[Preface]　In the region from Mesopotamia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river to Palestine, city states, where agricultural and nomadic people had lived together, have risen and fallen since ancient times. The agricultural people played leading role in the most of these city states. However, the nomads traded not only with Egypt in the west but also with India and China in the east and served as catalysts for cross-cultural fusion.
　These nomads include not only tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin, who have cultural backgrounds of Mesopotamia and Egypt, but also Manasseh and Ephraim, who have the Y chromosome gene D, which is characteristic of the Tibetans and the Jomon people (縄文人), the indigenous people of the Japanese archipelago, and seem to have been belonged to the Paleo-Mongoloids. They had also believed in different patron gods. But they formed a union of independent tribes and established the unity of religion and politics based on the covenant of the single founder Abraham and God from 3,000 to 4,000 years ago in Palestine region and appeared on history's center stage replacing agricultural people. Thus the People of the Covenant was born.
　Though Judaism was originally an exclusive and introvert religion, as the twelve tribes of Israel incorporated the extroverted and harmonious Ephraim and Manasseh tribes of Paleo-Mongoloid, Judaism and Christianity were propagated to not only the Mediterranean region, but also to Central Asia, India, China, and even Japanese archipelago. Moreover, Jingjiao (景教Luminous Religion), which is considered to be the origin of the Oriental Christian churches, played a role as a catalyst for the birth of Islam and the Mahayana Buddhist movement. As a result, the total number of the People of the Covenant, that is, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is said to be 3.4 billion now.

　According to Protestant Bible commentator Mr. Arimasa Kubo, who was the first pastor of the Ikebukuro-Nishi Church, The United Church of Christ in Japan, St. Thomas traveled to Assyria around 35 C.E., two years after Jesus' ascension, and went on a mission to India, and then evangelized to China via Tibet, reached the present Beijing (北京) in 62 C.E., and seems to have established an organized church (congregation), too. By the way, why did Thomas go to the northern frontier town called Ji Xian (薊県), but not Luo Yang (洛陽) or Chang An (長安), capital cities of the later Han (后漢)? Apostles at that time, whether Paul or John, all preached to areas where a Jewish community already existed, and it is probable that there was also a Jewish community in Beijing at that time.
　Come to think of it, on the monument of 'Reconstruction of the Temple of Purity and Truth (重建清真寺記碑)' discovered in Kaifeng city (開封市) of eastern Henan province (河南省) of China, it is said to be written that the Jews first arrived in the city in 231 BC, when General Ben Wang (王賁) of Qin (秦) reduced Wei (魏)'s capital city, Daliang (大梁: current Kaifeng City), and formed a Jewish community. Almost ten years later, in 226 BC, General Ben Wang reduced Yan (燕)'s royal capital, Jicheng (薊城, now the city of Beijing), and Kingdom of Yan was extinguished in 222 BC.
　Seen as the mother tribe of Qin (秦), the Qiang (羌) tribe was literally herders that grazed sheep, and was a typical descendants of Manasseh, according to Israeli research agency Amishav, organisation aimed at seeking the Lost Tribes of Israel.
　Therefore, there seems to have been Jewish mercenary units which took put in various battles directly under General Ben Wang and communities of families of these mercenary units might have formed in the area where the General was to battle.
　Incidentally, China's oldest geography book, "Shanhaijing (山海経: Mountain and Sea sutra)," written during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period (春秋戦国時代) to the Qin-Han era (秦漢時代), states that "The country of Gai (蓋) lies south of Yan (燕) and north of Wo (倭 = Wa in Japanese), and Wo belongs to Yan." This is the first example of "Wo (倭)" appearing in Chinese books. Apparently, "Wo (倭)" seems to have been regarded as a part of "Yan (燕)" around the time from the Spring and Autumn Warring States period to the Qin-Han era. If so, when St. Thomas visited former Yan (燕)'s royal capital Jicheng (薊城), the Jewish community there might have had a close relationship with Yamato Kingdom (大和国), which Nigihayahinomikoto (饒速日尊) had established under the cooperation of the Jewish tribe Ephraim, and Hata clan (秦氏), which was descendants of the Manasseh tribe and had been naturalized in Yamato in the Emperor Ojin (応神天皇)'s reign. (Later mention)