SION (Heb. Şiyyôn). - Indigenous name of the Jebusite fortress, situated in the southern part of the eastern hill (v. OPHEL) of Jerusalem (v.), captured by King David and, in his honor, called "city of David" (II Sam. 5:7; 11:5).
The Canaanite name was retained, whose etymology has not yet been established, but it seems to carry the sense either of aridity (from ṣijjah "dry thing") or of protection (from ṣîn "to defend"). Having first extended to the whole hill of Ophel, which became sacred through the installation of the Ark of the Covenant (II Sam. 6:10-12), it then migrated, as the city expanded, to designate its most defended point and the center of religious and civil life. When Solomon had the Ark transferred from its temporary dwelling on the S. into the Temple he built on the hill of Moriah (II Par. 3:1 and 5:2), this hill was in the poetic language of the Psalms and the Prophets called S. (Ps. 73:2; Is. 8:18; 10:12; Jer. 31:13; Joel 3:17); indeed the glorious name was used, symbolically, for the whole city of Jerusalem (Is. 29:9;
37:32) and for its inhabitants "sons of S." (ibid. 10:32; Ps. 68:36; Jer. 3:23). Then at the time of the Maccabean struggles the Jewish sanctuary was actually designated by the name "Mount S." (τὸ ὄρος Σιών; I Mach. 4:37-60; 6:48, 62; 10:11; 14:26). There the valiant Maccabees entrenched themselves to resist the troops stationed by Antiochus Epiphanes in the Acra or "city of David" (ibid. 1:33; 7:32; 14:36); probably the name of the original acropolis had also migrated to designate a fortress situated on the slopes of the western hill. Flavius Josephus, describing the Herodian city, divides it into lower city and upper city, without mentioning S.; he affirms however that the upper city, on the western hill, because of its secure position had been called by David a "stronghold" (φειδών).
After Titus destroyed the city, the Christians, having returned from Pella, settled on the southern corner of the western hill, around the Cenacle (v.), to which contemporary apologists applied the oracle of Isaiah "that from S. shall go forth the law" (Is. 2:3). The passage from the symbolic to the concrete meaning was easy; in the 4th century, once the great basilica of the Cenacle was built, it was called "Holy S.," and through a topographical confusion the whole history of the Canaanite acropolis was believed to have taken place on the western hill, from then on called Mount S. Thus arose the pseudo-tombs of David and Solomon, brought back into honor today by the State of Israel, within whose territory the Christian "Mount S." lies.