the minnow

Is there any mention of China in the Bible? Was China known at the time? The lands of the near east had some (indirect) trade with it through the Silk Road, did they? Also, Alexander the Great reached India and the boundaries of China, so somehow there could possibly be interaction between the people of the Far East and the Mediterranean?

Some people have claimed the land of "Sinim" in Isaiah 49:12 is China or that the Sinites are another name for the Chinese, but then really most scholars doubt that and say that its really just another name for the Phoenicians. Occasionally I hear people claim other things refer to the Chinese, like trying to associate it with of "the kings of the east" or "Magog and Gog" or whatever but I'm still skeptical and would like to know if there is any proof that Chinese people ever came in contact with the people of the Bible lands.

Chris Weimer

Short answer: no.

GenesisNemesis

Don't they mention Asia in the Bible in Revelation?:huh:

Chris Weimer

No. They do mention Ασια, which is modern day Anatolia.

Vorkosigan

The Chinese did come into contact with the Roman west, but the peak was in the second century, when the Romans maintained a trading station in what is now Pondicherry, and Marcus Aurelius sent a mission to the CHinese court (or maybe his predecessor). Silk did make its way into the Empire, but through middlemen.

Soul Invictus

It isn't to my knowledge. Genesis 10 did a bad job at capturing all of the people and/or lands of the world, or god did a bad job of communicating it, or both.

Chris Weimer

All of which, though, were post-biblical.