How do you refute the idea that Jesus was a Buddhist?

[IGotQuestions]

…and went to Asia after His supposed crucifixion where He lived well into His eighties ministering to people who were much more accepting of him:

 

[steido01]

…and went to Asia after His supposed crucifixion where He lived well into His eighties ministering to people who were much more accepting of him:

What’s there to refute? Have you evidence that Jesus went to Asia?

 

[IGotQuestions]

What’s there to refute? Have you evidence that Jesus went to Asia?

Me? No.
Someone mentioned some books on the subject.

“Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion” by Dr. Holger Kersten

"The Original Jesus: The Buddhist Sources of Christianity [Paperback]
Elmar R. Gruber (Author), Holger Kersten (Author)

“Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings” by Dr. Marcus Borg and Jack Kornfield

 

[Graceful_Lamb]

The Bible. Jesus died and rose on the third day and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Jesus is Jewish (King of the Jews). Says so in the Bible.

 

[Lily_Bernans]

The Bible. Jesus died and rose on the third day and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Jesus is Jewish (King of the Jews). Says so in the Bible.

Absolutely. Credible witnesses saw him ascend into heaven. And, he sent the Holy Spirit as promised, the Paraclete who would not come until he had ascended to the Father.

 

[HungerNThirst4R]

OP, I understand you posted titles of books that claim this but where did they get their sources from? Sounds very similar to Mormonism.

 

[Billy112]

In addition to the reasons presented above, the fact that Jesus is never recorded as having said anything about Buddhism should be reason enough.

There can be some overlap between Christianity and Buddhism and Buddhism can have some poetic ways of saying things, but this does not necessarily prove that there was any linkage intended by either Jesus or the Buddha, or that one can legitimately practice Buddhism in place of Christianity.

 

[phil19034]

If we think about it logically, the whole idea is totally illogical.

1. 
   *]Jesus preaches all over Israel (which IS already in Asia by the way).
   
   *]Jesus is then crucified and killed
   
   *]Raised from the dead, ascended into Heaven… then decides to move to the Far East to become a Buddhist?
   
   Even for non-Christians (who believe He was just a human, not the Son of God), the idea is absurd.
   
   1. 
      *]Jesus preaches to the Jews
      *]Jesus is crucified and fakes his death on the cross
      *]Is stabbed in the chest while faking or while unconscious
      *]Is placed in a tomb
      *]Then, someone sneaks into his guarded tomb, patches him up, and he’s good to go in 3 days and sneaks out of tomb without being seen.
      *]Talks to his disciples and then says "later boys, I’m moving to the far east to study under the Buddha (but don’t stop doing what I taught you)
      
      The whole thing is illogical. It is wishful thinking on Buddhists who like Christ (or want to explain him away) and want to some how latch on to him to convert Christians to Buddhism.
      
      This whole argument is like trying to say that the Baptist Church has been around since the time of Christ and was in hiding until the 1700 or 1800s. Ridiculous.

 

[Michael_Mayo]

Me? No.
Someone mentioned some books on the subject.

“Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion” by Dr. Holger Kersten

"The Original Jesus: The Buddhist Sources of Christianity [Paperback]
Elmar R. Gruber (Author), Holger Kersten (Author)

“Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings” by Dr. Marcus Borg and Jack Kornfield

Has anyone here actually read any of these books?

 

[Mary_Estelle]

Well, Buddha-ism is an enlightened religion in its own right as Buddha taught peace, harmony and love. He was around before Christ by about 5 to 700 years. In 500 years a lot of information, concepts, meditations and insights can be passed about and expanded upon. I would have no problem with Christ gleaning and absorbing some of it. I don’t think Christ went to Asia, 'though. There’s always ‘the lost years,’ but they were probably just years that went unrecorded and/or uneventful. So, if Christ did make a quick trip to study Buddha-ism-who knows-I will still adhere to the gospels in the NT. There are no records or inferences about a Jew guy trapesing around trying to learn Buddha-ism. Interesting 'though.

 

[GEddie]

Our LORD lived in Asia. Israel/Palestine lie on the western edge of the Asian continent.

There is, however, not a speck of evidence that He left that narrow area (except as a child in Egypt).

He never taught reincarnation.

He never taught nirvana.

He taught faith in God the Father, while Buddhism does not maintain faith in a divinity.

He was well known in His home town of Nazareth, and no one ever mentioned Him leaving town for years.

There’s just no argument in favor of Him heading out to learn Buddhism.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Mary_Estelle]

Our LORD lived in Asia. Israel/Palestine lie on the western edge of the Asian continent.

There is, however, not a speck of evidence that He left that narrow area (except as a child in Egypt).

He never taught reincarnation.

He never taught nirvana.

He taught faith in God the Father, while Buddhism does not maintain faith in a divinity.

He was well known in His home town of Nazareth, and no one ever mentioned Him leaving town for years.

There’s just no argument in favor of Him heading out to learn Buddhism.

ICXC NIKA

Hey, I’ll buy that! How’s my credit?

 

[Antegin]

…and went to Asia after His supposed crucifixion where He lived well into His eighties ministering to people who were much more accepting of him:

How do you refute the idea that Jesus was a Buddhist? The same way I refute aliens, telepathy, Sasquatch and Elvis is alive and almost eighty years old. I move on to a serious thread.

