40years now since this book came out:

JESUS (also-) lived in INDIA.
His Unknown Life Before
and After the Crucifixion,
by
holger kersten,

this from a heavy pdf-picture-file was found at
 https://pdf coffee.com/Jesus-lived-in-india-pdf-free.html
and this has (here below-) been thru online OCR,  but ocr-mistakes are surely still here,
 so best to go get the book via library or download it locally, fx via link above if it still drives.

Further INTRO from wikipedia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holger_Kersten)
Holger Kersten (born 1951) is a German writer on myth, legend, religion, and esoteric subjects. 
He is best known for speculative books about time Jesus spent in India.
 Kersten's views have received no support from mainstream scholarship.

   1983.
 this book, Jesus Lived in India, promotes the claim of Nicolas Notovitch (1894)
 regarding the unknown years of Jesus between the ages of twelve and twenty-nine, 
supposedly spent in India. The consensus view amongst modern scholars is that Notovitch's
 account of the travels of Jesus to India was a hoax. Kersten also promotes 
Ahmadiyya founder GhuIam  Ahmad's claims regarding time spent by Jesus in India 
between the age of 33 and 120, and his burial at the Roza Bal shrine in Srinagar.
 Kersten additionally draws on earlier material by Louis Jacolliot, Andreas Faber-Kaiser, 
and German novelist Siegfried Obermeier (1983). The book was translated into Chinese in 1987.

Like others before him, Kersten follows Mirza GhuI am  Ahmad in his sources, such as a 
passage in the Bhavishya Purana, which refers to Jesus as "Isa-Masih" (Jesus the Messiah). 
The passage describes the Hindu king Shalivahana travelling to mountains, where he meets 
a man who calls himself Isa, son of a virgin. Isa says he has ministered to the Mlecchas, 
explaining that he has reformed their lives by recommending principles of mental purity,
 using japa by chanting holy names, and meditation. Kersten interprets this as a 
record of Jesus in Kashmir. In reality, the passage is an 18th-century dialogue also 
featuring Muhammad, and not an early source, as Ahmad claimed. Most scholars consider 
this part of the Purana to be a 19th-century interpolation.

The book achieved great popularity in Germany and overseas, though it competed with the 
better-known Obermeier's book in Germany. Indologist Günter Grönbold included a highly 
critical debunking of Obermeier and Kersten's interpretations of Buddhist sources among
 various expositions of Jesus in India theories in Jesus in Indien. Das Ende einer 
Legende (Jesus in India, the end of a Legend, 1985).[8] Wilhelm Schneemelcher, in introducing 
the subject of New Testament Apocrypha (1991), uses Kersten by way of illustration of 
the development of legendary Gospel traditions and notes how Kersten "attempted to work
 up Notovitch and Ahmadiyya legends, with many other alleged witnesses, into a 
complete picture." Douglas T. McGetchin notes that once his story had been re-examined 
by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence.

However, in 1922, Swami Abhedananda visited the Hemis monastery and corroborated much of 
Notovitch's story. Given access to the manuscripts on Jesus Christ, Abhedananda later 
published an abbreviated version of Notovich's translated account.[11] After Abhedananda's 
death in 1939, one of his disciples inquired about the documents at the monastery but was 
told they had disappeared.

'The Original Jesus'  1994.
In a later work, co-written with parapsychologist Elmar R. Gruber (b. 1955), Der Ur-Jesus (1994), 
translated as The Original Jesus (1995), Kersten argues that Buddhism appears to have had a 
substantial influence on the life and teachings of Jesus. They hold that Jesus was influenced 
by the teachings and practices of Therapeutae, described by the authors as teachers of the Buddhist 
Theravada school then living in Judaea, although the only account of this group, an extensive 
description by Philo of Alexandria, describes the Therapeutae as a charismatic Hellenistic
 Jewish community following the Law of Moses. Gruber and Kersten assert that Jesus lived the 
life of a Buddhist and taught Buddhist ideals to his disciples. In doing so, their work draws
 on earlier comparisons between Buddhism and Christianity, including that of Oxford New Testament
 scholar Burnett Hillman Streeter (1932), who argued that the moral teachings of the Gautama 
Buddha hold four remarkable resemblances to the Sermon on the Mount.

The Jesus Conspiracy  1997.
Kersten and Gruber later developed the ideas of the two earlier books and connected them to the 
Turin Shroud in Das Jesus-Komplott: die Wahrheit über das Turiner Grabtuch  The Jesus Conspiracy: 
The Turin Shroud and the Truth About the Resurrection.[16] and Jesus starb nicht am Kreuz  
Die Botschaft des Turiner Grabtuchs (1998) (Jesus Did Not Die on the Cross: The Message of the 
Shroud of Turin). The Jesus Conspiracy proposes that the Vatican interfered with 
the 1988 Radiocarbon 14 dating of the Shroud of Turin to show a medieval date for its origin.

 The authors propose that the shroud is the authentic burial cloth of Jesus, but that evidence, 
including blood tracks, shows that Jesus was alive following his crucifixion. They argue that the 
Mandylion, or Image of Edessa, known from the sixth century, was the shroud, but folded to only 
show the face of Jesus. Because Jesus surviving the cross would contradict the teaching of the 
Resurrection, the central belief in Christianity, the authors allege that the Vatican used a 
piece from a 13th-century cloth with a similar herringbone weave to the Shroud of Turin as a 
substitute in the carbon dating. In part three, Gruber attempts to explain many details 
concerning what happened in "that dramatic hour of Good Friday". The book repeats Kersten's 
earlier arguments that after the crucifixion, Jesus moved to India.


Critical response.
None of Kersten's works have found any support in mainstream scholarship  either Biblical or 
Indologist. Noted German scholar of New Testament Apocrypha Wilhelm Schneemelcher, in a 
revision of his standard work prior to his death in 2003, and in unusually strong language 
for the scholarly community, states that Kersten's work is based on "fantasy, untruth and 
ignorance (above all in the linguistic area)" and "has nothing to do with historical
 research." Gerald O'Collins and Daniel Kendall opined that "Kersten's discredited book" 
is simply the repackaging of Notovich and Ahmad's material for consumption by the general public.

Bibliography.
     * (1983),
    The Original Jesus (1994),
    The Jesus Conspiracy (1997),
    Jesus starb nicht am Kreuz  Die Botschaft des Turiner, ,

See also: the bible bluff (m.stjerna).

* Jesus lebte in Indien  Sein geheimes Leben vor und nach der Kreuzigung. 
1. Auflage: Droemer Knaur, München 1983, ISBN 3-426-03712-2).

NB- NOT AT ALL PROOF-READ FURTHER:
-------------------------

Chapter One,

THE UNKNOWN LIFE
OF JESUS.

Nicolai Notovitch's Discovery.

towords the end of 1887, the Russian historian and itinerant
scholar Nicolai Notovitch reached the Himalayan state of
Kashmir, in northern India, on one of his many journeys to the
Orient. He planned to go on an expedition from Srinagar, capital of 
Kashmir, to the Ladakh region across the Great Himalaya. With
him he had enough funds to equip himself adequately, and to hire
an interpreter and ten bearers to accompany him and his servant.
After a somewhat adventurous trek, having successfully braved
many trials and difficulties, the caravan finally reached the 
3500-metre-high Zoji-la pass on the natural border between the 'Happy Valley" 
of Kashmir and the arid 'lunar' landscape of Ladakh.

The Zoji-la, negotiable only for a few months in the year, was at
that time the only route of access from Kashmir to that strange and remote country. 
Notovitch wrote in his diary, "What a great contrast I experienced, leaving the 
cheerful, open countryside and the handsome people of Kashmir to travel into the 
forbidding, barren mountains of Ladakh and its beardless, sturdy inhabitants!" 
The strong-featured Ladakhis soon nonetheless proved to be a friendly 
lot and 'extremely open'.

Notovitch eventually arrived at a Buddhist monastery where, as
a European, he was afforded a reception that was much more cordial than any 
Asiatic Muslim might have expected. He asked a
Lama  why he should be favoured in this way, and the following
conrersation took place:

"The Muslims have little in common with our religion. Indeed,
not long ago they waged an all-too-successful campaign to forcibly convert a 
number of our Buddhists to Islam . It has caused us immense difficulty to
 reconvert these ex-Buddhist Muslims back to the way of the true God. Now 
the Europeans are altogether different. Not only do they profess the essential 
principles of monotheism, they have almost as much title to be considered worshippers 
of Buddha as the I am as of Tibet themselves. The only difference between the 
Christians and ourselves is that, after having adopted the great doctrines of Buddha, 
the Christians have parted from him completely by creating for themselves a different 
Dalai lama. Our Dalai lama retained the divine gilt of seeing the
majesty of Buddha, and the power to act as an intermediary
between Earth and Heaven."

"Who is this Christian Dalai Lama  you are talking about? asked
Notovitch. "We have a Son of God, to whom we direct our fervent
prayers, and whom in time of need we beseech to intercede for us
with our one and indivisible God . .

'It is not of him I speak, Sahib! We too respect the one you recognize as 
Son of the one God  not that we see in him an only Son,
rather a Being perfect among all the elect. The spirit of Buddha
was indeed incarnate in the sacred person of Issa, who, without
aid from fire or sword, has spread knowledge of cur great and true
religion throughout the world. I speak instead of your earthly
[Dalai Lama , him to whom you have given the title "Father of the
Church". This is a great sin; may the flocks be forgiven who have
gone astray because of it.'

And so saying, the Lama  hastened to turn his prayer wheel.

Understanding the Lama  to be alluding to the Pope, Notovitch
probed further.

"You tell me that a son of Buddha, Issa, spread your religion
over the Earth, Who is he, then?

Al this question the Lama  opened his eyes wide and looked at
his visitor in astonishment. After uttering a few words the 
interpreter did not catch, he explained:

'Issa is a great prophet, one of the first after the twenty-two
Buddhas. He is greater than any one of the Dalai I am as, for he
constitutes part of the spiritual essence of our Lord. It is he who
has enlightened you, who has brought back within the fold of religion the 
souls of the erring, and who allows every human being to
distinguish between good and evil. His name and his deeds are
recorded in our sacred writings."

By this time Notovitch was feeling quite stunned at the I am as
words, for the prophet Issa, his teaching, his martyrdom, and the
reference to a Christian Dalai Lama  were increasingly reminiscent of Jesus Christ.



He ordered his interpreter not to leave out a single word that
the Lama  spoke.

"Where are these writings now to be found? And by whom were
they originally written down?" he finally asked the monk.

"The principal scriptures, written over the centuries in India and
Nepal according to various historial sources, are to be found at
Lhasa to the number of several thousand. There are copies in some
of the chief monastic foundations, made by the I am as during their
sojourns at Lhasa at different times, and presented by them afterwards to their 
own monasteries in remembrance of their pilgrimage to the home of 
their great master, our Dalai Lama .'

'But you yourselves  have you no copies relating to the prophet
Issa?'

"We have none. Our monastery is not an important one, and
since its founding, the succession of our I am as has only had a few
hundred manuscripts given into its keeping. The great monasteries
own thousands of them. But these are sacred objects, and not for
you to see anywhere.'

Notovitch resolved to try to examine these scriptures in the further course 
of his travels. Later he arrived in Leh, the capital of
Ladakh, from where he went on to Hemis (Tibetan Byang-cchulb-
bsam-gling 'Isle of contemplation for the perfect'), 'one of the most
distinguished monasteries in the country'.

There he witnessed one of the traditional religious festivals that
take place several times each year, and as the head I am as guest of
honour he had an opportunity to find out a great deal about the
customs and daily life of the I am aist monks. He finally succeeded
in turning the conversation round to his chief interest, and to his
pleasure learned that in the monastery there were indeed scriptures about 
the mysterious prophet Issa, whose life seemed to bear
such astounding similarities to the stories of jesus the Nazarene.

But for the time being the guest was obliged to defer the pursuit
of his enquiries, for simply to find those books among the many
thousands would itself have taken a considerable time,

Returning to Leh, Notovitch sent the head of the Hemis
monastery some valuable gifts in the hope of being allowed to
return in the near future, and so perhaps catch a glimpse at last of
the precious manuscripts, It so chanced that, a little time later
while out riding near Hemis, he fell from his horse, landed awkwardly 
enough to break a leg, and was perforce compelled to
entrust himself into the care of the monks. Recovering in bed, he
sent out a heartfelt plea, and two large bound volumes of loose
other. Notovitch took careful notes of his
interpreter's renditions in his travel diary. Later, some time after
his expedition had come to an end, he arranged the verses in
chronological order and succeeded in rounding off the many separate texts 
so as to give a continuous narrative."

Its contents may be succinctly outlined (using the French translation as a basis):

A short introductory section precedes a brief description of the
early history of the people of Israel and the life of Moses. An
account then follows of how the eternal Spirit resolves to take on
human form 'so that he might demonstrate by his own example
how moral purity may be attained, and by freeing the soul from its
rude mortality, achieve the degree of perfection required to enter
into the kingdom of Heaven, which is unchanging and ruled by
eternal happiness'. And so a divine infant is born in far-away
Israel, and is given the name Issa.' Sometime during the fourteenth
year of his life, the lad arrives in the region of the Sind (the Indus)
in the company of merchants, "and he settled among the Aryans, in
the land beloved of God, with the intention of perfecting himself
and of learning from: the laws of the great Buddha'. The young issa
travels through the land of five rivers (the Punjab)' stays briefly
with the 'erring Jains', and then proceeds to Jagannath, "where the
while priests of Brahma honoured him with a jovous reception'.
At Jagannath lssa/ Jesus learns to read and understand the Veda.
But by then instructing the Sudras of the lowest castes, he incurs
the displeasure of the Brahmans, who feel their position and
power threatened. After spending six years in Jagganath,
Rajagriha, Benares and other holy cities, he is compelled lo flee the

rahmans who are outraged at his continuing to teach that it is not

the will of God that the worth of human beings should be judged
by their caste,

There is an extraordinary correlation between the accounts in
the texts found by Notovitch and those of the Gospels, a correlation 
that can shed more light on Jesus' own personality  especially
in what he said. Notovitch's Issa opposes the abuses of the caste
system, which rob the lower castes of their basic human rights,
saying, 'God our Father makes no difference between any of his
children, all of whom he loves equally.' And later on his travels he
takes issue with a rigid and inhumane adherence to the letter of
the law, declaring that "The law was made for Man, to show him
the way.' He consoles the weak: 'The eternal Judge, the eternal
Spirit, who forms the sole and indivisible World-soul will proceed 
sternly against those who arrogate His rights to themselves'
When the priests challenge Issa to produce miracles, to prove the
omnipotence of his God, he retorts, 'The miracles of our God have
been performed ever since the first day when the universe was created; 
they take place every day and at every moment. Those who
cannot perceive them are robbed of one of the most beautiful gifts
of life." Challenging the authority of the priests, he makes his position 
quite clear: 'So long as the people had no priests, they were
ruled by natural law and they preserved the flawlessness of their
souls. Their souls were in the presence of God, and to commune
with the Father they had no need to resort to the mediation of an
idol or a beast, nor to fire, as is practised here. You say that the sun
must be worshipped, as must the spirits of good and the spirits of
evil, Well, I tell you your doctrine is an utterly false one, for the
sun has no power of its own, but solely through the will of the
invisible Creator, who gave it birth, and who has willed it to be the
star to light the day, and to warm the labour and the seed-time of
Man.'

Notovitch's text goes on to describe how Issa goes further into
the Himalayan ranges, to Nepal, where he remains for six years
and dedicates himself to the study of Buddhist scriptures. The doctrines 
that he teaches widely there are simple and clear, and are
particularly aimed at uplifting the oppressed and the weak, whose
eves he opens to the falsity of the priests. Finally, he moves on
towards the West, passing through various countries as an itinerant 
preacher, preceded well in advance by a celebrated reputation.
He also stands up to the priests of Persia, who expel him one night
in the hope that he would quickly fall prey to wild animals. But
Providence allows the holy Issa to reach Palestine safely, where the
wise men inquire of him "Who are you, and from what country do
you come? We have never heard of you and do not even know
your name.'

'I am  an Israelite," Issa replies, 'and on the day of my birth I saw
the walls of Jerusalem and heard the sobs of my brothers in their
slavery and the wails of my sisters condemned to live among the
heathen. And my soul grieved sorely when I heard that my brothers had 
forgotten the true God. As a child, I left my parents' home
to live among other peoples. But after hearing of the great sorrows
that my brothers were suffering, I returned to the land where my


parents lived, in order to bring my brothers back to the faith of our
ancestors, a faith which enjoins us to be patient on Earth so that we
might achieve the consummate and highest happiness in the
Beyond.'

It is remarkable how this latter text agrees in all its main points
with information given in the biblical Gospels.

The two manuscripts from which the Lama  at the monastery of
Hemis read aloud to Notovitch, selecting all the passages dealing
with Jesus, were collections of various Tibetan writings. The originals 
had been compiled in the old Indian language Pali* during the
first two centuries AD, and kept in a monastery near Lhasa which
was directly affiliated to the Potala Palace of the Dalai Lama .

Back in Europe, Notovitch tried to get in touch with several
Church dignitaries of high official standing in order to tell them of
his astounding discovery. The Metropolitan of Kiev advised him
in the strongest terms not to publicize what he had found, but
refused to give any reason. In Paris, Cardinal Rotelli explained that
publication of the texts would only provide fuel for those who
hated, despised or misunderstood the Gospel teachings, and
would be premature at that time. At the Vatican, a close colleague
of the Pope put it this way: "What good will printing it do? No one
will see it as of any great significance, and you will make a lot of
enemies. But you are still very young, If it is a question of money, I
could arrange for a payment to be made in exchange for your, to remunerate 
you for the work you have done and the time
it has taken. * Notovitch rejected the offer,

Only the critic, religious historian and celebrated Orientalist
Ernest Renan showed a lively interest in the notes. But even then,
it soon became clear to Notovitch that Renan was interested solely
in using the material for his own purposes, as a member of the
Académie Frangaise, and so he did not follow up his proposals.

At long last he managed to get the manuscript published, but it
did not cause much of a stir. The power and influence of the
Christian Churches are so great that doubts about the authenticity
of canonical teachings are simply not permitted any credence.
Critics and sceptics are condemned as godless heretics, and muzzled 
or ostracized. At the Hime Notovitch himself was in no position to gather enough scientific support for his documentary
evidence to ensure that it would be given serious and scholarly
consideration,


Who Was Notovitch?

Nicolai Alexandrovitch Notovitch" was born on 25 August 1858 in
Kerch', in the Crimea, the second son of a rabbi. Little is known of
his childhood, but he evidently received a school education good
enough later as a young man to go to the university of St
Petersburg, where his main subject was history. But before that,
following the introduction of compulsory military service in
Russia in the year 1874, Nicolai Notovitch underwent his military
training at the age of about seventeen, and then fought in the
Serbian campaign against the Turks in 1876. Soon after this he took
part in the Russo-Turkish war (1877-8). It would seem that
Notovitch also served in the military during his student days,
because in a short notice in the Daily News of 23 June 1894 we read
that he had been an 'officer with the Cossacks'.

During the 1880s he wrote and produced a play, Mariage idéal,
that received some small public acclaim. He was later to write
another, called Gallia, for which he also composed incidental
music.

Notovitch's historical studies had evidently engendered a lively
enthusiasm for pan-Slavic ideas, Whereas his brother Osip, who
had gained a doctorate as a jurist in st.Petersburg, turned to 
philosophical and literary pursuits, Nicolai was more interested in the
influence of Russian politics on world events. Both brothers
nonetheless worked as journalists after their studies. In 1873 Osip
Notovitch secured a post as arts editor on a daily newspaper in St.
Petersburg, Later (in 1883), Nicolai was also to work for this daily
as correspondent for the Orient. The Notovitch brothers were
among those who felt constrained by the acutely anti-Semitic policy 
of Tsar Alexander Ill, and this moved Osip to join the Russian
Orthodox Church when still a young man. Nicolai must have
taken the same step, because he publicly acknowledged his adherence 
to the Russian Orthodox religion in the French journal Le
Paix.

The year 1B87 saw the appearance of Notovitch's first publication, 
a translation in French of the work of a Russian general
which documented his support for the idea of a Franco-Russian
alliance." His second work, published in French in 1890, also dealt
with the Question de "Alliance Franco-Russe. In the years 1883 to
1887, as correspondent of the newspaper Nowayr Veewriya,
Notovitch undertook a number of journeys through the Balkans,
the Caucasus, Central Asia and Persia. This led to a meeting with



Aloysius Rotelli (1833-91), who was papal legate in Istanbul from
January 1883 until May 1887, and who was later to advise
Notovitch as Cardinal in Paris.

In 1887 Notovitch set out on his important journey to India. The
dates for his stay in Kashmir and Ladakh can be fixed at between
14 October and about 26 November.

His activities thereafter focused mainly on the literary sphere.
He stayed for a considerable time in Paris, where from 1889
onwards he published numerous articles in the press for example
in Le Figaro, Le Journal and La Science Frangaise. And it was because
Notovitch fully expected publication of the Buddhist story of the
life of Jesus to be blocked by the censors in his native land, owing
to the restrictive nature of official policy on religious matters there,
that he handed his manuscript to a publisher in Paris.
Nevertheless, the first Russian extracts from his book, translated
from the German, appeared in 1895 in the journal Vera  Razum
(No.22, pp. 575-614), having successfully got past the censor.

Shortly after the appearance of his work La Vie Inconsue de Jésus
Christ, towards the end of 1895, Notovitch was arrested while on a
visit to St Petersburg, and imprisoned in the Fortress of Peter and
Paul. Accused of literary activity 'dangerous to the state and to
society', he was exiled without trial to Siberia by the head of a
ministry department. His banishment ended in 1897, but even
while he was in Siberia Notovitch wrote several articles about his
'extraordinary adventure', which appeared anonymously in the
journal La Science Frangaise." And in his novel Une Frangaise en
Sibérie his main theme was once more the memoirs of a Russian
revolutionary.

On his return from an extended journey to Egypt in mid-1838,
Notovitch set up a publishing house in Paris to produce the fortnightly 
journal La Russie, which concerned itself primarily with
political and economic affairs. In the journal he continued to publish
 his own essays and reports.

On 2 June 1899, Notovitch was accepted into the celebrated
Société d'Histoire Diplomatique, the membership of which was
made up of high-ranking diplomats and noted historians, and
included constituents of the Rothschild family. From 1903 to 1806
Notovitch appears to have stayed in a flat in London, at least intermittently. 
He then probably returned to Russia. Dating from 1906
there is also an extensive contract drawn up between him and the
Shah of Persia detailing the building of roads and pipelines in
Iran." In 1910 another Russian edition of the Buddhist story of


Jesus' life, The Life of Saint issa, appeared. Up to the year 1916,

Nicolai Alexandrovitch Notovitch is named in a Russian catalogue
of journals as the editor and publisher of various periodicals in
St. Petersburg." But after that, not a single trace of Notovitch is to
be found anywhere. Perhaps he was keeping a low profile, sheltering
 from the many attacks mounted by his opponents. It is even
conceivable that the militant agitator was once and for all removed
from circulation.

Criticism and the Critics.
Following the appearance of the first editions of Notovitch's book
in 1894, an article was published in the English journal The
Nineteenth Century in October of the same year by the renowned
German expert on India, Max Müller, in which he set out to expose
Notovitch's discovery as a fraud. In his place, a Oxford professor
 who had never been to India himself  published a letter
dated 29 June 1894, in which a British colonial officer, whom
Muller had contacted, confirmed that the presence of a certain
Notovitch in Ladakh was 'not documented', Müller's motives can
best be discerned from a letter he wrote in 1856 to a friend: 'India
is much riper for Christianity than Rome or Greece were at the
time of St Paul." He adds that he would not like to go to India as a
missionary himself because that would make him dependent on
the authorities, and goes on:

I should like to live for ten years quite quietly and lean the language,
try to make friends, and then see whether I was fit to take part in
doing something that might help to overthrow the ancient evil of
Indian priestcraft, and to create an opening for simple Christian education.

This shows clearly enough what Müller really had in mind, and at
the same time demonstrates the motivations of the opponents who
were repeatedly attacking Notovitch.

Shortly after this article, in May-June 1895, J. Archibald
Douglas, a teacher at the Government College in Agra, made his
way to Ladakh, from where he attempted to expose Notovitch as a
fraud. His report came out in April 1896 in the 'Orientalischen
Bibliografie" under the lurid heading 'Documents Prove Notovitch
Swindle!'


Initially Douglas had found no trace of Notovitch in Ladakh,
but he was soon obliged to acknowledge confirmation by the doctor, 
Karl Marx. Finally he allegedly paid a visit to the Hemis
monastery, In his later report Douglas said that the abbot of Hemis
had never met Notovitch. The April 1896 issue of The Nineteenth
Century (pp. 667-78) contains a statement by Douglas to the effect
that the Lama , on being confronted with Notovitch's text, spontaneously 
cried out, "Sun, sun, sun, manna mi dug!', which Douglas
and his interpreter took to mean 'Lies, lies, lies, nothing but lies',
The remarkable thing here is that the words quoted make no sense
at all in Tibetan, or in any Tibetan dialect, or for that matter in any
other Asiatic language.

However Douglas elicited these statements, he was concerned
at any rate to turn these claims into official documents by adding
his seal and signature. In an afterword to the article by Douglas,
Professor Max Miller appends a fulsome apology to the monks of
Hemis for ever having at first considered that Notovitch could
have been misled by the monks, He speaks of the 'annihilation of
Mr Notovitch' by Archibald Douglas.

So we have two testimonies: that of the Russian journalist
Notovitch, and that of the British professor Douglas, The fact that
Douglas said he did not see the writings discovered by Notovitch
certainly does not prove that the writings never existed.

In fact, there were other witnesses, both before and after
Notovitch, who did see the contested writings in Flemis with their
own EYES.

Forty years before Notovitch's visit to the Hemis Lamasery, a
certain Mrs Harvey described the Tibetan texts that mention Jesus

in her book The Adventures of a Lady in Tartary, Thibet, China and
Kashmir, which appeared in 1853.

After Notovitch there were several eyewitnesses who saw the
relevant documents before they finally disappeared. One of them
was the Indian monk Swami Abhedananda, whose given name
was Kaliprasad Chandra (born 1866), who studied at the Oriental
Seminary in Calcutta, and who later visited England, where he met
Max Müller. In 1922 Abhedananda went on a pilgrimage to Tibet,
and from the diary notes he made on the journey he subsequently
compiled a book entitled Kashntir and Tibet. On the way to Tibet he
visited the Hemis monastery where, because he had heard about
Notovitch's discovery, he asked the monks of the monastery
whether the Russian's story was true. 'They told me that the report
was completely true' (p. 230). 

The abbot then led the visitor
through the rooms of the monastery until he came to a shelf, from
where he lifted out a manuscript and showed it to him. This manuscript 
was said to be a copy of the original kept in the Marbour
monastery near Lhasa, the Lama  explained. At Abhedananda's
request the abbot helped him to make a translation of the text.
Until then Abhedananda had been sceptical about Notovitch's
publications  but when he saw the manuscript for himself, he no
longer doubted that the controversial discovery was authentic.

Not long after Abhedananda, in 1925, the Russian archaeologist
and painter Nicolas Roerich, who spent the greater part of his life
in India, made further references in print to Tibetan writings which
reported that Jesus had returned from the Himalaya to Palestine at
the age of twenty-nine. In the course of following up his investigations, 
Roerich made enquiries about the documents among the
people of Ladakh, and learned "the legend of Issa in various forms.
the locals know nothing of any published book , but they know the 
legend and speak with worshipful
reverence of Issa."

After that, Lady Henrietta Merrick confirmed the existence of
the writings in her book In the Worlds Attick, published in 1931.
She writes: 'In Leh is the legend of Christ who is calked "Issa", and
it is said that the monastery at Hemis 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 a Swiss matron named Madame Elisabeth Caspari visited the Hemis 
monastery while on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailasa.
She was one of a small group in the company of Mrs Clarence
Gasque, the president of an organization called the World
Association of Faith. The librarian of the monastery showed her
the old manuscripts and said, "These books tell of your Jesus' stay
here." And Mme Caspari briefly took one of the three books shown
to her in her hands. None of the ladies present had ever heard of
the discoveries of Nicolai Notovitch, and so they did not pay too
much attention to the writings.

The texts were evidently removed from the monastery sometime afterwards.




Immediately after the publication of Notovitch's book, critical
voices were heard right across Europe, raised by people who
thought it their duty to try to silence Notovitch, and even questioning 
whether his journey to Ladakh had ever taken place. But
the journey is well attested to not only by Notovitch's own account
but by a number of independent authorities  there are other
sources which make it perfectly possible to reconstruct his journey
and to reach an objective view of the events.

In the autumn of 1887, Notovitch set off for India as a correspondent 
for the Russian journal Novaya Vremiya, and visited
Kashmir and Ladakh in the period from 14 October to around the
end of November. In Notovitch's paper La Russie dated 1 March
1900 there is a brief description of the itinerary:  I visited
Baluchistan, Afghanistan and the North of India, as well as the
provinces lying between the Indus and the border of
Afghanistan,"" The geographical and chronological data are confirmed 
by the Frankfurter Zeitung, which contains an announcement that 
Notovitch had stayed in the town of Simla, situated at a
height of 2180 metres at the edge of the Himalayan mountains, and
then left from there for the north-west regions of India, going first
of all to Quetta (now in Pakistan, near the border with
Afghanistan).

On returning from Afghanistan to India, Notovitch followed the
Indus upstream to Rawalpindi. From there he turned to the southeast 
and travelled to Amritsar in the Punjab, where he visited the
Golden Temple, the main shrine of the Sikhs. Leaving Amritsar he
went to visit the tomb of Maharajah Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) at
Lahore, and from there on 14 October 1887 took the train back to
Rawalpindi. There he assembled his baggage with the help of his
French-speaking servant (who hailed from the French colony of
Pondicherry in southern India}, and started for Kashmir over the
Himalayan foothills in a horse-drawn carriage. On the evening of
19 October they reached the Kashmir capital Srinagar.

Notovitch described his first impressions graphically: "On arriving 
at the town itself, one sees a whole row of boats and floating
houses in which entire families live together" He stayed at the
well-known Nedou's Hotel, open all the year round (which still
exists today, and from which the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin left
for his Trans-Himalaya expedition in the early 1900s). 

