Fig. 7—Adoration by hand upon mouth
This word is compounded of ad 'to,' and os, oris, 'the mouth,' and literally signifies to apply the hand to the mouth, that is, 'to kiss the hand.' The act is described in Scripture as one of worship (Job 31:26-27). And this very clearly intimates that kissing the hand was considered an overt act of worship in the East.
Fig. 8—Adoration
The same act was used as a mark of respect in the presence of kings and persons high in office or station. Or rather, perhaps, the hand was not merely kissed and then withdrawn from the mouth, but held continuously before or upon the mouth, to which allusion is made in such texts as Judges 18:19; Job 21:5; Job 29:9; Job 40:4; Psalms 39:9. In one of the sculptures at Persepolis a king is seated on his throne, and before him a person standing in a bent posture, with his hand laid upon his mouth as he addresses the sovereign (fig. 7). Exactly the same attitude is observed in the sculptures at Thebes, where one person, among several (in various postures of respect) who appear before the scribes to be registered, has his hand placed thus submissively upon his mouth (fig. 8).
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John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
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