Do Chinese Characters Tell

Us Something About Genesis?

The Flood page is the fourth of five pages that attempt to relate the forms of Chinese characters to ideas from the Book of Genesis. Nelson and Broadberry do not deal with the Flood, and do not support either of the characters on this page.

The first character on the Flood page is chuan2, with the modern meaning "boat". The authors explain it as a compound made up of "vessel", "eight", and "person". However, the right-hand side of the character is simply the phonetic element. As mentioned on the Chinese Characters and Genesis page, the upper portion of the right-hand side does not mean "eight" in this context. It means "to divide". Here's Wieger on the phonetic element:

Yan3. The ravines, on the mountains' ridges; separation (ba1) and flowing (kou3) of waters. Note the phonetic complex, chuan2, a boat.

The remaining characters on the Flood page all lead up to the fourth character, yan2, with the modern meaning "drown". The authors interpret it as "cover over" and "water", but the "cover over" portion, also pronounced "yan2", is simply the phonetic element.

In any case, it's hard to see how the idea that drowning involves being covered with water would in any way imply the Noachian flood.

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