The God Culture: ChatGPT Analyzes TGC's Claim Tagalog Is Derived From Hebrew

In his books and videos Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture claims that Tagalog is etymologically rooted in Hebrew. He cites Padre Chirino, a Jesuit historian, and Stephen Levinsohn, a linguist as proof of his claim.

Lost Isles of Gold LIVE Series - Part 12: Hebrew in the Philippines?

6:43 Understand that, um, when, uh, Padre Chirino was writing about the Philippines, he said by the way that every Filipino he encountered could read and write. 100% literacy. 100%. So, this has been a mislabeled, misconstrued nation all along by the Jesuits. But Padre Chino said it, the Taglog language has the mystery and obscurities of the Hebrew language. What? Where did that come from? I'll tell you where it came from because we've now studied this out. We agree with him there are the mysteries and obscurities of the Hebrew language here. There are direct Hebrew words and it is indisputable at least for some. 

There was a, uh, a Jewish dude that came here named Steven Levinsohn, uh, conducting a linguist basically, uh, training and at the end of the workshop, this is the quote from that: "one mother tongue translator remarked that had he known of the parallels between Philippine languages and Biblical Hebrew he would have found the learning of the latter much easier. His remark led me to raise the matter with a couple of Seminary professors who teach Hebrew in Manila." See, they're saying even in modern times that even modern Tagalog has elements of Hebrew within and that if you understood that before you were teaching Hebrew to a Tagalog speaking person that they would understand Hebrew better because they would realize that the synergy between Hebrew and Tagalog is very similar. Very similar. There's a lot and there's a lot of words that you share even, even in definition.

I have previously critiqued this claim noting that it is a grave distortion of the sources Tim uses. Tim believes my critique is defamatory and libelous. So, why not ask ChatGPT about the matter?

I uploaded Stephen Levinsohn's PDF and what Chirino says about Tagalog and Hebrew then asked for an analysis. Then I uploaded Tim's claim and asked for a comparative analysis. Since Tim mentions a 100% literacy rate I also had to upload information about that. The conclusion is as follows:

The video misuses both sources to promote a fringe theory lacking linguistic rigor, historical support, or internal consistency.

The Lost Isles of Gold video exaggerates, misinterprets, and blurs categories—rhetorical praise becomes statistical fact, typological similarity becomes descent, admiration becomes conspiracy. 

The chat is posted below and can be read here.

contextualisedhebrewteaching.pdf

PDF

analyze that PDF and the following from Jesuit Padre Chirino: There is no single or general language of the Filipinas extending throughout the islands; but all of them, though there are many and different tongues, are so much alike that they may be learned and spoken in a short time. Consequently if one is learned, all are almost known. They are to each other like the Tuscan, Lombard, and Sicilian dialects of Italia, or the Castilian, Portuguese, and Galician in Espafia. Only the language of the Negrillos is very different from the rest, as, in Espafia, is the Vizcayan [i.e., Basque]. There is not a different language for each of the islands, because some of them - as, for example, Manila, and even Panai, which is more than four hundred leguas smaller - contain several languages; and there are languages each of which prevails in several islands. In the island of Manila alone, there are six different tongues; in Panai, two; in some others, but one. The languages most used, and most widely spread, are the Tagal and the Bisayan; and in some regions of the Pintados another tongue is also prevalent, called Harayan. The Tagal embraces the greater part of the coast and interior of the islands of Manila, Mindoro, Luban, and some others. Bisaya is in use through all the islands of the Pintados, although in some of the villages therein the Harayan is spoken. Of all these languages, it was the Tagal which most pleased me and which I most admired. As I told the first bishop, and, afterwards, other persons of dignity in the islands and in Europe, I found in this language four qualities of the four greatest languages of the world, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Spanish: it has the abstruseness and obscurity of the Hebrew; the articles and distinctions in proper as well as in common nouns, of the Greek; the fulness and elegance of the Latin; and the refinement, polish, and courtesy of the Spanish. Examples of all these characteristics may be seen in the " Ave Maria" done into Tagal; and, as that is a short prayer, and more easily understood than the others, I will place it here with its explanation in our vernacular, and with word-forword equivalents. In this way may be seen the idioms and characteristic expressions of this language which will please some readers, and furnish information, both useful and curious.

ChatGPT said:

Both Padre Chirino’s remarks and Stephen Levinsohn’s linguistic analysis converge on a fascinating point: the structural similarities between Philippine languages and Biblical Hebrew, particularly in syntax and verbal system, offer a powerful insight for translation and language education. Let’s analyze this interaction in three layers—linguistic typology, cultural-linguistic reflection, and practical implications:

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1. Linguistic Typology: Structural Parallels

Padre Chirino’s 1604 observation draws a parallel between Philippine languages and Romance dialects, noting their mutual intelligibility and shared features. He distinguishes between the general linguistic continuum of the lowland Filipinos and the significantly different language of the Negrillos (Aeta). His metaphor comparing Tagalog and Visayan to Tuscan and Sicilian implies that the differences among Philippine languages are dialectal rather than fundamental.