During his stay in the town, Notovitch made the acquaintance of a 
Frenchman called Peychaud, who looked after the vineyards of the 
Maharajah Pratap Singh. Peychaud lent Notovitch a dog which had 
accompanied an expedition in the Pamir mountains two and a half months
before. A week later, on 27 October, Notovitch departed from
Srinagar to continue on his journey to Ladakh, and just two days
afterwards he met Sir Francis Younghusband (1863-1942, later to
be appointed High Commissioner of Kashmir) in Mateyan, where
he happened to be making a stopover during his adventurous
overland journey from Peking to Rawalpindi.

During the next part of his journey to Ladakh, Notovitch collected 
several many stones on which were engraved the sacred formula of the 
Tibetans Om mani padme hum, which he later
bequeathed to the museum of the Trocadero Palace in Paris." To
this day there is a piece of Kashmiri fabric in the Musée de
I'Homme registered under his name, In gratitude for the donation
of his collection, he was later made a member of the French Légion
d'Honneur."

Notovitch spent the night of 3-4 November in the Hemis
monastery, where he awoke with severe toothache. He sent a messenger 
to the local governor, who replied advising him to visit Dr
Marx of the Ladane Charitable Dispensary. Karl Rudolph Marx
(also Marx-Weiz), a missionary belonging to the Moravian
Brothers", had studied medicine in Edinburgh, and since
December 1866 had been the director of the hospital in Leh. The
diaries of Dr Marx confirm that he did indeed treat Notovitch
(Plate 4).

Notovitch, having planned to travel back to Kashmir, suffered
such an awkward fall from his horse that he broke his right leg
below the knee. The accident happened near the monastery of
'Piatek' (presumably Spitok Gompa, dPe-thub in Tibetan). The
notice in the Frankfurter Zeitung mentioned earlier confirms this
event. Notovitch then allowed himself to be carried back to the
Hemis monastery, where in due course the precious texts were
read out to him.

Most of the information concerning the life and work of Nicolai
Notovitch comes from the research work of Dr Norbert Klatt, 
published in Orfentierungen Nr 13/1986 by Evangelische Zentralstelle
für Weltanschauungensfragen.

0  
A Mysterious Order

The mystical order of the Math Yogis (also called Gorakhath or
MNavnath), found in many parts of India, has preserved an old
Hindu Sutra known as the Natha Namavali, which tells of the great
saint Isha Nath, who is said to have come to India at the age of
fourteen years. After he returned to his home country and started
to spread the teaching there, he fell victim to a conspiracy and was
crucified. By means of the yogic powers he had attained in India
he was able to survive execution, and finally  with the help of the
supernatural powers of his Indian teacher Chetan Math, a Nath
Guru  he came once more to India, where he is said to have
founded an Ashram monastery among the outlying foothills of the
Himalayan mountains.

The Shaivite (Shiva-centred) Nath Yogis, easily recognized by
their large earrings, represent one of the oldest Hindu orders of
monks, whose origins are lost in the twilight of history, at a time
well before the birth of Jesus and the beginning of our era, a time
perhaps coincidental with Mahayana Buddhism. In contrast to
many other Hindu orders and sects, the Nath Yogis do not recognize 
the caste system and the primacy of the Brahmans. They look
on all people as brothers and sisters, and accept all seekers into
their ranks regardless of their background and status. The parallels
with the attitude of Jesus towards the Jerusalem temple priests and
towards non-Jews, Samaritans and sinners would be hard to miss,

As modern research into the life of Jesus stands, it is really not
possible to disprove Jesus' stay in India. There is no historically
reliable source, nor any indication in the Gospels, to give us any more
information than the woefully scant details we already have about
the most likely sections of his life (somewhere between his twelfth
and thirtieth years). It is almost as if the life of Jesus actually began
in his thirtieth year, when he was baptised by John. In Luke alone
we find one suggestive sentence: 'And Jesus increased in wisdom
and stature, and in favour with God and man" (Luke 2:52).





Chapter Two. 
WHO WAS JESUS?


the human personality of Jesus of Nazareth is the single subject
Ties has had by far the greatest impact on the minds and attentions 
of the peoples of the world, while also representing the focus
of countless books and of passionate debate. Yet Jesus' personality
has remained stubbornly veiled from scholarly scrutiny. For fifteen
hundred years the only accounts were those which showed Jesus
as Saviour along the lines of the official ecclesiastical theology, and
which had been written with the specific aim of supporting the
faith of contemporary Christians, or of converting other people to
Christianity. It was during the Renaissance in Europe that the first
critical thinkers emerged, and in the Age of Enlightenment, in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that for the first time studies
were published which asked whether Jesus of Nazareth had actually ever 
lived, From the nineteenth century, scientific methods of
historical research began to be applied to the books of the New
Testament, and it is for this institution of systematic investigation
into the life of Jesus that German Protestant theology may take full
credit, having been responsible for the most significant advances
in historical and critical research.

The best-known of these seekers of truth, the doctor and theolopian 
Albert Schweitzer, regarded his investigation into the life of
Christ as the most important and heady development in personal
religious understanding. Today it is difficult for us to grasp what
restrictive mental barriers had to be overcome to arrive at a historical
 view of the life of Jesus. According to Schweitzer it was actually
 dissatisfaction, and even focused antipathy, that fostered the
most scientific approach. 'Finding out as much as possible about
the life of Jesus is tantamount to bringing the Church up short by
its basic truths, a quest for knowledge that involves a struggle
more painful and more concerted than any previously."



Well over 100,000 monographs have since been written on the
subject of Jesus, yet the results of all this research into the historical
Jesus can only be described as disappointing. Who was Jesus
Christ? When was he born? What did he look like? When was he
crucified? When, how, and where did he die? The books that were
written in the first two centuries of our era contain too few indications 
to give us any real information about the person Jesus Christ.
Later ancient sources are, almost exclusively, tendentious confessions of 
faith that take for granted a belief in Jesus as the Messiah
and Son of God. It is practically impossible to find any really objective 
testimonies even in the secular literature.

The result is that modern science is still unable to give the exact
year of Jesus' birth. Possible years range from the seventh to the
fourth year before the change from BC to AD. Christ was certainly
born during the reign of Herod, who died four years before our
'Christian era' (that is, in 4 BC!). Jesus' childhood and adolescence
are almost entirely ignored in the biblical Gospels although the
early years of life are crucial to the forming of a person's character,
Even in the nebulous accounts of the short period in which he carried 
out his public work we find only scanty information about his
life. Contemporary historians seem never even to have heard of
Jesus, or if they had, to regard him as unworthy of mention. How
could proper historians make no reference at all to the many amazing 
miracles and extraordinary events described in the Gospels?

Tacitus (about AD 55-120) in his Annals' mentions the 'superstitious sect' 
of the Christians, who derive their name from a certain
Christus reported to have been executed at the time of the
Emperor Tiberius under the governor Pontius. This short account
was written by the great Roman historian in around AD 108 
some eighty years after the Crucifixion  and was based on stories
circulating at that time. Pliny the Younger (about AD #1-114) and
Suetonius' (about AD 65-135) also mention the Christian sect, but
do not have a single word to say about the person Jesus Christ.

The historian Suetonius was treasurer to the Roman Emperor
Hadrian, and so had access to state documents in the imperial
archives. Drawing ca these documents, he made notes of all the
historically significant events that had taken place during the
reigns of previous emperots. They included an event that occurred
in the time of the emperor Claudius, who reigned from AD 41 to
54. Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome because they were
under the influence of a certain 'Chrestos', and had caused civil
unrest. This shows that there were already followers of the
Christian religion in Rome in about AD 50.

The Jewish historian Joseph ben Matthias (AD 37-about 100),
who became a Roman citizen and took the name Flavius Josephus,
published an imposing work entitled The Antiguities of the Jews in
about the year 93. It represents a kind of history of the world from
the time of Creation up to the beginning of the reign of the
Emperor Nera, and was intended specially to acquaint non-Jewish
readers with the history of the Jews. He gives a very detailed
account of politics and society at the time of Jesus, and refers also
to John the Baptist, Herod, and Pontius Pilate, but there is only one
solitary mention of the name Jesus Christus, and that is in reference to 
the stoning of a man named James (Jacob) 'who was a
brother of Jesus, who they call Christus'. Not until the third century was
 a work produced at the hands of a Christian  a forgery
entitled Testimonium Flavianum, in which the Jewish Josephus is
apparently converted to Christianity and attests to the miracles
and the Resurrection of Christ. But the Church writers Justin
Martyr, Tertullian and Cyprian are evidently unaware of any such
Christian change of heart, and Origen' (about 185-254) makes a
point of saying more than once that Josephus did not believe in
Christ.

The writer Justus of Tiberias, also Jewish, was a contemporary
of Josephus and lived in Tiberias, near Capernaum where Jesus
was said often to have often stayed. He wrote an extensive history
that began with Moses and went up to his own times, but never
once did he mention Jesus. The great Jewish scholar Philo of
Alexandria was a contemporary of Jesus; some fifty of his writings
have come down to us. He proves to be something of a specialist
on biblical writings and on Jewish sects, but he too has not a single
word lo say about Jesus. It is only from the embittered antiChristian 
Census that a few historical facts can be gleaned Although he is hardly 
flattering to whom he calls the 'idealized' Jesus. Celsus' belligerent 
writings contain some information that is
examined in greater detail later in this book.

The one real source for historical research would thus seem to
be: the collection of scriptures that is the New Testament.


The Gospels.
The Greek term for 'gospel' is evangelion, which simply means
'good tidings'. It existed as a compound word long before
Christianity applied it to the message of Jesus. One of the titles given 
to the Emperor Augustus, for example, was Saviour of the World, and his 
birthday was accordingly referred to as 'the day of the ex-angelion',

The New Testament contains four Gospels named after
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They represent a selection from a
much larger number of Gospels that were in use among the various 
communities and sects of early Christianity before the New
Testament was formally put together. Texts that were later taken
out are called apocryphal (from the Greek apo-kriyphos 'hidden',
therefore 'more obscure'). Many were destroyed, but some of those
that have survived shed a very ambiguous and intriguing light on
the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

The sheet number and diversity of religious groupings threatened to 
split early Christian communities into countless factions
and to cause internecine strife within Christendom. The Roman
author Ammianus Marcellinus commented: 'Not even wild animals thirsty for 
blood rage against each other in the way that
many Christians rage against their brothers in faith."
" Even the early Church authority Clement of Alexandria perceived such 
discussion over the various tenets of faith as the greatest obstacle in
spreading the faith." And Celsus, the overt critic of Christianity in
the second century, wrote that the single element that the various

 held in common was the adjective 'Christian'." In the face
of such a plethora of fundamentally differing writings on Christ's
life, acts and sayings, the leaders of the early Church saw only one
way out of a chaotic situation that was inexorably leading towards
the complete destruction of the conflicting communities: a unification, 
a closing of the ranks, by formally authenticating a group of
selected Gospels that had been made to agree.

Papias of Hierapolis, who is counted among the Apostolic
Fathers, made an attempt to do this in about AD 110, but failed
because of the resistance of individual communities. It was not
until the end of the second century that Irenaeus  who even then
had to rely on the threat of holy sanctions  managed once and for
all to institute the four Gospels in the canon that is still considered
valid today. The criterion for the inclusion of each of them was that
they could all be directly traced back to a disciple of Jesus,
although that too was not straightforward, of course. It remains
impossible to determine exactly when and how these Gospels
came into being because there is no original text of any of them
extant  moreover, there is no clue as to where an original might
ever have been located, To date them is similarly impossible, even
in approximate terms. The most probable dates, according to the
most recent research, are for Mark shortly before AD 70, for
Matthew shortly after AD 70, for Luke somewhere between AD 75
and #0 (some authorities would prefer a date closer to AD 100),
and it would seem that the Gospel of John was not written until as
late as the first decades of the second century. So if Jesus was 
crucified in around AD 30, the first written records of his existence 
evidently did not originate until after two or three generations had
passed (for the moment leaving aside the epistles of Paul, which
call for special treatment).

The first three of the Gospels  Matthew, Mark and Luke  are
very similar to each other. Indeed, Matthew and Luke seem to
derive much of their textual content from Mark. The Gospel
According to Mark must therefore have existed before the Gospels
of Matthew and Luke. The canonical Mark text contains descriptions of a 
few events that are not included in either Matthew or
Luke, however, and for which they substitute stories that have no
parallel in Mark or are expressed very differently from them. This
rather suggests that the two later Gospels used a kind of "protoMark' as 
a source, which was formed into the canonical text only
subsequently.

Much has been written by theologians in support of the existence of this hypothetical 
proto-text, but the theologian Gunther
Bornkamm believes that 'the attempt to reconstruct proto-Mark
remains a futile undertaking."

In the Mark text there is an evident desire to keep the messianic
status of Jesus as secret as possible. Jesus does not permit any
proclamation that he is the Messiah and indeed he expressly forbids his
 disciples to declare any such thing (Mark 8:30).

In Matthew, Jesus is portrayed as the consummation of the
Mosaic religion, and as the Messiah announced by the prophets. It
has long been accepted by theologians that the Gospel concentrates on
 depicting Jesus as the Word Made Flesh. In addition, the
writer of Matthew was evidently no historian, and never intended
to write either a chronological account or a biography of Jesus.

The writer of Luke's Gospel includes a number of distinct historical
 events in his account of Jesus' life. And yet despite this, no
coherent life story emerges. Again, then, there is a lack of any 
genuinely chronological, historical foundation ~ there must simply
have been no more biographical material available because even
these early Christian communities no longer possessed such data
Even at this early stage, the historical figure of Jesus had already
been pushed far into the background in favour of his religious
image. The text of Luke contains little of Judaism and, written in
Hellenist style, is aimed mainly at the Greeks and Romans. Here
Jesus is no longer a national Messiah but the Saviour of the world.

On one point, Luke's Gospel even directly contradicts the
Gospels of Mark and Matthew: their version of Jesus" final words
sends the apostles out into the world preaching to all nations,
whereas in the 24th chapter of Luke the exact opposite is stated:
they are told to "tarry  in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be
endued with power from on high' (Luke 24:49).

In the Acts of the Apostles (attributed to the author of Luke's
Gospel), the presence of the disciples in Jerusalem is referred to
more than once, and with special emphasis. The writer is endeavouring 
to prove that Jerusalem was Christianity's focal point of origin, 
although it is a historical fact that Christian communities by then 
already existed elsewhere. Luke makes a point of dwelling on
the miracle of Pentecost in order to show how the existence of
Christian sects beyond Palestine can be accounted for as radiating
from that centre. By a "divine" miracle the disciples suddenly
receive the gift of speaking in "foreign tongues', so providing a
simple solution to the potential problem of language barriers.

The Gospel ascribed to John is without doubt the latest of all the
canonical accounts of the life of Jesus. Early Christian writings first
mention the existence of the Gospel in the mid-second century. A
few lines of a papyrus record written in Greek, discovered by the
English historian Grenfell, indicate that the Gospel cannot be older
than the early second century. It is more a philosophical work constructed 
on the basis of, and complementary to, the first three
Gospels. Irenaeus claims that the author John was the man called
John who was the favourite of Jesus, but this idea can definitively
be ruled out because the simple fisherman from Galilee could
hardly have been educated extensively enough in theology and in
philosophy, or have been so literate in Greek, as the author of this
Gospel evidently was.

In the Gospel of John there are authentic details of Jesus" life,
but they are thoroughly embedded in a matrix of religious philosophy 
centred on Jesus. Added to this, there is the time-lapse of at
least eighty years between the Crucifixion and the writing of the
Gospel, so although the contents of the book correspond closely to
the ideas of Jesus, the book represents only a very fragile medium
for research into Jesus' life.

In a considerable number of Protestant theological writings, the
so-called Collection of Jesus' Sayings (also known as Q or Logia) has
recently been accorded immense importance. Rudolf Bultmann
holds that the Sayings were compiled in the very first Palestinian
communities; they belong to the oldest traditions of these communities.
 But Bultmann adds, "There is no certainty that the words of
this oldest stratum of oral tradition were actually spoken by Jesus.
Perhaps this stratum itself has its own more complex historical
background." He continues, "The tradition collects the Lord's sayings, 
remoulds them, and adds to them. Furthermore, other kinds
of sayings are also collected, so that some of the words included in
the Collection of Sayings will have been put into Jesus' mouth by
others.'

Historians today are able to present practically complete life stories 
of Pontius Pilate and of Herod  characters whose main interest is simply
 their connection with Jesus. Equally complete
biographies of other contemporaries, and of prominent figures of
even earlier periods, are similarly available. Yet a few meagre lines
containing little descriptive detail are all there is to show for the
life of Jesus until his thirtieth year, and even these are too scanty to
serve as documentary evidence. A New Testament scholar in
Tübingen, Ernst Kasemann, sums up the results to date of research
into the life of Jesus:

It is shattering to find just how little for what the Mew Testament says
about Jesus] can be described as authentic  All that can be attributed 
with some degree of confidence ta the historical Jesus himself is a
few words of the Sermon on the Mount, some parables, the confrontation 
with the Pharisees, and a few other odd phrases here and there.

Biblical experts still disagree among themselves about which
'quotes' can genuinely be ascribed to Jesus. In his book The
Unknown Wards of Jesus, the religious historian Joachim Jeremias narrows 
the selection down to a mere twenty-one quotations that definitely issued 
from the mouth of
Jesus. And the theological critic Bultmann maintains that 'the personality 
of Jesus, the clear picture of himself and his life, have vanished beyond recall."


The Witness Paul.
The earliest documents concerning Jesus are the writings of Paul.
Paul came from a strict Jewish family, and had acquired Roman
citizenship through his father, who had paid a high price for it.
This permitted him to change his original Jewish name, Saul, to
Paul (Paulus). Belonging to the patrician class, he was brought up
in the strict Pharisaic tradition. He received an extensive and thorough
 education, gained an excellent knowledge of the Greek language, and was 
also widely read in Greek poetry and philosophy.
At the age of about eighteen or twenty (after Jesus' Crucifixion),
he went to Jerusalem and devoted himself to intensive theological
studies as a student of Gamaliel I. He then became a fanatical
zealot, narrow-minded, straight-laced, a strict adherent of the law,
and a most vehement opponent of the early Christian sects whom
he saw as an obstacle to his professional progress. Paul even went
so far as to apply to the high priest for special permission to persecute 
the followers of Christ beyond the city limits of Jerusalem,
hoping that the great zeal he intended to display in carrying out
this task would also make an impression upon the religious hierarchy. 
Then, near Damascus, he was suddenly overwhelmed by the
powerful aura of Jesus and his teachings, struck too by the realization 
of the undreamed-of potential afforded by his position. He
became intoxicated by the idea that he might take up the role of
spiritual leader over a gigantic movement of the future,

As with Jesus and the apostles, there is hardly a single historical
text about Paul himself. Everything we know about him comes
almost exclusively from the letters (epistles) attributed to him and
the Acts of the Apostles, and these tend to have a decidedly tendentious slant, 
are forgeries in part or in full, or are patched
together from a few genuine text fragments. The letters to Timothy
and Titus, and the letter to the Hebrews are thought to be entirely
spurious. The authenticity of the letters to the Ephesians and the
Colossians, and the second letter to the Thessalonians, is hotly contested.

What is called Christianity today is largely a teaching of precepts artificially 
created by Paul, and should more correctly be
called Paulinism. The religious historian Wilhelm Nestle makes the
point by saying, "Christianity" is the religion founded by Paul; it
replaced Christ's Gospel with a Gospel about Christ.


In this sense, Paulinism corresponds to the misinterpretation
and falsification of Christ's actual teachings in a manner initiated
and organized by Paul. It has long been accepted by theological
research that the Christianity of the organized Church, with its
central tenet of salvation through the vicariously sacrificial death
olf Jesus, is based on a misinterpretation. "All the beautiful aspects
of Christianity can be traced to Jesus, all the not-so-beautiful to
Paul', said the theologian Overbeck." By grounding the hope of
salvation firmly on the expiatory death of God's first-born, Paul
was actually taking a retrograde step back to the primitive Semitic
religion of prehistoric times, when every father was obliged to give
up his first-born in bloody sacrifice,

Paul also paved the way for the later ecclesiastical doctrines of
original sin and the divine Trinity. As long ago as the early 
eighteenth century, the English statesman and philosopher Lord
Bolingbroke (1678-1751) could distinguish two completely different 
religious faiths in the New Testament: that of Jesus and that of
Paul* So too Kant, Lessing, Fichte and Schelling also sharply 
differentiate between the teaching of Jesus and what the 'apostles'
made out of it. Many highly reputable modem theologians have
since come to support and defend these observations,

Paul, the impatient zealot, markedly different from the original
apostles, the 'epitome of intolerance' (as the theologian A.
Deissmann describes him"), opened up deep rifts between 'true
believers' and 'non-believers'. Paul placed little emphasis on the
actual words and teachings of Jesus, but was preoccupied with his
own teachings. He put Jesus on a pedestal and made him into the
Christ figure that Jesus never intended to be. Today a profound
new understanding of Christianity is possible by rejecting all that
is obviously bogus, and by turning to the true, undiluted teachings
of Jesus and the real essence of religious faiths. That we still can
come to such a new understanding perhaps makes it easier to forgive 
Paul his distortions, for it may be that without Paul and his
fellow fanatic zealots, no knowledge of Jesus would have been
handed down at all.

The theologian Grimm put it in a nutshell: 'However deeply
these teachings may have become ingrained in Christian thought,
they still have nothing to do with the real Jesus."

3 
Conclusions.
The known sources evidently cannot provide any detailed or fundamental 
information about the historical person who was Jesus.
Such sources as the documentation discovered by Nicolai
Notovitch in Ladakh may, therefore, fill an extremely important
gap in what is known about the life of Christ, for which there are
otherwise no historical records. Nevertheless, such an astounding
discovery  which instantly sheds light on some of the deepest
shadows of the "Christian' religion  would seem to have no relevance at 
all unless it is viewed in the context of the latest results
provided by the most objective and extensive historical research,
freed of all institutional dogmatism. Scientific research and scientific 
freedom are both required if a picture of the human Jesus is to gradually 
come together, true to life.

Perhaps it is only possible today to learn who Jesus was and
what he really wanted, by studying the tradition he inspired, the
results of his teachings, his lofty morals, and his profound ethical
and spiritual nature.

What Albert Schweitzer said in 1913 is more valid today than
ever: "Modern Christianity must always be prepared to face the
possibility that the historicity of Jesus could be revealed at any
time." And Rudolf Bultmann said, 'It would not surprise me in
the least if they were now to find Jesus' bones.

My Travels in the Himalayan Mountains.
In 1973, a short report appeared in a major German weekly" outlining
 how an Indian professor was claiming in all seriousness to
have found the tomb of Jesus Christ in India. The article was even
accompanied by photographs showing the alleged tomb. The professor 
bluntly declared that Jesus not only spent his youth in India,
but survived the Crucifixion by means of a technique, before
returning to India. There he lived as an itinerant teacher until he
died at a ripe old age, and his body was interred in the Kashmiri
capital, Srinagar.

This was a truly amazing claim  and the journal that dared to
publish it was duly swamped with thousands of letters full of
invective and virulent protests. Some letters, however, contained



interested enquiries from more open-minded people who had
always suspected there was something of the pious fairytale in the
old versions of the virgin birth, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

It seems most surprising that none of the sceptics ever followed
up the question of where Jesus could in fact have been buried 
because although the various miracles Jesus is supposed to have
performed can be explained away one way or another, it is quite
impossible for the body of Jesus simply to have risen up into the
air, 'being 'carried up into heaven' as Luke (24:51) puts it.
Moreover, there is no room for physical matter in the spiritual
domain.

After years of study during which my university professors
could come up with nothing but unsatisfactory, not to say evasive,
answers to my queries on the historical figure of Jesus, I decided
that once I had finished my course as a religious teacher I would
myself go to India to carry out my own research. Accordingly, I
flew via Egypt to India early in 1979, and landed in Bombay. From
there I went on by train and bus to the Himalayan foothills at
Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama  had resided since his flight
from Tibet in 1959. My intention was to ask him respectfully for a
letter of introduction to the abbot at the Hemis monastery, a letter
that would also grant me permission to look at the manuscripts
about which Notoviteh had written almost one hundred years previously.
 After having had to wait four days for an audience, I finally received
 the precious document, complete with the signature of
His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama . I continued my journey
by road to Kashmir, where I  heard that the famous mystery plays
that Notovitch had also described were to be performed a few
days later. The festival, known to the Tibetans as Cham or Seichy,
honours the Buddhist saint and prophet Padmasambhava, and
takes place from the ninth to the eleventh day of the fifth month in
the Tibetan calendar.


Today it is possible to reach Leh, the capital of Ladakh, in relative
 comfort by taking a two-day bus trip over the outlying ranges
west of the Great Himalaya, When I  eventually arrived at Hemis,
the festival was already in full swing. There was a huge crowd in
which, although the country had been opened to foreigners only
five years before, a large number of Western tourists were evident,
I had no wish to make my presence or purpose known while that
hubbub was going on, =o I went back to Leh, where I let three
weeks pass before I returned once again to Hemis.

Hemis is the largest, richest, and most important abbey in


Ladakh. Its name is derived from the Dardic" word hem or hen
(Sanskrit hima 'snow'), which tends to suggest that there was a 
settlement here prior to the present Tibetan culture.

Patience and perseverance are important virtues that foreigners
must prove themselves to possess, so I received little attention to
begin with. I joined the monks in the kitchen, which looked rather
like a medieval alchemist's laboratory, where' drank the salted
butter tea and waited. As evening approached, a monk, gesturing
silently, showed me a small room in which I could sleep. During
the following days, I  was left mostly to my own devices, and I
spent the time roaming through the dim passageways of the
monastery, going for long walks in the countryside, and only
rejoining my friends in the kitchen when I felt the pangs of hunger.
On the morning of the fourth day of my stay in the monastery, a
young monk appeared in my cell and motioned me to follow him.
I was led through dark corridors and up steep wooden steps, into
the upper regions of the monastery that I had not visited up till
then, At last we came to the roof of the grand temple building. On
a large terrace under the shelter of a projecting gable over the
doorway to the topmost room of the complex, an assembly of
monks was sitting around an imposing table, A dignified middle-
aged monk seated at the far side of the table then addressed me in
almost impeccable English. It was Nawang-Tsering, the secretary
and interpreter of the abbot, who explained that His Holiness, the
Dungsey Rinpoche, had heard of my interest and wished to speak
with me.

While waiting for my audience, I learned from Nawang-Tsering
that the former abbot of Hemis, who was also the head of the Duk
pa Kagyu pa sect of Tibetan Buddhism; had been missing since the
invasion of Tibet by Communist Chinese troops. The abbot, who at
the time had been engaged in higher studies in his native Tibet,
refused to leave his homeland without his parents, unwilling to
abandon them to an uncertain fate, and was then himself not
allowed to leave. After a while, the Communist government pro-
hibited all correspondence with him, and the last anyone had
heard of the High Lama  was that he was a prisoner in a labour
camp.

After fifteen years during which no further news of him had
been heard, the abbot was declared dead, and a replacement
sought in the form of a young reincarnation, Six years after the
presumed time of death, the I am as lighted on a two-year-old boy
who lived near the mountain town of Dalhousie (Darjeeling) in


north-eastern India, and who was duly consecrated as Drug pa
Rinpoche in 1975 at the age of twelve. The boy's mentor was the
old Dungsey Rinpoche, and the years between his discovery and
his consecration were spent in intensive studies and instruction.

Among the monks I could not help noticing a tall man of about
thirty years of age, who was clearly not of Tibetan origin since he
had the facial features of a Westerner, It turned out that the young
mar was an Australian, had already been living at the Hemis
monastery for several years, and spoke fluent Tibetan. He showed
some interest in my research. When I was finally summoned to the
audience, the Australian accompanied me to serve as my inter-
preter for the Holy One, who spoke only Tibetan. We entered a
magnificently decorated low-roofed room, in which a venerable
old man was sitting in the pose of a Buddha on a small throne. In
front of him was an ornate silver teacup upon a little stand. After
bowing to him with folded hands, I was permitted to sit before
him on the carpet. My gaze was met by a pair of alert and flashing
eyes that radiated goodness and wisdom, set in a smiling face
adorned with sculptured wrinkles and a thin white beard. I
showed him my letter of introduction, and attempted to convey to
him how important these texts could be for the whole of
Christendom.

With an understanding smile, the wise Lama  instructed me first
to find the Truth for myself, before attempting to convert the
whole world. The Australian translated only a fraction of what the
Lama  told me. Finally, the old man informed me that the scriptures
in question had already been looked for, but nothing could be
found.

This piece of news struck me like a bolt from the blue, and in
some shock and disappointment I took my leave. The I am as
words might mean that the monastery would keep its precious
secret for many years yet. But later I managed to discover that an
old diary dating from the nineteenth century was located in the
Moravian Church Mission in Leh, in which the missionary and
Tibetan scholar Dr Karl Marx had mentioned Notovitch's stay at
the monastery in Hemis.

On my return to Leh I immediately searched out the Moravian
Mission, founded by the German order of lay brothers back in
1885.

Zealous Christian missionaries had come to Tibet long befote
then, though. Capuchin monks repeatedly visited Lhasa from as
early as the fourteenth century, in the hope of converting Tibetans

34 

to. Christianity = an endeavour that was not to be blessed with suc-
cess. When the Christian missionaries told the Tibetans that Christ
had sacrificed himself on the Cross for the redemption of humani-
ty, and finally rose again to life, the Tibetans accepted the entire
story as something they already knew all about and exclaimed
enthusiastically, 'It was he!" The pious Buddhists were completely
convinced that Christ was an incarnation of Padmasambhava, The
missionaries came to the conclusion that they had better stop try-
ing to convert the population, not because they encountered too
much resistance but, on the contrary, because their teachings were
interpreted 'as confirmation of the teachings that had been pro-
claimed by Sakyamuni, Padsambhava, and other Buddhist saints *
Today there are fewer than 200 Christians in the entire population
of Ladakh,

Father Razu, the director of the Christian Mission, a Tibetan by
birth, received me cordially and, over tea and fresh pastries, told
me the history of the Mission. But he could not show me the pre
cious diary that was the real reason for my visit, because it had
mysteriously disappeared three or four years earlier, A delegation
of the Moravian Church from Zurich had been staying in Leh at
the time, and the grandson of the celebrated Dr Francke, Dr Marx's
partner, had also spent some time in the house. The friendly priest
had no explanation for the book's disappearance, but he recalled
that a certain Professor Hassnain from Srinagar had taken some
photographs of the relevant pages many years before. Hassnain
was the professor who had supplied the reporter of Stern maga-
zine with information for the report that appeared in 1973.

