Olives, Mount of, a mountain or ridge now called by the Arabs Jebel et-Tur, lying to the east of Jerusalem, from which it is separated only by the narrow valley of Jehoshaphat. Towards the south it sinks down into a lower ridge, over against the so-called 'well of Nehemiah,' now called by Franks the Mount of Offence, in allusion to the idolatrous worship established by Solomon 'on the hill that is before,' that is, eastward of 'Jerusalem.' In this direction lies the usual road to Bethany, so often trodden by our Savior. About a mile towards the north is another summit, nearly or quite as high as the middle one. The ridge between the two bends slightly eastward, leaving room for the valley below to expand somewhat in that part. The view of the Holy City and of the Dead Sea, from the southern summit, is described in the article Jerusalem; that from the northern summit does not embrace the Dead Sea. The elevation of the central peak of the Mount of Olives is stated by Schubert at 2555 Paris feet, or 416 Paris feet above the valley of Jehoshaphat; and hence it appears to be 175 Paris feet above the highest part of Mount Zion. Beyond the northern summit the ridge sweeps round towards the west, and spreads out into the high level tract north of the city, which is skirted on the west and south by the upper part of the valley of Jehoshaphat. This inconsiderable ridge derives all its importance from its connection with Jerusalem, and from the sacred associations which hence became connected with it. To the mount whose ascent David 'went up, weeping and barefoot,' to which our Savior ofttimes withdrew with His disciples, over which He often passed, and from which He eventually ascended into heaven, belongs a higher degree of sacred and moral interest than is to be found in mere physical magnitude, or than the record connects even with Lebanon, Tabor, or Ararat.
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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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