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According to the Gospels, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, engaged in itinerant ministry throughout Galilee, Judea, and places between them, and was executed in Judea just outside Jerusalem. Except for a brief stay in Egypt with his parents as a baby (Matt. 2:12-15, 19-23), all of Jesus’ mortal life appears to have taken place within a radius of roughly a hundred miles of the place of his birth. The Holy Land where Jesus lived from the mountains north of the Sea of Galilee to the desert south of Jerusalem is such a tiny region that it could fit within the bounds of Lake Michigan with room to spare.

Throughout most of church history, this understanding that Jesus remained within the Holy Land throughout his youth and adult years went virtually unchallenged. However, in the past two centuries, following the expansion of Europeans throughout Asia and the Western Hemisphere, numerous stories have been told about Jesus visiting other parts of the world. Might there be any truth to these stories, and why does it matter?

These stories typically claim that Jesus traveled to other parts of the world during periods of his life not covered by the Gospels. Such stories may seem plausible because they appear to fill in “gaps” in what we know about Jesus. We can classify or categorize these various stories according to the period of time in or around Jesus’s life in which they are set: (1) between the ages of 12 and about 30; (2) after supposedly escaping Jerusalem (instead of dying on the cross there) and dying years later in another country; and (3) shortly after his resurrection from the dead.

The Missing Years

According to Luke, Jesus was raised in Nazareth by his parents, who made annual journeys to Jerusalem for Passover including when he was twelve (Luke 2:39-42). At that Passover, Jesus stayed behind for a few days talking with the teachers in the temple, after which his parents found him and he returned home to Nazareth (2:43-52). Luke then tells us that Jesus was baptized by John and began his public ministry when he was about thirty years old (3:21-23). Since neither Luke nor any of the other Gospel writers tell us anything else about Jesus’ youth or young adult years, the period from age twelve to age thirty is often called the “missing years” of Jesus’ life. Not surprisingly, many stories about Jesus traveling are set in this very period. The two best known of these stories suggest that during those years Jesus traveled either to Britain or to India (or some region near India). In some stories Jesus traveled to several or many different countries, either to glean the wisdom and knowledge of multiple societies or to teach his message to them.

Jesus in Britain . According to a popular legend, Joseph of Arimathea—the member of the Sanhedrin who buried Jesus in his tomb—had gone on to found the Christian church in Britain. Specifically, Joseph is claimed as the founder of the church in Glastonbury, a town in southwest England not far from Bristol. One of the many popular books that advances this claim was written by Lionel Smithell Lewis, vicar of Glastonbury, who claimed that Joseph was followed to England by Simon the Zealot, Aristobulus (mentioned in Rom. 16:10), Paul, and possibly Peter! Lewis also thought there might be “some truth in the strange tradition” that Joseph took Jesus as a youth to England with him during one of his business trips there as a tin merchant. 1 Quite a few other books have been written defending the claim. 2

It is rather difficult to take the legend of Jesus accompanying Joseph of Arimathea to England seriously when “the earliest mention of Joseph at Glastonbury dates to around 1247.” 3 The tradition of Joseph traveling anywhere to Britain cannot be traced back before about 1200. The earliest versions had Joseph going to England years after Jesus’ death and resurrection in a story that was entwined with lore about the Holy Grail, King Arthur, and other elements of medieval English legend. 4 Not even John of Glastonbury’s account of the church’s history written a century later (ca. 1342) mentioned the story of the boy Jesus accompanying Joseph to England. William Blake’s famous poem “Jerusalem” in 1811 asked:

And did those feet in ancient time, Walk upon England’s mountain green: And was the Holy Lamb of God, On England’s pleasant pastures seen!

Given that there is no evidence for a belief in Jesus literally walking in England prior to Blake, his poem may actually have contributed (inadvertently) to that belief, which first emerges as an historical claim later in the nineteenth century. 5 The notion has usually functioned more or less innocuously as the basis for some “bragging rights” about England’s Christian heritage.

Jesus in India . A far more influential and significant myth is the claim that Jesus spent years in India prior to his public ministry in Galilee and Judea. The point of this story is to suggest that what Jesus taught was closer to Buddhism than to traditional Christianity.

The book responsible for the popularity of this claim was The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ by Nicholas Notovitch, first published in Paris in 1894 and quickly translated into several other languages including English. 6 The book is Notovitch’s account of visiting a Tibetan Buddhist monastery at Hemis in the Himalayans in the northernmost part of India, where he says a monk read to him from ancient manuscripts an account about “Issa” (Jesus). An interpreter translated the oral reading and Notovitch took notes from what he heard, on the basis of which he wrote The Life of Saint Issa . After scholars strongly challenged the authenticity of Notovitch’s story, three individuals claimed to have made the journey to the Hemis monastery in the 1920s and 1930s and to have confirmed the existence of the Issa manuscripts. Yet neither Notovitch nor any of his three defenders managed to come back with photographs of the manuscripts, handwritten copies of them, or any other hard documentary evidence. 7 Nor has anyone else produced such evidence in more than a century since Notovitch’s book was first published, despite the appearance of numerous books defending his claims. 8

Evidence from the Gospels . The stories about Jesus visiting faraway countries such as Britain and India exploit the fact that the Gospels do not contain accounts specifically detailing Jesus’ activities between the ages of twelve and (about) thirty. However, the Gospels do tell us enough to discount the claim that Jesus was away from Galilee for most of those eighteen or so years. And we can absolutely rule out the notion that he spent those years studying Hinduism or Buddhism in the East.

According to Luke, after the incident when Jesus was twelve and Joseph and Mary returned to Jerusalem to find him, he “returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them…. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people” (Luke 2:51, 52 NLT). This passage assumes (as one would expect) that Jesus continued to live in Nazareth for years after he had turned twelve. Luke says explicitly that Jesus “had been brought up” in Nazareth (Luke 4:16). The Gospels also report that people in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth knew him as the carpenter (Mark 6:3), a trade he learned from Joseph (Matt. 13:55), which shows that Jesus also spent his young adult years there.

After his baptism and time in the desert, “Jesus returned to Galilee,” went to Nazareth, “and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom” (Luke 4:14-16). If it was his “custom” to attend the synagogue, this indicates he lived in the area and regularly participated in Jewish religious life. This piece of information is important here in two ways. First, it shows that Jesus had been living in Galilee for at least most of his life. The idea of Jesus traveling to a distant country and spending many years studying abroad does not fit with what Luke says. Second, it shows that Jesus remained thoroughly part of the Jewish religious and cultural community. He did not come into Galilee from India or some other Eastern country as a guru or teacher of an exotic religion or spirituality alien to Judaism. He was Jewish and his religious context was that of Judaism.

The Jewishness of Jesus’ own teaching as attested in all four Gospels (and in the teachings of his immediate followers as attested in the rest of the New Testament) is itself sufficient proof against the claim that he learned Hindu or Buddhist spirituality from the East and then returned to teach it to the Jews. Bart Ehrman, an agnostic New Testament scholar, accurately summarizes the thoroughly Jewish character and context of Jesus’ life and teachings:

Most scholars today acknowledge not only that Jesus was a Jew but that he was raised in a Jewish household in the Jewish hamlet of Nazareth in Jewish Palestine. He was brought up in a Jewish culture, accepted Jewish ways, learned the Jewish tradition, and kept the Jewish Law. He was circumcised, he kept Sabbath and the periodic feasts, and he probably ate kosher. As an adult he began an itinerant preaching ministry in rural Galilee, gathering around himself a number of disciples, all of whom were Jewish. He taught them his understanding of the Jewish Law and of the God who called the Jews to be his people…. And so Jesus was Jewish from start to last. 9

As Catholic thinkers Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli put it, “To classify Jesus as a guru is as accurate as classifying Marx as a capitalist.” 10

Dying in Another Country

Another popular view is that Jesus did not actually die on the cross as the Gospels all report, but instead escaped execution and traveled to another land. The most popular of these theories claims that Jesus died in Kashmir, the northernmost part of India, some 2,500 miles east of Jerusalem. This theory agrees with Notovitch that Jesus went to that part of India but claims that he went there after his public teaching ministry in Galilee and Judea, not before it. The claim was advanced originally in a 1908 book by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement, an Islamic sect that regards Ghulam Ahmad as the Messiah and Mahdi, a kind of latter-day Jesus for this Islamic tradition. 11 German author Holger Kersten argued in his book that both Notovitch and Ghulam Ahmad were correct and that Jesus had lived in Kashmir both before and after his public years in Israel. 12 Obviously, denying that Jesus died on the cross and then rose from the dead is a rejection of the core facts of the Christian gospel.

In assessing these stories about Jesus going to India, we should not make the mistake of thinking that such a journey would have been impossible. Sean McDowell, an evangelical Christian scholar, has pointed out that there is significant evidence for contact between India and the people of the Roman Empire in the first century:

India may have been more open to direct communication with the West during the first two hundred years of the Common Era than during any other period before the coming of the Portuguese in the seventeenth century…. Many Roman coins dating from the time of Tiberius (AD 14–37) to Nero (AD 54–68) have been found in southern India. 13

However, the historical evidence shows that India’s first contact with Christianity most likely came through Thomas, one of Jesus’ original twelve apostles. Various lines of evidence support the tradition that Thomas evangelized India in the first century and was killed (with a spear) and buried there. This evidence includes the Acts of Thomas , written in the early third century and containing a mix of legendary and likely historical elements. It also includes references to Thomas in the writings of the early church fathers and the traditions of Christians in India. 14 Such ancient evidence is not absolute proof, but it is orders of magnitude better than any supposed evidence for Jesus living in India provided by writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

There are still other legends about Jesus visiting other countries late in his life. One such theory is that Jesus and his wife Mary Magdalene traveled to France, a journey of roughly 3,000 miles to the west. 15 There is even a story of Jesus traveling all the way to Japan to live out his days some 6,000 miles to the east. 16 The very multiplicity and diversity of such stories ought to give sober-minded persons pause. Some authors, however, have enthusiastically sought to combine elements of these stories to weave a grand narrative of Jesus as a world traveler. According to Tricia McCannon, Jesus spent substantial numbers of years in Egypt, in England, and in India and Tibet before returning to Galilee to teach his own people. 17

Appearances after His Resurrection

The third category of travels is of a different sort since it does not involve Jesus “traveling” in any conventional sense such as walking, riding an animal, or sailing in a ship. In these stories, Jesus appeared in one or more distant lands after his resurrection in order to reveal himself. By far the most well-known story of this type is in the Book of Mormon, according to which Jesus appeared somewhere in the Americas about AD 34 to a society of people called Nephites, descended from Israelites who had been living there for a millennium.

The Book of Mormon’s significance goes far beyond the seemingly intriguing idea that Jesus might have appeared in the Americas. The main point of the book in the context of the Mormon religion is that the Bible is an insufficient guide to the Christian faith, which can be properly understood only with the Book of Mormon and other scriptures revealed through its author Joseph Smith and by becoming part of the church he founded.

As is the case with the stories of Jesus traveling to India, the earliest known source claiming that Jesus visited the Nephites in the Americas dates from the nineteenth century, namely, the Book of Mormon. To make matters worse, the Book of Mormon is also the only source referring to the existence of the Nephites. Despite this obvious difficulty, Mormons have a large number of scholars and other intellectuals who passionately argue in defense of the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon. 18 Their arguments, though often sophisticated, cannot overcome the basic problems: There is no ancient text or even a copy of it; Jesus is said to have visited a great civilization that lasted nearly a millennium that does not seem to have existed; and the Book of Mormon clearly originated in the nineteenth century as can be seen by the issues it addresses (paid clergy, infant baptism, whether miracles still happen, etc.) and by its heavy dependence on the King James Version of the New Testament (even though none of the Nephites would ever have seen any of the New Testament). 19

In an age of automobiles and airplanes, it may seem surprising to us that Jesus never left the land of Israel after settling with his family in Nazareth as a young child. However, life in such a geographically limited area was the norm for the vast majority of people in his culture. The historical evidence supports the conclusion that in fact Jesus never did visit other parts of the world.

1. Lionel Smithett Lewis, St. Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury: Or, The Apostolic Church of Britain , 6th ed. (Wells, Somerset, UK: Clare, 1937), 18, 31-32.

2. E.g., Paul Ashdown, The Lord Was at Glastonbury (Butleigh: Squeeze, 2010); Gordon Strachan, Jesus the Master Builder: Druid Mysteries and the Dawn of Christianity (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 2014).

3. William John Lyons, Joseph of Arimathea: A Study in Reception History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 73.

4. It comes up repeatedly in these connections in The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend , edited by Elizabeth Archibald and Ad Putter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), especially in the essay “The Thirteenth-century Arthur” by Jane H. M. Taylor (53–68).

5. See further Lyons, Joseph of Arimathea , 72–111.

6. Nicholas Notovich, La vie inconnue de Jésus-Christ (Paris: Paul Ollendorff, 1894); The unknown life of Jesus Christ , trans. Alexina Loranger (Chicago: Rand, McNally, 1894).

7. See further Luke Wilson, “ The Jesus of the Church Universal and Triumphant : Is He the Jesus of History and the Bible?” (Grand Rapids: Institute for Religious Research, 1997).

8. The most sophisticated defense of Notovitch’s story is James W. Deardorff, Jesus in India: A Reexamination of Jesus’ Asian Traditions in the Light of Evidence Supporting Reincarnation (San Francisco: International Scholars Publications, 1994). By far the most influential defense is Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Lost Years of Jesus: Documentary Evidence of Jesus’ 17-year journey to the East (Gardiner, MT: Summit University Press, 1984). On Prophet’s book, see Wilson’s article cited above.

9. Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew (Oxford and New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 2003), 96.

10. Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics: Hundreds of Answers to Crucial Questions (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1994), 169.

11. See especially Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Jesus in India: Jesus’ Deliverance from the Cross and Journey to India , rev. ed. (Gurdaspur, India: Islam International Publications, 2003).

12. Holger Kersten, Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life before and after the Crucifixion (Longmead, England: Element Book, 1986).

13. Sean McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles: Examining the Martyrdom Accounts of the Closest Followers of Jesus (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2015; London: Routledge, 2016), 160, 161.

14. McDowell, Fate of the Apostles , 162-73. See also Leonard Fernando and G. Gispert-Sauch, Christianity in India: Two Thousand Years of Faith (New Delhi: Penguin—Viking, 2004), 59-62.

15. E.g., Graham Simmans, Jesus after the Crucifixion: From Jerusalem to Rennes-le-Château (Rochester, VT: Bear & Co., 2007).

16. See, for example, Ryan Grenoble, “‘ Japanese Jesus’ Legend : Christ Escaped Jerusalem, Lived in Japan with Family as Rice Farmer,” Huffington Post , Aug. 30, 2012.

17. Tricia McCannon, Jesus: The Explosive Story of the 30 Lost Years and the Ancient Mystery Religions (Newburyport: Hampton Roads Publishing, 2009).

18. See Robert M. Bowman Jr., “ Book of Mormon Apologetics : How Mormons Defend the Book of Mormon,” An Introduction to the Book of Mormon, Part 6 (Cedar Springs, MI: Institute for Religious Research, 2017).

19. See especially Robert M. Bowman Jr., “The Sermon at the Temple in the Book of Mormon: A Critical Examination of Its Authenticity through a Comparison with the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew,” Ph.D. diss. (South Africa Theological Seminary, 2014). IRR has a wealth of resources on this subject at http://mit.irr.org/category/book-of-mormon .

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Did Jesus go to India before starting His public ministry?

Did Jesus Visit India? An Investigative Study

Uncover the captivating mystery of Jesus' lost years. Discover the surprising journey that history may have forgotten.

Article Summary

Jesus's lost years have been shrouded in mystery, sparking debates and curiosity among scholars and believers.
The Orthodox Christian Church maintains that Jesus grew up in Nazareth.
Alternative theories suggest that Jesus may have journeyed to India, Japan, or Britain during his lost years.
Despite the allure of these theories, historians lament the lack of concrete evidence.
Join us as we explore this captivating topic and unlock the secrets of the lost years of Jesus.

Overview of the Question: Did Jesus Go to India?

Whether Jesus went to India during his teenage years is based on a modern forgery titled "The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ" by Nicolas Notovitch. This controversial book gained popularity in the late 19th and early 20th century, presenting the idea that Jesus traveled to India to study Eastern religious teachings. However, numerous scholars have questioned the accuracy and credibility of Notovitch's claims.

The book's popularity can be attributed to the fascination with the idea of a hidden period in Jesus' life. Notovitch claimed to have discovered ancient manuscripts in a monastery in Ladakh, India, allegedly containing accounts of Jesus' travels and teachings there. However, many biblical studies and archaeology experts have scrutinized Notovitch's work and found significant discrepancies and lack of evidence to support his claims.

Several key points argue against the credibility of Notovitch's book. Firstly, no substantial historical or archeological evidence supports the idea of Jesus' presence in India. Additionally, scholars have pointed out inconsistencies and anachronisms in Notovitch's writing, suggesting that he made up or heavily embellished the content of the supposed ancient manuscripts.

In conclusion, whether Jesus went to India is primarily based on a modern forgery, "The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ" by Nicolas Notovitch. While the book gained popularity, scholars have raised doubts about its accuracy and have found evidence against its credibility. The claim that Jesus went to India remains speculative at best without substantial historical or archaeological proof.

Does the Bible show that Jesus traveled to India?

Whether the Bible proves that Jesus traveled to India has sparked curiosity and debate among scholars and believers alike. However, when examining the scriptures, it becomes apparent that there is a lack of biblical support for this idea.

The Bible primarily focuses on the recorded events of Jesus' life in Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth. These events include his birth in Bethlehem, the visit of the wise men, his flight to Egypt to escape King Herod's wrath, and his upbringing in Nazareth. The Bible does not mention significant travels to India during Jesus' lifetime.

Furthermore, the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John contain detailed chronicles of Jesus' ministry in the regions surrounding Israel, including Galilee, Judea, and Samaria. These accounts do not reference Jesus traveling to India or any distant lands.

While it is true that some extrabiblical writings and legends suggest Jesus traveled to India after his crucifixion, these sources lack the historical reliability and biblical authority that the canonical Scriptures possess.

In conclusion, based on the biblical evidence, there is no support for the claim that Jesus traveled to India during his lifetime. The Bible's recorded events indicate that he primarily resided in Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth.

Historical Evidence

Historical Evidence:

Historical evidence refers to the tangible remnants and documentation of past events that serve to validate or understand historical claims. Through the analysis and interpretation of these pieces of evidence, historians construct narratives about the past. Historical evidence can take various forms, including primary sources such as letters, diaries, photographs, and artifacts and secondary sources such as books, academic papers, and scholarly interpretations. These sources are critical in uncovering and corroborating historical information, shedding light on different perspectives and experiences, and contributing a more comprehensive understanding of our shared human history. However, it is important to acknowledge that historical evidence is not infallible, as biases, omissions, and interpretations can shape the narrative. Therefore, evaluating and critically analyzing historical evidence is essential to construct a reliable and accurate representation of the past. By utilizing diverse sources and rigorous methodologies, historians strive to piece together a cohesive and informed understanding of historical events and their significance.

Canonical Gospels and the Missing Years

The Canonical Gospels, which consist of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are the four New Testament accounts that primarily depict the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus. These Gospels have long been regarded as the most authoritative sources about Jesus' life within the Christian tradition. On the other hand, the Gnostic Gospels, a collection of ancient texts discovered in the 20th century, present an alternative understanding of Jesus and his teachings, often portraying him as a mystical figure with hidden knowledge.

One of the significant differences between the Canonical Gospels and the Gnostic Gospels lies in their treatment of the missing years of Jesus. The Canonical Gospels provide minimal information about Jesus' life between his childhood and the beginning of his ministry. However, the Gnostic Gospels, such as the Gospel of Thomas, contain more detailed accounts of Jesus' teachings during this period. These Gnostic texts shed light on aspects of Jesus' life and teachings not found in the Canonical Gospels, making them relevant to exploring the missing years.

In recent years, the study of the Canonical Gospels has been enriched by the discoveries of numerous archaeological findings. Excavations in ancient sites have unearthed artifacts and inscriptions that provide valuable insights into the historical and cultural context in which Jesus lived. These archaeological discoveries help to form a clearer picture of Jesus' life by corroborating or illuminating certain events, places, and customs mentioned in the Canonical Gospels. They contribute to a more robust understanding of Jesus' ministry and the world he inhabited.

