It is somewhat singular that this bird and poultry in general should not be distinctly noticed in the Hebrew Scriptures. They were, it may be surmised, unknown in Egypt when the Mosaic law was promulgated, and, though imported soon after, they always remained in an undetermined condition, neither clean nor unclean, but liable to be declared either, by decisions swayed by prejudice, or by fanciful analogies; perhaps chiefly the latter; because poultry are devourers of unclean animals, scorpions, scolopendra, small lizards, and young serpents of every kind.
But although rearing of common fowls was not encouraged by the Hebrew population, it is evidently drawing inferences beyond their proper bounds, when it is asserted that they were unknown in Jerusalem, where civil wars, and Greek and Roman dominion, had greatly affected the national manners. In the denials of Peter, described in the four Gospels, where the cock-crowing is mentioned by our Lord, the words are plain and direct, not we think admitting of cavil, or of being taken to signify anything but the real voice of the bird, in its literal acceptation, and not as denoting the sound of a trumpet, so called, because it proclaimed a watch in the night; for, to what else than a real hen and her brood does our Savior allude in , where the text is proof that the image of poultry was familiar to the disciples, and consequently that they were not rare in Judea? To the present time in the East, and on the Continent of Europe, this bird is still often kept, as amongst the Celtæ, not so much for food as for the purpose of announcing the approach and dawn of day.
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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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