Fig. 95—Animal skin carried by yoke
Natural objects, it is obvious, would be the earliest things employed for holding and preserving liquids; and of natural objects those would be preferred which either presented themselves nearly or quite ready for use, or such as could speedily be wrought into the requisite shape. The skins of animals afford in themselves more conveniences for the purpose than any other natural product. The first bottles therefore were probably made of the skins of animals. Accordingly we learn from Herodotus that it was customary among the ancient Egyptians to use bottles made of skins; and this is confirmed by the monuments, on which such various forms as the above occur. The above figure is curious as showing the mode in which they were carried by a yoke; and as it balances a large bottle in a case, this skin may be presumed to have contained wine.
Fig. 96—Jugs and skins
In the figure (figure 96) to the left, the jug on the right is such a skin of water as in the agricultural scenes is suspended from the bough of a tree, and from which the laborers occasionally drink. The next figure on the right (figure 97) represents two men with skins at their backs, belonging to a party of nomads entering Egypt. This party has been with some plausibility supposed to represent the sons of Jacob.
Skin-bottles doubtless existed among the Hebrews even in patriarchal times; but the first clear notice of them does not occur till Joshua 9:4, where it is said that the Gibeonites, wishing to impose upon Joshua as if they had come from a long distance, took 'old sacks upon their asses, and wine-bottles old and rent and bound up.' Age, then, had the effect of wearing and tearing the bottles in question, which must consequently have been of skin. Our Savior's language (Matthew 9:17; Luke 5:37-38; Mark 2:22) is thus clearly explained: 'Men do not put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish;' 'New wine must be put in new bottles, and both are preserved.' To the conception of an English reader who knows of no bottles but such as are made of clay or glass, the idea of bottles breaking through age presents an insuperable difficulty; but skins may become 'old, rent, and bound up;' they also prove, in time, hard and inelastic, and would in such a condition be very unfit to hold new wine, probably in a state of active fermentation. Even new skins might be unable to resist the internal pressure caused by fermentation.
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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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