Dale Pollard
You’re approaching a teeny-tiny town. As you do, there’s a weird tickle in your nose. Your face contorts, your neck cranes, your eyes close, and an obnoxious glass-shattering sneeze explodes from your very soul. It’s over in a couple of seconds and you’re left shaking, but you’re fine. Wait, now where’s the town? It was so itty-bitty– you missed it.
Syene is just like that. It’s mentioned only once in scripture and if you’re not paying attention, your eyes cruise past it. Today we call this small region– China. Maybe you’re not familiar with Syene, but there’s a high probability that you’ve heard of Asia.
Now that you know what to look for, put your peepers on this.
“Behold, these shall come from afar,
and behold, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Syene” (Isa. 49.12).
The China hypothesis is based on two primary clues found in the text:
- Directional clues
In Claudius Ptolemy’s 2nd-century work, Geographia, “China” is placed on the easternmost edge of the known world through two regions:
Serica (North)
Sinae (South)
- Linguistic similarities
In ancient Hebrew Sînîm is phonetically similar to the Latin Sinae and the Sanskrit Cīnah (ancient names for the Chinese people).
Cool Notes:
Even the Chinese Union Version of the Bible translates Syene as the Kingdom of Qin, the dynasty that first unified China way back in the day (aprox. 860 BC).
The ancient Chinese have a flood legend and the main character’s name is Nuwa. Sounds a lot like Moses! Wait, no- Noah!
The Miao people of southern China have an oral tradition involving a global flood where a couple named Nu-ah and Gao-bo survived. Once again, Bible readers know exactly who they’re talking about.
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