There is a hot, still ongoing discussion about the true background
in the various biblical tables of nations to distinguish the origin of Asian
nations. This especially relates to the question from whom of the three sons of
Noah they are descending, from Sem, Ham or Japhet? In his paper Paul Phelps
argues not only the Chinese, but all the Asian nations should be regarded as
Eastern Hebrew nations (Paul Phelps), while many like Henry Morris see them clearly as descendants
of Ham. He writes about Gen. 9:24: "Descendants of Ham included the
Egyptians and Sumerians, who founded the first two great empires of antiquity,
as well as other great nations such as the Phoenicians, Hittites, and
Canaanites. The modern African tribes and the Mongol tribes (including today
the Chinese and Japanese), as well as the American Indians and the South Sea
Islanders, are probably dominantly Hamitic in origin."
Regarding Gen. 10:16-18 Morris writes:
The Biblical mention of a people in the Far East named “Sinim”
(Isaiah 49:12), together with references in ancient secular histories to people
in the Far East called “Sinae,” at least suggests the possibility that some of
Sin’s descendants migrated eastward, while others went south into the land of
Canaan. It is significant that the Chinese people have always been identified
by the prefix “Sino-” (e.g., Sino-Japanese War; Sinology, the study of Chinese
history). Morris concludes the name “Sin” is frequently encountered in Chinese names in the form
“Siang” or its equivalent.
The evidence is tenuous but, of all the names in the Table of
Nations, it does seem that two sons of Canaan, Heth (Hittites = Khittae =
Cathay) and Sin (Sinites = Sinim = China), are the most likely to have become
ancestors of the Oriental peoples. Since it seems reasonable that divine
inspiration would include in such a table information concerning the ancestry
of all the major streams of human development, it is reasonable to include the Mongoloid peoples (and maybe that would mean to als include the North American Indians?) to originate from the Hamitic line.
 |
| 30 Ham Nations and their Migration Places |
Paul Phelp in his research however found out as interesting and biblical this sounds, this is not what other
Asians more familiar with local Oriental traditions are willing to agree. Instead of summarizing what seems ("t does not
seem") the author of the newly published book "Oriental Origins in
the Bible" demonstrates how the Hebrew text itself hints into another
direction and says:
[All men in fact belong to one family because Adam and Eve were
parents
of all (Gen. 3:20,) but there are three genealogies after the Flood;
Gen. 9:18-19,
The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and
Japheth... These three were the sons of
Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.
Bible scholars did trace Ham’s descendants to Africa, the Mediterranean,
the Indian Ocean, and into the South Pacific
regions. The name Ham means hot
and indicates that Ham’s people went into hot
climates. Japheth’s descendants
are traceable to the
Aryan people of Europe, central Asia, Iran and north India.
The name Japheth means enlarged (expanded in size) which reveals the
nature
of the Japhetic
people, and is also prophetic of their world-wide expansion.
Bible scholarship
tradition has the view that the descendants of Shem settled
only in western Asia,
mostly Arabs and Jews. But this
conclusion does not take
east Asia into account (half of humanity) and gives only a small
portion to Shem.
But that cannot be
correct because Shem was given the greatest honour of all. He also said, “Blessed by the LORD my
God be Shem...” (Gen. 9:26). According to the Biblical record, Shem is the
original forefather of both the
West Asian people and East Asian people. In the Genesis account, the ancestry
of all the East Asian
people can be traced to Shem. Shem means honourable name, which fits well with
East Asian cultural values.
In the Hebrew Bible, God
is referred to as ‘The Honourable Name’ (HA-SHÈM),
thus associating God with the people of Shem. In Genesis 10:21, Shem is called
“the father of all the
children of Eber,” meaning the Hebrew people.
The word
Hebrew means ‘of Eber,’ or ‘descended from Eber.’ Gen. 10:25,
To Eber were
born two sons: the name of one was Peleg,
for in his
days the earth was divided,
and his brother’s name was Joktan.
The Hebrew race has therefore descended from Eber in two branches:
Peleg
and Joktan. The name Peleg means division, (indicating
the division of mankind
in Babylon, Gen. 11:7-9), and the name Joktan means diminished,
(indicating the
diminished lifespan of mankind at that time).
Joktan’s family of thirteen
sons is the largest family of early Bible times. Only
Joktan’s first-generation lineage was recorded; Gen.
10:26-29; I Chron. 1:19-23.
(Even this much is
unusual because Joktan’s descendants are not mentioned in
later Bible
history.) All later Bible history is
based on Peleg’s lineage (Gen. 11)
so readers have traditionally thought Peleg’s descendants are the only existing
Hebrews. Peleg’s lineage has more visibility in the Bible
because it led up to
Abraham—and God took Abraham’s people to lead the Bible narrative. But the
descendants of Joktan made another even
larger branch of Hebrews. The total
disappearance of Joktan’s people from the Bible
narrative means that his family
left west Asia entirely and migrated to another land far away.
 |
| On Josephus' table of nations ( 1st A.D.), Joktam is placed in Pakistan |
While his arguments for this view could be supported from current
research in view of at least some Han-Chinese groups and several people groups
in the Indian subcontinent (some claim the Brahmans of India are descendants of
Abraham), it is difficult to apply this view for most of the more than 700
non-Chinese people nations in China. –Alexander Zephyr uses Ps. 83 to remind
that conclusions done through pure grammatical and cultural comparison are not
sufficient for a sound result. Ps. 83 clearly shows what happened with
the descendants of Peleg, which would include Joktams people in the Middle East
and refuses to accept Phelps and Kwoks pure speculation regarding the Joktam
migration to the East. -Further research must be done. In order to better reach
those people nations for Christ and explain what their ancestors once knew better from
their creator more careful quality research regarding the Ham AND Sem nations in Asia is desperately needed.
No comments:
Post a Comment