KIEF
KIFFIN
less this section of the A'alley has got its modern name, Wudi/ er-R(theb, ^•Monk's Valley" (Wolcott, Researches in Pal., in Biblical Caljinet, xliii, 38). Below Mar Saba the valley is called Wadij en-Nur, "Valley of Fire" — a name descriptive of its aspect, for so bare and scorched is it that it seems as if it had participated in the doom of Sodom. It runs on, a deep, narrow, wild chasm, until it breaks through the lofty line of cliffs at Kas el-Fesh- khah, on the shore of the Dead Sea. It will thus be seen that the head of the Kidron is just on the verge of the water-shed of the mountain-chain of Judah, about 2600 feet above the sea. Its length, as the crow tlies, is only twenty miles, and yet in this short space it has a descent of no less than 3912 feet— the Dead Sea having a depression of 1312 feet (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 179, 182).— Ivitto; Smith. In 1848 the levelling party of the Dead Sea Expedition, under command of Lieut. Lynch, worked up the wady en-Nar, the bed of the Kidron, from the Dead Sea to Jerusalem. They encountered several preciiiices from ten to twelve feet high, down which cat- aracts plunge in winter. They found the ravine shut in on each side by high, barren cliffs of chalky lime- stone, and the dry torrent-bed interrupted by boidders, and covered with fragments of stone l^Narrutive, p. 38-1, 387). The place where it empties into the Jordan is a gorge 1200 feet deep, narrow at the bottom, with a bed tilled with confused fragments of rock, much worn, but perfectly dry (ib.). For furtlier notices, see lUtter's Erd- kuwle, XV, 000 ; Robinson, Biblical Researches, ut sup.
Kief or Kiev, the name of the chief town of the government of that name, on the west bank of the Dnie- per, one of the oldest of the Russian towns, and formerly the capital (containing G0,000 inhabitants, with a uni- versity and a theological school), was in 8G4 taken from the Khazars by two Norman chiefs, companions of Ru- ric, and conquered from them by Oleg, Ruric's success- or, wlio made it his capital. In 1240 (when it ceased to be the capital) it was nearly destroyed by Batu, khan of Kiptcliak. Christianity was first proclaimed hi Rus- sia at Kief in 988. In the 14th century it was seized by Gedimin, grand duke of Lithuania, and annexed to Poland in 15G9, but in 1G8G was restored to Russia. Kief is the oldest Russian metropolitan's residence, the cradle of Russian Christianity. It is also noted on ac- count of two Church (Greek) councils that have been hel<l there. See Landon, Manual of Church Councils.
(a) The first of these convened about 1147, and is noted for the manner in which the bishops elected a me- tropolitan in the place of Michael II. With the excep- tion of Niphont of Novogorod, they all agreed to take the election into their own hands, without allowing to the pa- triarch of Constantinople the exercise of his right either to nominate or confirm. Niphont strongly protested against the step, but without effect. The choice of the synod fell upon Clement, a monk of Smolensk. As a substitute for the patriarchal consecration, Onuphrius proposed that the hand of St. Clement of Rome, -(vhose relics had been brought from Cherson, should be placed upon his head. Tliis election led to great disorder, and subsequently the patriarch Luke Chysoberges consecra- ted Constantine metropolitan, who condemned the acts of this synod, and suspended for a time all the clergy ordained by Clement. — Mouravieff's Ilisf. Russ. Church (by Blackmore), p. 35.
(b) Another council was convened here in 1622. Me- letius, archbishop of Polotsk, at one time a most zealous defender of the orthodox Church in Russia, had been obliged to liee into Greece upon a groundless suspicion of having been concerned in the murder of Jehoshaphat, Uniate archbishop of Polotsk, and, urged by fear, liad given himself up to the Uniate party, and written an apology in censure of the orthodox Church ; in this council he was called to account, made to perform open penance, and to tear his book. Soon after he entirely apostatized ; and, going to Rome, had the title of arch- bishop of Hieropolis conferred on him. — jNIouravieff, p. 179.
In the neigliborhood of Kief is the convent of Kievo- Petchersk, a celebrated Russian sanctuary, which an- nually attracts thousands of pilgrims from the most re- mote corners of the empire. In the daj's of king "Wlad- imir, the river Bug, near this city, was considered sa- cred by many Russian sects, and in many respects Kief, in those days, resembled the citj' of Benares in India. The reader can best obtain a vie^v of the worship of riv- ers in the East by turning to the article G^vnges (comp. VoUmer, MijthoLWM-terbuch, p. 1049).
Kiernander, Joiix Zachariah, a Swedish Prot- estant missionary, was born at Axtadt, Ostrogothia (now the lien Lindkiiping), Dec. 1, 1710. He studied at the school of Lindkiiping, and afterwards at the universities of Upsal and Halle. Professor Franke recommended him to the English Society for the Diffusion of Chris- tian Knowledge, and he was sent to India in 1740. Here he labored zealously for sixty years, and acquired such reputation that the shah of Persia intrusted to him the Arabic translation of the Psalms and the N. T. In 1767 he established at Calcutta a church, which was opened in 1770, but, as he was obliged to bear the expense al- most exclusively himself, he was reduced to povertj-. Kiernander was successively connected with the Dutch Church at Chinsurah, Bengal, and when that town was taken by the Enghsh in 1795 he was made prisoner, but afterwards permitted to settle at Calcutta. He died in 1799. See \^'alch, Neueste Religionsyesch. ; A eta Jlis- torico-ecclesiastica ; A sialic A nnual Register ; Rose, Xew Bioqraphical Dictionary ; Hoefer, Xvuv. £ioff. Gencrale, xxii, 715. (J. N. P.)