After making further efforts to trace the missing diary at the
municipal library and the library of the nearby village for Tibetan
refugees, ChagI am sar, I  resolved to end my stay in the "lunar land-
scape' of Ladakh and to travel back over to the idyllic "Happy
Valley' of Kashmir, Near the village of Mulbek there is a bas-relief
sculpture of Maitreya, the Saviour of the Buddhists whose future
coming was promised by Sakyamuni, chiselled into a vertical wall
of rock, a full twelve metres high (Plate 5). The name Maitreya is
related to the Aramaic meshia  the Messiah that the Jews continue
to hope for as their Saviour.

Kashmir is sometimes called the Switzerland of India because
of its fertile valleys and their large, smooth lakes and clear rivers,
surrounded by green wooded mountains, lying at the foot of the
'roof of the world', This paradise has attracted people from far-off
regions ever since ancient times, and especially during the Golden

picture, map of
The Province of Jammu and Kaslimir in Northen india,

Age of Kashmir, when pilgrims came to the green valleys from all
over the world in order to study the teachings of Gautama Buddha
at the feet of the celebrated scholars of Kashmir. Kashmir was
regarded as the centre of Mahayana Buddhism, the seat of a school
of the noblest spiritual values and cultural endeavours. The
region's conversion to IsI am  has left only fragments of the once
extensive monasteries, temples and teachings of the ascetics.

Despite its idyllic location, Srinagar is a noisy and turbulent city,
humming with commercial activity. The city is spread between
and over several lakes, on the left bank of the large Lake Dal, and
is thus interlaced by a number of waterways that have given
Srinagar the atmosphere of a Venice of the East. A considerable
proportion of the population live in the houseboats that lie in great
numbers on the canals of the old town, or moored to the banks of
the lakes and beside the 'floating gardens'. The houseboats vary
greatly in design and construction, from simple dongas to artistically
 carved and luxurious floating palaces that have every conceivable
 comfort and convenience  depending, of course, on the
wealth of the owners.

A short distance out of town, on a small lake, I found bed and


board on an old but quaint little boat, which was to serve as my
home for the whole season. From this boat it was possible to be
paddled to any point in the city in small, covered taxi-boats,
shikaras. A vast flotilla of boats run by the traders transported and
delivered all the necessities of life. Even a small waterborne post
office made daily rounds. Needless to say, it was very pleasant to
stay in such an idyllic setting, and many Europeans and
Americans were drawn to spend even longer periods of time in
these houseboats, perhaps while learning Sanskrit, perhaps simply
enjoying the feel of the place  at least until the outbreak
 of disturbances in 1989.

From my boat I could reach the modern University of Kashmir
on foot in ten minutes, and I was to spend a great deal of time
there, for this was where Professor Hassnain taught. He was the
man I  wanted to contact in Srinagar, and about whom I had heard
so much.

Professor Hassnain is a scholar of international reknown, the
author of several books, a visiting professor in Japan and the
United States, the Director of the Kashmir Research Centre for
Buddhist Studies, and a member of the International Conference
for Anthropological Research in Chicago. In addition, until his
retirement in 1985 he was executive director of all the museums,
collections and archives in Kashmir, working from his office at the
Ministry of Culture.

Once I had told him of my hopes and plans, he began with great
enthusiasm to tell me about his own research, putting off all his
other appointments until the next day. After several hours of lively
conversation, he closed up his office and invited me to visit him at
his home. Despite his important position, Professor Hassnain
remains a modest man, friendly and congenial.

Over the course of our meetings, I subsequently learned all that
he had managed during the past twenty-five years to discover
about Jesus' stay in India. But all his evidence  facts, implications,
associations, apparent connections  could be taken as no more
than contributing to a dubious, if not absurd, hypothesis unless it
is also seen in the light of the most up-to-date research into the life
of Jesus. The professor's discoveries have first to be placed on a
firm scientific footing, and the true origins and evidence of the
teachings of Jesus revealed. Only then can the three most
 important questions be addressed:

Could Jesus really have travelled to India in his youth?


Could he have survived thé Crucifixion (not fairly soon after-
wards ascending to 'heaven'?

Could he actually have returned to India, to die in old age in
Srinagar?

Without such preliminary investigation, anyone brought up in
the Christian tradition might be pardoned for dismissing the story
of Jesus' life in India with a pitying smile. It is hard indeed to kick
against the current of almost two thousand years of deeply-roated
convention. All the same, just because a story has been told for two
thousand years does not mean that it is true.

Chapter Three,

MOSES AND THE CHILDREN
OF GOD.

The Origins of the Hebrews.

modern research is of the opinion that Abraham, the patriarch

of the Hebrews, was in fact a historical person, and was born

in the eighteenth century BC. According to the Old Testament

Yahweh commanded him, 'Get thee out of thy country, and from

thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that T will

shew thee' (Genesis 12:1). But where was the original home ol
Abraham's forefathers?

Genesis 29 tells how Abraham's grandson Jacob journeyed to
his maternal uncle Laban's establishment in the land of the "sons of
the east'. Even more pointedly, in the book of Joshua the patriarchs
of the people of Israel are said originally te have come from the
east:

Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side
of the food in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the
father of Nachor; and they served other gods,

And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood,

and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his

and gave him Isaac,
{Joshua 24:2-3)

Several passages in Genesis indicate that Abraham's first home
was in the region of Haran, According to Genesis 12:4, it was while
Abraham was living in Haran that he was commanded by God to
depart from his homeland. Later, Abraham sent his eldest servant
back to Haran 'unto my country, and to my Kindred', in order to
find a wife for his son, lsaac (Genesis 24:4). Haran is generally
assumed to have been the place in the Mesopotamian lowlands
now called Harran or Eski-Charran {in modern Turkey).

Moses and the Children of God.

There is, however, a small town in northern India called Haran,

a few kilometres north of Srinagar (the capital of Kashmir), in
which the remains of ancient walls have been excavated and dated
by archaeologists back to long before the Christian era (Plates 7
and 8). Although it is no longer possible to reconstruct the wander
ings of the nomadic Hebrew tribes in detail, there is some evidence
to suggest that in around 1730 BC they began to make their way
towards Egypt under the leadership of Jacob,
The Egyptian priest and historian Manetho reported thal 'people
of a peasant culture appeared unexpectedly from the east, boldly
entered our country, and forcibly took possession of it, without
encountering any serious resistance." Murals in Egyptian burial
chambers clearly depict these conquerors as having a light skin
coloration and black hair.

The speech delivered by Stephen in his own defence, as quoted
in Acts of the Apostles, provides a brief account of how Abraham,

the patriarch of the Jews, was compelled to go to the land that the
God of Glory wished to show him. He departed from 'the land of
the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran' {Acts 7:4), travelling via

Mesopotamia. It is riot inconceivable that the nomadic families led
by Abraham named the place in north-west Mesopotamia, where
they settled temporarily, after their own home town,

From Haran the group finally advanced to Canaan, where
Abraham sired his son Isaac, who in turn fathered Jacob and Esau.
lwelve sons were born Lo Jacob, who were to become the patri-
archs of the Jewish tribes. Joseph, second youngest of Jacob's
twelve sons, was sold by his jealous brothers into bondage in
Egypt, where the Hyksos were in power at the time. In Egypt,
Joseph rose to a position of great power as the second-in-command
te Pharaoh himself. Soon after, when Canaan was afflicted by a
famine, the eleven brothers of Joseph heard that "there was corn in
Egypt', and set off for that land. Joseph disclosed himself to his
brothers, and had his father Jacob and the entire clan join him in
Egypt, where they first settled in the province of Goshen  a
Semitic settlement dating from this time and located on the north-
eastern Nile delta has been fully documented. The Hebrews soon
came to people the whole land, gaining wealth, influence and
power,

The description 'Hebrew was thus originally applied not to a
national or ethnic group, but to any persons of no fixed abode and
with few rights, whose fate was lo serve the Egyptians as a form of
cheap labour and later even as cheap forced labour, as is evident in


sources dating from the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BC.
The detailed account given in Exodus 1:11  in which the ancestors
of the Israelites are conscripted for the construction of the towns
Pithom and Raamses  would strongly suggest that Ramses 2,
(1290-24 BC), was the oppressive pharaoh responsible. It was at
that time, or very shortly afterwards, that some of the Semitic
tribes left Egypt under the leadership of Moses, in search of the
land of their fathers, the land of milk and honey that had been
promised by Yahweh.

Who Was Moses?

The name of the man who laid down the social and religious laws
in ancient India was Manu.

The lawgiver of the Egyptians was called Manes,

The Cretan who codified the laws of the ancient Greeks  laws
that he had learned in Egypt  was called Minos.

The leader of the Hebrew tribes and the promulgator of the Ten
Commandments was called Moses.

Manu, Manes, Minos and Moses, foremost contributors to the
world's humanity, all belonged to the same archetypal pattern. All
four stood by the cradle of important civilizations of the ancient
world. All four laid down laws and instituted a theocratic priestly
society.

In Sanskrit, manu signifies a man of excellence, a lawgiver.
When a civilization begins to develop, there are always certain
people who are called to greatness; they are beloved by the popu-
lace and are extraordinarily efficient in everything they do. Instead
of mere force of arms, which served as the highest law to primitive
peoples, the power of these cultural and spiritual leaders is drawn
from the one supreme Being, or God. Such men are endowed with
an aura of mystery, and their human origins become transfigured.
They are deemed to be prophets or messengers of God, for they
alone can shed light on why and how things happen in the prehis-
toric past, In their skilled hands, every physical phenomenon is
transformed fo become a manifestation of a heavenly power,
which they can summon or suppress at will. Conjurors ('magi-
cians') in both Israel and India, for instance, certainly knew how to
put a snake into a catatonic trance so that they could display it stiff
as a rod or staff, before transforming it back to its original condition 
 a feat still performed by Indian fakirs.

And vet there is always a certain ambivalence in the role of such
spiritual leaders. Literal adherents of the verses of Manu joined
with the Brahmans (the most influential caste, the priests) to topple
the social structure of the Veda, which finally led to society's hard-
ening into a rigid caste system locked in a suffocating framework
of laws and taboos. Moses was made to act out a similar despotic
role in relation to the people of Israel, the "children of God'.

The etymology of the name Moses is a matter of debate. In
Egyptian, mos simply means 'child' (or literally "is born', as in
Thut-moses, 'Thoth is born'). According to the biblical derivation,
based on Hebrew elements, the name derives from mo 'water' and
use 'save', in reference to the legend of the baby Moses' being
found in a floating basket of reeds (Exodus 2:10).


It is not possible to form a consistent picture of the historical
person of Moses, for the tradition has left a number of unanswered
questions, Historical research into the Old Testament has shown
that Moses was clearly not the author of "the five books of Moses'
attributed to him. In fact the Pentateuch, in the form in which we
have it today, was compiled from centuries of oral and written tra-
dition. The lack of uniformity in overall vocabulary, the contradic-
tions and repetitions, and the differences in basic theological tenets
all constitute firm evidence that a variety of sources was used,

But even if much has been obscured by the passing of interven-
ing millennia, it has at least been established that Moses was a gen-
uinely historical figure. We can assume that he grew up in the
royal court, was brought up by the priests, and attained such a
high level of education that he became influential as an adminis-
trator in all departments of the state. Moses made use of a peculiar
mixture of pure doctrine and curious magical practices  a mix
apparently suffused with Vedic incantations as well as elements of
Egyptian religious ritual. His intention was after all to proclaim the
existence of the One God, the God of Israel, beside whom no other
gods were to be worshipped. And he was obliged to resort to
'wonders' to lend weight to God's  as it coincided with his own 
will. The official stance of the Church has been to reject Greek and
Roman mythology as the religious roots of Christian belief, but the
accounts of Moses have been accepted in toto, however difficult it
may be to accept that the vengeful God described as a devouring,
fire is the same God of the New Testament.

Whoever opposed Moses in his quest for power was destroyed.
Fire was the method used for such eliminations, and was frequently
 used also to demonstrate power  for Moses seems often to have
resorted to illustrating his point in a rather incendiary manner. He
evidently had a great variety of magic tricks at his disposal,
Following his appearance before the wise men and sorcerers of
Egypt (Exodus 7:8-13), Moses was accredited a great magician
even among the ancient Greeks. In the sarly Christian era, apocryphal writings of magical content were composed to complement
the Pentateuch, associating themselves with the authority of
Moses. Editions of the 'Sixth' and "Seventh Books of Moses', which
came to light fairly recently, returned to the Egyptian tradition,
offering a mix of spells, sorcery, magical incantations and texts
containing esoteric doctrines of various backgrounds.

In his book The Biblical Moses!, which appeared in 1928, Jens
Juergens showed that Egyptian priests were able to make gunpowder
 and use it in fireworks or primitive flares as early as six thousand 
years ago. Research undertaken by the English archacologist
Professor Flinders Petrie? also proved that Moses wielded authority 
not only over the Egyptian temples, but also over the royal
mines in the Sinai region  including therefore the sulphur mine at
Grefru, which had been under excavation since the fifth millennium BC. 
So Moses knew about the production of gunpowder
through his priestly training, and the composition (sulphur, saltpetre and 
charcoal) was simple enough technically. When his subjects refused to
 attend to his words (and he did preach at some
length, "from morning unto even', Exodus 18:14), he could have
called forth a "devouring fire' that was guaranteed to have the
desired effect.'

As the representative of his fiery God, Moses could give orders
for anything he wanted, and if anyone proved reluctant to come
up with the sometimes weighty contributions he demanded, a
suitably impressive demonstration of his power was all that was
needed to restore the peace  as happened on Mount Sinai (Exodus
19:1-25). When Korah and his clan rose in rebellion against Moses,
250 men were 'consumed by fire' (Numbers 16:1-35), and shortly
afterwards no fewer than a thousand more perished in fI am es
when they too revolted against Moses. On another occasion, two of
Aaron's sons were experimenting in the tabernacle with a 'strange
fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not', and were
burned to death (Leviticus 10:1-7). It seems that even Moses may
have suffered such severe burns in an explosion that he was obliged 
to wear a head-bandage (Exodus 34:29-35),

Moses is still very much regarded as the great lawgiver, but the



Ten Commandments in fact represent no more than a codified
summary of laws that had been in force among the peoples of the
Wear East and India long before Moses' time. The same precepts
are even to be found among the famous laws promulgated by the
Amorite King Hammurabi of Babylon (1728-1686 BC) five hun-
dred years earlier. All these laws were probably based on the mil-
lennia-old Indian Rig Veda.

Mor is Moses the originator of monotheism. The notion of a sin-
gle invisible and almighty God, the Creator of the Universe, a
Father of love and goodness, of compassion, sensibility and trust,
had long already been in evidence in the Vedas and in the tradition
that became the Nordic Edda. Zarathustra, founder of
Zoroastrianism, also expressly proclaimed his God to be the One
and Only.

In the papyrus of Prisse (dating from about one thousand years
before Moses) God says of himself: 'I am the unseen One who cre-
ated the heavens and all things. I am the Supreme God, made
manifest by Myself, and without equal. T am yesterday, and I know
the morrow. To every creature and being that exists [am the law.

This One God without equal was referred to in Egypt as 'the
nameless', 'the One Whose name cannot be spoken', long before
Moses: Nuk pu Nuk 'I am who I am'. (Compare this with the
account in Exodus 3:14, where God declares: 'I am that I  am.)

There can no longer be any doubt that Moses actually existed.
His 'miracles' are nonetheless for the most part based on much
older traditions  for instance, on the legend of the ancient (origi-
nally Arab) god Bacchus, who was rescued from the water like
Moses, who crossed the Red Sea on foot, who inscribed laws on
stone tablets, whose armies were led by columns of fire, and from
whose forehead shone rays of light.

The Indian epic called the Ramayana tells of the hero Rama,
who led his people on a journey through the heart of Asia finally
to reach India more than five thousand years ago. Rama, too, was a
great lawgiver and a hero of extraordinary powers. He caused
springs to gush forth in the deserts through which he led his peo-
ple (cf Exodus 17:6), provided them with a kind of manna to eat (cf

Exodus 16:3-35), and suppressed a virulent plague with the sacred
drink soma, India's 'water of life". Finally he conquered the
'promised land', Sri Lanka, after invoking a hail of fire to fall on its
king. In order to reach Sri Lanka, he crossed the sea via a land
bridge apparently exposed by the low tide at a place still known as
the Bridge of Rama, Like Moses, Rama is also depicted with rays
44  

of light streaming from his head (the fI am es of the enlightened
one, Plate 13),

Zarathustra, like Moses, also possessed a sacred fire that he
could put to use in various ways. According to the Greek writers
Eudoxus, Aristotle and Hermodoros of Syracuse, Zoroaster (that
is, Zarathustra) lived about five thousand years before Moses, and
like him, was of royal blood, was taken from his mother, and was
left exposed to the wild. In his thirtieth year he became the prophet
of a new religion. Heralded by peals of thunder, God appeared to
him robed in light, seated on a throne of fire on the holy mountain
Albordj, encircled by fI am es. There, God bestowed on him His
sacred law: Finally, Zoroaster likewise wandered with his followers
to a remote 'promised land', and came to the shores of a sea where,
with God's help, the waters parted so that His chosen people
might cross the sea on fool.

Perhaps the most familiar episode in Jewish history begins with
the emigration of the tribes of Israel from Egypt under the leader-
ship of Moses, to search for another land in which to settle as a
newly independent nation. The land of Goshen, in which the
Israelites lived beforehand, has not yet been located beyond all
doubt but must have been somewhere in the eastern part of the
Nile delta. Passages in the Bible mention a change of pharachs at
the time, which would coincide with the expulsion of the Hyksos
at the beginning of the 18th dynasty under Amasis I. The direct
route from the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds) to Palestine was due north-
east, but the Philistines were blocking the way there. Why Moses
did not then take the route via Beersheba = the place where Jacob
had set up a sanctuary, and rich in other patriarchal traditions 
remains a complete mystery. Be that as it may, he took them all
south instead. By the third month of the Exodus, the people had
arrived at the Sinai massif. It was probably on the mountain now
known as Jebel Musa ("Moses' mountain') that the fiery God
Yahweh's impressive demonstration took place. According to bibli-
cal tradition, the Israelites remained there for eight months before
endeavouring to move on towards the Promised Land. Their first
attempt failed, however, and the people of Israel had then to wan-
der in the wilderness for a further forty years, or so the Bible says
(forty was a mystical figure simply representing 'a large number'),

Reaching the valley of the River Jordan, Moses sensed that he
was not long for this world (Deuteronomy 31:2). Realizing that it
would not be given him to see his people to the end of their long
journey, he reiterated the laws that were to be regarded as sacred

45

in the Promised Land, gave his final instructions, appointed men
to offices to be taken up once the Jordan had been crossed, deliv-
ered a farewell speech, and at last climbed Mount Nebo to see 'the
land of milk and honey' before he died. There he met his end
(Deuteronomy 34:5)  but his place of burial remained a mystery,
for *.. . no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day'. It is all the
more surprising that Moses' grave should not be found for the
Bible gives a very detailed description of the site, complete with
place-names:


And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of

Meba, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho... over against
Beth-peor ._.

(Deuteronomy 34:1, &)

It seems equally improbable that the people of Israel would not
have arranged for a place of burial worthy of their great saviour
and leader: some fragmentary vestiges should still be visible some-
where. Some remains do indeed exist ~ but not in Palestine. They
are in northern India.

The Tomb of Moses in Kashmir.

The Bible names five landmarks in relation to Moses' burial site
(Deuteronomy 34:1-7): the Plains of Moab, Mount Nebo (in the
Abarim mountains), the peak of (Mount) Pisgah, Beth-peor, and
Heshbon. The Promised Land beyond the Jordan had been
expressly reserved for the children of Israel, and not for all
Hebrews (Numbers 27:12). If it is possible to find the places men-
tioned in the texts, the true location of the Promised Land should
also become clear. 

The literal meaning of Beth-peor is 'place that opens out', as
might refer to a valley that opens on to a plain. The River Jhelum
in the north of Kashmir is called Behat in Farsi (Persian), and the
small town of Bandipur at the point where the valley of the Jhelum
opens out on to the broad plain of Lake Wular used to be called
Behat-poor. Beth-peor, then, would seem to have become first
Behat-poor and latterly Bandipur in the Sopaore district 70 kilome-
tres north of Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir,

Some 20 kilometres north-east of Bandipur lies the small village
of Hasba or Hasbal. This is the biblical Heshbon (Deuteronomy
46  

Sketch-map showing the area around the Tomb of Moses": Mount Nebo, te
peak of Mount Pisgah, the mountains of Abarim (AB wfAbul), Beth-pecr
(Bandipur), Heshbor (Hazbal), and the Plains of Moab,


4:46), which is mentioned in connection with Beth-peor and
Pisgah. On the slopes of Pisgah (now Pishnag), to the north of
Bandipur, just 1.5 kilometres north-east of the village of Aham-
Sharif, a natural spring yields water with curative properties. The
valley and the plains of Mowu correspond to the Plains of Moab,
ideal alpine pasture some 5 kilometres north-west of Mount Nebo.
Mount Nebo is a single mountain in the Abarim range, and is
always mentioned in connection with Beth-peor.' Mount Nebo,
also called Baal Nebu or Niltoop, offers a splendid view of
Bandipur and the entire highlands of Kashmir.

And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto
Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saving, I  will give it unto thy
seed. [have caused thee to see it with thine eves, but thou shalt not Fl)
over thither.

Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab,
according to the word of the Lord.


And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against
Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

(Deuteronomy 34:4-6)

All the five named landmarks are thus to be found in one well-
defined location.

It is possible to go as far as the village of Aham-Sharif  about
12 kilometres from Bandipur  by car. From here, walking is the
only way to reach the little village of Buth at the foot of Mount
Nebo, climbing westwards for about an hour along a barely trace-
able path. The mountain's shape and its luxuriant vegetation are
strongly reminiscent of hills in Europe. The path crosses several
fields before finally reaching the small hamlet of Buth directly
beneath Mount Nebo. The wali rishi is the official guardian of the
tomb. He leads visitors to an area above the village that resembles
an unfenced garden, and that contains a small cabin-like shrine,
This modest hut serves as the tomb of an IsI am ic saint, Sang Bibi, a
female recluse. and of two of her followers. To one side, in the
shadow of the little wooden building, lies an unprepossessing
stone column that rises about a metre from the ground and is
almost completely covered by grass: this is the tombstone of
Moses.

The wali rishi explains that the rishis have been reverently tend-
ing the grave for more than 2700 years. Everything fits the tradi-
tion: the grave is near the Plains of Moab, near the peak of Pisgah,
on the mountain of Nebo, across from Beth-peor, and the site commands a 
splendid view of a fresh and blossoming 'land of milk and
honey', forever green, a true paradise. In the same vicinity, as in
other parts of Kashmir, there are quite a few places with biblical
names, in addition to one or two sites named Mugam-i-Musa, 'the
place of Moses'. North of Pisgah lies the small village of Heshbon
(Deuteronomy 4:44-49), which is today called Hasbal, And in
Bijbihara, south of Srinagar, a place on the riverbank is still referred
to as 'Moses' bath-place', where there is a magic stone called Ka-
Ka-Bal or Sang-i-Musa ('Stone of Moses"). According to legend, the
stone  about 70 kilograms in weight  is supposed to rise by itself
and remain suspended at about one metre off the ground if eleven
people touch it with one finger while chanting the magic spell 'Ka-
ka, ka-ka'. The number eleven represents the tribes of Israel.

Another place named after Moses is near Auth Wattu ('Eight
paths') in the Handwara district, The rocks at the confluence of the
rivers Jhelum and Sind (this is not the Indus), near Shadipur north
of Srinagar, are called Kohna-i-Musa, 'Cornerstone of Moses'.
Moses is believed to have reclined on the rocks there, He is also
said to have rested at Ayat-i-Maula {or Aitmul, "Sign of God'), 3
kilometres north of Bandipur.

From Conquest to Exile

Following Moses' death, the twelve tribes of Israel gradually
assumed control of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, dividing 
the territory up between themselves by drawing lots in the
thirteenth century BC. The whole process of gaining possession of
the land and putting it to their own uses altogether took about 150
years. In the song of Deborah (Judges 5:8), the population is estimated
 at 40,000 people, governed by strict rulers and leaders  the
'Judges'  in accordance with the laws of Moses. But even the
power of the Judges was not sufficient over the long term to transform 
volatile nomads into a united people, The Israelites needed a
king to rule them with a firm hand, and Samuel, the last of the
Judges, finally anointed Saul King of Israel at the end of the
eleventh century BC. Not until the reign of King David {around
the middle of the tenth century), however, did Israel finally
become a single, united nation. And the nation's capital was
Jerusalem, where the famous Temple was constructed during the
reign of David's son, Solomon.



solomon is renowned worldwide for his wisdom. But the bibli-
cal texts attributed to him were certainly written well after his
time, and who the teachers were that imparted their wisdom to
him is nowhere recorded.

In his book about the natural history of the region of Travancore
in southern India (now the state of Kerala), Dr Mateer writes:

There is a curious fact connected with the name of this bird which
casts some light upon scriptural history. King Solomon sent his navy
to Tarshish (1 Kings 10:22), from where it returned after three yeas
bringing 'gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks". Now the
ward sed in the Hebrew Bible for peacock is diukki, and because the
Israelites naturally had no name for these fine birds until they were
first imported into Judea by King Solomon, there is ry choulbt that fukks
is simply the old Tamil word lokef, the name of the peacock  Also,
the ape or monkey in Hebrew is kph, the Indian word for which is
kapi, Ivory    is abundant in southern India, and gold is widely
 distributed in the rivers of the Western coast. So the "Tarshish' referred to
was undoubtedly the Western coast of India, and Solomon's ships
were the first East Indiamen.(r)

To this, with grateful acknowledgement, can be added the fact that
apart from 'gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks', King
Solomon and his friend King Hiram (he of masonic connotations)
brought something else home with them from India: their 'magic
and their 'wisdom'. Other historians, including the famous expert
on India Max Müller, also trace the Hebrew name of the peacock
and the monkey back to Indian origins.

According to the First Book of Kings (9:13), Solomon presented
Hiram, the King of Tyre, with twenty towns, among them a place
named Kabul (Cabul). But Kabul is the name of the capital of
Afghanistan, formerly part of India.

Kashmir is still known among the local Muslim population as
ltagh-i-Suleiman, the 'Garden of Solomon', and on a mountain that
overlooks the city of Srinagar there stands a small temple called
Fakht-i-Suleiman, the 'Throne of Solomon'. According to an
inscription, the 'new temple' was restored in AD 78 by King
Ciopadatta (also called Gopananda) on the foundations of an older,
ruined building. Tradition has it that Solomon once visited the
region, and that it was he who divided the mountain Barehmooleh
in order to create a channel for the water that still flows into the
large Lake Dal. Tradition likewise accredits him with the 
construclion of the small temple building that retains his name* (Plate 9).
Fue hill on which the Takht-i-Suleiman stands is sacred also to the
50  

Hindus, and today its peak is crowned with a Hindu temple.
Meanwhile the Buddhists of Ladakh believe the Throne of
Solomon to have been the abode of the saint Padmasambhava,
who brought Mahayana Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century.

The Takht-i-Suleiman of Srinagar is not the only mountain
throne of the biblical king in the huge expanse of land that stretch-
es from Palestine to India. In north-western Iran, south of the town
of Tabriz, set in an extraordinarily beautiful landscape comparable
with the "Happy Valley', there is another mountain which bears
the same name, It is known particularly for its extensive ruins, the
oldest sections of which date back to the early first millennium BC.
In later times an important Zoroastrian temple of fire was erected
here, and in the heyday of the Sassanians  the last pre-IsI am ic
dynasty to rule Persia, from the fourth to the sixth centuries AD 
the enormous palace of the Khosraus was built on the mountain
Oriental legend in general affords this mountain an important role,
One of the three Wise Men (Magi) from the Orient was said to
have died here after his return from Bethlehem, for example,

On Solomon's death in around 930 BC, his son Rehoboam suc-
ceeded him. But he had scarcely mounted the throne before a
revolt broke out against the royal house, led by an exiled
Ephraimite, Jeroboam, on the pretext of exorbitant taxation. The
rebellion caused a secession: the kingdom was split into two parts,
The ten tribes of the north formed an independent state under the
name Israel, and made Jeroboam their leader. The two tribes of the
south renamed their territory Judah, and continued to be ruled by
the House of David. The two opposing brother states existed
alongside one another for more than 250 years, as the total popula-
tion grew to about 300,000.

The partitioned country, during what is often called the Age of
the Two Kingdoms, suffered both internal strife and a number of
invasions by more powerful neighbouring states. Eventually Israel,
under the rule of Jehu and his descendants (845-747 BC), was first
occupied for three years by the Assyrians, led by Sargon II, and
finally overrun when its capital, Samaria, was captured in 722 BC.
Judah held out for another hundred years as a vassal state paying
tribute, until the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar finally took
Jerusalem and destroyed it in 587 BC, so putting an end also to the
state of Judah. The conquerors forcibly expelled the population.
The deportation of the two tribes that made up the southern king:
dom, Judah and Benjamin, was initially deferred for a time, but in
due course Nebuchadnezzar had them hauled off into exile in



Babylon. After more than fifty years there, about half of all the
deportees were permitted to return to their native land by Cyrus
II, King of the Medes and Persians, in 535 BC.

The ten tribes that the Assyrians had deported some 130 years
earlier from the northern state of Israel, who constituted very
much the greater part of the Hebrew people, were overtaken by a
very different fate. Most of them left for the East, and were never
heard of in Palestine again. 'So was Israel carried away oul of their
own land  unto this day' (2 Kings 17:23). Numbering many
thousands, they entered history as "the ten lost tribes of Israel', and
are even now often described as having altogether vanished with-
out trace. But there are many clear indications that most of these
'Jost tribes of Israel', after centuries of homeless wandering and
administrative turmoil, finally arrived at their Promised Land, the
"land of the fathers'  northern India, where they have enjoyed

peace and tranquillity to the present day.

