The Chinese Story of Creation (It’s Closer to Christianity than You Thought)
2 min read
I am currently enrolled in a class, at The University of Memphis, HIST 3290: Traditional East Asia. There is nothing more scary to me that venturing out into unknown territory; I miss my American history comfort zone!
The following video was assigned as part of the class. It is a short animated video (9:30), entitled Nü Wa Patches Up the Sky. This video shows us the Chinese story of creation. It is eerie the similarities (and slight differences) between the Chinese story of creation and the Christian story of creation.
The first notable difference is that the Chinese creator of mankind is a woman, whereas the God of Judaism, the Muslim religion, and Christianity is portrayed as a man. Additionally, the Chinese creator make women before men. At one point, after the creation of both men and women, the female creator of mankind smiles; as if to say fulfill the following text from Genesis 1:31, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”
Then the animated short gets strange. Two beings, appearing to be gods of some sort–certainly not humans–get into some form of altercation causing major damage–cracking the heavens–which caused harm to the humans below. (As I watched this, I could not shake the image of Heat Miser and Snow Miser from the children’s Christmas special, The Year Without a Santa Claus.)
In the animated film, as with Christianity, the creator of mankind was worried about the men and women (and their possible imminent demise)–she looked after them, protected them.
At the end of the video she sees that the heaven is cracked and, if left unrepaired, would cause continual pain and suffering to the humans. When it appears as if there is no way to stop mankind from certain destruction, the creator of the human race sacrifices herself to ensure their safety. To me, this ending greatly resembles the story of Jesus Christ who was sent to Earth, as a sacrifice, to save all of mankind.
How shocking! The Genesis story is JEWISH not Christian, written 3-4000 years before Jesus was born. Jesus brought the Torah (Old Testament which recalls the exodus to the Promised Land and ends in Jerusalem Israel). I’m astounded by this account which is acutely not accurate. The Old Testament (what Jews call the Bible) was written almost before the Chinese had a written language, even though the culture may be as old, or older, than the Jewish genesis story.
The Christians were only responsible for the Gospel which, I believe, was written by Paul. (I really don’t know very much at all about Paul, or the Gospel which I’ve read but do not adhere to or really understand as you do.)
Forgive me, but I had to comment. Antisemitism is rampant and people need to understand we wrote most of your tract. Perhaps if they knew the truth, there would be far more respect for us.
How shocking! The Genesis story is JEWISH not Christian, written 3-4000 years before Jesus was born. Jesus brought the Torah (Old Testament which recalls the exodus to the Promised Land and ends in Jerusalem Israel). I’m astounded by this account which is acutely not accurate. The Old Testament (what Jews call the Bible) was written almost before the Chinese had a written language, even though the culture may be as old, or older, than the Jewish genesis story.
The Christians were only responsible for the Gospel which, I believe, was written by Paul. (I really don’t know very much at all about Paul, or the Gospel which I’ve read but do not adhere to or really understand as you do.)
I have never written anything to you. A fellow Jew may have, however. Or perhaps even an historian.
Forgive me, but I had to comment. Antisemitism is rampant and people need to understand we wrote most of your tract. Perhaps if they knew the truth, there would be far more respect for us.
How shocking! The Genesis story is JEWISH not Christian, written 3-4000 years before Jesus was born. Jesus brought the Torah (Old Testament which recalls the exodus to the Promised Land and ends in Jerusalem Israel). I’m astounded by this account which is acutely not accurate. The Old Testament (what Jews call the Bible) was written almost before the Chinese had a written language, even though the culture may be as old, or older, than the Jewish genesis story.
The Christians were only responsible for the Gospel which, I believe, was written by Paul. (I really don’t know very much at all about Paul, or the Gospel which I’ve read but do not adhere to or really understand as you do.)
I have never written anything to you. A fellow Jew may have, however. Or perhaps even an historian. You are afraid or refuse the truth. which is it?
Forgive me, but I had to comment. Antisemitism is rampant and people need to understand we wrote most of your tract. Perhaps if they knew the truth, there would be far more respect for us.