2 Chronicles 9:21 For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. It was at Ezion-geber near to Eloth on the Red Sea, in the land of Edom which David had conquered, that Solomon built his fleet, "a navy of ships" (1 Kings 9:26-28). The location Tharsis in Spain is probably so named by the. Throughout history the family of Javan have been merchants, traders and colonizers. Thompson, C.M. However, tin only came from a select few places. Among Neighboring Nations:(1) Egypt.The Egyptians, like other nations of antiquity, had a great horror of the open sea, although they were expert enough in managing their craft upon the Nile. In Luke's writings there are many nautical terms, peculiar to him, used with great exactitude and precision.When Paul had appealed to Caesar and was proceeding to Rome in charge of Julius, the centurion, along with other prisoners, a ship of Adramyttium, a coasting vessel, carried the party from Caesarea along the Syrian coast, northward of Cyprus, past Cilicia and Pamphylia, to Myra of Lycia. B.C. 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. [5] Cross read the inscription to understand that it was referring to Tarshish as Sardinia. ), translated "vessel" in The Wisdom of Solomon 14:1, but "ship" elsewhere. For, it was the ships of Great Britain who brought the first of the Jewish refuges from a war torn Europe, to their promised land in Palestine. commentators have thought Tarshishwas Tartessus which appears inGreek mythical writings. Tarshish and the United Monarchy of Israel. ", Tarshish is placed on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea by several biblical passages,[18] and more precisely: west of Israel. The masts and yards were made of fir, or of pine, and the sails of linen, but the fiber of papyrus was employed as well as flax in the manufacture of sail-cloth. 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. General References:Of general references to shipping and seafaring life there are comparatively few in the Old Testament. While this is just a comic series it is based on fact as Encyclopedia Wikipedia states: Britain was not unknown to the Classical world. (3) Phoenicia.It was from the Phoenicians that the Mediterranean peoples learned seamanship and skill in navigation. [1], The existence of Tarshish in the western Mediterranean, along with any Phoenician presence in the western Mediterranean before c. 800BC, has been questioned by some scholars in modern times, because there is no direct evidence. It was believed to be at the ends of the Earth, as far away as one could possibly go in the known world at that time. Already in the time of David commercial relations had been established between Israel and Tyre (2 Samuel 5:11 f). When Isaiah pictures Yahweh as a better defense of Judah than the rivers and streams of Assyria and Egypt are to their people he says, "There Yahweh will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars ('oni shayiT), neither shall gallant ship (tsi 'addir) pass thereby.. Thy tacklings (ropes, cables) are loosed; they could not strengthen the foot of their mast, they could not spread the sail" (Isaiah 33:21, 23). [Eds. I think this is an amazing Old Testament verse, in the fact that it mentions both God the father and Jesus the son, who is called the Holy One of Israel. It is also a prophecy that was literally fulfilled in the last years before 1948. In the 19th century there were 400 mines in Cornwall employing 18,000 people. The same place-name occurs in the Akkadian inscriptions of Esarhaddon (the Assyrian king, d.669BC) and also on the Phoenician inscription of the Nora Stone in Sardinia; its precise location was never commonly known, and was eventually lost in antiquity. In Other Books:In 2 Corinthians 11:25 Paul mentions among sufferings he had endured for Christ's sake that thrice he had suffered shipwreck, and that he had been "a night and a day in the deep," implying that he had been in danger of his life clinging to a spar, or borne upon a hurriedly constructed raft. Nineveh was located at the intersection of important north-south and east-west trade routes, and its proximity to a tributary of the Tigris, the Khawar River, added to the value of the fertile agricultural and pastoral . It is associated with the south west of Spain, and is likely to have been a kingdom. Genesis 10:2. Bethsaida at the northern end of the Lake and Tarichea at the southern end were great centers of the trade. SHIPS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE APOCRYPHA1. 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. (3) ploion, "boat" (Matthew 4:21, 22 and many other places in the Gospels-the ordinary fishingboat of the Sea of Galilee rendered "boat" uniformly in the Revised Version (British and American) instead of "ship" the King James Version), "ship" (Acts 20:13, and all other places where the ship carrying Paul is mentioned, except Acts 27:41, as above). Fourth-named of the seven "princes" of Persia in the time of Artaxerxes ( Es 1:14 ). Again we see that the exact alignment of nations predicted in Ezekiel 38 is in place today. Tyre (in modern-day Lebanon) is one of the oldest cities in the world, dating back over 4,000 years, during which it has been inhabited almost continuously. Esther 1:14 mentions in passing a Persian prince named Tarshish among the seven princes of Persia. The largest hoard was found at Eshtemo'a, present-day as-Samu, and contained 26kg of silver. The Spanish Empire was a dominant world influence between the late 15th century and the early 19th century. Tarshish is the name of the Phoenician colony on the river Tartessus, called also Baetis, the modern Guadalquivir. The ships of Tarshish were carriers of your (Tyre's) merchandise. Javan as one of the grandsons of Noah born after the flood. 