Loading...In my last post I talked about a humorous Gospel forgery by a modern scholar. There are a number of other forgeries of Gospels done in (relatively) modern times — especially in the nineteenth century — which were not particularly risible but were far more successful. I still get asked about them today, especially by people who don’t know what to think about them or, even more, people who assure me they are true.
I talk about them in the last chapter of my book Forged (HarperOne, 2011). Here’s one of the most successful, as I discuss there.
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One of the most widely disseminated modern forgeries is called The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ.[1] From this account we learn that Jesus went to India during his formative teen years, the “lost years” before his public ministry, and there learned the secrets of the East. The book made a big splash when it appeared in English in 1926; but as it turns out, it had already been exposed as a fraud more than thirty years earlier. The reading public, it is safe to say, has a short attention span.
The book was first published in France in 1894 as La vie inconnue de Jésus Christ, by a Russian war correspondent named Nicolas Notovitch. Almost immediately it was widely disseminated and translated. In one year it appeared in eight editions in French, with translations into German, Spanish, and Italian. There was one edition published in the U.K. and three separate editions in America.
The book consisted of 244 paragraphs arranged in fourteen chapters. Notovitch starts the book by explaining how he “discovered” it. In 1887, he was
Have you ever heard about Jesus going to India as a young man? This Gospel is probably where you got the idea (or where the person who told you got it, rather). Pretty interesting. And a complete forgery! Join the blog and see. Click here for membership options
Very interesting. Is this case related to claims that Jesus survived the crucifixion and travelled to India?
I seem to recall a BBC documentary some years ago about that. They claimed that his tomb was in Kashmir and that he had lived there as a religious teacher. There were even claims of the tomb having a bronze representation of his feet to show the scars of crucifixion that distinguished him.
It all seemed quite a stretch.
Same tune, different words. And yup, huge stretch.
I remember watching something very similar ages ago. Ahmadis were definitely interviewed.
The Ahmadis believe that Jesus went to India. Where would they have got that idea from?
I’m not sure exactly where, but from some of these forged tales.
Hi Bart,
Ok. But Jesus does have an important Hindu Connection!! As plain as every true academic eye can see!! Genesis has Brahma — Abraham, Sarah — Saraswati, brothers Nahor – Narayana, Hara- another name of Shiva. Now in Puranic texts Shiva became Rudra as he would cry and his other name is Isha. Sadhguru has Isha Foundation (Isha is Shiva). And hence Isaac — the son. Only thing is that Baal worship was hated, so we have Isaac’s birth accompanied by laughter!! Then we see this carried into the symbology of the New Testament. Mark does not parallel Jesus with Isaac, but Matthew and Luke the other synoptics do!! Dennis McDonald explains how John derives closely from Dionysus (a clone of Dushara) another version of Shiva. You have Ash Wednesday. And finally where does Jesus go to be crucified!!! To a mountain of Kabalah — Golgotha — skulls!!
The Ahmadiyyas are likely wrong as is Nicholas Roerich.
But the following is clear — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac#Christian_views
The Isaac connection to Christ is aimed at Shiva Symbology for Father-Son Avatarhood and is introduced from a non Markian source.
This Symbology goes to the heart of Christian Trinitarianism. Firstly, Angels announce to Sarah that she will be with child. It is an Angel who also tells Mary that she will bear a Divine Child. An Avatar. This Father-Son Symbology of Brahma-Isha —
https://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahmandapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=4
Again, not in Mark, but in Luke and Matthew. The Divine Child Symbology leads to Son of El parallelism. The name Athirath also derives from Sanskrit(Tirth is water) as does Ba’al(literally child or son). The Earthly beings get the names Brahma and Sarah (and Isha) while the Divine Parallels are El, Atirath and Ba’al. We have today Harrappa and Harran at about the same latitude, one city on the Indus another on the Euphrates. The Sumerians Trinity, An/Ea/Enlil, is not what the Old Testament adopts. The New Testament derives from the predecessor religion to the Old Testament. In search of Avatarhood, the Isha symbology to Jesus is found. The Sacrifice Symbology for Isaac with the Donkey and “Lamb of God” Symbology also indicates how deep a Unity exists across religions and why Comparative Theology has a place in Christian Religious Studies. Hermann Gunkel talks of the “Legends of Genesis” but a continuum exists into the New Testament.