The Flood in Kashmir

According to the chronology of the Bible, Abraham was a direct
descendant of Noah, the man chosen by God to be the only person
to survive the Flood with his family. The biblical account makes no
reference to the origins of Abraham's father, simply listing a
genealogy right back to Noah and the time when the great Flood
occurred. A layer of clay two to three metres in breadth was actually 
discovered by archaeologists excavating in the area around Ur
in Mesopotamia, and there were pottery fragments both above arid
below the clay. But the layer proves no more than that there once
was a serious outbreak of flooding in the district around Ur,

A document in cuneiform from Nineveh describes the end of
this catastrophe: 'All mankind had turned to clay. The land had
become as flat as a roof.'

This layer of clay has been seen as evidence of the great Flood of
the Bible, and it would fit very neatly into history as presented by
the Bible were it not for the fact that archaeologists estimate the
date of this flood at about 4000 BC. But the nomadic Semitic tribes
and their flocks had certainly not reached the land of the two
rivers by that time.' So they could not have survived this flood
later to give their eyewitness testimony to it. The Flood of the
 biblical account must have been a different one.



The Flood actually represents something of a universal tradition, 
recounted in the mythology of almost every race There have
been many Ice Ages on the Earth, and no doubt catastrophic inundations 
arising from various causes have been equally numerous.

The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered around the
beginning of the twentieth century in the ruins of the ancient
library of Nineveh, written in cuneiform on tablets of baked clay.
One of its heroes, Utnapishtim, the Sumerian Noah, is described
as surviving a great flood caused by an arbitrary act of the gods.
As in the Bible, a man builds a ship following a divine warning,
and in this way survives a flood, which then destroys all life
around him. 

Alexander von Humboldt mentions the same legend among the
Peruvians, and in one account of the Flood in Polynesia, the hero is
even called Noa. More than 250 versions of the legend of the Flood
have been recorded worldwide, But which is the Flood of the biblical account?

Because the Vedas of India are without doubt the oldest traditions
 in the history of humanity, it would seem logical to assume
that the Vedic account of the Flood represents the very first Flood
narrative to be passed down. The texts give a complex description
of the event:

The gods had decided to cleanse the werld with an enormous flood,
but Manu, the great seer and sage, was to be exempted in order to pre-
serve the human race. The god Vishnu thereupon took on an Earthly
incarnation for the first time as an avatar, in the form of the fish
Matsya, and revealed himself to Manu on the bank of a river. The fish
warned Manu that the Earth was soon to be submerged, and that
everyone living on it would perish, He ordered the sage to build a
ship to carry himself and his family, as well as the seven great Rishis
(seers), the seeds of every plant, and one pair of each kind of animal,
And he was also to take the Vedas, to ensure that the sacred texts were
preserved. Just as the construction of the ship was completed, the
great rains began, the rivers burst their banks, and Vishnu as the fish
positioned himself at the prow of the boat, his hom above the water,
Manu fastened a rope to the hom, and the fish pulled the ship safely
through the raging elements until they found shelter on the peaks of
the Himalayan mountains (cf Genesis 6-8),

The Vedic Flood lasted 40 days ~ a duration that coincides exactly
with that described in the account of the Flood in Genesis.

The German word for the Flood is Sintflut, the first element of
which has an obscure etymology. Most authorities generally derive



it from Old High German sint, meaning 'total', so Sintflut corre-
sponds to 'total flood'. (Modern German has the alternative form
Siindflut, a later corruption with the apparent, but not altogether
irrelevant, meaning 'flood of sin'.)

But there is another possible etymology. Sindh is the old name
of the powerful river to which the subcontinent of India owes its
name: the Indus." In ancient times, 'India' referred to the lands
beyond the Indus, including what are now Tibet and Mongolia,
Later, the land on the southern and western side of the river as far
as modern Iran were also included in the term 'India',

Seen from the West, the Sindhu /Indus is the largest and most
powerful river to be crossed on the way to India. It flows from
north to south through what is now Pakistan, and out via a colos-
sal delta into the Arabian Sea. "The other side of the river', where
Abraham came from," might perhaps have been the land beyond
the Indus, which serves as a natural barrier between India and the
West.

The river also gave its name to the area called Sind, now the
most southerly province of Pakistan, its capital at Karachi. The
province is 140,000 square kilometres in area, and extremely fertile
due to constant flooding, and is accordingly very well populated.

There is yet another river with the name Sindh in the province
of Kashmir in northern India. This other Sindh is not as big as its
better-known twin, but is certainly perhaps as important to a
derivation for the German word Sintflut. This Sindh flows in the
north of the Kashmir valley through the very area visible from

Mount Nebo, from which Moses is said to have glimpsed the
Promised Land before dying (Plate 15).

The source of this Sindh is not far from the Cave of Amamath,
which is especially sacred to the Hindus, and which attracts thou-
sands of pilgrims for the night of the August full moon each year.
Legend has it that the god Shiva initiated his consort Parvati in the
mysteries of Creation (1) at this spot.

Three days of walking following the course of the river down-
stream brings a visitor to the village of Sonamarg, the 'Golden
meadow', still a good 2,600 metres up. Notovitch passed through
here before crossing over the 3500-metres-high Zoji-la Pass to the
plateauland of Ladakh. The path from Sonamarg follows the river
all the way down to Srinagar, 84 kilometres on, leading over
ancient wooden bridges, past small villages set among lush green
meadows and fruit trees bearing apricots, pears and apples.
Artistically carved windowframes and decorated wooden roofs
54 Jesus Lived tr India

bear witness to the prosperity of the region. The farther towards
Srinagar, the more luxuriant and fertile the valley seems, vast ter-
races of rice and corn fields appearing on both sides. Finally, the
valley opens right out at a place called Kangan.

All in all, Kashmir is like one enormous Garden of Eden  and
its enormous marshy areas and large, shallow lakes are evidence of
a gigantic flood in times long ago.

Kashmir, the 'Promised Land'

According to the Bible, Paradise  the place where humankind was
created, lay to the East. "And the Lord God planted a garden east-
ward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed'
{Genesis 2:8). The next few verses specify the geographical loca-
tion of the Garden of Eden further by mentioning four rivers: 'And
a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it
was parted, and became into four heads' (Genesis 2:10). In
Mesopotamia, the land 'between the rivers', usually considered to
be the Garden of Eden, there are only two rivers (as the region's
name implies).

In contrast, northern India can boast five great rivers, all tribu-
taries of the Indus (Sindh) that spread aver a vast area, giving the
region its name  the land of five rivers, the Punjab. Since the parti-
tion of India in 1947, the province has been divided between the
{vo countries India (Bharat) and Pakistan. The five tributaries of
the Indus to the west of the river are the Jhelum, the Chenab, the
Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej. One of the earliest attested civiliza-
tions in India was based in the Punjab region = the Indus culture,
dating from around 3000 BC  and in Kashmir archaeologists have
even found traces of a civilization going back 50,000 years.

The name Kashmir (Sanskrit Kashnmira; Kashmiri Kashir) has
been etymologically derived in at least three different ways.

Cush (Kush) was a grandson of Noah, whose descendants were
to populate the Earth, giving their names to the countries in which
they settled. The descendants of Cush have traditionally, and for
mare than two thousand years, been associated with Ethiopia, but
Genesis also says of the waters flowing out of Eden, 'And the
name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth
the whole land of Ethiopia" (Genesis 2:13). Virtually every single
name in the Bible has been subject to considerable phonetic and
orthographic modification through the influence of other lan-
guages. So the 'Kush' of the Bible could easily have become 'Kash'.
In Farsi (Persian), mir means something of value, a jewel; in
Russian, mir is a region occupied by a community; and in Turkish,
Mir is a title of respect.

Another interpretation centres on the Hebrew word kasher (also
kshir or, as generally in English, kosher), which means 'approv-
able', especially in relation to food, According to Jewish law" 
only animals that have been ritually slaughtered and bled can 
be used for food. The Jews have always distinguished themselves from
others by their dietary regulations, and so were called Kasher, as
was the land that they came to inhabit. Later, Kasher tumed into
k.ashmir, The Kashmiris of today stil call their country Kashir, 
and its inhabitants Kashur.

Yet another etymological possibility turns on the name of a
Vedic seer, Kashyapa, who is said to have lived in the region in
ancient times. Kashyapa means "turtle" in Sanskrit. According to
the cosmology of the day, the slightly rounded surface of the Earth 
bordered by the oceans was the back of a turtle swimming in
walter. In some Vedic texts the name Kashyap was also given to
tiod the Creator, and 'Kashyap-Mar'  which became Kashmir,
according to this derivation  would then mean 'the land of God'.


The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
It was in the nineteenth century  as enthusiastic colonization
spread apace  that the West began to take a more serious interest
in the countries of the Far East, and reports began to filter in from
 several Western explorers describing their astonishment at encoun-
tering tribes all over the north-west of India who were clearly of
Jewish descent.

The missionary doctor Joseph Wolff, for example, reported in
his two-volume work Narrative of 8 Mission fo Bokhara in the Years
1543=1845:"

All the Jews of Turkistan assert that the Turkomauns are the descendants 
of Togarmah, one of the sons of Gomer, mentioned in Genesis
10:3  The Jews in Bokhara are 10,000 in number. The Chief Rabbi
assured me that Bokhara is the Habor, and Balkh the Halah, of 2 Kings
17:6, but that in the reign of Genghis Khan they lost all their written
accounts,



The tradition is an old one at Bokhara, that some of the Ten Tribes
are in China  Some Affghauns claim a descent from Israel,
According to them, Affghaun was the nephew of Asaph, the son of
Berachia, who built the Temple of Solomon. The descendants of this
Affghaun, being Jews, were carried into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar,
from whence they were removed to the mountain of Ghoree, in
Alfghaunistan, but in the time of Mohammed turned Mohammedans,
They exhibit a book, Majmoea Alansab, or "Collection of Genealogies'
written in Persian _   Captain Riley, 1 was surprised to find, looked
upon the Affgauns as of Jewish descent,

And finally Wolff writes: 'I spent six days with the children of
Rechab [Bani Arhab]  With them were children of Israel of the
tribe of Dan, who reside near Terim in Hatramawt,(tm)

G. T. Vigne, a French travelling scholar and member of the
Royal Geographical Society, in A Personal Account of a Voyage fo
Chuzin, Kabul, in Afghanistan wrote:

The father of Ermiah was the father of the Afghans. He was a contemporary
 of Nebuchadnezzar, called himself Beni Israel and had forty
sons, But a descendant in the thirty-fourth generation was called Kys,and 
he was a contemporary of the prophet Mohammed.

Dr James Bryce and Dr Keith Johnson note in their Comprehensive
Description of Geagraphy," under the heading Afghanistan, that the
Afghanis 'trace their lineage back to King Saul of Israel and call
themselves "Ben-i-lIsrael"

According to A. Burnes, the Afghan legend of Nebuchadnezzar
confirms that the Israelites were transplanted from the Holy Land
to Ghore, in north-western Kabul province. They remained Jewish
until AD 682, when the Arab sheikh Khaled-ibn-Abdalla converted
them to IsI am .

To the works quoted above could be added a great deal more
literary evidence that focuses on the settlement by the Israelites in the 
region of Afghanistan and surrounding territories. One of the most important 
contributions is The Lost Tries by Dr George Moore," who found many Hebrew 
inscriptions on archaelogical sites in India. Quite close to Taxila,
 now in Sirkap, Pakistan, a stone was dug up that bears an inscription 
in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke (Plate 17).

Latest research in the Pakistani part of Kashmir has brought to
light thousands of rock inscriptions and pictures dating from the
prehistoric, early Buddhist, and post-Christian periods. The discovery
 site is in the valley of the upper Indus, where the famous

Wiarlier Notooitch

Che Hiemis Momastery is located at an
ile of mearly 4000 metres amid the
Feng imoun fais, sonre 34 kilometres
frannt the capital of Ladakh, Lek,

caravan trail known as the Silk Route once passed. Among these
inscriptions were some in Hebrew, dated by the researchers to the
ninth century AD ~ the time when IsI am  was just beginning to
penetrate through into India."

The eleventh-century Arab historian Biruni wrote that at that
time no foreigners were being allowed into Kashmir, other than
Hebrews.

As early as in the nineteenth century, a society was founded in
England that had as its aim the rediscovery of the ten lost tribes of
Israel. It was called The Identification Society of London, and most
works on the subject by British authors have been issued by the
society. There is no need here to list the more than 30 authors and
their works which prove that the Kashmiri population is of
Israelite descent.

OF more immediate interest is the fact that well over 300 of the
names of geographical features; of towns, regions and estates, and

fr : ; of tribes, clans, families and individuals in the Old Testament can
re EE To be matched with linguistically related or phonetically similar
names in Kashmir and its environs,

14 The plain as it widens outside the town of Badipur (formerly Belmtpoor and Beth-peor), wm
the marshy Lake Waler,

Mame in Kashmir Name in the Bible Bible Reference

re Bi ? : CTRL Sr Rr Amal Amal 1 Chronicles 7:35

15 The smaller River Simidly, and the flooded Kashmir valley in the background.
 'Achicais at Coriesls 30:13

Altai Atta 1 Chronicles 12:11
Bal Baal 1 Chronicles 5:5
Hala Balah Joshua 19:3
Bera Bearah 1 Chronicles 5:6
Ciabba Gaba Joshua 18:24
Craddick Gaddi Mumbers 13:11
Can Gumi 1 Chronicles 7:13
Comer Gomer Genesis 10:2
and sa on
[lice am Knshnrir:  (Progimce) Biblical Mame Bible Reference
Apurn (Kulgam) Agur Proverbs 30:1
Aas (Srinagar) Ajah Genesis 36:24
Amariah (Srinagar) Amariah 1 Chronicles 23:19
Amon (Anantnag) Amon] Kings 22:26
Arr {Awantipur) Aroer Joshua 12:2
Halpura (Awantipur)  Baal-peor Mumbers 25.3
feliatpoor {Hamdwara) Beth-peor Deuteronomy 34:6
[isu {Awantipur) Birsha Genesis 14:2
Harwan (Srinagar) Haran 2 Kings 19:12

ani 500m

58 Jesus Leved in India

The inhabitants of Kashmir are different from the other peoples of
India in every respect. Their way of life, their behaviour, their
morals, their character, their clothing, their language, customs and
habits are all of a type that might be described as typically
Israelite. Like present-day Israelis, the Kashmiris do not use fat for
frying and baking: they only use oil. Most Kashmiris like boiled
fish, called fari, eaten in remembrance of the time before their
Exodus from Egypt  'We remember the fish, which we did eat in
Egypt freely" (Numbers 11:5).

Butchers' knives in Kashmir are made in the half-moon shape
typical of the Israelites, and even the rudders of the boat people
(Hanjis) are of the similarly typical heart shape,


The men wear distinctive caps on their heads, The clothing of
the old women of Kashmir (Pandtanis) is very similar to that of
Jewish women, and like them they alse wear headscarves and
laces. Like young Jewish girls, the girls of Kashmir dance in two
facing columns with linked arms, moving together forwards and
backwards to the rhythm. They call their songs rf,

After bearing a child, a woman of Kashmir observes forty days'
seclusion for purification; this, too, is a Jewish custom. Many of the
older graves in Kashmir are aligned in an east-west orientation,
whereas IsI am ic graves normally point north-south. A great num-
ber of such graves are to be found in Haran, Rajpura, Syed Bladur
Sahib, Kukar Nagh and Awantipura, In the cemetery at Bijbihara,
the place where the bath and stone of Moses are located, there is
also an old grave that has an inscription in Hebrew,

Sixty-five kilometres to the south of Srinagar, and just a few
kilometres from the 'Bathplace of Moses', is the Temple of
Martand, This impressive building's outside walls, which date
from the eighth century, feature carvings of a number of Hindu
deities. But together with these parts of the structure that derive
from more recent times, considerably older walls and ruins have
been discovered, which have yet to be dated accurately, but which
are clearly many centuries older than the Hindu temple built over
them (Plates 21 and 22).

Could this perhaps be the temple that a man 'whose appearance
was like the appearance of brass' showed to the prophel Ezekiel
during the time of the Babylonian Exile (586-538 BC)? In fact the
Temple of Martand does stand on a 'very high mountain'
unknown to Ezekiel: a Himalayan peak. And at its side "a spring
gushes forth, to flow into the Jhelum farther downstream (Ezekiel
40-43).

Moses and the Children of God.


The Silk Route betecen the Far East amd the Mediterranean allied the brisk
 excange of goods amd philosophical

ides even in pre~Clrvistium fines.

Chapter Four.

THE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.

The Wise Men's Star.

In the Gospel According to Matthew, in the second chapter, we
read:

Mow when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod
the king, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem,
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen
his star in the East, and are come lo worship him. :
(Matthew 2:1=2).

Had some extraordinary astronomical event really taken place that
night there would also have been some mention of it in contempo-
rary secular records. And in any case, any unusual conjunction of
planets in the night sky, whenever reported, is simple enough to
check up on mathematically today.

Even Johannes Kepler undertook such calculations. He thought
that the star of Bethlehem might have been a nova that appeared
as the result of a conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn in the
year 7 BC. His idea of a nova (literally a 'new' star) was rejected as
a workable theory by later astronomers. But the conjunction that
Kepler thought was the cause of it has itself come to be generally
accepted by many as the Bethlehem event. In the course of the year
7 BC, the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation
Pisces occurred no fewer than three times. (Coincidentally, Pisces
corresponds to 'Fish', and it was a fish that became a symbol for
Christ and was a secret sign of recognition among the early
Christian communities.) Such an encounter in this sign of the
Zodiac occurs only once every 794 years: everybody who saw
them must have been captivated for months by the impressive
sight of the two planets in such close proximity as to appear in the
night sky as a double star of great brilliance.

In 1925 the Orientalist Paul Schnabel suceended in deciphering a

The Childhood of Jesus 61

cuneiform slate almost 2000 years old that had been found at the
observatory at Sippar, on the Euphrates. It contained a careful
description of the astronomical event of the year 7 BC  the great
conjunction between the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the constel-
lation Pisces.

Towards the end of 8 BC, Jupiter and Saturn were visible only
after twilight in the western sky, some 16° or so apart, Jupiter mov-
ing out of the constellation Aquarius and Saturn already in Pisces.
In February of 7 BC, both planets disappeared in the rays of the
sun and remained occluded for several weeks. The astrologers of
the Middle East impatiently awaited the reappearance of Jupiter,
expecting it to be an outstandingly spectacular occasion at dawn
on the thirteenth of Adaru in the year 304 of the Seleucid era  or
16 March 7 BC. Thereafter they watched Jupiter move ever nearer
to Saturn, until the two planets finally 'touched' at the end of the
month of Aira (29 May 7 BC). This conjunction; at which both
Jupiter and Saturn had an altitude of 21° in Pisces, separated by
only 1? in declination and with precisely the same azimuth, was to
recur twice more in the same year in much the same way, on 3
October and 5 December.

Both planets were visible from dusk until dawn, reaching their
maximum altitude at around midnight. As the sun sank in the
west, the planets rose in the east, and as they in turn vanished
below the western horizon, the dawning sun reappeared in the
east. At the beginning of the year, therefore, the pair of planets
emerged from occlusion by the light of the sun (a heliacal rising),
and at the end of the year they once more disappeared into the
sun's rays (a heliacal setting). Every night of the year Jupiter and
Saturn were visible, never leaving each other's company by mare
than 3° Such a sight was not to be seen again in the Zodiacal sign
of Pisces for another eight hundred years.

In the Gospel According to Matthew, the star is mentioned three
times: The wise men first say, .  for we have seen his star in the
East... The original Greek text, for 'East', uses the word anatole.
Historical linguists have discovered that amatole, used in the singu-
lar, had a meaning of particular astronomical significance. It
referred to the appearance of the Morning Star, a star (or planet)
that preceded the sun at dawn, rising in the east shortly before
sunrise. Used in the plural, the same word had a geographical con-
notation, and referred instead to the land of the East, the Orient. So
three wise men could indeed have followed the celestial phenome-
non from the east to the west,

62  

The second reference to the astronomical event in Matthew's
Gospel also bears a special meaning in Greek: "Then Herod, when
he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently
what time the star appeared' (Matthew 2:7). The Greek verb mean-
ing 'appeared' was also an astronomical technical term relating to
the first appearance of a Morning Star in the east. Contemporary
popular belief held that each person's 'own star' rose at the
moment of his or her birth. What Herod's question implies is that
the birth must have occurred a good while before. According to
the Babylonian calendar, Jupiter had appeared to rise during the
last month of year 304 of the Seleucid era. The year 305 (6 BC)
began with the spring month of Nisannu, which also marked the
beginning of the Jewish New Year. When the wise men arrived in
Jerusalem, the conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn would have
been well into its second year, and Jesus  probably born in 7 BC 
would then have been almost two years old. [t was presumably for
this reason that Herod massacred all the children of certain com-
munities up to the age of two.

What impelled these mysterious sages of the East (the Greek
word anatole is in the plural here) to undergo the rigours of a jour-
ney that lasted many months, perhaps even two years on the out-
ward leg alone, and that entailed such great sacrifice? Where did
they come from, and why did they go on searching so persistently
for a small boy? Traditional theology provides no solution to the
question of who these "three wise men" actually were,

Who Were the Three Wise Men?

In the ancient Greek text; the wise men are called nragoi (from Old
Persian magus). The Magi of the Bible story were first elevated to
kingship in the sixth century by Caesarius of Arles. In the ninth
century, these 'kings' were given the spuriously coined names
Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, The earliest sources do not actual-
ly-specify how many Magi there were, but their number has been
fixed at three ever since the days of Origen," perhaps because there
were three gifts given.

What is certain is that the Magi came on a long journey from the
East, and that they were well versed in 'magical' practices, were
expert astronomers, and were by no means poor,

This means that the story of the star's coming to a standstill

The Childhood of Jesus 63

immediately over the stable of a rustic inn, in which a newborn
infant was lying only a few hours old, is just religious myth. It is
much more likely that the child, by then almost two vears of age,
was sought out and visited at the home of people who were aware
of the divine stature of the boy. The circle evidently did not enjoy
the favour of Herod, however, because when the king heard what
the three were seeking, he was extremely shocked, and 'all
Jerusalem with him". Whether the child could perhaps have been

seen as the messianic Saviour whose coming was awaited by the
secret sects of Qumran, the Nazarenes and the Essenes, is a theme
that is taken up later in this book. Nonetheless, it is now known
that the monastery of Qumran, close to the Dead Sea, was deserted
for ten years during the rule of Herod the Great  that is, that the
mysterious and esoteric sect was proscribed for those years. Such
an enforced ban could account for the king's wrath, and for his
attempt to ensure that the child was killed.


Could the members of the forbidden sect perhaps have retained
links with their brethren in India, with the lost tribes of the House
of Israel?

The apocryphal Gospel of the Nozarenes* contains the following
passage:

When Joseph raised his eyes and looked out, he saw a group of travellers
 approaching. coming directly towards the cave: and he said, "IT
will get up and go to receive them." Immediately after going out,
Joseph said to Simon, "The people approaching would seem to be
astrologers, for look how they are constantly peering up into the sky
and talking among themselves. But they seem also to be foreign, for
their appearance is different from our own; their clothing is very: rich
and their skin quite dark, and they are wearing caps on their heads,
and their gowns look soft to me, and their legs are covered too.

At this distance in time it is well-nigh impossible to prove that the
Magi came either from Persia or from India. Yet it is absolutely
amazing how much the story of the three wise men corresponds
with accounts of the methods by which reincarnations' of great
Buddhist dignitaries are located in Tibet after their demise, even to
this day. The way in which such a search is carried out, following
ancient and traditional ritual, is described in the present Dalai
Lama 's own accounts of his "discovery" as a little boy," and in the
book by the Austrian Heinrich Harrer, who spent seven years at
the court of the god-king in Lhasa.'
id {India
Just How Do You Locate a Reincarnation?

Shortly before his death in 1933, the thirteenth Dalai Lama  trans-
mitted some indications of the place and time of his next reincarnation. 
Every day his body was positioned in the Potala Palace,
facing southward in the traditional seated posture. But one morn
ing his face was seen to be turned to the east. And on a wooden
pedestal a short distance north-east of the shrine on which his
body was seated, a-star-shaped fungal plant appeared in a sudden
and mysterious manner, On receiving these signs, the head I am as
performed a magic ritual during which they interrogated a monk
who had been put/into a trance, and whose charge it was to act as
an oracle. The monk cast a white ceremonial scarf in an easterly
direction; and strange cloud formations appeared to the north-east
over Lhasa. But after this the Lama  magicians received no further
signs for another two years. Finally, the acting head Lama  (the
'regent Lama ') was inspired to make a pilgrimage to the holy lake
of Lhamoi Latse, near Ch! Khor Gyal, 144 kilometres away.
Tibetans believe that the future is mirrored in the 'zar waters of
this mountain lake: After days of preparatory meditation, the
regent Lama  had a vision of a three-storey monastery with gilded
roofs, alongside which was a small Chinese farmhouse with beau-
tifully decorated gables and green roofing-tiles. Superimposed
over this scene were the three Tibetan letters Ah, Ka and Ma. A

detailed description of the vision was committed to paper and

kept strictly secret. Full of gratitude for the divine instructions, and

with complete confidence, the regent Lama  returned to Lhasa, and

preparations were made in the palace for the forthcoming search.

Most important to these preparations were the pronouncements

of the astrologers, without whose calculations no significant moves
could be made at all. At last, in 1937, various expeditions were
despatched from Lhasa to seek out the holy child according to the
heavenly omens, in the direction indicated. Each group included

wise and worthy I am as of highly distinguished status in the theocracy. 
In addition to their servants, each group took costly gifts with

them, some of them from among the possessions of the deceased.
The gifts were meant as tokens of worship for the new Dalai Lama ,
but also constituted a test by which the identity of the new reincarnation might be verified.

The dead Dalai Lama  could theoretically be reborn many thou.
sands of kilometres from his previous dwelling-place  and that,
indeed, turned out to be the case with the fourteenth Dalai Lama ,


The search led well beyond the borders of central Tibet into the
district of Amdo in the region of Dokham, which was under
Chinese administration. The birthplace of the reformer of
I am aism, Tsong Kapa, there were a number of monasteries in the
area.

The expedition found several potential candidates, but none of
them precisely matched the details of the vision or the astrological
pronouncements. Finally, during the winter, near the village of
Taktser, the team arrived at the three-storey monastery of
Kumbum, omate in its gilded roofs and adjacent to a charming lit-
He farmhouse with a turquoise roof and carved gables. [tall tallied
exactly with the regent Lama 's vision,

Two I am as of high rank disguised themselves as servants, and a
young monk of their party played the role of their master. The disguise 
was meant to conceal the actual purpose of their visit for the
time being, to avoid unnecessary commotion and allow the delegation to 
inspect the place in a tranquil atmosphere. The monks
entered the house with two officials from the local monastery. The
two high clerics  one of whom was Lama  Kewtsang Rinpoche
fram the monastery of Sera in Lhasa ~ were led into the kitchen in
their assumed role of servants, while the other monk was shown
inte the main room. In the farmhouse kitchen, the children of the
family were playing, and as soon as the disguised Lama  Rinpoche
took his seat in the room alittle two-year-old boy rushed forward
and plumped himself down on the Lama 's lap. The revered monk
was wearing a string of prayer-beads that had belonged to the
deceased Dalai Lama , and the boy seemed to recognize it and
tugged at it as though he wanted to have it. The Lama  promised to
give the boy the beads if he could guess who his visitor was ,whereupon
 the boy immediately gave the answer 'Sera-aga', "The
Lama  of Sera' in the local dialect! The boy's ability to recognize a
Lama  disguised as a servant was surprising enough, but that he
somehow knew that the Lama  came from Sera astonished even
these monks, who were aceustomed to miraculous events. The
Jama then asked the boy what their alleged 'master' was called,
and he replied 'Lobsang'. The servant's name was indeed Lobsang
Tsewang. '

The highetanking I am as spent the entire day observing the
child, restraining themselves as best they could from according
him the profound reverence that they were convinced was his due,
for they were quite sure that they had at last found the reincarnation. 
But they left the next day, to return with all the other members of the 
expedition a few days later. It was only when the
child's parents espied the procession of high dignitaries in full costume 
approaching their humble home that they realized that their
son must be a reincarnation. In the neighbouring monastery of
Kumbum a particularly holy Lama  had recently died, and the farmers believed 
that their darling boy might be his reincarnation. One
of the farming couple's elder sons had in fact already undergone a
test to investigate whether it was he who was the reincarnation.

It is not unusual for such reincarnated children to remember
objects and people known to them from their previous life. Some
are even able to recite scriptures that they have not been taught. In

the isolated tranquillity of Tibet there has always been an abundance of 
evidence that former lives may overlap into the present.
In the West, however, such accounts rarely surface because
Westerners tend to belittle the very idea that a dead person may be
reborn in a new body.

The four chief Bonpos of the delegation from Lhasa then pro
ceeded to carry out the prescribed tests, First they offered the child
two almost identical strings of black prayer-beads, one of which
had belonged to the thirteenth Dalai Lama . Without hesitation, the
child chose the correct one, hung it-around his neck, and danced
gaily around the room with it. The test was repeated with several
more strings of precious prayer-beads. Then the delegation offered
the boy two different ritual drums  one large and omate, decorated with
 gold, and a much plainer drum that had once belonged to
the deceased Dalai Lama . The boy took the plainer of the drums,
and went on to play upon it, beating out a rhythm in precisely the
way these drums are used in religious ceremonies. Finally, two
walking sticks were presented to the child, and the boy first
touched the wrong stick, paused, considered both sticks for a short
while, and finally chose the stick that had belonged to the god-
king. The spectators, who had been surprised at the boy's apparent
hesitancy, were at once told by the Rinpoche how the second stick
had also been used for a time by the thirteenth Dalai Lama  before
he gave it lo Lama  Kewlsang.

(There is a clear parallel here between such a presentation of the
deceased king's precious possessions and the costly gilts brought
by the Magi from the East to the boy Jesus. It is also obvious that a
child must have attained an age of at least around two years before
being ready for such a test.)

