The God Culture: Samuel Purchas On Ophir, Tarshish, and The Philippines
Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture makes a lot of unsubstantiated claims in his books and videos. That is par for the course as anyone keeping up should know by now. One claim he continually makes is that Samuel Purchas ignored the Philippines and wrote propaganda for Britain about Ophir. This is 100% wrong. Samuel Purchas never wrote propaganda about Ophir and he certainly never ignored the existence of the Philippines. In fact his testimony about the Philippines played a role in determining where the first Easter celebration took place in this nation. Let's take a look at Tim's claims and then let's take a look at what Samuel Purchas actually wrote.
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| Answers in First Enoch Part 11: Ancient Historic Maps to Garden of Eden |
29:51 Yes, we cover Samuel Purchas and this admission of him being paid, uh, I think was a hundred pounds, uh, to commit his propaganda and he wrote a nice thick position where he just ignored that the Philippines even existed. Yeah, that's not, that's stupid is what it is. Uh, it's propaganda. So that was in about 1625 or so, uh, even as they paid him to write about Ophir without ever acknowledging the Portuguese data which he ignores completely nor the Spanish. I mean that is about as ridiculous as one can be.
Much of this case originates with Samuel Purchas from “Purchas His Pilgrims” in 1625. Purchas assumes Ophir in India and the British East Indies, only British territories of course. He cites historians who are basing their assumptions on etymology and uses antiquated geography ignoring Magellan completely. He intimates Tarshish as Peru perhaps. This was a British find in which Sir Francis Bacon, the Freemason, was obsessed. Right or wrong, it proves though, the British did not believe Tarshish was Britain.
Solomon's Treasure, pg. 215
It's incredible how Tim can make a statement and everything be factually wrong. The first thing to notice here is that in all of his videos or his books Timothy Jay Schwab only cites the words of Samuel Purchas one time and he gets the source wrong.
“Lastly, Peru could not be Ophir, if wee conceiue that SALOMON brought thence Iuorie; and Peacockes. For Peacockes they read Parrots, and for Iuorie they are forced to take it vp by the way in some place of Africa or India, which distraction must needs prolong the Voyage, which without such lets could not (as before is obserued) in three yeares bee performed.” [262]
262. “Purchas his Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all ages and places discovered, from the Creation unto this present.” By Samuel Purchas. Book 1. Printed by William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone. 1626. Chap. VIII. p. 27.
Solomon's Gold, pgs. 224 and 376
The real source for that citation is Vol 1, Chapter 8, pg. 73. How does Tim constantly get his citations wrong?
By all accounts Tim has not read Purchas. Purchas wrote 134 pages in volume 1 about Ophir discussing possible locations and even, gasp, testing the resources and Tim has nothing to say about that. Tim seems to think he is the only person who has tested the resources of Ophir but he is dead wrong because Purchas did it first. He even discusses the possible route and how a three year voyage to the east in ancient ships might fare. They would not be going as fast as modern ships plus they would be resting on the Sabbath which means they would be slow-going. He makes a lot of calculations which I will have to omit here. Needless to say Purchas is very thorough in discussing Ophir even going so far as to allegorize the journey to Ophir as a metaphor for our life in this world.
Or if you had rather adjoyne to the Allegory, the Anagogicall sense and use ; this History will appeare also a Mystery and Type of Eternitie. Every Christian man is a ship, a weake vessell, in this Navie of Solomon, and dwelling in a mortall body, is within lesse then foure inches, then one inch of death. From Jerusalem the Word and Law of our Solomon first proceeded, by preaching of Solomons and Hirams servants, the Pastors and Elect vessells to carry his Name, gathered out of Jewes and Gentiles, which guide these Ships through a stormy Sea, beginning at the Red Sea, Christs bloudy Crosse, which yeelded Water and Bloud, till they arrive at Ophir, the communion of Saints in the holy Catholike Church.
