The God Culture: 100 Lies About the Philippines: Lie #22: Abraham Farissol Locates the Lost Tribes of Israel in the Philippines

Welcome back to 100 Lies the God Culture Teaches About the Philippines.  Today's lie concerns Tim's claims about Abraham Farissol. Abraham Farissol was a Jew who lived during the Renaissance and wrote a book called Iggeret Orhot Olam in which he discusses the location of the Lost tribes of Israel. Tim claims he placed them in the Philippines but as we shall see that is not only a lie but Tim has never even read what Farissol wrote!

In one of his videos Tim says the following:

Clue#25: Philippines is Ophir: Magellan, Pinto, Barbosa, King of Spain, Cabot KNEW - Ophir, Tarshish

2:00 First to follow up on Columbus from our last video. We said Columbus in his margin notes and journal had initially found in his research the location of Ophir, Tarshish, the Garden of Eden, and some of the lost tribes of Israel all in the Philippines in fact. He was not the only one however in his era. 

Now, this original writing is lost to history but preserved in an 1846 book by Rev. Thomas Stackhouse.  Stackhouse records that Italian-Jewish scholar and contemporary to Columbus, Farrisol, reached the very same conclusion regarding the lost tribes. He says the lost tribes of Israel are in, for one,...THE PHILIPPINES!  Huh? Ever hear that one in your history class? Yeah. Us either. 

Gee, these Italian-Jews were searching hard for the lost tribes in the Philippines.

This same claim is also in Tim's book The Search for King Solomon's Treasure.

The Search for King Solomon's Treasure, pg 128

Take note that Tim is not citing Abraham Farissol but a Reverend Tomas Stackhouse. Stackhouse does not even cite Farissol but gives a summation of what he claims Farissol wrote:

Another Jewish author, in his description of the world, has found out very commodious habitations for the ten tribes, and in many places has given them a glorious establishment. In a country which he calls Perricha, inclosed by unknown mountains, and bounded by Assyria, he has settled some, and made them a flourishing and populous kingdom. Others he places in the desert of Chabor, which, according to him, lies upon the Indian sea, where they live, in the manner of the ancient Rechabites, without houses, sowing, or the use of wine. Nay, he enters the Indies likewise, and peoples the banks of the Ganges, the isles of Bengala, the Philippines, and several other places, with the Jews, to whom he assigns a powerful king, called Daniel, who had three other kings tributary, and dependent on him. But this is all of the same piece, a forged account to aggrandize the nation, and to make it be believed, that the sceptre is not departed from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, and that Shiloh consequently is not yet come. 

https://archive.org/details/historyofholybib00stac/page/649/mode/2up

Does Farissol locate the Desert of Chabor on the Indian Sea? No he does not. He says it is in Asia Major. This is all laid out in chapter 14 of Farissol's book Iggeret Orhot Olam of which I have found an English translation. It was published in 3 parts over the course of 3 issues of The Occident and Jewish American Advocate in 1849.

In this chapter Farissol relates the visit of a member of the lost tribes to Rome. He came to Rome from the Desert of Chabor by way of Arabia Felix, which is Yemen, Egypt, and then Israel. He locates two of the tribes in this desert and the other ten near Mecca and Jeddah. That is nowhere near the Philippines. The magazine has extensive footnotes which are worth reading. Here is part of the chapter.

This was in the two hundred and eighty-third year of the sixth millennium, when we received, through a Venetian vessel a communication from the Land of Beauty, written in the Hebrew language, informing us that a certain Jew, from the tribes of Israel, had arrived there, declaring many novel things concerning them. The details however, were not made public, until, after having crossed the sea in the two hundred and eighty-fourth year of the sixth millennium, he arrived at Venice, and thence proceeded to Rome, where he was favourably received by all those who became acquainted with the object of his journey and the nature of his mission. 

As understood from his own assertions, this Jew was from the company of the two tribes, and he farther said that he was an inhabitant of those deserts, and, like the Rechabites, dwell in tents, and that his station was in the Desert of Chabor, which is in Asia Major. Beneath them were the rest of the ten tribes, near to the deserts adjoining Mecca and Gjudda, which are adjacent to the Red Sea. They have each and all of them their chiefs and princes, and the people are as the sand of the seashore for numbers. They raise spices, pepper in particular, as also medical drugs ; and, indeed, they possess many excellent things, as we shall show hereafter. Living between these two sections of the Jewish people, however, there is a strong and mighty people who are followers of Mahomet. These, with their numerous kings, render a communication among the Jews exceedingly dangerous, and they will not permit one party to approach the other. 

Many years had they been thus widely separated, endeavouring to approach each other, but finding it impossible to do so, when they were apprised of the arrival of some Christian ships of very large and mighty proportions. They also heard, and, indeed, saw, that the Christians had in their hands certain hollow metal instruments of war designed to throw stones by means of fire, and which could destroy any fortress or village. Whereupon, the Jews of Mount Chabor, according to his statement, determined upon sending him to the great king of all the Christians, with the credentials then in  his possession, as before stated, in order to authenticate his assertions. These credentials were confirmed by the king of Portugal who then navigated the regions of the Hodiyim (or Indies), and who knew of the existence of a Jewish community there. He also wrote to the Pope, (whose glory be exalted,) that the above mentioned Jew was worthy of credit, as were also his declarations. But be this Jew what he may, and be his words true or false, it is sufficient for us, in our captivity and in our dispersions (to know), that the existence of the ten tribes was acknowledged by kings, by princes, and by many influential persons in Rome—that Ephraim existed, even then—a numerous people with their rulers; be this Jew, who came to us, who and what he may.

Since the existence of these Israelites and their kings has been thus acknowledged; we may be permitted to state, that this Jew came by the way and in the manner following : From the desert of Chabor he journeyed with a caravan, which is the usual mode of travelling in these places. This was heard from his own lips and so recorded. Passing through Arabia Felix, he arrived at the Red Sea descended into Egypt, thence journeyed to the Holy Land, where he awaited the arrival of a ship from Venice, by which he might proceed to Italy. He reached Rome, and resided there about eight months, until the reply of the king of Portugal had been received,which authenticated his mission.

The Occident and Jewish American Advocate, June 1849, pgs. 129-134

Plotted on a map his journey looks like this: 

Arabia Felix is Yemen and that is where Farissol says he started his voyage to Italy. That means the desert of Chabor covers Yemen. But Farissol also says that Mecca and Jeddah are BENEATH this Jew's location in the deserts near Mecca and Jeddah! Actually his description does not make any sense at all. This Jew lives in the desert of Chabor and the other ten lost tribes live beneath him near Mecca but he starts his journey in Arabia Felix which is South of Mecca! Perhaps Farissol does not know what he is talking about and is making it all up?

Whatever the solution to this geographical conundrum one thing is certain. Timothy Jay Schwab is dead wrong when he says that Farissol locates the lost tribes of Israel in the Philippines. If he was a real researcher he would have read Farissol's own words which relay this fact. But because he is a fraud he has relied on the words of someone else.