A further clue is given in Ezekiel 38:13where the merchants of Tarshish aresaid to have young lions. It was Simon Maccabeus, however, who built its harbor, and the harbor at Joppa was "the first and only harbor of the Jews" (G. A. Smith, HGHL, 136). In the Oracle against Tyre, the prophet Ezekiel (27:12) mentions that silver, iron, lead, and tin came to Tyre from Tarshish (Trsys). Tarshish is also the name of a modern village in the Mount Lebanon District of Lebanon, and Tharsis is a modern village in Southern Spain. Tarsus is an ancient city on the alluvial plain of ancient Cilicia, the birthplace of St. Paul (Acts of the Apostles 22:3). (The word may mean a "refinery . The port of ancient Sidon is believed to have been . 5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every . What is Tarshish called today? The metals were reportedly obtained in partnership with King Hiram of Phoenician Tyre (Isaiah23), and fleets of ships from Tarshish. Spain colonized South America but Britain colonized the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many more places. There is no restraint any more. It seems to be as elusive as Platos Atlantis. We have already noted the historical record which assumes that Tartessus was in Spain and that Tarshish was Tartessus however, it also acknowledged that tin was sourced from Cornwall as follows: Tin came primarily from Cornwall in the British Isles, and was brought back by the Phoenicians; it was combined with copper, abundant in south west Spain, to produce bronze. Archealogical research in Cornwall recently identified ancient harbour facilities along with evidence of ancient structures. "The flag proper," says Davidson (ad loc. Meshech (also spelled Meshek) and Tubal were sons of Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah who survived the flood with him ( Genesis 10:1-2 ). What is Tarshish called today? Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. Tarshish. It seems as though today, Britain, as Tarshish, is now playing a subservient role behind the young lions of America in important geo . In the Acts of the Apostles:It is Paul's voyages which yield us the knowledge that we possess from Biblical sources of ships in New Testament times. Another clue comes from Ezekiel in the Lamentation for Tyre: Tarshish was your merchant because of your many luxury goods. Beth-Togarmah is Turkey. He fixed on "Tarshish" being the site of Kudiramalai, a possible corruption of Thiruketheeswaram.[33][34][35][36][37][38]. It occurs 24 times, originally as a land of people descended from a man named Tarshish in Genesis 10:4 (also 1 Chronicles 1:7). There is a long narrow peninsula in southwest Britain called Cornwall. Thecommodities that came Tarshish are listed above and this gives us a clue as to where Tarshish was located. American scholars William F. Albright (18911971) and Frank Moore Cross (19212012) suggested Tarshish was Sardinia because of the discovery of the Nora Stone, whose Phoenician inscription mentions Tarshish. Proud member Ezekiel 27:25 The ships of Tarshish were your caravans for your merchandise: and you were replenished, and made very glorious in the heart of the seas. Tarshish was located on the Mediterranean Sea and was usually identified with the powerful Phoenician trading colony in southwest Spain near modern Cadiz. 2. The king of Greece being signified by a "shaggy" goat. Tarshish is mentioned in a prophecy in the Book of Isaiah 60:1-12. . Both Britain and Spain have had many colonies and have been great maritime powers but the British navy defeated the Spanish Armadas and Spain isno longer a great maritime powerwhereas the US began with British colonies and has seven navies that rule the worlds sea lanes. They gave it an English name! Tiras. 2 Chronicles 20:36 and he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish; and they made the ships in Ezion Geber. In regard to tin, the trade of Tarshish in this metal is peculiarly significant, and, taken in conjunction with similarity of name and other circumstances already mentioned, is reasonably conclusive as to its identity with Tartessus. 1 Kings 22:48 Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they didn't go; for the ships were broken at Ezion Geber. In this case, however, the ships are not war ships, but more probably merchant ships, or ships for pleasure, sailing in the Euphrates. It seems as though today, Britain, as Tarshish, is now playing a subservient role behind the young lions of America in important geo . Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar. Gen 10:4-5 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. According to historians, Nineveh is an ancient city in present day Iraq. Tarshish [N] [H] [S] a Sanscrit or Aryan word, meaning "the sea coast." One of the "sons" of Javan ( Genesis 10:4 ; 1 Chronicles 1:7 ). [6] Recent research into hacksilver hoards has also suggested Sardinia. The Spanish Empire was a dominant world influence between the late 15th century and the early 19th century. Hacksilber objects in these Phoenician hoards have lead isotope ratios that match ores in the silver-producing regions of Sardinia and Spain, only one of which is a large island rich in silver. commonassociation of the metal withthe western Mediterranean. Of the presumably larger vessel, also an Alexandrian corn ship bound for Rome, which had wintered in Melita, and which afterward took on board the shipwrecked party (Acts 28:11), "the sign" (parasemon) is given, and she is called "The Twin Brothers." Nicol. In Wisdom, human life is described "as a ship passing through the billowy water, whereof, when it is gone by, there is no trace to be found, neither pathway of its keel in the billows" (Wisd 5:10). The first time it is mentioned in scriptures as a place, it states that King Solomon sent his ships there to trade. Tartessus may well have been the Arabic form of the name