 

[edwest2]

I have not read the books in question but they are not the only ones in question. I’m not referring to the Book of Mormon, but another book that was published claiming that Jesus visited America. These sorts of things crop up from time to time. Just know the truth because it needs to be repeated daily to combat the falsehoods being spread daily.

Ed

 

[shayneswenson]

I have not read the books in question but they are not the only ones in question. I’m not referring to the Book of Mormon, but another book that was published claiming that Jesus visited America. These sorts of things crop up from time to time. Just know the truth because it needs to be repeated daily to combat the falsehoods being spread daily.

Ed

I was an atheist for many years, my friend. I have since returned to Christianity, though I am an Orthodox Christian. All I can say, is that these sorts of books are popular level, conjecture filled, ahistorical tabloids. Those titles are approximately one notch above that horrendously idiotic “film” called Zeitgeist that was slithering around the web a few years ago, giving unchecked and fallaciously stupid ammunition for all the nerdy Reddit atheist, basement lurkers. My point, is that these books are a dime a dozen, and most end up in the bargain bin about a year or so after their “groundbreaking” release. Focus on reputable sources, not sensational rags that are designed to make uninformed lay experts feel smart, and in possession of worldview shattering, esoteric secular mythology.

 

[Leo714]

Judaism and Buddhism are completely different.

 

[Janderich]

There is a book called The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ published in 1894 that purports to tell of Jesus’ life between the ages of 12 and his late 20’s. The author Nicholas Notovitch heard stories of a Saint Issa. After hearing the stories Notovitch believed there was not doubt that Issa was Jesus Christ. Upon learning that there were copies of the ancient manuscript in Tibet he traveled there and ultimately translated them.

I’m not sure I believe such stories but I would not go so far as to state that Christianity and Buddhism are completely different. For example, here is an interesting take on the Jesus’ teaching about taking his yoke upon us.

Didn’t he say ‘Take my yoga upon you and learn of me, for my yoga is easy?’ Both yoga and yoke are pronounced as one syllable, with the final vowel silent, and both are the same word, zeugos, in Greek." (The Lost Years of Jesus Revealed, by Rev. Dr. Charles Francis Potter, 1962)

Now, I have to unpeel this statement just a bit. In the above quote “yoga” is not about holding certain posses but rather relates to the original meaning of disciplining the mind, spirit and body. So Jesus may be asking his followers to live as he lived, to see things as he sees them, rather then the western idea that we need to be yoked like oxen to him and by so doing we share the load.

The above is just one example but there are many other scriptures that can be best understood from an eastern nor western point of view.

 

[exnihilo]

This is just a particular example of a wild assertion. This is like the assertion that Jesus was married. Anyone can assert anything. Anyone can construct an argument based in whatever evidence they have.

The first thing you would do is ask for the evidence in support of the claim. The evidence for these kinds of claims is going to be very limited and very questionable. It is going to contrast a huge amount of evidence for the standard or Catholic account of the life of Jesus. So you also always want to ask why the vast amount of evidence to the contrary (the Gospels and writings of early Christians) should be discounted.

For any claim against the standard account of Jesus’ life you can ask why so many men, including the Apostles, were willing to die for an account of Jesus life that is nothing like the claimants. While a man may die for a falsehood he is unlikely to die for what he knows is a lie. How could so many men be so wrong? How could they die for a falsehood when they claimed to have direct experience? That just doesn’t make sense. A man a hundred years after St. Peter may be willing to die for the falsehoods he received from St. Peter. But St. Peter wouldn’t have been willing to die for something he knew was a lie. The evidence is strong that St. Peter was willing to die for the standard account of Jesus life.

 

[rossum]

Well, Buddha-ism is an enlightened religion in its own right as Buddha taught peace, harmony and love. He was around before Christ by about 5 to 700 years. In 500 years a lot of information, concepts, meditations and insights can be passed about and expanded upon. I would have no problem with Christ gleaning and absorbing some of it. I don’t think Christ went to Asia, 'though. There’s always ‘the lost years,’ but they were probably just years that went unrecorded and/or uneventful. So, if Christ did make a quick trip to study Buddha-ism-who knows-I will still adhere to the gospels in the NT. There are no records or inferences about a Jew guy trapesing around trying to learn Buddha-ism. Interesting 'though.

We know there was trade between Alexandria and India; archaeologists have found Indian artefacts in Alexandria. We know that the Buddhists sent missionaries to “the Greeks”, which could have been anywhere in Alexander’s empire from Afghanistan to Alexandria. Even apart from that, the two had many ideas in common: “Love others as you love yourself.” – Bhadramayakara vyakarana sutra 91.

Was Jesus a Buddhist? Probably not. Did He preach some of the same ideas as the Buddha? Yes He did.

$0.02

rossum

 

[eddie_too]

Buddha was a man who may have done the best he could considering his limitations, i.e. finite and sinful human.

Jesus was a man who was also the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus knew the mysteries of God and Heaven because He is God and created heaven.

budhha knew nothing about heaven and hell or sin and salvation and redemption.

nivana is not the same as the kingdom of God.

nivana is not the same as the forgiveness of sins.

Buddha did not offer forgiveness of sins, maybe because Buddha had no doctrine of sin against our Creator.