Archaeological Evidence of Jesus in India

There is limited archaeological evidence supporting the idea that Jesus visited India. One notable source of evidence is the controversial book "The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ" by Nicolas Notovitch. In this book, Notovitch claims to have found ancient manuscripts in a Tibetan monastery during his travels in the late 19th century. These manuscripts allegedly detail the life of Jesus during the "lost years" of his life, which are not accounted for in the Bible. Notovitch asserts that Jesus traveled to India and studied and taught there.

Examining the evidence is crucial when considering the possibility of Jesus in India. The archaeological evidence, such as the manuscripts found by Notovitch, can provide valuable insights into the life of Jesus and potentially shed light on the "lost years" of his life. However, it is important to approach such claims with skepticism and consider multiple perspectives. The book by Notovitch has faced significant criticism and controversy, with many questioning its authenticity and accuracy.

Due to the controversial nature of the claims made in "The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ" and the limited archaeological evidence available, it is essential to approach this topic cautiously and conduct further research.

Accounts by Early Church Fathers

The Early Church Fathers provide accounts of the arrival of Christianity in India that shed light on the history and spread of the faith in this region. One important figure in these accounts is St. Thomas the Apostle, who is believed to have been the first to bring Christianity to India in the first century AD. According to tradition, Thomas arrived in India and established Christian communities along the Malabar Coast.

The reference to Jews in India by Eusebius also adds to the understanding of the Christian presence in this region. Eusebius, a Greek historian of the 4th century, mentions the existence of Jewish communities in India, suggesting early Jewish converts to Christianity.

Further evidence of Christianity in India comes from discovering a Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew, known as the Shem-Tob Matthew, in the 14th century. This Hebrew gospel connects early Christians in India and Jewish-Christian communities.

The writings of St. Jerome, a prominent theologian of the 4th century, also provide insight into the early Christian presence in India. Jerome mentions that Thomas and other apostles preached the gospel to the Eastern regions, including India.

Additionally, the triangular Jewish trade between Yemen, Babylonia, and the Malabar Coast of India played a significant role in the spread of Christianity. This trade route facilitated cultural and religious interactions, enabling the exchange of ideas and the spread of Christianity to India.

In conclusion, the accounts by Early Church Fathers, such as St. Jerome and Eusebius, along with historical evidence of Hebrew versions of the Gospel of Matthew and the triangular Jewish trade, provide factual evidence of the arrival and spread of Christianity in India through the mission of St. Thomas the Apostle and the presence of Jewish-Christian communities.

Swami Abhedananda's Writings on Jesus in India

Swami Abhedananda was a prominent Indian philosopher, yogi, and disciple of the renowned teacher, Swami Vivekananda. His writings on Jesus in India shed light on a lesser-known aspect of Jesus Christ's life, exploring the possibility of his journey to India during his "lost years."

According to Swami Abhedananda, Jesus spent much of his early life in India. His journey to India is believed to have occurred during his youth, where he sought spiritual knowledge and wisdom.

Abhedananda highlights the historical connection between Buddhist texts and the Bible. He argues that the Buddhist scripture, the "Lalitavistara Sutra," contains references to Jesus' teachings and miracles, suggesting communication between Buddhist and Christian philosophies. Abhedananda presents these similarities as evidence of Jesus' influence and presence in ancient India.

Furthermore, Abhedananda points out the existence of various shrines and holy sites associated with Jesus in northern India. He identifies Roza Bal in Srinagar, Kashmir, as a possible burial place of Jesus. Abhedananda explores the tomb and speculates that it holds the remains of Jesus. This site has been visited by many scholars and pilgrims who seek to gain insights into Jesus' time in India.

In conclusion, Swami Abhedananda supports the belief in Jesus' presence in India through his observation of similarities between Buddhist and Christian teachings and the identification of potential burial sites in India. His book serves as a factual reference where readers can delve into these pieces of evidence and draw conclusions.

J. Archibald Douglas’s Views on Jesus’ Travels in India

J. Archibald Douglas, a renowned historian, holds a unique perspective on Jesus' travels in India. According to Douglas, Jesus embarked on a remarkable journey to India during his early adulthood. Douglas's viewpoint is based on extensive research and significant evidence that has intrigued many scholars.

Douglas argues that Jesus, seeking spiritual enlightenment, ventured to India to study under the scholars and mystics in the region. He suggests this journey was crucial in shaping Jesus' wisdom and teachings. Furthermore, Douglas presents several compelling pieces of evidence to support his perspective.

One of the crucial pieces of evidence is the existence of ancient manuscripts discovered in remote regions of India. These manuscripts allude to Jesus' presence and interactions with Indian scholars during the lost years of his life, which are not adequately documented in the Bible.

Additionally, Douglas highlights the similarities between Jesus' teachings and philosophies of certain ancient Indian spiritual traditions. He suggests that Jesus must have imbibed the wisdom of these traditions during his time in India.

However, it is important to note that Douglas' theory on Jesus' travels in India remains debated among scholars. While some embrace this idea, others refute it due to the lack of concrete proof or alternative interpretations of the evidence.

Max Müller’s Opinion of Jesus’ Indian Connection

Max Müller, a 19th-century German philologist, expressed his opinion on the controversial theory regarding Jesus' Indian connection. This theory originated from Russian explorer Nicolas Notovitch, who claimed to have discovered ancient manuscripts in Tibetan monasteries suggesting Jesus had traveled to India during his "lost years."

Max Müller vehemently opposed this theory and labeled it as baseless and unsupported by historical evidence. He argued that Jesus' Indian connection was merely a product of wild conjecture and lacked factual basis. Müller believed that Jesus' life and teachings were firmly rooted in the Jewish tradition and the historical context of first-century Palestine.

In his book "India: What Can It Teach Us?," Müller dismissed Notovitch's claims as unreliable and refuted the idea that Jesus had journeyed to India. He argued that there was no tangible evidence to support such assertions, and the alleged manuscripts were dubious. Müller emphasized the need for scholarly research and historical accuracy rather than indulging in sensationalist theories.

It is important to note that Max Müller's views on the controversial theory were widely respected within scholarly circles. His expertise in ancient languages and religious texts lent credibility to his dismissal of the Jesus' Indian connection theory, further cementing his position as a reputable authority.

References:

Müller, Max. India: What Can It Teach Us? Longmans, Green, and Co., 1883.

Religious Leaders Who Have Supported the Idea That Jesus Visited India

Throughout history, various religious leaders have explored and advocated the notion that Jesus of Nazareth may have visited India during his so-called "lost years." This intriguing concept has gained traction among both Eastern and Western followers of different faiths. Although the idea remains unverifiable within historical records, proponents of this theory argue that the visit to India could have influenced Jesus' teachings and spiritual development. This article delves into the accounts and perspectives of notable religious figures who have supported the fascinating idea that Jesus might have made a journey to India. .

Jewish Leaders Who Suggested Jesus Traveled Eastward

There is no factual evidence to support the claim that Jewish leaders suggested Jesus traveled eastward during his teenage years. This idea is primarily based on theories and speculation from certain historians and scholars. The mainstream view within both Jewish and Christian traditions is that Jesus remained in the region of Palestine during his youth.

Jewish leaders during the time of Jesus were primarily focused on maintaining religious and political control in Judea. Their interactions with Jesus are documented in the New Testament, primarily in the Gospels. These accounts do not mention any suggestion or belief that Jesus traveled eastward during his teenage years.

The historical records that provide some information about Jesus' life are limited and primarily focused on his ministry and crucifixion. These sources, such as the Bible and other early Christian writings, do not offer any concrete evidence to support the claim that Jewish leaders suggested Jesus traveled eastward.

It is important to approach historical claims skeptically and rely on reliable sources and evidence. Based on the available information, there is no credible factual evidence to support the idea that Jewish leaders suggested Jesus traveled eastward during his teenage years. Therefore, it is more accurate to say that Jesus' whereabouts remain uncertain and speculative during this period.

According to the Orthodox Church, where was Jesus before he started public Ministry?

According to the Orthodox Church, Jesus spent his early years growing up in Nazareth before starting his public ministry. This belief is based on the evidence in the Gospel of Luke, specifically in Luke 4:16 and 22–24.

Luke 4:16 states that Jesus "came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up." This passage indicates that Nazareth was where Jesus was raised, underscoring the Orthodox Church's understanding of his upbringing. The Orthodox Church believes Jesus lived a humble and ordinary life in Nazareth, growing up in a well-known regular setting.

Luke 4:22–24 further affirms the Orthodox belief in Jesus' Nazareth upbringing. In these verses, Jesus returns to his hometown and the people recognize him as "Joseph's son." The fact that the people of Nazareth identified Jesus as the son of Joseph reinforces the understanding that Jesus was indeed raised in Nazareth, living as an ordinary member of the community.

According to the Orthodox Church, Jesus spent his early years in Nazareth, growing up and living a simple life before commencing his public ministry. The passages in Luke, particularly Luke 4:16 and 22–24, provide important evidence supporting this interpretation.

Other theories about the lost years of Jesus

During the so-called "lost years" of Jesus, between the ages of 12 and 30, several theories propose alternative accounts of his whereabouts and activities. One lesser-known theory suggests that Jesus may have traveled to Japan during this time. According to this Japanese theory, Jesus is believed to have journeyed to Japan before returning to his homeland to begin his ministry. Proponents of this theory point to alleged similarities between certain Japanese traditions and Christian customs.

Another theory regarding the lost years of Jesus revolves around his supposed time in Britain. It is believed by some that Jesus may have traveled to Britain and studied with the Druids. This theory is partially based on the account of Joseph of Arimathea, a figure mentioned in the New Testament, who is said to have visited Britain after the crucifixion of Jesus. It is claimed that Joseph and Jesus taught the native Britons their religious beliefs.

The idea that Jesus may have spent time with the Druids in Britain has captivated the imagination of many, as it suggests a link between Christianity and Celtic spirituality. However, it is important to note that limited historical evidence supports this theory, and it remains a matter of speculation and debate among scholars.

In conclusion, the enduring mystery surrounding the 'lost years' of Jesus, along with the lack of substantial historical or archaeological evidence regarding his visits to India, Tibet, or Kashmir, has significant implications. This mystery has captivated the imagination of scholars, historians, and the faithful alike, sparking numerous theories and speculations.

The significance of this enduring mystery lies in its potential to reshape or challenge our understanding of Jesus' life and teachings. The missing years represent a gap in our knowledge of his formative years and experiences, leaving room for interpretation and speculation. If Jesus did indeed journey to distant lands during this period, it could shed light on his interactions with other cultures and religions, expanding our understanding of his teachings and message.

However, the lack of substantial evidence for these theories also has implications. It underscores the importance of historical and archaeological evidence in forming accurate past narratives. Without solid proof to support these theories, they remain speculative and should be cautiously approached.

Ultimately, the mystery of Jesus' 'lost years' highlights the enduring fascination with his life and teachings. It reminds us of the gaps in our knowledge and the limitations of historical research. While theories may pique our curiosity, it is important to distinguish between speculation and verifiable evidence in our quest to understand the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

Frequently asked Questions

Did jesus go to india as a teacher or a student.

"The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ" proposes that Jesus traveled to India during his youth to study the sacred laws of Hinduism and Buddhism.

According to the theory, This experience is believed to have influenced Jesus’ later teachings.

However, no historical evidence or mainstream religious scholarship supports this hypothesis.
As a result, it should be approached cautiously and not accepted as a factual account of Jesus' life.
Despite this, the idea of Jesus traveling to India to learn from Eastern spiritual traditions continues to be a topic of interest and debate among scholars and religious followers.

Why do some historians believe Jesus went to India when he was 13?

Some historians believe that Jesus went to India when he was 13 to gain spiritual knowledge and study Buddhism.
This theory is based on claims made by authors Notovitch, Kersten, and Roerich.
Notovitch's scrolls are seen as potential evidence, but critics have questioned their authenticity.
Critics argue that the authors may have influenced each other and based their theories on similar sources.
Despite debates on the topic, opinions on Jesus' early years remain varied.

Is India mentioned in the Bible?

Although there is no direct reference to India in the Bible, several scholars argue that the land mentioned as "Hodu" or "Ophir" in biblical texts could potentially refer to India. "Hodu" is frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, often associated with precious commodities like gold, spices, and exotic animals abundant in ancient India. Additionally, it is believed that the term "Ophir," known for its wealth and prosperity, might also allude to the subcontinent.

How does the Bible describe the life of Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30?

The Bible does not provide much information about Jesus' life between 12 and 30.
This period is called the "hidden years" and Jesus was known as a carpenter in Nazareth.
The lack of information has led to speculation and various theories about what Jesus might have done during this time.
The primary focus of scripture is the story of salvation and the work of Jesus in his public ministry.
The Gospel of Luke briefly mentions an incident when Jesus was 12 years old and visited the temple in Jerusalem. Still, there are no further details until Jesus' baptism and the beginning of his public ministry around 30.

Did any historical evidence support Jesus' visit to India?

Historical evidence of Jesus' visit to India is inconclusive.
Some books and theories suggest Jesus traveled to India during his lost years, but these claims are largely unsupported.
The Bible does not mention Jesus traveling to India.
Holger Kersten's book and Nicolas Notovitch's claims have been widely criticized.
There is no concrete proof to confirm Jesus' visit to India.

Are there any ancient documents or scriptures that mention Jesus traveling to Japan?

In your quest to uncover the mysteries of Jesus, you may be curious if there is any evidence of Jesus traveling to Japan.
Unfortunately, there is no concrete evidence to support this theory.
Despite this, it is interesting to explore the potential influence of Jesus in far-off lands.
From speculation of Jesus' journey to India to his possible presence in Japan, these ideas reveal Jesus’s profound impact on different cultures worldwide.
Reflecting on these stories inspires us to appreciate the power of Jesus, who transcended borders and cultures.

Did Jesus leave any teachings or influence behind during his alleged visit to India?

Jesus' visit to India left a lasting impact on those who encountered him.
His teachings of love, forgiveness, and spiritual enlightenment captivated hearts and transformed lives.
Jesus' presence in India sparked a spiritual awakening, inspiring people to seek a deeper understanding of themselves and the divine.
His message continues to be relevant and meaningful today, reminding us of the power of faith, hope, and love that Jesus brought.
Jesus' teachings in India still resonate today, providing spiritual insight and guidance for those seeking a closer relationship with God.

Are there any accounts or records of Jesus' interactions with the Druids in Britain?

Jesus' interactions with the Druids in Britain is a topic of much interest and speculation.
There is no conclusive evidence or records of these interactions, but some theories suggest that Jesus may have influenced Druidic practices.
His teachings and wisdom may have impacted Celtic culture and spirituality.
Imagining the potential exchange between Jesus and the Druids invites us to consider the powerful connections between different cultures and spiritual traditions.
While there is no definitive proof of Jesus' interaction with the Druids, the possibility remains an intriguing exploration subject.

Is there any archaeological evidence that suggests Jesus may have traveled to India or Britain during his lost years?

Archaeological evidence does not support the idea that Jesus traveled to India or Britain during his lost years.
Various theories and accounts exist, but lack supporting data to validate them.
Rather than speculating about Jesus' whereabouts during this time, we should focus on his teachings and their profound impact on humanity.
Through faith and the message of love and salvation, Jesus inspires and transforms lives today.
The lost years of Jesus remain an open-ended question, leaving us to ponder the possibilities.

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Did Jesus Christ ever visit India?

Puri: Did Jesus Christ ever visit the pilgrim city of Puri during his “unexplained twelve years” of life? We would know soon if German scholar H J Trebst’s research to unearth the missing twelve years of Christ’s life bears fruit.

Dr Trebst, who had invited the scholars of this ancient city, yesterday said according to some scholars of the Orient and the West, Jesus had visited Puri where he had studied Veda and Yoga before returning home to preach Christianity .

Jesus Christ had also studied Buddhism in the Indian sub-continent, the scholar, who had done extensive research in Ladhakh and Nepal to trace evidence of Christ’s itinerary in the Indian sub-continent, said.

Dr Trebst said 2,000 years ago Puri was a famous seat of learning and history has revealed that over the centuries religious leaders of various sects and cults had visited this holy shrine.

It was most likely that Jesus had also visited this holy seat of learning, he said, though adding that it was a very difficult task to trace the history of his visit to Puri.

The German scholar was, however, optimistic that the scholars of the pilgrim city would be of immense help in analysing the ancient manuscripts and scriptures on the visit of Jesus.

Meanwhile, the local research scholars have suggested Dr Trebst to go through the library of the Jagatguru Sankeracharya, the oldest in the state, which had a large collection of palm leaf manuscripts since the time of Aadi Sanker (about 4th century BC) to find out the missing links in the life of Christ.

Religion News Blog posted this on Friday November 7, 2003. Last updated if a date shows here:

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Jesus (as) Journeys East: Tracing the Travel

Shahzad Ahmed and Zafir Mahmood Malik , UK

In his fascination with exploring the Dervish communities living in the near and Middle East, Omar Michael Burke’s epic journey included an interesting encounter with a small Christian community in Herat, Afghanistan, in 1976. Burke notes in his book Among the Dervishes , ‘There must be a thousand of these Christians. Their chief is the Abba Yahiyya (Father John), who can recite the succession of teachers through nearly sixty generations to – Isa, son of Mary, of “Nazara,” the Kashmiri.’ [1]

According to this community, Jesus (as) of Nazareth survived the crucifixion and travelled east to Kashmir where he is revered as an ancient teacher known as ‘Yuz Asaf’. And while Burke may have considered this to be a unique and fascinating discovery, little did he know that there is a plethora of evidence rooted in ancient traditions and customs which irrefutably proves that Jesus (as) survived the crucifixion and journeyed eastwards in search of the lost tribes of Israel.

In his pioneering and scholarly treatise Jesus in India, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), proved, using religious scriptures, evidence from medical literature and historical records, that Jesus (as) survived the crucifixion. Starting his journey from Jerusalem and passing through Iran, Jesus (as) reached Afghanistan, where he met the Jewish tribes who had settled there after Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Judea centuries before. [2]

Continuing his mission to search for these lost tribes, he eventually journeyed to Kashmir where he settled and lies buried in the neighbourhood of Khanyar in Srinagar. Scholarship on this has continued over the past hundred years with countless researchers exploring the various avenues of proof.

Evidence from the Bible & the Holy Qur’an

One of the most fundamental proofs of Jesus (as) surviving the crucifixion and travelling towards the East is found in his own words in the Gospel of Matthew, where he describes the purpose of his mission:

‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’ [3]

The historical context to this is that the Israelites were divided into twelve tribes, out of which only two were residing in Palestine at the time of Jesus’ (as) advent: Juda and Benjamin. From historical accounts it is proven that King David established a kingdom for the Israelites around the 10 th century BCE, with the Northern kingdom of Israel consisting of ten tribes. The Jewish tribes were attacked by two different powers. First, in 722 BCE, the Assyrians attacked the Northern kingdom of Israel and forced the ten tribes living there to relocate in other parts of their empire. The other two tribes were living in the Southern kingdom known as Judah. They survived this initial attack and continued living there for another millennium.

The Northern tribes, however, scattered much further East. As Richard Foltz notes in ‘Judaism and the Silk Route’,

‘…Ten tribes of Israel were exiled to “Halah and Habor by the River Gozan and the cities of Medes”. Since the former locations have been situated in Khurasan, it has been suggested that the Israelites’ presence in Central Asia should be considered as originating at that time. It has accordingly been proposed that these earliest exiles may have engaged in long distance overland trade.’ [4]

Similarly, Flavius Josephus, a famous Jewish historian, has written, ‘The ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude and not to be estimated in numbers. [5]

Many believe that the ‘lost sheep’ mentioned in the Gospels in fact refers to these ten tribes that had been scattered.

Furthermore, Jesus (as) entrusted this same task to his disciples:

‘These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”’ [6]

In obedience to this instruction of Jesus (as), the disciples went forth in this task, each assigned with a particular region to preach the message of Jesus (as) to the remaining Jewish tribes. The travels of the disciple Thomas to India are well-documented and historically proven. For example, historian William Dalrymple states, ‘The trail of St. Thomas’s journey to India begins thousands of miles from Kerala in the deserts of the Middle East…In Kerala, St Thomas was said to have converted the local Brahmins with the aid of miracles and to have built seven churches. He then headed Eastwards to the ancient temple town of Mylapore, now in the suburbs of Madras. There the saint was opposed by the orthodox Brahmins of the temple, and finally martyred. His followers built a tomb and monastery over his grave which, said the travellers, was now a pilgrimage centre for Muslims and Hindus, as well as Christians in Southern India .’ [7]

Furthermore, Keralan-born essayist Paul Zacharia has also mentioned details about Thomas’ travels to India in Smithsonian Journeys Quarterly . He writes, ‘Modern Syrian Christians of Kerala (the majority Christian population here) believe that the Apostle Thomas – the one who so famously questioned Jesus – visited here in AD 52 and baptized their forefathers…Thomas’s name remains ubiquitous in Kerala, appearing on everything from baptism registers and the neon signs of jewellery stores and bakeries to the nameplates of dental surgeons and real estate developers’ ads.’ [8]

The Holy Qur’an also states that the mission of Jesus (as) was to preach to the Israelites, ‘And will make him a Messenger to the children of Israel.’ [9] Thus, in order for Jesus (as) to have fulfilled his mission, it was necessary that he travelled Eastwards to locate the scattered tribes of the Israelites and preach to them the message of God.

