Bible, a name supposed to have been first applied in the fifth century to denote the collective volume of the sacred writings. The word occurs in the Prologue to Sirach, 'the Law, the Prophets, and the rest of the books,' and 2 Timothy 4:13, 'and the books.' Before the adoption of this name the more usual terms in the Christian Church by which the sacred books were denominated were, the Scripture or Writing, the Scriptures, the Sacred Writings, and the Sacred Letters. The term in question was first applied to the entire collection of sacred writings by St. Chrysostom. In the course of time it superseded all others both in the Eastern and Western Church, and is now everywhere the popular appellation.
The Bible is divided into the Old and New Testaments. The name Old Testament is applied to the books of Moses by St. Paul (2 Corinthians 3:14), inasmuch as the former covenant comprised the whole scheme of the Mosaic revelation, and the history of this is contained in them. The names given to the Old Testament were, the Scriptures (Matthew 21:42); Scripture (2 Peter 1:20); the Holy Scriptures (Romans 1:2); the sacred letters (2 Timothy 3:15); the holy books, the law (John 12:34); the law, the prophets, and the psalms (Luke 24:44); the law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17); the law, the prophets, and the other books (Prologue of Sirach); the books of the old covenant (Nehemiah 8:8); the book of the covenant (1 Maccabees 1:57; 2 Kings 23:2).
The other books (not in the canon) were called apocryphal, ecclesiastical, and deuterocanonical. The term New Testament has been in common use since the third century, and is employed by Eusebius in the same sense in which it is now commonly applied. Tertullian employs the same phrase, and also that of 'the Divine Instrument' in the same signification. For detailed information on subjects connected with Bible, see Scripture.
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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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