Pages 6-7
Also, he never implies that Tarshish is in Peru. That assertion is a total lie. In fact, the first place he mentions which might be Ophir is Peru and after he gives the arguments for that claim he dismisses it completely. Tim even acknowledges this. Purchas next pours over several more claims all of which he dismisses. One thing he does mention during this portion is that a Jesuit claimed the following:
The Jesuite Pineda (which out of Lemnius citeth these Arguments to prove that the Compasse is ancient) is no new thing as a Man; but as a person, as a Jesuite (a new order which beganne 1540.) as an Author which conceited, that that great fish which tooke up Jonas carried him in three dayes quite thorow the Mediterranean, and round about the African vast Circumference (statim atque deglutitur Jonas, revertitur coetus velocitate incredibili ad mare Indicum & Sivum Arabicum, per Mediterraneum & Gaditanum fretum, immani totius Africae circuitu, these are his own words) these are new things under the Sunne, and this a new interpretation, which himselfe prefaceth with Pape! novam & inauditam exponendi rationem! These particulars are new, and yet that text is true. I will not adde (that were too serious and severe) that all Jesuitisme is new, and their Expositions of Scriptures, Councels, Fathers for the Roman Monarchie, are all new, New-gay-no-things, Vanitie of vanities and vexation of spirit; yet to lye (the genus generalissimum of Jesuiticall tenents, as they are Jesuites ; Christians is a name too old for them) is as old as the old Serpent
Sir Walter Raleigh mentions Pineda's testimony in his History of the World. This is exactly what Tim teaches about Jonah.
Jonah must travel around Africa to fit his story.
Solomon's Gold, pg. 122
Not only is Tim's doctrine not new but it was taught by a Jesuit and even shows up in chapter 83 of Moby Dick. Is Timothy Jay Schwab aware he is teaching the rehashed and novel doctrine of a Jesuit?
Where does Purchas locate Ophir and Tarshish?
For Ophir we have before found it, the proper name of a man and of a Region denominated of him; but withal have acknowledged the Ophirian voyage to comprehend more then the Region of Ophir, including the other Indian Ports wherat they touched and traded in that voyage, especially the two Hands now called Seilan and Sumatra, and all places on the Coast within the Gulfe of Bengala, which might fit their purpose. It is usuall now to call an Indian voyage, not only to Iacatra, Bantam, or Banda, but thereto also they reckon their touching at Soldanha, on the maine of Afrike, or at the River of Saint Augustine in the great Hand of St. Laurence, and the Hands of Comoro, or Socatra, or wheresoever they arrive on the Abash or Mohan shoare in the Red Sea, or in any Arabike Port, or in the Persian Gulfe before they come to India: and there also Surat, Diul, Calicut, or wheresoever they touch besides on this side or beyond that principal Port where they make their Voyage, as they terme it, that is, where they take in their chiefe ladings. Of which, the following Relations will give you many instances. So the Straits Voyages, intimate not the meere sayling to or thorow the Straits of Gibraltar, in vulgar appellation, but all Voyages within those Straits whether to Venice, or Ligorne, or Zant, or Constanstinople, or Scanderone, or Alexandria, or in one Voyage to visit many or all of these Ports, is yet called but a Straits Voyage. We may yieeld thus much therefore to Acosta, the Ophir was a proper Countrey (as India also is) extending from Ganges to Menan, and betwixt the Lake Chiamay, and the Gulfe or Sea of Bengala; but as it happened, that India being the remotest knowne Region, gave name in old times to all later Discoveries beyond it, and in after times accidentally to the New World, which the first finders mistooke for Easterne India ; so also the Voyage to Ophir, accidentally might give name to all those Remote parts, and comprehend all the farre Ports, which by occasion of the Voyage to Ophir they visited, lying in the way thither, or somewhat wide or beyond. And as there is a Region truly and properly called India, even al that which extends from Indus (whence it is so named) to Ganges ; which name by others ignorance of the proper names of Regions, was extended further both beyond Ganges, and to all remote Regions; so was there a true Ophir, named of Ophir the sonne of Joktan, which occasioned other remote Countreyes to beare that appellation, at least in this Voyage thither.
But for Tharsis or Tarshish, or Tharshish ; we see Acosta himselfe in his finall upshot, to make an aut of it, Aut immensum mare, aut regiones semotissimas & valde peregrinas accipi solere. So that his former Proposition admits now another, that either it is the maine Ocean (which I take to be the true sense) or some remote Region.
After weighing all the evidence Purchas comes to the conclusion that Ophir is not just a specific county but an entire region and that Solmon's ships stopped at many ports, not just one. Ophir is in India and the surrounding region. As for Tarshish, Purchas does not think it is Peru or any other place but he claims it refers to the ocean. He goes on for several pages giving his reasons. This is not propaganda. This is one man's opinion based on his assessment of the facts he has before him. Tim is by no means bound to agree with Purchas' conclusions but he has no right to misrepresent what Purchas actually wrote. In fact, Tim does agree that India has the resources of Ophir.