Whilst citing evidence from the sayings of the Holy Prophet (sa), Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) states:

‘Reliable reports in the Ahadith show that the Holy Prophet (as) said that Jesus lived to an advanced age of 125. Besides, all the sects of Islam believe that Jesus had two unique characteristics as are not to be found in any other prophet:

i. He lived to the ripe old age of 125 years.

ii. He extensively travelled in many parts of the world and was therefore called ‘the travelling prophet.’ [10]

Evidence from Medical Research

Since the mission of Jesus (as) was to gather the ‘Lost Tribes of Israel’, it was necessary for him to travel to those parts of the world where the descendants of the Jewish tribes lived. Historical records show that these Jewish tribes had come to settle in parts of Asia such as Afghanistan, India and Kashmir. John Noel in an article in Asia Magazine in 1930 under the title, ‘The Heavenly High Snow Peaks of Kashmir’ writes about Kashmiris as follows:

‘One thing about them strikes you with enormous force. They seem more perfectly Jewish than the purest Jews you have ever seen, not because they wear a flowing cloak-like dress that conforms to your idea of Biblical garments, but because their faces have the Jewish cast of features. The curious coincidence – or is it a coincidence? – is that there is a strong tradition in Kashmir of its connection with the Jews.’ [11]

Similarly, James Milne in his book, The Road to Kashmir states that the ‘three races (Afghans, Afridis, and Kashmiris) have large aquiline features and skins which have been well described as subdued Jews.’ [12]

Medical evidence also proves these ancient tribes had Jewish roots. For example, ‘The “Bene Israel” is a Jewish community in western India whose origins are unknown. DNA samples were collected by the researchers from the School of Oriental Studies in London assessing genetic similarities between the Indian Bene Israel tribe, the indigenous Indian population and the Jewish population. The marker of ancient Jewish heritage (Haplogroup 9 comprising the CMH pattern), was found in high frequency in the Bene Israel and in a much lower frequency in the indigenous Indian group. Such data clearly suggests that the Bene Israel population have characteristics of Jewish parentage.’ [13] In other words, people who share a Haplogroup are descended from a common ancestor. And the prevalence of Haplogroup 9 in the Bene Israel population is strong evidence that they link back to the Lost Tribes of Israel. (A detailed article published in The Review of Religions , March 2012 edition outlines further evidence from a genetic perspective to show the links between the Jewish tribes)

Traces of Jewish Tribes in Afghanistan

Moreover, there is historical evidence to corroborate this theory. Numerous works of the 14 th through 17 th centuries detail the evidence that describes that the lost tribes went to Afghanistan. In his book, The Garden of the Learned in the History of Great Men and Genealogies , Abu Suleman Daud bin Abul Fazal Muhammad Albenaketi traces the ancestry of the Afghans to the Israelites. Written in the 14 th century, this is one of the most ancient manuscripts available in this regard. [14]

Similarly, in the 17 th century, Bukhtawar Khan provided in The Mirror of the World a detailed account of the migration of the Afghans from the Holy Land to Kabul and other places in Afghanistan. [15] Furthermore, Hafiz Rahmat bin Shah Alam in his book Khulasat-ul-Ansab and Fareed-ud-Din Ahmad in Risala-i-Ansab-i-Afghana also draw links between the Afghans and the Jewish people through their genealogies. They both prove that the Afghans are descendants of the Israelites through King Talut. [16]

In addition to these countless ancient sources, only a few of which have been presented in this article, more recently western scholarship has also documented the historic link between the Afghans and the Israelites. For example, George Moore in his famous work, Lost Tribes , published in 1861, gave a profound insight into the origins of the Afghan roots. Whilst analysing their links with the Israelites, he writes, ‘And we find that the very natural character of Israel reappears in all its life and reality in countries where people call themselves Bani Israel and universally claim to be the descendants of the Lost Tribes. The nomenclature of their tribes and districts, both in ancient geography, and at the present day, confirms this universal natural tradition. Lastly, we have the route of the Israelites from Media to Afghanistan and India marked by a series of intermediate stations bearing the names of several of the tribes and clearly indicating the stages of their long and arduous journey.’

George Moore further notes, ‘Sir William Jones, Sir John Malcolm and missionary Chamberlain, after full investigation, were of the opinion that the Ten Tribes migrated to India, Tibet and Kashmir through Afghanistan.’ [17] Aside from George Moore, and the aforementioned scholars he referred to, General Sir George Macmuun, Col. G. B. Malleson, Col. Failson, George Bell, E. Balfour, Sir Henry Yule and Sir George Rose all have written on this topic and drawn the same conclusion independently.

Traces of Jewish Tribes in Kashmir

Just like in the case of the Afghan genealogy, there is a plethora of evidence which also trace the origins of the Kashmiri people to the Israelites.

Early historians of Kashmir such as Mulla Nadiri in his book Tarikh Kashmir ( History of Kashmir ), Mulla Ahmad in the book Waqqiya-i-Kashmir ( Events of Kashmir ), and Abdul Qadar Bin Qazi-ul-Quzat Wasil Ali Khan in his book Hashmat-i-Kashmir have emphatically stated that the Kashmiris were descendents of the Israelites.

Former Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaher Lal Nehru, who was also a scholar of history, states, ‘All over Central Asia, in Kashmir and Ladakh and Tibet and even farther North, there is still a strong belief that Jesus or Isa travelled about there.’ [18]

W. Moorcroft, G.Trebeck and H. Wilson in their book Travels in the Himalayan Provinces note, ‘the physical and the ethnical character, which so sharply marks off the Kashmiris from all surrounding races, has always struck observing visitors to the valley and they have universally connected them with the Jews.’ [19]

Sir Francis Younghusband, who served as the British Representative in Kashmir for many years, wrote in the early 1900s, ‘Here may be seen fine old patriarchal types, just as we picture to ourselves the Israelitish heroes of old. Some, indeed, say…that these Kashmiris are the lost tribes of Israel and certainly as I have already said, there are real biblical types to be seen everywhere in Kashmir and especially among the upland villages. Here the Israelitish shepherd tending his flocks and herds may any day be seen.’ [20]

The Tomb of Jesus (as) in Kashmir

Among the countless unique insights into the life of Jesus (as) post-crucifixion, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as), in his treatise Jesus in India outlined the exact burial place of Jesus (as) in the Khanyar quarter of Srinagar, Kashmir. [21]

This discovery has been further corroborated by recent scholars. For example, Sir Francis Younghusband further writes in his book Kashmir , ‘There resided in Kashmir some 1900 years ago a saint of the name of Yuz Asaf, who preached in parables and used many of the same parables as Christ uses, as, for instance, the parable of the sower. His tomb is in Srinagar…and the theory is that Yuz Asaf and Jesus are one and the same person. When the people are in appearance of such a decided Jewish cast, it is curious that such a theory should exist.’ [22]

Similarly, Sheikh Al-Said-us-Sadiq, who lived in the third and fourth centuries of the Muslim era, and who wrote over 200 books, writes as follows:

‘Then Yuz Asaf, after roaming about in many cities, reached that country which is called Kashmir. He travelled in it far and wide and stayed there and spent his (remaining) life there, until death overtook him, and he left the earthly body and was elevated towards the Light. But, before his death he sent for a disciple of his, Ba’bad (Thomas) by name, who used to serve him and was well-served in all matters. He (Yuz Asaf) expressed his late will to him and said: My time for departing from this world has come. Carry on your duties properly and turn not back from truth, and say your prayers regularly. He then directed Ba’bad (Thomas) to prepare a tomb over him (at the very place he died). He then stretched his legs towards the West and head towards the east and died. May God bless him.’ [23]

The following is the English translation of the information displayed on the signpost that stands outside the Tomb of Jesus Christ. The information contains the views of Khwaja Azam Deddmari, who compiled his Tarikh-i-Azam in about 1729 A.D, ‘Nearby is situated the stone of the grave which, according to the people, is the prophets who arrived from a far-off place during ancient times. Anointed for Kashmir: This spot is famous as the resting place of a messenger: I have read in an ancient book that a prince from a foreign land arrived here and engaged himself in piety and prayers [and] became a messenger of God for the Kashmiri people. In that ancient book his name is mentioned as Yuz Asaf.’ [24] (For further reading, see “The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir and Evidence of Jesus as in India” in the April 2002 edition of The Review of Religions .)

The aforementioned evidence is just a dip in the vast ocean of ongoing academic research into Jesus’ (as) travels towards the East and finally settling in Kashmir. Whilst many believe him to have ascended into the Heavens and await his advent in the latter days, the evidence, however, stands in stark contrast and undoubtedly will change the course of religious history and tradition.

About the Authors: Shahzad Ahmed and Zafir Mahmood Malik are both associate editors at The Review of Religions. They are both Imams of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Shahzad Ahmed has a BA degree in English from the University of Greenwich. He appears regularly as a panellist on various programmes on Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International (MTA) including Islamic Jurisprudence. Zafir Mahmood Malik regularly appears as a panelist on MTA International and Voice of Islam radio station answering questions on Islam.

1. Omar M. Burke, Among the Dervishes (London: Octagon Press, 1993), 111.

2. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as , Jesus in India (Qadian, India: Islam International Publications Ltd., 2016).

3. The Bible, Matthew 15:24.

4. Richard Foltz, “Judaism and The Silk Route,” The History Teacher 32, 1 (1998): 9. doi:10.2307/494416.

5. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ten-lost-tribes.

6. The Bible, Matthew 10:5-6.

7. William Dalrymple, “The Incredible Journey,” The Guardian , April 14, 2000. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/apr/15/books.guardianreview.

8. Paul Zacharia, “The Surprisingly Early History Of Christianity In India,” Smithsonian Magazine , February 19, 2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-christianity-came-to-india-kerala-180958117/.

9. The Holy Qur’an, 3:50.

10. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as , Jesus in India , (Qadian, India: Islam International Publications Ltd., 2016), 62.

11. Aziz A. Chaudhary, “The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir,” The Review of Religions , April 2002, 42.

12. https://www.alislam.org/articles/lost-tribes-of-israel/.

13. https://rorenglish.wpengine.com/6107/the-lost-tribes-of-israel-in-india-a-genetic-perspective.

14. Aziz A. Chaudhary, “The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir,” The Review of Religions , April 2002, 36.

15. Aziz A. Chaudhary, “The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir,” The Review of Religions , April 2002, 37.

16. https://www.alislam.org/articles/lost-tribes-of-israel/.

18. Leonard Fernando, Christianity In India: Two Thousand Years of Faith (India: Penguin, Viking, 2004), 28.

19. Aziz A. Chaudhary, “The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir,” The Review of Religions , April 2002, 41.

20. Sir Francis Younghusband, Kashmir (London: A. & C. Black Ltd, 1909), 107, 112.

21. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as , Jesus in India , (Qadian, India: Islam International Publications Ltd., 2016), 14.

22. Sir Francis Younghusband, Kashmir (London: A. & C. Black Ltd, 1909), 112.

23. https://www.alislam.org/articles/lost-tribes-of-israel/.

24. Abubakr Ben Ishmael Salahuddin, “Evidence of Jesus in India,” The Review of Religions , April 2002, 64.

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Jesus Visited India and Tibet?

The theory that Jesus spent his “lost years”—the time between his childhood and the beginning of his ministry, about which the New Testament says very little—in India, Tibet, and Nepal, is a subject of great fascination and controversy. This hypothesis fills in the gaps of Jesus’ life that the Bible does not account for, typically between the ages of 12 and 30.

The New Testament’s gospels provide little information about Jesus’ life during this period, leading to speculation and legend about what he might have been doing in those intervening years. One of the most intriguing theories is that Jesus traveled to India, and perhaps Tibet and Nepal, immersing himself in the philosophies and teachings of the East. I was recently in Nepal doing work with non-profit Choice Humanitarian and tried to imagine young Jesus toggling between Buddhist Stupas and Hindu Temples in search of the Great Mystery.

This theory (in its modern form) largely stems from a 19th-century Russian traveler and writer, Nicolas Notovitch , who claimed to have found evidence during his travels in India. According to Notovitch, a manuscript in a Tibetan monastery in Ladakh detailed the arrival of a holy man, named Issa (a name linked to Jesus), who matched Jesus’ description and teachings. Notovitch published his findings in a book titled “ The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, ” which sparked immediate controversy and skepticism among scholars and theologians.

Despite the lack of concrete evidence, proponents of this theory argue that the moral and philosophical similarities between Jesus’ teachings and Eastern traditions suggest a link. They point out that principles such as compassion, non-violence, and the idea of overcoming the ego are central to both Christianity and Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism.

Critics of the theory argue that Notovitch’s accounts were either fabricated or grossly misinterpreted. Scholars note that historical evidence for Jesus’ presence in India is virtually non-existent and that the New Testament provides sufficient detail about Jesus’ life and ministry. They also point to the cultural and religious milieu of Judea and the surrounding regions to explain the origins of Jesus’ teachings.

Additionally, some theologians argue that the theory undermines the traditional Christian understanding of Jesus, suggesting that it implies he was influenced by human teachings rather than being the divine source of new revelation. They also express concerns about appropriating Eastern religious concepts to fill in the gaps of the Christian narrative.

Despite the debates, the theory remains a part of popular discourse, inspiring books, documentaries, and even pilgrimages to sites in India and Nepal that some believe Jesus may have visited. For many, the exploration of this theory is not just about historical facts but about the universal appeal of Jesus’ message and the shared human desire to find common ground among the world’s religions.

Proponents of the theory include members of the Theosophical Society , particularly its founders Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott , who are known for their esoteric beliefs and claims of ancient wisdom. They, along with others in the society, have been linked to the propagation of the idea that Jesus studied in the East, with some claims suggesting that there are records or manuscripts in Tibetan monasteries that support this theory. The Theosophical Society has been influential in promoting various mystical and esoteric concepts, including those that relate to the life and teachings of Jesus outside of the canonical Christian texts.

Revered spiritual teacher and the author of “ Autobiography of a Yogi ,” Paramahansa Yogananda , held a view that connects the life of Jesus Christ with Eastern spirituality. According to Yogananda, Jesus spent many of his formative years in India and Tibet, where he studied the ancient teachings of yoga and meditation. This perspective suggests that during the so-called “lost years” of Jesus, not accounted for in the New Testament, he was immersed in learning from sages and gurus, gaining profound wisdom that later influenced his teachings. Yogananda’s teachings propose that there is a deep, spiritual link between the teachings of Jesus and the universal truths found in Eastern traditions, asserting that the unity of all religious philosophies is centered around a direct personal experience of God. This idea, while not widely accepted in mainstream Christianity, offers an inclusive and intriguing bridge between Eastern and Western spiritual paths.

In 1959, Sri Daya Mata , who led the Self-Realization Fellowship which Yogananda founded, traveled to India and conversed with a distinguished Indian spiritual figure, His Holiness Sri Bharati Krishna Tirtha , the Shankaracharya of Puri. During their dialogue, Sri Daya Mata brought up accounts she had heard, suggesting that Jesus had spent a portion of his life in India, engaging with its enlightened sages. His Holiness confirmed these assertions, stating he had personally examined ancient documents housed within the archives of the Puri Jagannath Temple which corroborate this narrative. According to these records, Jesus, referred to as “Isha” in these texts, resided for a time within the Jagannath Temple itself. It is asserted that upon his return to his native region, he shared the teachings which would later form the foundation of Christianity.

In the end, the theory of Jesus’ lost years in India, Tibet, and Nepal remains speculative, although not without some intriguing historical proof. It continues to be a subject that captures the imagination, inspiring both spiritual reflection and scholarly debate. The idea challenges believers and skeptics alike to consider the mysteries of a time long past and the possibilities of intercultural exchange and spiritual growth. As for myself, I like to think of the young Jesus wandering the Himalayas in search of God-realization. He clearly found it.

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The Christ of India

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A t the time of Jesus of Nazareth there were two major currents or sects within Judaism: the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were extremely concerned with strict external observance of their interpretation of the Mosaic Law, ritual worship, and theology. The Sadducees, on the other hand, were very little concerned with any of these and tended toward a kind of genteel agnosticism. Today these two groups might be compared with the Orthodox and the Reformed branches of Judaism respectively.

There was also a third sect which both was and was not part of Judaism. They were the Essenes, whose very name means “the Outsiders.” (“Essene” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Chitsonim –“the outsiders.” Since Philo and other Jewish historians used “Essene” in writing about them, that has become the common usage.) Whether they chose this name for themselves or whether it was applied to them by the disdainful Pharisees and Sadducees is not known. But that they were incongruent (even incompatible) to the normal life of Israel at that time is certainly known.

Jesus of Nazareth was an Essene, as were most of his followers, including the twelve Apostles. When Jesus said “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18), the word used in the Greek text of the Gospels is ecclesia , which literally means “the called out” or “the separated” in the sense of “the aliens.” It is not far-fetched, then, to wonder if the correct translation should not be: “I will establish My Essenes .” Many elements distinguished and even separated the Essenes from the rest of Israel.

Their claims about their very existence was certainly a controversial matter. For the Essenes averred that Moses had created them as a secret fraternity within Judaism, with Aaron and his descendants at their head. The prophet Jeremiah was a Master of the Essenes, and it was in his lifetime that they ceased to be a secret society and became a public entity. From that time many of the Essenes began living in communities. Isaiah and Saint John the Baptist were also Masters of the Essenes. Their purpose was to follow a totally esoteric religious philosophy and practice that was derived from the Egyptian Mysteries.

As the grandson of the Pharaoh, Moses had been an initiate of those mysteries and destined to ultimately become the head of the Egyptian religion. It was common in Egypt for the eldest son of the Pharaoh to inherit the throne, and the next eldest son to be made the head of the Egyptian religion. Although Moses was the only son of the Pharaoh’s daughter, he was adopted and his bloodline was not known. For this reason he could not be Pharaoh, but he could be put into the position usually given to the second son. The Egyptian Mysteries were themselves derived from the religion of India: Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Religion. Because of this the Essenes had always maintained some form of contact and interchange with India–a fact that galled their fellow Israelites. Regarding this, Alfred Edersheim, in his nineteenth century classic The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah , wrote: “Their fundamental tendency was quite other than that of Pharisaism, and strongly tinged with Eastern elements.”

The reality of this contact with India is shown in the Zohar (2:188a-b), a compilation of ancient Jewish mystical traditions and the major text of the Jewish Kabbalah. It contains the following incident regarding the knowledge of an illumined rabbi concerning the religion of India and the Vedic religious rite known as the sandhya, which is an offering of prayers at dawn and sunset for enlightenment.

“Rabbi Yose and Rabbi Hiyya were walking on the road. While they were walking, night fell; they sat down. While they were sitting, morning began to shine; they rose and walked on. Rabbi Hiyya said, ‘See, the face of the East, how it shines! Now all the children of the East [in India], who dwell in the mountains of light [the Himalayas], are bowing down to this light, which shines on behalf of the sun before it comes forth, and they are worshipping it.…Now you might say: ‘This worship is in vain!’ but since ancient, primordial days they have discovered wisdom through it.”

Their contact and interchange with Indian religion–Brahminical practices in particular–were manifested in several ways among the Essenes:

1. They practiced strict non-violence.

2. They were absolute vegetarians and would not touch alcohol in any form. Nor would they eat any food cooked by a non-Essene. (Edersheim says: “Its adherents would have perished of hunger rather than join in the meals of the outside world.”)

3. They refused to wear anything of animal origin, such as leather or wool, usually making their clothes of linen.

4. They rejected animal sacrifice, insisting that the Torah had not originally ordered animal sacrifice, but that its text had been corrupted–in regard to that and many other practices as well. Their assertion was certainly corroborated by passages in the scriptures such as: “Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?” (Psalms 50:13). “To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord:…I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats” (Isaiah 1:11). “For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices” (Jeremiah 7:22). The quotation from Isaiah is particularly relevant since he was himself the Master of the Essenes.

