Gib´eon, a town celebrated in the Old Testament, but not mentioned in the New. It was 'a great city,' as one of the royal cities; and to its jurisdiction originally belonged Beeroth, Chephirah, and Kirjath-jearim (; ). It is first mentioned in connection with the deception practiced by the inhabitants upon Joshua, by which, although Canaanites (Hivites), they induced the Jewish leader not only to make a league with them, and to spare their lives and cities, but also, in their defense, to make war upon the five kings by whom they were besieged. It was in the great battle which followed, that 'the sun stood still upon Gibeon' (; ). The place afterwards fell to the lot of Benjamin, and became a Levitical city (; ), where the tabernacle was set up for many years under David and Solomon (;; ), the ark being at the same time at Jerusalem (). It was here, as being the place of the altar, that the young Solomon offered a thousand burnt-offerings, and was rewarded by the vision which left him the wisest of men (; ). This was the place where Abner's challenge to Joab brought defeat upon himself, and death upon his brother Ashael (), and where Amasa was afterwards slain by Joab (). None of these passages mark the site of Gibeon; but there are indications of it in Josephus, who places it fifty stadia north-west from Jerusalem; and in Jerome: which leave little doubt that Gibeon is to be identified with the place which still bears the name of El-Jib.
El-Jib is a moderately sized village, seated on the summit of a hill, five miles north by west from Jerusalem. The houses stand very irregularly and unevenly, sometimes almost above one another. They seem to be chiefly rooms in old massive ruins, which have fallen down in every direction. One large building still remains, probably a former castle or tower of strength. Towards the east the ridge of the hill sinks a little, and here, a few rods from the village, just below the top of the ridge towards the north, is a fine fountain of water. It is in a cave, excavated in and under the high rock, so as to form a large subterranean reservoir. Not far below it, among olive-trees, are the remains of an open reservoir, about one hundred and twenty feet in length by one hundred in breadth. It was doubtless designed to receive the superfluous waters of the cavern, and there can be little question but that this was 'the Pool of Gibeon' mentioned in; and, in the whole, we find the 'Great [or many] waters of Gibeon' of .
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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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