Topic
Salem (1)
4 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Genesis 14:18ISBE
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
- Psalms 76:2ISBE
In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.
- Hebrews 7:1ISBE
For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
- Hebrews 7:2ISBE
To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 5 references
sa'-lem (shalem; Salem): The name of the city of which Melchizedek was king (Ge 14:18; Heb 7:1,2; compare Ps 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 (Saluma, 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 Ps 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 Bit-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.
T. G. Pinches
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.