It was the Essenes’ contention that the “animals” originally offered in sacrifice were symbolic effigies of animals that represented the particular failing or fault from which the offerer wished to be freed. Appollonius of Tyana taught this same thing in relation to the ancient Greek sacrifices, and urged a return to that form. Long before that, in India dough effigies were offered in “sacrifice.” (See page 42 of Ganesha , by Chitralekha Singh and Prem Nath, published by Crest Publishing House of New Delhi.) In the Essene practice, each person molded the effigies with his own hands, while praying and concentrating deeply on the traits he wished to have corrected, feeling that it was being transferred into the image. The effigies were made of five substances: powdered frankincense, flour, water, olive oil, and salt. When these had dried, they were taken to the tabernacle whose altar was a metal structure with a grating over the top and hot coals within. The effigies were laid upon this grating and burnt by the intense heat. As they burned, through the force of the heat the olive oil and frankincense liquefied and boiled or seeped upward. This fragrant liquid was called “the blood” of the sacrifice. It was this with which Moses consecrated the tabernacle, its equipment, and the priests (Exodus 24:6,8), not animal blood. And it was just such a “lamb” whose “blood” was sprinkled on the doorposts in Egypt (Exodus 12:7).

For the Passover observance, the Essenes would bake a lamb effigy using the same ingredients–except for the frankincense they would substitute honey and cinnamon. (Or, lacking honey, they would use a kind of raisin syrup.) This was the only paschal lamb acceptable to them–and therefore to Jesus and His Apostles.

Consequently, the Essenes refused to worship in Jerusalem, but maintained their own tent-tabernacle on Mount Carmel made according to the original directions given to Moses on Mount Sinai. They considered the Jerusalem temple unacceptable because it was a stone structure built according to Greco-Roman style rather than the simple and humble tabernacle form given to Moses–a form that symbolized both the physical and psychic makeup of the human being. Further, the Jerusalem temple was built by Herod who, completely subservient to Rome, disdained Judaism and practiced a kind of Roman agnostic piety. Because of this the temple was ritually unclean in their estimation. They placated the Jerusalem Temple priests by sending them large donations of money. On occasion they gave useful animals to the Temple in Jerusalem, but only with the condition that they would be allowed to live out their natural span of life.

5. They interpreted the Torah and other Hebrew scriptures in an almost exclusively spiritual, symbolic, and metaphysical manner, as did the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher Philo. They also had esoteric writings of their own which they would not allow non-Essenes to see. But even more objectionable to the other Hebrews was their study and acceptance of “alien” scriptures–the holy books of other religions–so much so that an official condemnation was made of this practice. In light of this we can say that the Essenes were perhaps the first in recorded history to hold a universal, eclectic view of religion.

6. Celibacy was prized by them, being often observed even in marriage, and many of them led monastic lives of total renunciation.

7. They considered their male and female members–all of whom were literate–to be spiritual equals, and both sexes were prophets and teachers among them. This, too, was the practice in Hinduism at that time, women also wearing the sacred thread.

8. They denied the doctrine of the physical resurrection of the dead at the end of time, which was held by some Pharisees–who usually believed in reincarnation–and later became a tenet of Mediterranean Christianity.

9. They believed in reincarnation and the law of karma and the ultimate reunion of the soul with God. This is clearly indicated by the Apostles asking Jesus about a blind man: “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2. See May a Christian Believe in Reincarnation? ).

10. They believed that the sun was a divine manifestation, imparting spiritual powers to both body and mind. They faced the rising and setting sun and recited prayers of worship, refusing, upon rising in the morning, to speak a single word until the conclusion of those prayers. They did not consider the sun was a god, but a symbol of the One God of Light and Life. It was, though, felt that appropriate prayers directed toward the sun would evoke a divine response. (See Jesus’ words to the king of Kashmir as recorded in the Bhavishya Maha Purana that are given later on.)

11. They believed in both divination and the powers of prophecy.

12. They believed in the power of occult formulas, or mantras, as well as esoteric rituals, and practiced theurgy (spiritual “magic”) with them.

13. They believed in astrology, cast horoscopes, and made “magical” amulets of plants and gems according to astrological aspects. They also believed that angels had taught Moses the practice of herbalism.

14. They believed that miraculous cures were natural extensions of authentic spiritual life.

15. They would wear only white clothes as a sign that they worshipped God Who is Light and were clothed by Him in light. This so provoked the other Israelites that praying in white clothing was prohibited by the Pharisees and Sadducees, and laws were drafted accordingly. (The Mishnah begins with such a prohibition.) The disciples of Saint Thomas in India had a similar rule, only wearing white clothes in worship.

16. They observed the identical rules of purity (shaucha/shuddhi) as the Brahmins in India at that time, especially in the matter of bathing frequently.

17. They practiced the strictest adherence to truthfulness. (Travelers in past centuries cited the strict adherence to truth by the Brahmins of India as a great and admirable wonder.)

It should also be noted that most of these Brahminical practices were observed by Buddhists as well, so it is not out of place to consider that the Essenes–and Jesus and His disciples–possessed the qualities of both Hindu and Buddhist religion in “the West” at that time.

From all this we can see why Edersheim states that “In respect of doctrine, life, and worship, it [the Essene community] really stood outside Judaism.” As a result of these differences from ordinary Judaism, the Essenes lived totally apart from their fellow Hebrews, usually in separate communities or in communal houses in the towns and cities. (The supposed “communal experiment” in the book of Acts (4:32) was really a continuation of the Essene way of life. The Last Supper took place in just such an Essene “house.”)

Watch this YouTube video to get an overview of the “Lost Years” of Jesus discussed in this article.

The history of isha messiah–jesus the christ.

Among the Essenes of Israel at the threshold of the Christian Era, none were better known or respected than Joachim and Anna of Nazareth. Joachim was noted for his great piety, wealth, and charity. The richest man in Israel, his practice was to annually divide his increase into thirds, giving one third to the temples of Carmel and Jerusalem and one third to the poor, keeping only one third for himself. Anna was renowned as a prophetess and teacher among the Essenes. Their daughter Mary [Miryam], Who had been conceived miraculously beneath the Holy of Holies of the Temple, had passed thirteen years of her life as a Temple virgin until her espousal to Joseph of Nazareth. Before their marriage was performed, She was discovered to have conceived supernaturally, and in time She gave birth to a son in a cave of Bethlehem. His given name was Jesus (Yeshua in Aramaic and Yahoshua in Hebrew).

This Son of Miryam was as miraculous as his mother, and astounding wonders were worked and manifested daily in his life–for the preservation of which his parents took him into Egypt for some years where they lived with the various Essene communities there. But before that flight, when the child had been about three years old, sages from India (Matthew 2:1, 2) had come to pay him homage and to establish a link of communication with him, for his destiny was to live most of his life with them in the land of Eternal Dharma before returning to Israel as a messenger of the very illumination that had originally been at the heart of the Essene order. Through the intermediary of merchants and travelers both to and from India, contact was maintained with their destined disciple.

At the age of twelve, during the passover observances on Mount Carmel (not in Jerusalem), Jesus petitioned the elders of the Essenes for initiation–something bestowed only on adults after careful instruction and scrutiny. Because of his well-known supernatural character, the elders examined him before all those present. Not only could he answer all their questions perfectly, when the examination was ended he began to examine them , putting to them questions and statements that were utterly beyond their comprehension. In this way he demonstrated that the Essene order had nothing whatever to teach him, and that there was no need for him to undergo any initiation or instruction from them.

Upon his return to Nazareth preparations were begun for his journeying into India to formally become a disciple of those masters who had come to him nine years before. The necessary preliminaries being completed, Jesus of Nazareth set forth on a spiritual pilgrimage that would end at the feet of the three masters who would transform Jesus the Nazarene into Isha the Lord, the Teacher of Dharma and Messiah of Israel. Nicholas Roerich, in his book Himalaya: A Monograph , said that according to the Tibetan scrolls he found in 1925, Isha was thirteen when he left for India. The Nathanamavali of the Nath Yogis, which we will be considering later on, says that Isha reached India when he was fourteen.

The spiritual training of Jesus

In India the masters initiated Jesus into yoga and the highest spiritual life, giving him the spiritual name “Isha,” which means Lord, Master, or Ruler, a descriptive title often applied to God. It is also a title of Shiva.

The masters also instructed Jesus in the form his spiritual teachings should take and the specific yogic practices that should be given to his disciples. It was also decided that one of those disciples should be sent to India for the identical spiritual empowerment and instruction that was being imparted to Jesus.

For some time Jesus meditated in a cave north of the present-day city of Rishikesh, one of the most sacred locales of India. In the years He spent in the Himalayas, He attained the supreme heights of realization. To augment the teachings he had received in the Himalayas, Jesus was sent to live in Benares, the sacred city of Shiva.

The worship of Shiva

The worship of Shiva centered in the form of the natural elliptical stone known as the Shiva Linga (Symbol of Shiva) was a part of the spiritual heritage of Jesus, for His ancestor Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation, was a worshipper of that form. The Linga which he worshipped is today enshrined in Mecca within the Kaaba. The stone, which is black in color, is said to have been given to Abraham by the Archangel Gabriel, who instructed him in its worship. Such worship did not end with Abraham, but was practiced by his grandson Jacob, as is shown in the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis.

Unwittingly, because of the dark, Jacob used a Shiva Linga for a pillow and consequently had a vision of Shiva standing above the Linga which was symbolically seen as a ladder to heaven by means of which devas (shining ones) were coming and going. Recalling the devotion of Abraham and Isaac, Shiva spoke to Jacob and blessed him to be an ancestor of the Messiah. Upon awakening, Jacob declared that God was in that place though he had not realized it. The light of dawn revealed to him that his pillow had been a Shiva Linga, so he set it upright and worshipped it with an oil bath, as is traditional in the worship of Shiva, naming it (not the place) Bethel: the Dwelling of God. (In another account in the thirty-fifth chapter, it is said that Jacob “poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.” This, too, is a traditional form of worship and offering.) From thenceforth that place became a place of pilgrimage and worship of Shiva in the form of the Linga stone. Later Jacob had another vision of Shiva, Who told him: “I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me” (Genesis 31:13). A perusal of the Old Testament will reveal that Bethel was the spiritual center for the descendants of Jacob, even above Jerusalem.

Although this tradition of Shiva [Linga] worship has faded from the memory of the Jews and Christians, in the nineteenth century it was evidenced in the life of the stigmatic Anna Catherine Emmerich, an Augustinian Roman Catholic nun. On several occasions when she was deathly ill, angelic beings brought her crystal Shiva Lingas which they had her worship by pouring water over them. When she drank that water she would be perfectly cured. Furthermore, on major Christian holy days she would have out-of-body experience in which she would be taken to Hardwar, a city sacred to Shiva in the foothills of the Himalayas, and from there to Mount Kailash, the traditional abode of Shiva, which she said was the spiritual heart of the world.

Benares and Jagannath Puri

Benares, the spiritual heart of India, was the major center of Vedic learning. During his time in the Himalayas, Jesus’ endeavors had been centered almost exclusively on the practice of yoga. In Benares Jesus engaged in intense study of the spiritual texts of Sanatana Dharma, especially the upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita–which he later quoted in his discourses in Israel.

When Jesus had come to the point where the acharyas of Benares were satisfied with his level of scriptural and philosophical knowledge, he was sent to the sacred city of Jagannath Puri, which at that time was a great center of the worship of Shiva, second only to Benares. In Puri Jesus lived some time in the famous Govardhan Math, today a major center of the monastic order of the foremost philosopher-saint of India known as Adi Shankaracharya. There he perfected the synthesis of yoga, philosophy and renunciation, and began to publicly teach the Eternal Dharma. In the nineteen-fifties, the former head of the Govardhan Math, and head of the entire monastic Swami Order of Shankaracharya, Jagadguru Bharat Krishna Tirtha, claimed that he had discovered “incontrovertible historical evidence” that Jesus had lived in the Govardhan Math as well as in other places of India. He was writing a book on the subject, but died before it could be finished. Unfortunately the fate of his manuscript and research is presently unknown.

As a teacher Jesus was as popular as he was proficient in teaching, and gained great notoriety among all levels of society. However, those who were making religion into a business became intensely jealous and even began to plot his death. Therefore he left Puri and returned to the Himalayan regions. There final instructions were given him regarding his mission in the West and the way messages could be sent between Jesus and his Indian teachers. Jesus also lived in various Buddhist monasteries in the Himalayan region at this time.

Jesus was aware of the form and purpose of his death from his very birth. But it was the Indian masters who made everything clear to him regarding them. They promised Jesus that he would be sent a container of Himalayan Balsam to be poured upon his head by a close disciple as a sign that his death was imminent, even “at the door.” When Saint Mary Magdalene performed this action in Bethany, Jesus understood the unspoken message, saying: “She is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying” (Mark 14:8).

Return to the West

Jesus then set forth on his return journey to Israel with the blessings of the masters. All along his way, Jesus taught those who were drawn to his spiritual magnetism and who sought his counsel in the divine life. He promised that after some years he would be sending them one of his disciples who would give them even more knowledge and benefit.

Arriving in Israel, Jesus went directly to the Jordan where his cousin John, the Master of the Essenes, was baptizing. There his Christhood was revealed to John and those who had “the eyes to see and the ears to hear” (Deuteronomy 29:4). In this way His brief mission to Israel was begun. Its progress and conclusion are well known, so we need not recount it here except to rectify one point.

Misunderstanding becomes a religion

Throughout the Gospels we see that the disciples of Jesus consistently misunderstood his speaking of higher spiritual matters. When he spoke of the sword of wisdom they showed him swords of metal to assure him they were well equipped (Luke 22:36-38). When he warned them against the “leaven” of the Scribes and Pharisees they thought he was complaining that they did not have any bread (Mark 8:15,16). Is it any wonder, then that he said to them: “Perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? How is it that ye do not understand?” (Mark 8:17, 18, 21). Even in the moment of his final departure from them, their words showed that they still believed the kingdom of God was an earthly political entity and not the realm of spirit (Acts 1:6).

This being so, the Gospels themselves must be approached with grave caution and with the awareness that Jesus was not the creator of a new religion, but a messenger of the Eternal Religion he had learned in India. As a priest of the Saint Thomas Christian Church of South India once commented to me: “You cannot understand the teachings of Jesus if you do not know the scriptures of India.” And if you do know the scriptures of India you can see where–however well-intentioned they may have been–the authors of the Gospels often completely missed the point and garbled the words and ideas they heard from Jesus, even attributing to him incidents from the life of Buddha (such as the Widow’s Mite) and mistaking his quotations from the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Dhammapada for doctrines original to him. For example, the opening verse of the Gospel of John, which has been cited through the centuries as proof of the unique character and mission of Jesus, is really a paraphrase of the Vedic verse: “In the beginning was Prajapati, and with Him was the Word.” ( Prajapati vai idam agra asit. Tasya vak dvitiya asit. Krishna Yajurveda, Kathaka Samhita, 12.5, 27.1; Krishna Yajurveda, Kathakapisthala Samhita, 42.1; Jaiminiya Brahmana II, Samaveda, 2244).

Having confused Christ with Jesus, things could only go downhill for them and their followers until the true Gospel of Christ was buried beneath two millennia of confusion and theological debris.

Return to India–not ascension

It is generally supposed that at the end of his ministry in Israel Jesus ascended into heaven. But Saint Matthew and Saint John, the two Evangelists that were eye-witnesses of his departure, do not even mention such a thing, for they knew that he returned to India after departing from them. Saint Mark and Saint Luke, who were not there, simply speak of Jesus being taken up into the heavens. The truth is that he departed to India, though it is not unlikely that he did rise up and “fly” there. This form of travel is not unknown to the Indian yogis.

That Jesus did not leave the world at the age of thirty-three was written about by Saint Irenaeus of Lyon in the second century. He claimed that Jesus lived to be fifty or more years old before leaving the earth, though he also said that Jesus was crucified at the age of thirty-three. This would mean that Jesus lived twenty years after the crucifixion. This assertion of Saint Irenaeus has puzzled Christian scholars for centuries, but if we put it together with other traditions it becomes comprehensible. Basilides of Alexandria, Mani of Persia, and Julian the Emperor said that Jesus had gone to India after His crucifixion.

Why did Jesus return to India? Anna Catharine Emmerich said that in her visions of Jesus’ life she clearly saw that in India Jesus loved the people and was wholeheartedly loved in return. Even more, everyone there understood everything Jesus had to say and teach. In contrast, he was little liked in Israel and virtually no one knew what he was talking about. This would certainly be an inducement to return. There may be another reason. Some contemporary anthropologists and historians believe that Abraham was a member of the Yadava clan of Western India, the family of Krishna, who disappeared from India after Krishna’s departure from this world. Swami Bhaktivedanta, founder of the Hare Krishna movement said the same. If this is so, then Jesus was really returning to the homeland of his ancestors.

And finally, Jesus may have realized that his teachings could only be preserved in the context of Eastern religion and philosophy. An ancient Chinese text on the history of religions and their doctrines, known as The Glass Mirror , had this to say about Lord Isha (Jesus) and His teachings: “Yesu, the teacher and founder of the religion, was born miraculously.…His doctrines did not spread extensively, but survived only in Asia .”

Some Buddhist historical records about Jesus

A contemporary written record of the life and teachings of Jesus in India was discovered in 1887 by the Russian traveler Nicholas Notovitch during his wanderings in Ladakh. He had it translated from the Tibetan text (the original, kept in the Marbour monastery near Lhasa, was in Pali) and, despite intense opposition from “Christians” in Russia and Europe, published it in his book The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ .

As would be expected, the authenticity of Notovitch’s book was attacked and various articles written claiming that the monks of the Himis monastery, where Notovitch had found the manuscript, told investigators that they knew nothing of Notovitch or the text. But both Swami Abhedananda and Swami Trigunatitananda–direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna and preachers of Vedanta in America–went at separate times to the Himis monastery. The monks there not only assured them that Notovitch had spent some time in the monastery as he claimed, they also showed them the manuscript–part of which they translated for Swami Abhedananda, who knew from having read Notovitch’s book that it was indeed the same writing found in The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ . Subsequently, Abhedananda had the English translation of Notovitch’s text printed in India where the “Christian” authorities had until then prohibited both its publication or its importation and sale. Immediately after the publication of the English edition of Notovitch’s book, the British Government in India hired Moslems to go throughout Ladakh and neighboring areas posing as Hindus in search of further manuscripts about Jesus in India. They were to buy the manuscripts and bring them to their employers to be destroyed. Whether this shameful ruse succeeded to any degree we have no knowledge.

Swami Trigunatitananda not only saw the manuscript in Himis, he also was shown two paintings of Jesus. One was a depiction of his conversation with the Samaritan Woman at the well. The other was of Jesus meditating in the Himalayan forest surrounded by wild beasts that were tamed by his very presence. In America the Swami described the painting to an artist who produced the following:

Later, Dr. Nicholas Roerich, the renowned scholar, philosopher, and explorer, traveled in Ladakh and also was shown the manuscript and assured by the monks that Jesus had indeed lived in several Buddhist monasteries during his “lost years.” He wrote about his own viewing of the scrolls in his book The Heart of Asia .

In 1921 the Himis monastery was visited by Henrietta Merrick who, in her book In the World’s Attic tells of learning about the records of Jesus’ life that were kept there. She wrote: “In Leh is the legend of Jesus who is called Issa, and the Monastery at Himis holds precious documents fifteen hundred years old which tell of the days that he passed in Leh where he was joyously received and where he preached.”

In 1939 Elizabeth Caspari visited the Himis monastery. The Abbot showed her some scrolls, which he allowed her to examine, saying: “These books say your Jesus was here.”

Robert Ravicz, a former professor of anthropology at California State University at Northridge, visited Himis in 1975. A Ladakh physician he met there spoke of Jesus’ having been there during His “lost years.”

In the late 1970s Edward Noack, author of Amidst Ice and Nomads in High Asia , and his wife visited the Himis monastery. A monk there told him: “There are manuscripts in our library that describe the journey of Jesus to the East.”

Toward the end of this century the diaries of a Moravian Missionary, Karl Marx, were discovered in which he writes of Notovitch and his finding of scrolls about “Saint Issa.” Marx’s diaries are kept in the Moravian Mission museum. The pages about Notovitch and the scrolls have “disappeared” and their existence is now denied in an attempt to discredit Notovitch, but before their disappearance they were photographed by a European researcher and have been made public.

Notovitch also claimed that the Vatican Library had sixty-three manuscripts from India, China, Egypt, and Arabia–all giving information about Jesus’ life.

