rought back by the merchantmen at the end of a three years’ cruise. It is quite possible that some of these wares were purchased at regular ports to which they had been brought by other traders. So that Ophir needs not ate sought for at some
oint where all these products were native (cf.
heyne in Expos. Times, July 1898, p. 472). Sub- sequent references in the OT, however, Is 13”, 1 Ch 294 (LXX Σουφείρ), Job 22% (LXX Σωφείρ), 281 (B Σωφείρ, A ᾿Ὠφείρ), confirm the idea that Ophir was at least a gold-producing region. [{8 product in these references is synonymous with the finest of that metal.
The definite location of Ophir is still in dispute. Search for it has been made from ancient times.
Even the translations of the LXX and the remarks
OPHIR
OPHIR 627
of Josephus (Ant. VII. vi. 4) point to an opinion as to its location, Ancient and current opinions may be classified under three heads. Limits of space will allow the merest outline of the arguments urged for the acceptance of each place.
(1) On the East Coast of Africa.—For several centuries travellers, writers, and scholars of several nationalities have found the Solomonic Ophir at some point along the eastern coast of Africa. Most notable among these were Th. Lopez, J. Bruce, Robertson, Montesquieu, d’Anville, Schul- tess, and Quatremére. The location of Ophir in East Africa, in Mashonaland, opposite the island of Madagascar, has won new friends since the German uch (Retsende in Ost. Afrikas) made his now famous investigations of 1871. He found, about 200 miles inland from Sofala, at Zimbabye, some remarkable ruins, already described in the works of de Barros, a Portuguese traveller of the 16th cent. The majestic remains of once stately buildings now cover one granite mound 400 ft., and another 300 ft. in height. The natives have preserved among themselves a tradition that white men once lived there and carried on extensive manufactures. Traces of Phcenician pottery, and even of mining operations, add to the evidence of its former importance. Merensky, a superin- tendent of the Berlin Mission (Beitraége zur Kenntniss Siid-Afrikas, 1875), reported that Arabian travellers regarded these ruins as the Ophir of Solomon, and that as far back as A.D. 1500 the Arabs took gold from those districts. Portuguese sailors found near Sofaéla in 1506 two Arabian ships laden with zold. The Portuguese colonists in this country tound many ore mines, and even down to the Transvaal may be found remains of old ore-smelting ovens. A corollary of this view is found in the position of those who find Ophir farther north on the coast of Africa—even as far as the Red Sea. The latest and most ardent advocate of this newer view is Carl Peters (Das goldene Ophir Salomos, 1895). Among his array of arguments is found this one on the linguistic evidence. ‘Chinese astronomy designates the east by blue, the south by red, the north by black, and the west by yellow.’ ‘The Black Sea is in the north, the Red Sea in the south, the Turks call the Mediterranean Sea the white, probably a change from yellow.’ ‘In Arabic red is ahr, and Africa is Afir, or the land of the south.’ ‘In Latin Afer is used to designate an African, accordingly the terms Ophir and Africa are identical.’ Peters agrees substantially with those Egyptologists who would practically identify Ophir with Punt, the great foreign mart of Egypt, especially during the reign of queen Hatshepsu of the 18th dynasty (see art. Put). W. Max Miiller (Asien μι. Europa nach altigyptischen Denknuilern, 1893, p. 111 and n. 1) locates Punt on the Ethiopian coast of the Red Sea, possibly including both sides. The location of Ophir in the land of Punt, which is not as yet a fixed quantity, introduces many of the same questions as the location farther south on the east coast. Miiller says that the products of Ophir are all African, and only at a later date were the Indian articles inserted in the list. In the chief passage (1 Καὶ 103) the LXX (B) does not mention ‘peacocks’ at all, and it ‘must be held to be an interpolation.’ But while it is not at all improb- able that the ubiquitous Pheenician sailors may have touched ports on the east coast of Africa in Solomon’s day, arguments based on the ethno- graphical representation of Gn 10 positively make
inst this view.
(2) In the far East.—Among the most notable advocates of Ophir’s location at some point in the far East we may name the LXX, Josephus, Reland, Lassen, Ritter, Thenius, Murchison.
There are three general locations which deserve mention: (2) Ophir is identified with AbAfra, a nomadic people settled on the east side of the delta of the Indus. While gold is not found on the coast-line, it could have come from N.W. India near Kashmir. Precious stones are found in great abundance in India. ‘Sandal-wood’ (Heb. oxy, var. op3ax) corresponds to the Sanscrit valgu or valgum; ‘peacocks’ (Heb. 5535) is the equivalent of the Sanscrit gikhi; ‘apes’ (Heb. o'5p) is the Indian kapi. Largely, then, on the basis of philo- logy and that of the products brought to Solomon, Ophir was located near the mouth of the Indus. (Ὁ) On the basis of the LXX (Σωφηρά) of 1 K 9%, which indicates India on Coptic authority, Ophir has been located (Karl E, v. Baer) on the coasts of Malabar, or at Ceylon, whence nearly all of the ἔποθποίε brought by Solomon’s seamen could be ound. An old city, Supara or Uppara, in the region of Goa, has been identified with Ophir. (c) The Malay Peninsula has also had its advocates. While von Baer admits that this peninsula yields all the products required iy the records, he sees an insuperable objection in the great distance from Ezion-geber. he U.S. Consul, General Wildman of Hong Kong (Tales of the Malayan Coast, 1899, p. 178f.), spent about eight years in this region, and examined with great care the evidence at hand. There is a gold-producing Mt. Ophir near Johore, and good evidence of other kinds. After careful study of the subject, Wildman concludes that Opbir is a comprehensive term, embracing the entire East, the Malay Peninsula, Ceylon, India, and even China—the name Ophir being taken from this mountain because it marks a central point of the region to which Solomon’s ships sailed. ‘ For all ages the gold of the Malay Peninsula has been known; from the earliest times there has been intercourse between the Arabians and the Malays, while the Malayan was the very first of the far eastern countries to adopt the Moham- medan religion and customs. All the articles mentioned in the biblical account of Ophir are found in and about Malacca in abundance... . Peacocks are found [native] only in India and Malaya.’