It is doubtful that pearls are mentioned in the Old Testament. The word gabish, rendered 'pearl' in , appears to mean crystal; and the word peninim, which our version translates by 'rubies,' is now supposed to mean coral [CORAL]. But in the New Testament the pearls are repeatedly mentioned. In , a merchant (traveling jeweler) seeking goodly pearls, finds one pearl of great price, and to be able to purchase it, sells all that he has—all the jewels he had previously secured. In , and , pearls are mentioned as the ornaments of females; in , among costly merchandise; and , the twelve gates of the heavenly Jerusalem are 'twelve pearls.' These intimations seem to indicate that pearls were in more common use among the Jews after than before the captivity, while they evince the estimation in which they were in later times held. The island of Tylos (Bahrein) was especially renowned for its fishery of pearls; the Indian Ocean was also known to produce pearls. Pearls have at all times been esteemed one of the most valuable commodities of the East. Their modest splendor and simple beauty appear to have captivated the Orientals, even more than the dazzling brilliancy of the diamond, and have made them at all times the favorite ornament of despotic princes. In the West, the passion for this elegant luxury was at its height about the period of the extinction of Roman freedom, and they were valued in Rome and Alexandria as highly as precious stones. In Asia this taste was of more ancient date, and may be traced to a period anterior to the Persian dynasty; nor has it ever declined. A string of pearls of the largest size is an indispensable part of the decorations of an Eastern monarch. It was thus that Tippoo was adorned when he fell before the gates of his capital; and it is thus that the present ruler of the Persians is usually decorated.
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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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