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Comments on Where is 'Khina'?
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Where is 'Khina'?
Malbim on Beresheet 6:4 writes:
"הנפלים. עתה יפרש מ"ש ויראו בני האלהים את בנות האדם, מי היו בני האלהים, הם אלה שאמרו שהם בני אלהים ונפלו משמים, והגדות כאלה היו בימים האלה וגם אחרי כן. כי נודע שבכל ספורי העמים הקדמונים יספרו שבימי קדם מלכו על מדינתם בני אלהים שבאו משמים אל הארץ ומלכו עליה ונשאו נשים מבנות האדם ומהם עמדו גבורים ואדירים שרים ומושלים, כמו שימצא הקורא בספורי הדורות שראשית ספורי ממלכת מצרים וחינא ומלכות יון יתחיל מן האלהות וחצי אלהות שהתהלכו על ההרים הרמים ועל ארצם בימי קדם וספרו עליהם נפלאות וגבורות, והם נעשו להם אלילים וכו'"
Translation:
The nephilim. Now he'll explain what he wrote "the divine beings saw the daughters of man", who were these divine beings, these are those who it was said about them that they were divine beings and they fell from heaven, and legends such as these were in those days and even later. For it is known that in all the nations' ancient stories they would tell that in ancient times ruled over their country the divine beings that came from heaven to the earth and ruled over it and married wives from the daughters of man and from them rose heroes, mighty men, lords and rulers, like the reader will find in the stories of the generations that the beginning of the stories of the kingdom of Egypt and Khina and the kingdom of Greece would start from divinity and half-divinity that walked on the great mountains and on their land in ancient times and they told about them wondrous tales and legends, and they became for them gods etc."
I was wondering what place is 'Khina' - is it China? If so, why not call it 'Sin', like Rihal did in the Kuzari? It also seems a bit random, as China was never much of a central force (to my knowledge) in ancient Jewish history, unlike Egypt and Greece. If it's not China, what is it?
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