Fig. 345—Syro-Arabian costume, indoor dress
Like our own term Woman, the Hebrew word now so translated is used of married and unmarried females. The derivation of the word shows that according to the conception of the ancient Israelites woman was man in a modified form—one of the same race, the same genus, as man; a kind of female man. How slightly modified that form is, how little in original structure woman differs from man, physiology has made abundantly clear. Different in make as man and woman are, they differ still more in character; and yet the great features of their hearts and minds so closely resemble each other, that it requires no depth of vision to see that these twain are one. This most important fact is characteristically set forth in the Bible in the account given of the formation of woman out of one of Adam's ribs (). Those who have been pleased to make free with this simple narrative may well be required to show how a rude age could more effectually have been taught the essential unity of man and woman—a unity of nature which demands, and is perfected only in, a unity of soul. The conception of the Biblical writer goes beyond even this, but does not extend farther than science and experience unite to justify. There was solid reason why it was not good for Adam 'to be alone.' Without an help meet he would have been an imperfect being. The genus homo consists of man and woman. Both are necessary to the idea of man. The one supplements the qualities of the other. They are not two, but one flesh, and as one body so one, soul.
It will at once be seen that under the influence of a religion, at the bottom of which lay those ideas concerning the relations of the sexes one to another, slavery on the part of the woman was impossible. This fact is the more noticeable, and it speaks the more loudly in favor of the divine origin of the religion of the Bible, because the East has in all times, down to the present-day, kept woman everywhere, save in those places in which Judaism and Christianity have prevailed, in a state of low, even if in some cases gilded, bondage, making her the mere toy, plaything, and instrument of man.
This Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature is a 6 volume set in 1 book. It has over 2Read More
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.
Wikipedia