1642: Father Semedo (曾德昭)
Father Aleni visited Kaifeng in 1613
Father Giulio Aleni (艾儒略, 1582–1649), the first Jesuit to visit the Kaifeng Jewish community, left behind no writings of his interaction with the local Jews.
Published Father Aleni’s experience in Kaifeng
Father Alvare de Semedo (曾德昭, 1585–1658) was a Portuguese Jesuit who went to China as a missionary.
In 1642, his masterpiece Chronicles of Great China (中华大帝国史) was published in Madrid. This book captured Father Aleni’s experience in Kaifeng during his visit to the Jewish community in 1613.
Published Father Ricci’s interaction with Kaifeng Jews
Father Semedo’s Chronicles of Great China also included the details of Father Matteo Ricci’s (1552–1610) interactions with the Kaifeng Jewish community from 1605–1610.
Ricci and Aleni provided no evidence Torah was altered
The Chronicles of Great China stated, "Father Julius Aleni, of our Jesuit order, was among the Kaifeng Jews for some times in 1613; they showed him their synagogue but would not draw their curtains and let him see the Bible. Father Ricci affirms that according to the relation which the Jews themselves made to him thereof in Peking, it was not at all differing from ours."
Jews entered China before the birth of Christ
Based on the information provided by both Father Ricci and Father Aleni, Father Semedo concluded that the Jews of Kaifeng must have reached China before the birth of Jesus Christ.
The Kaifeng Jews, he explained, “have no knowledge at all of Christ, so that it seemed they were entered into China before he came into the World; or at least, if they have ever heard of him the memory of it quite lost.”
There was no other reasonable justification for a Jewish community to have never heard anything about Christianity, given the size and reach of Christendom at the time.
Some of Father Semedo's contemporaries even theorised that, based on a translation of the Book of Isaiah, Kaifeng Jews might be descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel (失踪的以色列部落), exiled by the Assyrians around 730 BCE.
First to suggest Kaifeng Torah might be pristine
Father Semedo was likely the first to suggest that the Kaifeng Torah might be an excellent example of a version of the Old Testament that was not tampered with by the Talmudists.
He asserted that the Kaifeng Jewish version might contain clear passages about the coming of the Christian Saviour. Thus, it was therefore imperative, Father Semedo argued, that a concerted effort be undertaken “to see their Bible, for perhaps they have not corrupted it, as our Jews in Europe have done, to obscure the glories of our Redeemer.”
The missionaries believed that, without the knowledge of the existence of Jesus Christ, the Kaifeng Jews would have had no reason to alter the Torah.
Captured attention of western scholars
Because of the book's popularity, Father Semedo's theory attracted the attention of western theologians and scholars.
This book was translated into many European languages and re-published numerous times. It formed the foundation from which the West studied Chinese Jewry.
Jews lived in four Chinese cities, including Nanjing
Father Semedo, having been stationed in Nanjing for a while, claimed to have uncovered traces of a relatively new Jewish community in the city of Nanjing (南京). A Muslim told him that four Jewish families — the last Jews of Nanjing — were abandoning their Jewish roots and converting to Islam. Father Semedo explained that the Jewish congregation no longer had a qualified religious leader and because Islam was relatively simple and convenient to adopt.
In the book, Father Semedo further noted that the Jews were living in four Chinese cities and that the locals well respected them.