Gad, 1
A son of Jacob by his concubine Zilpah (, sq.), and who became the progenitor of one of the twelve tribes. The sons of Gad are enumerated in , sq., and , sq. At the time of the conquest of Canaan, the tribe of Gad counted 45,650 warriors (): the position of their camp in the desert is given , and the names of their chiefs,;; , sq.
As a reward for their having formed the vanguard in war of the army of the tribes collectively, they were allowed to appropriate to their exclusive use some pastoral districts beyond the Jordan (, sq.).
The inheritance of this tribe, called the landsof Gad (; ), was situated beyond the Jordan in Gilead, north of Reuben, and separated on the east from Ammon by the river Jabbok. According to , the Gadites had extended their possessions on the east as far as Salcah, though the latter had been allotted by Moses to Manasseh (; ): a proof how difficult it is to draw a strong line of demarcation between the possessions of pastoral tribes. The territory of Gad forms a part of the present Belka.
In , the land of Gad is called 'half the land of the children of Ammon;' not because the latter were then in possession of it, but probably because the part west of the Jabbok had formerly borne that name (comp. ).
The principal cities of Gad pass by the general appellation of the Cities of Gilead ()
The Gadites were a warlike people, and were compelled to be continually armed and on the alert against the inroads of the surrounding Arabian hordes (comp.;; , sq.).
Gad, 2
Gad, a prophet contemporary with David, and probably a pupil of Samuel, who early attached himself to the son of Jesse (). Instances of his prophetic intercourse with David occur in , sq.; , sq.; 29:25. Gad wrote a history of the reign of David, to which the author of the II Samuel seems to refer for further information respecting that reign (), B.C. 1062-1017.
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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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