What evidence is there that the Chinese script reflects a knowledge of Genesis 1-11?
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Background
As missionaries have gone to China over the centuries to proclaim the gospel. Learning the script as an adult can sometimes involve breaking the symbols down into their components to remember them more easily. In doing so, some missionaries have found some curiosities in the characters that seemed to point to things found in the first eleven chapters of Genesis.
Indeed, if the Bible is true, the creation of languages and the spreading of mankind over the face of the earth began at the Tower of Babel. All of those people at that time would have had a common history that included the accounts found in Genesis 1-11. (The account of the Tower of Babel occurs in Genesis 11.)
Ethel Nelson has written a few books on this, the last and best of which is entitled God's Promise to the Chinese.
Characters
Create
The word for create is interesting, combining the characters for speak, dust, life, and walk. Genesis records that God "spoke" things into existence and specifically formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life.
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 NAS
Covet
The word for covet or desire is the combination of two symbols (or three): two trees and a woman. This references the account in Genesis 3. There were two trees, one of which was forbidden.
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 NIV
Forbidden
The word "forbidden" is also interesting, being the combination the characters for two trees adn God.
Boat
The word boat is the combination of three other characters: the number eight, person, and vessel. So, the boat character is "an eight person vessel". Of course, Noah's ark was populated by him and his wife, his three sons and their three wives. Thus, the first and only boat recorded in Genesis 1-11 was "an eight person vessel".
Many others
In God's Promise to the Chinese many more characters are examined. A few characters can be explained away, but after seeing dozens of characters that so closely reflect the Genesis account, it is much more plausible to conclude that the author of the Chinese script was likely quite familiar with the Genesis account.
As a note, Nelson's latest work analyzes the oldest known script.
Upvote:2
I am far from an expert on this topic, and this is anything but a complete answer. In fact, your question got me interested in reading the book Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn’t Solve, referenced by your link. So I pulled it up on Amazon, and some of the reviews address the credibility of the author:
Ethel Nelson's previous book on this subject, "The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Languages" was based on modern Kaishu forms, which are often totally different from the original forms, so that the elements into which the characters were analyzed did not even exist in the original forms.
When this was pointed out to Nelson after the publication of that book, she then came out with this one, scrapping most of her previous contentions and producing new ones, using older character forms as a basis. However, the authors are careful to pick and choose forms that support their analysis, even if other forms are far more common. You can find lots of samples of oracle bone characters on the Web. See for yourself. In fact, it appears that some may be made up on the basis of related forms, as I can't find any examples of them.
Also, this book and the previous one share another set of problems. Nelson and her co-authors seem to have no idea that the origins of specific Chinese characters have been well understood for quite some time.
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