A Mystery in the Chinese Characters

It is thought that originally the Chinese migrated from the Mesopotamia region based on similarity in arts and government (ref 1). The Chinese written characters are very ancient indeed dating back to about 2650 BC. It is the oldest continually used system of writing in the world. See this link for more background on the history and origins of Chinese characters. The surprising mystery I want to highlight in this blog is a very strange connection between several Chinese characters and the historical Hebrew record dating back to before 2500 BC. This early time is at the threshold of recorded history and the record is not clear. However I would like to illustrate this with several characters. Before I do that let me explain something about Chinese characters. These characters are call sinographs (or ideographs) that have a meaning and are usually made up of individual elements that also have a meaning. Again, click this link to read more about this on Wikipedia. For now, let me illustrate a mystery that connects several characters with Hebrew history.

造 This character is pronounced zao4 and means "to create". The interesting thing is about the individual elements of the character. The left element (called a radical) means to walk, the top right character relates to the earth and the bottom characters means mouth or person. Put these all together and it appears to fit into the Hebrew creation account where God made man from the dust of the earth into a living being to could walk.

船 This character pronounced "chuan2" means boat or ship. The left element means "vessel". The top right element means "8" and the bottom right element means mouth or person. It is interesting the the Hebrew account of the ancient flood records 8 people getting on Noah's ark.

The last two characters date to about 2500 BC the time of dispersion of peoples from the Mesopotamia region. The Hebraic account could have very easily migrated to the east. These next two characters are even more mysterious since they pre-date the New Testament account of Jesus life. It appears that God was not absent from China in those very early years. These next two characters point to time that had not yet come.

樣 This character pronounced "yang4" means "pattern" or "model". The left element means tree, the top right element means "lamb" and the bottom element means "forever". The Bible tells us that Jesus was the lamb Jesus was the lamb of God, he was hung on a tree and he is our model forever.

義 This character pronounced "yi4" means "justice" or "righteousness". The top element means "lamb" and the bottom element means "I". The Bible teaching is that the lamb is the righteous one and I am under the lamb.

These are not the only characters but simply several examples. For further study, see The Discovery of Genesis by C.H. Kang and Dr. Ethel R. Nelson. I admit that this may sound like a lot of religious talk but it seems to more than a coincidence. How many coincidences in life are we simply going to dismiss. Are we going to say it "just happened"?

1. The Language of China before the Chinese, Terrien De La Couperie, p114

2. The Discovery of Genesis, C.H. Kang and Dr. Ethel Nelson