Jie jing shuo wen: a comparative Sinitic-Semitic lexicography, volume one - Paperback

by Matthew Franklin Cooper (Author)

Jie Jing Shuo Wen: A Comparative Sinitic-Semitic Lexicography, Volume One by Matthew Franklin Cooper proposes a bold and methodologically disciplined reexamination of early Chinese Christian texts through the lens of comparative Semitic linguistics. Centered on the seventh-century mission of Aluoben and the linguistic world that made that mission intelligible, the book argues that certain classical Chinese terms used in early Christian discourse were not merely approximate translations of Syriac or Hebrew concepts but were selected because of deep functional and conceptual parallels between Sinitic characters and Semitic roots.

Drawing heavily on the Shuowen jiezi and the Erya, Cooper treats Chinese characters not as static ideograms but as semantic fields shaped by sound, usage, and ritual function. These fields are then placed into sustained comparison with Semitic triliteral roots, particularly from Hebrew and Syriac, allowing patterns of usage to emerge that transcend surface-level translation. For example, characters associated with hearing, writing, authority, instruction, and transmission are examined alongside Semitic roots such as ש-מ-ע (to hear/obey) and כ-ת-ב (to write/decree), revealing shared assumptions about how truth is received, preserved, and enacted.

The book situates this lexicographic work within the historical and literary context of the Tang dynasty, where religious discourse unfolded in a multilingual, multicultural environment shaped by Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and West Asian Christianity. Rather than framing Aluoben's project as a simple case of cultural accommodation, Cooper presents it as an intellectually rigorous interaction with Chinese linguistic categories that were already capable of bearing this weight. In this reading, early Chinese Christianity emerges not as a foreign imposition but as a dialogical tradition grounded in shared structures of literary function.

Volume One lays the theoretical and methodological foundation for this approach. It establishes principles for cross-linguistic comparison, cautions against anachronistic readings, and demonstrates how lexicography can function as a form of historical study. By focusing on words rather than doctrines, the book shows how concepts such as revelation, obedience, inscription, and teaching were negotiated at the level of language itself.

Ultimately, Jie Jing Shuo Wen invites readers to reconsider how sacred texts travel across cultures. It challenges modern assumptions about translation, arguing that fidelity is not achieved through lexical equivalence alone but through alignment of conceptual worlds. This first volume opens a path for future work that treats Sinitic and Semitic traditions not as isolated systems but as participants in a shared human effort to articulate function, authority, and the divine.