Topic : THE LAND OF OPHIR - THE LAND OF GOLD ( PHILIPPINES )

Text: 1Kings 9:27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea,
with the servants of Solomon. 1Kings 9:28 And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold,
four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

During the early period of European colonization, the Biblical lands of Tarshish and Ophir, or Tarsis
and Ofir, as they were called, held the imagination of European explorers. Not only was it believed that
the "lost tribes" of Israel were to be found in these lands, but also untold wealth. To these kingdoms
King Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre sent ships for trade that "brought from Ophir great plenty of
almug trees, and precious stones," (I Kings 10:11). Concerning Tarshish it is written: "For the king's
ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram: every three years once came of Tarshish bringing
gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacock." (II Chronicles 9:21). King Solomon built the port from
which ships departed for Tarsis and Ofir at Ezion-Geber on the coast of the Red Sea ( EGYPT ). The
return journey took about three years, so obviously the location must be somewhere far to the East

Ferdinand Magellan's contemporary, Duarte Barbosa, wrote that the people of Malacca (in modern
Malaysia) had described to him an island group known as the Lequios whose people were as "rich
and more eminent than the Chins (Chinese)," and that traded "much gold, and silver in bars, silk, rich
cloth, and much very good wheat, beautiful porcelains and many other merchandises."
However, Barbosa was not the only one to mention the Lequios during Magellan's time. About a
decade after Magellan's voyage, Ferdinand Pinto had wrote in his journal of the experience of his
crew and himself after being shipwrecked on the Lequios! Pinto was traveling through the Malay
Archipelago at the time and he describes the Lequios islands as belonging to large group of islands
many of which were rich in gold and silver.
In a book found in Spain entitled Collecion General de Documentos Relativos a las Islas Filipinas, the
author has described how to locate Ophir. According to the section "Document No. 98", dated 1519-
1522, Ophir can be found by travelling from the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, to India, to Burma, to
Sumatra, to Moluccas, to Borneo, to Sulu, to China, then finally Ophir. Ophir was said to be "[...] in front
of China towards the sea, of many islands where the Moluccans, Chinese, and Lequios met to trade..."
Jes Tirol asserts that this group of islands could not be Japan because the Moluccans did not get there,
nor Taiwan, since it is not composed of "many islands." Only the present-day Philippines, he says,
could fit the description. Spanish records also mention the presence of Lequious (big, bearded white
men, probably descendants of the Hebrews / Phoenicians, whose ships were always laden with gold
and silver) in the Islands to gather gold and silver. Other evidence has also been pointed out suggesting
that the Philippines was the biblical Ophir.
The famous Historian Henry Scott identified Datu Iberein of the Lakanate of Lawan, the hereditary
leader of the Lequios, - a Hebrew - blooded tribe who scattered sporadically in the long stretch of the
Pacific side of the country within the influence of the Lakanate of Lawan . The tribe is responsible for
naming the third largest island of the Philippines as Samar, in honor of their ancestral homeland
Samaria, in the present day Israel. Historian Otley Beyer's intermigration theory from the general origin
of the vicinity of middle eastern asia to the direction the Lakanate of Lawan (Ophir) of "populating
through intermarriages" the ancient Philippines, is after all proven correct with the research findings
triangulations of the recently discovered facts.
 MAP ( FROM EZION-GEBER PORT TO THE OPHIR ISLANDS ( PHIL. )

The Lequios, Negritoes, Indonesians, Malayans, the Arabs and the Hindu sailed to
the direction of the Lakanate of Lawan using generally accepted " Ancient Ophir Route"
in search of famous gold, spices, prosperous life and lasting peace.

Many believe that the Philippines actually sit on "mountains of gold". The Philippines holds
the world’s second largest gold deposits, Gold Deposits occur in about 73 provinces of the
Philippines.
It is indeed, a great Honor, Joy and Hope for the Filipinos that the Philippines was the Biblical
Ophir who supplied Gold and precious stones for the Temple of Solomon- called the House of
God, no wonder that the Philippines is the only Christian country in Asia and that has large
population of Christian people . The Philippines is considered the 5th largest Christian
country on Earth, with about 90% of the population being adherents.