This word occurs only in; . It is no doubt from the difficulty of proving the precise meaning of the original term ketzach, that different plants have been assigned as its representative. But if we refer to the context, we learn some particulars which at least restrict it to a certain group, namely, to such as are cultivated. Thus, , 'When he (the plowman) hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches?' And again, , 'For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cartwheel turned about upon the cummin; but fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.' From which we learn that this grain was easily separated from its capsule, and therefore beaten out with a stick.
Interpreters have had great difficulty in determining the particular kind of seed intended, some translating it peas, others, as Luther and the English Version, vetches, but without any proof. Meibomius considers it to be the white poppy, and others, a black seed. This last interpretation has the most numerous, as well as the oldest, authorities in its support. Of these a few are in favor of the black poppy-seed, but the majority, of a very black-colored and aromatic seed, still cultivated and in daily employment as a condiment in the East. The plant is called Nigella by botanists, and continues in the present day, as in the most ancient times, to be used both as a condiment and as a medicine. The various species of nigella are herbaceous (several of them being indigenous in Europe, others cultivated in most parts of Asia), with their leaves deeply cut and linear, their flowers terminal, most of them having under the calyx leafy involucres which often half surround the flower. The fruit is composed of five or six capsules, which are compressed, oblong, pointed, sometimes said to be hornlike, united below, and divided into several cells, and enclosing numerous, angular, scabrous, black-colored seeds. From the nature of the capsules, it is evident, that when they are ripe, the seeds might easily be shaken out by moderate blows of a stick, as is related to have been the case with the ketzach of the text.
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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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