In 1812, Meer Izzut-oolah, a Persian, was sent to Ladakh and central Asia by the East India Company. Though religion was not his mission, he observed much and subsequently wrote in his book Travels in Central Asia : “They keep sculptured representations of departed saints, prophets and lamas in their temples for contemplation. Some of these figures are said to represent a certain prophet who is living in the heavens, which would appear to point to Jesus Christ.”

When Swami Abhedananda was in the Himis monastery doing his research on the records of Jesus life in India he was told by the abbot that Jesus had not departed from the earth at the time his apostles saw him ascend, but that he had returned to India where he lived with the Himalayan yogis for many years.

The Nathanamavali

The Bengali educator and patriot, Bipin Chandra Pal, published an autobiographical sketch in which he revealed that Vijay Krishna Goswami, a renowned saint of Bengal and a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, told him about spending time in the Aravalli mountains with a group of extraordinary ascetic monk-yogis known as Nath Yogis. The monks spoke to him about Isha Nath, whom they looked upon as one of the great teachers of their order. When Vijay Krishna expressed interest in this venerable guru, they read out his life as recorded in one of their sacred books, the Nathanamavali . It was the life of him whom the Goswami knew as Jesus the Christ! Regarding the Nath Yogis’ tradition, Sri Pal comments: “It is also their conjecture that Jesus Christ and this Isha Nath are one and the same person.” Perhaps they were the yogis with which Isha lived either before his return to Israel or after his secret return to India after his ascension. Here is the relevant portion of the Nathanamavali:

“Isha Natha came to India at the age of fourteen. After this he returned to his own country and began preaching. Soon after, his brutish and materialistic countrymen conspired again him and had him crucified. After crucifixion, or perhaps even before it, Isha Natha entered samadhi by means of yoga. [Yogis often leave their bodies in samadhi, so it is not amiss to say that Jesus did indeed “die” on the cross.]

“Seeing him thus, the Jews presumed he was dead, and buried him in a tomb. At that very moment however, one of his gurus, the great Chetan Natha, happened to be in profound meditation in the lower reaches of the Himalayas, and he saw in a vision the tortures which Isha Natha was undergoing. He therefore made his body lighter than air and passed over to the land of Israel.

“The day of his arrival was marked with thunder and lightning, for the gods were angry with the Jews, and the whole world trembled. When Chetan Natha arrived, he took the body of Isha Natha from the tomb, woke him from his samadhi, and later led him off to the sacred land of the Aryans. Isha Natha then established an ashram in the lower regions of the Himalayas and he established the cult of the lingam there.”“The cult of the lingam” refers to the Shaivite branch of Hinduism. We will speak more on that later.

This assertion is supported by two relics of Jesus which are presently found in Kashmir. One is his staff, which is kept in the monastery of Aish-Muqan and is made accessible to the public in times of public catastrophe such as floods or epidemics. The other is the Stone of Moses–a Shiva linga that had belonged to Moses and which Jesus brought to Kashmir. This linga is kept in the Shiva temple at Bijbehara in Kashmir. One hundred and eight pounds in weight, if eleven people put one finger on the stone and recite the bija mantra “Ka” over and over, it will rise three feet or so into the air and remain suspended as long as the recitation continues. “Shiva” means one who is auspicious and gives blessings and happiness. In ancient Sanskrit the word ka means to please and to satisfy–that which Shiva does for His worshippers.

I have met two people who have “raised the Stone of Moses.” One of them said that the number required to raise the stone relates to their spiritual development–that he had raised it with only three others.

The Bhavishya Maha Purana

One ancient book of Kashmiri history, the Bhavishya Maha Purana , gives the following account of the meeting of a king of Kashmir with Jesus sometime after the middle of the first century:

“When the king of the Sakas came to the Himalayas, he saw a dignified person of golden complexion wearing a long white robe. Astonished to see this foreigner, he asked, ‘Who are you?’ The dignified person replied in a pleasant manner: ‘Know me as Son of God [Isha Putram], or Born of a Virgin [Kumarigarbhasangbhawam]. Being given to truth and penances, I preached the Dharma to the mlecchas.…O King, I hail from a land far away, where there is no truth, and evil knows no limits. I appeared in the country of the mlecchas as Isha Masiha [Jesus Messiah/Christ] and I suffered at their hands. For I said unto them, ‘“Remove all mental and bodily impurities. Remember the Name of our Lord God. Meditate upon Him Whose abode is in the center of the sun.”’ There in the land of mleccha darkness, I taught love, truth, and purity of heart. I asked human beings to serve the Lord. But I suffered at the hands of the wicked and the guilty. In truth, O King, all power rests with the Lord, Who is in the center of the sun. And the elements, and the cosmos, and the sun, and God Himself, are forever. Perfect, pure, and blissful, God is always in my heart. Thus my Name has been established as Isha Masiha.’ After having heard the pious words from the lips of this distinguished person, the king felt peaceful, made obeisance to him, and returned” ( Bhavishya Maha Purana 3.2.9-31. The word mleccha means a foreigner, a non-Indian.)

Another Kashmiri history, the Rajatarangini , written in 1148 A.D., says that a great saint named Issana lived at Issabar on the bank of Dal Lake and had many disciples, one of which he raised from the dead.

When teaching in Israel, Jesus told the people: “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold” (John 10:16), speaking of his Eastern disciples. For when Jesus came to the Jordan at the beginning of his ministry, he had spent more years of his life in India than in Israel. And he returned there for the remainder of his life, because he was a spiritual son of India–the Christ of India.

As Swami Sivananda wrote in Lives of Saints : “[Lord Jesus] disappeared at the ages of thirteen and reappeared in his thirty-first year. During this period, from his thirteenth to his thirty-first year, he came to India and practiced Yoga.…Jesus left Jerusalem and reached the land of Indus in the company of merchants. He visited Varanasi, Rajgriha and other places in India. He spent several years in Hindustan. Jesus lived like a Hindu or a Buddhist monk, a life of burning renunciation and dispassion. He assimilated the ideals, precepts and principles of Hinduism. Christianity is modified Hinduism only, which was suitable for those people who lived in the period of Christ. Really speaking, Jesus was a child of the soil of India only. That is the reason why there is so much of similarity between his teachings and the teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism.”

Master and disciple

In India it is often said that “the father is born again in the son.” This ancient adage applies also to the worthy disciple–in him the master continues his work. This being so, the character and mission of Jesus the Christ of India can be traced in that of his apostle Thomas. Thomas is a nickname derived from the Syrian (Aramaic) word t’omo , which means twin. The Apostle’s true name was Judas, as is recorded in the ancient Syriac Gospel texts, but it was not used in the Gospels so he would neither bear the name of the Betrayer nor be mistakenly identified with him by those who would only hear them read.

Saint Thomas the Apostle in India

After the departure of Jesus from Israel and the empowerment bestowed on the Apostles at Pentecost, it was decided that they would separate and go throughout the Mediterranean regions teaching those who sought the revelation of their own Christhood. Accordingly, eleven of the Twelve Apostles and many of the Seventy determined through divination where they should go and preach the Good News of Christ.

One alone did not participate in this, and that was Judas Thomas, called “the Twin.” His assignment had been given him by Jesus himself. Thomas was to depart for India where he would live with Jesus and those great masters who had taught Jesus before him. For Jesus had destined him for a work completely unlike that of the other Apostles. He was indeed to become the “twin” of his Master, perhaps the most true in his likeness to Jesus both inwardly and outwardly. (It is a matter of record that Judas Thomas was also physically identical to Jesus. This was unusual but not impossible or even unknown, since he was a cousin of Jesus–as were most of the Apostles.)

In the forty days between his resurrection and his leaving Israel Jesus had fully outlined to the apostles and disciples how they should teach others who would also spiritually be his disciples through them. But in India Thomas was to teach and follow the purest Arya Dharma, as had Jesus before him.

So overwhelming did his task seem to Saint Thomas that he tried to avoid this mission. Yet it was not long before a government official from India came to Israel to find an architect for his king, who wished a palace built by an artisan from the land of the renowned Hiram Abiff, whose construction of the Temple of Solomon was known throughout the world. Jesus manifested in a physical body and sold Saint Thomas to the man as a slave, giving him a signed document to that effect. When confronted with this document, Saint Thomas abandoned his resistance and left for India where he did in truth follow the steps of his Master and become his “twin” in all things.

In the life of Saint Thomas written by the Christian Gnostic Bardaisan based on letters written by Saint Thomas, perhaps to his Persian disciples, he is referred to as: “Twin brother of Christ, apostle of the Highest who shares in the knowledge of the hidden word of Christ, recipient of His secret pronouncements.” Regarding the records of Jesus’ life that he found in the Himis monastery, Notovitch wrote this interesting remark in relation to Saint Thomas: “[The scrolls] may have actually been spoken by St. Thomas, historical sketches having been traced by his own hand or under his direction.”

In the Himalayas Saint Thomas was reunited with Jesus until he received the inner call to return to “the West” for the impending departure of the Virgin Mary from this earthly life. Just as he had been separated from his brother apostles for a special mission, so he was in the final hour of the Virgin’s life. For he did not reach Ephesus in time to be present at her going forth from the body, but only came there on foot the third day after her burial. As he was approaching her tomb unawares, he was astounded to see her radiant living body emerge from the stone sepulchre and ascend. Realizing that she had finished her span of life without his presence, and fearing that he would never see her divine form again, he cried out to her in anguish of heart, imploring her not to leave him desolate. Looking upon him with loving tenderness, the Virgin took from her waist the belt she habitually wore and threw it down to him with words of blessing.

Carrying the precious relic of her belt, Saint Thomas hastened into Ephesus and announced to the grieving apostles and all those gathered in the Mother’s house that she, too, was risen from the dead. Whereas he had doubted the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and had received proof of its reality by touching the resurrected body of his Lord, now it was Thomas who gave physical evidence that Mary, too, was “alive for evermore” (Revelation 1:18).

Saint Thomas took the Virgin Mother’s belt with him to India, and there it became the most valued treasure of his disciples, whose descendants in time came to be known as “Saint Thomas Christians.” A few centuries ago, in times of upheaval in India, it was taken into Syria, where during subsequent troubles in that country it disappeared. About thirty years ago the present head of the Syrian Jacobite Church, Patriarch Zachariah, felt an intense urge to find the belt, and began studying the ancient records concerning it. Noticing that one of the handwritten books he consulted had an unusually thick binding, he was inspired with the thought that the belt might be hidden there. Cutting it open, he found the prize, whose simple touch began to work great miracles. Most of the belt has been returned to India and enshrined in a great church where every Saturday (the day sacred to the worship of the Mother aspect of God in Hinduism) thousands of Christians, Hindus, and Moslems gather for the sacred Eucharist (Qurbana) and prayers to the Virgin. The miracles granted are beyond number. When I visited the shrine one Saturday as the guest of its administrator, Bishop Gregorios–who preached on the subject of the concept of Mahashakti (Supreme Power: the Divine Feminine) in Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam–I witnessed this wonderful demonstration that it is worship and not theologizing that can unite the adherents of all religions in love and harmony. Bishop Gregorios also spoke of Mahashakti being the same as the Holy Spirit, and the Virgin Mary as a perfect reflection of the Holy Spirit.

Before returning to India for the fulfillment of his commission from Jesus, Saint Thomas went to visit the Essene communities of Israel, urging that some of them come with him to India to both escape the imminent destruction by the Romans and to help him in his spiritual work. Many did so, and a company of Essenes headed by Saint Thomas arrived in South India (Kerala) in 52 A.D. These Essenes started several villages in the same area. At the end of the twentieth century those sites were excavated and many coins like those found in the Qumran caves were unearthed.

A Hindu Brahmin family near the town of Palur, Kerala, has a document of family history wherein it is written: “In the Kali year 3153 [52 A.D.] the foreigner Thomas Sannyasi came to our village and preached there.” It is noteworthy that Saint Thomas is described as a Hindu monk (sannyasi), which he would have to have been if he truly followed in the steps of Jesus.

Ancient records say that frequently Jesus was seen in South India and mistaken for Saint Thomas. He and Saint Thomas were sometimes seen speaking together. Apparently Jesus occasionally came down from his Himalayan abode to visit Saint Thomas and supervise his work.

The disciples of Saint Thomas

By their own preference the disciples of Saint Thomas were usually referred to in India as “Ishannis.” This means “of Isha,” just as Lutheran means “of Luther.” Although Jesus’ Aramaic name was Yeshua, in India he was known as Isha. Perhaps Ishanni could awkwardly, but accurately, be translated “Jesusites” or “Isha-ites.” Some Indian scholars such as Swami Abhedananda make the conjecture that either Ishanni is actually a derivation of Essene (Essenees), or that the Essenes themselves were called Ishannis, “Isha” in their case being a reference to God “the Lord.” This would certainly reveal their Indian spiritual roots.

In his commentary on the Gospels, Paramhansa Yogananda wrote: “It is important to note the difference between Jesus the man and Jesus the Christ. Jesus was the name of the man. The Sanskrit origin of this name is found in the word ‘Isha,’ or Lord of Creation. Mispronounced by travelers in many lands, and being used in many different languages, the word ‘Jesus’ came to be used in place of Isha.” This very sentiment was spoken long before by Saint Thomas himself. According to The Acts of Thomas , when King Mazdai, who would eventually have him martyred, asked Saint Thomas: “Who is thy master? And what is his name?” Saint Thomas answered: “Thou art not able to hear His true Name now at this time, but the Name that is given to Him is Jesus the Messiah”–that is, Jesus Christ (Yeshua Messiah). After the death of Saint Thomas his murderer, King Mazdai, became converted to the Ishanni Marga (Ishanni Way), and it was then that he learned the true Name, Isha, which he had not been qualified to even hear beforehand.

Nearly all those who accepted the teachings of Saint Thomas were devout Brahmins of the highest level (Nambudiri and Nair) who continued their religious observances, but did so according to the principles Isha and Saint Thomas had received as disciples of the masters. Acknowledging this fact, Cardinal Eugene Tisserant wrote in Eastern Christianity in India : “Christianity was introduced in Malabar [Kerala] and accepted spontaneously without changing the indigenous character of the inhabitants.” So strict and correct were they in their Brahminical character and observance that they were frequently asked by the other Hindus to perform the rites of purification ( shuddhi karanam ) for defiled objects and even of Hindu temples. Even today, some Saint Thomas Christians wear the sacred thread ( yajnopavita ) that is the distinctive mark of Hindu Brahmins. But all the Saint Thomas Christians are considered Brahmins by contemporary Hindu society.

Ancient Indian historical records sometimes refer to the Ishannis as Naassenes. This may be a corruption of “Essene” but in the ancient Gnostic Christian texts discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, we find the term “Nazoreans,” so the Saint Thomas Christian Essenes must also have used it in referring to themselves. So this would indicate their esoteric Christian character and affinity with those esoteric Christians of Egypt–most of whom were Essenes or descendants of Essenes. Regarding the Essenes, Edersheim further wrote that in later times “the general movement had passed beyond the bounds of Judaism, and appeared in some forms of the Gnostic heresy.”

Because of the great number of Ishanni (Saint Thomas) Christians in the southernmost state of Kerala, it is sometimes called “the country of the Nazaranis” even today. The daily train from Madras to Kerala is known as “the Nazarani Express.” When the Pope of Rome wrote a letter to the Ishannis in the fourteenth century he addressed them as “the Nazarani Christians.” Considering the spiritual character of the Ishannis this expression could mean either that they were “Nazarenes”–followers of Jesus of Nazareth–or that because of their ascetic character and usual observance of celibacy they were Nazarites–the term used for semi-monastic ascetics among the Hebrews as outlined in the sixth chapter of the book of Numbers. Whatever the derivation, this was definitely a name sometimes used in reference to themselves. In the book of Acts it is said of Saint Paul by his accusers that he was “a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes” (Acts 24:5).

The Ishannis had much in common with both Hindus and Buddhists. In fact, Tamil historical records contemporaneous with Saint Thomas say that he taught “a Buddhist religion.” This was no doubt because of Saint Thomas’ intense monastic and philosophic nature which contrasted with the usual form of Hinduism at that time which was extremely bound up in external rituals and the use of religion to attain utterly materialistic goals.

The Ishanni Sampradaya

A sampradaya is a lineage of spiritual teaching stemming from an enlightened teacher, such as the Shankara Sampradaya, Ramanuja Sampradaya, Madhavacharya Sampradaya, or according to the form of God they particularly worship such as the Shaivite, Vaishnava, Shakta, or Ganapatya sampradayas.

Externally the Saint Thomas Christians were an integral part of Vedic, or Aryan, religion (dharma). Even though they would have primarily described themselves as Ishannis, they would have meant it in the sense of a sampradaya within Sanatana Dharma, not a separate religion. Whatever distinctive customs a sampradaya might possess, they would all consider themselves to be fundamentally followers of Sanatana Dharma, the religion based on the Vedas and the teachings of the vedic seers known as rishis. And the majority of their customs and spiritual doctrines would be absolutely identical and harmonious with one another. This is the trait that most horrified and infuriated the “Christians” from outside when they encountered the Ishannis.

The Ishannis never referred to themselves as Christians. Among themselves and with other Indians they used Ishanni in reference to themselves. After their “discovery” by European Christians they began to call themselves “Saint Thomas Christians” to make their spiritual nature comprehensible to them and also to affirm that their form of the teachings of Jesus (Isha) was their heritage from the Apostle Thomas himself and was positively to be distinguished from the Petrine (Roman Catholic) or Pauline (Eastern Orthodox or Protestant) forms of Christianity.

Although they had friendly interchange with the Eastern Christians of Persia, Syria, and Iraq, they were insistent upon their distinction from them, as well. Bar-Hebraeus, an early Syrian Christian writer, records that when Christians from Persia visited India the Ishannis told them: “We are the disciples of Saint Thomas.” It was those Persians who created the phrase “Saint Thomas Christians” and first began to use it. And that it why I am sometimes using that appellation now.

Because there were profound ties between India and Persia–many Persians being followers of Vedic Religion–the Saint Thomas Christians (Ishannis) always considered themselves brethren of the Persian Christians, who were of the Chaldean tradition which after the destruction of Christianity in Persia became centered in Iraq. Both the Persian and Iraqi Christians were condemned as heretics by the other churches of East and West since they did not believe that Jesus Christ was God in the sense of being an incarnation of one of the Trinity. Rather, they believed that he had begun as a man just like us and had attained the status of Christ–Son of God–as could (and should) all Christians.

The Ishannis believed this as well, and they, too, were called heretics by the Western Christians who persecuted them. Just as modern “Christians” ignore the fact that reincarnation is an orthodox Jewish belief, so they ignore that there exist two churches–one founded by the Apostle Thomas in India and the other founded by the Apostle Thaddeus in Iraq–with a continuous history from the Apostolic age that do not believe in the Mediterranean doctrine of Jesus being the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity.

The fact that the Ishannis did not originally use the expression “Christian” underscores their fundamental difference from the Mediterranean Christianity derived from the other Apostles. In the last century or so, mostly as a result of pressure from the latterly mentioned Christians of the East, for the sake of expedience the titles of “Indian Orthodox Christians” and “Indian Orthodox Church” have become current for external use.

Again, the Ishanni Sampradaya should not be equated or confused with the Christian religion as it developed in the Mediterranean world and is now embodied in the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches. In modern times, to give something of an idea of its character to those who know only these just-mentioned churches, it is also called “Saint Thomas Christianity.” But it is not a “church.” Rather it is a sampradaya–spiritual current or movement–within the Vedic Religion of India that is commonly (though somewhat inaccurately) called Hinduism. In other words, Ishannis are not Christians in the generally accepted sense, though they are followers of Sri Isha Deva. Rather, they are followers of the Sanatana Dharma, the religion of India.

Regarding this, Father Jacob Kurian, teacher of theology at the Kottayam seminary in Kerala, had this to say to Christine Chaillot, the author of The Malankara Orthodox Church : “We should feel that we have an Indian role to play and we should present to the world a specific picture of our church. We cherish so much the [fact] that we could build our Christian tradition on the foundations of the Sanatana Dharma . Of course, there is the foundation laid by Christ and the Apostles and the long spiritual tradition of Christianity. But the theological tradition of the Indian Church has to be in line with the Indian philosophical tradition, which is not necessarily only the Hindu one, but also that of the Buddhists, the Jains and other non-Christian traditions which also contribute to the Indian philosophical tradition. So we have to take this into consideration together with the Eastern Orthodox spirituality and theology. We want to present to the world a model of Christianity that has lived for the last twenty centuries in a tradition of pluralism, but at the same time we want to keep the central elements of Orthodox Christian spirituality and doctrinal integrity.…When Christians adopt this attitude of Sanatana Dharma which incorporates all truth, they will be able to overcome all anxiety regarding syncretism”–an anxiety not on the part of the Saint Thomas Christians but on the part of those who simply do not understand their historical and spiritual character any more than they understand the historical and spiritual character of Isha Masiha, the Christ of India, the spiritual heir of the Vedic Rishis and Gautama Buddha, whose teachings contain quotations from the Veda, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Dhammapada.