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.
Solomon's Treasure, pgs. 110 and 115
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.
To get around this problem Tim writes the following:
Aurea in Latin is Chryse in Greek which is Ophir in Hebrew. He also ties this to the Indian land of golden antiquity and remember, India was vast in interpretation in those days from Afghanistan to the Indies including the Philippines.
Solomons's Gold, pg.34
26:14 Again, underneath within the earth is where the Garden of Eden is and lined by gold, the roof and the walls, which is why it is the land of gold and why that gold matters immensely. Not for money, monetary value but for sentimental value to Yahuah and that's what gave it value in the very first place.Notice the area in orange here. This is something and this is our mapping to explain this area. That's specifically why I'm using our mapping of this so this will make sense. Uh, notice what's missing in the perspective of this era. They did not typically map the Malay Peninsula. it's just not there. If it is there it's a tiny bump but it's not, it's not what we know is the Malay Peninsula which would impose the map. Um, nor Indochina. It's just not there. Again, maybe they'll pick a town you know or a city or whatever here or there but generally many of the maps of this era they just don't have it yet. Why? well because they were not physically going there at that time but they were determined to maintain this route in knowledge so it was not lost.
What does it mean that including the Malaysian Peninsula would "impose the map?" The missing orange area is the Malay Peninsula and Indochina. Tim's says it's missing because no one was sailing there when these directions were written in 70 AD but the Greeks had passed on knowledge of the Philippines so they tried to preserve the route to the Philippines even though they were missing Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula which one must pass to get to the Philippines from the West. So, theses Phoenician and Greek sailors passed on knowledge about the Philippines but not about the Malay Peninsula and the Strait of Malcca which is necessary to traverse to get to the Philippines? Ridiculous! He offers zero proof for this thesis. The cold hard fact is no one was sailing to the Philippines. 80 years later after the Periplus of the Erythean Sea was composed Ptolemy's world map would show the missing Malaysian Peninsula.
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy%27s_world_map |
Suffice to say Timothy Jay Schwab has no idea what he is talking about. All his arguments as to why the Malaysian Peninsula are missing are made-up ad hoc rubbish not supported by any facts.
That brings me to what Purchas had to say about the Philippines. By no means does he ignore the Philippines. Here is the index of volume 20.
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| Samuel Purchas, vol. 20, pg. 331 |
Purchas' most important reference to the Philippines is his translation and summation of Pigafetta's journal. The importance of his translation is that, while it makes no mention of an Easter mass being held in the Philippines, this is said to be the source for Fr. Fransisco Combes concocting the first mass being held at the fictional Limasawa.
But about four years later, in 1664, another Spanish priest Fr. Francisco Combes, SJ, (1620-1665), came up with another name for the island where the first Holy Mass took place. In his "Historia de Mindanao y Jolo," Fr. Combes wrote - without citing any source or attribution - that the Magellanic fleet's stopover island in Leyte was called "Limasaua." He then spun off an evidently new account of Magellan's sojourn in the archipelago based on Samuel Purchas' English translation of Ramusio's garbled version of Pigafetta's chronicles.
The Purchas version made no reference at all to the Easter mass of March 31, 1521 and only mentioned the planting-of-a- cross rite on a hill. So, unlike Fr. Colin, Fr. Combes was not obligated to negate the idea that Mazaua was the site of the First Mass. On a personal hunch he just decided to replace the prefix "Di-" in "Dimasawa" with "Li-" to make it read as "Limasawa."
Here is a truncated version of Purchas' account of Magellan's landing in Butuan.
The eight and twentieth day of March they came to the lland of Buthuan, where they were honourably entertayned of the King and the Prince his sonne, who gave them much Gold and Spices.
But hee marvelled much more, when the Captaine told him by the Interpreter, how he found the Strait by the Compas and Loadstone, and how many dayes they were without sight of any Land.
When the King saw Antonie Pigafetta write the names of many things, and afterward rehearsed them againe, he marvelled yet more, making signes, that such men descended from Heaven.
As they sifted a certaine Myne of Earth in the Kings Hand, they found pieces of Gold some as bigge as Nuts, and other as bigge as Egges. All the Kings Vessels were of Gold, and his House well furnished.
The people are nimble, naked, painted. The Women goe clothed from the Waste downewards, with their long blacke hayre hanging to the ground. They weare eare-rings of Gold in divers formes.
