4. On the whole, then, India must be adopted as the most probable region of the Ophir of Solomon. The Sept. translators also appear to have understood it to be India, from rendering the word '2w(pip, '2ov(pip, i^io- 'pipci, which is the Egyptian name for that country. Champollion says that in the Coptic vocabularies India bears the name Sophir {UEgypte sous les Pharuons [Paris, 1814], i, 98; Jablonskii Opuscula [Lug. Bat. 1804], i, 336, etc.). Josepbus also gives to the sons of Joktan the locality from Cophen, an IniUan river, and in part of Aria adjoining it (.4?;/. i, 6, 4). He also ex- pressly and unhesitatingly affirms that the land to which Solomon sent for gold was "anciently called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India" {Ant. viii, 6, 4). The Yulgate renders the words "the gold of Opliir" (Job xxviii, 16) by "tinctis Indiaj coloribus." Hesychius defines Sophir {'S.ov<ptip) " a place in India where gems and gold are found." So Suidas (s. v. ; comp. Eusebius, Onomast. p. 146, ed. Clerici). But the controlling argument for this view is that all the productions referred to Ophir may be procured in India, and in India alone. Gold, silver, jewels, sandal-wood, ivory, apes, and peacocks are there all articles of commerce, and are found side by side in no other part of the world; while the last is believed to be an exclusively Indian bird, and the very name by which it is denoted in the Hebrew text {tukiyim, D'^'^Zin [see Gesen. Thes. s. v.]) is an Indian, not a Hebrew word. See Pkacock. Yet the exact localitj' must ever remain conjectural. There are several places comprised in that region which was actually known as India to the ancients, any of which would have sup- plied the cargo of Solomon's fleet: for instance, the coast of Malabar, where the name togrei is still applied to the peacock ; and Malacca, which is known to have been " the golden Chersonesus" of the classic writers, and where gold-mines are still called ophirs. (See P. Poivre, Voyage d'un Philosophe, (Eavres Completes, 1797, p. 123.)
See further, Humboldt, Cosmos, ii, 132 sq. ; C. Yarrer, in Crit. Sacr. vi, 459 ; A. G. AA'ahner, De regione Ophir (Helmst. 1714) ; Tychsen, De commei-c. Hebr. in the Comment, Gott. xvi, 164 sq. ; Gesenius, in the Hall. En-
I
OPHITES
385
OPHITES
cycl. vol. ili, sect, iv, p. 201 sq., and Tkesaur. i, 141 sq.; Kosenmliller, Alterth. iii, 177 sq.; Ritter, Erdk. ii, 201 sq.; Keil, in the Dorpt. Beitrdg. ii, 233 sq. ; Tuch, in the Hull. Lit.-Zeit. 1835, No. 80 sq. ; Lassen, Ind. Alter- thumsk. i, 538 sq. ; Kitto, Daily Bible lllust. Solomon, p. 103 sq. ; Hiillman, Staatsverf. d. Israel, p. 220 ; Hardt, Diss. Regionem Ophir esse Phrygiam (174G). See Tar-
SHISH.
Ophites (Gr. otpirai, i. e. serpent brethren, from li^tc, a sej-jjent) is the name of an Egyptian sect of Christians who are regarded as a branch of the Gnostics (q. v.) ; but while the Ophites shared with the Gnostics the general belief of dualism, the conflict of matter and spirit, the emanations, the Demiurgus, and other no- tions common to the many subdivisions of this extraor- dinary school, the Ophites were distinguished by their peculiar doctrine and worship connected with the ojMs, or serpent. Like most other Gnostics, they regarded the Demiurgus, or the Jehovah of the Old Testament, with great abhorrence, but they pursued this notion into a very curious development. Kegarding, like the Valentinians, the emancipation of man from the power and control of the Demiurgus, or, as they called him, Jaldabaoth, as a most important end, they declared the serpent who tempted Eve, and introduced into the world " knowledge" and revolt against Jehovah, to have been the great benefactor of the human race, and hence they worshipped the serpent. Other views which they held and sought to propagate were equally strange. We may instance their singular attempt to engraft " Ophism" on Christianity ; their seeking, as it were, to impart to the Christian Eucharist an Ophitic charac- ter, by causing the bread designed for the eucharistic sacrifice to be licked by a serpent, which was kept in a cave for the purpose, and which the communicants kissed after receiving the Eucharist (Tertullian, Adv. Hceres. ii; Epiphanius, Hor. xxxvii, § 5). Eegarding Christ, they taught that he who was born of the Virgin was Jesus alone, and that afterwards Christ descended upon Jesus; and in proof of this they pointed to the fact that Jesus wrought no miracle either before his baptism or after his resurrection. They held that Jaldabaoth brought about the crucifixion of Christ. After his resurrection Jesus remained eighteen months on the earth, during which time he received from the Sophia a clearer knowledge of the higher truth, which he imparted to a few of his disciples. He was then raised to heaven by the celestial Christ, and sits at the right hand of Jaldabaoth, unobserved by him, but grad- uall}' receiving to himself every spiritual being that has been emancipated and purified by the redemption. Jaldabaoth they set forth as begetting six beings, the spirits of the seven planets. By these six beings man was created after their common image, a body with- out a soul; and they brought him to Jaldabaoth, who breathed into him a living spirit. At the sight of man's perfection Jaldabaoth became envious, and gave him a command which the serpent led him to disobey. Hence the conflict of good and evil in the world, the good being represented by the serpent. The mythic Christ of the Valentinians is the opponent of Jaldaba- oth, and is ever endeavoring to defend man from his enemy.