Hosan´na a form of acclamatory blessing or wishing well, which signifies, Save now! Succor now! Be now propitious! It occurs in (also; )—'Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!' This was on the occasion of our Savior's public entry into Jerusalem, and, fairly construed, would mean, 'Lord, preserve this Son of David; heap favors and blessings on Him!' It is further to be observed that Hosanna was a customary form of acclamation at the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast was celebrated in September, just before the commencement of the civil year; on which occasion the people carried in their hands bundles of boughs of palms, myrtles, etc. They then repeated , which commence with the word Hosanna; and from this circumstance they gave the boughs, and the prayers, and the feast itself, the name of Hosanna. They observed the same forms also at the Encaenia (;; ) and the Passover. And as they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles with great joy and gladness, in like manner, on this occasion, did they hail the coming of the Messiah, whose advent they believed to be represented in all the feasts.
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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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