TIMELINE AND MAP

1. Prophetic Foundations (Centuries Before Christ)

Isaiah & Malachi

Long before the birth of Jesus, the Hebrew prophets articulated a vision in which the God of Israel would be known beyond Israel itself.

• Isaiah repeatedly speaks of the “islands” and distant nations responding to the Lord and His Servant (Isaiah 42; 49; 60).
   
• Malachi envisions God’s name being honored “from the rising of the sun to its setting” (Malachi 1:11).
   

These texts do not identify specific nations or routes. Instead, they establish a theological trajectory: revelation and worship extending outward, toward the farthest reaches of the world, rather than remaining confined to Israel alone.

The Magi from the East

Matthew records that Magi came “from the East” to worship the Christ child. He does not specify their homeland, ethnicity, or route—only their direction.

This openness is deliberate. Matthew emphasizes what they did (they worshiped) rather than where they were from. The result is a narrative that invites investigation rather than premature certainty.

At this stage, Scripture establishes encounter and worship—not later theological understanding or written transmission.

Public Revelation of the Messiah

The life, teaching, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus introduce realities that could not have been fully understood beforehand:

• A suffering Messiah (Isaiah 53 fulfilled)
   
• The identification of Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb
   
• Resurrection and judgment
   
• Salvation extended beyond Israel
   

These are not abstract theological notions. They are event-anchored realities, clarified only through the cross and resurrection. Any later preservation of these realities necessarily presupposes post-crucifixion understanding.

These are the events later examined when evaluating specific Kanji structures.

Jerusalem and the Nations

At Pentecost, Jerusalem becomes a crossroads of the known world. Jews and God-fearers from many regions hear the gospel proclaimed publicly and interpreted through apostolic teaching.

Acts does not mention the Magi explicitly. What it does establish is a historical moment when the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection is articulated clearly and carried outward.

This moment matters because it accounts for post-resurrection clarity, not pre-cross expectation. It provides a plausible context for firsthand exposure to the completed gospel narrative.

Transmission, Not Triumph

The hypothesis proposes that some eastern visitors—possibly associated with the Magi tradition—returned home carrying:

• Oral testimony
   
• Apostolic teaching
   
• A framework shaped by the cross and resurrection
   

This does not imply mass conversion, institutional churches, or political dominance. It proposes only transmission—the carrying of witness across distance.

Preservation, in this sense, is modest and fragile, more akin to seeds carried far from their origin than to a conquering movement.

Cultural Preservation, Not New Scripture

The final stage of the hypothesis proposes that certain Kanji preserve structural representations of specific gospel events, particularly events surrounding the crucifixion.

These features suggest intentional encoding by individuals with direct, firsthand exposure to the gospel message, rather than abstract theological reflection or coincidental patterning.

On this view, the characters function as historical artifacts of transmission, preserving event-specific understanding rather than introducing new revelation.

The claim is not that Kanji express Christian ideas in general, but that some characters exhibit coherent, event-anchored structures that correspond to the gospel narrative itself.

• Kanji are not Scripture
   
• Doctrine is not derived from characters
   
• At most, the characters function as cultural artifacts—comparable to archaeology or iconography
   

The Bible remains the authority; Kanji are examined only in its light.

“East” Relative to Judea

From a first-century Judean perspective, “the East” is a relative term. It indicates direction, not distance, and does not name a specific culture or political center. Matthew’s language leaves the geographical horizon intentionally open.

Ancient cultures commonly understood geography from their own center. Even the name China—Zhongguo (中国), “Middle Kingdom”—reflects a worldview in which one’s own land stands at the center, with regions described relative to it.

Within such a framework, island cultures positioned beyond continental powers could naturally be described as eastern relative to the lands they interacted with or were subject to. This does not identify a specific origin for the Magi, but it underscores a key point: “from the East” is shaped by perspective rather than precision.

By the first century, long-distance travel and commerce already linked much of the known world:

• The Mediterranean basin
   
• Central and East Asia via established overland networks later known collectively as the Silk Road
   
• Maritime trade routes—often called the Spice Route—connecting Africa, Arabia, India, and island cultures
   

The Roman and Han Chinese worlds, though separated by intermediaries, were connected through these systems, with goods, information, and travelers moving across multiple regions.

The map does not propose a specific route. It illustrates only that sustained movement across continents and seas was historically plausible.

Historical precedent supports this plausibility. Alexander the Great’s campaigns reached as far as India, and the Persian Empire under Ahasuerus (Xerxes) governed territory stretching from Africa to India, maintaining communication across numerous provinces (Esther 1:1).

Isaiah’s repeated reference to “the islands” functions less as precise geography and more as theology: the farthest places imaginable responding to God’s call.

Whether literal coastlands, distant archipelagos, or symbolic remoteness, the motif reinforces outward movement, not inward containment.