E´than (firm), one of four persons ('Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol') who were so renowned for their sagacity that it is mentioned to the honor of Solomon that his wisdom excelled theirs. In , Ethan is distinguished as 'the Ezrahite,' from the others, who are called 'sons of Mahol'—unless, indeed, this word Mahol be taken not as a proper name, but appellatively, for 'sons of music, dancing,' etc. in which case it would apply to Ethan as well as to the others. This interpretation is strengthened by our finding the other names associated with that of Ethan in , as 'sons of Zerah,' i.e.of Ezra, the same as Ezrahites. The evidence of identity afforded by this collocation of names is too strong to be resisted; and we must therefore conclude that Ethan and the others, the tradition of whose wisdom had descended to the time of Solomon, are the same who, in , appear as sons of Zerah, who was himself the son of the patriarch Judah. With this agrees the Jewish chronology, which counts them as prophets during the sojourn in Egypt.
Ethan, 2
Ethan, a Levite, the son of Kishi, and one of the masters of the Temple music (; ), to whom Psalms 89 is ascribed, and whom some interpreters suppose to be the Ethan of , to whose wisdom that of Solomon is compared.
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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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