China in the prophecy of Isaiah 49...and the Dead Sea Scrolls

 

What is meant in Isaiah 49:12, the land of Sinim or “Cyrene-Aswan”? “ These shall come from far, and these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim.” So where is this “land of Sinim” located??? Isaiah 49:12, Chinese Union Version: "The kingdom of Qin was founded in 221 B.C., and the far eastern nation was called China or Sinim." The word in question is Sinim, and the King James Version spells it as "Sinim." However, the Chinese Union Version translates it as 秦國, which means the Kingdom of Qin, since the Qin royal family settled there, in China . Because this China or "Qin" was founded in 221 B.C., this far eastern nation was called China or Sin. Some other Bible translations, such as the New International Version (NIV) and the English Standard Version (ESV), reject this reading of the word “Sinim,” and assume that Isaiah did not refer to China in this word because China was not called by this name until 221 BCE, hundreds of years after Isaiah’s death . During the time of the prophet Isaiah (8th century BCE), this “Qin” was just a small principality among hundreds of principalities in the region. If we know that the prophet Isaiah prophesied the name of the future King Cyrus, what prevents him from referring to the name of a future nation (ummah with a damma on the alif, meaning a state)? These critics replaced the word “Sinim” with the word “Syrene,” which means Aswan, thus making Isaiah’s prophecy of the establishment of the state of China go unheeded. More importantly, this nation referred to in this unknown region will know the true God. This encouraged the early missionary movement to China, led by the missionary Hudson Taylor. The presence of this text in the approved Chinese version still plays a role in encouraging millions of Chinese to enter the Christian faith today. However, liberal scholars have deprived these believers of this wonderful promise. These critics have replaced the word "sinim" with the word "Syrene" based on the Dead Sea Scrolls , where the word is pronounced with this pronunciation and means "Aswan". However, the writer of these scrolls may have wanted to explain the true location of this unknown and mysterious region, based on their thought and local geography, as did the Septuagint translation of the Bible, which replaced the word "Sinim" with "Persia" (γῆς Περσῶν). In addition, the context of Isaiah 's prophecy indicates that "Sinim" is a region far to the east, and within the verse the north and the west are mentioned, which means that the location of "Sinim" must be either in the south or in the east.Although Aswan or Cyrene is located in the south, it is not far from Israel.






Rabbi Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra (also known simply as Ibn Ezra or Abenezra), lived between 1092 and 1167 CE and is one of the most famous Jewish scholars and writers of the Middle Ages.
In his commentary on the Book of Isaiah, Abraham ben Ezra referred to the land of "Sinim" as Sinai, saying, "It is a place near Egypt."

The search for Sinim continues ...
Those who claim the infallibility of the Bible should wake up and consider, for although scholars say that the text of the Book of Isaiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls is identical to the Masoretic (Hebrew) text, we find hundreds of clear differences, and this text in question is one of the simplest examples. There is more to the discussion... And Allah is the source of help.