The Discovery of Genesis (72 page)

The “dispersion” was truly a great pivotal point in antiquity for the event to be recorded in the Genesis annals, and for the Chinese to fashion several ideograms corresponding to the momentous incident.

The numeral
four
also stems from
eight
being divided in four directions
. This is supported also by the earlier calligraphy, as
or the interesting figure
which shows a double dividing of the numeral
eight.

The radical
four
is often used together with a second character meaning to
scatter, to disperse
. Note the top left portion
, which appears to be an abbreviation of
, meaning
total or all.
The
must signify “people or mankind,” possibly related to families. The last radical is
to follow
. This character,
to disperse
, could indicate then that
all flesh
(families)
followed.
Used with the numeral
four
, signifies
scattered in four directions.