Armaged´don, properly 'the mountain of Megiddo,' a city on the west of the river Jordan, rebuilt by Solomon (1 Kings 9:15). Both Ahaziah and Josias died there. In the mystical language of prophecy, the word mountain represents the Church, and the events which took place at Megiddo are supposed to have had a typical reference to the sorrows and triumphs of the people of God under the Gospel. 'In that day,' says Zechariah 12:11, 'shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon;' referring to the death of Josias. But the same spot witnessed, at an earlier period, the greatest triumph of Israel, when 'fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo' (Judges 5:19). 'He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon,' is the language of the Apocalypse; and the word has been translated by some as 'the mountain of destruction,' by others as 'the mountain of the gospel;' many ingenious speculations having been employed on the passage in which it occurs, but with little satisfaction to the more sober readers of divine revelation.
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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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