In the Bible, he provided sailors with an extract of calomel (7)
I believe the answer is:
absalom
'in the bible he' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'sailors with an extract of calomel' is the wordplay.
'sailors' becomes 'abs' (AB is short for able seaman).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'an' becomes 'a'.
'extract of calomel' becomes 'lom' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'abs'+'a'+'lom'='ABSALOM'
'provided' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for absalom that I've seen before include "Son of King David (Bible)" , "Son of King David (OT)" , "David's third son (OT)" , "King's rebellious son" , "King David's rebellious son" .)