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SHILOH

(Heb. šilōh)

An ancient holy site in the north-central territory of Ephraim, some 27 km. (17 mi.) N of Bethel, 3 km. (2 mi.) E of the main road, at Tell Seilûn (178162). It was the chief northern shrine through much of the premonarchic period, the site of the ark (1 Sam. 1–3), the tent of meeting (Josh. 18:1; 19:51b; 1 Sam. 2:22b), and the altar (Josh. 22:9-34). According to Josh. 18:9 Shiloh was the early site of the war camp as well. Early traditions also associate Shiloh with the Aaronite priesthood of Phinehas (Josh. 22:13, 30-32; 24:33). Moreover, Shiloh is one of only two shrines, both northern, hallowed in the Priestly traditions of the Hexateuch, the other being Bethel (Gen. 35:9-15). Thus, it is not inappropriate to regard Shiloh as the locus of the Priestly traditions, and to regard these as therefore northern, since both shrines were considered by Jerusalem to have been heretical (cf. Ps. 78:56-72; 1 Kgs. 12:25-33). Shiloh may also have been the chief sanctuary which supported Saul, as the disaster referred to in Ps.78:56-72 is better associated with Saul’s demise on Mt. Gilboa than with an earlier Philistine victory. The histories of both Shiloh and Saul have been edited to convey the Davidic view that the kingship of Saul was illegitimate, since it stood without either ark or sanctuary. Yet the ark does appear, cryptically, during the reign of Saul, in 1 Sam.14:18, where it is borne by a Shilonite priest named Ahijah, a name later associated with the shrine (1 Kgs. 11:29-40).

After the reign of Saul, Shiloh was superseded in importance by the Jebusite city of Jerusalem, where David brought the ark, thus appropriating the heritage of Shiloh to his own regime (probably presaged in the cryptic passage Gen. 49:10). By this means David sought to bind the sacral traditions of the north to his own southern house. Still, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite may have represented the sacral traditions of Shiloh, and it appears toward the end of the monarchy as a place from which pilgrims travel to the destroyed site of the Jerusalem temple (Jer. 41:5). For the prophet Jeremiah, the demise of the Shiloh sanctuary served as a warning to Jerusalem of the fate that was about to befall it (Jer. 7:12-15; 26:6-9).

Historical debate over Shiloh has centered on the date and circumstances of its destruction. On the basis of Ps. 78:52-72, E. W. Hengstenberg in 1839 first postulated an actual destruction of the site, explaining why the central shrine could legitimately be moved from Shiloh to Jerusalem without any violation of the centralization law in Deuteronomy. Archaeological investigations by the Danes under Aage Schmidt in 1922-1932 seemed to support a destruction of Shiloh during the early Iron I period. William F. Albright dated this destruction to 1050, at the end of the premonarchic period and immediately before the reign of Saul. Subsequent excavations by Marie-Louise Buhl and Svend Holm-Nielsen in 1963 reversed this position, attributing the destruction to sometime in Iron II. Further excavations by Israel Finkelstein in the 1980s seem to confirm the earlier position of Albright and Schmidt. However, the only biblical references to any destruction of Shiloh come from the late date of Jeremiah’s ministry. A destruction of the site in Iron I is nowhere recorded.

Dating of the Iron I destruction layer should be undertaken with extreme caution. The suggestion that such a destruction occurred at the end of Saul’s reign — in conflict with a more traditional view that the disaster suffered by the Elide priesthood in 1 Sam. 4, , and reflected in Ps. 78, , came before the reign of Saul — would be difficult to justify or refute given the broad expanse of time which the destruction layer at Tell-Seilûn can fit, even within Iron I.

Bibliography. I. Finkelstein, The Archaeology of the Israelite Settlement (Jerusalem, 1988); Finkelstein, ed., Shiloh: The Archaeology of a Biblical Site (Tel Aviv, 1993); D. G. Schley, Shiloh: A Biblical City in Tradition and History. JSOTSup 63 (Sheffield, 1989).

Donald G. Schley

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SHILOH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)