To these proofs was added an interpretation of the three letters
that the regent Lama  had seen in his vision. It was surmised that


the first letter, Ah, stood for Amdo, the district in which the boy
was found. The two letters Ka and Ma were taken to refer to a
small Lamasery on the mountain above the village of Taktser,
Ka(r)ma Rolpai Dorje ~ where the thirteenth Dalai Lama  had
stayed some years before when travelling back from China. At the
time, the thirteenth Dalai Lama 's visit had created something of a
sensation over the whole region, and among the people blessed by
their god-king was the father of the new reincarnation, then just
nine years old. Moreover, the former Dalai Lama  was said to have
gazed at the farmhouse where his reincarnation was later discovered, 
and to have remarked somewhat wistfully how beautiful and
serene the place was, It is also reported that the Dalai Lama  had
left behind a pair of boots in the small Lamasery ~ an action that
might, in the event, be said to hold a certain foresighted symbol. 
The delegates were totally satisfied with every confirmatory
detail: the reincarnation had been found. Announcing the discovery 
and appending the evidence, they sent a coded telegram to
Lhasa via China and India, and by return received instructions that
everything must henceforward be organized with the utmost
secrecy in order not to jeopardize matters by getting on the wrong
side of the Chinese authorities. In particular, because the search
had taken place on Chinese soil it was essential to pull the wool
over the eyes of the Chinese officials to get the young king out of
their charge. The governor of the province, Ma Pufang, was fold
that the boy was to be taken to Lhasa because he was one of many
possible successors to the deceased Dalai Lama , Ma Pufang first
demanded 100,000 Chinese dollars for releasing the child, and
when he found this sum readily forthcoming demanded a further
payment of 300,000 dollars. The worst the delegation feared was
that if they were to admit having found the true god-King, China
might insist on sending some troops with him to Lhasa 'for his
protection',

Again the parallels with the similar situation in Jerusalem two
thousand years ago are striking: there the divine child had to be
smuggled out of the country in order to avoid the Roman governor
of the province, Herod. 'Then Herod, when he saw that he was
mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth" (Matthew 2:16).

For security reasons, all correspondence between Amdo and
Lhasa was conveyed by couriers, which always took several
months. So it was a further two years before the caravan with the
delegation, the child and his family, were finally able to set out for


Lhasa. The trek to the border of central Tibet lasted many months,
but when they arrived it was to find a cabinet minister and his
entourage there to welcome them, and to find the choice of the
Dalai Lama  confirmed in a letter from the acting regent Lama . It
was not until that moment that the parents of the boy realized that
their son was no less a figure than the new ruler of all Tibet.

Very comparable with this well-attested story of how the Dalai
Lama  was located is another case that happened quite recently.

Tibetan scroll pictures, gilded statues of Buddha and fresh flow-
ers adorn the bedroom of the little Spanish boy Osel. He sits on
velvet cushions embroidered with brocades and wears a splendid
little jacket. Tibetan Buddhists around the world are convinced
that the two-year-old Osel Hita Torres is actually the reincarnation
of the Lama  Thubten Yeshe, who died in 1984 after a heart attack.
During his lifetime he founded thirty-one Buddhist centres in the
Western world, including one in Spain, the country in which he
had most enjoyed staying.

Near the city of Granada is the Buddhist centre called Osel Ling
("Town of the little light"), which is run by Paco and Maria Hita, a
bricklayer and a postage-stamp dealer, who are the parents of little
Osel. The boy was barely seven manths old when tama Zopa, a
disciple of Thubten Yeshe, recognized him as the reincarnation of
his departed mentor. Lama  Zopa had been given the task of
searching for the departed soul by the Dalai Lama ; after Thubten
Yeshe had appeared to his disciple as a child in a dream. The Dalai
Lama  himself expressed a wish to see the boy, so Paco and Maria
travelled with Osel to India, where he was set the prescribed tests,
In one of them he was shown a number of strings of prayer-beads,
some very precious, and confidently chose the one that had previ-
ously belonged to Lama  Thubten Yeshe.

On 19 March 1987, the Spanish boy  then two years old = was
ceremonially enthroned as a reborn Lama .

Since then, Osel has attended a monastic school in Nepal. His
education will take forty years altogether, and only then can he
assume the role of abbot of the Nepalese monastery of Kopan as
successor bo Yeshe. Osel is the first reincarnation of recent times to
be found outside the usual areas of Buddhist culture.


Childhood of Jesus

The Flight to Egypt

After the wise men of the East had located the child Jesus near
Jerusalem, his father Joseph received an instruction from God:
'Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into
Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee ward: for Herod will
week the young child to destroy him' (Matthew 2:13). The route of
the flight would probably have taken them via Hebron to
Heersheba, and from there across the desert to the Mediterranean.
nly here, on the border of Egypt, were they safe. At the time,
seme one million Jews were living in Egypt = two hundred thou-
sand in Alexandria alone. By custom the country had for some
time been a haven for Jews, who lived in what were virtually
colonies complete with synagogues, schools and everything else to
make an expatriate feel at home.

The massacre of the innocents perpetrated by Herod and
referred to in the Gospels is confirmed by a report written during
Jesus' lifetime by members of the sect of Essenes. The sect was
apparently the object of Herod's oppression, and was obliged to
operate in secret in their own country. 'The next king was an
upstart not of the priestly class, an audacious and godless person.
He killed both old and young, and the entire land was filled with a
terrible dread of him' (Ass. Mos. 6:22),

Professor Hassnain once told me that Buddhist missionary
schools  vitharas  existed in Alexandria even before the Christian
era. My Chinese Buddhist handbook defines a vikara as a place
'which is either an academy; a school or a temple, and serves in the
study or practice of Buddhism. Such buildings were ideally con-
structed with red sandalwood (chandana), consisted of thirty-two
reams, each of which were eight "tala-trees" high; with a garden, a
park, a bathing pool and tea kitchen, amply furnished and
adorned with wall-hangings, and well stocked with provisions,
beds, mattresses, and all the necessary comforts." It is thus quite
conceivable that Jesus was introduced to the wisdom of Eastern
philosophy from early childhood by Buddhist scholars in
Alexandria. Thorough academic instruction of this kind could go
quite a way towards explaining, after all, how Jesus was able to
astonish the priests in the Temple of Jerusalem with his wisdom as
a mere twelve-year-old boy. 'And all that heard him were aston-
ished at his understanding and answers' (Luke 2:47).

In those days, about twelve was the age at which it was custom-
ary for a boy to get married. Jesus succeeded in avoiding this fate

70  

too. He was now old enough to continue his studies in the place
that might well have been the home of his real spiritual fathers  in
India.

Mot until ten full years had passed since the death of the hated
usurper Herod (which occurred shortly before Passover in the year
4 BC) was Jesus able to return to the land of his birth without dan-
ger:

But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in
a dream to Joseph in Egypt,

Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into
the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's
life.

And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came
into the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the roomof
his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither [Archelaus was Ethnarch
{local governor) of Judea and Samaria from 4 BC to AD 6  that is,
until the time Jesus was twelve or thirteen years old]: notwithstand-
ing, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of
Galilee:

And he came and dwelt ina city called Nazareth: that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a
Mazarens,

(Matthew 2:19-23)

Chapter Five

EASTERN WISDOM
IN THE WEST

The Expansion of Buddhism

The worldwide spread of Buddhism, even before the pre-Christian
ra, can be fundamentally attributed to the initiative of one of the
greatest rulers not only in the history of India but in the history of
the world: the Emperor Ashoka, who lived from about 273 to 232
BC. Ashoka was one of the most influential figures, politically, eth-
ically. and culturally, of all time. During his reign, the first of the
wars between Rome and Carthage spilled over into Europe.
Having experienced for himself the obscenities of war while he
was a young man, the Emperor determinedly renounced violence,
devoting himself instead to the peaceable teachings of Buddhism.

Many of his beneficent laws and decrees have come down to us
today preserved in the form of individual inscriptions on the walls
of buildings and temples. In one decree, the Emperor give orders
that every living being is to be protected: All people are my chil-
dren. Just as I would wish-my children to enjoy every blessing and
joy. that are to be found in heaven and on earth, so I do wish the
same for all people. I

Ashoka built no fewer than 84,000 Buddhist monasteries in
india, and constructed hospitals for both human and animal
patients throughout his enormous empire. He arranged for the
convening of the second Buddhist World Council in Pataliputra
{corresponding to modern Patna), the capital of his empire, in
which thousands of monks took part. And in accordance with the
ordinances of Buddha, Ashoka set up the intricate organization by
which Buddhist teachings were spread abroad, incidentally send-
ing something of the spirit of India to remote countries at the same
time. A supreme patron of proselytism, he despatched Buddhist
missionaries not only to all the towns of India and Sri Lanka, but

72  

also to Syria, Egypt and Greece via the Silk Route.

The spreading of the teachings of Buddha was one of the obliga-
tions that Sakyamuni (the 'sage of the Sakyas', Buddha) himself
had imposed on his following:

Go, O monks, and travel afar, for the benefit and welfare of many, out
of compassion for the world, to the advantage and welfare of gods and
of mortals. And lel not two of you take the same path. Preach the
teaching that leads to good  . Preach it in spirit and in letter. Show in
your perfect sinlessness how the religious life should be lived.

The monks lived as beggars, totally reliant on the alms of the ordi-
nary people. They owned nothing more than the clothes on their
backs. Their life was one of renunciation, but there was no need
for ascetic austerity. The principal occupational requirement was
to meditate on the Teachings, and gradually to free themselves
from mortal passions and worldly desires. To join the order, a per-
son had only to "go out into the open', pravrayja  both to quit his
or her house (and with it the trappings of lay life) and to take up
the life of wandering without any personal possessions,

The initiate would then don the yellow robe, have his head
shaved, and utter a threefold incantation. The minimum age was
seven  the age of Rahula, the Son of the Enlightened One, when
he joined the community:

At his initiation, the novice is informed of the four basic rules of
monastic life:

= to feed oneself by alms alone;

 to dress oneself in clothes taken up from the dust;

 to stop a while at the foot of trees;

 to heal one's wounds with natural remedies,

Monks led a completely nomadic existence. Scriptural records
tell how Buddha and his companions wandered the entire length
of the mid-Canges basin, meditating and preaching the Buddhist
teachings, sometimes singly but more often in groups, from town
to town and from village to village,

A remarkable parallel may be drawn between this and the send-
ing out of Jesus" disciples, who likewise went out preaching 'unto
the nations', in their case in one last final attempt to convince lsrasl
of his message:

And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by

two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

And commanded them that they should take nothing for their jour-
ney, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse:

Eastern Wisdom in the West 73

But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.

And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house,
there abide till ye depart from that place.

And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart
thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against
them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and
Gomoerha in the day of judgement, than for that city,

And they went aul, and preached that men should repent.

And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that
were sick, and healed them. i

(Mark 67-13)

In this form of Christianity, as in Buddhism, there is no question of
conversion by force, The preaching was instead for the salvation of
many  the many whom Isaiah (53:11) had foretold would be 'justi-
fied" by the knowledge of God's 'righteous servant',

Documents in Sinhalese relate that shortly after the Council of
Haran (now Harwan near Srinagar), which occurred during the
time of King Kanishka {the AD mid-100s), missionaries were once
more despatched to Kashmir, Gandhara, and Mahisamandala, to
Vanavasi, to Yonarattha (the 'Land of the Greeks'), and to Sri
Lanka.

In the Musée Borély, in Marseilles, are the remains of two fig-
urines in sitting posture, presumably votive idols, which were
found in nearby Roquepertuse, in small recesses carved out of the
smooth rock wall. Although the statuettes are missing their heads,
and the authorities believe they represent Celto-lberian deities,
they look for all the world like early statues of Bodhisattvas and
have all the attributes of such Buddhist 'enlightenment beings' 
they are seated in the classic posture of Buddha, and wear the
Brahman's cord over the shoulder and decorative rings around
their necks and upper arms, signifying their holy status. The arms
are very carefully positioned so that the gestures of the hands and
fingers (mudra) take on symbolic meaning (Plate 23). One hand
forms the standard gesture of touching the Earth (Bhumi-sparsia
itudra), representing the summoning of the Earth to be a witness to
the truth of the Buddha's words; the other hand is held before the
chest in a reassuring pose {Ablaya mudra).

Putting a date to these finds seems to present no particular
problem: they derive from the second century BC. The small
recesses in the sloping rock would have served merely as tempo-
rary protection for the statuettes  after all, the original monastic
rule for Buddhist monks required them not to live in fixed

74 fndia

dwellings but in temporary dwellings such as simple huts and
caves: The arrangement of the Roquepertuse shrines is very simi-
lar, moreover, to the layout of some of the well-known rock shrines

of the East, such as those in Bamiyan (Afghanistan) or at Ajanta
and Ellara (India).

Buddhism, which was much more flexible and apolitical than
the rigid structure of Brahmanism, would seem also to have been
quite capable of accommodating the various invasions by differ-
ing peoples who swarmed into the Indus basin, the upper Ganges
basin and the Deccan. Such invaders included the Hellenic
Bactrians of the second century BC, and the Scythians and
Parthians in the first century BC. In the Milindapanha, the great
conqueror Menander enters into peaceful discussions with the
Buddhist monk Nagasena. The Seythian rulers of the Kushan
dynasty themselves encouraged the spread of Buddhism after
their own conversion. The most famous of them, Kanishka, was as
keen an adherent of Buddhism as Ashoka.

The Council of Haran epitomises this period. Several sources
describe its taking place under the rule of Kanishka, during the
second half of the first century, in Kashmir. The Council seems to
have involved only the Buddhist monastic communities of north-
western India, and in particular the Sarvastivadins who were
numerous there  theirs was a school of Hinayana Buddhism that
had originated in the third century BC, and was eventually to
merge with Mahayana Buddhism after the Council of Haran. The
Sarvastivadins of Kashmir probably thought it best to submit their
understanding of the Tripitaka (the "Three Baskets" of the Buddhist
canon) to an authoritative inspection in order that the diverging,
reformist tendencies that had sprung up in their own community
could be discussed. At this Council the entire canon of Mahayana
Buddhism, as it had developed over the last two centuries BC, was
finally codified  an event that marks the emergence of the
Mahayana as a religious faith in its own right.

The early Christians of the East evidently displayed little or no
opposition to Mahayana Buddhism, as is manifest, for example, in
the fourth-century manuscripts found at Turfan in east Turkestan
{today the Chinese province of Sinkiang). Christians, Buddhists
and Manicheans all lived there in harmony al the same time
together, even using the same places of worship. Representations
of Buddha as the Good Shepherd Jesus," and a Buddhist fesus-
Messiah Sutra have also been discovered in the area,

Eastern Wisdom in the West 75
Therapeuts, Essenes and Nazarenes

On the complete rout and final scattering of the Jews by the
Roman Emperor Titus in AD 70, the mysterious community of
Essenes then resident in Palestine hid their library of parchment
manuscripts and papyrus scrolls in large clay vases in caves within
the Qaratania mountains that overlook the Dead Sea. There they
remained, forgotten, until in 1947 they were rediscovered and deci-
phered. Christian theologians were amazed to learn that most of
the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount attributed to Jesus
somehow featured in the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls, parts of
which had been compiled generations before Jesus' time!"

Was there any link at all between the early Christian movement
and the Essenes? Could the Christian religion have begun as an
offshoot of Essene modes of worship? Otherwise, where had the
Essenes got the selfsame Beatitudes from? Is it possible that
Buddhist ideas had permeated through to pre-Christian Judea and
Galilee?

Multiple and complex lines of communication between the East
and the West have existed since very early times in human history,
and there are accordingly a great many parallels between ancient
India and ancient Egypt  both civilizations that originated and
expanded on the banks of great rivers in the third millennium BC.
Ihe sacred plant of India is the lotus, which, growing from the
navel of the god Vishnu, brings forth the god Brahma, and on,
which the contemplative Buddha is enthroned. The lotus is also
the sacred flower of Osiris, for long the supreme deity of the
Egyptian pantheon and simultaneously god of the dead. In Indian
mythology the god Shiva dances in a great fury, holding the life-
less body of his consort aver his shoulder, so scattering parts of her
body throughout the land. According to the ancient Egyptian ver-
sion of the same myth, Set, Osiris' malign brother, scatters the four-
teen parts of Osiris' body like seeds all over the Earth,

Whereas all the old cultures of the Near East believe in a single
and unique universe, which progresses in linear fashion from the
Creation to the Last Day, in Egypt as in India the belief is that the
world moves in an endless cycle of formation and dissolution. In
the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Osiris says, 'l am yesterday, today
and tomorrow, and I have the power to be born a second time.

Clay tablets have been found in the valley of the Euphrates orig-
inating from the Indus valley culture, which flourished in the sec-
ond millenium BC. Spices, peacocks, monkeys and sandalwood

76  

were exported from India to the West throughout the ancient peri-
od. By means so far unknown, the alphabet used to write down
the Semitic languages spoken in ancient Ethiopia were borrowed
from India. Indian philosophers probably travelled as far as
Athens, Sparta and Corinth, and taught the Greek world the wis-
dom of the Upanishads. According to Aristoxenus, who was writ
ing during the time of Alexander the Great, the philosopher
Socrates (469-399 BC) met an Indian in Athens. It is likely that the
theory of the transmigration of souls implicit in the philosophical
works of Pythagoras, Plato and the Stoics was inspired by the
teachings of such Indian scholars.

In the year 325 BC, Alexander the Great crossed the Khyber Pass
and invaded north-western India, The young Macedonian was not
just a great military leader but was also a student of the celebrated
Aristotle and deeply fond of philosophy. It was important to him
to bring back with him to Macedonia the art and literature of the
conquered territories, and as much as possible of their knowledge
and ideas, Alexander probably brought a number of Buddhist
monks and Hindu yogis to his new cultural and spi.itual centre at
the mouth of the Nile, the city of Alexandria, where the corner-
stone for a world university was laid down. It was thus through
wise men from the East that ideas of asceticism and a vegetarian
dietary regime  ideas generally foreign to the Mediterranean area
before then = came to Egypt,

Two centuries before Christ, a remarkable mystical movement
arose among the Jews of Alexandria and Palestine. In Egypt these
mystics were known as Therapeuts; their spiritual brethren in
Palestine called themselves Essenes and Nazarenes. In this reli-
gious movement we find the answers to the questions posed
above. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who was present at
the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, has left us a graphic eye-
witness account of the rites of the Essences. Philo of Alexandria also
mentions a short visit (0 a settlement of Therapeuts an the shores
of the Marcotis Sea, where they practised rites that were remark-
ably similar to those of the Buddhists. Like the Buddhists, the
Therapeuts and Essenes renounced meat, wine and sexual excess.

The community of the Essenes lived in caves that had been
excavated in the rock walls of the Qaratania mountains beside the
Dead Sea, opposite the ancient town of Jericho. At exactly the same
time, Buddhist monks were living in caves cut into the rocky cliffs
of the mountains and heights along India's west coast, and cen-
tring on a temple cave (Chaitya),

Eastern Wisdom in the Wesl 77

Like the Buddhist monks, the Essenes and Therapeuts lived in
celibate monastic communities  a way of life that was itself a nov-
elty in the Mediterranean area, for no religious observance like it
had been seen there before. They devoted their lives to a search for
knowledge of God, and strove to attain it by means of protracted
fasts and periods of silence.

Philo mentions that the Essenes stayed away from the bloody
rituals performed in the Temple at Jerusalem because they were
strongly opposed to animal sacrifice. The Essene religion may well
in fact have been instituted as a protest against such gory elements
of Jewish orthodoxy and against the rigid severity of the Mosaic
Law. A similar development had taken place several centuries ear-
lier in India, after all, when the Buddha protested against Brahmin
rules and rituals which had lost their meaning.

The Essene community was made up of monks and lay persons,
like the Buddhist Sangha, The monastic community led a commu-
nally organized ascetic life in their all but inaccessible caves in the
mountains around Jericho, where it was possible for them to live
well away from the Orthodox Jewish groups. John the Baptist was
one of these Essene recluses. The lay members of the Essenes lived
in villages and towns, where they married and brought up chil-
dren, and strove to lead a pious, pure, spiritual life. As is still the
practice in many Buddhist countries, the lay families often gave up
their firstborn son to be a monk in the cave monastery. Perhaps
John the Baptist was taken into the Essene fold as a child in this
way.

The word Therapeut means 'one who ministers', and therefore
'healer', and the Therapeut community on the outskirts of
Alexandria was no doubt influenced by the presence of Buddhist
monks. The Buddhists monks were also called healers or physi-
cians. The Therapeuts (Therapeniar) used to sit on reed mats, as
was the tradition of Buddhist monks in India, and their custom of
baptizing novices at their initiation into monkhood was also taken
from Buddhism. They consumed neither meat nor wine, lived in
voluntary poverty, fasted at set times, communally recited and
sang religious texts and hymns, and clothed themselves in white
robes,

Much of a Therapeut's life was passed in silent meditation and
the rituals of worship. The Essenes  both the monks up in the
mountains and the lay members down in the towns  tended to
occupy themselves with agriculture and manual crafts. The
Cumran Scrolls relate how both communities expectantly awaited

78  

an imminent end of life on Earth, striving to prepare themselves
for a future life with God by evincing brotherly love for one anoth-
er and for humanity in general, and by doing good deeds. The
Essenes discerned eight stages of spiritual growth, rather like the
Eightfold Path of the Buddhists, and the aim of these {again as in
Buddhism) was to reach a higher plane of existence and to attain
Enlightenment.

The Synoptic Gospels tell how Jesus instructed his disciples to
travel about on foot, staff in hand (like some Hindu monks), and to
minister to the people. During his travels through Judea and
Galilee, Jesus may well have stayed overnight at the houses of
Essenes resident in the various places he visited.

The Essenes baptized their novices at their initiation. On their
induction into monkhood, Buddhist novices underwent a similar
baptismal rite probably adopted from the Brahmans, The abbot of
the Buddhist monastery sprinkled the head of the noviee with milk
and water once he had confessed his sins. A I am p burning
throughout this ritual symbolized new birth. Interestingly, docu-
ments of the very early Christian Church record that after baptism
a new Christian was described as dluminatus (enlightened).


According to Epiphanius of Constantia (SaI am is), the Essenes
were also called Mazarenes  Nazarenos or Nazoraios. In ancient
Israel, certain seers were described as Nazarites. These Nazarites
condemned the gory sacrifices involved in the worship at the
Temple, and were consequently loathed by the orthodox Temple
priests. The Jewish faithful were thrice daily encouraged to bring
down the wrath of God upon them: 'Send thy curse, (c) God, upon
the MNazarites!'

John's Gospel says that Pilate had a sign fixed to Jesus' Cross
that, according to the English translation, read 'Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews'. But in most other languages this is translated
slightly differently: as 'Jesus the Mazarene,   ." Research has
shown that the epithet Nazarene does not refer to the town of
Mazareth, which probably did not even exist at the time. One ele-
ment in the charges against Jesus, then, was evidently that he was
a member of the Nazarenes! If, in addition, the words of the
inscription have been altered by tradition or by a need to present a
different truth  if, for example, the original version read 'Jesus,
Leader of the Nazarenes'  it would go a long way towards
explaining why Jesus was so detested by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish
High Council. He was the leader of a community they abhorred:
the Mazarenes.

Eastern Wisdom in the West

Jesus the Nazarene

In nearly all the Greek manuscripts, Jesus is given the title "The
Mazarene', virtually always in English translated  wrongly  as
'Jesus of Nazareth'. So in most translations of the Bible, Paul hears
a voice on the road to Damascus that says, 'I am  Jesus of Nazareth,
whom thou persecutest.' In fact the Greek manuscripts contain no
such statement, and the version given in the Jerusalem Bible is the
correct translation: 'Tam Jesus the Nazarene, and you are persecut-
ing me' {Acts 22:8), !

Was there perhaps some deliberate design behind this inaccu-
rate translation? If the intention was merely to relate Jesus to his
place of origin; he should surely have been described as 'Jesus of
Hethlehem', for nothing is said to support the claim that Jesus ever
lived in Mazareth. In fact, according to Mark's Gospel, his follow-
ers lived by the Sea of Galilee, probably in Capemaum, for it is of
thereabouts that it is said 'And he  came into his own country'
(Mark 6:1). Al any rate it is from here that "There came then his
brethren , , J" (Mark 3:31) to get him to stay at home. If 'his
brethren' had come from Nazareth, they would have had to travel
a distance of more than 40 kilometres,

In the Acts of the Apostles, the first Christians are called
Mazarenes, while Jesus is himself called "the Nazarene' six times.

In John's Gospel (1:46), Nathanael asks the apostle Philip, 'Can
there [be] any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Implicit in the
rjuestion is the man's astonishment that anyone coming from such
a tiny, insignificant place could be possessed of such profound
knowledge, let alone benefit from an education thorough enough
to suggest that he had attended some celebrated establishment of
learning. (Nathanael had obviously never heard of anything hap-
pening there.)

The Greek-German Dictionary of the Writings of the New Testament
ind other Early Christian Literature (1963) openly declares that "it is
very difficult" to find any linguistic connection between the expres-
stons Nazarene and Nazareth.

The adjectives Nazarenos, Nazorenos and Nazoraios were all vari-
ously used to describe Jesus  proving that they are synonyms 
and have generally been taken to indicate that Jesus came from the
settlement of Nazareth, resulting in his being described as 'Jesus of
Nazareth'. As long ago as in 1920, M. Lidzbarski in his work
Mundaean Liturgies demonstrated that Nazarene could not be
derived from Nazareth by any standard etymological process.

80  

There is no mention of Nazareth in literature older than Jesus'
time, and even at that time the place could not have been more
than a tiny hamlet  if it existed at all. In Joshua 19:10-15 the site is
not mentioned in connection with the tribe of Zebulun, although it
does mention Japhia just three kilometres to the south-east
(destroyed by the Romans in AD 67).

The word Nazarene derives from the Aramaic root nazar, which
means something like 'to pick out', and thus both 'to discern', 'to
observe', and "to pul to one side', "to preserve'. In a figurative
sense, the word can also be used to mean "to be devoted" or "to
consecrate oneself to the service of God". Used as a noun, it means
'diadem', the symbol of an ancinted head. A Nazarene was there-
fore an observer and preserver of the sacred rites. The Nazaria con-
stituted a branch of the Essenes, and must have been, with the
Ebionites, among the original Christian communities which,
according to the Talmud, were referred to as Nozar(r). All these
Gnostic sects (gnosis knowledge') used magic in their rituals. Their
members were initiates and anointed ones who led ascetic lives
dedicated to the community in godliness and righteousness. It is
possible that the slightly different spellings of the adjectives that
described them in fact relate to individual groups that differed
from each other in their interpretation of the faith and in lifestyle,
although all were described in terms deriving from the same ety-
mological origin. The description Nazarene is also linked by etymo-
logical derivation to that of the Old Testament Nazarites, who
existed at a time long before Jesus.

Hundreds of years earlier still, the mighty hero Samson was a
Nazoraios or Nazirgios who refused to cut his hair and who drank
no wine (Judges 13:5-7)  in other words, an ascetic. According to
John M. Robertson, contemporary non-ascetics deliberately
described themselves as Mazarenes in order to distinguish them-
selves from 'nazirism' or asceticism.

Jesus cannot be said definitively to have belonged to any of
these various groups for he evidently refused to be categorically
subject to any imposed laws, choosing, like Buddha, just to do the
right thing at the right time'. The huge physical distance between
Palestine and India had over the centuries widened the gulf in
understanding between the leaders of the spiritual faith who sub-
scribed to the principles of Buddhist philosophy in India and their
equivalents in Israel. Jesus could for this reason be accurately
described as a 'reformer' who was sent to re-establish a unity o.
belief among the 'lost sheep', to strengthen their resolve, and to

Eastern Wisdom in He West #1

give them spiritual and moral support in their struggle against
[oman occupiers, Sadducees, Pharisees and Orthodox Jews.

[esas was the Divine Messenger for whom many had earnestly
longed during a time of tumult and confusion. The two disciples
sent by John the Baptist asked him, 'Art thou he that should come,
or do we look for another?' (Matthew 11:3),

john the Baptist was a prophet to the Nazarenes, and was
keen as 'the Saviour' in Galilee. Flavius Josephus describes the
Baptist as

an honcurable man, who inspired the Jews to do good and to treat
vach other well, and who urged them to receive baptism. Then, he
declared, God would look with favour on the baptised ~ for baptism
conferred physical healing and was not merely the washing away of
in. Atonement for sin must come beforehand, and must centre on the
leading of a virtuous life. Massive crowds thronged around John,
much moved by what he said  ..

[Ritual immersion in water originated in India and continues to be
practised daily by the Hindus with the same devotion as it was
thousands of years ago  a tradition as old as any mysteries. In
Palestine the Essene rite of baptism marks a major point of depar-
ture from the dogmas of the Jewish tradition, and Especially from
the blood sacrifice, which was based on the crude premise that sins
are forgiven if blood is shed. Ritual immersion is meant to symbol-
ize release from all that is earthly, on the one hand, and the rebirth
of the spirit in a pure body, on the other. The second Book of the
Laws af Manu, which deals with the sacraments, contains the
injunction to pour consecrated water over a newborn baby before
severing the umbilical cord. Then a mixture of honey, clarified but-
ter (ghee) and salt should be placed on the baby's tongue with a
small, golden spoon, while auspicious prayers are continuously
recited.

The Atharva Veda contains the passage, "Whoever is not puri-
fied after birth with the water of the Ganges blessed by the holy
invocations will be subject to as many wanderings as years he
spent in impurity'('wanderings' refers to life either as a spirit or
after a rebirth in another body).

John's form of baptism seems also to have constituted a token of
belonging to a certain community, members of which were clearly
distinguishable from non-members by their fulfilment of various
ritual preconditions. This makes it clear that the Nazarenes were
an independent sect who celebrated their own version of the mys-

82

 

teries of an established teaching, Meanwhile, esoteric sect-leaders
who attract emotional crowds while yet keeping a low public pro-
file have always been the target of distrust and persecution by the
ruling authorities. Paul faced the same hostility when he was
accused by Tertullus before the governor Felix of being 'a ring-
leader of the sect of the Nazarenes' [Acts 24:5).
According to Pliny the Elder and Josephus, the Nazarene sect
had lived on the banks of the Jordan and on the eastern shore of
the Dead Sea for at least 150 years before Christ's birth. Its follow-
ers were permitted to wear their hair long. Perhaps they never cut
it at all, like many Hindu ascetics. John the Baptist is depicted with
long hair, and wearing 'raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern gir-
dle about his loins' (Matthew 3:4). A description of what Jesus
looked like is given by a Roman patrician named' Lentulus in a let-
ter to the Roman senate. In this apocryphal document, known as
the Epistle of Lemtulus, Jesus' hair is described as 'flowing and
wavy'; it fell loose over his shoulders, and was 'parted in the mid-
dle of the head after the fashion of the Nazaraians',

It is not really possible today to form a detailed picture of the
Nazarene sect from the few sources at our disposal because the ref-
erences are so scanty. Nor would it be possible, therefore, to trace

how the spiritual attitude of Jesus the Nazarene differed from that
of his orthodox contemporaries  were it not for the discovery of a
wealth of new information about the sect of the Essenes, in which
the influence of Buddhist teachings is clearly visible. The Essenes
differed from the Nazarenes only in a few external det
used oil, for example, whereas the Essenes used only pure water.
As long ago as the nineteenth century, those familiar with the
accounts of the Essenes came to the conclusion that Jesus' commu-
nity was an Essene group. The Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz
even described Christianity as 'Essenism with foreign elements'!
The Essenes are also evidenced in indirect references to them made
by ancient historians. The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria
called them 'athletes of virtue', and Josephus dedicated nearly an
entire chapter to them in The Jewish War (11:8). Both estimated the
total number of members to be about 4000 'men of excellent
morals, who live throughout the land'. The Roman author
the Elder also mentions the sect of the Essenes.

