Dec. 4] PROCEEDINGS. [1894.makes no mention of a Phoenician Tarshish. The confusion is
readilyunderstoodwhenwe find, that,owing to the vague employ
ment of the term,large ships for long sea voyages were called
"shipsof Tarshish" (Is. ii, 16; xx, 3; i, 14), and most of the
ancient versions translate the phrase "ships of Tarshish" in
accordancewiththis last-mentioned explanation.*
Thefabulous explanations of the word Tarsus, from Pegasus
having first touched the ground at that place, and of its being
founded by Perseus, Triptolemus, or Sardanapalus, are given in
Cellarius'sNot.Orbis.Antiq.,Vol.I, p. 214, etc. It is much easier
to believe the name to be a corruption or abbreviation of Tarshish,
just as the Armenian Arch-episcopateof " Sis," is also an abreviation
of Tarsus, or Tarsis, as it is written by St. Jerome (Hieronymus).
JosephusidentifiesTarshishwithTarsus,andhe is followed by
many laterJewish and Christian authorities; yet Mr. Renoufis
at once indignantand grieved at the fact that Bochartand Ewald
should have followed in the footsteps of the noble and early
vindicator of the Christian faith. " The truth is," he remarks,
" that in the days of Bochart and down to the days of even Winer,
Gesenius,andGrote,the most learnedscholars had no conception
of the amount of historical andgeographicalinformation,whichwas
hiddenfromthem,andhas onlybeengradually discoveredto the
worldduringthe last forty or fifty years."
Very true,but it is also possible to err, in dismissing all that
antiquityhas transmitted to us, and replacingsuch,by what at the
bestis merely conjectural.t
- King Solomonis spoken of in 1 Kings x, 22, as having at sea, a navy
of TAarshish, with(or independent of), the navy of Hiram, kingof Tyre ; and,
in 2 Chron. ix, 21, the king's ship*are described as going to Tarshish withihe
servantsof Iluram (Hiram). Theafterstatement,thateverythreeyearsonce
camethe shipsof Tarshish, bringinggoldand silver, ivoryand apes,and peacocks,
can only applyto ships tradingin the Red Sea,mostprobablywithOphir.
t The questionof the Ecbatanas, augmentedby modern researchfromone or
two,to five or six ; or of the Carchemishes tracedto Kirki or Karkisha, to Karki
or Kargamus, and even to Eutopus, are trifles comparedto the multiplication of
Tarshishes.
The origin of these reduplications of names, can however be easily ex
plainedby modern research,andas to the strongholds of the Kheta, Ilatii,
Hittites,or North Syrians,it is probable that the term Carchemish,appliedto a
countryor district, as well as to a city or cities. It is also muchmorelikelythat
" Cilicia" before beingso called, was known by the telritorial nameof Tarshish,
thanthat that name everbelongedto Phoenicia.
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