Noah in The Book of Songs
Earlier, it was said that in ancient China, there was a custom of taking sheep's skin, grazing sheep's blood, offering mutton and burning firewood into smoke to sacrifice to the gods, which was called "sacrifice", which was very consistent with the burnt offering offered by Noah in the Bible. In this article, we have to ask further: Did the ancient books explain the origin of this offering and who taught it to our ancestors? Yes! But to solve this mystery, we must first observe another identity of Noah in the Bible. Because in ancient legends, it is very common for the same person to appear in different stories in two identities.
In Genesis 9, 18-2O, the Bible says: "The sons of Noah who left the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth ... Their descendants were scattered all over the earth. Noah started as a farmer and planted a vineyard. " This gives us a clue that apart from being the man who built the ark and caused the flood, Noah also has an identity that is often overlooked: he was the first farmer after the flood, because the Bible clearly says that "Noah became a farmer". Although the Bible goes on to say that he planted a vineyard, it only led to the curse of Canaan later. Since he is a farmer, and God promised to harvest crops in winter and summer when he offered sacrifices, he must be the first person to sow grain after the flood, not only all kinds of grapes, but even personally taught our ancestors how to farm.
With this understanding, we can truly understand the significance of Zhou people's own inheritance, the origin of sacrifice and so on in ancient books. This is a history that can make Christians in China cry, hidden in the Book of Songs:
"Giving birth to people and respecting their ancestors ... the merits of civil and military affairs began in Hou Ji." This poem begins with the origin of Zhou people, who call themselves the descendants of "Ji" (later meaning Wang). Who is Ji? According to legend, he is a colleague of Yu, who helped him to smooth the flood and "assisted Yu in meritorious service" (see Confucius, benefiting from the book classics). The word "Ji" is obviously an pictograph, not his real name, but was given to him by later generations to commemorate him as the first "farmer". In other words, Zhou people respected the peasants in the flood era as their ancestors.
Where does Xiaomi come from? The Book of Songs says that "Ji was born in Gangwon". Who is Jiang Yuan? Unfortunately, there are few documents for the exam. We can only say that she is a person who relies on God, because in another Book of Songs, it is said that "Jiangyuan became famous, and the virtue did not return, and God obeyed", and judging from Jiang's surname, she may be a shepherd (is it a tradition to commemorate Abel in the Bible? See Genesis Chapter 4). Ji's birth is very interesting. "When you follow in the footsteps of Emperor Wu Min, it's harmless to have a baby ... this is a difficult ancient prose. Some people think that Jiang Yuan got pregnant because she stepped on God's footsteps and gave birth painlessly, which is Ji.
The Book of Songs goes on to say that when Ji was young, he had a very special experience, that is, he was with people who cut trees in narrow lanes and Woods, and he also experienced the disaster of freezing and was protected by bird wings ("the alley where babies were born, the words of cattle and sheep"; The flat forest that was born will be cut down; Ice gives birth, birds cover it with wings, and birds go away. Hou Ji talks a lot. " )
Every legend always has an origin, and these irrelevant things will be associated with Ji's "childhood" for no reason. How to understand it? The most reasonable and complete explanation is that these legends about Ji's childhood are actually the stories of Noah and the ark before the flood, because Noah's ark was really crowded with cattle, sheep and animals, and the "narrow path" is very apt to describe the inside of the ark; In order to build the ark, a lot of wood is needed. Of course, he had to cut down many trees in the forest, so that the whole forest was cut down. Noah experienced 40 days and nights of heavy rain and more than a year of flood in the ark, which was quite cold. Many scientists believe that glaciers were formed at that time, so they are called "ice". Then the Bible tells us, "Noah sent a dove to see if the water had receded from the earth. ... at night, the pigeon came back to him with a newly twisted olive leaf, and Noah knew that the water on the ground was retreating. " Therefore, the Book of Songs says that "a bird's wings cover it". He is a man who has been protected by bird wings (the world still regards this pigeon as a symbol of peace). Finally, "he waited for another seven days and let the pigeon go, and the pigeon never came back." As we can imagine, Noah was moved to tears, so we said, "The birds have gone, Hou Ji is quacking", because we knew it was time to get out of the ark.
Later, it was said in the Book of Songs that when Ji grew up, she planted crops, wheat and melons and fruits, all of which grew well, just like God helped her ("After Ji knew how to meet her", Han wrote: God helped her). All these prove that the legendary ancestor "Ji" of Zhou people may actually be Noah who became a farmer in Genesis 9: 20.
Finally, how he sacrificed to God first can clearly solve our doubts:
According to the Book of Songs, millet "takes Xiao's sacrifice fat, takes Xiao's sacrifice fat, and carries incense" (takes Artemisia capillaris to burn with fat and oil, and takes ram as sacrifice meat, adding firewood to burn brightly) ... So "its fragrance starts, and the spirit lives in the heart" (incense starts, and God enjoys it) ... So "Hou Ji worships,
Please refer to the record in Chapter 8 of Genesis: After Noah left the ark, he built an altar for the Lord and offered various clean animals and birds as burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the sweet smell and said in his heart, I will no longer curse the earth because of people (who have evil thoughts in their hearts since childhood), nor will I destroy all living beings as before. When the land still exists, crops, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night, never stop. "
These two paragraphs are too similar. Noah is the one who taught his children to sacrifice to God like this. We are all his descendants. This can be said to be the most shocking document in China's ancient books, and it is also the unforgivable evidence of Noah's blood relationship in ancient China.