27:12). What is Tarshish called today? "When Jonah, also, arose up to flee unto Tarshish, he sailed from Joppa on the coast of Syria, and the circumstances mentioned (in Jonah 1,) imply that his voyage was of some length, and coupled with the intention which led him to undertake it, makes it probable that the Tarshish he sought was the Cassiterides, or Tin Islands, the most distant and least known colony of Tyre. The Spanish Empire was a dominant world influence in between the late 15th century until the early 19th century. It is the association of Sheba and Dedan with "the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions" (Ezek 38:13) which helps to define these powers. They will be the first to bring the redeemednation of Israel back to the landwhen Christ returns (Isaiah 60:9). If Tarshish is England; I propose the 'young lions thereof' would be Canada, Australia, and the United States. Isaiah 23:10 Pass through your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. 1. Caesarea in New Testament times was a place of shipping and possessed a harbor which Josephus declared to be greater than the Piraeus, but it was Herodian and more Greek and Roman than Jewish. The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wastreplenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas (Ezekiel 27:25). [20] However, a clear identification of Tarshish is not possible, since a whole array of Mediterranean sites with similar names are connected to the mining of various metals. Which country is Tarshish today? The merchants of Tarshish; the inhabitants of the sea-coast westward, and Magog north. Sir Peter le Page Renouf (18221897)[25] thought that "Tarshish" meant a coast, and, as the word occurs frequently in connection with Tyre, the Phoenician coast is to be understood. The obvious answer is Saudi Arabia, ancient Sheba and Dedan! We should note that Cassiterite is tin dioxide from which tin is extracted. The builders of the second temple also got timber from Lebanon and conveyed it to Joppa. In the Book of Proverbs the ideal woman who brings her food from far is like "the merchant ships" (31:14). ( Genesis 10:4 ; 1Kings 10:22 ; 1Chronicles 1:7 ; Psalms 48:7 ; Isaiah 2:16 ; Jeremiah 10:9 ; Ezekiel 27:12 Ezekiel 27:25 ; Jonah 1:3 ; 4:2 ) The identity of the two places is rendered highly probable by the following circumstances: 1st. Tarshish is mentioned in the prophecies of Scripture as having an important role in the last days. Javan had four sons of whom Tarshish was the second. Its one of those words that we often skip over because it seems insignificant or hard to pronounce. Tarsus, city, south-central Turkey. The Merchants of Tarshish. Among Neighboring Nations(1) Egypt(2) Assyria and Babylonia(3) Phoenicia3. What does the phrase "the merchants of Tarshish" mean? Sometime in the geological past, great fissures occurred in the granite. In the absence of positive proof, we may acquiesce in the statement of Strabo, that the river Baetis (now the Guadalquivir) was formerly called Tartessus, that the city Tartessus was situated between the two arms by which the river flowed into the sea, and that the adjoining country was called Tartessis. 1 Although a number of locations have been proposed, for a long time the consensus has been that Tarshish was located at Tartessos at the mouth of the Gua- dalquivir in southern Spain,2 but in recent years a number of scholars, including Arie van der Kooij and Andr Lemaire, have reargued the older view (first attested. At the end of his story, Jonah specifies his reason for resistance: "That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. (2003). Put and Libya are located in northern Africa. With such uncertainty surroundingTartessus it would be dangerous toassert that Spain was the Tarshishof Scripture which was a maritimepower in the days of Solomon and which was the source of minerals for the great tradingcity of Tyre when Ezekielwrote in the 6th century BC. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! Both are now located in Lebanon, with Tyre 20 mi south of Sidon and only 12 mi north of the Israel-Lebanon border. The fare (cakhar) paid by him as a passenger, the hold of the ship in which he stowed himself away (cephinah), the crew (mallachim) the captain or shipmaster (rabh ha-chobhel), the storm, the angry sea, the terrified mariners and their cry to their gods, and the casting of Jonah overboard to appease the raging waters-all make a lifelike picture.It was in the time of Simon, the last survivor of the Maccabean brothers, that Joppa became a seaport with a harbor for shipping-"Amid all his glory he took Joppa for a haven, and made it an entrance for the isles of the sea" (1 Maccabees 14:5). Princes of Persia it seems insignificant or hard to pronounce 23:10 Pass through your land like the,. ( Es 1:14 ) 19th century her food from far is like `` the merchant ships '' ( )... Present-Day as-Samu, and contained 26kg of silver Sidon and only 12 mi north of second. ) merchandise is Saudi Arabia, ancient Sheba and Dedan associated with the south west of Spain and. 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