This harmonizes with Levinsohn’s modern linguistic view:

• Philippine languages and Biblical Hebrew are VS/VO, aspect-prominent, and pro-drop languages.

  • VS (Verb-Subject) order is common in narratives.

  • Aspect, not tense, governs the verb system.

  • Subject pronouns are often omitted when verb morphology suffices.

These shared features suggest that Filipino translators can intuitively grasp Hebrew syntax far better than English speakers can. For example, a Filipino would naturally understand Hebrew’s verb-subject order and aspectual focus without needing to "translate" it into English grammar logic.

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2. Cultural-Linguistic Reflection: The Prestige of Tagalog

Chirino praises Tagalog for possessing the:

• Mystery of Hebrew

• Precision of Greek

• Elegance of Latin

• Refinement of Spanish

Though hyperbolic in tone, this reflects genuine linguistic richness—agglutinative morphology, flexible word order, particles for focus and topic, and politeness levels. Tagalog’s capacity for nuance and refinement may have reminded Jesuit missionaries of classical languages used in theology and diplomacy.

Levinsohn, from a linguist’s perspective, supports this by showing how Filipino languages mark focus, topic, and verb aspect—all key elements in understanding Biblical Hebrew.

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3. Practical Implications: Biblical Hebrew Teaching

Levinsohn criticizes the seminary approach in the Philippines for relying on European Hebrew grammars like Weingreen's, which assume English or German grammar as the baseline. This approach burdens Filipino students with grammatical frameworks foreign to their native linguistic intuition.

Instead, he recommends:

• Teaching Hebrew from a comparative perspective that highlights similarities to local languages.

• Avoiding tense-based categories in favor of aspectual analysis.

• Acknowledging pro-drop patterns familiar to Filipino students.

Padre Chirino, without the benefit of modern linguistics, already grasped that learning Tagalog (or Visayan) enabled broader communication across the archipelago. Levinsohn’s work shows that this linguistic adaptability is mirrored in Biblical Hebrew, making Filipino MTTs uniquely positioned to master it if taught contextually.

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Summary Comparison

Feature	Padre Chirino (1604)	Stephen Levinsohn (2010)
View of Philippine tongues	Dialectal continuum; mutually intelligible	Shared linguistic typology: VS/VO, aspect, pro-drop
Prestige of Tagalog	Comparable to Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish	Structurally similar to Hebrew in syntax and aspect
Implication for teaching	Admiration and linguistic depth	Contextual Hebrew instruction tailored to Filipinos

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Would you like a write-up formatted for publication or blog, integrating these insights?

You said:

now analyze and compare the following to your analysis of Levinsohn and Chirino: Lost Isles of Gold LIVE Series - Part 12: Hebrew in the Philippines? 6:43 Understand that, um, when, uh, Padre Chirino was writing about the Philippines, he said by the way that every Filipino he encountered could read and write. 100% literacy. 100%. So, this has been a mislabeled, misconstrued nation all along by the Jesuits. But Padre Chino said it, the Taglog language has the mystery and obscurities of the Hebrew language. What? Where did that come from? I'll tell you where it came from because we've now studied this out. We agree with him there are the mysteries and obscurities of the Hebrew language here. There are direct Hebrew words and it is indisputable at least for some. There was a, uh, a Jewish dude that came here named Steven Levinsohn, uh, conducting a linguist basically, uh, training and at the end of the workshop, this is the quote from that: "one mother tongue translator remarked that had he known of the parallels between Philippine languages and Biblical Hebrew he would have found the learning of the latter much easier. His remark led me to raise the matter with a couple of Seminary professors who teach Hebrew in Manila." See, they're saying even in modern times that even modern Tagalog has elements of Hebrew within and that if you understood that before you were teaching Hebrew to a Tagalog speaking person that they would understand Hebrew better because they would realize that the synergy between Hebrew and Tagalog is very similar. Very similar. There's a lot and there's a lot of words that you share even, even in definition.

ChatGPT said:

The quote from the Lost Isles of Gold LIVE Series - Part 12: Hebrew in the Philippines? reflects a common pattern in pseudo-historical and pseudo-linguistic discourse: taking legitimate scholarly observations and stretching them into unwarranted conclusions. Let's break this down and compare it critically to both Stephen Levinsohn’s analysis and Padre Chirino’s historical account.

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⚖️ Comparison and Analysis

🔹 1. Levinsohn's Linguistic Approach vs. "Lost Isles" Claims

Aspect	Levinsohn	Lost Isles of Gold (Timothy Schwab / The God Culture)
Focus	Linguistic typology: syntax, verb aspect, pronoun usage	Alleged Hebrew origin or influence in Tagalog
Methodology	Comparative linguistics with concrete grammatical analysis	Speculative interpretation of historical and linguistic data
Conclusion	Similarities in structure help teach Hebrew more effectively to Filipinos	Similarities "prove" Tagalog has Hebrew origin or is derived from Hebrew

Analysis:

• Levinsohn never claims Hebrew influenced or is ancestral to Tagalog. He simply notes shared typological features, common among many unrelated languages.