But it was not until the discovery of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls
at Qumran in the twentieth century that people perceived the full
significance of Essene teachings, which anticipated the teachings
of Jesus and shed a completely new light on Jesus himself,

ails: Jesus

Pliny

Eastern Wisdom in the West 83
The Essenes: Christianity Before Jesus

ne Bedouin came across the entrance
ioe are itis beside the Dead Sea for a goal
ost El hi herd. His curiosity aroused, the youthful pastor
io Si nd discovered a number of earthenware vases sea A
ith lds . ong a whole lot of fragments of other vases. 2h
yeith gu the lad opened the sealed vessels, but to a Eg
praia ps found just a few ancient scrolls in musty vellum.
LES

i : ; ˘ the
Treasure it was, though, and the find was soon to prove
greatest archaeologi

cal sensation of the century. When I
haeologist William F. Allbright was shown the scrol > Ap
oe lied them the greatest manuscript find of our ie dad
th es to the first century BC, and had no doubts abou
the 1
Ae
= pli a of the following years, researchers in the AH os
hi bot Qumran discovered ten more caves and many Jp
: ol y ood quantity of which have still not nbs comp hid
sade made public. It was soon clear, EE rere lishiin
i ilar the teachings of Jesus were {0 those of the ; sen,
pilin: said that the Essenes must have E> on ot iis
istianity. ' i imilarity 0
: tianity. The astounding sim om
ee hab evident in their parallel iv
ib their religious institutions: all confirm the existe
rs oi fon thie first cave are now on display in the a
f yd of the Museum of Israel in Ietiblege tit it
: i "Isaiah s
i ipt is one known as the :
Mah 1s tty four maniassipt columns of Hebe comin 8
gm lete Book of the prophet Isaiah. The Isaiah scroll is rier!
rg finds (dated to around i hd olen
rly copies of Biblical tex :
gsi ri commentary to the Book of the prophe
Habakkuk! were also found. si
important find, however, was :
be let which detailed the rules and i Dies i
gh s community. Today the document is ey 1!
pc opening words, meaning "The Rule of the Com or
rh Manual of Instructions." The first part describes a Cr men
The eet which binds the members of the som tnAll Mets
hn d part describes 'the two spirits in the sian Jie Si
srs af ght and truth, and its opposite, the spirit of er

84  

darkness. (In Buddhism this is expressed as the contrast between
Knowledge and Ignorance.) The regulations of the Order follow,
giving a detailed description of conditions for entry and penalties
for infringement against the Rule of the Community. The whole
thing comes to an end with a final long hymn of thanksgiving.

In addition te the Rule for the celibate order of monks, a second
manuscript was found that had been rolled up with (or possibly
once even sewn on to) iL This scroll was entitled Eule for the Whole

Community," and was directed at the lay branch of the communty,
for those members who were married,

There are very evident parallels here with the early Buddhist
communities, which also made a distinction between the monks
(in Pali bikie) and the laity (upasaka).

Those who belonged to the 'worldly' branch of the sect were to
be taught The Manual of Instructions with all the rules of the com-
munity from the age of eleven years. (Jesus, remember, was taken
to Jerusalem from Egypt at about that age  and then disappeared,
nob to be seen there again until he was an adult man aged over
thirty.) Men were not allowed to marry until they had turned
twenty; at the age of twenty-five they were accorded a position
and an authority in the community. It was actually possible to rise
to any of the chief offices at the age of twenty, but it was still neces.
sary then to render full obedience to the priests and elders of the
community. Men of standing were expected to retire from office
when they reached a certain age.

Towards the end of the scroll, there appears a description of the
seating arrangements for the communal meal celebrating the life
to come after death  it was these sealing arrangements that
became a topic of debate among Jesus' disciples at the Last Supper
(Luke 22:24-27),

Another scroll, badly damaged in parts, contains both the bibli-
cal Psalms and some forty original Essene psalms, all of which
begin with the words, '1 praise thee, Lord'; this scroll is accordingly
known as Hoklajor: "Songs of Praise'.!

The other writings brought to light are evidently the meagre
time-worn remnants of what discoverers of bygone centuries had
overlooked, for even Origen reports that a translation of the
Psalms had been found together with other manuscripts in a vase
somewhere near Jericho. And the Patriarch of Seleucia, the
Nestorian Timothy 1 (fl. AD 823), in one of his letters described the
discovery of some Hebrew scriptures laid up in a cave not far from
Jericho.

Eastern Wisdom in the West #5

Some of the texts were written in a secret code, but there is
constant references to a "Mew Covenant' (which of course is w
Martin Luther and one Tepe men by 'Mew Testamen

sterious "Teacher of Righteousness". :
Elodie Naturalis, Pliny the Elder mentions a tel
that he had seen a short distance to the north of Saget i
western shore of the Dead Sea. He called it the Essene a 1973
and its members he described as *  a reclusive group ol men
one of the most remarkable in the world, without any pr =
all, who have renounced i a mii a live utterly
i alm trees' (V:17).
Wee ay from the cave in which the first
scrolls were discovered are some ruins that have been known rol
ancient times as Khirbet Qumran ("the ruins of Qumran } ong
held to be the remains of an early Roman fort. Sana a the
site began only in 1951, under Lancaster Harding of the Jou ri
Office of Antiquities and Pere Roland de Vaux, Gini outils
Dominican Institute of Theology in Jerusalem, What hy Co:
surpassed their greatest expectations  the Monastery o gi
in which the scrolls themselves had probably been en 0 Hes
the subsequent five years, labouring intensively, the apr
uncovered an extensive settlement protected by a wri ortifi ;
wall. A squarish building at the centre pas adjolnbd by frend
smaller buildings, a large dining-hall, baptismal baths, Ae
fewer than thirteen wells from which a complex system of sos
nels supplied water all round. There was also a cemelery coum
ing more than a thousand graves, in which only me He
buried. And they found a scriptorium, a writing-room with ˘
stone tables in which ink-wells had been bored, where it ao
manuscripts of the nearby caves had presumably originat = =
now known that the monastery had been inhabited fen 2 ial.
as the eighth century BC, but had been abandoned at the ik
the Babylonian Exile, to be reoccupied once more anly at arou

75 (the second century) BC. pty
: iia gives an account of how the monks lived:

; 3 i

spurn worldly wealth; most admirable is how they own a
he in common ui that no one among them possesses is an
anyone else. For it is their rule that anyone who wishes to join t ih
mist first donate everything he owns to the whole community. 8
result is that neither abject poverty nor excessive opulence is any

for their common
here to be seen. Instead, they treat all property as
ie  although originally collected from individual members of the

86  

order  very much in the spirit of brotherhood, Oil is regarded as
dirty, however. If ane of them has his body smoothed with oil against
his will, he takes a thorough bath to get it off. For to walk around with
skin in its natural state is as virtuouwsly creditable to them as wearing
clean white robes."

There are obvious parallels between this description of the
Essenes" way of life, the Buddhist monastic rules, and Jesus' own
habits. Just as Buddhist monks owned no property beyond their
clothing and a few minor nomadic necessities, Jesus led the exis-
tence of an itinerant teacher who possessed little or nothing, And
just as Jesus required his disciples to renounce families and world-
ly goods, so the Buddhist rule required that followers joined the
community by 'going out into the open'  by quitting their houses
and families (and with them the trappings of lay life) to enter the
brotherhood of monks wandering without permanent shelter, to be
free of all earthly concerns, to meditate on the Teachings, and grad-
ually to free themselves from mortal passions and worldly desires,
Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel [although he might have meant a
camel-hair rope] to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of God' (Matthew 19:24).

The Gospels provide another example of Jesus' thoughts on
freedom from earthly concerns:

And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, 1 will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest,
And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the
air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.
{Matthew 8:19-20)

A further point of interest is the Essene ban on oiling the body.
Buddha himself is said to have warned his followers against the
practice because it corresponded to taking an inordinate pride in
one's own body, amounting thus to a selfish desire. The Nazarene
sect was apparently under no obligation to conform with this strict
ordinance,

The Essenes wore white robes, which led some eighteenth-cen-
tury critical philosophers to declare the Crucifixion and
Resurrection of Jesus to be no more than an elaborate hoax staged
by Essene monks. The critics said that the young man in white
robes who announced the Resurrection to the women at the empty
tomb was clearly proved by his white raiment to have belonged to
the Essenes. During the nineteenth century the theory was also
advanced that Jesus was the natural son of an Essene to whom

Eastern Wisdom in the West 87

Mary had given herself by way of religious betrothal. The child
was handed over to the Order, which, according to an account by
Josephus, genuinely was an Essene custom and practice.

As long ago as in 1831, August Friedrich Gfrdrer, vicar of a
parish in Stuttgart and teacher at the seminary in Tubingen, wrote:
The Christian Church evolved from the community of the
Fssenes, whose ideas they developed, and without whose rules its
organization could not have been established.'

Some linguistic historians believe the expression Essence basically
to mean 'baptist'. Others relate it instead to a Syrian word hasen
'the pious', or to the Aramaic assaya "healer", 'physician' (semanti-
cally comparable with the Greek therapent). Many Essene monks
dedicated years of their lives to ascetic practices of self-discipline
and contemplation, and achieved astonishing powers of extrasen-
sory perception and telekinesis just as the yogis and fakirs in India
did and do. The Essene monastery was located near Jericho,
among the mountains west of the Dead Sea  a region renowned
for its mild and healthy climate since the days of the prophets
Elijah and Elisha. This is the one and only part of Palestine where
it is warm enough throughout the year to practise exercises like
those of Indian yoga out in the open air. The mystical gifts
described by the Essenes themselves are the same extraordinary
powers to which the students of Kundalini Yoga attain in India;
they include clairvoyance and precognition, levitation and telepor-
tation, healing by the laying-on of hands, and the restoring of the
dead to life.

The fact that the New Testament observes complete and utter
silence on the subject of the Essene Order  on a sect that was at
least as significant in numbers as the Sadducees and the Pharisees
{Josephus put their number at 4000)  implies that the omission
was quite deliberate.

Simple geography shows that Jesus could not have been
unaware of the monastery at Qumran. Indeed, the spot on the
bank of the Jordan where Jesus underwent his ritual baptism at the
hands of John (by means of which he was inducted into the mod-
vrate Nazarene sect) was within sight of the monastery, a mere
seven kilometres away: To visit the place is to see how striking is
the proximity of the baptismal site to Qumran; the clear air of the
wide mountain wasteland seems to bring the two locations visibly
even closer. At the same point there is also a clear view of the
mountain on which, by tradition, Jesus was tempted by the devil
during his period of isolation following baptism (Luke 4:1-13): the
88  

mountain is some fifteen kilometres distant.

John lived here in the desert, perhaps even in the caves of
Qumran. Jesus spent forty days of isolation here in the desert
immediately after being baptized. The reclusive inhabitants of
Qumran certainly referred to the area in which they lived as 'the
desert' in their writings. Jesus, in his sojourn, was "with the wild
beasts; and the angels ministered unto him' (Mark 1:13). But the
word translated as angels need mean no more than 'messengers',
and the Essenes preserved an extensive hierarchy of 'angel-mes-
sengers' that was part of their sacred mysteries. So if Jesus spent
some time in a cave outside Qumran, perhaps as part of a period
representing a novitiate, there may well have been some contact
with the monastery  perhaps the 'angels' were actually monks!

In the chapter about the Essenes, Josephus wrote:

Anyone who wishes to join the sect is not granted admission immedi-
ately but has first to spend a year outside the order, leading the same
kind of life as the members. He is provided with a small axe, a loin-
cloth and a while robe. If he passes this test of asceticism over the
whale period, he takes one step closer to full membership: he may
take part in the baptismal consecration with water but may not yet
partake of the communal meals."

Much the same procedure occurs in Tibet. Before an ordinary
monk is consecrated as Lama  (meaning 'higher [one]'), he must
undertake a series of exercises and tests. The aspirant is also
expected to stay somewhere outside the community for a time, in a
place where he can remain totally undisturbed so as to devote
himself completely to meditation, The Hemis monastery in
Ladakh, like all the larger I am aseries, has a second much smaller
and simpler building for the purpose, on the peak of a high moun-
tain some five kilometres distant from the main monastery.
Immersed in deep meditation in their individual cells, the candi-
dates receive only a little food twice daily from assistants.


An earthquake destroyed the entire community of Qumran in
31 BC, Rifts and cracks in the terrain are still visible, and the level
of the floor varies by nearly half a metre at some points. Qumran
remained uninhabited for almost thirty years after the earthquake,
and it was not until about the time of Jesus' birth that the
monastery was revived and endowed with a new spirit.

In addition to human graves, the buried remains of animals
were also found in the grounds of the monastery. The bones of
sheep, goats, cows, calves and I am bs had been carefully laid to rest

Eastern Wisdom in the Wes! 89

in earthenware vessels. It would appear, therefore, that although
the Essenes put their domestic animals to good use, they did not
Lill or eat the animals themselves because they considered the tak-
ing of any life at all to be an atrocity, like the Buddhists. The monks
cultivated fields and orchards. Countless date-stones confirm the
existence of a plantation of palm trees just as Pliny the Elder

described. Philo tells how bee-keeping was also one of the com-
munity's major pastimes  at which John the Baptist's daily fare as
recorded in Mark's Gospel (locusts and honey) springs to mind.
Somewhat surprisingly, about 400 coins were also brought to
light at the monastery, and from what they reveal the history of the
community can be reconstructed with great precision, Quite a few
of the coins date from 4 BC, when Archelaus succeeded his father
Herod as governor of Judea. The gap in the sequence of coins prior
to this date suggesls that it was only on the accession of Archelaus
that the monastery was permitted to reopen. Members of the com-
munity had had to keep well clear of their monastic centre for all
the years that Herod, based in his luxurious winter palace in
Jericho a mere twelve kilometres away, had been suppressing and
expelling the Essene sects. Herod dead, the Essenes returned and
began to rebuild their monastery. Qumran remained continuously
inhabited from then on until the Jewish rebellion against Rome in
AD 68. The grounds of the area display evidence of a violent final
destruction. A layer of ashes indicates that the monastery was

overwhelmed by fire.

The Teaching of the Essenes at Qumran

The members of the Essene community at Qumran did not ascribe
any specific name to their sect in their religious writings. They
called themselves 'the holy community", 'the chosen ones of God',
'the men of truth', or, most often, 'the Sons of Light". In many
respects the Essenes fulfilled the precepts inherent in Jewish Law
to the letter, but they also deviated from it to such a degree in other
respects that it is debatable whether the Qumran community
should really be described as a Jewish sect at all. !

According to the Hokhajot, the Songs of Praise (or Essene
psalms) that were unearthed, the mission of the Essenes was to
preach "the Good Mews (eu-angelion) to the poor as a measure of
God's mercy', and they themselves were to be 'messengers of the

a0  

Good News'. They perceived a need for a 'New Covenant' with
God  in fact they sometimes referred to themselves as the New

Covenant  as was later held to have been established in the per-
son of Jesus. The New Covenant was to last 'from the day that the

One Teacher departs until the coming of the Messiah of Aaron and
Israel'.

But most astonishing of all is the fact that when the Qumran
sect prayed as a community, as they did three times every day,
they did not face in the direction of the Temple in Jerusalem (as
did and do all Orthodox Jews) but eastwards. The focus of their
prayer lay to the east, in the direction of the rising sun. Josephus
writes that the Essenes 'speak only piously  before sunrise,
offering up certain ancient prayers to the sun ,  * This shows that
the Essenes regarded the sun as an acceptable symbol for God
Himself. One of the Qumran psalms makes the point even more
clearly, addressing God as *. I . the true aurora of Dawn [who]
appeared to me at the break of day', and again: * you have
appeared to me in your might with the coming of the day'. ;

The Rule of the Community (or The Manual of Instructions)
required the faithful of the New Covenant to recite a prayer at
dawn and a prayer at dusk. The followers of Pythagoras  who
was apparently taught by Brahmans in India  at his establishment
in Crotona, southern Italy, and the adherents of the Gnostic sect of
Hermes Trismegistos (based on worship of the Egyptian god
Thoth but later much influenced by the Pythagoreans), observed
an identical mode of worship. Both the easterly direction of prayer
and the symbolic use of the sun are reminiscent of the Sun Temple
of Martand in Kashmir.

The Essenes were just as remarkable in that they did not use the
calendar sanctioned by the Temple authorities in Jerusalem, which
was a lunar calendar. They had their own method of defining
dates that was based on the solar year, which is somewhat more
accurate, and which had been in general use in India since the
beginning of Brahmin domination. Cnly during the time of Julius
Caesar was the solar calendar promulgated for use throughout the
Roman Empire, although it has still, even today, not been accepted
by the Jews." In the Qumran calendar, therefore, feastdays of the
religious year always fell on the same day of the week, in contrast
to official Jewish practice.

Nor is the practice of dividing the year into four seasons of

Jewish origin. It was Pythagoras who introduced the quarterly

arrangement from India, and before that, the ancient Greeks had

Enstern Wisdom 11 the West 91

really only thought in terms of three, or even two, seasons.

The spiritual background and original source of Essene philoso-
phy is further revealed by anather Essene teaching: like the Indian
sages and the Greek philosophers they believed in immortality, a
lite after death  in other words, that the soul or spirit outlives and
leaves its temporal prison, the body. In this respect it was Jesus
who added a new element in his teaching of resurrection. He
spoke of the resurrection of the dead, but without expressly refer-
ring to the resurrection of the bod Ľ. 50 he was not necessarily talk-
ing about a resurrection in the flesh, but about the doctrine of
reincarnation, transmigration, and the continuous cycle of rebirths
until the end of samsara (the world of constant change, as
described in the Upanishads)  a basic tenet of all forme of religion
in India, The Pythagoreans, the cultists of the Orphic mysteries,
Empedocles and Plato were all, well before the Essenes, acquaint-
vd with the doctrine of the cycle of rebirths by which the soul
enters a new body. The notion of metempsychosis (the expression
for it used by the ancient Greeks as well as modern English) has
survived in the West to the present day chiefly through the Gnostic
sects and a few non-Arabic sects of IsI am , and the subject remains
studied in university courses in theosophy and religious anthro-
pology.

Even during the nineteenth century, commentators pointed out
Buddhist aspects in the teachings of the Essenes." Some saw them
as intermediaries between rabbis, Gnostics, Platonists and
I'vthagoreans on the one hand, and Zoroastrians and Buddhists on
the other, and suggested that the religion of the Essenes and
Iherapeuts evolved from the merging of Buddhism and Semitic
monotheism, just as Buddhism had merged with shamanist Bon in
libet, with the philosophies of Taoism and Confucianism in China,
and with the Shinto religion in Japan.(r)

Ihe Buddhists wore white robes like the Essenes  and like the
varly Christians. Catholic scholars were astounded on first noting
the extraordinary similarity between the rituals and teachings of
libetan Buddhism and those of the Catholic Church. The costume
of the Tibetan I am as is virtually identical not only with the vest-
mints worn by Catholic priests, but also with the clothing of the
spostles and the first Christians, as depicted in contemporary fres-
toes, right down to the details. The hierarchical organization of the
libetan and Roman Catholic monastic orders exhibit quite
Astounding similarities. Like the Catholics, the Buddhists say
pravers of intercession and praise, and give alms and offerings,

92  

and in both religions the monks take vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience. Buddhists use consecrated water and raise their voices
in the celebration of a religious service in which the liturgy is very
close indeed to that of the Eastern Christian Church. The rosary
came to the Catholic Church as the Buddhist prayer-beads. The
Buddhist depiction of the aura became the halo of Christian
aphy.
51 of the Church Jerome and the Church historian
Eusebius state that Christian monasteries evolved along the lines
of communities of Therapeuts in Alexandria. The three major

a Therapeut, and much of the everyday organization of daily life:

in the first Christian communities was undertaken by seven elect
ed deacons  a title that itself also derives from the monastic con-
formation of the Therapeuts.

Christians celebrate the Lord's day on Sunday, whereas Je

celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday. The Essenes likewise held the

holy day to be Sunday, on which they started their Sabbath cele
bration. On the Sabbath, the Jews brought meat, wine and com ta
the Temple to sacrifice, and the priests were allotted a proportion:
for their own use. The reason for the priests' bitter enmity with the
Essenes is obvious: the Essene sect's refusal to have anything to

with blood sacrifice represented a considerable threat both to

priests' diet and, more significantly, to their main source of income.
{either in performing the slaughter of the animals, or in supplying
or licensing the animals for sacrifice). This was surely the main
cause of the plotting of the priests against Jesus, for as leader of a
Nazarene-Essene movement Jesus was propounding a doctrine
that would have eliminated many of the duties and most of the
status of the priests. As far as they were concerned, Jesus had to be
got rid of for them to be certain that their livelihoods were secure.

Philo describes Jewish mystics who were similar to the Hindu
gymnosophists of India, who likewise rejected the sacrificing of
animals.

The Essenes also believed in a doctrine of moral causation  that
the deeds done in the present life strongly affect one's position In
the next life: the Indian teaching of karma. Those who understood
these mysteries had either to live righteous lives or continue to sin


Eastern Wisdom in the West 93

and stand condemned on the Day of Judgement. This was in the
context of their fervent expectation of the apocalypse and of the
imminent coming of the kingdom of God.

There were numerous points of contact in the outlook of Jesus
and that of the Essenes, but that there were differences too should
not be overlooked. The Gospels report that Jesus ate meat and
drank wine. He grew up in an environment influenced by local
[ssenes, and most of his followers were Essenes. But although he

had probably been a novice in an Essene monastery, he later made
a distinet break with the rigidly mannered precepts of the sect
because he felt  as had Buddha some 500 years before him  that
blind adherence to strict rules and regulations was no way to
altain personal salvation. And by taking an individual stand, Jesus
created a new, tolerant version of the Essene-Nazarene faith, one
that made room for ordinary lay people who were not in a position
io follow the path of asceticism: one that welcomed anyone and
everyone with open arms.

In particular, Jesus' approach to the Commandments and to the
other requirements of Mosaic Law was much freer: "Ye have heard
{hat it was said by them of old  But I say unto you   " (Matthew
5:21-48). According to strict Orthodox Jewish law, those who dis-
nbeyed the restrictions on activity on the Sabbath, and who disre-
garded warnings, should be put to death. But the Damascus text of
Qumran prohibits the execution of a person who breaks the
Sabbath, and according to Matthew's Gospel Jesus said, 'For the
Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath day' (Matthew 12:8).

The disparity between the views of Jesus and those of the
['ssenes is especially evident in connection with the idea of loving
one's enemy. Unlike Jesus, the Essenes felt no compunction about
hating their enemies. On the contrary, the people of Qumran rather
prided themselves on being at least aloof from, if not morally
superior to, the rest of the world. Very different from this, it was
Jesus' mission to make contact with sinners, to rescue those who
hael got lost: his words emphasized that he had been sent out to
find "the lost sheep of the house of Israel', and he expressly disap-
proved of religious bigotry, of any organization or institution that
claimed to have exclusive access to righteousness.

Another sharp difference lies in the contrasting attitudes
towards the use of oil or balsam. Jesus, after all, is the Christ, the
Anointed, a description used as a title for him ~ and one that sets
him quite apart from the Essenes. The ancient magical texts
claimed that unction served the specific purpose of enchanting

aq  

demons so as to grant protection from them, and on a medical
basis it helped to heal wounds and drive away diseases of mind
and body. In some way the unguent 'sealed' the body of a wor-
shipper, so somehow assuring him or her of God's protection.

Celsus says that the snake-worshipping Ophites possessed a magic

ointment that transformed anyone who received it into a "Son of
the Father": 'I have been anointed with the pure white unguent of
the Tree of Life'. In the apocryphal Gospel of Philip there is a pas-

sage: 'The Tree of Life is in the centre of Paradise; it is the oil tree

that yields the oil with which holy kings are anointed (chrisma),
and by means of it resurrection [was made possible].

If it is the rebirth of a soul within a new body that is the overall
idea here, it is evident what a decisive new element Jesus, the

Ancinted, introduced to the teachings of the different Essene:

groupings. As Irenaeus wrote, the sacrament of holy unction was a
'rite denoting salvation' for the 'one become perfect', and was con-
sequently regarded as far more important than baptism. The

anointing was generally on the temples and forehead, often in the
form of a cross. The tradition of anointing has its origins in India,

where Hindu ascetics (sadhus) may still be recognized by a small
white circle, or white horizontal or vertical stripes, on the fore-

head, applied with a mixture of oil and holy ash (vibhut).

Buddha and Jesus: A Comparison

The God of the Semitic tribes is, to pull no punches, a bloodthirsty
and vengeful deity, Yahweh-Jehovah of the Jews tends to be
depicted as a fearsome overlord seated on a throne above the
clouds, violently chastising his Chosen People whenever they
transgress his edicts and his restrictions.

The philosophy behind Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, as relayed
by Matthew's Gospel, is illuminated by a totally different God.
Christ's message is a message of love, a joyful message of forgive-
ness and reconciliation: love your neighbour as (you love) your-
self; if anyone strikes you on one cheek, turn the other towards
him too. There can hardly be a greater contrast with the attitudes
revealed in the Old Testament. No other religion of the eastern
Mediterranean area lays claim to the magnanimously loving Grace
preached by Jesus. Where did Jesus learn the precepts he pro-

claimed in the Sermon on the Mount?

Eastern Wisdom in the West 95

A possible answer to this question may be found in early (pre-
Christian) Buddhist scriptures like the Lalitavistara, which is the
Buddhist text that exhibits the greatest number of parallels with
the tradition of the Gospels. Written in Sanskrit, the Lalitawistara is
a biography of the Buddha that is linked in time and culture with
the Sarvastivadins. Its most ancient sections, deriving from the
Hinayana, date from the third century BC, although the full ver-
sion in its present form was compiled in the centuries either side of
Christ's birth, and was included in the canon of the Mahayana by
edict of the Council of Haran in the first century AD  significantly,
some years before the compilation of the New Testament.

In the Lalitavistara, Buddha says:

The knowledge of the truth, the attainment of Nirvana  this is the
supreme blessing. Through love alone can hate be vanquished;
through perfect love evil may be overcome  Speak no harsh words
to your neighbour, and he will respond to you in like terms.

A merchant from Sunapaortha asked the Enlightened One to teach
him. 'People are violent," said the Reborn. 'If they offended you,
how would you respond?

The merchant shrugged his shoulders. 'T would make no reply
at all to them," he caid.

'And if they hit you?

'I would not react then either.'

* And if they kill you?

The merchant smiled. 'Death, Master, is no evil. Some even
desire it!"

In the same way, Jesus enjoined his disciples: "Whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.'

Buddha said to his favourite disciple Ananda, 'Believe in me,
Ananda! All those who believe in me will come to great joy." Christ
likewise instructed his disciples to believe in him, and not to
waver in this faith.

On another occasion, the Buddha described the giving of alms
as "a seed sown on good ground, which brings forth fruit in plen-
ty'. He also declared that 'Food that is eaten does not destroy a per-
son  but the taking of a life, stealing, lying, adultery, and even
thinking of doing these things, can certainly lead to a person's
destruction." And 'A man buries a treasure in a deep pit. But a trea-
sure hidden away like this can be of no use to him. Now a treasure
of love for one's neighbour, of piety and of moderation  that is a
treasure that no thief can ever steal.' And 'Even when the heavens

96 Tindia

crash to the earth, even when, the world is swallowed up and
destroyed, even then, Ananda, the words of the Buddha remain
true." And in another place the Enlightened One referred to him-
self as 'a shepherd full of wisdom(r) who bends down to redirect
those of the flock who are wandering towards the abyss.


All these sayings of Buddha are strongly reminiscent of Jesus'
sayings, as contained in the Gospels. Could Jesus perhaps have
been familiar with the words of the Lalitavistara?

John the Baptist baptized at the mouth of the River Jordan,
where it flows into the Dead Sea, very near the place where the
Essene community was based and where the Dead Sea Scrolls
were discovered in 1947. John exhorted the people to repent of
their sins and to receive baptism at his hands in the waters of the
Jordan. After he was baptized by John, Jesus retired into the desert,
where he was subjected to temptation by Satan. Five hundred
years earlier, Buddha too was subjected to a series of temptations
by Mara, the 'lord of sensory pleasures', as the Lalitavistara nar-
rates. To Siddhartha in the middle of his fasting and meditation
Mara offered delicious dishes and showed him the riches and dis-
tractions of this world, but the contemplative's concentration was
not in the least disturbed. Jesus underwent the same test in the
desert, with the same result. A similar story of temptation is told of
Zarathustra (Zoroaster), and indeed the selfsame theme  relative-
ly well attested in the East  plays a part in many stories of the
lives of the Christian saints.

Jesus commanded his disciples to go out and proclaim the mes-
sage of joy to the House of Israel. Like the Hindu sannyasis, the dis-
ciples were lo take no gold or silver with them, nor any second set
of shoes or clothing,

Five hundred years before Jesus, the Buddha used the same
command in nominating his first disciples  the noble thirty  as
Jesus was to use later: "Come, follow me!" The disciples renounced
everything on the spot and followed him, just as Peter, Andrew
and the sons of Zebedee were to follow Jesus so long afterwards.

And like Jesus, the Buddha spoke in parables. Jesus once
described how a blind man cannot lead another blind man without
bath falling into a ditch. In a similar passage the Buddha says:
'When blind people hold on to each other in a line, the one at the
front sees nothing, the one in the middle sees nothing, and the one
at the end sees nothing!' There is also an equivalent to the parable
of the Prodigal Son in the Buddhist scriptures.

