A´phek: the name signifies strength; hence a citadel or fortified town. There were at least three places so called, viz.:—
Aphek, 1
Aphek, a city in the tribe of Asher (Joshua 13:4; Joshua 19:30), called Aphik in Judges 1:31, where we also learn that the tribe was unable to gain possession of it. A village called Afka is still found in Lebanon, situated at the bottom of a valley, and may possibly mark the site of this Aphek.
Aphek, 2
Aphek, a town near which Benhadad was defeated by the Israelites (1 Kings 20:26. sq. which seems to correspond to the Aphaca of Eusebius, situated to the east of the Sea of Galilee, and which is mentioned by Burckhardt, Sectzen, and others under the name of Feik.
Aphek, 3
Aphek, a city in the tribe of Issachar, not far from Jezreel, where the Philistines twice encamped before battles with the Israelites (1 Samuel 4:1; 1 Samuel 29:1 comp. 28:4). Either this or the first Aphek, but most probably this, was the Aphek mentioned in Joshua 12:18, as a royal city of the Canaanites.
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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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