Have you heard the chatter across the internet that the Philippines is actually the Biblical land of Ophir? It sounds good but once the evidence is sifted the claims turn out to be completely false. Let's take a look at several important reasons why the Philippines is most certainly not Ophir. All of these points have been discussed in my articles debunking Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture.
1. Josephus says India is Ophir
If we want to know where the land of Ophir is why would we not go back to the oldest sources? In the first century AD Josephus wrote an extensive history of the Jewish nation. He tells us in no uncertain terms that Ophir is the Golden Chersonesus which belongs to India.
4. Moreover the King built many ships in the Egyptian bay of the Red Sea; in a certain place called Ezion-geber. It is now called Berenice; and is not far from the city Eloth. This countrey belonged formerly to the Jews; and became useful for shipping, from the donations of Hiram King of Tyre. For he sent a sufficient number of men thither for pilots, and such as were skilfull in navigation: to whom Solomon gave this command, that they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesus: which belongs to India: to fetch him gold. And when they had gathered four hundred talents together, they returned to the King again.
There is only one place in the entire world which is called the Golden Chersonesus and that is the Malay Peninsula. Therefore the Philippines is not Ophir.
2. Timothy Jay Schwab agrees India has all the resources attributed to Ophir
In his testing the resources of Ophir The God Culture admits that India has all the resources attributed to Ophir.
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| #33: Is India Ophir? 100 Clues The Philippines Is Ophir |
2:29 One such claim is that India must be Ophir. Now we will give them that India does in fact have the resources on Solomon's list. Yes it does.
In his book The Search for King Solomon's Treasure he says the same thing.
The only other coherent claim as far as resources are concerned is India yet it’s own history says it had a source of ancient gold and silver, isles to the East thus none of these make any sense except the Philippines.
Every resource of Solomon tests as native to the Philippines and all other claims fail in this chapter except India whose claim already failed the test of it’s own history.
Notice how in the same sentence Tim contradicts himself by saying India's claim does not fail but also fails the test of history despite Josephus claiming India is Ophir. What is important to note is that Tim admits India has all the resources of Ophir which affirms the historical claim of Josephus that Ophir is in India.
3. No Ancient Map Shows the Philippines
If the Philippines is actually Ophir then why do all ancient geographies omit the Philippines?
Because no ancient Romans or Greeks ever sailed to the Philippines. If they did then these expert cartographers would have included it in their descriptions of the world. As it is Ptolemy's map, which is the pinnacle of ancient geography, ends with the Golden Chersonesus and an enclosed Indian Ocean. There is no room for any islands east of the Malay Peninsula because no one had sailed that far east. Yet The God Culture claims Filipinos and Greeks were circumnavigating Africa to trade with one another until the time of Jesus Christ. That is ridiculous and there is simply no getting around this fact no matter how many hoops The God Culture jumps through.
4. Roman artifacts have been found in Mainland Asia but not in the Philippines
If the ancient Romans and Greeks had been sailing to the Philippines to trade then why is there no record of their presence? Roman coins have been found as far east as Vietnam.
Óc Eo (Vietnamese) is an archaeological site in modern-day Óc Eo commune of Thoại Sơn District in An Giang Province of southern Vietnam. Located in the Mekong Delta, Óc Eo was a busy port of the kingdom of Funan between the 2nd century BC and 12th century AD and it may have been the port known to the Romans as Cattigara.The remains found at Óc Eo include pottery, tools, jewelry, casts for making jewelry, coins, and religious statues. Among the finds are gold jewellery imitating coins from the Roman Empire of the Antonine period. Roman golden medallions from the reign of Antoninus Pius, and possibly his successor Marcus Aurelius, have been discovered at Óc Eo, which was near Chinese-controlled Jiaozhou and the region where Chinese historical texts claim the Romans first landed before venturing further into China to conduct diplomacy in 166. Many of the remains have been collected and are on exhibition in Museum of Vietnamese History in Ho Chi Minh City.Funan was part of the region of Southeast Asia referred to in ancient Indian texts as Suvarnabhumi, and may have been the part to which the term was first applied.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattigara
There have been plenty of archaeological digs and finds across the Philippines but no ancient Roman or Greek artifacts have ever been found in the Philippines. That is because they never sailed to or traded with the Philippines.
5. Ophir is Never Described as a Group of Islands
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These isles are East at the ends of the Earth and they are identified as Tarshish, Ophir and Sheba.
The Search for King Solomon's Treasure, pg. 93
However, the Bible never mentions Isles in the East or At the Ends of the Earth.
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| https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/search.php?hs=1&q=%22at+the+ends+of+the+earth%22 |
Chapter 8 in his book is a very convoluted misinterpretation of Scripture but unravelling Tim's ridiculous Bible interpretation is beyond the scope of this article. Here is every mention of Ophir in the Bible. At no time is Ophir ever described as a group of islands.
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| https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/search.php?hs=1&q=ophir |
6. The God Culture Lies Too Much to be Trusted About Anything
The above five reasons are more than enough to reject any claim that the Philippines is Ophir. But The God Culture has gone a step further and produced a series of videos and a book full of convoluted, byzantine, and in some cases fabricated evidence to prove the Philippines is Ophir. Here are just a few of those claims:
Antonio Pigafetta saw elephants in the Philippines.
Fernando Pinto shipwrecked in the Philippines and placed them at 9N20.
Filipinos and Greeks regularly circumnavigated Africa to trade with one another.
The Lequios Islands are Luzon Island in the Philippines.
Antonio Pigafetta's journal is the only eyewitness source to Magellan's landing in the Philippines.
Antonio Pigafetta claimed Samar Island is Cattigara.
The City of Manila is mentioned on a 1492 map.
The Behaim map is Portuguese when it is really German.
And the list goes on.
Over the past few years I have meticulously dismantled and exposed the nonsense of Timothy Jay Schwab. He lies when he says no one has disproved him in seven years. I have done that a multitude of times and I will continue to do so.
Conclusion
This is just a brief list of the many reasons the Philippines is not Ophir. I believe they are the strongest reasons. The oldest testimony as to where Ophir is locates it in India in the Golden Chersonesus. Ancient maps prove that no one knew anything past the Golden Chersonesus. The Bible never describes Ophir as islands in the east at the ends of the earth. Those facts cannot be overcome and with that Timothy Jay Schwab's case for the Philippines as Ophir is untenable ab initio.
Columbus believed Ophir and Tarshish to be the same place, he also located the Garden of Eden in a nearby area. You wondered before why Tim doesn’t claim all this for the Caribbean and I ask you what Columbus had in his head if this is east of the promised land according to scripture. The Levant wasn’t identified as the promised land until Constantine and early maps show the consensus used to be that it’s in Africa. It was believed that America was just an extension of Asia so this isn’t surprising to me. The isles in the east at the ends of the earth are the isles of the sea.
ReplyDeleteThere are no "isles in the east at the ends of the earth." Neither the phrase nor concept appear in the scriptures.
DeleteJapheth dwells in the tents of Shem even according to Tim himself. Your reading is even worse than his! Havilah, Tarshish, Ophir, and Sheba are among the isles of the sea.
ReplyDeleteHavilah, Tarshish, Ophir, and Sheba are NEVER described as islands.
Delete"Japheth dwells in the tents of Shem even according to Tim himself." You are wrong. See part 30 of his Jubilees series where he teaches otherwise.