I met a man in Texas in the early 2000’s who went to India to explore the areas said to have been visited by Jesus. He’s written a couple of books on the subject, and a movie, ‘Jesus in India’ was filmed based on this man’s research. He was such a sincere fellow that I couldn’t help but like him even though I knew that the idea of Jesus going to India was bunk. I can remember him enthusiastically talk about Notovitch’s book and how it led him to want to see these things for himself. Evidently he was able to find people in temples and other places who confirmed that Jesus travelled there.
Looking into this, I discovered that a book was written in the early 1900s titled ‘Jesus in India’ by the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in India. It has been very influential among Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists in India. Western spiritual seekers such as the man I met in Texas have no problem in finding people there who will confirm these teachings.
This reminds of one I read as a teen: The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ. I never for a moment supposed it was genuine.
I once had an Indian acquaintance mention that Jesus went to India to study their teachings. At the time I didn’t know the source of this idea, but now I know and can respond appropriately. Do you know of any scholars who think there is some Hindu or Buddhist influence evident in Jesus’ teachings? (Since many ideas run in common among religions I think it’s hard to say which if any influenced the other.)
A number have suggested Buddhist influence over the years, but now that I think about it I can’t remember anyone making a particularly strong case or who might still think that today.
To my memory, there are two links that were proposed to explain the influence of Hinduism/Buddhism on Christianity (including the origin of Monasticism):
1- Apollonius of Tyana (3BC – 97AD). He was ascetic and very charismatic philosopher. He visited India for some time. It is very possible that many Christian Greek Philosophers were influenced by his thoughts. It should also be noted here that Apollonius was regarded the Devil himself by many Christians at the end of the third century, because Pagans have nominated him their equivalent (or even superior) candidate to Jesus.
2- Mani the Prophet. He visited India for some time, and was highly influenced by Hinduism/Buddhism, then he established his missionary in Persia. When he was executed in 274 AD, his followers fled Persia to Roman territories and many of them have converted later to Christianity.
Are there any Manichean churches today?
I don’t know much about them. I was just interested to know more about Mani himself: I have read in an article that Mani claimed that he was the Paracletus (the spirit of truth in the Gospel of John), and he also claimed that he was the last of the prophets. This was interesting and I did search a bit about him, but that was many years ago.
It has never seemed to me that anything Jesus allegedly taught was all that profound and that his sources need not have gone beyond Hebrew traditions he would have known. Nonetheless, however profound some may consider ideas such as extreme pacifism and kindness toward others, to claim Jesus needed to go elsewhere to find “wisdom” reminds me of the notion Europeans had when they encountered Aztec and Mayan architecture, assuming that native Americans were incapable of such feats and must have learned from others, perhaps lost tribes of Israel (ironically to this discussion) – or space aliens!
30 years is a pretty long attention span! Perhaps poor memory retention of gospel fraud would be more apt.
The Jesus Went to India trope has long been popular in India. The early Theosophists were popularizers of the idea, which found a willing reception by various gurus of Eastern sects. https://www.theosophyforward.com/theosophy/1478-a-theosophical-view-of-christianity
I had read somewhere that there was a Buddhist saying very similar to Jesus’ lesson of the widow’s mite, but which predated it by many years. As that would support the idea that Jesus had spent time in India, I assume that it is probably apocryphal.
It’s certainly possible. THere are other forms of the Golden Rule around before Jesus — including a version by Confucius!