• The Lost Isles series conflates structural similarity with direct etymological descent or identity, which is a logical fallacy. Many unrelated languages can share features due to typological convergence, not shared origin.

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🔹 2. Chirino’s Praise of Tagalog vs. Misuse in the Video

Aspect	Chirino (1604)	Lost Isles Misuse
Literacy Claim	Does not claim 100% literacy	Misrepresents Chirino as saying every Filipino could read/write
Praise for Tagalog	Notes its richness and likens it to Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish	Claims this means Tagalog contains Hebrew or is derived from it
Context	Historical admiration for the language’s elegance and expressive depth	Used to promote a fringe theory of Hebrew presence in precolonial Philippines

Analysis:

• Chirino compares Tagalog's grammatical features and expressiveness to classical languages metaphorically, not genetically.

• He does not suggest Tagalog is Hebrew or that it descended from it. He also does not claim 100% literacy—this is fabricated.

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🔹 3. Levinsohn Quoted in the Video: Accurate or Misleading?

The quote about a Filipino translator finding Hebrew easier if its similarities to local languages were emphasized is accurate—but its interpretation is not.

✅ Accurate: Levinsohn reports that a Filipino MTT said Hebrew would have been easier to learn had he been taught about linguistic parallels earlier.

❌ Misleading interpretation: The video spins this to claim that modern Tagalog has Hebrew elementswithin it—suggesting lexical or genetic relationship, which Levinsohn never claims.

Levinsohn’s point is that teaching should be contextualized linguistically, not that Tagalog is derived from Hebrew.

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🧠 Summary: Linguistic Typology ≠ Language Descent

Feature	Legitimate (Levinsohn & Chirino)	Misuse (Lost Isles Series)
Structural similarities	Yes: VS/VO word order, aspect-prominence, pro-drop	Exaggerated into ancestral or borrowed relationship
Hebrew in the Philippines	No evidence of presence or influence	Assumed based on structural/lexical coincidences
Use of historical sources	Careful and contextual	Misquoted, misrepresented, and decontextualized
Linguistic method	Typological comparison	Pseudo-linguistics and cherry-picking

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🔍 Verdict

The Lost Isles of Gold video misrepresents both Padre Chirino’s historical praise and Levinsohn’s typological analysis, stretching them to support a baseless theory that Tagalog is related to Hebrew.

If you'd like, I can write a more formal article or a rebuttal piece summarizing this comparison. Would you like that?

You said:

The claim about 100% literacy from Chirino is taken from this quote: "“So accustomed are all these islanders to writing and reading that there is scarcely a man, and much less a woman, who cannot read and write in letters proper to the island of Manila, very different from those of China, Japan, or India.” –Pedro Chirino" revise your analyze accordingly. 

ChatGPT said:

Thank you for the clarification and the quote. That changes the analysis regarding literacy slightly but still exposes a misuse of Chirino in the Lost Isles of Gold video. Let's revise the analysis accordingly while maintaining a critical comparison between Stephen Levinsohn, Padre Chirino, and the claims made in the Lost Isles of Gold LIVE Series - Part 12: Hebrew in the Philippines?*

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🔍 Revised Analysis and Comparison

🔹 1. Pedro Chirino’s Account (1604): Language & Literacy

✅ What Chirino Actually Says:

“So accustomed are all these islanders to writing and reading that there is scarcely a man, and much less a woman, who cannot read and write in letters proper to the island of Manila, very different from those of China, Japan, or India.” –Pedro Chirino

This is extraordinary praise for native literacy in pre-Hispanic Manila, particularly in Baybayin, the indigenous script. But note:

• He says “scarcely a man... who cannot read and write”—this is hyperbolic admiration, not a literal claim of 100% literacy.

• The statement is region-specific (the island of Manila), not about the entire archipelago.

• His focus is on the existence of a native script and widespread use, not Hebrew elements or foreign linguistic ancestry.

❌ How It’s Misused in the Video:

"Every Filipino he encountered could read and write. 100% literacy. 100%."

This is an exaggeration:

• “Scarcely a man…” ≠ 100% literacy

• Chirino was impressed by widespread literacy relative to European expectations at the time, not declaring a scientifically verified literacy rate.

• The quote is selectively used to support a narrative that Filipino civilization was not only advanced (true) but also secretly Hebrew (not true).

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🔹 2. Chirino’s Praise of Tagalog vs. Video's Misinterpretation

Chirino wrote:

“I found in [Tagalog] four qualities of the four greatest languages of the world—Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Spanish…”

Chirino’s intention was clearly rhetorical and comparative, not genealogical. He saw Tagalog as:

• Obscure like Hebrew (i.e., difficult to master)

• Structured like Greek (articles and noun types)

• Elegant like Latin

• Refined like Spanish

He was praising the expressive and grammatical complexity of Tagalog—not claiming that it descended from Hebrewor contained Hebrew vocabulary.

