Shiloh

Good day Worthy Knights                                                                                                  (L Woodbridge / A Wilson / Wikipedia)

In this part 22,

In the South: Where do you hope to rest?  Shiloh, the City of God

 

The Royal Arch, Second Chair scriptures reading: Samuel 3: 20-21

And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall on the ground.

And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.

And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh: For the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

The tabernacle had been built under Moses‘ direction from God to house the Ark of the Covenant, also built under Moses’ direction from God. According to Talmudic sources, the tent sanctuary remained at Shiloh for 369 years until the Ark of the Covenant was taken into the battle camp at Eben-Ezer and captured by the Philistines.

At some point during its long stay at Shiloh, the portable tent seems to have been enclosed within a compound — a Greek “temenos“. It was at Shiloh that Eli and Samuel ministered (1 Samuel 3:21) and Shiloh was the site of a physical structure that had “doors”. At some point, the Tent of Meeting was moved to Gibeon, which became an Israelite holy site under David and Solomon.

Shiloh, generally understood as denoting the Messiah, “the peaceful one,” as the word signifies, Genesis 49:10. The Vulgate Version translates the word, “he who is to be sent,” in allusion to the Messiah; the Revised Version, “till he come to Shiloh;” and the Septuagint, “until that which is his shall come to Shiloh.”

The modern Seilun (the Arabic for Shiloh), a “mass of shapeless ruins.”

“No spot in Central Palestine could be more secluded than this early sanctuary, nothing more featureless than the landscape around; so featureless, indeed, the landscape and so secluded the spot that from the time of St. Jerome until its rediscovery by Dr. Robinson in 1838, the very site was forgotten and unknown.”

Etymology

The meaning of the word “Shiloh” is unclear. Sometimes, it is translated as a Messianic title that means He Whose It Is or as Pacific, Pacificator or Tranquility that refers to the Samaritan Pentateuch. Regardless, the name of Shiloh the town is derived from שלה and may be translated as Tranquility Town

Shiloh was one of the main centers of Israelite worship during the pre-monarchic period, by virtue of the presence there of the Tent Shrine and Ark of the Covenant. The people made pilgrimages there for major feasts and sacrifices, and Judges 21 records the place as the site of an annual dance of maidens among the vineyards.

According to 1 Samuel 1–3, the sanctuary at Shiloh was administered by the Aaronite high priest Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

According to this account, the young Samuel was dedicated by his mother Hannah there, to be raised at the shrine by the high priest, and his own prophetic ministry is presented as having begun at Shiloh. It was under Eli and his sons that the Ark was lost to Israel in a battle with the Philistines at Aphek.

W.F. Albright, hypothesized that the Philistines also destroyed Shiloh at this time; this conclusion is disputed, but supported by traditional commentary. The place may have been destroyed later as well, and the biblical text records no such claimed destruction.

Certainly, the shadowy figure of Ahijah the Shilonite, who instigated the revolt of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, against David’s grandson Rehoboam (I Kings 11, 14), came from there, and he bore the same name as the Aaronite priest that consulted the Ark for Saul in I Samuel 14:3.

Schley has claimed that the capture of the Ark and the death of Saul occurred in the same battle and that the later Davidic editors redacted the texts to make it appear as if Saul had ruled without either Tent Shrine or Ark, and thus without sacral legitimacy.

What is certain is that during the prophetic ministry of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:12–15; 26:5–9, 41:5) over three hundred years later, Shiloh had been reduced to ruins.

Jeremiah used the example of Shiloh to warn the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem what Yahweh Elohim will do to the “place where I caused my name to dwell,” warning them that their holy city, Jerusalem, like Shiloh, could fall under divine judgment.