Regarding post July 2, 2016
You wrote the flood could not have happened world wide which I agree. What do think of this theory founf in The Smithonian
Two geologists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have offered a new theory of what happened next. William Ryan and Walter Pitman, in Noah’s Flood (Simon & Schuster), postulate that as time went on, the world warmed, the glaciers retreated and meltwater from the European glaciers began to flow north into the North Sea, depriving the Black Sea of its main source of replenishment. The level of the Black Sea began to drop, and most of the area around its northern boundary — the area adjacent to present-day Crimea and the Sea of Azov — became dry land. At this point, the level of the Black Sea was several hundred feet below that of the Mediterranean, and the two were separated by the barrier of the Bosporus, then dry land. This situation, with the world ocean rising while the Black Sea was falling, could not last forever. Eventually, like a bathtub overflowing, the Mediterranean had to pour through into the Black Sea basin.
Interesting theory. But, well, who knows?
The “lost years” are intriguing. Presumably, as the son of God, he could have been a teen-age sensation. Was he working as a laborer with his earthly father? Any structure or project they had could have been completed with a snap of his fingers. Obviously that didn’t happen. Did he ever whack a finger with a mallet? Did he cut himself and bleed? He must have worked up a sweat. There must be miraculous or consecrated ground all over the place! Holy relics! Not to mention bodily functions… one wonders. At the very least he could have begun his ministry in his twenties. Wasn’t it a bit odd for a thirty-something Jewish male of that time to live with his parents? When were male children expected to leave the nest and marry and set out on their own in that time and place?
The best account of him as a young boy with a carpenter dead is in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. And my sense ist hat, historically, most poor families had multiple generations all in the same small (one room) house.
Isn’t this idea just a wee bit anti-Semitic? There is no wisdom to be found in Jesus’ own land among his own people so he has to travel far afield to the mysterious lands of the East. Apparently all wisdom in Palestine was imported.
At the least it celebrates the superior wisdom of the east.
Knew an ethnic Russian Tibetan Buddhist who believed this was all true.
Why not address the testimonies of Swami Abhedananda of the RamaKrishna order, and Nicholas Roerich? Both of these reputable men corroborated Notovitches’ claims by personally viewing the manuscripts for themselves at the Himis Monastery? In addition, Roerich was impressed with the local peoples familiarity with the “legend” of Issa before Notovitches’ book was written. With regard to your criticism that it was improbable that, “the Jewish merchants who went to India with tales of Jesus happened to meet up with precisely the Brahmins who knew Issa as a young man – out of the millions of people in India? ” It doesn’t seem to me like a great stretch to assume that these merchants were made aware of the story through “word of mouth” and likely had some information somewhat more specific than, “some Brahmins somewhere in India,” as to whom they would be seeking. (?) Was it imperative that they meet with the very same Brahmins? Might those specific Brahmins have also told the story to their postulant monks through the years?
You might want to read teh account of Notovitch in Goodspeed (which I mentioned) and Per Beskow STrange Tales About Jesus. They are pretty damning.
“Although the narrative of The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ may sound like a rather second-rate novel…”
If this is second-level,what about that ?
https://pakalahau.wordpress.com/tag/historical-jesus-mayan-language-final-words-2012/
““When Christ was crucified his last words were HELI LAMAH ZABAC TANI. These words do not exist in any language of the old or new world other than Maya. In Maya, the ritual idiom of Christ (a historically proven fact), each of the words has a significance
HELI, now already
LAMAH, to sub-merge or immerse oneself
SABAC, smoke vapor steam, or pre-dawn
TANI, in front or in the presence of
”
(Sorry Dr Ehrman but it is not enough to master old Greek and Aramaic and Hebrew nor modern German to be a professional scholar unless you also master classical Mayan)
There are also the ones who said that Aztec god Quetzalcoatl was Jesus himself, he supposedly was the son of a virgin , he resurrected from the dead and aztecs where wanting from his “second coming” so Moctezuma thought Cortes was in fact Quetzalcoatl !
I think the desire to show Jesus as an universal savior make people imagine connections with every culture/civilization around the world …
Yeah, it’s not true. The words are Aramaic.
