Antuki: A Little Boy's Story

Chapter 15: Sinim and Togarmah

Father Adam walked besides Akio and Yoko, heading for the regions of Anatolia. Mother Eve was not with them; she'd continued up the Mountain of God with St. Michael, having some business to attend to there.

"Where are you taking us, good sir?" asked Yoko, puzzled at the change in direction.

Father Adam smiled. "To meet two of my sons," he explained. "They are expecting us."

The old man had brought the two friends to another mountain range. Finding a cave tucked away in the rocks, he called out a greeting to its unseen occupants.

"Peace be with you, my dear sons!" cried Father Adam. "Our guests are here."

Moments later, two old men emerged into the sunlight, clad in ancient robes. One of them was visibly younger than the other, and both were less aged than Father Adam.

The older man's eyes brightened to see Akio. "Look, Japheth!" he told his companion excitedly. "It's one of your children!"

"Indeed it is, Father," agreed Japheth, equally delighted. "It's Akio, the son of Togarmah, the son of Gomer."

Hearing this, Akio felt he really ought to know who these old men were, but he simply had no clue. He was, after all, only six years old. 

Father Adam sensed the little boy's ignorance and dispelled it immediately. "These are your fathers, Akio," he told him plainly. "Here are Noah and Japheth, who built the Ark."

Akio bowed once more to these great saints, understanding the progress now. He'd just met Adam and Eve; of course Noah had to be next.

Japheth stepped forward and embraced his descendant. The little boy had never heard of him; but he was here to explain something very important.

"My child," he told him kindly, "do you know where you came from?"

Akio shook his head. All he knew was that he came from Adam and Eve, and eventually from his grandparents and parents in Japan.

Father Japheth rose up in the air, still carrying Akio. From a height, the shape of a large boat in the mountain range could be clearly seen.

"This is the Ark which my father and brothers built," explained Japheth, pointing it out. "We were warned by the Lord God that He would flood the Earth to save mankind, and so we built it for ourselves and our livestock."

"What did you do after the Flood?" asked Akio curiously.

"I'm glad you asked!" replied Father Japheth. "In the aftermath, our father, Noah, decided to live out the rest of his days near Mt. Ararat. He'd had enough adventures for a lifetime and wanted to settle down. Eventually, Shem, Ham, and I took our wives and children and moved elsewhere, fulfilling the Lord's command to replenish the Earth."

"Where did you go?"

"My younger brother Ham did a bad thing to our father," explained Father Japheth. "As punishment, he and his favourite son Canaan were sentenced to move far away from the rest of us. He took his family south to Africa, but Canaan stubbornly remained in the Promised Land. This made our father angry, for that land belonged to our oldest brother, Shem."

"What about you?"

"Since Ham moved south, and Shem was supposed to live in the Middle East, that left the north available for our side of the family. We moved north and started populating Anatolia and Europe. In time, we expanded into what is now Central Asia and Russia as well. It was all ours for the taking."

"Oh!" exclaimed Akio excitedly. The geography made sense to him. "So that's how our family came to China and Japan!"

Father Japheth perked up to hear this. There was an added wrinkle to the tale.

"Not quite, my dear son," he corrected him. "The people of China come from Ham."

"What?" asked Akio in confusion. Didn't Father Japheth just say that Ham went down to Africa?

The old man smiled knowingly. "I just told you that Canaan stayed behind in the Promised Land," he reminded him. "But not all of his children were as rebellious as he. One group of them was called Sinim or the Sinites. They tried to live with their brethren for a time, but they were driven out by the more aggressive Canaanites."

"There wasn't enough room for all of them?" asked Akio sadly, recalling how Peter had banished him from Neverland.

"It was the will of God," explained Father Japheth. "Having nowhere else to go, they moved away from Israel as the Lord originally intended. The Sinites split into several groups: one went down to Arabia, another to India, and the most intrepid of them made it all the way to the Yellow River in China."

Akio was amazed to hear this. This was new and fascinating information for him.

"This is why," said Father Japheth, "the Hebrews have given the name Sinim to China. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, 'Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.' Sinim is China."

Hearing this, something suddenly made sense to Akio which he hadn't realised before.

"So that's the reason why the Chinese language doesn't fit ours," he muttered.

"That's right," agreed Father Japheth. "You're descended from my son Gomer through his son Togarmah. There have been many generations between their time and yours, and tribes have married and intermarried with each other so that there is no longer a clear correspondence between the patriarchs and modern nations. But this is where your line began."

"Yes, indeed," said Father Noah, joining the conversation. "It is written that I cursed Canaan for the sin of his father Ham. However, Sinim has largely been spared from the effects of that curse because they obeyed the Lord and moved far east. This is why the Israelites never encountered Sinites in the Promised Land, and why the Lord has made Sinim such a great and powerful nation. They have served their brethren well."

Father Noah's expression suddenly grew very grave. "However, this could change if China rebels against the Lord," he warned. "If she tries to become the ruler and attack God's people Israel, He will treat them like all the other Canaanites."

"These, then, are the generations of mankind," concluded Father Adam. "To Ham was given the south and the east; to Japheth the expanse of the north. And Shem, the father of Abraham, dwelt with God in the midst of the Earth."