History of the Ishanni Sampradaya

In Mylapore near modern Madras, the Apostle Thomas was pierced with a lance on December 19, 72 A.D., but he did not die until December 21. He was buried nearby, and the earth from his tomb worked many miracles. In 1292 Marco Polo visited his tomb and took some of the red-colored earth from there. Upon his return to Venice he healed many people with it according to his own testimony.

The spiritual family of Saint Thomas continued and grew. Just before his martyrdom, King Mazdai said to him: “I have not been in haste to destroy thee, but have had patience with thee; and thou hast added to thy deeds, and thy sorceries are spoken of through the whole country. But I will do unto thee so that they shall accompany thee and go along with thee, and that our country shall be relieved of them.” To this Saint Thomas answered: “These ‘sorceries,’ which thou sayest shall accompany me, shall never fail from this place .” And so it has been seen to be. The Ishanni Sampradaya spread throughout India, though never of large numbers. It is remarkable, but historical records indicate that there was no region of India in which the Ishannis were not represented, though they were mostly in South India. In 1430, Nicholas di Condi in writing of his travels in India said that the Ishannis “are scattered over India like the Jews with us.”

Except for the vicissitudes that all societies endure, the Ishannis lived in complete peace, enjoying spiritual interchange with various Eastern Christian churches, though jealously maintaining their autonomy and distinctive ways.

More than one unsuccessful attempt was made in the early centuries by the Mediterranean Christians to establish their form of Christianity in India. At the coming of the Europeans in large numbers, however, this began to change, culminating in a full-scale persecution by the Portuguese colonialists, who first came to India in 1498. Christians from Europe were always received in total friendship by the Christians of Saint Thomas and often given places to live. In many instances the Ishannis interceded with the local rulers in gaining residency and trade permissions for the Europeans. But sadly, on the part of the opportunistic Europeans there was no such sincere openness, and as soon as any political ascendancy was attained, pressure would be brought to bear on the Ishannis to convert to the Christianity of the Westerners.

This came to an appalling climax in the last year of the sixteenth century when the Portuguese Roman Catholic Archbishop of Goa, Alexius Menezes, summoned all the Ishanni clergy and a considerable number of laymen to the town of Diamper to supposedly bring peace and reconciliation between the two churches. In response one hundred fifty-three priests and about six hundred and sixty laymen attended. The Ishannis were asked to bring all their liturgical and theological texts–especially their ancient texts containing the teachings of Saint Thomas–so they could be “examined.” Believing that the Europeans wanted to sincerely discover the apostolic traditions of Saint Thomas (and, therefore, of Jesus), they did so. Their chagrin cannot be described when they found themselves surrounded by Portuguese soldiers who forced them at gunpoint to surrender their precious manuscripts, which were then burned in their presence at the order of the Archbishop. Because of this “It is not possible to write a complete history of the Christians in South-West India, because the ancient documents of their churches were destroyed by fire at the Synod of Diamper in 1599,” as Tisserant also admits.

“What history will not willingly forgive is the literary holocaust which was carried out on the authority of this decree, when all books that could be laid hands on were consigned to the flames. It was comparable in many ways with the vandalism of Omar, who by similar wanton destruction ordered the noble library of Alexandria to be consumed by flames. The Syrian Christians of today believe that because of this cruel decree, no records are available with them to recover and establish beyond all dispute their past Church history. None will deny that there is some substance in this belief” (S. G. Pothen, The Syrian Christians of Kerala ).

Among the books burned were many copies of three books. Two of them, The Book of Charms and The Ring of Solomon , were on Christian magic. The third was a book on esoteric healing and the making of amulets from gems and herbs (as the Essenes had also done) called The Medicine of the Persians . They now exist only as nearly-forgotten names.

Not only were the books brought to Diamper destroyed, Archbishop Menezes went from church to church searching for “bad” books and burning entire libraries in many places–even in areas where the Portuguese had no political power whatsoever. The liturgical texts containing the rites of the Chaldean tradition were especially sought out and destroyed because they revealed how utterly the other churches had departed from the original ways of Christianity, and because they expressed the correct view of Isha as a Son of God by attainment and not as the creator God incarnate as the Mediterranean Christians held. A list of forbidden books was made at Diamper, and any who read or listened to them being read were condemned out of hand.

Over the course of the next days the Archbishop also engaged in harangues to “correct” the ways of the Ishannis and bring them into conformity with those of “the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic See of Rome.” The Portuguese even forced the Christians of Saint Thomas to change the way they made the Sign of the Cross (right to left) to the way the Western Christians had only recently themselves come to do it (left to right).

The official acts of the Synod particularly inveighed against the Ishannis who taught school and made provisions for the religious instructions of the students in their own religions, even keeping the images of Hindu deities in the schools so the students could learn and perform their daily worship. Those who sent their children to schools taught by Hindus where they, too, worshipped the deities were declared excommunicated, and the children were forbidden to enter a church.

Since participation in “idolatrous” worship and the making of offerings in Hindu temples was the norm for the Ishannis–since they were Hindus–that, too, was soundly castigated.

Especially denounced was the use of Hindu rites of exorcism by the Ishanni priests, as well as other “idolatrous” and “superstitious” Vedic rituals. Priests who dared to have themselves registered as Nair Brahmins were condemned, not for a religious reason, but because it supposedly made them liable to be called up for military service.

Saint Thomas had given the Ishannis a book which they used for divination to obtain guidance in the making of important decisions and to determine the future. This was a special target of the Portuguese, who also railed against the use of Hindu diviners by the Ishannis, and all copies of this invaluable document were consigned to the flames of bigotry. (The Saint Thomas Christians still use divination of various sorts.)

The Ishannis considered astrology a legitimate means of forecast and guidance, and used it accordingly. There were considered to be especially skilled in determining astrologically what days and times were the most favorable for marriage and the starting of journeys or any other type of endeavor. In David Daniel’s book The Orthodox Church of India , published and sold by the Orthodox Church in India, we find this: “The Saint Thomas Christians are accustomed to consult astrologers to ascertain the auspicious moment for setting out for any purpose, e.g., for a journey, a wedding, etc. Drawing horoscopes in not uncommon amongst them.” Many Saint Thomas Christian priests are astrologers.

Oddly, condemnation was even pronounced against the Ishannis’ laudable custom of adopting as many orphans as they could so they would not be homeless. This was a custom of the Essenes, also.

As it is the Hindu custom to name their children after deities, the Ishannis naturally were accustomed to sometimes name their male children “Isha.” This–along with their habit of giving Old Testament names, as well–was violently censured by the Portuguese. They were also condemned for piercing their ears and taking too many baths!

Hardly any of the Ishannis could even understand the language in which all this was done, and they were forced through cajolery and threats to sign documents of concurrence with all that had taken place–these documents being represented to them as nothing more than statements that they had been present at the gathering. Before sending them to Rome, Archbishop Menezes interpolated many items into the signed documents to make it appear that the Ishannis had agreed to things either not actually spoken about or that were firmly resisted by them when they were brought up.

The Synod of Diamper did have one positive effect, though a backhanded one. By reading the fulminations against the “pagan” ways of the Ishannis and the official condemnations of them we are able to establish that the Ishannis were indeed practicing Hindu Brahmins who worshipped Isha but considered the other segments of Hinduism–as well as the other religions of the world–to be equally viable in the search for God.

Finally, “approved” Syriac liturgical texts were issued to the clergy along with other written directives, and they departed in a daze to their flocks, accompanied by Portuguese “assistants” who were to make sure that they carried out the demands of the Europeans.

When the Jesuits that were present at the Diamper assembly officially objected to the outrageous actions of Archbishop Menezes, he coolly remarked that “he behaved like that just to show the way of salvation to the assembled without hindrance.” Cardinal Eugene Tisserant was apparently of the same mentality when, in 1957, he wrote in Eastern Christianity in India : “Instead of destroying the existing Syriac manuscripts, he [Archbishop Menezes] could have had them corrected, but his method was that of certainty, so that any future heresy could be more easily averted.”

Thus was “the beginning of sorrows” that were to continue for nearly a century. Slowly the ways of “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” were eroded, though in the rural and mountainous areas not prosperous enough to attract the rapacious attention of the Portuguese clerics and traders little changes occurred.

Friendly clergy from the Syriac-speaking Orthodox Churches who came to visit their Indian brothers were arrested and deported or imprisoned. (The fact that these “Syrians” made no objections to the Ishannis’ “Hindu” character indicates that in earlier centuries they themselves held comparable or compatible ideas or else considered them neither heretical nor of any spiritual detriment.) Some were actually taken to Portugal and Rome and subjected to “interrogation” by the Inquisition. A few were burned to death for heresy. Others vanished forever. Atrocities committed against the Indian Christians were not unknown, though never officially sanctioned by the invaders–a common tactic of tyrants.

In 1653, at the order of Portuguese ecclesiastics, a Syrian bishop, who had come to find out why communication with the Ishannis had been so long in abeyance, was imprisoned. When the Ishannis learned of this outrage they came in thousands to protest. The bishop was then smuggled out of the prison and eventually murdered. This so exasperated the Ishannis that many thousands of them assembled at the church in Mattanchery and swore on the Coonan Cross the solemn vow that they would no longer have any association whatsoever with the Portuguese or their “Petrine” religion. Happily, this was successful, and the yoke of spiritual bondage was thrown off permanently. Despite skirmishes with the Europeans who were determined to re-impose their enslavement, the Ishannis managed to keep their spiritual integrity, protected by the Hindu rulers from further persecution.

It is tragically true that unworthy friendship is often more treacherous than enmity, and so it proved to be in the nineteenth century when the Protestant missionaries (mostly Church of England) managed to exert great influence over the Ishannis and bring about the abandonment of many valued traditions and beliefs. In time this form of invasion was repulsed to some degree, but not until many had forsaken the ways of their ancestors and embraced the minimal religion of the missionaries. In this way both Catholic and Protestant Europe managed to wreak undeniable and profound damage on the Ishanni Sampradaya.

I saw the effects of this for myself when speaking at a church meeting in Niranam where Saint Thomas had founded the congregation. (Several examples of his woodwork–especially carvings in traditional Hindu temple style–were shown to me.) During my talk, I felt so galled by not being able to speak freely of the higher, esoteric aspects of religion that I decided to break loose and say what I pleased, and hang the consequences. At the far back many very elderly men and women were sitting, their heads bowed down in abject boredom and disinterest. But when I had spoken just a few sentences of real Christian (Hindu-Ishanni) belief, they all began looking eagerly at me, smiling, nodding, and gesturing to one another in approval. At the end they all surged forward to express their appreciation of my talk. It was evident that as children they had heard the very things I was now speaking, but it had been a long and dreary time since those truths had been publicly expressed.

We can confidently say that in reality the Ishanni Sampradaya, in its fidelity to its heritage from the Lord Isha and Saint Thomas, was a legitimate segment (sampradaya) of Vedic Religion (Hinduism), vastly differing from what is commonly known as Christianity. This is why Cardinal Tisserant could (uncomprehendingly) write: “It does not seem, however, that the Indian Christians were ever greatly concerned with the great Christological disputes of bygone days.” That was because the doctrinal controversies, alterations, and aberrations of Mediterranean Christianity meant nothing to them as followers of Arya Dharma according to the teachings of Isha and Saint Thomas. History substantiates this, so a brief look should suffice.

The witness of history

When, because of the movement of population, the Ishanni temples became Hindu temples, the Ishanni icons remained in those temples and were worshipped by the Hindus along with the other images. Even more revealing was the discovery in 1925 and 1926 of scores of ancient stones at Kodiveri upon which are engraved symbols of the various Hindu sampradayas, including those of the Ishannis. (At Tangste, in Ladakh, there are also large stone boulders upon which crosses have been carved.) It is a matter of historical record (sometimes by European Christians who were displeased) that as a matter of course the other Hindus contributed money and labor for the building of Ishanni temples and the Ishannis did the same when other types of Hindu temples were built. This was because they were of one religion.

The traditions of the Ishannis say that Saint Thomas built a temple in Nilackal, presently a completely deserted area. Recent excavations in the area of Nilackal have revealed that a kind of Hindu temple city existed there at the time of Saint Thomas and that the Ishanni temple had been built within the compound of the Mahadeva (Shiva) temple as a subsidiary temple. This demonstrates that Saint Thomas and his followers were viewed as a Shaivite sampradaya (sect) of Hinduism. (Many Saint Thomas Christians still wear rudraksha beads, a mark of worshippers of Shiva.) However, at the time of Jesus and Saint Thomas Shaivism was something very different from what it is now in India. “Shiva” did not mean the mythological ascetic with matted hair, smeared with ashes, riding on a bull, and married to the daughter of King Himalaya. “Shiva,” which literally means “He Who is All Bliss and the Giver of Happiness,” was considered a name of the Absolute Being and often carried the connotation of God as Infinite Light. It was not the name of a “god.” Originally Shaivism was that philosophy which now is called Advaita Vedanta, and Yoga was its prime characteristic.

In 345 A.D., when the ruler of Carnellur gave the suburb of Muziris to the Ishannis for their exclusive use, they renamed it Mahadevar Pattanam , the City of Mahadeva (Shiva). The king laid the first brick for the Ishanni temple that was built there, and upon its completion he led the first service of prayers to be conducted there. This would not have been done if the Ishannis were not themselves Hindus. Eventually an Ishanni kingdom, with Mahadevar Pattanam as its capital, was established. At Nilamperur, near the site of a Hindu temple, the effigy of a king wearing a pectoral cross was unearthed at the end of the last century. In the north, in the area traditionally known as “the Hindu Kush” a coin from the first century was found depicting the local raja riding a horse and carrying a cross in his hand.

Whenever a child reached the age of three years the Ishannis always had a Brahmin pandit come to their home and symbolically begin his formal education by guiding the child’s fingers to trace the mantra Om Sri Ganapataye Namah –“I bow to Lord Ganesha”–in a plate of rice before which a ghee lamp was burning that had previously been worshipped as an emblem of the goddess Saraswati. This is still the custom among the Saint Thomas Christians, but the mantra is now usually Hari Sri Ganapataye Namah . Ganesha is the Hindu deity that is depicted with the head of an elephant. He is always worshipped before any undertaking, including, in this instance, the beginning of education. Hari is a name of the god Vishnu, the Preserver in the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. It is interesting that many of the very old Ishanni temples in South India have golden “dharma towers” in front of them just like those in the temples of Vishnu.

In The Orthodox Church of India the author, David Daniel, himself a Saint Thomas Christian, writes: “The festivals in Hindu temples and Christian Churches are often festivals of the entire village community. A church procession, for example, will have the same familiar music played in Hindu temples, the same type of lace silken umbrellas, flags and festoon, decorated elephants and ear-breaking beating of drums and noise of crackers. The festivals invariably end with remarkable displays of fireworks in the night.” And he concludes, “Needless to say, the Saint Thomas Christians have assimilated many of the social customs and practices of the land and are indistinguishable as an entity in the society .”

The crowning glory of Saint Thomas Christianity was the great bishop-saint Gregorios of Parumala who lived in the nineteenth century. Every days thousands of pilgrims of all religions visit his island-shrine in Parumala. I can bear witness that the moment you enter the boundaries of the island you step into another world altogether, and that the room where he left his body is one of the most spiritually powerful places I have ever been. (Fortunately I was able to meditate there for some time.) In America I was fortunate enough to meet and remarkable yogi and Hindu scholar, Sri Nandu Menon. He told me that although his uncles were strictly traditional Hindu Brahmins, Saint Gregorios was their best friend who spent a great deal of time with them in spiritual discussions. Nanduji told me that Saint Gregorios told his uncles that he considered his mission in life was to bring about the restoration of three essential teachings to the Saint Thomas Christian Church: 1) the belief in karma; 2) the belief in reincarnation; and 3) the belief that God and the individual spirit-Self are one.

Some Distinctive Traits of the Ishanni Sampradaya

A great number of the Ishanni Sampradaya’s characteristics have already been discussed, but a few more should be mentioned to help us better understand the Ishanni Sampradaya.

1. Ishannis were vegetarians, abstaining absolutely from meat, fish, and eggs–as well as from alcohol–in any form or quantity. (In 1604, many Ishannis of Cranganore fled into the hills to escape being forced by the Western missionaries to eat fish.)

2. Like the Essenes, Ishannis usually interpreted the Bible as allegory, believing that even if actual historical events are recorded there, they were meant to be symbols of mystical and esoteric principles. This is especially true of the Gospels, Jesus’ life being looked upon as a mystery drama outlining the journey of the soul to perfection. The Old Testament is also part of that drama, showing the progress of the soul known as Adam to its perfection as Jesus the Messiah. The Old Testament past lives of Jesus were: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Elisha, and Isaiah. (Since the ninth life of perfection was that of Isha, the number nine was particularly sacred to Ishannis.) Thus the entire Bible is at its core the history of one person, all the rest of the material being adjuncts for its understanding.

Ishannis considered that much of both the Old and New Testament texts had been altered to suit the exoteric ways and prejudices of Judaism and Mediterranean Christianity. Moreover, some of the books included in the present-day Bibles were considered of negligible value, if not altogether valueless. (Saint Paul and the other Apostles simply did not come into the picture for the Ishannis.) On the other hand, the Ishannis accepted many “apocryphal” books about the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary as valid history–though not holy scripture–and used them accordingly.

Ishanni tradition says that when Saint Thomas returned to India with some of the Essenes from Qumran he brought an Aramaic text of the Gospel of Saint Matthew which had been given him by the evangelist. The other three New Testament Gospels were not considered to be as authoritative as that of Saint Matthew, and many Ishannis would used no other as a source for Jesus’ teachings. (The Saint Thomas Christians today possess Aramaic copies of all four Gospels that are the oldest texts of the Gospels in existence, antedating all known Greek texts.)

Most importantly, no text was considered authoritative that conflicted with the fundamental scriptures of Arya Dharma and the six orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy. This was because Jesus was considered to have been a teacher of the purest Vedic Religion, as was Saint Thomas, his twin. As I mentioned earlier, one Saint Thomas Christian priest from Kerala once remarked to me: “You cannot understand the teachings of Christ unless you know the scriptures of India.” What about the so-called Gospel of Thomas? It has been conjectured that it was compiled by the Ishannis after Saint Thomas’ death. But any copies must have been burnt by the Portuguese. Whether the Coptic text is an accurate translation from the Indian text cannot be known. But the same rule applies to it as to the Bible and, for that matter, to the sacred writings of any religion.

3. Ishannis held that the twin laws of karma and rebirth were the fundamental truths about human existence, and that without them no religious or personal philosophy can be either true or viable.

4. Ishannis believed that there are three eternal things: God (Parameshwara), the individual souls (jivas), and primordial matter (pradhana or mulaprakriti). These three are the real Father, Son(s), and Holy Spirit (Mahashakti)–or: Pita, Putra, and Prakriti. From the standpoint of God these three are one in an incomprehensible manner. From the standpoint of the individual soul these three are distinct from one another.

5. For Ishannis the means by which the state of union with God could be attained by them were the classical samskaras (initiatory and sacramental rites) of Hinduism and the traditions of ancient Shaivism, which included Yoga. They also had their own forms of the Christian Sacraments as Saint Thomas had transmitted to them. These, too, perished in the persecutors’ fires, so they adopted the rituals of the Iraqi and Syrian churches. Among the present-day Saint Thomas Christians there are those who wish to discontinue them and return to their original practices–but who can determine what those are? A few congregations have built churches in the traditional Hindu style, but that is as far as they have gone. Some Saint Thomas Christians use the earlier forms of the Western Sacraments, and the mission to the West in the nineteenth century adopted the rituals of the Old Catholic Church of Holland translated into English.

6. The purpose of the Ishanni Sampradaya was clearly stated by Jesus when he petitioned the Father that: “they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one” Divine Consciousness (John 17:22, 23). This is the common goal of all the other sampradayas of Vedic Religion, and of true religion wherever it is found throughout the world.

This is the cave north of Rishikesh in which Jesus lived for some time. In the last century both Swami Rama Tirtha and Swami (Papa) Ramdas lived there (at separate times), and had visions of Jesus meditating there, though they had no prior knowledge of his having lived there.