Really nice story.
There might be another possible (and funny) alternative, but I need first to clarify a method: Ancient Islamic Scholars have established a method for evaluating sensitive narratives, which includes two main analyses: Reference analysis and Content analysis. These analyses don’t give “certain” conclusions, but they could provide good/high probability for the level of accuracy of these narratives.
Suppose “A” wrote in his book about an event that he heard it from “B” who heard it from “C” who witnessed that event. The Reference Analysis is conducted to check the “status” of the mentioned References: Do we know A, B and C? Are they honest? Are there any indication that they might exaggerate the truth? etc. If this analysis fails then the whole narrative will be regarded weak or false.
The Content Analysis is conducted to check if the narrative contains illogical contents or contradicts other confirmed narratives. If this analysis fails then the whole narrative will be regarded problematic or incorrect.
Returning to “Nicolas Notovitch” book, then it could be said that it was rejected by conducting “Content Analysis”, which presented sufficient reasons to reject the book and regard it as a hoax/scam.
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But, suppose we have conducted a thorough “Reference Analysis” for Nicolas, and it turned out that he was truly a trusted person. Not only this, but he was naturally honest, not just professionally (Professionals might “not” be biased in their profession due to long practice, but some of them might be biased on subjects outside their profession). Then, we could have another interpretation to this book; he wasn’t the scammer, he was scammed: He went to India. He seemed interested in specific subjects. Some people found an opportunity. They charged him by the hour. They gave him what he really wants to hear, and they took from him what they really want to have.
This remind me of a hypothesis for “Jimmy Akin” about the “Copper Scroll” that was found among the “Dead Sea Scrolls”. This scroll is a treasure map, with immense massive amount of treasure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZNMHjFrjMk
His hypothesis (at 49:40) is that this scroll was probably a scam that went as follows (paraphrasing): a con- artist realized an opportunity with the Qumran sect. He joined them. Convinced them about the authenticity of the treasure. Sold them the scroll. Then, he left them with it.
The significance of this Russian fiction is IMHO lost in the shadow cast by the Indian elephant In the gospels.
For two millennia church pontificators have issued diktats on which understanding of Jesus and his mission is acceptably orthodox and which intolerably heretical.
The blind leaders of the blind (who couldn’t distinguish trunk from tail BTW) have, nonetheless, shown a remarkable facility for pounding the plain words of the perfectly square teachings of Jesus into their round, doctrinal hole — while blithely disregarding a picture too big for any objective observer to ignore.
Where does Torah tell the Chosen People to “love your enemies”? Or that the Godly response to a face-slapping is to “turn the other cheek”? Or, after being sued out of your shirt, to “hand over your coat, as well”?
Where in “the law and the prophets” of Judaism is it even hinted that one should abandon home and family for the spiritual quest of an unemployed vagabond — relying entirely on divine awareness of his needs and providence for handouts by strangers to “give us this day our daily bread” and their hospitality for a nightly place to “lay his head”?
Or do I have the abridged Torah? 😳
There is a *Lot* more to Jewish tradition than the Torah.
All I know of Jewish history and theology (frankly, not a lot) is pretty much circumscribed by the OT.
My point is that speculation about Jesus having spent his “missing years” on a sojourn to study with Indian Brahmins is, at least, AN explanation for how it could be that his essential teachings were: total disconnection from all temporal concerns (including home and family), a “Middle Way” WRT asceticism, compassion for all (including, if not especially, enemies/antagonists), and adopting an unemployed, vagabond lifestyle.
From my limited understanding of Judaism in the year 0 (had there been one 😉) it was a primitive, animal-sacrifice cult, typical of ALL extant religions around the Mediterranean basin.
In fact, among western deities Yahweh set the high bar for depravity and genocidal psychopathy. Do any legends of Zeus or Artemis feature them boasting of being jealous and grudge-holding “to the third and fourth generation”? Did any others command the slaughter of every man, woman, child and even the livestock of a conquered city? Or demand that followers prove their devotion by slaughtering their OWN children like sacrificial sheep?
