Evidence of Biblical Concepts in Ancient Chinese Characters!

/ January 28, 2019

Key Biblical Events Embedded in Ancient Chinese Characters

Over the past few weeks I have run across several articles on the web, along with YouTube presentations, which all agree on something I was totally unaware of:  that the ancient Chinese character set actually seems to have aspects of the biblical narrative in the characters themselves!

A Little Background

As you probably know, the Chinese language is based on a graphical character set, Chinese characters (simplified Chinese: 汉字; traditional Chinese: 漢字; pinyin: hànzì; literally: “Han characters”) are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese.[2][3][4] They have been adapted to write a number of other Asian languages. Chinese characters constitute the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world.[5] By virtue of their widespread current use in East Asia, and historic use throughout the Sinosphere, Chinese characters are among the most widely adopted writing systems in the world by number of users. Chinese characters number in the tens of thousands, though most of them are minor graphic variants encountered only in historical texts. Studies in China have shown that functional literacy in written Chinese requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand characters (WIkipedia)

Key things to note:

  • The Chinese character set is a very old form of writing – some estimate the writing system is over 5,000 years old or older
  • It is the most widely adopted writing system in the world, in terms of users
  • It is visual/graphical in nature, with some ability to convey concepts pictorially or tell a story

How Does this Relate to the Bible?

The bible records a number of major events in the early history of humans and the world.

  • The initial creation event, with the formation of the “Garden of Eden”, and the placement of the first two humans in that garden to tend and care for it
  • The temptation of the first man and woman by the evil one in the garden, and the resultant fall of the first couple, death, and banishment from the garden
  • The wickedness of human kind, resulting in God’s judgement of a flood, but the saving of the few who remained righteous – Noah and his family – in a massive boat (ark)
  • The building of the Tower of Babel to the heavens, and the judgement of the Creator, resulting in the disintegration of one language into many languages, and the dispersion of the people across the earth – to the north, east, south and west

Ancient Chinese Had the Capability to Convey Concepts Pictorially

These events occurred during the very early history of humankind, just before the dawn of the earliest forms of writing.  As noted above, Chinese writing is one of the oldest forms of writing, which in its pictograph form may date to around 3,000 BC or even earlier.  Other early forms of writing in the middle east was probably Cuneiform  – a system of writing first developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia c. 3500-3000 BCE. It is considered the most significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians and the greatest among those of the Sumerian city of Uruk which advanced the writing of cuneiform c. 3200 BCE.

The earliest cuneiform tablets, known as proto-cuneiform, were also pictorial, as the subjects they addressed were more concrete and visible (a king, a battle, a flood) but developed in complexity as the subject matter became more intangible (the will of the gods, the quest for immortality). By 3000 BCE the representations were more simplified and the strokes of the stylus conveyed word-concepts.

Its also interesting to note that the earliest form of Hebrew was pictorial in nature. 

Would the Chinese Have Captured these Events in their Characters?

The important things to note here are:

  • The earliest forms of writing were partly, if not largely, composed of pictographs – characters that told a story as they were being used in written communication.
  • In the early history of humankind a small number of major events had transpired which needed to be recorded 
  • As these early forms of writing were being developed, the character sets had the capability to capture the core meaning of these great stories in the very characters themselves

It is then reasonable to assume that the earliest civilizations, dispersed from the Tower of Babel event across the planet around 3,000 BC, would have documented for posterity these major events in their character sets?  If we look back at the earliest form of Chinese characters, which is among the earliest form of writing, what do we find?  Do the characters in fact display evidence of these biblical events?

Evidence that Key Biblical Concepts Were Captured in Ancient Chinese!

When we examine the evidence of ancient Chiese writings, what are the key biblical concepts that we see reflected in ancient Chinese characters?

Shang Di was once worshipped in China as the One, True all-powerful God

  • When you read the historical records, Shang Di has the same character, nature and power as the God in the Old 
    Testament. The Earliest-known religious system of the Han Chinese people who worshipped Shang Di was a monothelistic religion. They did not make any graven images or idols of Shang Di, he was known as the unseen one in heaven. The earliest references to Shang Di are found in Oracle Bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty
  • The characters that represent Shang Di have a 3-fold design, possibly suggesting mouths or persons, reflecting the Christian concept of three persons in one God, or the Trinity.
  • Consistent with the bible, the inscriptions bear record that Shang Di is sovereign over all nations and in complete control of all things.
  • As with the high priests and the animal sacrifices in the Hebrew Torah & Tanach, the emperor of every dynasty would function as a high priest and make a yearly animal sacrifice. During the ritual an unblemished bull would be slaughtered and presented as an animal sacrifice to Shang Di, where it was offered to the god’s “spirit tablet” (神位) During an annual sacrifice, the emperor would carry these tablets to the north part of the Temple of Heaven, a place called the “Prayer Hall For Good Harvests,” and place them on the throne.
  • Consistent with the God of the bible, there are no physical representations recorded of Shang Di. However, there are many references to the attributes and character of Shang Di, including: maleness, emotion, compassion, intellect, judgment, mastery, and greatness.
  • A series of ancient Chinese characters have embedded within them these key biblical concepts:

Key Biblical Concepts Embedded in Chinese Characters

  • That man was formed from the dist of the ground, and that God breathed into his nostrils theTo Createbreathe of life, and mad became a living being.
    • Notice that the symbol for “to create” is composed of
      • Speak
      • [to] dust
      • LIfe
      • Walk
  • The creation of Eve, the first woman (Gen 2:18-25), who completed the man and together they were of “one flesh”, or complete.
    • Notice that the character for “complete, finish” is comprised of:Complete, Finish
      • The character for “two”
      • The character for “person”
      • The two together – the character “first”, meaning first person(s)
      • The character “first” is then combined with
      • The character for “home”
      • Resulting in the character “complete, or finished'”

 

  • The command to tend the garden of Eden, and that you must not eat from the tree of the Forbiddenknowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen 2:15-17)
    • Notice the character for “forbidden, to warn” is composed of:
      • A symbol for two trees
      • The abbreviated symbol for God

 

  • Noah and his sons and his wife and his son’s wives entered the Image result for The bible and ancient chineseark to escape the waters of the flood (Gen 7:7)
    • The word for “boat” is comprised of the characters for
      • Vessel
      • Eight (as in the eight souls in the ark)
      • People


Watch this fascinating video and consider the evidence for the one true Creator God in Ancient China (see below for other related sources):

Sources:

 

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