Kersey, Jesse, a minister of the Society of Friends, was born at York, Pa., in 1708. lu Ids early youth his heart was given to God. In his seventeenth j-ear he
experienced a call to the Gospel ministry, but still re- mained an apprentice to the trade of a potter about foiu: years, and afterwards taught school. In 1804 lie em- barked for England on a Gospel mission. In 1805 he returned to America, and in 1814 went on a reUgious mission to the Southern States, afterwards returning to his home, and continuing to labor and preach. He died near Kennet, Pa., in 1845. As a minister, Mr. Kersey's affability of laianners, his grave and dignified deport- ment, the soundness of his principles, the beauty and simplicity of his style of address, heightened in their ef- fect by the depth of his devotional feelings, gave an in- terest and a charm which gained him many admirers. See Janney, Ili^t. aj'the Friends, iv, 116. (J, L, S.)
Keryktik (from Kiipixraio, to jn-eacli), i. e. the art of preachbuj, is a modern name for Ilomilefics, first intro- duced by Stier (^Kerijklik, 1830, 1846). See Homiletics.
Kesepli. See Silver,
Kesitah (n::'^'wp, A,V, "piece cf money," '-piece of silver"). The meaning and derivation of this word, which only occurs thrice in the 0,T,, has been a subject of much controversy. The places where it is found — Gen. xxxiii, 19, recording Jacob's purchase of a piece of ground at Shechem ; Josh, xxiv, 32, a verbal repetition from Genesis; and Job xlii, 11, where the presents made to .Tob are s])ecitied, and it is joined with rings of gold — indicate either the name of a coin or of some article used in barter. The principal explanations of the word are :
1. That of the Sept. and all ancient versions, which render it '• a lamb," either the animal itself or a coin bearing its impress (Ilottinger, Diss, cle A'linim. Orient.'), a view which has been revived in modern times by the Danish bishop iSIunter in a treatise published at Copen- hagen, 1824, and more recently still by Mr. James Yates, Proc. ofNumism. Society, 1837, 1838, p. 141. The entire want of any etymf)logical ground for this interpretation has led Bochart (^IJiei-ozoic. i, 1. 2, c. 3) to imagine that there had been a confusion in the text of the Sept. be- tween iKaruv {.n'wv and tKarvv ufxvwi', and that this error has passed into all the ancient versions, which may be supported by the singular fact that in Gen. xxxi, 7, 41, we find D"p2 TTb^ (A.Y." ten times," rt: -, how- ever, more usually standing for a particular weight) translated by the Sept. Ciku u^ivCji', which it is difficult to account for on any supposition save that of a mistake of the copyist for j^tvwv. See Sheep.
2. Others, adopting the rendering "lamb," have imag- ined a reference to a weight formed in the shape of that animal, such as we know to have been in use among the Egyptians and Assyrians, imitating bulls, antelopes, geese, etc. (see Wilkinson's /l«c. Egypt, ii, 10; Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, yi. GOO -GO'2 ; hcpshis, Denhnale, iii, plate 39, No. 3).
3. Faber, in the German edition of IIarme>-''s Obs. ii, 15-19, quoted by Gesenius (Tliescau: p. 1241), connects it with the Syriac hcsta, Heb. rD|?, "a vessel," an ety- mology accepted bj' Grotefend (see below), and consid- ers it to have been cither a measure or a sUver vessel used in barter (comp. ^Elian, 1'. //. i, 22).
4. The most probable view, liowever, is that su]iport- ed by Gesenius, Kosenmiiller, Jahn, Kalisch, and the majority of the soundest interpreters, that it was, in Grotefend's words (Xiimism. Chron. ii, 248), "merely a silver weight of undetermined size, just as the most an- cient shekel was nothing more than a piece of rough silver without any image or device." The lost root was perhaps akin to the Arabic fo/««/, "he divided equally," Bochart, however {ut sup.), is disposed to alter the punc- tuation of the Shin, and to connect the word witli H-Cp, " truth," adding " potuit p id est vera dici moneta qua2- cunque habuit justum pondus, aut etiam moneta sincera et ciicilSCrjXoc."
According to Rabbi Akiba, quoted by Bochart, a cer- tain coin bore this name in comparatively modern times, so that he would render the word by "^pn, odraKtc. —
KESLER
58
KETURAH
Kitto, s. V. See Kitto, Daily Bible Illustralions, ad loc. Job. See JIoxey.
Kesler, Andkeas, a German theologian, born July 17. l."i',>.j, was educated at the University of Jena, and al'terwards became adjunct professor in the philosoph- ical faculty of AVittenberg. In 1G23 he was called to till a professorship in Coburg; in 1G25 he became pastor and superintendent at Eisfeld; in 1033 director of the gymnasium at Schweinfurt, whence in 1635 he was re- called to Coburg to fill a high ecclesiastical position. He died Blay 15, lG-13. His writings consist, besides sermons, of polemical works against the Roman Catholic Church, for a list of which see Hagelhan, Leichenrede. See also Kenning Witte, ^femol•ia; Theolor/orum (Decas 5 ), p. 557 sq. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. vii, 518.
Kessler, Christian Rudolph, a German Re- i'lirnied minister, burn February 'JO, 1823, in the Canton of Graubueuden, Switzerland, was educated in the best schools of his native land, and afterwards sjjent some time at the University of Leipsic; came to America with his parents in 1841 ; studied theology at Mercers- burg, Pa.; was licensed and ordained in the spring of 1843, and took charge of congregations in Pendleton County, Ya. In 1844 he became associated with Dr. Bibighaus as assistant pastor in the Salem congrega- tion, Philadelphia. His health failing, in 1848 he re- moved to AUentown, Pa., to establish a female seminarj'. In this enterprise he was remarkably successful. He died JIarch 4, 1855, leaving the institution he had found- ed in a flourishing condition.