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Did jesus ever visit india german scholar's research may hold the answer, according to the german scholar, jesus had visited puri where he had studied veda and yoga....

Puri, Orissa, India, Nov. 15 - Did Jesus Christ ever visit the pilgrim city of Puri during his "unexplained twelve years" of life? We would know soon if German scholar H J Trebst's research to unearth the missing twelve years of Christ's life bears fruit.

Puri - Once a great seat of eastern learning...

Jesus Christ had also studied Buddhism in the Indian sub-continent, the scholar, who had done extensive research in Ladhakh and Nepal to trace evidence of Christ's itinerary in the Indian sub-continent, said.

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A seminar was also organised under the aegis of Jagannath Gabeshana Parishad where eminent scholars like Dr Harekrushna Satapathy, Dr Siddheswer Mohapatra, Jagabandhu Padhi, Dr Debendra Dash and others deliberated over the Hindu religious texts which mentioned the activities of Jesus. Dr Trebst said 2,000 years ago Puri was a famous seat of learning and history has revealed that over the centuries religious leaders of various sects and cults had visited this holy shrine. It was most likely that Jesus had also visited this holy seat of learning, he said, though adding that it was a very difficult task to trace the history of his visit to Puri.

The German scholar was, however, optimistic that the scholars of the pilgrim city would be of immense help in analysing the ancient manuscripts and scriptures on the visit of Jesus. Meanwhile, the local research scholars have suggested Dr Trebst to go through the library of the Jagatguru Sankeracharya, the oldest in the state, which had a large collection of palm leaf manuscripts since the time of Aadi Sanker (about 4th century BC) to find out the missing links in the life of Christ.

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There is proof Jesus came to India, made a deep study of Hinduism, and taught it when he returned to Jerusalem.

Since the birthplace of Jesus is too far from the Indian subcontinent, there is a viable chance for him travelling to India or Tibet. All the story of Jesus is mythological like Indian mythology. Hence, there is solid proof that Jesus Christ came to India and has made a deep study of Hindu religion. After returning to Jerusalem, he might have stated teaching and making a copy of Indian religion. The date of birth of Jesus is not very far in the past likeee the iron age. It is only 2013 year ago, before that, there was already existence of Buddha in India, so there is more chance that Jesus came to India. This question is not a religious one, but it is historical. I hope you will give viable reply.

I hope I can say this without being disrespectful. Your suggestion really makes no sense, in my opinion. First of all, you say that the birthplace of Jesus is too far from the Indian subcontinent (I assume you mean too far for it to be likely that Jesus went there). I agree with you on this. It is unlikely in the extreme that a poor Israelite such as Jesus, who was not a merchant, would have traveled to India. Then, in a rather obvious contradiction to what you just said, you say that there is solid proof that Jesus came to India! This statement is really utter nonsense. There is literally zero “proof” never mind any significant evidence at all that Jesus ever set foot in the Indian subcontinent. I believe that this theory is wishful thinking on the part of the advocates for Hindu ways of thinking–hoping that they can associate Jesus and his teachings with Hinduism.

Then you make what I believe is a patently false statement. You say that the whole story of Jesus is a myth–somewhat like Hindu mythology. I assume you are referring to such Hindu myths as the stories of Rama and Krishna. This statement can only come from a person who has not studied the evidence about Jesus carefully. We know where Jesus was born (Bethlehem, near Jerusalem). We know where he was raised (Nazareth: about 15 miles west of the Sea of Galilee). We know where he lived during the time of his ministry (Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee). We know where, when and how he died (in Jerusalem, at the time of Passover, by crucifixion, in AD 30). All these facts are confirmed by both Christian and non-Christian sources. We know the name of Jesus’ mother and father. We know the names of dozens of his friends. Several of then actually wrote about Jesus, including John, Peter, Matthew and two of his brothers, James and Jude. The idea that Jesus is a mythological figure like the mythical characters Krishna or Rama is not to be taken seriously by anyone who has studied the historical evidence.

By the way, I agree with you that Siddhartha Gautama, otherwise known as Budda is a historical person. He did live a bit more than 500 years before Jesus. We know a lot more about Jesus than about Buddha, but we do know a fairly significant amount about Buddha, including where he was born and the family he came from. Like Jesus, Buddha is definitely not a mythical character. You are really inconsistent when you insist that Buddha was not mythical but Jesus was. This make no sense from an evidential point of view.

I am sorry, but people should really stop throwing out this completely illogical and unsubstantiated idea that Jesus learned his religion from India. It is very disrespectful to Judaism in general and is not supported by a single shred of evidence. Judaism shows no sign of being derived from Hinduism and, in any case, Jesus certainly did not travel to India.

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Did Jesus go to India (the lost years of Jesus)?

From the account of his birth and his brief stay in Egypt when he was very young, the next time Jesus is mentioned in the gospels is when he was 12 years of age, and then nothing at all until he was around 30. Many have speculated about what Jesus did from ages 12 to 30. Some claim there is evidence that he traveled, so we’d like to know, “Did Jesus go to India?”

Some bible scholars argue that there is no biblical evidence to support the idea that Jesus visited India at any point during his earthly life, particularly before He began His Ministry. In contrast, some historians claim that he went to India. However, there is insufficient proof that Jesus went to India.

Read on to find out more on this topic, and related questions, including: Does the Bible show that Jesus traveled to India? According to the Orthodox Church, where was Jesus before he started his public Ministry? How does the Bible describe the life of Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30? Why do some historians believe Jesus went to India when he was 13? Why did Jesus go to India, according to the Nicolas Notovitch scrolls? Did Jesus go to India as a teacher or a student? Other theories about the lost years of Jesus also exist.

Table of Contents

Does the Bible show that Jesus traveled to India?

The Bible does not seem to support the idea of Jesus traveling to India. It is recorded that Jesus was born in Bethlehem , in Judea. In Matthew 2:15, it is also recorded that his family fled with him to Egypt when he was an infant. His family’s return to Nazareth after Herod’s death is also documented in Matthew 2:19–23 . Jesus is said to have visited Jerusalem at the age of twelve, where he spent a few days in the temple before returning to Nazareth ( Luke 2:41–51) . He is known as the carpenter’s son, and it is believed that he learned the trade from his earthly “father,” Joseph, in Nazareth, before beginning His public Ministry. The idea that he spent his life before his public Ministry in Nazareth seems to be supported by several scriptures, including:

John 1:46 Nathanael said, “ ….come out of Nazareth?” Luke 4:6: “… he came to Nazareth, …. “These and more imply that people familiar with him knew he lived in Nazareth.

According to the Orthodox Church, where was Jesus before he started his public Ministry?

The Orthodox Church is reported to hold that Jesus was raised and grew up in Nazareth before beginning his public Ministry. The church is said to hold that although the Bible doesn’t directly say this, it implies it in several passages. The church quotes Luke 4:16 and 22–24.

From these scriptures, the Orthodox Church notes that Luke says Jesus was “brought up” in Nazareth. They highlight that Luke implies that Nazareth was Jesus’ hometown more than once. According to the Orthodox Church, this proves that Jesus was a well-known regular in the Nazareth community and that he never lived anywhere else in his youth until his public Ministry.

How does the Bible describe the life of Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30?

His years between when he was 12 and 30 years of age are not extensively covered in the Bible. Scholars state that what is known is that he was a resident of Nazareth, a little mountain town. Some Christians interpret Jesus’ mention in a query in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 as proof that Jesus worked as a carpenter before the age of 30. The tone of the text that leads to the query “ Is not this the carpenter?” suggests that he was known in the area, supposedly supporting the idea that, before the beginning of his Ministry, he had been primarily identified as a carpenter in the gospel narrative. It has been observed that Jesus seems to have been actively involved in the profession, which some have surmised was a family business. Elsewhere, Luke 2:52 states that Jesus “ grew in knowledge and renown, and the favor of God and men .” From these, some have concluded that he worked with Joseph as a carpenter. He learned a skill and was a likable member of the community.

Why do some historians believe Jesus went to India when he was 13?

Most of Jesus’ travel to India hypotheses appear to be based on the comparison of Jesus to the “Kashmiri Issa Yuz Asaf,” which is said to translate to “Jesus, Son of Joseph.”

One such is Holger Kersten, who in 1994 published “ Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion ,” which purports to provide irrefutable proof that Jesus did reside in India.

A theory by Nicholas Roerich, who documented his trips to India’s Ladakh region in 1925, predated Holger Kersten’s. From there, he describes the stories about Issa that the Ladakhi people and lamas had told him, including the claim that Issa (Jesus) had journeyed from Palestine with traders and was a teacher in India. Roerich notes the extraordinary closeness of the Ladakhis’ accounts to Notovitch’s records, despite the Ladakhis’ unaware of Notovitch’s work. A lengthy section of his writing matches sections of Notovitch’s book. He also recalls that different texts and legends about Jesus (Issa) are mentioned in other travelers’ accounts and that he personally saw the famous Abbot of Hemis in Notovitch’s account. However, it has been observed that the real reason Roerich’s work could resemble Notovitch’s is that he borrowed heavily from him.

Yet another theory was espoused by Levi H. Dowling in his 1908 “ Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ.” In the book, Dowling claimed to have discovered the authentic account of Jesus’ life , including the “missing” eighteen years absent from the New Testament. The story follows the child Jesus through Egypt, Greece, Assyria, Tibet, India, and Tibet. Notably, Holger Kersten later adopted Dowling’s work and merged it with ideas from other sources, like Ahmadiyya’s teachings.

These theorists have been criticized for having their works focus mostly on tales and lacking supporting data. In addition, it has been observed that they appear to have heavily borrowed from one another’s writing. As a result, biblical scholarship does not regard them seriously.

Why did Jesus go to India, according to Nicolas Notovich scrolls?

The first contemporary writer to claim Jesus went to India was Nicolas Notovitch, a Russian war correspondent. In his 1894 book “ La vie inconnue de Jesus Christ” (The Life of Saint Issa ), Notovitch claims to have found proof that Jesus traveled to India, Tibet, Persia, Greece, and Egypt. Notovitch claimed Jesus did this in his youth before returning to Judea to begin his public Ministry at 30. In his account, Notovitch said Jesus was in India studying with the Hindus and later the Buddhists.

However, Notovitch’s tale began to unravel when travelers and authors started discounting his narrative. For starters, it is reported that Abbott of Hemis outrightly denied that he stayed there. His book, it has been said, featured tales that were rife with unfathomable impossibilities. It appears that the book he accused Abbott of reading did not even exist. It has been suggested that Notovitch was either the subject of a joke or that he created the evidence.

Did Jesus go to India as a teacher or a student?

In “ The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ ,” which claims to be the published version of Notovitch’s purported notes, it is alleged that Jesus traveled to India as a student. According to the story, Jesus went there with a caravan of merchants when he was thirteen to learn about their sacred laws. He studied the Vedas, the holy texts of the Brahmins, for six years while living among them.

Then Jesus ran away and joined a group of Buddhists, where he studied the texts of Buddhism and picked up Pali, the dialect of Theraveda Buddhism.

He eventually returned to Palestine at the age of twenty-nine, equipped with all the sacred wisdom of the East, and started his public Ministry.

Other theories about the lost years of Jesus

Some Japanese people hold that Jesus traversed the country during the “lost years” and may have lived on in Japan after the crucifixion. The tradition is said to have originated in Shing, Aomori.

According to some Arthurian traditions, Jesus visited Britain as a young man, resided at Priddy in the Mendip Hills, and constructed the first wattle cottage at Glastonbury. The narrative of Jesus visiting Britain inspired William Blake’s 1800s poem, “ And did those feet in ancient time? ” According to certain accounts, tin dealer Joseph of Arimathea took care of Jesus after his “father,” Joseph, passed away. The 1998 book by Gordon Strachan, “ Jesus the Master Builder: Druid Mysteries and the Dawn of Christianity,” served as the inspiration for the 2009 television program “And Did Those Feet?” Jesus might have been in Britain to learn with the Druids, according to Strachan.

Did Jesus ever travel to India?
Did Jesus travel to India before his Ministry?
The Mystery of Jesus Missing 18 Years
What did Jesus do between ages 12 and 30
Did Jesus Go to India? A Modern Gospel Forgery.
Legend of Jesus living in Japan
Jesus may have visited the UK

As a devout Christian, I have always been passionate about the Christian faith. This inspired me to pursue a degree in Religious studies and a Masters in Theology in college. I have also been privileged to teach 4 Christian courses in a college and university. Since I am dedicated to spreading the word of God, I am actively involved in the Church. Additionally, I share his word online and cover diverse topics on the Christian faith through my platform. You can read more about me on the about us page .

Jesus' Lost Years May Finally Have Been Found

Contributor

Long Before Tech Support Was Out-sourced to India, Christianity's Founder May Have Gone There First

Easter approaches, and readers of the Huffington Post should know about the accumulation of evidence that Jesus spent part of his life in India -- which parts, and how long, or even whether this happened, are much-debated by many scholars and religious leaders. However, after four years of work on the film Jesus in India (Sundance Channel / US - Showtime / Australia) which took me to three continents and to experts from all the major religions, my position is that although a final verdict is not yet in for Jesus in India as a concept and theory and new direction in religious thought, where there is smoke there is often fire -- and I've been wading through the smoke for years. Or, as the New York Times said of my film, I've been "sifting through legends, myths and historical evidence in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of the life of Jesus of Nazareth from ages 12 to 30" and Jesus' possible travels in India. Everyone is entitled to his or her right to skepticism, but if you fail to accept the challenge of considering this, you will be depriving yourself of knowledge of an extraordinary puzzle. This remarkable puzzle, which involves eighteen lost years or "Hidden Years" in the life of Jesus, may well turn out to be a cornerstone for understanding many enigmas about Christianity -- like the long-ignored missing but somehow obvious clue in a mystery that remains unsolved. Or perhaps somehow it will eventually be proven a dead end by indisputable dating of documents, DNA testing and other scientific tests and tools. Either way, none of us will be the worse for the truly incredible journey to inquire and discover what can be surmised about Jesus' Lost Years by taking the questions right to the ancient temple of the Hindus called Jagannath in Puri, India, where some say Jesus spent several years (the "some" include the present spiritual leader of the Hindu religion, the Shankaracharya) and a Buddhist monastery high in the Himalayas in Ladakh, India, where an ancient scroll has long been held to exist that purportedly answers all the questions about the Missing Years of Jesus (see: www.jesus-in-india-the-movie.com ) What's that? You didn't know Jesus was missing?

The New Testament has a Black Hole from the ages 12 to 30 of Jesus' life. In the world of film we call that sort of omission a "jump cut." In Fundamentalism, they call it a part of Jesus' life that God doesn't think you need to know about, or God would have made sure it was included in the Bible. On one page of the Gospel of Luke Jesus is 12 years old in the Temple in Jerusalem and then... nothing... nothing for 18 years until Jesus shows up at the River Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist. One critic accuses me of Biblical revisionism for examining the gap. But I'm not revising. How can you revise what isn't there? I'm probing to see if historical records and longstanding traditions of all kinds can help cure the omission. During the benediction at the Inauguration of Barack Obama , Reverend Rick Warren referred to Jesus at one point by the name Issa. (Check it and confirm it if you don't believe me.) Never heard Jesus called Saint Issa? It's how they refer to him in the Muslim and Hindu worlds, and even the Buddhists are said to conceal a very ancient manuscript in a monastery high in the Himalayas called "The Life of Saint Issa, the Best of the Sons of Men." The story of the existence of that manuscript, that fills in the missing years of Christ and describes his travels as a young man in India -- and even has Jesus exhorting the Hindus to stop worshiping idols and give up the caste system -- has been resoundingly debunked in much of the Christian world for nearly a century. It's long overdue that the debunking stop. Our journey to India, following the trail of those who saw and translated the manuscript several times, gives a very convincing case that the manuscript does exist, and that it dovetails neatly with a long list of other kinds of evidence that put Jesus in India during that period of his life. If true, that journey of Jesus to the East was conveniently omitted from the New Testament. You don't think Jesus could have reached India during his years as a young man? If he had remained in Judea, wouldn't he have been married off at age thirteen, the age all Jewish boys attain manhood? The silk road to India and beyond was much-traveled. There were caravans of merchants. And if there were three Wise Men (the Magi) from the East who were present at Jesus' birth, doesn't it imply (as Indian sage Paramahansa Yogananda claimed) that a tug from the Orient was present in Jesus' life from the beginning? Then why would the Lord not return the visit? Especially since the oldest temples in the world, belonging to the oldest religions, were in India. And why did Jesus send Saint Thomas to India to preach the Gospel there after the crucifixion, if Jesus never knew the importance of India? Doubting Thomas preached in India for twenty years and died there. It's a well-supported fact. Take a look at Jesus in India and you'll begin to see what may have happened in those missing years of Jesus' life, and what may have been omitted (deliberately... or just lost?) from the story you've been told again and again since childhood. Noted reviewer Pete Hammond describes the documentary Jesus in India as "fascinating and profound, a deeply spiritual journey" and the website of Paramahansa Yogananda calls the film "groundbreaking." But critic Jeff Wilser said before Christmas that it "would make Bill O'Reilly of FOX news choke on his eggnog." And Nancy Dewolf Smith writes in the Wall Street Journal that the film is a "cavalcade of crackpots" and "pseudo-history," ignoring that the film has such luminaries as the Dalai Lama, Princeton Professor Elaine Pagels, two professors at Georgetown University, an apostolic nuncio of Pope John Paul II, and of course the historic interview with the "Pope" of Hinduism (the Shankaracharya) who rather pointedly declares that Christian authorities have been guilty of a "coverup." (This is denied in my film by a Vatican representative, the late Apostolic Nuncio Corrado Balducci.) If it turns out that this is a "Cavalcade of Crackpots," it fits neatly with my other films, which usually seem to be about the "crackpots" who are gifted philosophers, artists, geniuses and honorable men through the centuries, all of whom were considered outcasts in their time. They include Vaslav Nijinsky ( She Dances Alone ), Vincent van Gogh ( Starry Night ), Timothy Leary ( Timothy Leary's Dead ), the shaman known as Rahelio of Sedona, Arizona who was just covered in an article in Sunset magazine ( The Artist & The Shaman ), and the recently-deceased Forrest J. Ackerman, one of the "deluded" souls who thought way back in the 1920's that mankind would reach the moon in his lifetime ( The Sci-Fi Boys ). Major Jesse Marcel, who investigated the 1947 UFO event that became known as the Roswell Incident, was a laughingstock for decades, and he was the main character of my film Roswell starring Martin Sheen, Kyle MacLachlan and Dwight Yoakam, made for Showtime and nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Motion Picture for Television. Jesse Marcel's offense was that he implied that the government is deliberately covering up what it knows about extraterrestrials and UFO's. What do you think about that one. Well, that's a subject for another blog. However, as for the controversy about Jesus in India , surf over to www.jesus-in-india-the-movie.com and you'll see what's provoking both agony and ecstasy. You may discover why writer Len Kasten, in the March / April 2009 issue of Atlantis Rising , says: "this film, some think, has the potential to revolutionize Christianity..."

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EARLY CHURCH HISTORY

How many places did jesus visit.

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“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (in 29 AD) when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea (26-36 AD)….When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too…Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.” Luke 3:1,23

CLICK HERE for Jesus and John Were Relatives article

Both men were about 30 years old as Luke says “Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.” (Luke 3:23) From the timeline that the Doctor (Colossians 4:14) Luke in chapter 3:1 assiduously gives us, it is sure that His baptism by cousin John took place while Pontius Pilate was serving as the governor of Judea and Tiberius was 15 years into being Emperor of Rome in the late 20’s probably in 29 AD.

This long article is about some of the c. 24 – 25 places to which Jesus went, performed miracles and ministered to people.

The answer to the question, “How many places did Jesus visit?” must start with Jesus’ birth in BETHLEHEM and then the family flight to EGYPT . The very infancy of His life was one of TRAVEL. When Jesus was a child, He was raised in the northern Israel town of NAZARETH, in the Galilee Area. Perhaps because Jesus was a hometown boy:

“He (Jesus of Nazareth) could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith.” Mark 6:5,6

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Jesus performs His first public miracle at a wedding in Cana, a town in the Galilee region. His mother and some His disciples were there as were all the wedding guests. Cana was 3.78 miles from Mary and Joseph’s home in Nazareth—a short walking distance.

…a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” — John 2:1-11

Note: Perhaps Jesus who was with some of His disciples at the wedding picked up another disciple in Cana at that time? John’s Gospel identifies one of Jesus’ Apostles in John 21:2 as “Nathanael from Cana in Galilee.”

