6. Historical Reliability of the Bible (4)

☼ Exhibit 17: The Testimony of the Ancient Chinese Characters and the Holy Bible

Additional confirmations for the historicity of the Genesis accounts come from a rather unexpected source: the written alphabet of the ancient Chinese. Comparing ancient Chinese and the holy Bible leads to a remarkable conclusion. 

The pictorial Chinese language was composed an estimated 4,500 years ago (that is about 2,500 years before the birth of Christ and 500 years or so before Abraham left Ur and made his covenant with the Lord). As still used today, written Chinese employs pictures to express words or ideas. Simple pictures were combined to express more complex thoughts or concepts. Well known history and everyday things were used to make a word easier to remember.

By studying the composition of the symbols for some of the Chinese words some remarkable observations can be made: [1]

• The symbol for “God.”  Genesis 1 says God “spoke” the world into existence. The Chinese symbol for God reflects this concept as it is composed of the symbols for “to show,” “revelation,” and “to say” (see figure 14-2a):
• The symbol for “beginning” or “first”. In Genesis we read that God created Adam and Eve as the first couple. In Chinese the symbol of “first” or “beginning” is built from the symbols for “two” and “people” (see figure 14-2b).  

figure 14-2

figure 14-3

• The symbols for “forbidden” and “desire.” Genesis 2:8-9 relates that in the center of the Garden of Eden two special trees, the “tree of life” and the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” were present. So these two trees symbolize the Garden of Eden. Subsequently in Genesis 2:16-17 God forbids Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge. In the Chinese the symbol for “forbidden” is composed of the symbol for “two trees” and “command” (figure 14-2c) and the symbol for “desire” consists of symbols for “two trees” and “woman” (figure 14-3a).
• The symbol for “sacrificial animals.” In the Torah God established the sacrificial system.[2] By the sacrifice (killing) of an unblemished sheep or ox the patriarchs and Jews – by faith – could have their sins forgiven. This concept is symbolically summarized in the Chinese symbol for “sacrificial animals” (see figure 14-3b).
• The symbol for a “large ship.” According to Genesis 6:15-16, God commanded Noah to build a huge, container-like ship, the ark. He and his wife, their three sons along with  their wives, a total of eight people, were to enter it when the flood started.  As figure 14-3c shows, the Chinese symbol for “large ship” is composed of a combination of the symbols for “eight,” “person” and “boat” – “eight people on a boat.”

This overview is just an illustration of the numerous Chinese characters that can be broken down into the meanings of sub-characters. Words describing concepts such “to talk,” “to create,” “first,” “happiness or blessing,” “West,” “devil,” “tempter,” and “flood” can all be broken down in other symbols related to the Biblical accounts in Genesis.

Is this coincidence? Is this perhaps creative imagination? Skeptics will argue this proves nothing but that some religious fanatic had too much time and imagination. On the other hand, how many symbols does one need to find to demonstrate this is no mere coincidence? Five ? Ten? Perhaps twenty-five? The discovery of the Biblical roots of the Chinese pictorial characters points to a common bond between Chinese and Jewish people. This could well be explained by the accounts of the creation, the flood and the tower of Babel outlined in the first 11 chapters of Genesis.