Have I missed the Jewish antecedents that account for why Jesus sounds far more like a devout, Buddhist monk?
Yes, you may want to read up on your ancient Judaism!!
My only interest here is simply to determine and gain a better understanding of the authentic words of the “Word” — not out of academic curiosity, but precisely because I’m NOT an agnostic/atheist.
I believe that there IS a spiritual realm that coexists alongside this physical one. Indeed, it is IMHO the transient (but continuously recurring) nexus between them to which we have attached the somewhat nebulous label: “life.”
I also believe that divine emissaries from the ethereal plane sometimes come into this material one to help guide our escape, and am entirely convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was exactly that!
(I am also mostly convinced BTW that Siddhartha Gautama was, as well — making me a heretic nonpareil in every Christian denomination since ALL of them embrace ALL essential, RCC doctrine as decreed in the 4th century, protestant “reformations” notwithstanding. 😳)
For yours truly it obviously follows that it is crucial to know and understand the authentic words of the “Word.” Frankly, what eludes me is how the teachings we have could POSSIBLY have emerged from the Yahweh cult!
Can you, perhaps, be a bit more specific WRT exactly WHICH aspects of Judaism are worth exploring in a quest of the historical Jesus?
I’d say the history and culture between the Maccabees and the end of the first century; the varoius religious options of the day; and Jewish apocalyticism in particular. You might start with Shaye Cohen, from teh Maccabees to the Mishnah and E. P. Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief.
Thank you for narrowing the focus, professor. I have already started the Sanders book you recommended.
The ethereal disconnectedness of Jesus seems more consonant with the eschatological preoccupations of Essenes than the ritual practice priorities of either Pharisee jot-and-tittle obsessiveness or Sadducee animal-sacrifice obeisance.
Unfortunately, this is a distinctly fuzzy line (😏) as it appears to be more a matter of emphasis than a distinguishing characteristic. Clearly, all three factions had both apocalyptic expectations and genuine devotion to Yahweh-decreed ritual.
The exception (if I’m not mistaken), however, is intriguing.
Would it be correct to deduce that the vegetarian Essenes disdained (or even outright repudiated) the very CONCEPT of animal sacrifice — that was, of course, the paramount concern of Sadducees and their Temple priesthood?
If so, this would simultaneously put Essenes in direct conflict with a fundamental aspect of Judaism AND in notable alignment with a fundamental aspect Buddhism, i.e., a reverence for life so profound that it might not only inspire “love your enemies” pacifism, but extend to ALL sentient life!
Are there any texts among the Dead Sea scrolls that might shed some light here? Or have I made incorrect deductions about Essene practices and then drawn unwarranted inferences about their underlying beliefs?
I”m not sure offhand about specific texts of the DSS dealing with it. You might want to look at the books on the Scrolls by James Vanderkam. The objection to sacrifice, as I understand it, among the Essenes was not because of opposition to slaughter of animals per se but because they believed the priestly establishment in Jerusalem (the Temple) to be illigitimate and corrupt, but Scripture allowed sacrifice only there. So they foreswore it.
Was ANY part of this ANY part of Judaism — before it was preached by an exceedingly scrupulous, amateur rabbi from Galilee?
But bizarrely rigorous as these otherworldly admonitions sound, there was in fact ANOTHER highly venerated and (even in Jesus’ day, already) renowned sage who lived five centuries earlier and 3000 miles farther east who taught essentially this very same, very counterintuitive, very transcendental philosophy.
Does connecting the two require Jesus to have spent his missing years on an unlikely sojourn to India and just happen upon this concept of surpassing devotion to spiritual attainment?
Isn’t it more plausible that by the time of Jesus’ birth “wise men from the east,” apostles of the “Awakened One,” had brought these gifts TO Palestine over the course of the intervening centuries that were then embraced and espoused by the “Anointed One”?
