GGG ping!
Not surprising really.....Christianity reached India well before it reached Rome and Europe. China is next to India and I am not very surprised at this discovery.
Wow, if he's correct, what a new perspective on early Christianity!
Too late.
http://members.tripod.com/~Berchmans/apostle.html
The testimonies of Eusebius (early 4th cent.) and St. Jerome (342-420 A.D.) about the mission of Pantaenus, a Christian philosopher sent by bishop Demetrius of Alexandria, "to preach Christ to the Brahmins and to the philosophers of India" in A.D. 190 affirms the tradition. The testimonies of the Fathers of the Church like St. Ephrem (306-373 A.D.), St. Gregory of Nazianze (324-390 A.D.), St. Ambrose (333-397 A.D.), St. Jerome, St. Gregory of Tours (6th cent.) and Isidore of Seville (7th cent.) are also notable. In various ways, they speak about the apostolate of St. Thomas, about the Christians of India, and about the priestly succession there. This is also attested to by several ecclesiastical calendars, martyrologies and other liturgical books of the Coptic, Greek, Latin and Mesopotamian Churches.
This stone carving SURE looks like the typical nativity scene....on the far left side.
It would be one of the three pictures one would depict of the life of Jesus: His birth, His crucifixtion and His ascension into heaven.
WHAT an amazing discovery. I hope the Chinese don't "bury" it.
Bump.
ping
ping
I remember reading a book in the 80's about the Bible and the Chinese language. The Chinese characters are very old. Take the word WEST. The Chinese character for that word are made up of the charcters that make the words "8 people in a boat" and the character for "perfection" is made up of the characters that are the words "lamb on a tree." The Chinese character for PARADISE is made of the charcters "2 people in a garden." I forget the name of the book, but it was a two word title with the second word being Genesis.
Amazing it is.
Merry Christmas.
(I'm sorry, but somebody had to do it.)
Ping.
bttt
The Wise men were supposedly from the East. Where from, we're not certain. Could have been Asia. Returning home, they prolly wrote down or relayed their experiences to one who recorded them.
Thanks for the post. Quite interesting. Like most I only knew about him getting to parts of India.
"Further studies showed that some of these engravings were made in 86 A.D., or the third year under the reign of "Yuanhe" of Eastern Han Dynasty, 550 years earlier than the world accepted time of Christianity's entrance into China."
I'd like to see all the pictures in greater detail, but this sounds pretty persuasive.
St. Thomas's journey to India has quite a lot of support, and it's not improbable that he managed to continue his missionary journey to China.
Christianity has been growing rapidly in China, despite the best efforts of the Communist leadership to put a lid on it. This could have a very positive effect on that, because it reinforces the idea that Christianity is not just a colonialist imposition on the East, but an ancient tradition.
The continued growth of Christianity in Africa and Asia is not only good in itself, but is one of the few things that might challenge and ameliorate the challenges to the West represented by Islam and Communist China.
If Wang's suspicions are right, the time of Christianity's arrival in China could be as early as the end of the 1st century, more than 500 years before the widely recognized date.
Bear in mind that Christianity arrived in Ireland shortly before Saint Patrick, Palladius arrived two years before him!