The Bible is a remarkable book. For one thing it claims that the Creator God inspired it and therefore accurately records the activities of history. For many this raises questions about the opening chapters in the first Biblical book – Genesis. Genesis records the account of Adam & Eve’s creation in an initial paradise with a devil tempting them. The record of Noah surviving a worldwide flood then follows. Many today wonder if these accounts are simply myths, like many ancient stories.
The ancient Chinese, in developing the Chinese script thousands of years ago, and even Confucius, have testimony shedding light on this question.
Brief History of Chinese language
Written Chinese arose at the beginning of Chinese civilization, which dates back at least 4200 years. This means that the Chinese script developed about 700 years before Moses edited the book of Genesis (ca 1500 BCE). Even those who are not Chinese recognize Chinese calligraphy when they see it. What many don’t know is that the ideograms of Chinese ‘words’ are constructed from simpler pictures called radicals. It is similar to how English takes simple words (like ‘fire’ and ‘truck’) to combine them into compound words (‘firetruck’). Chinese calligraphy has changed very little in the thousands of years. We know this from script found on ancient pottery and bone artifacts. Only in the 20th century did the communist party oversee a script simplification. This gives the simple and traditional scripts used today.
The Mystery of Chinese compound words
So, for example, take the Chinese ideogram for the abstract concept ‘first’. It is shown here.
This ideogram is a compound of simpler radicals as illustrated with the radicals all combined into the ideogram ‘first’. The meaning of each of the radicals is also shown above. This means that around 4200 years ago, when the first Chinese scribes were creating Chinese calligraphy, they joined radicals with the meaning of ‘alive’ + ’dust’ + ’man’ = ‘first’.
But why? What natural connection exists between ‘dust’ and ‘first’?
There seems none. However, reflect on this question alongside the Genesis creation account.
The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.
Genesis 2:7
The Creator God made the ‘first’ man (Adam) come alive alive from dust! This account reveals a relationship between ‘alive’, ‘dust’, ‘man’ and ‘first’. But the Chinese language originated at least 700 years before this was written in the Bible.
Creation account Inside Chinese Words
Consider the following:
The radicals for ‘dust’ + ‘breath of mouth’ + ‘alive’ combine to make the ideogram ‘to talk’. But then ‘to talk’ combines with ‘walking’ to form ‘create’.
What is the innate connection between ‘dust’, ‘breath of mouth’, ‘alive’, ‘walking’ and ‘create’ causing the ancient Chinese to use this construction? But this also bears a striking parallel with Genesis 2:17 cited above.
The Tempter in the Trees of the Garden – From Chinese Words
This parallel continues. Notice how the ‘devil’ forms from “man moving secretly in the garden”. Garden! How do gardens relate to devils? They do not naturally.
Yet the ancient Chinese then built on this by then combining ‘devil’ with ‘two trees’ for ‘tempter’!
So the ‘devil’ under the cover of ‘two trees’ is the ‘tempter’. It would be far more natural to connect ‘tempter’ with a sensuous woman or another tempting sin. Why two trees? What do ‘gardens’ and ‘trees’ have to do with ‘devils’ and ‘tempters’? Compare now with the Genesis account:
The LORD God had planted a garden in the east… in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
Genesis 2:8-9
Now the serpent was more crafty… he said to the woman, “Did God really say …”
Genesis 3:1
To ‘desire’ or ‘covet’ again connects with a ‘woman’ and ‘two trees’. Why not relate ‘desire’ in a sexual sense with ‘woman’ instead of to two trees? That would be a natural relation. But the Chinese did not do so.
The Genesis account though does show a relation between ‘covet’, ‘two trees’ and ‘woman’.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband
Genesis 3:6
The Great Flood in Chinese
Consider another remarkable parallel. The Chinese ideogram for ‘big boat’ is shown below
Observe the radicals that form this ideogram:
There are ‘eight’ ‘people’ in a ‘vessel’. Would it not make more sense to have, for example, 3000 people in a vessel rather than eight? But the biblical account of the flood records eight people in Noah’s vessel: Noah, his three sons, and their four wives.
Chinese remembered Real Events – also recorded in the Bible
The early Genesis accounts and Chinese writing show remarkable parallels. One might even think the Chinese read Genesis and borrowed from it. But the origin of their language predates Moses by at least 700 years.
Coincidence? Maybe. But why so many ‘coincidences’? Why do no such parallels exist for the later Genesis stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with the Chinese script?
