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