Salem meaning

Meaning

Peace, Perfect

Etymology

From the verb שלם (shalem), to be or make whole or complete.

Related names

• Via שלם (shalem): Abishalom, Absalom, Bishlam, Islam, Jerusalem, Meshelemiah, Meshillemith, Meshillemoth, Meshullam, Meshullemeth, Muslim, Salamis, Salim, Salmone, Salome, Shallum, Shallun, Shalmai, Shalmaneser, Shelemiah, Shelomi, Shelomith, Shelumiel, Shulammite, Solomon, YHWH-shalom

Salem is the place where Melchizedek housed (Genesis 14:18). After the war of Four against Five Kings, Abraham's nephew Lot is abducted and Abraham sets out with a small army to rescue him. When they do, they loot the abductors and bring back the spoils. This evokes gratitude among the locals, among whom king Melchizedek of Salem.

According to Psalm 76:2 God's tabernacle is in Salem, and while the tabernacle in Salem would become the temple in Jerusalem, it's by no means implied that the Biblical Salem and Jerusalem are both identical to the modern city of Jerusalem. The Bible is a giant fractal, in which structures are repeated at various levels of complexity (see our article on stars and fractals). The New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2) isn't the same as the present one, and there is no reason to assume that Old Jerusalem had something to do with present Jerusalem either. The Euphrates mentioned in Genesis 2:14, and the one mentioned in Revelation 9:14 are clearly not the same as the physical river in modern Iraq (also see our article on Tigris). And likewise, the Babylon mentioned in reference to the world-centralizing tower (Genesis 11:4), and the one equated with the global market (Revelation 14:8), are not the same as the Babylonian empire of the 18th century BC, or the Neo-Babylonian one of the 6th century BC.

As we discuss in our article on the city Haran and Abraham's brother Haran, the stories of the patriarchs are not historical in the sense that they would be about human individuals. Instead, these stories are about the evolution of wisdom, science and technology and particularly information technology, and thus writing systems and script and ultimately the rise of the alphabet (see our article on YHWH). Salem, likewise, is not a geographical city but rather a great human culture within which "king" Melchizedek exists as ancestor of the human embodiment of the Logos. As we explain in our article on Haran, if Salem is associated with any particular geographic region, as narratively juxtaposed with the great cultures of the Fertile Crescent, then it would coincide with the Vinča culture of Old Europe, centered on what would become the modern city of Belgrade.

The name Salem appears twice but in only one passage in the Greek New Testament, and this in conjunction with Melchizedek (spelled Σαλημ; Hebrews 7:1 and 7:2).

Originally the name Salem probably had to do with a Ugaritic god, but transliterated this name neatly concurs with the Hebrew verb שלם (shalem) meaning to be complete, sound, and the familiar noun שלום (shalom), meaning peace:

Most translators interpret the name Salem with Peace or At Peace (NOBSE Study Bible Name List, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) but more accurate is Perfect or Complete.