On the Sea of Galilee ; a fishing village in Jesus’ time. The hometown of the Apostles James, John, Simon Peter and Andrew. Jesus heals a blind man there:

“They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.“ — Mark 8:22-25

CLICK HERE for Jesus Uses Spit To Heal article

On the Sea of Galilee; located near Bethsaida; the hometown of the tax collector Matthew whom Jesus called to be another of His 12 Apostles; Jesus established Capernaum as his hometown (Mark 2:1) when He left Nazareth because of their unbelief in Him. In Capernaum He performed man y more miracles than He did any place else: e.g. Luke 4:31-36; Luke 38:,39; Mark:21-28; Matthew 8:5; Mark 2:1-12 etc.

Capernaum is cited continually in all four Gospels and that area is, traditionally, believed to be where Jesus fed the 5,000 people. That miracle of Multiplication was (is) so astonishing that it is recorded in all four Gospels: Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 9 & John 6.

In Jesus’ first trip to that Gentile area:

“They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes (in Gadara). When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones….Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs….Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.” — Mark 5:1-17

Those Gentiles raised pigs for market. They were not welcoming to the kosher Jesus.

TYRE AND SIDON

Jesus went northwest of the Galilee area into the prosperous Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon on the coast of the Mediterranean. Those Gentiles loved Jesus.

‘When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon.” — Mark 3:8

“Jesus …went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.” — Mark 7:4-31

Those pagan cities had been so welcoming to Jesus that He pronounced:

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! (cities in Jewish Israel) For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.” — Matthew 11:21,22

“Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, (mainly Gentile areas) down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. — Mark 7:31-35

“News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.” — Matthew 4:24, 25

CLICK HERE for Jesus and Constant Crowds article

“…Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.” — Luke 7:11-17

This was the first time in the Gospels where Jesus raised the dead.

SEA OF GALILEE

“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” — Matthew 4:18-22

Jesus “caught” four of His Apostles as they were fishing or mending nets on the Sea of Galilee.

And Jesus reappeared to seven of His Apostles on the Sea of Galilee after His resurrection and fortified the idea that they were to be “fishers of men,” “I will send you to fish for people”—not to fish fish.

“After these things (after the resurrection) Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias (aka Sea of Galilee), and He manifested Himself in this way. Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will also come with you.” They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing.

But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish, do you?” They answered Him, “No.” And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.” So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the net full of fish.” — John 21:1-8

In the gospels, immediately after the Last Supper, Jesus and His disciples go to the garden in Gethsemane outside of Jerusalem. “Gethsemane” means “an oil press.” An oil press is a mechanical device which was used to crush olives and extract the essence, the oil out of them.

It was in Gethsemane, in that oil press, that Jesus struggled in agony until His sweat turned to blood:

“He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground” Luke 22:41-44

CLICK HERE for Jesus Sweats Real Blood in Gethsemane article

“And one of them( Peter) smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.” — Luke 22:50–51

We all know the song “Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho And the Walls Came Tumbling Down” sung by the great Gospel Singer Mahalia Jackson. (READ: Joshua 6:1–27 for the real Battle of Jericho in c. 1400 BC.)

Jericho has been excavated for many years by archeologists. It is apparently the oldest human settlement on earth—going back to c. 9000 BC. In the times of Joshua, a revetment wall built of large stones was supported by a mud-brick wall above it. This portion of Jericho’s wall was found in 1997. Bryant Wood, a Biblical archeologist, emphasizes the base of that mud-brick wall. All experts agree that the wall just fell down, but they differ on the date. Wood’s conclusions are the most informed; he dates the “falling down” of the wall to the time of Joshua (1400 BC).

Over c. 1,400 years later, Jesus of Nazareth came to the rebuilt city of Jericho in southern Israel:

“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” — Luke 19:1-10

“Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

They called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” — Mark 10:46-52

“Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha….So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”….After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”….On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days…. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there…. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”….Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.” — John 11:1-46

The resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus’ last miracle of bringing the dead back to life, was maybe about 10 or so days ’ before Jesus’ Own resurrection. He had told Martha in John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life.” This last great miracle was a concrete parable and prognostication to Martha, et al of Jesus’ OWN RESURRECTION on a Sunday in c.30 AD.

Lazarus, Mary and Martha were prominent people in the Bethany -Jerusalem area. Bethany was only 2 miles from Jerusalem and when Jesus was in Jerusalem, He loved to spend time with Lazarus and his two sisters.

The Roman historian Tacitus (56-120 AD) is considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians. He said in his Annals (dealing with Roman empire between 14-68 AD) that Jerusalem in Jesus’ times had about 600,000 people who lived there. The city was best known for its Temple of the Jews’ One God. Jerusalem was a bustling and peaceful city at that time. But it was under Roman rule and the Jews hated that. The Roman government’s policy was to maintain law, order, stability. When Jesus came into the Temple (during Passover) and saw the money-changers:

“…Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” — Matthew 21:12

This was not appreciated by the priests of that time because they feared the Romans would exact a punishment on them for not keeping law and order. But this Jesus Who was becoming very popular with the people, near and far, was a “trouble-maker” and He even claimed to be the “Son of God”—the long-predicted in the Old Testament Messiah.

Five days later He was apprehended, tried by the Sanhedrin and crucified:

“So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: “jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews”. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near (Jerusalem), and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” — John 19:16-22

Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD and was torn apart stone by stone until a passerby would not have known there had been a city there. But three days after the dead Jesus was laid in His tomb with a large stone rolled in front of it, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, their Mashiach rose from the dead and is still living.

Christians form the biggest religious group in the world today, with 2.3 billion followers of Christ or 31.2% of the total world population of 7.3 billion. Jesus has “visited” the whole planet earth.— Article by Sandra Sweeny Silver

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Did Jesus of Nazareth Travel to the Far East?

Read Later

It is a mistake to think there wasn’t international travel during Jesus’ time. As this map of ancient merchant routes shows, the known world was linked by land and sea. Perhaps with some helpful knowledge and influence from Joseph of Arimathea, it would have been easy for Jesus to join a caravan or board a ship headed to the Far East. Indeed, there is evidence that he did.

Map of ancient merchant routes. Report photo

Two very unlikely women discovered evidence that Jesus was once in the Himalayan Mountains of Tibet: Dr. Elisabeth Caspari, who was the driving force in establishing Montessori schools in the United States; and Gloria Gasque who became president of the International Vegetarian Union.

The Christ And The Buddha: How Can You Explain the Uncanny Similarities?
Tammuz and Jesus: More Than a Distant Connection?
Reconstructing Jesus: Using Science to Flesh out the Face of Religion

Dr. Elisabeth Caspari and Gloria Gasque

The two women became friends when Gasque was the head of the World Fellowship of Faith. In that capacity, Gasque invited Caspari and her husband to join her group tour to Tibet to study Buddhism. It was no simple trip, especially in the 1930s. In fact, they spent nearly a year in Kashmir collecting everything they would need for their trek into one of the most foreboding regions in the world.

Some of the caravan’s well-ladened ponies - The Hemis Monastery

Then in the spring of 1939, the group headed up the steep mountains with 12 servants, a translator and 112 ponies and their drivers. The plan was to stop at several monasteries along the way to their major goal – the grand Hemis Monastery.

When they arrived at Hemis, they were surprised to be greeted by the abbot and two chief assistants and shown to a beautiful guesthouse. The rest of the group stayed in tents near a stream.

The biggest surprise during their four days at the Hemis Monastery was brought to them when the two women were sitting on a rooftop watching a thangka painter while a monk sat cross-legged at a low table writing letters with a brush.

That was when the chief librarian and two other monks brought them three parchment books protected between pieces of wood and wrapped in green, red, blue and gold brocade material. With great reverence, the chief librarian unwrapped one of the books and presented it to the two women. His simple sentence startled them:

“These books say your Jesus was here.”

A photo of the Hemis Monastery librarian taken during the Gasque/Caspari visit

Two carefully wrapped ancient Tibetan books – A Tibetan monastery library

There were other intrepid adventurers who made it to the Hemis Monastery and were told Jesus had once been there. Their testimonies are increasingly valuable since China took over Tibet in 1949 and began efforts to annihilate the Buddhist religion.

William O. Douglas (1898 – 1980) who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 36 years traveled to Tibet and visited the Hemis Monastery in 1951. In his book “Beyond the High Himalayas,” he made this statement about Jesus being in Tibet:

“Hemis, the first monastery in all of Ladakh, is still an ideal physical setting for a retreat; and over the centuries it has become rich not only in lands and other wealth, but in legends as well. One of these apocryphal tales concerns Jesus. There are those who to this day believe that Jesus visited the place, that he came here when he was fourteen and left when he was twenty-eight, heading west, to be heard of no more. The legend fills in the details, saying that Jesus traveled to Hemis under the name of Issa.”

William O. Douglas (1898 – 1980)

Nicholas Roerich (1874 – 1947) was a Russian archaeologist, writer, professor and prolific painter who extensively explored the Himalayan Mountains – painting all the way. Below are two excerpts about Jesus (Issa) from an unnamed book Roerich claimed was 1500 years old when he studied it:

“Issa secretly left his parents and together with the merchants of Jerusalem turned towards Ind (India) to become perfected in the Divine Word. And for the study of the laws of the Great Buddha.”

“Afterwards, when he had learned the scrolls, Issa went into Nepal and into the Himalaya mountains.”

Nicholas Roerich (1874 – 1947)

Swami Abhedananda (1866 – 1939) went to the Hemis Monastery in search of the ancient book Nicholas Roerich had studied. He claimed he found it and that it confirmed the information Roerich had recorded. The Swami added the following footnote:

“Jesus halted at a wayside pond near Kabul to wash his hands and feet, and rested there for a while. That pond still exists. It is known as ‘Issa-pond.’ To mark the event, every year a fair is held at this place. This is mentioned in an Arabic book, “Tarig-A-Ajhan.’”

Swami Abhedananda (1866 – 1939)

This article is an extract from the book ‘ Tangible Evidence of Jesus Left Behind for Us to Find’ by Mary A. Joyce, available from Amazon.com .

Top image: The Desert Caravan by Edmund Berninger

All images provided courtesy of Mary Joyce

By Mary A. Joyce

He's a character in a myth , so....

I had read in some Qura'ns that He had not been crucified but left with his Mother to live in the Hindu Kush.

Thank you Mulcogi Seng. I, too, have become disillusioned with this site. Several articles back, I made a similar comment to yours regarding "What jesus wore."

Sorry Ancient Origins - this is no longer the site I recommended to friends. Now, we all agree, it's like going to an evangelical revival meeting.

I used to come to Ancient Origins every day to read the latest in new information on our shared history. But it is becoming impossible for me to continue. Articles like this are just so far away from the truth and what I want to learn about. At this time there is absolutely NO historical evidence for the life of Jesus never mind that he traveled to Tibet, studied at a Buddhist monastery, all centuries before Buddhism came to Tibet. I'm tired of your bait and switch, showing that good articles are still available but only if I pay the price. Your website has really gone down hill since I first started visiting you. While purporting to cover the history of the world it is clear to me that there is a pronounced monotheistic/christian bias to this site. The document in question that talks about a Saint Issa is not extant. In fact, a quick Wikipedia visit shows that such a work was probably fabricated yet none of that is mentioned in this highly cherry picked article. Shame on you! While I may continue to visit here it won't be as often. I will be looking for a site that doesn't have the problems and all of the intrusive advertising that your site contains. Do you really want to downgrade into a site that is known for its click bait articles?

Mary Joyce has worked for two major metropolitan area newspapers as a writer, columnist, artist, Sunday magazine editor and feature editor. On the side, she’s written magazine articles and six books.

Her career includes working for a Fortune 100 company... Read More

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Did Jesus ever travel to India?

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COMMENTS

Did Jesus ever travel to India?
Did Jesus ever travel to India? Answer. There is no biblical support for the idea that Jesus meditated in India before beginning His ministry in Israel. Other than when Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Egypt when He was a child in Matthew 2:13-21, there is no evidence that He ever left the land of Israel. Of the four Gospel accounts, only two ...
Did Jesus Visit Other Parts of the World?
According to the Gospels, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, engaged in itinerant ministry throughout Galilee, Judea, and places between them, and was executed in Judea just outside Jerusalem. Except for a brief stay in Egypt with his parents as a baby (Matt. 2:12-15, 19-23), all of Jesus' mortal life appears to have taken place within a radius of roughly a hundred miles of ...
Did Jesus go to India before starting His public ministry?
Did Jesus go to India before starting His public ministry? ... Following the wise men's visit, His parents fled with Him for safety into Egypt (Matthew 2:15). After Herod's death (4 B.C.), Jesus and His family moved back to Joseph and Mary's hometown of Nazareth (Matthew 2:19-23). At the age of twelve, Jesus visited Jerusalem and remained there ...
history
The first is that Apollonius did travel during his "ministry", visiting a range as large as Rome to India. Jesus, relatively speaking, did not. In addition to that, Jesus rarely went into the large towns. Apollonius focused almost exclusively on them.
Did Jesus Visit India? An Investigative Study
Historical evidence of Jesus' visit to India is inconclusive. Some books and theories suggest Jesus traveled to India during his lost years, but these claims are largely unsupported. The Bible does not mention Jesus traveling to India. Holger Kersten's book and Nicolas Notovitch's claims have been widely criticized. There is no concrete proof ...
'Sowing the Seed'
Sowing of a Seed. The book, Jesus in India, brought about a revolutionary new way of understanding the life of Jesus Christ (as). Since its publication in 1908, many researchers and scholars have come to the same conclusions: that Jesus Christ (as) is buried in the Rozabal Tomb in Srinagar, Kashmir.
ancient history
Aug 20, 2013 at 7:14. 11. Vote to close. Unless there is some research that shows that Jesus visited India, or Idaho, or .... whatever. - MCW ♦. Aug 20, 2013 at 11:22. 10. Jesus is undeniably the most important single figure in the history of the Western World. Why should a question regarding interesting and important aspects of his life ...
Did Jesus Christ ever visit India?
Research resources on Jesus Christ. Dr Trebst, who had invited the scholars of this ancient city, yesterday said according to some scholars of the Orient and the West, Jesus had visited Puri where he had studied Veda and Yoga before returning home to preach Christianity. Jesus Christ had also studied Buddhism in the Indian sub-continent, the ...
Jesus (as) Journeys East: Tracing the Travel
24. Abubakr Ben Ishmael Salahuddin, "Evidence of Jesus in India," The Review of Religions, April 2002, 64. A growing body of evidence suggests that Jesus (as) travelled East in search of the lost tribes of Israel. Genealogical traces of these tribes have been found in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
'Tomb of Jesus' In Kashmir-Roza Bal Shrine
For many Christians and Muslims including the caretakers of the shrine the burial of Jesus in Roza Bal is a myth and call the claims as 'blasphemy'. Having said that, it was a turning point in the history of the tomb as many devotees flock around the tomb especially during the Christmas time (25 December). This site in Kashmir was recorded ...
Jesus Visited India And Tibet?
The theory that Jesus spent his "lost years"—the time between his childhood and the beginning of his ministry, about which the New Testament says very little—in India, Tibet, and Nepal, is ...
The Christ of India
Scroll down for videos describing stories from The Christ of India Essene roots of Christianity. A t the time of Jesus of Nazareth there were two major currents or sects within Judaism: the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were extremely concerned with strict external observance of their interpretation of the Mosaic Law, ritual worship, and theology.
Unknown years of Jesus
Gordon Strachan wrote Jesus the Master Builder: Druid Mysteries and the Dawn of Christianity (1998), which was the basis of the documentary titled And Did Those Feet (2009). Strachan believed Jesus may have travelled to Britain to study with the Druids. Claims of young Jesus in India and/or Tibet Nicolas Notovich, 1887
Did Jesus ever visit India? German Scholar's research may hold the
Puri, Orissa, India, Nov 15 - Did Jesus Christ ever visit the pilgrim city of Puri during his unexplained twelve years of life We would know soon if German scholar H J Trebst s research to unearth the missing twelve years of Christ s life bears fruit Dr Trebst, who had invited the scholars of this ancient city, yesterday said according to some scholars of the Orient and the West, Jesus had ...
There is proof Jesus came to India, made a deep study of Hinduism, and
After returning to Jerusalem, he might have stated teaching and making a copy of Indian religion. The date of birth of Jesus is not very far in the past likeee the iron age. It is only 2013 year ago, before that, there was already existence of Buddha in India, so there is more chance that Jesus came to India.
Did Jesus go to India?
The Bible does not seem to support the idea of Jesus traveling to India. It is recorded that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Judea. In Matthew 2:15, it is also recorded that his family fled with him to Egypt when he was an infant. His family's return to Nazareth after Herod's death is also documented in Matthew 2:19-23.
Ladakh and The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ
I was browsing the volumes in the theology section when I came upon a 19th-century book with an intriguing title: The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ. It was a battered brown quarto, written in ...
Did Jesus Go to India? Find Out Now
When Jesus was thirteen, according to the account, he joined a caravan of merchants to go to India to study their sacred laws. He spent six years with the Brahmins, learning their holy books, the Vedas. But Jesus was completely disenchanted with the Indian caste system and openly began to condemn it. This raised the ire of the Brahmins who ...
Jesus' Lost Years May Finally Have Been Found
Then why would the Lord not return the visit? Especially since the oldest temples in the world, belonging to the oldest religions, were in India. And why did Jesus send Saint Thomas to India to preach the Gospel there after the crucifixion, if Jesus never knew the importance of India? Doubting Thomas preached in India for twenty years and died ...
How Many Places Did Jesus Visit?
This long article is about some of the c. 24 - 25 places to which Jesus went, performed miracles and ministered to people. The answer to the question, "How many places did Jesus visit?" must start with Jesus' birth in BETHLEHEM and then the family flight to EGYPT. The very infancy of His life was one of TRAVEL.
Did Jesus of Nazareth Travel to the Far East?
Print. It is a mistake to think there wasn't international travel during Jesus' time. As this map of ancient merchant routes shows, the known world was linked by land and sea. Perhaps with some helpful knowledge and influence from Joseph of Arimathea, it would have been easy for Jesus to join a caravan or board a ship headed to the Far East.
Did Jesus ever travel to India?
1 ★. Christina C A. Jesus never travelled to India, a muslim group called "Ahmaddiyya" claims that Jesus survived crucification and travelled to India, Even a book was written by their founder, though this group is not accepted as Islam by the mainstream Shia and Sunni sect.
Did Jesus Visit India?
From Episode 26 of #AskAbhijit.WATCH FULL EPISODE: #AskAbhijit 26: Indian History https://youtu.be/k1cH23FQ0-USUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/AbhijitCh...

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Did Jesus ever travel to India?

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Did Jesus go to India before starting His public ministry?

Did Jesus Visit India? An Investigative Study

Article Summary

Overview of the Question: Did Jesus Go to India?

Does the Bible show that Jesus traveled to India?

Historical Evidence:

Canonical Gospels and the Missing Years

Archaeological Evidence of Jesus in India

Accounts by Early Church Fathers

Swami Abhedananda's Writings on Jesus in India

J. Archibald Douglas’s Views on Jesus’ Travels in India

Max Müller’s Opinion of Jesus’ Indian Connection

Religious Leaders Who Have Supported the Idea That Jesus Visited India

Jewish Leaders Who Suggested Jesus Traveled Eastward

According to the Orthodox Church, where was Jesus before he started public Ministry?

Other theories about the lost years of Jesus

Frequently asked Questions

Why do some historians believe Jesus went to India when he was 13?

Is India mentioned in the Bible?

How does the Bible describe the life of Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30?

Did any historical evidence support Jesus' visit to India?

Are there any ancient documents or scriptures that mention Jesus traveling to Japan?

Did Jesus leave any teachings or influence behind during his alleged visit to India?

Are there any accounts or records of Jesus' interactions with the Druids in Britain?

Is there any archaeological evidence that suggests Jesus may have traveled to India or Britain during his lost years?

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Table of Contents

Religion News Blog

Did Jesus Christ ever visit India?

More About This Subject

Jesus (as) Journeys East: Tracing the Travel

Evidence from the Bible & the Holy Qur’an

Evidence from Medical Research

Traces of Jewish Tribes in Afghanistan

Traces of Jewish Tribes in Kashmir

The Tomb of Jesus (as) in Kashmir

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Return to the West

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Master and disciple

Saint Thomas the Apostle in India

The disciples of Saint Thomas

The Ishanni Sampradaya

History of the Ishanni Sampradaya

The witness of history

Some Distinctive Traits of the Ishanni Sampradaya

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