Other parables told by Jesus are represented not among the say-

Eastern Wisdom in the West 97

ings of Buddha but in pre-Christian Hindu traditions and
proverbs, including, for instance, the famous saying that faith can
move mountains. In this way Krishna relocates the mountain
Govardhana to protect its inhabitants from the wrath of the god
Indra, and in the Ramayana the monkey god Hanuman carries a
mountain to Sri Lanka. No such image was present in Old
Testament traditions.

Attributed to Buddha are many miracles, a number of which are
very similar to those described in the New Testament as being per-
formed by Jesus. Buddha and his disciples were invited to attend a
wedding in the town of Jambunada. The holy group sat down to a
hearty meal but the food, instead of being rapidly reduced as it
was consumed, actually increased in quantity and went on increas-
ing, so that even though more and more guests arrived there was
enough for the veritable multitude that was there by the end.

Like Jesus, Buddha was regarded as both divine and human.
Before his arrival on Earth Buddha exists as a spiritual being
among the divine entities in the spiritual world. Of his own free
will he descends to Earth in order to benefit it. Like Christ's, his
birth is the result of a miracle: angel messengers proclaim that he
will be a saviour, and prophesy to his mother: "All joy to you,
Queen Maya, rejoice and be glad, for the child to whom you have
given birth is holy!" :

Just as the old and pious Simeon has been told he will see the
coming of the Messiah, the birth of the Buddha is prophesied by
the saintly old Asita who, shortly before he dies, comes to the new-
born child, takes him in his arms, and declares:

This is the peerless One, pre-eminent among men... He will altain to
the ultimate height of enlightenment. He has knowledge of the
supreme Will. It is he who will set the Wheel of Doctrine in motion.
He: has had compassion on the struggles of humankind. The faith he
founds will spread all over the world.

Simeon, it will be recalled, likewise takes the holy child in his arms
and says,

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy
word:

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel,
is = (Luke 2:29-32)

a8  

Even relatively cautious scholars are convinced that this speech
has a direct precedent in Buddhism.

At school, the young Prince Siddhartha is somehow already
familiar with all kinds of religious texts. He goes off on a short
excursion of his own, is missed, and is then found deep in medita-
tion. The parallels with the twelve-year-old Jesus' being discov.
ered in learned debate with scriptural experts in the Temple while
his parents have been looking for him are so obvious they cannot
be mistaken.

Buddha begins teaching publicly at about the age of thirty, the
age at which Christ began to do the same. Like Jesus, Buddha trav-
els the country together with his principal disciples in voluntary
poverty, instructing them meanwhile by using vivid imagery and
parables. Like Jesus, Buddha has twelve principal disciples, and
his first followers are two brothers  again in an exact parallel with
Jesus" first followers,

When called by Buddha, his first companions are sitting under a
fig tree, and it is when sitting under a bo or pipal tree (another
species of fig) that Buddha attains enlightenment. To Buddhists the
bo tree (Ficus religinsa) remains the most important symbol of the
quest for enlightenment. Jesus too first lights upon the disciple
Nathanael sitting under a fig tree. Both Buddha and Christ have
one favourite disciple and one disciple who betrays him  and, like
Judas Iscariot, Buddha's enemy Devadatta comes to a wretched
end (although his plot fails, whereas Judas' does not),

As strongly as Jesus criticizes the Pharisees, the Orthodox
Jewish believers who cling steadfastly to the letter of the Mosaic
Law, Buddha criticizes the priestly caste of the Brahmans whose
orthodoxy has been reduced to meaningless ritual and officious
regulations, 'Like arrogant apprentices in a trade they are still
learning, the priests are forever widening their web of regulations
and are at the root of every evil scheme.' Of the Pharisees, Jesus
similarly says, "They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be
borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will
not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they
do for to be seen of men' (Matthew 23:4-5). In just the way that
Buddha characterizes the Brahmans  'Inside you are like rough
wood, though your outer appearance is smooth'  Jesus lays open
the hypocrisy of the Pharisees: "You are like unto whited sepul-


chres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full
of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness' (Matthew 23:27),

Just as Buddha rejects the blood sacrifice performed by some

Eastern Wisdom in the West a9

ahmans, Jesus denounces the blood sacrifice of the Jews. And
pi as chr slates shallow notions of what is pure and what i5
impure and how ritual ablutions may or may not be efficacious,
Jesus censures anything that is insincere and ostentatious.

Despite all attempts at obscuring the true origins of Jesus teach-
ing, and despite the compression of the Gospels into strict canine
mity along different lines, more than one hundred passages in the
Mew Testament may be cited that exhibit evidence of sources that
hark back to a much older tradition: Buddhism.

Buddhist Thought in the Teachings of Jesus

ffinities between the ethical teachings of Jesus and of Buddha are
 known. Both forbid murder, theft, bearing false witness and
illicit sexual relations. Both insist that elders must be held in great
respect. Both aim to overcome evil with good. Both preach love of
one's enemy. Both value peace of mind and peaceable intent. Both
advise against the laying up of futile "treasures upon earth'. And
both advocate mercy for sacrificial victims. The parallels are many.
and some texts of both faiths coincide virtually word for word.

Like Jesus, Buddha called himself a 'Son of Man', and just as
Jesus may be described as the Light of the World, so Buddha is
acclaimed in the titles 'Eye of the World' and 'Incomparable Light'.

Buddha's understanding of himself and his role differs little
from Christ's understanding of his own nature and place. 'l know
God and the Kingdom of Heaven and the Way that leads there,
says Buddha, 'I know it as well as one who has entered the
Brahmaloka (the Kingdom of God) and has been born there. And
'Those who believe in me and love me are certain to reach
Paradise, Those who believe in me can be sure of salvation." This is
remarkably similar to the promises of Jesus recorded in John's
Gospel: 'He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation;
but is passed from death unto life' {John 5:24). And He that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live' {John
11:25).

Buidha says to his disciples, "Those who have ears to hear, let
them hear. He performs miracles: the sick are healed, the blind
regain their sight, the deaf hear again, and the crippled walk freely.
He steps across the Ganges in flood just as Jesus walks across the

100  

waters of the lake, And it is eventually given to Jesus' disciples to
perform miracles, just like their predecessors, the disciples of
Buddha.

On one occasion Buddha came to the bank of a river. From the
opposite bank a disciple who had been unable to find a boat began
walking across on top of the water towards him, just as Peter once
approached Jesus by walking on the water. And in the same way
that Peter began to sink when his faith started to waver, Buddha's
disciple began to sink when his meditative concentration on
Buddha was disturbed. Peter was saved by the supporting words
and arm of Jesus, and Buddha's disciple was saved when he man-
aged to regain his absorption in contemplating the Master. The
people who witnessed the individual events were astounded.
Buddha said, 'It is faith that leads us across the floodwaters, wis-
dom brings us safe to the other side." Walking on water is a con-
cept quite unheard of in Jewish traditions, but is a theme that is
widespread in India: it is more than possible that the New
Testament adopted the idea from there.

Like Jesus, however, the Buddha would have no truck with mir-
acles designed merely to cater to people's craving for sensations.
To a yogi who had spent twenty-five effortful years in trying to
acquire the ability to cross a river without getting his feet wet, the
Buddha said "Have you really been wasting so much time on such
a minor matter? All you ever needed was a small coin, and the fer-
ryman would have taken you across in his boat!

But at a later date, the miracle stories of Buddha in the tradition
of Mahayana Buddhism were accorded a status equal in impor-
tance to the miracles of Jesus in Christianity. At all times and in all
places, people have been more easily impressed by miracles, signs
and magical spectacles than by spiritual truths, especially when
the spiritual truths are difficult to take in,

There is one particular story that represents perhaps the most
amazing parallel of all between the older Buddhist texts and the
New Testament. In Christian terms it is the parable of the Widow's
Mite. According to the Buddhist version, there is a religious assem-
bly at which the faithful are required to make financial donations.
The wealthier members of the congregation give generously and
in valuable coin. There is a poor widow, however, whose total pos-
sessions amount only to two small coins, and these she duly gives,
and with pleasure. The presiding priest perceives her noble ges-
ture and publicly praises her for making it, saying nothing at all
about the other donations.

Eastern Wisdom fn the West 101

The corresponding passage in. Mark's Gospel tells it this way:

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people
cast money in the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites,
which make a farthing.
And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily [
say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they
which have cast into the treasury: ;
For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did

it in all that she had, even all her living.
SRE (Mark 12:41-44)

Apart from the fact that the basic theme is identical in both ver-
sions, there are some especially striking coincidental details. In
both versions the story is about a widow. Both make their offering
at a religious assembly together with rich people. Both give all
they possess, namely two coins. And each is subsequently praised
by someone present who values her sacrifice much more highly
than the donations of the rich. So close are the versions that it
would be difficult to believe that the later (Christian) one was
somehow invented quite independently of the earlier (Buddhist)
one.
Parallels between Buddhism and Christianity are discernible
not just in the words and deeds of their founders but also in other
aspects of the two religions after their founders' respective deaths.
Myth and legend surround the two central characters in such a
way that, soon after they die, Buddha and Jesus are elevated above
all the lesser deities and stories of miracles proliferate and spread.
In both cases the disciples at first fail to establish any organized
religious community for the faith, operating instead in small, scat-
tered groups. Quite soon, theological disputes break out between
groups with different backgrounds: between Sthaviras and
Mahasanghikas, and between Jewish Christians and Hellenist
Christians. In both religions Councils are convened, one in
Rajagriha, one in Jerusalem. And just as the Orthodox Buddhists
formalized their doctrine at the Council of Pataliputra (in 241 BC)
250 years after Buddha's death, so did the Christian Church at the
Council of Nicea [AD 325), 300 years after Jesus was last seen in
Palestine. :

At the time Jesus was living and teaching in Palestine, the
Mahayana school of Buddhism had just evolved from the rather
self-oriented Hinayana. It was Mahayana that turned Buddhism
102  

into a universal religion, open to believers of every nation and
background. Mahayana philosophy focuses on compassion for all
beings, as embodied in the ideal of the Bodhisattva, a concept that
took shape in the third century BC. The Bodhisattva is the
Englightened One who defers his merging with the Universal
Being, who postpones his entry into nirvana, for as long as it takes
for him to lead every person and being to salvation. The earthly
existence of a Bodhisattva has the single purpose of leading all
souls on to the path of release (moksha), the path that constitutes
liberation from the cycle of rebirths and from the distractions of
the world and physicality.

All those qualities that characterize a Bodhisattva are to be
found in Jesus, down to the last detail. Jesus is by himself the epit-
ome of the Bodhisattva ideal.

Was Jesus an Orthodox Jew?

A Jew among Jews, Jesus is sometimes held to be representative of
the Judaism of his time and local culture. But in no way can the
epithets 'traditional' and 'orthodox' be applied to him in a reli-
gious sense. In regard particularly to the subjects of death, the fam-
ily, the Law, and indeed Jewish tradition, there are fundamental
differences that distinguish his outlook from Orthodox Judaism. It
would not be unfair to say, even, that Jesus debunked all that was
most sacred to traditional Jewish culture!


This is especially the case in relation to death and the family. In
four successive verses Luke reports how Jesus considers personal
freedom to worship and a love for God to be of more importance
than first the conventional burial rites and second the duties inher-
ent in being one of a family.

And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first
to go and bury my father.

Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and
preach the kingdom of God,

And another also said, Lord, 1 will follow thee; but let me first go
bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the
plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

(Luke 9:59-62)

Eastern Wisdom in the West 103

Whenever Jesus' teaching and activities touch upon family mat-
ters, they tend "to offend Jewish feelings", as the Jewish historian C.
;. Montefiore has put it.* 'If any man come to me, and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sis-
ters,  he cannot be my disciple' (Luke 14:26). "He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me' (Matthew
10:37). Especially contrary  and incomprehensible  to the Jewish
tradition is the passage in Matthew's Gospel in which Jesus verbal-
ly disowns his own mother:

While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren
stood without, desiring to speak with him.

Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand
without, desiring to speak with thee.

But he answered and said unto him that told him, Whe is my maoth-
er? and who are my brethren?

And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said,
Behold my mother and my brethren!

(Matthew 1246-49)

The same Jesus in whose name "crusades for the family' have been
organized evaded his own family when they wanted to talk to
him. And it is Matthew  the writer of a Gospel from a Jewish
standpoint, of all people  who quotes Jesus as making a statement
that is unique for the ancient world and particularly scandalous to
the Jews: 'I am come to set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law.' And in a strange anticipation of
Freudian theory, he adds: 'And a man's foes shall be they of his
own household' (Matthew 10:35-36).

Viewed against the background of contemporary Jewish culture,
such behaviour on the part of Jesus  casting off family ties and
severing bonds held to be sacrosanct  may be considered nothing
short of baffling even today. Yet this same attitude is precisely that
of the Buddhist striving after complete liberation from the desires
and distractions of the worldly self. To gain release from the suffer-
ings of this earthly life, all personal attachments must be forgone,
as must any cultural niceties that represent similar hindrances. The
individual human person remains a prisoner of the cycle of
rebirths for as long as he is unable to free himself from selfish
desires. Jesus found himself constantly chafing against the Jewish
Law, which seemed to him in any case to be expounded in futile
and vacuous terms, and his decisive rebuttal of the importance of

104  

the Sabbath was enough finally to lead to his Crucifixion.

Had Jesus really intended to lead a godly life as understood by
the contemporary Orhtodox Jews, or even to become a rabbi he
would have to have been married  especially at his mature age
Matthew, however, leaves no doubt at all that Jesus remained Hid
gle (19:12).

And Jesus would have to have been circumcised, as required for
all male Jews as the sign of the Covenant between Yahweh-
Jehovah and Abraham." Only circumcised men were permitted to
take part in the meal commemorating the Passover, and no uncir-
cumcised man was allowed to enter the Lord's sanctuary in the
Temple." Anyone who refused to be circumeised was held to be in
breach of the Covenant and was expelled, 'cut off from his people'
(Genesis 17:14). 'et the Gospels do not actually state whether Jesus
was circumcised or not. Luke 2:21 merely says that when Jesus was
eight days old and the statutory circumcision was due, he was
given his name. There is no definitive declaration that he really
was circumcised.

The apocryphal Gospel of Thomas relates a saying of Jes
subject of circumcision: ying of Jesus on the

His disciples asked him, "Circumcision = is there int in i

d in, amy real point in it or
not?" He answered, "If it was really important, your heavenly Father
would have seen to it that you came into the world already circum:
cised from your mother's womb. But certainly, circumcision in spirit
may well be of great importance."

{Logion 53)"

The Essenes are known to have recognized only such a 'spiritual
circumcision', and not to have required the physical removal of the
foreskin. In this way Paul, who was strongly opposed to circumci-
sion as a religious requirement, managed to override the objecti

of the Jewish Christians and to get the rescinding of the obligation
affirmed by the apostles at the Council of Jerusalem,

Successors to the Essenes and Nazarenes

In the struggle for dominance that took place between the many
Paulinist, Gnostic and Jewish-Christian groupings during the early
centuries of the present era, it was the Church of Rome, as orga-
nized in hierarchy and in form by Paul, that finally emerged as the

Eastern Wisdom in the West 105

victor following the Emperor Constantine's conversion to
Christianity in AD 313, Three hundred years later it found itself
under pressure as a new religion pressed forcefully from the south
into Asia Minor: IsI am  succeeded in winning over much of the
population of the area within a surprisingly short space of time,

But what became of the groups who were unwilling to submit
to the authority of the Pope in Rome and the Emperor in
Byzantium  the Essenes and Mazarenes, the hard-core Jewish
Christians (Ebionites), the Gnostics, Manicheans and neo-
Platonists? Did they simply disappear, absorbed without trace
either into the Church of Rome or into mainstream IsI am ?

A large number of different tribal communities, clans and sects
still live today among the mountains of Asia Minor, Syria and
Kurdistan, who are regarded as potentially trouble-making
heretics by orthodox Muslims, and who, when not called simply
Shiites, may be known instead under the collective name of
Almpites(r) (because the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet
Muhammad, Ali, is accorded a special place in their beliefs).

These Alawites include, for example, the Bektashi dervishes of
Anatolia and the Nusairis of the coastal mountains of Syria. The
name of the latter group is thought by many authtrities to derive
from Nazarene or Nazoraian, or from the name Masara or Nasrani
that was applied to the first Christians in Palestine." And there are
the better-known Druse communities of the Lebanon mountains,
and the Yazidi of Kurdistan, who are disparagingly called devil-
worshippers by orthodox Muslims.

Until modern times outsiders, including scholarly researchers,
knew virtually nothing about the religious beliefs of these groups,
all of whom claimed to be dedicated Muslims, and all of whom
swore those intiated into the mysteries of their faiths to absolute
secrecy, on pain of the severest penalties. Only very recently did
several of these tribal communities, particularly some groups in
Turkey, open their doors to the outside world to reveal an ancient
tradition in which Mediterranean and Anatolian notions of
Classical times have been preserved in combination with old
Jewish, early Christian and Gnostic views, some of which bear
unmistakable parallels both with the Essenes, Nazarenes and
Therapeuts, and with ideals of religious life and thought in India.

All these sects typically divide the community into non-initiates
(the laity) and initiates (monks). The monks are disposed in three
ranks, just like the monks of the Therapeuts and the early
Christian clergy.

106  


In Anatolia, the monks who belong to the celibate branch of the
Bektashi Order live either in monasteries or as wandering mendi-
cants travelling from place to place on foot. Women too  who are
accorded a much more independent mode of life than Muslim

women  are accepted into the society of the initiates," and are per-
mitted to participate in the fem, the most important rite of worship,
which takes place in the monasteries or in the houses of devout
believers. It features a communal meal with bread and wine {very
similar to the agape meal at the assemblies of the first Ch ristians), a
confession of sins before the clergy, and a sacred dance undertaken
in an ecstatic state by both men and women,

Candidates for initiation are sprinkled with water by twelve
brothers of the Order, and symbolically hanged, as a sign of the
death of the old person and the resurrection of the new. The
Alawites of western Iran known as Ahl-e Haqq ('People of the
truth') even conduct the novice to a spring in which he is then
immersed.

The philosophical precepts of these communities are strongly
reminiscent of Indian traditions. The universe undergoes an end-
less cycle of formation and dissolution, called the cycle of being,

From a Primary State called Haqq ("Truth') corresponding to the
basic state of all things  comparable with the brahman of the
Hindus, the shunyata of the Mahayana, and the Chinese Tio  there
emanates a Deity in three Persons, who in tum brings forth the pri-
mal Logos or World-Intelligence, who is made incarnate among
men in every age in order to show them the way to
Englightenment. Particularly reverenced examples of such incar-
nate divinities are Ali and, notably, Jesus. The aim of human life is
to gain Enlightenment and pass beyond the cycle of rebirths, so to
become a 'person perfected' (insan-i-kamil), a reflection or image of
God, like Ali or Jesus

An anthropologist from Luxembourg who had spent many
years studying the Kurdish tribespeople of eastern Anatolia once
told me that many legends continue to circulate about Jesus' resid-
ing in what is now south-eastern Turkey after the Resurrection.
According to Persian folklore, he lived at the town of Nisibis, near
Edessa, now called Nusaybin and on the Turkish border with
Syria. Other scholars record a tradition among the Alawites of
Anatolia that Jesus survived the Crucifixion, was nursed back to
health by his disciples, and then forever left the territories that
were under imperial Roman rule." The lands north, west and south
were all in Roman hands, so Jesus can only have migrated east,

Eastern Wisdom in the West 107

Most authorities believe that these tribal communities represent
direct descendants of the Essenes and Nazarenes who, after the
time of Christ, merged with the Jewish Christians opposed to
Paul's dominant Hellenist group, and who, in the interests of sur-
vival under IsI am ic rule, later assumed the guise of an IsI am ic sect.

There are many points of correspondence in addition to those

already mentioned. All the groups celebrate Christian festivals, for
example, and especially Easter. Revering Jesus, they also regard
John the Baptist and Peter with particular respect, but have no
time at all for Paul. They greatly esteem the Gospels of Matthew
and John, but treat the (Hellenist) Greek Luke's Gospel with some-
thing a ching disdain.

What Is ie di interesting, perhaps, is that these tribes
inhabit the very areas where some of the original Christian com-
munities lived. The Alawites of Turkey, for example, occupy the
territory that was once home to the Galatians  a people to whom
one of the epistles ascribed in the New Testament to Paul was
addressed. PET as

Surely it is possible, then, that these remote communities living
in inaccessibly mountainous areas might have preserved the origi-

nal Christian doctrine in a far less adulterated form than. did the
Church of Rome with all its emperors, popes and cardinals. 


Chapter six.

THE SECRET OF JESUS

'What Manner of Man is This?'

he attempt to pin down the historical figure of Jesus Christ is

rather like a physicist's attempt to prove the existence of a sub-
atomic particle and to determine its charge. The particle itself can-
not be traced by direct optical means, but over the course of a
number of experiments it is possible to record the tracks of other,
larger particles with which it has collided, and by following these
tracks back to their source, to calculate the forces involved in the
collision. The invisible subatomic particle is thus ultimately
described by its effect.

In the case of Jesus, there are two additional factors that make
the task more difficult. The first is that the Christian Churches
have destroyed virtually all the evidence that might be used to
reconstruct the events of Jesus' personal history. The other is that
Jesus himself was compelled to preserve his secret (the secret of
who he really was) throughout his life, in order to keep out of the
clutches of his enemies as much as he could. Jesus the person is
covered by a veil of mystery and secrecy. An obscuring cloud
hangs over the events of his personal life, leaving all too much
scope for speculation.

So much ambiguity only makes for eventual and complete baf-
flement. Our ideas on the nature and personality of Jesus Christ
are based not so much on documented biography and historical
evidence as on a truth that transcends history while being passed
down through history, We inevitably come up against the limits of
what seems natural and comprehensible. All our questions ulti-
mately reduce to a single, central question  one that was indeed
even posed by Jesus' contemporaries: "What manner of man is
this?' (Mark 4:41).

That there can be such differing perceptions of Jesus must be
presumed to stem from the nature of the historical person  a

The Secret of Jesus 109

remarkable and studiously maintained balance between openness
and secrecy. Jesus' exhortations to others to keep silent about him,
the incapacity of even his own disciples to understand him, and
the fact that what the Son of Man actually said was relatively fleet-
ing, have all played a role in this. Those same disciples who had
been spending their lives accompanying the Master were able nei-
ther to understand him correctly nor to appreciate what he was
about. He seemed eccentric and enigmatic, and he was apparently
not too concerned about reducing this cryptic aspect to his public
life. Even the disciples were expressly bound to silence.

After Peter's revelatory declaration, Jesus 'charged them that
they should tell no man of him' (Mark 8:30), and when coming
down from the mountain following the Transfiguration, he
'charged them that they should tell no man what things they had
seen' (Mark 9:9).

There was the same enjoining to secrecy when Jesus healed peo-
ple. Again and again, Jesus forbade those who were healed to
spread the news about the event. He sent away a leper whom he
had cured with the words, 'See thou say nothing to any man'
{Mark 1:43). And to those present at the awakening of Jairus(r)
daughter 'he charged them straitly that no man should know it'
{Mark 5:43). Jesus sent home the man of Bethsaida whose sight he
had restored, with the command "Neither go into the town, nor tell
it to any in the town' (Mark 8:26). In spite of all this, the miracles
could not be kept secret and soon became very public knowledge.
The result was that after the healing of the person who was deaf
and dumb, for instance, "he charged them that they should tell no
man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal
they published it' (Mark 7:36).

Jesus even ordered demons who recognized him as the Holy
One of God (cf Mark 1:24; 5:7). He "suffered not the devils to speak,
because they knew him' (Mark 1:34). 'And unclean spirits, when
they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art
the Son of God. And he straitly charged them that they should not
make him known' (Mark 3:11-12).

In this way, then, the disciples, those who were healed, and
unclean spirits and devils were all forbidden to publicize his
actions  indeed, they were given a formal instruction generally to
keep very quiet about him. 'And he would not that any man
should know it [was he] (Mark 7:24; 9:30).

The command obviously also applied to the disciples. There
seems to have been a great intellectual gulf between Jesus and his

110  

disciples, who were simply unable to fathom him at all. This is par-
ticularly evident in Jesus' expressions of exasperation at their total
lack of comprehension. Aboard the ship tossed about on the lake by
a storm, there came the stern words "Why are ye so fearful? How is
it that ye have no faith?' (Mark 4:40). And, following the miracle of

the loaves, "Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? Perceive ye
not yet, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened?
Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye
not remember?' (Mark 8:17-18). And finally, 'How is it that ye do
not understand. [even now]? (Mark 8:21). When the disciples'
attempt to cure a boy possessed by a 'dumb spirit' turned out to be
unsuccessful, Jesus admonishes them with the words, '0 faithless
generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer
you? Bring him unto me' (Mark 9:19). The second of these two
questions might be interpreted as implying that Jesus had always
intended his mission in Palestine to be of limited duration, and that
he could see approaching his return sometime soon to India.

The circumstances surrounding his final public entry into
Jerusalem are also puzzling. Why should this son of the common
people be hailed with such celebrity in the city if  as the official
line goes  he had been sawing planks in his father's carpentry
shop all his adult life until his thirtieth year, and so could hardly
have been a stranger among the local population? The enthusiastic
reception by the people of Palestine rather suggests instead that he
had returned after a prolonged absence from far away, with
strange and novel teachings. and with such supernatural powers
as the ability to perform miracles and to heal the sick.

This also puts the question of the Nazarene Baptist, John, in a
new light: "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for anoth-
er? (Matthew 11:3).

Reincarnation in the New Testament

According to public opinion statistics gathered in research by the
Gallup organization, some 23 per cent of North Americans in
1980-1, and around 21 per cent of Europeans in 1983, believed in
the doctrine of reincarnation.'

Reincamation is referred to quite specifically several times in the
New Testament, although such references are most often ignored
or (possibly deliberately) misunderstood. Belief in reincarnation

The Secret of Jesus 111

was a matter of course to the early Christian communities, until it
became the victim of a historic error perpetrated by the Ecumenical
Council of Constantinople in AD 533. Declared heretical, it has
since remained banned from "Christian" doctrine to this day.

The idea of rebirth was widespread throughout the Graeco-
Roman world of classical antiquity. The great Greek philsopher
and mathematician Pythagoras (around 570-496 BC), a contempo-
rary of Buddha, was a firm believer in the transmigration of souls,
and there are quite a few legends that tell of his travelling to India."
Plato (427-347 BC) was likewise a disciple of reincarnation, and
rebirth also plays a central role in the philosophy of the Stoics. The
Roman poets Virgil and Plutarch, contemporaries of Jesus,
believed that the souls of people who were somehow tied to the
physical world of the flesh would be reborn in a new body when
the old body died.

In ancient North Africa, in Asia Minor and in the Middle East,
from Anatolia and Egypt to Persia, the notions of the transmigra-
tion of souls and rebirth were taken for granted. The Old
Testament contains clear examples of a belief in the rebirth of the
soul in another body. According to Psalm 90:3, God "turnest man
to destruction; and sayest, Return ye children of men', Friedrich
Weinreb even interprets a passage in the Book of Jonah as describ-
ing regressive reincarnation in the form of cattle, and also tells of a
reincarnation of Nimrod. Weinreb explains the Jewish concept of
the God-soul nshamah, the divine and perfect spirit that is equally
in all humans, certain characteristic aspects of which from time to
time make an appearance.'

By AD 30 the Jews were quite familiar with the doctrine of the
transmigration of souls, which they called Gilgal 'Wheel', 'Cycle').
As Jerome, the Doctor of the Chuch, reports, the Gilgal doctrine
was common knowledge among the first Christians. Under the
heading 'Reincarnation in the Jewish Talmud', Meyer's
Konversationslexikon  a standard German encyclopaedia published
in 1907  declares:

The Jews of the time of Christ held a general belief in the transmigra-
tion of zouls, The authors of the Talmud took it for granted that God
had created a finite number of Jewish souls that would continue to
return to an earthly existence for as long as there were Jews, if occas
sionally in the form of an animal in order to teach a soul a lesson. But
all would be purified on the Last Day, and rise in the bodies of the
righteous in the Promised Land.

(Komversationslexicon Vol.18, p.263)
112  

The Old Testament actually ends with a prophecy (made in about
870 BC) announcing the reincarnation of Elijah: 'Behold, I will send
vou Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord' (Malachi 4:5).

Nearly nine centuries later, an angel appears to Zacharias and
announces the birth of a son:

But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is
heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call
his name john.

And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many [!] shall rejoice at
his birth.

For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither
wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even
from his mother's womb,

And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their
God.
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias [Eliss is
just a Greek version of the Hebrew Elijah], to turn the hearts of the

fathers to the children . I, .
{Luke 1:13-17)

Jesus himself was later to state that John the Baptist was
Elijah / Elias:
For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger
before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Verily 1 say unto you, Among them that are born of women there
hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that
i least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he  ...
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

And if ye wlll receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.
(Matthew 11:10=11, 13-14)

According to John 1:21, when asked by the priests and Levites, the
Baptist replies that he is not Elias. Leaving aside for the moment
any speculation on what might constitute a tangible reason for
such a negative response by John the Baptist over whether he was
or was not Elijah/ Elias, the most significant thing about it is that
the religious authorities evidently thought it quite possible that he
was indeed the new incarnation of Elijah Elias,

We are riowhere told how John the Baptist spent his youth that
is, where he was educated. There is only the one succinct sentence
in Luke: "And the child grew; and waxed strong in spirit, and was
in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel' (Luke 1:80).

The Secret of Jesus 113

It i= not inconceivable, therefore, that John too was recognized
as a reincarnation of a particularly holy soul, and likewise given
direct monastic training in far-off India. If this were the case,
preparing a path for the Lord" would have had a more than figu-
rolive meaning.

On another occasion, Jesus asks his disciples: 'Whom do men
say that I the Son of Man am? And they said, Some say that thou
art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the
prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ve that I am? And
simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God' (Matthew 16:13-16).

And the disciples asked Jesus, "Why then say the scribes that
Flias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them,
Flias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto
vou, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have
done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son
of Man suffer of them, Then the disciples understood that he spake
unto them of John the Baptist' (Matthew 17:10-13).

According to the Gospels, then, Jesus himself confirmed that the
soul of Elijah / Elias had been reborn in human form as John.
Ilijah / Elias had tried to foster monotheism at the rayal court, and
had taught that God does not manifest himself in fire and destruc-
tion but in 'a still, small voice'  that is in reflective and patient
calm.

