The frequent occurrence of blindness in the East has always excited the astonishment of travelers. Volney says that, out of a hundred persons in Cairo, he has met twenty quite blind, ten wanting one eye, and twenty others having their eyes red, purulent, or blemished. This is principally owing to the Egyptian ophthalmia, which is endemic in that country and on the coast of Syria. This disease is contagious; but it is not often communicated from one individual to another. It is not confined to the East, but appears here and there throughout Europe. The French and English suffered greatly from it while they were in Egypt, and subsequently.
Small pox is another great cause of blindness in the East.
In the New Testament, blind mendicants are frequently mentioned (Matthew 9:27; Matthew 12:22; Matthew 20:30; Matthew 21:14; John 5:3). The blindness of Bar Jesus (Acts 13:6-11) was miraculously produced, and of its nature we know nothing. Examples of blindness from old age occur in Genesis 27:1; 1 Kings 14:4; 1 Samuel 4:15. The Syrian army that came to apprehend Elisha was suddenly smitten with blindness in a miraculous manner (2 Kings 6:18); and so also was St. Paul (Acts 9:9). The Mosaic law has not neglected to inculcate humane feelings towards the blind (Leviticus 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:18). Blindness is sometimes threatened in the Old Testament as a punishment for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28:28; Leviticus 26:16; Zephaniah 1:17).
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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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