The Captaine or Generali caused a Crosse to be brought forth, with Nayles, and a Crowne of Thornes, giving commandement to all his men to give reverence thereunto, and signifying to the Kings, by the Interpreter, that that Banner was given him by the Emperour, his Lord and Master, with commandement to leave the same in all places where hee came, to the great commoditie and profit of all such as would reverendly receive it, as an assured toW^ of friendship : and that hee would therefore leave it there, as well to accomplish his Lords commandement, as also, that if at any time any ships of Christians should chance to come that way, they might, by seeing that Crosse, perceive that our men had beene well entertayned there, and would therefore not onely abstayne from doing them any hurt or displeasure, but also helpe to ayde them against their enemies : And that therefore it should be requisite to erect that Crosse upon the top of the highest Mountaine that might be scene from the Sea on every sid^ also to pray unto it reverently : and that in so doing, they should not be hurt with Thunder, Lightning, and Tempests. When the Kings heard these words, they gave the Captaine great thankes, promising gladly to observe and fulfill all such things as he required. Then the Captaine demanded, whether they were Mores or Gentiles. They answered, that they had none other kind of Religion, but that lifting up their hands joyned together, and their faces toward Heaven, they called upon their God Abba. Which answere liked the Captaine very well, because the Gentiles are sooner perswaded to our Faith then the Mores.
How is it that if the Philippines had a high literacy rate before the Spanish that this king was surprised to see Pigafetta writing which indicates he had no idea what writing was? How is that Filipinos were an ocean faring people who traded with Greece by circumnavigating Africa, according to Tim, yet this king had no idea what a magnetic compass was? These are questions I shall not answer here but ones I have yet to hear Tim ask or answer in his videos and books likely because he has either not read Pigafetta and Purchas or these are inconvenient facts that damage his thesis. The impression he gives us is that everyone was highly literate and decked out in fine clothes and golden jewelry. Speaking of gold Purchas cites this testimony:
They make account likewise of the gold; of Veragua to bee very fine. They bring much gold; to Mexico from the Philippines, and China, but commonly it is weake and of base alloy. Gold; is commonly found mixt with Silver or with Copper; but that which is mixed with silver is commonly of fewer Carrats then that which is mixed with copper.
The gold being shipped from the Philippines was "weak and of base alloy" being "commonly found mixed with silver or copper?" But according to Tim the Philippines is the land of gold and the Spanish came here for the express purpose of stealing that gold. However the amount of gold found and taken by the Spanish paled in comparison to that found in Mexico.
Although Fray Ortega felt that the lives of five hundred natives was too high a price to pay for twenty-five kilos of gold, the Spanish colonial officials apparently did not. Dreams of fabulous golden cities may have danced before their eyes, despite the fact that the gold was actually much less than what had been obtained in the Spanish colonies in Latin America. Hernan Cortez' initial campaign against Montezuma produced 680 kilograms of gold while in 1533, Pedro de Heredia obtained 420 kilograms of gold from one tomb alone in Cartagena (Tegengren 1963).
Gold Mining in Benguet to 1898, pg 468 (14)
In 1576, Francisco de Sande reported his discovery of the gold mines. These were not located in the Ilocos, as was popularly believed, but in mountainous country further north: "very rough country, twenty leagues inland; the way thither is obstructed by great forests; and the country is very cold, and has great pine forests" (1903-1908, 4:21-98). The area was peopled by naked outlaws who "in addition to other cruelties, cut the heads off those they encounter to sip their brains" (Antolin 1988,121).The bleakness of the region and the hostility of its inhabitants put a temporary stop to any further expeditions.
Gold Mining in Benguet to 1898, pg 468 (14)
Rituals were as important to gold mining as they were to the rest of Benguet Igorot life. Cañaos were performed before opening gold tunnels to appease the anitos to whom the gold belonged. A blood offering must be made and only pigs were killed in cañaos relating to gold mining. To find out the condition of a vein, a chicken must be sacrificed and its bile sac consulted. If dark, it is favorable but if pale it is unfavorable.
Gold Mining in Benguet to 1898, pg 462 (9)
Pomponius Mela mentions those Ants, More Gryphorum keeping the Gold, cum summa pernicie attingentium. He, Solinus, and Plinie mention Chryse and Argyre so plentifull of Mettals, that men reported the soyle was Gold and Silver: so hyperbolicall reports were raised of their store.
But as the Ancients knew not these parts of India so well as at later times, wee will produce later testimonies.
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| https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-god-culture-dishonestly-edited.html |
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