I’ve always been fascinated by these tales of a visiting wise man. Many have throughout history postulated that it was Noah, or Shem, after the flood sailing around checking on people groups that were relocated earlier (teaching and civilizing them) As there are so many old stories about this too.
however as Bodhidharma was later in time (it seems) perhaps he was Nimrod (as usual). I found a few links stating he was black (as Nimrod was also according to some) Also these were Hams (Nimrods father) given territories, by legend too. Dont have time to dig for a better one but this interesting.
Bodhidarma was a black man - Ancient Afrikan Origins of the Martial Arts
The cutoff hand ‘saying’ was probably an allegory by the teacher however I remembered the Egyptian hand pits, talked about somewhere here on SH. The reason it May relate is that these pits may be connected to the Israelites in Egypt, (and David) perhaps showing an ancient custom that could date back pretty far (to the flood) and that puts context into the saying And linking things up a bit.
Here’s an article and I snipped a few interesting bits.
Egyptologists Discover Pits Filled With Giant Severed Hands in “Joseph’s Palace”
David gave orders to the young men, who killed them; they cut off their hands and feet and hung them up by the pool in Chevron. And they took the head of Ish-boshet and buried it in the grave of Avner at Chevron. II Samuel 4:12
Most of the hands are quite large and some of them are very large,” Bietak told LiveScience.
There are other theories explaining the origin of the Hyksos and the palace discovered at Avaris. In his documentary Patterns of Evidence, Tim Mahoney suggested that the palace may have belonged to Biblical Joseph and that Avaris was the home of the Hebrews during their sojourn in Egypt.
