A´mos (borne), one of the twelve minor prophets and a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. He was a native of Tekoah, about six miles south of Bethlehem, inhabited chiefly by shepherds to which class he belonged, being also a dresser of sycamore-trees. The period during which he filled the prophetic office was of short duration, unless we suppose that he uttered other predictions which are not recorded. It is stated expressly that he prophesied in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake (Amos 1:1). As Uzziah and Jeroboam were contemporaries for about fourteen years, from B.C. 798 to 784, the latter of these dates will mark the period when Amos prophesied.
When Amos received his commission, the kingdom of Israel, which had been 'cut short' by Hazael (2 Kings 10:32) towards the close of Jehu's reign, was restored to its ancient limits and splendor by Jeroboam the Second (2 Kings 14:25). But the restoration of national prosperity was followed by the prevalence of luxury, licentiousness, and oppression, to an extent that again provoked the divine displeasure, and Amos was called from the sheep-folds to be the harbinger of the coming judgments. Not that his commission was limited entirely to Israel. The thunder-storm (as Ruckert poetically expresses it) rolls over all the surrounding kingdoms, touches Judah in its progress, and at length settles upon Israel. Amos 1; Amos 2:1-5, form a solemn prelude to the main subject; nation after nation is summoned to judgment. Israel is then addressed in the same style, and in Amos 3 (after a brief rebuke of the twelve tribes collectively) its degenerate state is strikingly portrayed, and the denunciations of divine justice are intermingled, like repeated thunderclaps, to the end of Amos 6. The seventh and eighth chapters contain various symbolical visions, with a brief historical episode (Amos 7:10-17). In Amos 9 the majesty of Jehovah and the terrors of his justice are set forth with a sublimity of diction which rivals and partly copies that of the royal Psalmist (comp. Amos 9:2-3, with Psalms 109, and Amos 9:6 with Psalms 104). Towards the close the scene brightens, and from the eleventh verse to the end the promises of the divine mercy and returning favor to the chosen race are exhibited in imagery of great beauty taken from rural life.
The writings of this prophet afford clear evidence that the existing religious institutions both of Judah and Israel (with the exception of the corruptions introduced by Jeroboam) were framed according to the rules prescribed in the Pentateuch, a fact which furnishes a conclusive argument for the genuineness of the Mosaic records.
The canonicity of the book of Amos is amply supported both by Jewish and Christian authorities. Philo, Josephus, and the Talmud include it among the minor prophets. It is also in the catalogues of Melito, Jerome, and the 60th canon of the Council of Laodicea. Justin Martyr, quotes a considerable part of Amos 5-6, which he introduces by saying,—'Hear how he speaks concerning these by Amos, one of the twelve.' There are two quotations from it in the New Testament: the first (Amos 5:25-26) by the proto-martyr Stephen, Acts 7:42; the second (Amos 9:11) by the apostle James, Acts 15:16.
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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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