Chinese Characters & Genesis

The Bible teaches that the Spirit of God “brooded” or “hovered” over the face of the waters before the creation of land (Genesis 1:2). The character for “water” is turned on its side and combined with the character for “cover” — giving the idea that the Spirit of God covered, or hovered over, the face of the waters.

Notice how similar this combination becomes to the word for “rain.” In Scripture, rain often pictures how God pours out His Spirit upon the earth: “…I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:23, 28).

In the middle of the “Spirit” character, the character for “mouth” or “person” is repeated three times — reflecting the Trinity. When God says, “Let us make man in our image,” He speaks in a special plural denoting at least three: Father, Son, and Spirit. Even in characters 700 years older than the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the Trinity is revealed.

Here are two forms of the character for “man.” The lower, most common form shows a short trunk and two legs; when used inside another character it is sometimes abbreviated to a single vertical line, as in the upper form.

In the character for “work,” the top line represents heaven and the bottom line earth, with a man (the abbreviated form) working in between.

Here three persons are working — two with the normal character for person, the third the abbreviated form. They are the three “mouths” seen earlier. Combined, they mean “worker of miracles.” Indeed, when Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together as One, miracles happen!

So the Holy Spirit covered the waters of the earth in creation, pours out His blessings upon Christians, is one Person of the Trinity, and is a worker of miracles — a wonderful description taken straight from the Chinese character.

The first character means a “distinguished person”; the second, a tongue inside a mouth, means “to speak.” Combined into the character for “substitute,” they render “one speaking on behalf of two others.” In the New Testament, Jesus Christ represents the other two Persons of the Godhead.

The character for “conduct” holds another Trinitarian idea: the ancient Chinese believed a wise word spoken by three mouths of authority was to be a rule of conduct. So God’s Word, spoken by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the ultimate rule for our lives.

At its center is a pictograph of an open mouth — “mouth” or “person.”

The “dust” character is the number “ten” over a horizontal line — “ten toes standing on the ground, mud, or clay” — giving the meaning “dust.”

Add a mark in the upper-left indicating “breath” or “life,” and we have “that which is made of dust has a mouth and breath, and therefore speaks.”

Finally, the character for “walking” — an older pictograph showing a man’s two legs, an outstretched hand pointing the way, and three lines for hair blown back by his rapid progress.

Put together: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). After God breathed into Adam, he became a full-grown, walking, talking man — and the Hebrew word for “Adam” means “ground.”

The character for “happiness” or “blessing” contains the “God radical” on the left. In the upper right is the single line meaning “one” or “first,” below it “mouth” or “person,” and below that the character for “garden.”

The meaning: God + first + person + garden = blessing. Adam experienced true blessing and happiness alone in the garden with God. Even today, the greatest blessing comes from the eternal life God gives (John 17:3) and the fellowship we enjoy with Him.

The word for “light” carries a similar idea. Adam and Eve lacked clothing yet felt no shame — until they sinned and became aware of their nakedness (Genesis 3:7). When Moses came from God’s presence, his face shone though he was unaware of it (Exodus 34:29). If a sinner like Moses shone, how much more would sinless Adam and Eve, walking with God, have radiated His glory? Made in God’s image (1 Corinthians 11:7; Psalm 104:1–2), they were covered with the glory of God — and lost that covering when they sinned.

Several forms of the “God” radical carry the sense of “reveal” or “manifest.” The word for “ancestor” joins the “God” radical with the word for “moreover, also” — agreeing with Genesis 1:26 that Adam, whose only ancestor was God, was made in the image of God.

First, a character meaning “secret” or “private.”

Then a variation on the character for “man” or “son.”

And an enclosed garden divided into four parts.

Combined, they give the character for “devil”: crafty, tricky, and secretive. He tells Eve (and Adam, who was with her — Genesis 3:6) only what he wants, concealing the consequences, speaking with a man’s voice, in the garden of Eden.

To form “tempter,” we top the “devil” character with two trees — for of the many trees in Eden, only two are named: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9).

We then add the character for “cover”: the temptation took place under the cover of the trees. Satan does not work in the open light, but in subtlety and craft.

See how perfectly these characters for the tempter tell the story of Genesis 3:1–5.

The word “covet” or “desire” pictures a woman making a decision between two trees — the two significant trees set side by side in the garden (Genesis 2:8–9), where she made the wrong choice (Genesis 3:6).

“Forbidden” again shows the two trees at the top, with an abbreviated form of the word for God plus a “hook” that changes “God” to “God commands.” So “forbidden” means “God makes a commandment about two trees.” God did exactly that — first forbidding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16–17), and after the fall, the tree of life (Genesis 3:22–24).

The leftmost character means “ship” or “vessel.”

The upper-right character is the Chinese number “eight.”

The lower-right character means “mouth” or “person.” The first boat in the Bible is Noah’s ark — and how many “mouths” were aboard? Genesis 7:13 names Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their three wives: eight people. The character records a vessel with eight people, in perfect detail.