Elea´zar (God-helped). This was an exceedingly common name among the Hebrews, being borne by a considerable number of persons in Scripture (as well as in the Apocrypha and Josephus), of whom the principal are the following.
Eleazar, 1
Eleazar, eldest son of Aaron (; ), who acted in his father's lifetime as chief of the tribe of Levi (), and at his death succeeded him in the high-priesthood (, sq.). His pontificate was contemporary with the military government of Joshua, whom he appears to have survived. A perfectly good understanding seems at all times to have subsisted between Eleazar and Joshua, as we constantly trace that cooperation and mutual support which the circumstances of the time and of the nation rendered so necessary. Eleazar is supposed to have lived twenty five years after the passage of the Jordan, and the book of Joshua concludes with a notice of his death and burial.
Eleazar, 2
Eleazar, who was set apart to attend upon the ark while it remained under the roof of his father Abinadab ().
Eleazar, 3
Eleazar, one of the three most eminent of David's heroes, who 'fought till his hand was weary' in maintaining with David and the other two a daring stand against the Philistines after 'the men of Israel had gone away.' He was also one of the same three when they broke through the Philistine host, to gratify David's longing for a drink of water from the well of his native Bethlehem (; ).
Eleazar, 4
Eleazar, the fourth of the Maccabean brothers, sons of the priest Mattathias (). He was crushed to death by the fall of an elephant which he stabbed under the belly in the belief that it bore the king, Antiochus Eupator ().
Eleazar, 5
Eleazar, an aged and venerable scribe who, 'as became his age, and the excellency of his ancient years, and the honor of his gray head,' chose rather to submit to the most cruel torments than conform to the polluting enactments of Antiochus Epiphanes ().
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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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