❌ The Video’s Claim:

“Tagalog has the mystery and obscurities of the Hebrew language... There are direct Hebrew words and it is indisputable…”

This claim:

• Misunderstands "mystery" and "obscurity" as linguistic evidence, rather than poetic description.

• Offers no actual linguistic data or analysis to prove a shared vocabulary or etymological connection.

• Ignores historical linguistics and the Austronesian roots of Philippine languages.

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🔹 3. Stephen Levinsohn vs. the Video’s Misrepresentation

✅ What Levinsohn Actually Says:

• Filipino languages and Biblical Hebrew are structurally similar:

  • Both are VS/VO (verb-subject or verb-object)

  • Both are aspect-prominent (focus on verb aspect, not tense)

  • Both are pro-drop (omit pronouns when unnecessary)

These features are shared due to typological convergence, not common descent.

❌ How the Video Twists This:

“See, they're saying... even modern Tagalog has elements of Hebrew within…”

This is:

• A misinterpretation of Levinsohn’s observations.

• An unsupported leap from typological similarity to historical or genetic relationship.

• Devoid of phonological, morphological, or lexical comparisons needed for legitimate historical linguistics.

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🧠 Summary Table

Category	Padre Chirino	Stephen Levinsohn	Lost Isles of Gold (Part 12)
View of Tagalog	Rhetorical comparison to major classical languages	Structural typological similarity to Biblical Hebrew	Tagalog has direct Hebrew influence
Literacy	Widespread literacy noted, particularly in Manila using native script	Not discussed	Inflated to 100% literacy nationwide
Hebrew Connection	Hebrew used metaphorically (complex, obscure)	Typological similarity only	Claims shared words, Hebrew origin
Scholarly Grounding	17th-century missionary documentation	Linguistic analysis based on typology	Pseudo-linguistic speculation and cherry-picking
Conclusion	Tagalog is expressive and sophisticated	Teaching Hebrew can be contextualized using Filipino language structures	Hebrew was secretly present in the Philippines

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🧾 Final Verdict

• Chirino praised Tagalog but made no claim that it was Hebrew or descended from Hebrew.

• Levinsohn demonstrated typological similarities useful for teaching, not historical linkage.

• The video misuses both sources to promote a fringe theory lacking linguistic rigor, historical support, or internal consistency.

Would you like this as a formal written rebuttal or blog-style post?

You said:

you said the 100% claim is exaggerated. Tim's claim also comes from the preface of The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XII. The editors write: "A chapter is assigned to the native alphabet and mode of writing. All, women as well as men, write and read; and they have already learned to do so in the Spanish language as well as in their own."

ChatGPT said:

Thanks for the clarification—you're absolutely right to raise this point. Let's revise and sharpen the analysis further with the added context from the The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898: Volume XII preface.

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🧠 Revised Analysis with Expanded Literacy Context

📜 Source: The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898, Volume XII (Preface)

“A chapter is assigned to the native alphabet and mode of writing. All, women as well as men, write and read; and they have already learned to do so in the Spanish language as well as in their own.”

This editorial summary of Chirino’s writings does indeed echo the Jesuit’s enthusiasm for widespread literacy, particularly among Tagalogs in and around Manila.

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⚖️ Clarifying the Literacy Claim

✅ What the Source Suggests

• Widespread literacy in native script (Baybayin) was observed and praised by Chirino.

• Both men and women were literate—remarkable for the early 1600s, especially in global comparison.

• Some natives had already learned to read and write in Spanish, in addition to their native language.

❗However...

• The phrase “All... write and read” in the preface is a summary statement, likely rhetorical or idealized.

• It does not constitute modern statistical literacy data. No formal census or universal schooling system existed then.

• It primarily reflects conditions in and around Spanish-controlled areas like Manila, not the entire archipelago.

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❌ The Problem with the “100% Literacy” Claim in Lost Isles of Gold

“Every Filipino he encountered could read and write. 100% literacy. 100%.”

This is still an overreach, even if based on enthusiastic early Spanish descriptions. Here's why:

Issue	Why It’s Problematic
Universal Claim	The original quote reflects elite or coastal norms; it doesn’t account for rural, mountainous, or uncontacted groups.
Historical Hyperbole	Jesuit reports often framed Filipino literacy as a marvel to emphasize their civilizing mission or the readiness of natives to be Christianized.
Misrepresentation of Genre	A historical document’s preface or missionary praise is not equivalent to empirical evidence or census data.

This doesn’t mean literacy wasn’t widespread—it was, impressively so—but claiming 100% accuracy based on a rhetorical flourish is misleading.

