The Discovery of Genesis (60 page)

To portray the sinlessness of Christ, only unblemished, perfect, sacrificial animals were used in the Hebrew services. “Take a
bull calf
for a sin offering, and a
ram
for a burnt offering, both
without blemish
, and offer them before the Lord” (Leviticus 9: 2). This verse is exactly duplicated by the Chinese character for
sacrificial animals
where the animals specified are a
lamb
and a
bullock, ox
. These beasts must also be unblemished, or
beautiful
.

The Chinese and Hebrews surely must have had identical roots in the ancient past, as evidenced by the similarity of their religious rituals. They both observed morning and evening sacrifices. “One lamb you shall offer in the
morning
, and the other lamb you shall offer in the
evening
” (Exodus 29:39). This had great significance, for at the third hour (9 a.m.) Christ was to be hung on the cross (Mark 15:25), the time of the morning sacrifice; and at the ninth hour (3 p.m.) He gave His life (Mark 15:34), when the evening sacrifice was being offered.

“Hsi,”
sacrificial animals
in Chinese, has the same phonetic sound as the word “hsi”
evening
and “hsi”
west
. It would certainly seem that “hsi” indicating the
sacrificial animals
arose phonetically by association with the time of the ritual in the evening. On the other hand, another word for
sacrifice
is
, “szu.” By itself, the constituent radical
is “szu” and designates time:
9–11 a.m.
“Szu” must therefore be a morning sacrifice. Furthermore, in the more explicit older calligraphy,
⁶
is written as
which portrays
two persons
with uplifted hands worshiping
God
at the
Garden
. Evidently outside the gates of Eden was the site where the original altar was set up by Adam.