as the plain of the Mukhna. The other places enumerated in the verse seem, as far as they can be recognized, to be points which guarded the main approaches to the interior (one of the chief of which was by Jezreel and Engannin), not towns in the interior itself, like Shechem or the Salem near it. SEE JUDITH, BOOK OF.
6. (Sept. ; Vulg. in pace), Psa 76:2. It seems to be agreed on all hands that Salem is here employed for Jerusalem, but whether as a mere abbreviation to suit some exigency of the poetry and point the allusion to the peace (shalom) which the city enjoyed through the protection of God, or whether, after a well known habit of poets, it is an antique name preferred to the more modern and familiar one, is a question not yet decided. The latter is the opinion of the Jewish commentators, but it is grounded on their belief that the Salem of Melchizedek was the city which afterwards became Jerusalem. (See above.) See a remarkable passage in Geiger’s Urschrift, etc. p. 74-76. The antithesis in Psa 76:1 between Judah and Israel might seem to some to imply that some sacred place in the northern kingdom is here contrasted with Zion, the sanctuary of the south. If there were in the Bible any sanction to the identification of Salem with Shechem (noticed above), the passage might be taken as referring to the continued relation of God to the kingdom of Israel. But the parallelism is rather one of agreement than contrast. Hence, Zion the sanctuary being named in the one member of the verse, it is tolerably certain that Salem, in the other, must denote the same city SEE JERUSALEM.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Salem
peace, commonly supposed to be another name of Jerusalem (Gen. 14:18; Ps. 76:2; Heb. 7:1, 2).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Salem
(“peace”.) The oldest name, Jehus the next, Jerusalem (“seeing”, or “the foundation of peace”) the latest, of Jerusalem. The cities of the plain were probably S. of the Dead Sea; so Salem is Jerusalem, and “the king’s dale” the valley of the Kedron. The theory of their being N. of the Dead Sea is what necessitates its upholders to seek Salem far north of Jerusalem (Gen 14:17-18). But no king of Salem distinct from Jerusalem is mentioned among the kings conquered by Joshua. Moreover, Adonizedek (“lord of righteousness”) king of Jerusalem (Jos 10:3) was plainly successor of Melchizedek (“king of righteousness”), it was the common title of the Jebusite kings. Further, “the king’s dale” (2Sa 18:18), identified in Gen 14:17 with Shaveh, is placed by Josephus and by tradition (the targum of Onkelos) near Jerusalem (Heb 7:1-2). Lastly, Psalm 76 identifies Salem with Jerusalem.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Salem
SALEM.1. A place mentioned only in Gen 14:16 as the kingdom of the mysterious Melchizedek (wh. see). It is natural to identify it with Jerusalem (wh. see), especially since the Tell el-Amarna tablets show that Urusalm existed as a name for that city even before the Israelite Immigration. But the only real links between Salem and Jerusalem are two in number: (1) the mention of the Kings Vale, where, apparently, Melchizedek met Abram, which seems to be the place where Absalom reared his memorial (2Sa 18:18): it would presumably be somewhere near Jerusalem, but, pace Josephus, this is not certain. (2) The allusion to Jerusalem by the name Salem in Psa 76:2. This poetical abbreviation, however, which occurs nowhere else, may have been suggested by Salem in the ancient record, just as was the name Moriah (wh. see), and the reference to Melchizedek in Psa 110:4. There is some similarity between the name of Melchizedek and that of the Jebusite king Adonizedek (Jos 10:1), but upon the whole the identification of Salem with Jerusalem is rather shadowy. Jerome records another tradition, connecting Salem with Salm (Salumias) in the Jordan Valley, where there is a tell with the tomb of Sheik Selm. 2. The Valley of Salem (Jdt 4:4), possibly the Jordan Valley, or a part of it. 3, The LXX [Note: Septuagint.] reads Salem for Shiloh in Jer 41:5. This must be a Salem near Shechem, if this reading is to be followed. There is a place called Salm, east of Nblus.
R. A. S. Macalister.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Salem
SALEM (1Es 8:1) = Shallum, Ezr 7:2; called also Salemas (?), 2Es 1:1.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Salem
There are various places called by this name. The first we meet with in Scripture is where Melchizedek is said to be king of Salem. (Gen 14:18) Jerusalem and Salem in Scripture are one. In Salem, saith the Psalmist, speaking of JEHOVAH, is his tabernacle, and his dwelling in Zion. (Psa 76:2) There was a Shalem also in the country of the Shechemites, were Jacob in his travels came. (Gen 33:18) And it is more than probable that the Salim where John baptised was a distinct place known by this name. The name itself is Shalam, peace. Hence when Gideon was visited by the angel under the oak at Ophrah, at the close of the interview he built an altar unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah Shalom-that is, as the margin of the Bible renders it, the Lord send peace. (Jdg 6:24)
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Salem (1)
salem (, shalem; , Salem): The name of the city of which Melchizedek was king (Gen 14:18; Heb 7:1, Heb 7:2; compare Psa 76:2).
1. Identification and Meaning:
To all appearance it lay near the Vale of Shaveh, described as the King’s Vale. The general opinion among the Jews was that Salem was the same as Jerusalem, as stated by Josephus (Ant., I, x, 2), who adds (VII, iii, 2) that it was known as Solyma (, Soluma, variants, according to Whiston, Salem and Hierosolyma) in the time of Abraham. It was also reported that the city and its temple were called Solyma by Homer, and he adds that the name in Hebrew means security. This identification with Jerusalem was accepted by Onkelos and all the Targums, as well as by the early Christians. The Samaritans have always identified Salem with Salim, East of Nablus, but Jewish and Christian tradition is more likely to be correct, supported, as it is, by Psa 76:2.
2. Testimony of Tell El-Amarna Tablets:
The testimony of the Tell el-Amarna Letters is apparently negative. Knudtzon’s number 287 mentions the land and the lands of Urusalim, twice with the prefix for city; number 289 likewise has this prefix twice; and number 290 refers to the city or a city of the land Urusalim called Bt-Ninip Tablets (Beth-Anusat (?)). As there is no prefix of any kind before the element salim, it is not probable that this is the name of either a man (the city’s founder) or a god (like the Assyrian Sulmanu). The form in Sennacherib’s inscriptions (compare Taylor Cylinder, III, 50), Ursalimmu, gives the whole as a single word in the nominative, the double m implying that the i was long. As the Assyrians pronounced s as sh, it is likely that the Urusalimites did the same, hence, the Hebrew yerushalaim, with sh. See JERUSALEM.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Salem (2)
(, Salemos; the King James Version Salum): An ancestor of Ezra (1 Esdras 8:1) = Shallum in Ezr 7:2 = Salemas in 2 Esdras 1:1.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Salem
Salem (Peace), the original name of Jerusalem (Gen 14:18; Heb 7:1-2), and which continued to be used poetically in later times (Psa 76:2) [JERUSALEM].
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Salem
[Sa’lem]
1. Symbolical name given to Jerusalem. Psa 76:2.
2. Probably the title of Melchisedec as king of peace, Gen 14:18; Heb 7:1-2. Various cities, however, have been suggested. Some consider that Jerusalem is alluded to; Jerome was convinced that a town near Scythopolis, named Salem, was the true place; but others judge it to be a title.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Salem
H8004 G4532
See Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Salem
Salem (s’lem), peace. The city of Melchizedek. Gen 14:18; Heb 7:1-2. Jewish commentators affirm that Salem is Jerusalem, on the ground that Jerusalem is so called in Psa 76:2. Nearly all Jewish commentators hold this opinion. Jerome, however, states that the Salem of Melchizedek was not Jerusalem, but a town eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis, and identifies it with Salim, where John baptized. See Salim.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Salem
Sa’lem. (peace).
1. The place of which Melchizedek was king. Gen 14:18; Heb 7:1-2. No satisfactory identification of it is perhaps possible. Two main opinions have been current from the earliest ages of interpretation:
(1). That of the Jewish commentators, who affirm that Salem is Jerusalem, on the ground that Jerusalem is so called in Psa 76:2. Nearly all Jewish commentators hold this opinion.
(2). Jerome, however, states that the Salem of Melchizedek was not Jerusalem, but a town eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis, and gives its then name as Salumias, and identifies it with Salem, where John baptized.
2. Psa 76:2. It is agreed, on all hands, that Salem is here employed for Jerusalem.