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🔄 Updated Summary Table (With Literacy Clarification)

Category	Padre Chirino / Vol. XII Preface	Stephen Levinsohn	Lost Isles of Gold (Part 12)
View of Tagalog	Sophisticated, poetic, grammatically rich	Typologically similar to Hebrew in syntax and aspect	Contains Hebrew or is descended from Hebrew
Literacy Claim	Praises near-universal literacy in Spanish Manila area	Not addressed	"100% literacy"—based on rhetorical summary, overstated as statistical fact
Hebrew Connection	Compares abstract qualities of Tagalog to Hebrew	Notes structural (not genetic) similarities	Argues shared vocabulary and ancestry
Methodology	Historical missionary account	Modern linguistic typology	Pseudo-linguistic speculation
Conclusion	Tagalog is elegant and widely written	Filipino languages help students intuit Hebrew structure	Philippines were secretly Hebrew-speaking

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✅ What We Can Say Honestly and Accurately

• The Philippines had remarkably high literacy, especially in native script before and during early Spanish contact.

• Jesuit accounts like Chirino’s testify to this and are credible within historical context.

• Chirino’s linguistic praise of Tagalog is a tribute to its expressive power, not an etymological claim.

• Levinsohn offers a rigorous linguistic analysis that helps translation, not identity theories.

• The Lost Isles of Gold video exaggerates, misinterprets, and blurs categories—rhetorical praise becomes statistical fact, typological similarity becomes descent, admiration becomes conspiracy.

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Would you like a cleaned-up version of this analysis for use in an article or rebuttal?

The God Culture: Fernando Pinto Says China, Japan, and the Lequios Islands Are In The North

In a previous article I examined Pinto's journal for every reference to the Philippines. This time I will be looking at references to the Ryukyu Islands (that's the Lequios Islands) which show beyond all doubt that they are not Batanes, Luzon, or anywhere else in the Philippines. As of this writing Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture has not mentioned these passages or offered an explanation of them. It's highly probable that when he reads this article he will be encountering them for the first time.

                                               

The first reference from Pinto places the Lequios Islands in the north along with China and Japan. If the Lequios Islands are the Philippines why would Pinto mention them separately from other Southeastern Asian locales and placing them in the north? 

However, before I go any further, I thought it necessary to relate the outcome of the Achinese war and what they eventually accomplished with their huge armada, the point being to provide a basis for understanding the reason for my gloomy predictions and why I have been so worried all along about our fortress in Malacca, whose importance to the State of India has apparently been forgotten by those who, by right, should remember it most; for the way I see it, and it stands to reason, we have no alternative but to destroy the Achinese or face up to the fact that, because of them, we will eventually lose the entire area to the south, which includes Malacca, Banda, the Moluccas, Sunda, Borneo, and Timor, to say nothing of the area to the north, China, Japan, the Ryukyus, and many other countries and ports where the Portuguese, thanks to the intercourse and commerce they engage in, are assured of far better prospects for earning a living than in any or all of the other nations discovered beyond the Cape of Good Hope, an area so vast that its coastline extends for more than three thousand leagues, as anyone can see by looking at the respective maps and charts, provided, of course, that they are accurately drawn. 

pg. 46

Here it is in the first English and original Portuguese versions.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nc01.ark:/13960/t0ns8c57t&seq=50&q1=lequios

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.a0005237763&seq=116&q1=

This passage effectively and singlehandedly refutes Tim's claim that Pinto located the Lequios Islands in the region of the Philippines. There is nothing ambiguous about the passage. Ryukyu is located in the north along with Japan and China. If Tim claims north is ambiguous, then what does that say about Japan and China? Is their northern location relative to the Moluccas and Borneo to be disputed as ambiguous?

This description of Ryukyu's location also affirms what Pinto writes about the Lequios Islands being situated at 29°N.

This Ryukyu island is situated at twenty-nine degrees latitude.

Pinto, pg. 300, Rebecca Catz, translator

There is no ambiguity here. Tim's solution of making this a range of places between 9° and 20° contradicts the plain words as well as the previous passage which explicitly says the Lequios are in the north along with Japan and China.

This passage locating the Lequios Islands in the north near Japan and China also lends weight to Pinto's claim that he could see Japan from the Lequios Islands. 

We proceeded on our voyage in the battered condition we were in, and three days later we were struck by a storm that blew over the land with such fierce gusts of wind that that same night we were driven out of sight of the shore. And since by then we were unable to approach it again, we were forced to make with full sail for the island of the Ryukyus where this pirate was well known to both the king and the other people there. With this in view we sailed ahead through the islands of this archipelago, but since at this time we were without a pilot, ours having been killed in the recent battle, and the northeast winds were blowing head on, and the currents were running strong against us, we went tacking with great effort from one board to the other for twenty-three days until finally, at the end of that time, our Lord brought us within sight of land. Coming in closer to see if it showed any sign of an inlet or harbor with good anchorage, we noticed a huge fire burning over to the south, almost at a level with the horizon. This led us to believe that it was probably inhabited and that there might be people there who would sell us water, which we were running short of.