Is there another explanation for the independent and subsequent, but startlingly parallel, rise of this spiritual-devotion-über-alles worldview (aside from the distinctly unsatisfying deflection of “cosmic coincidence”)?
Of course, if Jews were NOT God’s exclusively “Chosen People,” then (church doctrine notwithstanding) Jesus of Nazareth might not have been the one and only time and place that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” 🤔
I’ve visited Max Müller’s grave in Oxford, where he is interred in the most delightfully overgrown English churchyard cemetery along with Kenneth Grahame and several other figures of note.
The teachings of Jesus reflect themes found in Eastern thought. The apocryphal Gospel of Thomas is almost pure Advaita, and much of the canonical words of Jesus can be read with one eye on the Vedas.
I think that the idea of Jesus making the long trek to India is a fanciful one. Certainly it *could* have happened through travel along the Silk Routes, but there is zero evidence for it . Far easier to explain any supposed Eastern views by positing some Eastern traveller passing into the Roman world and sharing his knowledge and philosophy in the form of entertaining and instructive stories drawn from the BG or Upanishads.
The sources of knowledge and understanding available to Jesus are not explicitly mentioned. He knows his bible well, we are told, but he would surely have had to have more than the average rabbi to attract a devoted following. It is rather more plausible, I think, to suggest that Jesus had a guru, rather than his teaching was directly inspired by the Almighty.
In the 1980s the head of that particular Tibetan Buddhist lineage of which Hemis is a branch visited my home. I asked about this text. He assurred me it did not exist. This was a huge disappointment to many Buddhists, several Christians, and masses of New Agers even in rescent years. Facebook caused a brief revival of Notovitch. The Indian Emperor Ashoka sent out Buddhist monks to travel with caravans. We don’t know much about ethnic groups living in various ancient Roman cities, but it’s not implausible to think some were in Egypt. Here’s a more realistic fantasy: When Jesus family was in Egypt, they might have been in Alexandria. There must/might have been a Buddhist vihara for the merchants from India. Even today very young monks learn to debate. We might as well make up a new rumor that went down the street and learned to debate from the Buddhists, took that skill back to the synagogue and that’s how he forgot to leave town with his parents. It’s not as romantic as going all the way to India. If we could find someone to write this in heiroglypics….
Ah! Thanks.
One point that I have long wondered is the curious linkage between the Buddha and Jesus dealing with Magdalene. More specifically Mary Magdalene. Recently I noted a statue of Dionysus discovered in Nagarjunakonda. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarjunakonda
This dates to the time of the writing of the Gospels! As we all know, this area is famous also for Buddhism. Matthew mentions not Majdal but Magadan. Majdal itself is linked to trade and Roman presence with Tiberias nearby.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Majdal,_Tiberias
Having provided a physical linkage with the Greco-Roman civilization, I wanted to explain Aamrapali and Mary Magdalene. Aamrapali was a funder of the Buddha but also a rich courtesan. She became a lover of the king of Magadha, Bimbisara, per popular tradition. Aamrapali, hosted the Buddha for a meal at her house — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amrapali#Amrapali_and_the_Buddha
If one reads this as well as this — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Magdalene#During_Jesus's_ministry — one notices Magadalini(Amrapali) and Magdalene have very similar roles. Magadal and Majdal are similar.
This Magdalene Amrapali parallel and the other Mary story builds a very close parallel
that scholars interested in this should explore and I hope to explore this in my next book
One short post-script: A small detail I haven’t read scholars investigate: The monastery in question wasn’t built until about 1000 CE. I’m not sure how Notorich thought Jesus visited a place that didn’t exist.
Ah! I can’t remember how he dealt with that, or if he did at all.
Do you think that we know little about Jesus’ early life because it was unremarkable and he spoke little about himself even to his disciples? Mark 3:21 suggests that an estrangement from his family maybe because he came across to everyone as a bit odd. So maybe his early life was unhappy due to his inability to fit in until finally at the age of 30 he found his true purpose and everything started clicking from that point on at least until the crucifixion. I realize that this is nothing more than speculation but I think that it is plausible.