But what if Genesis records real historical events. Then the Chinese, as an ethnic and linguistic group, originate at Babel (Genesis 11) like all ancient linguistic/ethnic groups. The account tells how the Creator God confused the language of the people at Babel. Thus they could not understand each other, would not intermarry and the different races we see today would originate. The language groups then migrated outwards from Mesopotamia in all directions.
The Chinese, dispersing from Babel, created their script shortly after Creation and the Flood. At that time these were historical events which they remembered well. So when they developed scripts for abstract concepts like ‘covet’, ‘tempter’, they used the recent episodes from history. Similarly for the development of superlative nouns – like ‘big boat’ they developed from history that they remembered.
Thus the accounts of Creation and the Flood were embedded into their language at the dawn of their civilization. As the centuries passed they forgot the original reason. This explains the relationship between the Chinese script and the Genesis account, but only if Genesis records real history.
Confucius and the Mystery of the Border Sacrifice in the Temple of Heaven
The Chinese also had one of the longest running ceremonial traditions across the whole earth, called the Border Sacrifice. From the start of the Chinese civilization (about 2200 BCE), the Chinese emperor, regardless of dynasty, on the winter solstice always sacrificed a bull to Shang-Ti (‘Emperor in Heaven’, i.e. The Creator God). He conducted this sacrifice in the ‘Temple of Heaven’ within the Forbidden City, now a tourist attraction in Beijing. The sacrifice only terminated in 1911 when General Sun Yat-sen overthrew the last emperor of the Qing dynasty. So for over 4000 years the Chinese emperor annually sacrificed a bull to the Creator God.
But why? Confucius (551-479 BCE) asked this very question. He said:
“He who understands the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven and Earth… would find the government of a kingdom as easy as to look into his palm!”
What Confucius meant was that anyone who could unlock that mystery would be wise enough to run the kingdom. So sometime between 2200 BCE, when the Border Sacrifice started, to Confucius, its original meaning was forgotten. However the Chinese emperors still kept up the tradition another 2400 years to 1911 CE.
The Answer to Confucius inside Chinese ‘Righteousness’
Perhaps if the significance behind the construction of their script had not also been forgotten then Confucius could have answered his question. Notice the radicals used to construct the word for ‘righteous’.
Righteousness is a compound of ‘sheep’ on top of ‘me’. And ‘me’ is a compound of ‘hand’ and ‘lance’ or ‘dagger’. It conveys the idea that my hand will kill the lamb and result in righteousness. The sacrifice or death of the lamb in my place gives me righteousness.
Genesis recounts animal sacrifices that occur long before the Jewish sacrificial system begins. For example, Abel (Adam’s son) and Noah offer sacrifices.
And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
Genesis 4:4
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
Genesis 8:20
It seems that early humankind understood that animal sacrifices pictured a substitute death on their behalf was necessary for righteousness. It seems that the early Chinese also understood this through their sacrifices.
‘Righteousness’ Fulfilled in Jesus
One of Jesus’ prominent titles was the ‘lamb of God’ (John 1:29). His death became the real sacrifice granting righteousness which all animal sacrifices, including the ancient Chinese Border Sacrifices, only pictured. Abraham’s sacrifice, Moses’ Passover sacrifice, as well as the Riddle to the serpent in the Garden all pointed to this. The Chinese seemed to also have understood this for hundreds of years, though they had forgotten it by Confucius’ day.
In the Chinese script, since it parallels the early Bible accounts, we have evidence supporting the history of the Bible. These early Bible accounts also provide the historical events creating the Kleshas and Duhkha that Buddhist wisdom gives insight on. Both in the Border Sacrifice and the Riddle to the serpent we see the anticipation of a coming sacrifice, understood from the beginning of human history. The Creator God’s plan centred on Jesus’ life, death and resurrection from the start.
… Offering a Gift we can take
We might think that righteousness comes only from our efforts and merit. Many acknowledge that payment for their sin requires some karma. But they hope to meet the payment through their merit and effort. Others give up hope that they can ever meet karma’s demands and live recklessly. This is contrasted by the Gospel message that says:
But now a righteousness from God, apart from Law, has been made known… This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe
Romans 3:21-22
The gospel story is worth investigating because it deals with such consequential questions. The ancients seemed to recognize this in their sacrifices. We continue investigating this story looking at lessons learned in the Great Flood.
Bibliography
The Discovery of Genesis. C.H. Kang & Ethel Nelson. 1979
Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn’t Solve. Ethel Nelson & Richard Broadberry. 1994