Is China in the Bible?

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I was reading the Chinese Bible — the Héhéběn, the Chinese Union Version that almost every Chinese Protestant has used for a century — when Isaiah 49:12 stopped me.

這些從秦國來 — these shall come from the State of Qin. 秦國 is China, plainly. But the margin hedged: 原文作希尼 — the original text reads “Sinim.”

So the Chinese Bible says, in its own text, that China is in the Bible — that the prophet foresaw it twenty-six centuries ago — while its margin quietly keeps the stranger word underneath. I had read past the verse many times. This time I wanted to know whether the translators were right.

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Is China in the Bible?