His life is far more documented than anyone else in his time and place, so I imagine there wasn’t much more available information.
I have read a couple of books about it ,,, from European scholars ,,, and supported by rabbinical sourses / people (even in the Zohar) who also claim a Hindi / Buddhist influence in Judaism and these books alsom claims a realtionshiop to Christianity who claims/speculate that Jesus was Indian / Hindu / Buddhist educated even before his Christ mission.
Well ,,,,, if yes ,,,,, (((ok ,,, I know we do not have sufficient evidence)))) but anyway, if Jesus was influenced by Hinduism in some way ,,, or what they claim ,,,,,,, it would definitely be a game changer.
Apart from these theories, I now afte decades interpret the book of Revelation as an inner process. Without such intention, I recognize that it has a, or correlates to an eastern view.,,,,,,,,, but still Chrilstian ((at least as I consider it)).
But besides my “inner” understanding of the Book of Revelation, which for me definitely has an Apocatastasis view ,,,,, if there was anything in the theory of an Eastern / Buddhist / Hindu influence or education related to Jesus, it would really change much in a whole range of Christian views. It would have solved many of the annoying correlationg views between Christianity and Hinduism(in a mystical sense) but mostly Buddism. The funny thing (just one of several examples) is, with such a potential perception, I would claim that I could explain all the 7 petitions in the Lords prayer directly into a christian version of a hindi viws of 7 spiritual centers/Chacras.
For me it is even shocking how correspondent it is.
At least it is an amusing theory ! 🙂
Happy Easter!
An additional fact that I discovered was that Dionysus is said to have traveled to India(and Bachhus too!). It is possible that these linkages may have played a role.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus#First_birth
“Though Diodorus mentions some traditions which state an older, Indian or Egyptian Dionysus existed who invented wine, no narratives are given of his birth or life among mortals, and most traditions ascribe the invention of wine and travels through India to the last Dionysus. According to Diodorus, Dionysus was originally the son of Zeus and Persephone (or alternately, Zeus and Demeter). This is the same horned Dionysus described by Hyginus and Nonnus in later accounts”. … “It was this Dionysus who was said to have taught mortals how to use oxen to plow the fields, rather than doing so by hand”
…
“Zeus took the shape of a serpent (“drakon”), and “ravished the maidenhood of unwedded Persephoneia.” According to Nonnus, though Persephone was “the consort of the blackrobed king of the underworld”, she remained a virgin, and had been hidden in a cave by her mother to avoid the many gods who were her suitors, … Perseophone’s womb “swelled with living fruit”, and she gave birth to a horned baby, named Zagreus.”
As many here well know, Prof. Dennis McDonald has forcefully argued the Dionysus connection.
Its important to note that the Gospels and associated apocryphal texts including those omitted DREW from other religions, including those studied by the Greeks over the 300 years before 1AD and by the Greco-Romans in the 300 years after 1 AD. So, does the “Sacred Heart” originate from Dionysus —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Heart
see also — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus#Second_birth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Heart#/media/File:Maria_Droste_zu_Vischering_and_the_Sacred_Heart_of_Jesus.jpg
MLK famously saw comparisons with Mithraism and Christianity. So, when these questions about Jesus and the Brahmins in India are asked, should we separate these alone as different from the Avatarhood linkages made elsewhere. Linking Jesus as an Avatar did support or favor these connections. It was probably easier for a Dionysus follower to support the “Living God” History around Jesus. The Isha-Isaac-Jesus linkage supported the Lord Shiva Avatar. So, is the linkage to Isaac — and the Lamb of God — and Son of God — a Judaism link or a different link and why is one more ok and not the other!!
A modern day post-modernist quazi-literal interpretation should take in stride, not look to split hairs saying “this but not that”.
So what is Kosher and what is not!