Siloam (i.e. Shiloach), a pool of Jerusalem
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Σιλωάμ transliterates the Hebrew name of a real pool in Jerusalem fed by the Gihon spring through Hezekiah's tunnel. John pauses his narrative to translate it: "Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam" (which means "Sent").
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Full entry for Σιλωάμ (G4611) · Open the biblical lexicon
Σιλωάμ transliterates the Hebrew name of a real pool in Jerusalem fed by the Gihon spring through Hezekiah's tunnel. John pauses his narrative to translate it: "Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam" (which means "Sent").
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Siloam (2), of Siloam (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 13:4. Its strongest book concentrations include John (2), Luke (1).
Σιλωάμ transliterates the Hebrew name of a real pool in Jerusalem fed by the Gihon spring through Hezekiah's tunnel. John pauses his narrative to translate it: "Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam" (which means "Sent"). The parenthetical translation is John's own editorial comment, not an incidental detail. Throughout this Gospel Jesus repeatedly calls himself the one sent by the Father, so when the man born blind washes in a pool named Sent at the command of the One who is Sent, John lets the location itself echo his Gospel's christology.
The word's theological weight rests on this stated etymology, not on speculation about the pool's engineering or history. Teachers should hold the historical detail (a real, identifiable pool) and the theological resonance (the name 'Sent') together without collapsing one into the other or overreading the wordplay into a claim John himself does not make explicit beyond the parenthetical note.
John 9:7 could pass as a minor detail, a place name in a healing story, if John had not stopped to translate it. That translation is the signal that the location matters theologically as well as historically. John's Gospel builds a sustained theme of Jesus as the one sent by the Father, and the named Pool of Siloam in John 9:7 becomes one concrete, geographical point where that theme surfaces inside a healing narrative.
Then He told him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing.
John 9:7 records Jesus sending the man born blind to 'the Pool of Siloam (which means Sent),' and the man returns from it seeing.
But I have testimony more substantial than that of John. For the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works I am doing—testify about Me that the Father has sent Me.
John's parenthetical translation of the name draws a direct link to his Gospel's repeated description of Jesus as the one 'sent' by the Father, a theme running through the whole book (for example John 5:36-38; 6:29).
“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
Isaiah 8:6 references 'the waters of Shiloah that flow gently,' a passage some readers connect to the same site's Old Testament background of quiet, divinely provided water in contrast to a foreign threat.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Siloam (i.e. Shiloach), a pool of Jerusalem
:--Siloam.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Siloam
Read verseSiloam
Read verseSiloam
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
Echoes the sending of the Son by the Father.
Hebrew roots and equivalents that share conceptual or etymological ground with this Greek word.
John 9:7 could pass as a minor detail, a place name in a healing story, if John had not stopped to translate it. That translation is the signal that the location matters theologically as well as historically. The man born blind is sent by the Sent One to a pool named Sent, and he returns seeing. John's Gospel has already told readers that Jesus is sent by the Father to do the Father's work (John 5:36); this scene lets a real place carry that claim into a specific, verifiable healing.
Preachers can use this to show that John's theology is not detached from geography and history; it is anchored in real places that carry meaning because of who sent whom, and to what end. This word opens a teaching doorway on Jesus as the Sent One: the healed man's washing in a pool John explicitly translates as 'Sent' lets geography itself echo the Gospel's repeated claim that Jesus comes from the Father on a mission.
It gives teachers a concrete, historical anchor for a theme that can otherwise feel abstract. It corrects readings that treat the name 'Siloam' as incidental local color, missing John's own editorial signal that the name carries meaning for the healing narrative. Frame Siloam as a real, identifiable place whose name John deliberately translates to serve his Gospel's sent-one theme, not as an allegory detached from history.
John.9.7
Frame Siloam as a real, identifiable place whose name John deliberately translates to serve his Gospel's sent-one theme, not as an allegory detached from history. Linguistically, Σιλωάμ should be allowed to name siloam, the pool whose name means sent without carrying claims the cited passages do not make.
John's Gospel builds a sustained theme of Jesus as the one sent by the Father, and the named Pool of Siloam in John 9:7 becomes one concrete, geographical point where that theme surfaces inside a healing narrative.
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