Siloam, Tower of

The Tower of Siloam is mentioned only in Luke 13:4, where Jesus refers to those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them as an example that fatal accidents are not evidence of exceptional guilt in the victims. The collapse was apparently a well-known recent event at the time Jesus spoke, though it is not mentioned elsewhere in ancient sources. The tower stood in the neighborhood of the Pool of Siloam in the lower city of Jerusalem, likely part of the wall or fortification system in that area. Jesus used both the Galilean victims of Pilate's violence (Luke 13:1–2) and the tower's collapse as illustrations that all people face mortality and need repentance, warning his audience not to interpret disasters as divine judgment on specific individuals.