Seeker2000

From Isaiah 49:12:
Which land is probably meant by the name of "Sinim"?

According to Wikipedia Sinim has been usually associated with China (basing it on the root word Sin, which resembles the Latinization for the Chinese Qin, after the Qin dynasty).

Another argument for this explanation can be found at http://www.lmn.org/magazine/166/china.html.

However, I see a problem with this explanation, because the Quin dinasty was founded in 221 BC, while the verse from the Book of Isaiah should date to the timeframe from around 550 BC to 539 BC, as the verse would belong to Deutero-Isaiah. In any case it should be dated to some time before 221 BC.

The other website that I mentioned above explains this with the state of Quin having already existed in the days of Isaiah as one of hundreds of states under Zhou. Isaiah, being a prophet with a connection to God with divine foreknowledge, could prophesy the future development of Quin and its future importance and because of that used the name to denote the land of China.

On some other website I also read that a term like Sin or Sinim is still being used today as the Hebrew word for China, supporting the explanation that Isaiah talks about China in 49:12.

What do you think, which land is probably meant by the name of "Sinim"?

Seeker2000

There is another theory according to which the land of Sinim really denotes Australia. This is apparently put forth by a person with the name Yair Davidi or Yair Davidiy. There are two links at Wikipedia, one containing what appears to be e-mails from Davidi: http://www.hebroots.org/hebrootsarchive/0111/0111u.html

Davidi seems to suggest that the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were direct ancestors of the British people. He uses different arguments for support, e.g. he quotes from the beginning of the Zohar (widely considered the most important work of Kabbalah) where a red and white rose is described, surrounded by five strong leaves, which symbolizes the Assemblage and Community of Israel. He then makes a connection with the Tudor Rose of England, consisting of a white inside of a red rose, which also has five strong leaves, but only ten petals. Those ten petals, according to him, represent the Ten Lost Tribes.

He also goes on to make the connection to Australia. According to him part of the Israelite Exiles were taken overseas in ships by Phoenicians acting as agents for the Assyrians. "From the land of Sinim" is then supposed to mean "From the Land of the South" and:
According to him the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Hebrews had knowledge of Australia. However, I think this theory sounds really quite far-fetched and his evidence for ancient knowledge of Australia appears to be shaky at best. The other link from Wikipedia is also very critical about his argument - it can be found here: http://www.aletheiacollege.net/dbb/14-10-2.htm

Funnily this link seems to be from someone who doesn't believe in evolution (at least as the sentence "I don't mean 'experts must be right'. Not at all- look how many scientists are utterly wrong re evolution!" implies to me), but he is very critical regarding the Sinim=Australia theory though.

The Wikipedia article also mentions that some scholars have claimed Sinim as another name for the Phoenicians, but unfortunately there are no references to that.

Maybe someone else has further information about this topic?