Ituræ´a, a district in the north-east of Palestine, forming the tetrarchy of Philip. The name is supposed to have originated with Itur, or Jetur, one of Ishmael's sons (). In this name is given as that of a tribe or nation with which Reuben (beyond the Jordan) warred; and from its being joined with the names of other of Ishmael's sons it is evident that a tribe descended from his son Jetur is intimated.
During the Exile this and other border countries were taken possession of by various tribes, whom, although they are called after the original names, as occupants of the countries which had received those names, we are not bound to regard as descendants of the original possessors. These new Ituræans were eventually subdued by King Aristobulus (B.C. 100); by whom they were constrained to embrace the Jewish religion, and were at the same time incorporated with the state. Nevertheless the Ituræans were still recognizable as a distinct people in the time of Pliny. As already intimated, Herod the Great, in dividing his dominions among his sons, bequeathed Ituræa to Philip as part of a tetrarchy composed, according to Luke, of Trachonitis and Ituræa. The name is so loosely applied by ancient writers, that it is difficult to fix its boundaries with precision. Perhaps it may suffice for general purposes to describe it as a district of indeterminate extent, traversed by a line drawn from the Lake of Tiberias to Damascus. The present Jedur probably comprehends the whole or greater part of the proper Ituraea. This is described by Burckhardt as 'lying south of Jebelkessoue, east of Jebel es-Sheik (Mount Hermon), and west of the Hadj road.' He adds, that it now contains only twenty inhabited villages. By the help of these lights we may discover that Ituræa was a plain country, about thirty miles long from north to south, and twenty-four from east to west, having on the north Abilene and the Damascene district; on the south Auranitis and part of Bashan; on the east the stony region of Trachonitis; and on the west the hill country of Bashan.
This Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature is a 6 volume set in 1 book. It has over 2Read More
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.
Wikipedia