BBC Documentary: Jesus Was A Buddhist Monk (Accounts For The ‘Missing Years’)
A thought-provoking documentary suggests Jesus Christ — a Jewish preacher and religious leader who became the central figure of Christianity — was a Buddhist Monk. The documentary indicates that Jesus was not crucified and that he spent decades travelling and was ultimately laid to rest after His death at the Roza Bal Shrine located in Srinagar, Kashmir.
Mostly based on the gaping holes in Jesus’ life — between the ages of 13 and 29 — research suggests that the reason why there is no Biblical record of the whereabouts of Jesus is that he was greatly influenced by Buddhism.
A documentary aired by the BBC indicates that Jesus Christ was NOT crucified and that he was a Buddhist monk. The intriguing documentary asks countless questions that many have refused to answer. As noted in the documentary, the story of Christianity features the most famous name in history, as well as the most famous event in history, the crucifixion.
For some or even many true believers, the fact that Jesus was crucified, died, rose again and ascended into heaven can be considered as definitive truth.
However, throughout history, many have questioned these events. Would a man — Jesus — die after only six hours on the cross? Was he drugged? And what really occurred in the Sepulcher, and if Jesus did not ascend into heaven, then where did the central figure of Christianity go?
For many authors these questions risk undermining the entire idea behind Christianity and are extremely controversial. The most crucial part of the story behind Jesus Christ — which all Christians faithfully believe — is the ‘idea’ that Jesus Christ rose from the dead — the resurrection, the primary story of the heart of Christianity.
Long story short, the documentary questions the life of Jesus and asks numerous controversial questions about life, was Jesus excommunicated, and did he flee to the Himalayas?
According to the documentary, Jesus spent years teaching in various, distant holy cities like Jagannath, Rajagriha and Benares, and He eventually fled to the Himalayas, where He continued his studies in Buddhism. Many authors, including a German scholar by the name of Holger Kersten, wrote about Jesus and his life suggesting that He had settled in Sindh, among the Aryans.
The documentary aired by the BBC suggests that Jesus fled and escaped death to Afghanistan with several Jewish settlers. Local stories seem to confirm the theory suggesting that Jesus spent years in the Kashmir Valley and remained there until He died at the age of 80.
The Lost Years Of Jesus
The lost years of Jesus (or dark years) refer to the undocumented period between the infancy of Jesus and the beginning of his ministry according to the New Testament.
The Gospels relate the birth of Jesus, and the subsequent trip to Egypt to escape the fury of Herod (Matthew 2: 13-23). There is a general reference to Mary and the young Jesus living in Nazareth (2:23 Matthew, Luke 2: 39-40). There is also an isolated account of the visit of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus to the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover when Jesus was twelve years old (Luke 2: 41-50).
However, after this, there is a gap in history that covers eighteen years in the life of Christ (from 12 to 30 years). Apart from the generic allusion that Jesus was advancing in wisdom, stature, and in the favor of God and man (Luke 2:52), the Bible says nothing more about the life of Jesus during this period of time. A common assumption among Christians is that Jesus simply lived in Nazareth during that period.
Interestingly, authors Gruber and Kersten (1995) also claim that Buddhism had a substantial influence on the life and teachings of Jesus. The authors claim that Jesus was influenced by the teachings and practices of the “Therapists” described by the authors as teachers of the Theravada Buddhist School which were established in Judea.
Gruber and Kersten assert that Jesus lived the life of an ideal Buddhist and taught Buddhism to his disciples. Their work follows in the footsteps of Oxford New Testament scholar Barnett Hillman Streeter, who established in the 1930s that the moral teaching of Buddha has four striking resemblances to the Sermon on the Mount — a collection of sayings and teachings credited to Jesus, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7).
The Sermon is the longest continuous section of Jesus speaking found in the New Testament and has been one of the most widely quoted elements of the Canonical Gospels. Many scholars believe that Jesus may have been inspired by the Buddhist religion and that the Gospel of Thomas and many manuscript texts found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, reflect this possibility.
Books like The Agnostic and Beyond Beliefs: The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels and The Original Jesus by Gruber and Kersten discuss these theories. Interestingly, in 1887 Russian author Nicholas Notovitch visited India and Tibet. He stated that in the monastery of Hemis Ladakh he heard of a manuscript on the “Life of Saint Issa, the Best of the Sons of Men.”
Issa is the Arabic name of Jesus.
Its history, together with a text translated from the “Life of Saint Issa”, was published in French in 1894 under the name “The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ”, and subsequently translated into English, German, Spanish, and Italian.
Check out the documentary and let us know what you think: