Do Chinese Characters Tell

Us Something About Genesis?

The Tower of Babel page is the fifth of five pages that attempt to relate the forms of Chinese characters to ideas from the Book of Genesis. Nelson and Broadberry do not repeat any of this in Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn't Solve.

The first character on the Tower of Babel page is tu3, with the modern meaning "dirt, earth". This character is not analyzed on this page, but is translated as "clay".

The second (and fourth) character on the Tower of Babel page is he2, with the modern meaning "unite; together". The authors interpret this character as being made up of "man", "one", and "person". According to Wieger, the upper portion of the character is as follows:

Ji2. Notion of union, of assemblage, of a junction of different elements, represented by three lines. Three is used to mean many.

He2. Union, agreement, harmony. Etymologically, many (three) mouths speaking together; good understanding.

The third (and fifth) character on the Tower of Babel page is da2, which has a wide variety of modern meanings, including "to undertake". It is also the original form of the character "to answer". The authors interpret it as being composed of "unity" and "weeds". However, the original meaning of the character was not "to undertake". This is an extended meaning, as Wieger explains.

Da2. Vetch, pea, vegetables, whose boughs are joined, get entangled. Extended meaning, to join, to adapt, to answer.

The sixth character on the Tower of Babel page is ta3, with the modern meaning "tower". The authors interpret it as "to undertake" and "clay", but the "to undertake" portion is simply the phonetic element.

Nelson and Broadberry no longer support any of the preceding interpretations.

The seventh character on the Tower of Babel page is she2, with the modern meaning "tongue". The authors explain this as a compound of "mouth" and "thousand". Once again, they fail because they don't know the original forms of the characters involved. Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

Here are the originals for "thousand" and "tongue":

Qian1. A thousand; Ten times one hundred. The hundred is not represented in the character. The portion on the top, an abbreviation of ren2 (person) is phonetic says the Glose.

Contrast the old form of qian1, above, with the supposedly identical element in she2, below:

She2. The tongue stretched out of the mouth.

The eighth character on the Tower of Babel page is luan4, with the modern meaning "disorder, confusion". The authors say that it is composed of "tongue" and "(right) leg". Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

In fact, the character they give is a short form of the original, which is shown below. (And Wieger says that the "(right) leg" actually represents a thread being drawn out of a tangle.)

The ninth character on the Tower of Babel page is fen1, with the modern meaning "divide, separate; partake". The authors again take the upper element as meaning "eight", but it still means "to divide". Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

Fen1. To divide, to separate, to partake. A knife (dao1) that divides (ba1).

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