OPHIR
384
OPHIR
India, while Winer (Realw. s. v.), Fiirst (flebr. iind Chald. Handle, s. v.), Knobel {Volkertiifd der Gejiesis, p. 190), Forster (Geogr. of A rabiii, i, 161-167), Crawfurd (^Descriptire Dictionary of the Indian Islands, s. v.), and Kalisch (J'ommaitari/ on Genesis, chap. ' The Genealogy of Nations') are in favor of Arabia. The fullest treat- ise on the question is that of Kitter, who in his Ei-d- kunde (vol. xiv, published in 1848) devoted eighty octavo pages to the discussion (p. 351-431), and adopted the opinion of Lassen (^Ind. Alt. i, .529) that Ophir was situ- ated at the mouth of the Indus" (Smith). Melindah, on the coast of Africa, A/iqola, CartJuu/e, San Doniinrjo, Mexico, New Guinea, Urphe, an island in the Red Sea, Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf, and especially Peru, have had their several advocates; but the opinions likely to be embraced at this day may be enumerated very briefly :
1. Some suppose Ophir to be a general name for lands abounding in gold, used with the vagueness of Thule in the classics, or El Dorado in the Middle Ages. In support of this view, it has been observed that, in Arabic, the word Ophir means simply rich country, or perhaps dust, i. e. gold-dust, ami may therefore liave easily passed into a generic name for the sources of val- uable articles of commerce; especially in an age when the geographical views, even of the best informed, were very vague. But the definiteness of the allusions in the Scripture historj^ to Ophir as a well-known trading- place are quite sufficient to refute this view.
2. Some seek it on the eastern coast of Africa, opposite the island of Madagascar. This supposition has found many and able supporters (see Quatremere, Mem. de rAcad.des Inscrip. XV,\i [1845], 349-402; neeren,^e- searches, ii, 73, 74 [Eng. ed.] ; Huetius, De Xariy. Salom. ch. ii, in Ugolini, Thes. vol. vii; Bruce, p. 479 sq. ; Bit- ter, ErdL: i, 118 sq. ; AYeston, in the Classic. Jour. 1821, No. 47), having been first advanced by one friar John don Sauctos, who was a resident of Sofala, in Monomo- topa, and found in that vicinity a mountain with an- cient ruins on its summit. According to friar John, this mountain still contains "much fine gold," and is called Fui-a, which he thinks to be evidently a corrup- tion of Ophir. (See this view confuted by Tychsen, A nmerk. zu Bruce R. V. p. 327 sq. ; and csp. Salt, Voyage to Abyssinia [Loud. 1814], p. 99 sq.) But Huetius (as cited above) has argued the question on more general grounds, deriving the name Africa itself from Ophir, and making no doubt that the inscriptions said to have been found at Sofala, but never read, were a record or kind of log-book of the fleets of Solomon. The name Sofala, again, has been urged in favor of this view, as akin with Ophir; but Sofala in the Shemitic lan- guages means the low country, the coast-land (Heb. Shephelah, nbs'j; similarly the Chaldee and Arabic), and has nothing to do with Oi)hir (ISiN).
3. A much more probable view is that which refers Ophir to Arabia. This has been advanced in a variety of forms, but usually placing the port visited by Solo- mon's sliips near the western extremity of the southern coast, bordering on the Erythraean Sea. In Gen. x, 29, Ophir is mentioned among the sons of Joktan, who peopled various Arabian countries. (See Ophir, 1 , above.) Yettiesenius supposes that it is here the name of an Arabian tribe who colonized some foreign land. Again, though gold is not now found in Arabia (Niei)uhr, 7>f- scription de I'A rabie [Copenhagen, 1 773], p. 124), vet the ancients ascribe it to the inhabitants in great "plenty (Judges viii, 24, 26; 2 Chron. i; 1 Kings x, 1, 2; Psa. Ixxii, 15). This gold, Dr. I.ec thinks, was no other than the gold of Havilali (Gen. ii. 11), which he sup- poses to have been situated somewhere in Arabia, and refers to Gen. x,7, 29; xxv, 18; 1 .Sam. xv, 7; 1 Chron. i, 9 {Translation of the Book of .lob, etc. [Loud. 1837], p. 55). But Diodorus Siculus ascribes gold-mines to Arabia (ii, 50). He also testifies to the abundance of "precious stones" in Arabia (ii, 54), especially among
the inhabitants of Sabas (iii, 46; comp. Gen. ii, 12; 2 Chron. ix, 1 ; 1 Kings x, 1, 2). Pliny also speaks of the wealth of Saba>a in gold {Hist. Xat. vi, 32). Others suppose that, though 0|)hir was situated somewhere on the coast of Arabia, it was rather an emporium (see Beke, Source of the Alle, p. 64), at which the Hebrews and Tyrians obtained gold, silver, ivory, apes, almug- trees, etc., brought thither from India and Africa by the Arabian merchants, and even from Ethiopia, to which Herodotus (iii, 114) ascribes gold in great quan- tities, elephants' teeth, and trees and shrubs of every kind. Apes, properly speaking, are likewise ascribed to it by Pliny (viii, 19), who speaks also of the confluence of merchandise in Arabia (ut sup. ; comp. Strabo, xvi ; 2 Chron. ix; Ezek. xxvii, 21, 22; Diod. Sic. ii, 54). It has further been insisted that the classical name of the Arabian port Aphnr varies much as the Septuagint translation of Ophir. Thus it is called by Arrian A])kar, by Plinj' Sajihar, by Ptolemy Sapphera, and by Stephanus Sajdiirim. (Comp. the Sept. ut sup.) It is a serious objection to this view, however, that laml carriage, by caravans, would have been easier and safer if Ophir were in Arabia (comp. Encyclop. Londin, s. v.), while the etymological arguments, so often and earnestly pressed as coriclusive, could at best only serve to create a presumption, in the absence of all direct evidence. The considerations above mentioned, how- ever, in connection with the strong reasons for i)lacing Ophir in India, weighed so strongly with Bochart {Fhaleg, ii, 27) and Michaelis {Spicil. ii, 185) that thej' suppose two countries of that name, one in Arabia and one in India. This conjecture, however, is unsupport- ed and uimecessary (Gesen. Thes. p. 141).