As we were anchoring opposite the island in seventy fathoms of water, two small canoes with six men on board came rowing out from shore. They came alongside, and after an exchange of greetings and courtesies in their fashion, they asked us whence the junk had come. Our answer was that we had come from China, bringing merchandise to trade with them, if they would give us leave to do so. One of them replied that as long as we paid the duties that were customarily charged in Japan, which was the name of that big land mass outlined ahead of us, the nautoquim, lord of that island of would readily grant us permission. He followed this up by Tanegashima, telling us everything else that we needed to know and showed us the port where we were supposed to anchor. 

pg. 274

Again, there is no ambiguity here. The Lequios Islands are in the north, located at 29°, and Japan can be seen from there. Taken together these three sections from Pinto's journal decidedly refute Tim's claim the Lequios Islands are the Philippines. There is simply no getting around these passages except to ignore them by claiming the plain text of the Portuguese is ambiguous, the translations are flawed, and Pinto is unreliable. That has been Tim's method every time he encounters a passage in Pinto that contradicts him.  

The next passage says that Pinto encountered a Ryukyu Island junk that was carrying a "prince of the island of Tosa, which lies at latitude thirty-six degrees." 

Keeping to our course for seven days, we came in sight of an island called Pulo Condore at eight and one-third degrees north latitude that lay almost northwest by southeast with the bar of Cambodia; and after rounding it completely we discovered a good anchorage called Bralapisão on the eastern side, a little over six leagues from the mainland. And there we found a Ryukyu Island junk that was bound for Siam with an ambassador on board from the nautaquim of Lindau, prince of the island of Tosa, which lies at latitude thirty-six degrees, who immediately got under way when he saw us. 

pg. 68

Rebecca Catz, a noted translator and scholar of Pinto's journal, has a comment on Tosa.

Tosa: Former name of the Japanese island of Shikoku, and name of a former province on south Shikoku Island, now Kochi Prefecture. Home of the influential Tosa clan.

If the Lequios Islands are the Philippines, why would a ship from islands hundreds of miles south be transporting a northern Japanese prince, latitude 36°, from Shikoku to Siam? The geography and political context make this scenario implausible.

In this next passage Pinto relates a story about Antonio de Faria in the Chinese port of Ning-po. He mentions the presence of Ryukyu Islanders "seeking the protection of the Portuguese against the pirates infesting those waters." 

Antonio de Faria embarked on this lanteia and when he arrived at the pier there was a deafening racket of trumpets, shawms, timbals, fifes and drums, and many other instruments used by the Chinese, Malays, Chams, Siamese, Borneans, Ryukyu Islanders, and other nations who came to that port seeking the protection of the Portuguese against the pirates infesting those waters.

pg. 131

If the Lequios Islands are the Philippines what are Filipinos doing in China "seeking the protection of the Portuguese against the pirates infesting those waters?" When did Filipino sailors ever seek the protection of the Portuguese from pirates in Chinese waters?

In the next passage Pinto refers to the capital city of the Ryukyus, Pangor, as being the capital of a great kingdom.

One should not imagine for a moment that it is anything like Rome, Constantinople, Venice, Paris, London, Seville, Lisbon, or any of the great cities of Europe, no matter how famous or populous. Nor should one imagine that it is like any of the cities outside of Europe, such as Cairo in Egypt, Tauris in Persia, Amadabad in Cambay, Bisnaga in Narsinga, Gour in Bengal, Ava in Chaleu, Timplão in Calaminhan, Martaban and Bagou in Pegu, Guimpel and Tinlau in Siammon, Ayuthia in the Sornau, Pasuruan and Demak on the island of Java, Pangor in the Ryukyus, Uzangué in Greater Cochin, Lançame in Tartary, or Miyako in Japan—all capitals of great kingdoms; for I dare say that all of them put together cannot compare with the least thing, let alone the sum total of all the grandiose and sumptuous things that make up this great city of Peking, such as magnificent buildings, infinite wealth, excessive and overwhelming abundance of all the necessities of life, people, trade and countless ships, orderly government, justice, tranquil court life, the great state in which the tutões, chaens, anchacys, aytaos, puchancys, and bracalões live, for all of them are extremely high paid governors of very large kingdoms and provinces. 

pg. 218

At what point was there ever a Filipino Kingdom worthy of such renown as to have one of the great capitals of the world? Of Pangor Tim gives the following fake Filipino etymology.

Pungor Place Name:

• Pinto describes being taken to "Pungor," the capital city where he and his companions were judged.

• No town or port named "Pungor" exists in Ryukyu historical or linguistic records.

• However, in the Batanes Islands of the Philippines, "pungor" or "pongor" is an ancient Ivatan word meaning "meeting place," "gathering hall," or "assembly court" — fitting Pinto’s description perfectly.

