SALEM

the Hauran. On account of its commanding position it has always been of strategic importance; but it was probably never permanently occupied by any of the Israelitish people. It was a Nabataean and Roman stronghold, and a station on the great trade and military road from Gadara and Edrei eastward through the desert to the Persian Gulf. It is now inhabited bv Druses, and bears the name Salkhad.

3. F. McCdkdt.

SALEM (1 Ks 8')-Shallum, Ezr V; called also Salemas (7). 2 Es V.

SALIiU. — 1 . A place mentioned only in Gn 14>» as the kin^om 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 Uruaanm 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 'King's Vale,' where, apparently, Melchizedek met Abram, which seems to be the place where Absalom reared his memorial (2 S 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 Ps 76^. 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 Mel-chizedek in Ps 1 10*. There is some similarity between the name of Melchizedek and that of the Jebusite king Adonizedek (Jos 10'), but upon the whole the identifica-tion of Salem with Jerusalem is rather shadowy. Jerome records another tradition, connecting Salem with Sallm (Salumias) in the Jordan Valley, where there is a tell with the tomb of ' Sheik Selim.' 2. The Valley of Salem (Jth 4'), possibly the Jordan Valley, or a part of it. 3. The LXX reads Salem for Shiloh in Jer 41^ This must be a Salem near Shechem. if this reading is to be followed. There is a place called Sallm, east of Nablus.

R. A. S. Macalister.

SALEMAS (2 Es l<)^SliaUum, Ezr -n; called also Salem (7) in 1 Es 8i.

SALIM, near to which was iEnon (Jn 3"), lay on the west of Jordan (cf. 1=' 3» IV). .lEnon is placed by the Onom£tslicon eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis (Beisfln), 'near to Salim and Jordan.' This points to the neighbourhood of the ruin Umm el-'Amd3,n, with Tell er-Ridhghah on the north, where the tomb of Sheik Selim probably preserves the ancient name. £ntm, 'place of springs,' we may find in the seven copious fountains near by. In Christ's time the district belonged probably to Scythopolis, not to Samaria. The difficulties of other suggested identifications can be got over only by doing violence to the text (Cheyne, EBi, S.V.), or to the sense. W. Ewing.

SALIMOTH (1 Es 8») = Shelomith, Ezr 8>°.

SALLAI.— 1. A Benjamite, Neh lis. 2. Apriestly family, Neh 122"; called in v.' Sallu.

SALLU.— 1. A Benjamite famUy (1 Ch 9', Neh U'). 2. See Sallai, 2.

SALLUMUS (1 Es g2s) = ShaUum, Ezr 10"; called Salum, 1 Es S'".

SALMA.— See Salmon.

SALMAI.— A famUy of Nethinim, Neh 7"; called In Ezr 2" Shamlai, in 1 Es S'« Subai.

SALMANASAR (2 Es 13") = Shalmaneser (wh. see).

SALMON, or SALMA.— The father of Boaz (Ru V- 21), and therefore in the direct line of the ancestry of our Lord (Mt V- ', Lk 3K). If the Salma of 1 Ch 2"- " is the same person, he was the 'father' or founder of Bethlehem, but it is to be noticed that that Salma Is reckoned as one of the sons of Caleb the son ol Hur.

SALMONE.— A promontory at the N.E. end of Crete, now Cape Sidero. St. Pauls ship, after reaching

SALT

Cnidus with difficulty, was met by a powerful N.W. wind, which forced the captain to alter the course. Off Salmone (Ac 27') he decided to work his way west-ward under the lee of Crete. A. Souteb.

SALOAS (1 Es 9«)=ElasaIi, Ezr 10».

SALOM.— Greek form of Shallum (Bar 1').

SALOME.— 1. The daughter (unnamed in NT) of Herodias. who danced before Herod and received as a reward the head of John the Baptist (Mt 14'-", Mk 6i7.a9). 2. One of the women who were present at the crucifixion (Mk 15") and who afterwards visited the sepulchre (16"). By comparing Mk 15" and Mt 27" it has been almost certainly concluded that Salome was the wife of Zebedee, who also figures in the incident Mt 20m-m. The conjecture that Salome was the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus has no adequate support. w. F. Boyd.

SALT, — Salt is rightly included by ben-Slra among "the chief of all things necessary for the life of man' (Sir 39» RV). The Hebrews of the Southern Kingdom, at least, had access to inexhaustible stores of salt both in the waters of the Dead Sea, — hence named in OT 'the Salt Sea' (Dt 3" etc.) — whence it could easily be obtained by evaporation, and in the deposits of the Jebel Usdum at its south-western extremity. Ref-erences to saltpits or saltpans, or to both, are found in Zeph 2", 1 Mac 11". One hundred pounds of water from the Dead Sea are said to yield 24i lbs. of salt, compared with 6 lbs. obtained from the same quantity of water from the Atlantic.

In addition to its daily use as a condiment in the preparation of food (cf. Job 6«), and its important place in the sacrificial ritual, salt was employed by the Hebrews in an even greater variety of ways than it is among ourselves. New-born infants, for example, were rubbed with salt (Ezk 16') — a practice in which a religious, rather than a hygienic, motive may be detected. A grain of salt placed in the hollow of a decayed tooth was considered a cure for the universal evil of toothache (Mishna, Shabbath, vi. 5). In other treatises of the Mishna we find frequent references to the use of salt for salting fish, for pickling olives, vegetables, etc. The salting of meat for preservation is referred to in the 'Epistle of Jeremy' (Bar &'). The modem Jewish custom of laying all meat in salt for the purpose of more thoroughly draining it of the blood was doubtless observed in Bible times. In Palestine, under the Seleucids, salt formed a government monopoly (1 Mac XQZs 11S5), as it did in Egypt under the Ptolemys.

As regards the presence of salt in the ritual of sacrifice, the words of Mk 9" AV, ' every sacrifice shall be salted with salt,' although omitted by RV following the best authorities, are nevertheless true to fact. The legisia^-tion of the Priests' Code, at least, expressly ordains: ' with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt ' (Lv 2") — a passage which expressly specifies that the cereal or vegetable offerings (the 'meal offerings' of RV) had to be salted as well as the more important and more evident animal or fiesh sacrifices (cf. Ezk 43"). A special 'salt chamber' is mentioned among the chambers adjoining the Priests' Court in the description of Herod's Temple given in the Mishna. The sacred incense, also, had to be 'seasoned with salt' (Ex BO'S RV), as was also the case with the shewbread, according to the better Gr. text of Lv 24'. The original idea in this extended ritual use of salt was doubtless this — that just as salt was an Indispensable accompaniment of man's daily food, so it could not be absent from the 'food of God,' as the sacrifices are termed in Lv 21«- ".

In the developed priestly legislation, however, there can be little doubt that the presence of salt had a sym-bolical significance. From its use as a preservative, reflected in our Lord's figure, ' Ye are the salt of the earth ' (Mt 5"), and as an antidote to decay, it is natural that salt should become a symbol of permanence, and

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