Tarshish and the Spanish appear to identify Tartessians as the early Britons. Legends grew up around it over time so that its identity has been the subject of scholarly research and commentary for more than two thousand years. Other candidates for the name "Tarshish" in Biblical-Prophetic terms exist include America as discussed below. Cornwall was the only major source of tin in Europe for the past 2,500 years. It seems as though today, Britain, as Tarshish, is now playing a subservient role behind the young lions of America in important . There are three schools of thought where Tarshish is concerned. Some people say it was somewhere around the island of Crete. Ships in the Old Testament and Apocrypha.1. It is also interesting to note that one of Javan's sons Tarshish has become what is today modern day Spain. The Jewish-Portuguese scholar, politician, statesman and financier Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508 A.D.) described Tarshish as "the city known in earlier times as Carthage and today called Tunis." One possible identification for many centuries preceding the French scholar Bochart (d. Does Nineveh exist today? Tarshish is currently the name of a village in the Mount Lebanon District of Lebanon. "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". Tarshish was a son of Javan, who settled the area of Southern Greece. However, tin only came from a select few places. The coast line of the land of Israel from Carmel southward had no bays and no estuaries or river-mouths to offer shelter from storm or to be havens of ships. Ezekiel, in 587BC described all of the commodities sold in the market place of Tyre and stated that. The Spanish Empire was a dominant world influence in between the late 15th century until the early 19th century. Luke has made no note of the name of this or of the previous vessels in which Paul had voyaged. ( 1Kings 10:22 ) The gold might possibly have been obtained form Africa, or from Ophir in Arabia, and the ivory and the apes might likewise have been imported from Africa; but the peacocks point conclusively, not to Africa, but to India. Genesis 10:4 1 Chronicles 1:7. During the Tribulation one third of the ships will be destroyed during the 2nd Trumpet judgment (Revelation 8:9) and Tarshish must therefore be agreat shipping nation in the lastdays. If Spain were Tarshish then one would expect that she and her colonies would be a major maritime and military power in the last days along with her young lions in South America but the opposite is the case. Genesis 10:1-2. Hence we may infer that the word Tarshish was also used to signify any distant place, and in this case would be applied to one in the Indian Ocean. It is not to be supposed that the author of these passages in the Chronicles contemplated a voyage to Tarshish in the south of Spain by going round what has since been called the Cape of Good Hope. Ezekiel's description (chapter 27, with Davidson's notes) brings together more of the features of the ship of antiquity than any other that has come down to us. Ancient evidencegoes back to TheHistories byHerodotus who wroteabout 450BC and isknown as the Fatherof Ancient History. She is freighted with the most varied cargo, the produce of the lands around, her customers, or as they are called, her traffickers, being Tarshish in the far West, Sheba and Arabia in the South, Haran and Asshur in the East, Javan, which is Greece, and Togarmah, which is Armenia, in the North. In fact, in ancient times, the British Isles were known as the Cassiterides, which means Tin Islands.. Most Bible maps showTarshish somewhere on the westcoast of Spain. However, it seems that one of those metals was not plentiful in Spain and that metal was tin. Tarshish and the United Monarchy of Israel. "[4] One possible identification for many centuries preceding the French scholar Bochart (d.1667), and following the Roman historian Flavius Josephus (d.100AD), had been with inland town of Tarsus in Cilicia (south-central Turkey). Tiras is the seventh and youngest son of Japheth in the Bible. (, From the book of Chronicles there would seem to have been a Tarshish accessible from the Red Sea, in addition to the Tarshish of the south of Spain. On another occasion, when the crowds were still greater, He went into a boat and sat "in the sea" with the multitude on the sloping beach before Him (Mark 4:1 Luke 5:3). Bible concordance for TARSHISH. Herodotus travelled extensively gathering historical information (and myth)from Greece, Asia, Egypt and Persia but he never travelled to the western end of the Mediterranean or beyond the pillars of Herculeshence he was dependent on reports from others who had. You were filled and very glorious in the midst of the seas. This view is supported by standard Hebrew language reference books.. 8. '(3) cephinah, "innermost parts of the ship" the Revised Version (British and American), "sides of the ship" the King James Version (Jonah 1:5, the only place where the word is found).In Apocrypha ploion, is the usual word (The Wisdom of Solomon 14:1; Ecclesiasticus 33:2, etc. 2 Chroniques 9Louis Segond. Itineraria Phoenicia. Experts have positioned it as far away as India in the east and the far coast of Spain in the west. The articles which Tarshish is stated by the prophet Ezekiel, ( Ezekiel 27:12 ) to have supplied to Tyre are precisely such as we know, through classical writers, to have been productions of the Spanish peninsula. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought lowAnd upon all the ships of Tarshish(Isaiah 2:12-16). "Entry for 'TARSHISH'". Solomon's ships were so styled ( 1Kings 10:22 ; 22:49 ). Ezekiel 38:13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions of it, shall tell you, Have you come to take the spoil? This agrees perfectly with the statement of Ibn Hankal, who no doubt reports the opinion of the Arabian geographers, that Phoenicia maintained a direct intercourse with Britain in later ", Phoenician presence in the western Mediterranean, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, "King Solomon's silver? Both are now located in Lebanon, with Tyre 20 mi south of Sidon and only 12 mi north of the Israel-Lebanon border. Gen 10:4-5 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. Thompson and Skaggs[10] argue that the Akkadian inscriptions of Esarhaddon (AsBbE) indicate that Tarshish was an island (not a coastland) far to the west of the Levant. When God commanded Jonah to go preach to Nineveh (500 miles NE of Israel), he headed to Tarshish, which was as far in the other direction as he could go (see Jonah 1:1-3). The location of Tarshish has been lost to time and has given rise to much discussion. In his great series of Nature-pictures in Psalm 104, the Psalmist finds a place for the sea and ships (104:25;), and in Psalm 107 there is a picture of the storm overtaking them that go down to the sea in ships, and of the deliverance that comes to them when God "bringeth" them into their desired haven" (107:23;). Contrary to translations that have been rendering Assyrian tar-si-si as 'Tarsus' up to the present time, Thompson argues that the Assyrian tablets inscribed in Akkadian indicate tar-si-si (Tarshish) was a large island in the western Mediterranean, and that the poetic construction of Psalm72:10 also shows that it was a large island to the very distant west of Phoenicia. Jonah 4:2 He prayed to Yahweh, and said, "Please, Yahweh, wasn't this what I said when I was still in my own country? Tarshish is mentioned in the prophecies of Scripture as having an important role in the last days. It is conceived of in Hebrew literature as remote (Isaiah 66:19 Jonah 1:3; Jonah 4:2), as rich (Psalm 72:10 Jeremiah 10:9), as powerful in commerce (Ezekiel 38:13). Speaking of Yahweh's wonders to be performed toward His people after Babylon had been overthrown, the prophet declares: "Thus saith Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing" (Isaiah 43:14). The calkers were those who filled up seams or cracks in the timbers with tow and covered them over with tar or wax, after the manner of the instruction given to Noah regarding the Ark: "Thou. shalt pitch it within and without with pitch" (Genesis 6:14). There is no other known such concentration of silver hoards in contemporary Mediterranean, and its date-range overlaps with the reigns of King Solomon (990931BC) and Hiram of Tyre (980947BC). James, showing the power of little things, adduces the ships, large though they be, and driven by fierce winds, turned about by a very small "rudder" (pedalion), as "the impulse of the steersman willeth" (James 3:4). Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. that is, the inhabitants of a tract of country between the Caspian and Euxine Seas, which nearly corresponded to the modern Georgia. In this case, knowing the location of Tarshish unveils little known prophecies in Psalms and Isaiah that were not fulfilled until the twentieth century.If you look up Tarshish in different biblical commentaries, you will get different answers about its location. He is placed on the Timeline of the Bible after the Flood, around 2300 BC. This boat is said in Luke's narrative to have been Simon's, and it seems from references to it as "the boat" on other occasions to have been generally at the disposal of Jesus.2. One of them is that the merchants (of Tarshish) are concerned about the motives of the invaders. It is associated with the south west of Spain, and is likely to have been a kingdom. Robbers by land on three sides, pirates by sea on the fourth, in a confederacy . Its importance stems in part from the fact that Hebrew biblical passages tend to understand Tarshish as a source of King Solomon's great wealth in metals especially silver, but also gold, tin, and iron (Ezekiel27). The Hebrews and the Sea.The Hebrews were a pastoral and agricultural people, and had no inducements to follow a seafaring life. The Psalmist takes it as a proof of the power of Yahweh that He breaks the ships of Tarshish with an east wind (Psalm 48:7). Muhly, J. D. (1998). Isaiah 66:19 "I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the islands afar off, who have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.. Jeremiah 46:9 Go up, you horses; and rage, you chariots; and let the mighty men go forth: Cush and . From the book of Chronicles there would seem to have been a Tarshish accessible from the Red Sea, in addition to the Tarshish of the south of Spain. I suspect based on the Apostle Paul wanting to make it to the utter most part to spread the Gospel, it's Spain. About this period we hear of ships in naval warfare. In the late Bronze Age and into the early Iron Age, tin was a necessary ingredient for making bronze. The USA, Western Europe (Tarshish) and Saudi Arabia (Sheba and Dedan) are allied today, just as portrayed in . 1 Chronicles 7:10 forms part of a genealogy mentioning in passing a Jewish man named Tarshish as a son of a certain Bilhan. Tarshish is thought to be located in modern-day Spain or Portugal. It prospered from trade with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians but was probably destroyed by the latter about 500 bc. Thompson, C.M. From this cooperation in the building of the Temple there grew up a larger connection in the pursuit of sea-borne commerce. The basis of the trade is a long standing agreement between the Tartessians and the Celts from the British Isles(Spain -Thenandnow). If it's Spain, the young lions would have to be Mexico, parts of South America, etc. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them. For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. Britain colonized the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many more places Europe Tarshish! 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