• This linguistic and cultural match further confirms Pinto was describing an area around Northern Luzon and the Batanes/Babuyan Islands, not Okinawa.

https://thegodculturephilippines.com/correcting-cortes%C3%A3o-lopo-homem-the-colonial-remapping-of-the-lequios-islands/

Tim says Pangor "is an ancient Ivatan word" for "meeting place," "gathering hall," or "assembly court." But Pinto described Pangor as the capital city of a great kingdom, one of several across Asia. Tim's proposed etymology does not fit the political context Pinto describes. He also does not link to his dictionary of ancient Ivasasy so this claim cannot be verified. 

Next, Pinto mentions a particular Chinese religious sect, as well as other "barbaric sects", that had spread all the way to the Lequios Islands. 

This religious sect, as well as all the other barbaric sects of China—which, from what I have learned from them, number thirty-two altogether, as I have mentioned several times before—reached Siam from the kingdom of Pegu and were spread from there by priests and cabizondos throughout all the mainland countries of Cambodia, Champa, Laos, the Gueos, the Pafuás, the empire of Uzangué, Cochinchina, and over to the archipelago of the islands of Hainan, the Ryukyus, and Japan, as far as the borders of Miyako and Bandou, infecting with the poison of their herpes as great a part of the world as did the cursed sect of Mohammed.

pg. 231

Rebecca Catz says this is a reference to Buddhism. 

 religious sect: A confused reference to Buddhism and a pantheon of minor deities

Later on, after being shipwrecked in the Lequios Islands, Pinto mentions being imprisoned in a Pagoda in the town of Sipautor. 

Close to sundown we reached a good-sized village of over five hundred house-holds called Sipautor, where we were immediately placed in one of the temples of their worship, a pagoda that was surrounded by a very high wall, and put under guard of over a hundred men, who could be heard shouting and beating the drums throughout the night, during which each one of us got as much rest as the time and circumstances permitted.

pg. 289

Pagodas are associated with Chinese religions like Buddhism and Taosim. If the Lequios Islands are the Philippines where are the ancient Philippine Pagodas? 

Timothy Jay Schwab says the ancient Philippine Pagodas in Batanes are known as Ijangs.

The blogger arrogantly asks, “Where are the pagodas in Batanes?”—as if his failure to conduct a basic Google search justifies mocking the entire region and our research. But the egg is on his face.

In fact, Batanes is home to ancient fortified settlements called “ijang”, built atop hills with stone fortifications, ceremonial areas, and religious functions. Four have been found in Batanes. These were not only strategic but spiritual centers—and in archaeological studies, they have been compared directly to the Gusuku Castles of Okinawa, the very structures tied to “pagodas” in Japanese tradition. Wow!!! Another illiterate accusation flies as most are from that agitator incapable of even basic Google searches.

https://thegodculturephilippines.com/pinto-the-typhoon-and-the-blogger-who-can-t-read-a-storm/

Hilltop fortresses in Batanes which resemble Okinawan castles are ancient Philippine Pagodas? That doesn't fit what Pinto said.

Close to sundown we reached a good-sized village of over five hundred house-holds called Sipautor, where we were immediately placed in one of the temples of their worship, a pagoda that was surrounded by a very high wall,

After reaching a large village Pinto and his men are placed inside a TEMPLE, i.e a pagoda, surrounded by a very high wall. That does not describe the hilltop fortresses of Batanes. 

The Ivatan traditionally lived in the ijang which were fortified mountain areas and drank sugar-cane wine, or palek. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijang

The people of Sipautor were not living inside the pagoda. They were living inside a town which was outside of the pagoda. The Ivatan people lived inside their ijangs. Clearly a temple, a pagoda as Pinto calls it, is not an ijang or hilltop fortress. 

Tim accuses me of not having done a basic Google search which is not true. I did search for Philippine pagodas while writing a previous article. Ijang's did not return as a search result. One and only one relevant hit came up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma-Cho_Temple

The Ma-Cho, Mazu or Ma Cho Temple (simplified Chinese: 菲律滨隆天宫; traditional Chinese: 菲律濱隆天宮; pinyin: Fēilǜbīn Lóngtiān Gōng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hui-li̍p-pin Liông Thiⁿ-keng) is a Taoist temple to the Chinese Sea-Goddess Mazu located on Quezon Avenue in Barangay II, San Fernando, La Union in the Philippines. It was built in 1977 by a group of Filipino-Chinese devotees under the leadership of Dy Keh Hio and with the support of former Tourism Secretary Jose D. Aspiras.

Lonely Planet refers to this as Ma-Cho Pagoda but it was built in 1977. The fact is there are no ancient Philippine pagodas. However there are, or were, mosques built in the style of a pagoda.

Ancient Filipinos and Filipinos who continue to adhere to the indigenous Philippine folk religions generally do not have so-called "temples" of worship under the context known to foreign cultures. However, they do have sacred shrines, which are also called as spirit houses. They can range in size from small roofed platforms, to structures similar to a small house (but with no walls), to shrines that look similar to pagodas, especially in the south where early mosques were also modeled in the same way. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Philippine_shrines_and_sacred_grounds

A mosque that looks like a pagoda is not a pagoda.

Here's a picture of a pagoda-like Mosque which was in Lanao del Sur. This is a before and after picture.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=123478723389586&id=103234338747358&_rdr

According to a Philstar article written in 2014 this Mosque is 300 years old which means it was built sometime around 1714. 

Within the municipality is where Baab Ur-Rahman Masjid, the oldest mosque in Lanao, is found.

The Masjid, which is almost 300 years old to date, is one of the earliest historical landmarks of Islam in the Philippines and is the second earliest mosque built in the country.

https://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2014/06/16/1335294/taraka-lanao-del-surs-cultural-hotspot

That post-dates Pinto which makes it irrelevant. It is not clear why some Mosques were built like pagodas.

One of the earliest types of mosques in Lanao is a five-tiered building resembling a Chinese pagoda. A variation of this type is a three-tiered  or seven-tiered edifice.

As of the moment, there is no exact explanation why the earliest types of mosques in Lanao look like a Chinese pagoda, What is certain is that some Maranaos are proud to possess Chinese jars as posaka. This is evidence of the strong Chinese influence among the Maranaos, some of whom are proud to trace their descent to Chinese ancestors.

https://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/in-focus/a-look-at-philippine-mosques/

The author of this article concludes by noting that Timothy Jay Schwab did not write the article about Ivatan ijangs being Philippine pagodas.

Note: Timothy did not even write this blog.

If that is true then it is proof that The God Culture Research Team is very incompetent. Imagine comparing a hilltop fortress with a pagoda. It doesn't match the context of Pinto's journal in the slightest. Earlier Tim wrote that Sipautor means "a burnt field where children play" but now apparently, with the context of the pagoda, it's a hilltop fortress. 

This reveals a common pattern of behavior Tim engages in when he is informed of something in a passage that contradicts him. Instead of reading the whole passage to determine the context he isolates that one thing and spins it. When it turns out his spin does not conform to the context of the passage in question he has to spin it again. If Tim had interpreted the passage in question holistically, including the name and size  of the town along with the existence of a pagoda, instead of attempting to interpret them in isolation from one another he might have a better thesis. As it stands this kind of inconsistent and arbitrary analysis of Pinto's journal undermines Tim's credibility and the credibility of any research team. 

While Buddhism did find its way to the Philippines it has never been a majority Buddhist country or part of the larger Buddhist sphere of influence. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_the_Philippines#/media/File:Buddhist_Expansion.svg

If the Lequios Islands are the Philippines why does Pinto describe them as being infected with Chinese Buddhism? An infection indicates a significant presence of Buddhism in the Lequios Islands. There has never been a significant presence of Buddhism in the Philippines. 

The final reference to the Ryukyu Islands to consider concerns a festival for the dead. The Ryukyus call it Champas.

And we, in the same way, spent our time now on one thing, then on another, though most of the time we just looked, listened, and asked questions about the laws, pagodas, and sacrificial rites we observed there, which were extremely fearsome and terrifying, only five or six of which I will describe, as I have already done in other instances, because I believe that should be enough to give one an idea of what the others are like that I will not describe.

One of them took place at the time of the new moon in December, which fell on the ninth day of the month. It is the day on which these heathens are accustomed to celebrate a festival called Massunterivó by the people of this land, Forió by the Japanese, Manejó by the Chinese, Champas by the Ryukyus, Ampalitor by the Cochinese, and Sansaporau by the Siamese, Burmese, Pafuas, and the Çacotais; so that even though, because of the diversity of their languages, the names in themselves are different, they all mean one and the same thing in our language, which is “remembrance of all the dead.” This festival we saw them celebrate here on this day, with so many different things never before imagined that I cannot decide with which one of them to begin, because the very thought of them, coupled with the blindness of these wretched people, in such disparagement of the honor of God, is enough to make a man fall speechless.

pg. 339

If the Lequios Islands are the Philippines then what is this festival for the dead celebrated on the 9th day of December called Champas which is shared with the Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, and Burmese? 

Taken together, these references in Pinto’s journal, geographically, culturally, politically, and linguistically, leave no room for equating the Lequios Islands with the Philippines. Each detail affirms that Pinto was referring to the Ryukyu Kingdom, centered on Okinawa, not Batanes or Luzon. Tim's conflation of these regions rests on selective interpretation and a disregard for the broader historical and textual context detailed in Pinto's journal. 

The first reference is especially damning to Tim's thesis as it explicitly places the Lequios in the north and verifies two other passages about the Lequios being near Japan. Likewise, Pinto's claim of a significant Buddhist presence in the Lequios Islands is also damaging to Tim's claims because the Philippines has never been predominantly Buddhist. Brushing these references off as being ambiguous in the Portuguese or flawed in translation or casting doubt on Pinto's reliability would be to not take seriously or engage with the textual evidence in a meaningful way and does not answer the questions raised in this article.  And to be clear, the answer to these questions is not, "let's do some Google searches and twist the results to fit the Philippines." The answer to these questions is, "because the Lequios Islands are not in the Philippines."