The first Elijah dressed himself in the rags typical of a wander-
ing monk, was nourished miraculously, and was permitted to per-
form miracles himself  notably to multiply quantities of food and
tor raise the dead to life. Given the mission of anointing others, he
spoke of being a 'messenger' and attracted a vast flock of follow-
crs. Finally, he disappeared in so mysterious a manner (ascending
heavenwards in a whirlwind) that he was sought by fifty men for
three days but could not be found.

The followers of Jesus knew that Jesus was a reincarnation, but
were still not sure about his identity and offered several sugges-
tions. Jesus himself gives no direct reply to the speculations, but
hi does confirm the disciples' ideas indirectly by encouraging their
enquiry: 'But whe do you say I am?" There are also significant
descriptions in the New Testament (Matthew 14:1-2; 16:13-14;
Mark 6:14-16; Luke %7-9) of the conjectures of various people,
including Herod, as to whose soul Jesus might represent the rein-
carnation of. All these passages definitively prove that reincarna-
tion was a widespread belief at the time. According to Josephus,

114  

the Pharisees believed in 'the power of  those returning to life",*
and that the souls of the good pass on to another body.(r)

In the account of Jesus' healing of a man blind from birth (John
9), the disciples expressly ask, 'Master, who did sin, this man, or
his parents, that he was born blind?' The idea that someone could
have been born blind because of sin committed previously naturai-
ly carries with it the implication of a life lived before and a subse-
quent rebirth. A further and simultaneous implication in the
question is the sublime concept of karma (the Sanskrit term for
'action' or 'causation'), by which the actions undertaken in one life
profoundly affect the conditions and circumstances of the next life,

Again, the concept of reincamation is evident in the third chap-
ter of John's Gospel. When Jesus meets the Pharisee Nicodemus,
he greets this 'ruler of the Jews' with the words: "Verily. verily, I
say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king-
dom of God.' Taken aback, Nicodemus replies: "How can a man be

born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his math-
er's womb, and be bom? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God' (John 3:3-5).

The clearest reference in the New Testament to reincarnation is
found in the Epistle of James (3:6, quoted here in the Jerusalem Bible
version), where it says that the tongue 'is a whole wicked world in
itself: it infects the whole body; catching fire itself from hell, it sets
fire to the whole wheel of creation'. The translation of the last
phrase that appears in most English Bibles is 'the course of nature',
'the wheel of our existence', or some equally nebulous expression
that distorts the sense of the original Greek words, which literally
mean 'cycle of being' or 'wheel of living', and in which the word
for 'being' and 'living' is genesis, related to the verb 'to come into
being', 'to be born'  so corresponding exactly to the Indian doc-
trine of the wheel of rebirth (samsara chakra), which is set in fI am es
like the 'cycle of being' of James' Epistle. Most theologians inter-
pret this passage in the text as 'showing Gnostic influence', and the
doctrine propounded by the Gnostics  or so all the modern
Christian Churches, denominations and authorities would have us
believe  is not only non-Christian but fundamentally opposed to
the teaching of Jesus...

The Secret of Jesus 115
Christianity and the Gnostics

In the theological writings of the early Christian Church, and in
other contemporary documents, there are many examples of a rela-
tionship between Christian and Indian thought in the first cen-
turies after Christ. Numerous references at the hands of the Fathers
of the Church of the time may today be interpreted as demonstrat-
ing the doctrine of reincarnation, despite all the literary tampering
that went on later." Eusebius, the first writer of Church history, tells
us that Pantainos  the founder of the famous theological school at

Alexandria  had lived in India before beginning work as a theolo-
rian."

; Trade between the Roman Empire and India flourished during
the first century of our era, and the centre for this trade was the
city of Alexandria, Along with the wares of commerce, Indian
ideas also found their way to Alexandria, so permeating local
political and religious thought. By that time Christianity had not
yet become the monolithic and highly stratified Church it was later
to be; it was instead made up of many individual groups, each of
which was affiliated to any of various schools of philosophy, and
many of them to those that were eventually to be unceremoniously
grouped within the description 'Gnostic'. Most of the Gnostic doc-
trines wete later condemned as heresies by the Church Councils,
but some sects still survived into the Middle Ages, until the last of
their followers (the Cathars, the Albigensians and the Bogomils)
were brutally eradicated by the autocratic Church of Rome.
Common to all these Gnostic groups was a strong faith in Jesus
and in reincarnation. Many learned authorities have contended
that the very early Christians and the Gnostics were originally part
of the same movement, and that the celebrated antagonism
between the two groups was a falsification of history on the part of
Church leaders at a much later date.' This contention has never
convincingly been refuted. Indeed, a number of commentators
even believe that there was a Buddhist colony in Alexandria at the
time."

Whether there was or not, at that very early stage, it remains an
uncontested fact that in the second century AD a delegation of
Buddhist monks from Egypt took part in a major Buddhist confer-
ence in Sri Lanka.

The followers of the Buddha in Alexandria during the decades
cither side of Jesus' birth, if there were any, certainly did not call
themselves Buddhists. Instead, they would probably have used the

116  

name adopted by their brothers in India: the followers of the
Dharm (the universal Law and the teaching of Buddha). In Greek,
the word Dharm may be translated as Logos, "Word', and adher-
ents of this teaching could therefore be described as Logicians, One
group of Gnostics was in fact actually known as the Logicians.

The famous introduction to John's Gospel = 'In the beginning
was the Word , . *  thus has a literary form that is by ne means
unlike a quotation from Buddhist scriptures, "The essence [of all
things] is the Dharma   .", especially in that the Greek word used
for 'beginning', arche, can have other meanings, notably 'origin',
'principle' and 'mastery', and that the Greek imperfect form of the
verb 'to be'  translated simply as "was'  suggests a continuation
of the action through to the present.

The most sacred authority in Buddhism is the trinity represent-
ed by Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Christian theology has the
Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, of whom

the Son, the second Person, is equated with the Logos (that is to

say the Dharma), and the third Person, the Holy Spirit, is active in
the community of the faithful (the Sangha).

The concept of a Holy Trinity, a Deity in three Persons or mani-
festations, has existed in religious doctrine since the-dawn of histo-
ry, from Egypt to castern Asia, [twas in this mode that the ancient
Egyptians of early dynasties conceived their prime trinity of a sun
god, an earth mother and (a combined) sun-over-earth son. The
Chinese equivalent was the trinity of Heaven, Earth and the
human individual made perfect (represented by the Emperor, the
Son of Heaven). The Hindu Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva,
although it appears to have developed as such only during
medieval times, is rooted in much older ideas of the Three. In
Vedic philosophy, the core of modern Hinduism, God or the Deity
is described as Sat 'Existence', pronounced 'saht' [see Appendix]),
Chit {* Awareness') and Ananda ("Blessedness'), the three of which
have clear parallels with the Persons of the Christian Trinity.


Gnostic thought is to be found everywhere in early Christianity,
and notably in the letters of Paul  especially in the letter to the
Ephesians (which may well not be by Paul, admittedly)  and in
the Gospel of John. Because almost all the *heretical' writings were
destroyed by the Church, hardly any original texts outlining
Gnostic beliefs have survived. What little does remain includes the
Pistis Sophin (Greek: 'Faith Wisdom"), the Books of Jeu and the
Coptic library of Nag Hammadi from the 4th century AD, which
turned up in 1945 by means of a discovery much like that of the

The Secret of Jesus 117

Dead Sea Scrolls.

Despite the longstanding denial of any connection between the
early Christians and the Gnostics by the historical authorities of.
the Christian Church, it remains an incontrovertible fact that a
number of theological concepts that came to be part of the ortho-
dox doctrine of the Church of Rome actually originated within the
confines of the Gnostic culture resident in Alexandria, in which the
first great Christian theologians Clement (around 150-214) and
Origen (about 185-254) lived and worked. It has been proved that
Clement of Alexandria was familiar not only with the spiritual cul-
ture of India but even with the teaching of Buddha." His under-
standing of the transmigration of souls speaks for itself:

Yet we exist before the foundation of the world, we who are already
present even before then through our being in God; we, the creatures
given the knowledge of the divine Logos, through whom we are most
ancient..."

For as each such birth follows the previous one, we are led in grad-
ual progression to Immortality."

Clement's pupil and successor was Origen, the founder of system-
atic Christian theology, one of whose teachers was a mysterious
individual named Ammonius Sakkas, or Ammonius the Saka. The
Sakas were a people of northern India, and the Indian antecedents
of Ammonius are beyond doubt, but many authorities today
believe that the epithet Sakkes does not actually mean 'the Saka',
but that it more probably refers to Sakya or Sakyamuni  to the fact
that Ammonius was a Buddhist monk."

If this is the case, then the most important theologian of early
Christianity after Augustine was the pupil of a Buddhist monk
from India, and many of the images and metaphors that he uses in
his theological works ought to be viewed as taken directly from
Buddhism. Unfortunately only a fragment of Origen's writings
have survived. Most of his manuscripts were later destroyed pre-
cisely because he was prepared to show great tolerance towards
people of differing views, and especially because of his belief in
reincarnation. What remains is his major opus De Principiis, an
attempt at a systematic presentation of Christian teachings (in the
edited Latin translation by Rufinus of Aquileia), his treatise Contra
Celsum, and a 'Commentary on Matthew',

Two passages from his writings suffice to demonstrate his beliet
in the existence of the soul before birth, and the influence of
actions undertaken previously:

118  

Every soul .  enters this world strengthened by the victories or weak-
ened by the stumblings of its previous life. Its place in this world... is
determined by what it has earlier gained or discarded." te
Dhoes it not make absolute sense that every soul,   is guided into a
body, and this in accordance with deeds done earlier?  The soul

makes use of a body for a certain duration   , but as it changes, the

body becomes less suited to it and it then exchanges it for another

one.  4 v
Similar statements are made by many other Christian theologians
in the period prior to the Council of Constantinople in 553.
Gregory of Nyssa {about 334-391) was one:

The soul needs to undergo a kind of healing process in order to be
cleansed of stains caused by sin. In the present life, virtue is the reme-
dy that is applied to heal these scars. If they remain incurable in the
present life, then the healing treatment is continued in a future life.

The Anathema of Justinian

t every Christian historian to date has put forward the view
are aie of reincarnation was declared a heresy (anathe-
matized) by formal decree at the Council of Constantinople in the
year 553. A closer look at the real circumstances, however, reveals
that any idea of a formal decree by the Council just does not stand
up to investigation. The doctrine of reincarnation was in fact con-
demned by no more than a mere personal veto by the Emperor
Justinian, and the anathematization was never part of Council res
olutions, )

Justinian's wife (according to the historian Procopius) was the
ambitious, not to say power-crazed, daughter of a bearguard at the
amphitheatre in Byzantium. She began her meteoric rise, eventual
ly to lead to her becoming ruler of the empire, as a courtesan. As
soon as she became Empress, in order to break the ties with her
ignoble past and to foster an austerely moral image, she ordered
the torture and execution of 500 of her erstwhile courtesan col-
leagues. Then, in an endeavour to avoid suffering the dread conse-
quences of such cruel deeds in a subsequent life according to the
laws of karma and reincarnation, she set about applying all her
influence to have the doctrine of the cycle of rebirths formally
abolished. She was apparently quite convinced that an edict pro-

mulgated by the 'divine decree' of the Emperor anathematizing

The Secret of Jesus 119

the doctrine as a heresy would altogether absolve her from all cul-
pability. In addition, both the Emperor and his wife were intent on
bolstering Constantinople's supremacy of spiritual and temporal
authority over Rome and the Bishop of Rome ~ which also goes a
long way towards explaining how an imperial decree anathematiz-
ing the doctrines held by Crigen and his counterparts came to be
promulgated without the endorsement of the Pope and the Roman
bishops of the West.

The Emperor Justinian had already declared war on the teach-
ings of Origen in AD 543 when, without bothering to consult the
Pope, he had them condemned as heretical by a specially convened
synod. Ten years later he assembled a Council in Constantinople,
only afterwards to become known as the Fifth Ecumenical Council,
Hardly "ecumenical', it could only just be described as a 'council',
for it was little more than an ego-trip for Justinian, who saw him-
self as the head of the Eastern Church and was trying to consoli-
date this claim to power in relation to the Bishop of Rome in the
West. Of the 165 bishops present, a mere dozen were from Roman
dioceses; all other Western bishops specifically refused to take part
in the Council. The Eastern (Orthodox) bishops who made up the
numbers were feudal vassals and in no position to resist the pres-
sure the Emperor put on them. Pope Vigilius himself  although
he was visiting Constantinople at the time  also stayed away from
the Council ir: protest,

As had happened at the earlier synod of the Eastern Church in
543, the Emperor once more had Origen's teaching on reincarna-
tion condemned at this assembly, and fifteen anathemata (ecclesi-
astical proscriptions) were issued against him.

The formal procedures, however, required that official protocols
of the eight Council sessions (which lasted four weeks altogether)
were presented to the Pope for his ratification. Constrained by the
Emperor, the ambitious Pope Vigilius (who had only been made
Pope at the insistence of the Empress in AD 537) finally wavered,
and appended his signature to the Council decrees laid before him,
The significant thing about this, though, is that the decuments
piven to the Pope for his signature concerned only an indictment
of three scholars who had been pronounced heretics by Justinian,
and against whom the Emperor had already issued an edict four
years before (an affair generally known as the 'episode of the Three
Chapters'), But there was no mention of Origen in them. The sue-
ceeding Popes Pelagius 1 (556-561), Pelagius II (579-590) and
Liregory 1 (590-604) were soon afterwards to speak of the Fifth

120  

Council without referring once to Origen, even in passing;
Somehow the conviction that Justinian's anathema = Eternal
damnation to anyone who preaches the spurious pre-existence of
the soul and its unnatural rebirth"  had been part of the Council's
resolutions became lodged fast in ecclesiastical lore. A scrupulous
examination of the historical events and the documentation per-
taining to them makes it perfectly clear that the supposed ban on

the doctrine of reincarnation is nothing more than an error of what

+e now well over a millennium's standing.

gl bid 1900, an American by the name of James Morgan.
Pryse had already come up with a complete list of references to the!
doctrine of reincarnation in the New Testament." Pryse considered
that the doctrine proceeded quite naturally from fundamental
insights of the ancient world, through the teachings of the old
philosophers, and so on (just as naturally) to appear in the New,
Testament. That the spiritual priciple behind human existence and
the spiritual principle behind the existence of the entire universe
{microcosm and MACTOC0SM) are fundamentally one and the same
means that all elements, forces and processes exist within the -
vidual person, both in a physical and material sense and in a spirit:
tual and divine sense. This concept reveals the spiritual unity of
all beings: there is no separation between Nature and God. It
reveals the Deity in all and as all, at all times, in each minute partis
cle of the universe.

The human individual in physical form is a manifestation emg

nating from the realm of the undifferentiated, boundless and ti

less Divine Unity which materializes Itself according to cyclical

phases in various forms of being,

The essential and primordial Being is eternally change :
whereas Mature  or the universe  is a Coming Into Being, a Being:

in continuous flux. An
The soul  or the spirit  of Man is thus, in its deepest conscio

ness, everlasting, whereas in ils constant coming and going (rein=

carnation) it is subject to a continuous sequence of action: of ca
and effects,

In order to return finally to the divine state, Man must become
aware of this principle, and take active steps to attain mastery over
the material aspects of his existence. After a lengthy sequence af

lives, a state may be reached in which all karmic suffering res

ing from these periods of earthly existence is surmounted, and i

ultimate perfection the inner or spiritual self merges into
Eternal Unity.

The Secrel of Jesus 121

This is how the doctrine of reincarnation might be summed up
in a few words.

Through knowledge, insight, meditation, asceticism, contempla-
tive absorption, renunciation, and similar disciplines, it is possible
tor overcome the narrow restrictions of bodily life while still on
earth, so to become aware of one's divine nature. Matthew's
Gospel describes the goal in this way: 'Be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father in heaven is perfect' (Matthew 5:48). But the path to
perfection is paved with many reincarnations, until the individual
is fully awakened to being the child of God and performs the
works of a Christ:

Believe me that 1 am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe
me for the very works' sake.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me. the works
that T do shall he do alse; and greater works than these shall be do.
{John 14:11-12)

Jesus, to me, is an ideal example of the Boddhisattva  that is, a
Buddha in the making: a person who, standing at the gates of total
Enlightenment, voluntarily returns to be born again out of com-
passion for human beings. Jesus is already very close to that divine
state, having discarded all personal lies and selfish effort. He fully
perceives that earthly existence, the cycle of rebirths determined
by karma, is the cause of all suffering; he has preached to his disci-
ples the conscious renunciation of worldly life; and he has shown
them the way to Englightenment through 'right action' and the
creation of good karma. 'The survival of Western humanity
depends on the reintroduction of the concept of karma to the minds
of the populace at large', as Paul Brunton said, and if we can
become (once more) acquainted with the ideas of karma and rein-
carnation, it opens up completely new dimensions in understand-
ing Jesus, showing us the way ahead, towards a coming age, even
without a 'resurrection of the body'.

Miracles  of Jesus, and in India

To a casual observer, the miracles performed by Jesus may by
themselves seem unique and without precedent, But behind many
extraordinary, spectacular and inexplicable events throughout
human history  some useful or even beneficial, others harmful or
122 Tordia

even catastrophic  people have tended to see the workings of a
mysterious Force unknown in nature and beyond human under-
standing. From the very first primitive magical rites performed to
appease deities of the earliest forms of religion, Man has interested
himself in such inexplicable phenomena, and he continues to do
s0 today.

Jesus' 'magical' powers were apparently considered nothing out
of the ordinary enough to warrant mention by contemporary his-
torians. During Jesus' lifetime wonder-workers, faith healers and
outright charlatans were common everywhere, What was different
about Jesus was primarily the fact that he did not practise his arts
in a bid for fame and fortune.

The stories of the miracles in the New Testament  around thirty
of them altogether  stem largely from the religious traditions of
the contemporary communities of the area, and so are not verifi-
able historically. Reports outlining Jesus' activities as an exorcist
are older, however, and were certainly current in Jesus' own time.

For thousands of years, whether miracles were actually possi-
ble was a question that was never asked. It first arose as a matter
for speculation during the Renaissance, when a new scientific
curiosity about the world started to manifest itself-Not until the
seventeenth century did anyone attempt to find a rational explana-
tion for some of the miracles described in the Gospels. Rationalists,
however, are prepared to accept only phenomena that accord with
natural laws and are intelligible to the scientifically enquiring
mind. Miracles are thus phenomena for which causal relationships
are neither understood nor explicable. Today, scientists are daily
discovering completely new laws in the workings of natural
processes, and constantly solving puzzles that were considered
unfathomable, if not magical, the day before,

Theologians define a Christian miracle as 'the suspension of the
action of a law of nature by God himself".

In contrast, the occultist does not believe in the suspension of a
law but maintains that miraculous phenomena are subject to high-
er laws that have not yet been discovered and defined. Everything
that happens in our universe occurs in accordance with law and
can be explained, The so-called magical powers of the initiate are
therefore no more than the natural consequence of his better
knowledge of how natural laws and these higher laws that derive
from the inner realm of consciousness may be played off against
each other,

Neither in the Old Testament nor in the New (in the original

The Secret of Jesus 123

languages) is the term 'miracle' used. The scriptures instead speak
of 'signs', 'power' or the 'marvellous deeds of God",

The most important Hebrew word ef {and elofiim}, for example,
which derives from the Semitic root alal "to be strong', means "the
great Power'. The word that describes this holy miracle-working
power is thus derived from the same source as the word for 'God'.

There are similar connections in Indo-European languages. The
first element of the Sanskrit word bralpman can be traced back to
the triconsonantal root brit 'te extend', thus 'to expand', "to radiate
(light), 'to have power over', and "to be strong'.

The miracles of Jesus seem to have been performed largely on
compassionate grounds: the healing of the sick, the mentally
deranged and the physically handicapped. But he evidently per-
tormed other types of miracle when necessary: he transformed
water into wine, multiplied quantities of food, made himself invis-
ible, raised the 'dead', and walked on water (levitated).

As with the other stories about Jesus, there are of course paral-
lels and literary precedents for the miracle stories in both
European and Asian traditions, Pliny tells of the miraculous cures
of the Greek doctor Asclepiades {124-about 60 BC). Tacitus and
Suetonius report on miraculous healings performed even by the
Emperor Vespasian, The early Christian apostles were also able to
heal the sick and perform various different miracles, and during
the first century AD Apollonius of Tyana worked similar and other
wonders.

But for the earliest reports of miracles identical to those per-
formed by Jesus, the prime source comprises the stories of Krishna
in the post-Vedic literature of India, the Puranas (especially the
Bhagavata Purana and the Mahabharata). Krishna is the eighth
avatar of the god Vishnu, and to the majority of Vaishnavite
Hindus who worship Vishnu (Sanskrit root wish "to pervade') as
the supreme Lord, his incarnate form Krishna is the Saviour. The
Rig Veda is too early a work for Vishnu to be depicted as deity
made human, so he is there a manifestation of solar energy. In later
Hindu theology, however, Vishnu is the Sustainer of the Universe
in the divine Trinity, alongside Brahma the Creator and Shiva the
Destroyer. An avatar (Sanskrit avatars from eo "downwards" and
tri "to cross over') represents an incarnate form of God, The divine
Higher Being takes on a mortal body out of compassion, in order
to help suffering humanity to attain liberation and perfection.

The story of Krishna's birth, childhood and life contains many
parallels with accounts of Jesus in the New Testament, even in the
124  

details (as for instance in the occurrence early on of a massacre of

infants). Krishna and Christ are the two most prominent perform-

ers of miracles in the holy scriptures of the Hindus and Christians

respectively. Bhagvan Dass divides Krishna's miracles into seven


1. the granting of visions;

2. visual perception over an extraordinary distance;

3. the multiplication of small quantities of food or items;

4. appearing simultaneously at many places in a less than fleshly
body;

5. the healing of the sick by the laying-on of hands;

6. the raising of the 'dead' to life; and

7. the destruction of demons and the exorcism of the possessed.

Some miracle-workers can perform only one or two kinds of mira-
cles, others more. There have always been mystics, holy men or
seers of different powers and reputations, And India has always
been the home of the miraculous, the land of the phenomenal. In
his treatise The Holy Science, Sri Yukteswar(r) sees the purpose of
earthly existence as the aspiration and attempt to unite the inmost
self with God. For Yukteswar regards Creation as 'substantially
nothing but a mere simulacrum of Nature imposed over the only
Real Substance, God, the Eternal Father, who is Guru  the
Supreme ~ in this universe'. This means that all things are com-
posed of the same one Entity. And God himself, who appears as a
multiplicity because his essence is expressed in a variety of ways,
is everywhere and everyone, The Bible says exactly the same thing
in Psalm 82:6, 'I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children
of the most High" The passage is quoted in John's Gospel: when
the Jews accused him of trying to make himself out to be a God,
Jesus replied. 'Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
(John 10:34).

Yukteswar goes on to explain that initiates who have attained
perfect mastery over the world of matter find their God or ultimate
fulfilment in their inner self and not in the external world. These
"divine humans' finally obtain mastery over life and death, virtual-
ly able to shape the world around them, capable of absolutely any-
thing. They achieve the eight ascetic attainments {Aishwaryas),
through the power of which they can

anima: shrink matter {or one's body) down to whatever size they
want;

The Secret of Jesus 125

makina: enlarge it up to whatever size they want;

Jaghima: make it weigh as little as they want;

garima: make it weigh as much as they want;

praphi; possess anything and everything that they want;

washilion: gain power (sasha) over anything and everything they
want;

prakamys: fulfil all desires through the strength of the will;

ishitioa: become the Lord (Isha) of all things.

When Jesus" disciples failed to exorcise an unclean spirit, they
asked him why, and he explained that it was through lack of faith:
'For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard
seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder
place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto
you' (Matthew 17:20). The related phenomena of teleportation and
levitation have had an uninterrupted tradition both in and outside
the Christian Church. No fewer than around 230 Catholic saints
are recorded as having possessed the ability to levitate more or less
voluntarily.

During the nineteenth century, the medium Daniel Douglas-
Home successfully convinced thousands of spectators on various
occasions of his ability to 'fly'. Witnesses included such notable
celebrities as William Makepeace Thackeray, Edward Bulwer-
Lytton, MWapoleon II, John Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Mark
Twain. Such performances took place over a period of nearly forty
years, and were repeatedly investigated and confirmed.

In his reports on all the different forms of psychic phenomena,
Francis Hitching cites more than twenty-five case of levitation."
Examples of levitation have certainly been reported right up to the
present day. Swami Rama gives an eyewitness account in his col-
lection of talks, Living with the Himalayan Masters. The phenome-
non has been photographed and even filmed.

Levitation seems to be produced by a greatly heightened control
over bodily processes, for example by concentration and medita-
tion, or through the effects of religious ecstasy that permit
moments in which the force of gravity somehow no longer applies.

Such 'minor miracles" can even be performed for money or to
satisfy sensation-seekers. But the true masters only perform these
'miracles' for altruistic pu

The miracle-working holy man of India Sai Baba says, like Jesus,
that every person has divine powers that can be brought into play
through training and mental discipline. Bul whoever uses the


126  

powers to sow evil will reap evil. And whoever uses the powers
selfishly and to his own advantage will lose them altogether.
Sometimes these powers are limited in their efficacy or duration,
particularly when used without altruism, wisdom and spiritual
awareness,

Today, as thousands of years ago, 'miracles' remain a legitimate
method of bringing the divine message closer to the doubters and
those who are hemmed in by the material world. Almost every-
thing reported about Jesus has a parallel in the ancient Indian leg-
ends. One of the reasons that this similarity between Indian and
Christian stories remains so little known is the fact that very few
Europeans are in a position to read the Sanskrit of the ancient
texts: only recently have translations begun to arouse the interest
of the Western world.


None of the known "divine-human' representatives of God on
Earth seems to have been able to convince the unbelieving masses
of his divine authority without recourse to miraculous signs and
wonders. Every Son of God has had to be able to demonstrate his
status to sceptics by means of superhuman attributes.

Krishna is an avatar  a mortal form descended to Earth  of the
god Vishnu (the second element in the Hindu Trinity, the Sustainer
of Creation). It would seem that Krishna and Christ might well
have more in common than miracles: it is certainly possible that
the two expressions are etymologically cognate. The title 'Christ
(Latin Christus) comes from the Greek khristos (christos), the
'anointed' (Greek khricin "to anoint', but also 'to dye', 'to colour';
khrisma "ointment'). The Sanskrit name Krsna (pronounced
'Krishna') means 'the black' or 'the blue'. Both terms, Christus and
Krishna, may well also be related to the Sanskrit root krs (pro-
nounced 'krish') 'to attract', and based on this etymology the name
Krishna is often translated as 'The all-attracting One'. This person
who attracts all Creation is the highest form in which God has
been seen on Earth.

Following Brahmin tradition, Brahma is viewed as the Creator
of the Universe, and sometimes even called 'Father'. Vishnu, who
became incarnate as Krishna, is occasionally called 'Son'. And
Shiva, the third Person in the Hindu Trinity, who is Spirit, corre-
sponds thus to the Holy Spirit, 'who directs the eternal law of for-
mation and dissolution, indwelling in all living creatures and all
Nature..."

Krishna is the eighth avatar or incarnate form of the god
Vishnu, following seven earlier avatars. The ninth appearance of

The Secret of Jesus 127

Vishnu on Earth is in the form of Gautama Buddha {Prince
Siddhartha, Sakyamuni 'the sage of the Sakyas').

Krishna and Christ

According to the most ancient of sources, some 5000 years ago the
Lord Vishnu appeared in the form of a man in the presence of the
maiden Devaki ("Made for God'), a member of the royal house-
hold. Devaki fell into an ecstasy and was 'overshadowed' by the
spirit of God, who came to her in the splendour of his divine
majesty, so that she conceived a child. The tradition tells of an
annunciation:

Blessed art thou, Devaki, among women. Welcome art thou amid the
holy Rishis. Thou hast been chosen for the work of salvation ,   He
will come with a luminous crown: heaven and earth will be full of joy .
.. Virgin and Mother, we greet you; thou art the mother of us all, for
thew shalt give birth to our Saviour. Thou shalt call him Krishna.

But the King of Mathura had been warned, in what to him was a
nightmare, that a king would be born to his sister's daughter, who
would be more powerful than he. The maiden Devaki hid in the
fields with the newborn child in the company of some cowherds,
and miraculously the child escaped the soldiers who had been
despatched by the king to kill all newborn male babies.

According to another version of the tradition, King Kansa of
Madurai saw a shooting star and asked a Brahman about its signif-
icance. The wise man replied that the world had become wicked,
and that people's greed for gold together with their burdensome
life had moved Ged to send a Redeemer. The star was the sign of
Vishnu, who had been made flesh in the womb of Devaki; the
avatar would one day restore righteousness and lead humanity on
new paths. Beside himself with rage, the king had the Brahman
killed along with all newborn males.


There are many tales of Krishna's childhood, glorying in his
power and knowledge.

Like the boy Jesus in the apocryphal Gospels, Krishna was able
to perform every conceivable miracle even as a little child. It was
thus he was able to survive the many dangers prepared for him by
his uncle Kansa. At one point a snake crawled into his cradle to
strangle the child, but was itself killed by the lad with his bare

128  

hands (an exact parallel with the myth concerning the young
Herakles I Hercules). Later, Krishna fought the multiple-headed
snake Kaliya, defeated it, and compelled it to leave the River
Yamuna, The heroic deeds performed by the Indian superboy were
enough to fill any number of volumes. When he was sixteen,
Krishna left his mother to spread his new teaching throughout
India. He spoke out against corruption among the people and the
princes, everywhere supported the weak against oppression, and
declared that he had come to Earth to release people from suffer-
ing and sin, to drive out the spirit of evil, and to restore the rule of
righteousness. He overcame tremendous difficulties, fought alone
against entire armies, performed a wide range of miracles, raised
the dead to life, healed lepers, gave sight to the blind and hearing
to the deaf, and made the I am e walk.

Eventually he amassed a large number of disciples, who sup-
ported him zealously and were to continue his work. Everywhere
people came to him to hear his teachings and to marvel at the mir-
acles he performed. He was honoured as a god and acclaimed as
the true Redeemer who had been prophesied by the fathers.

From time to time Krishna would go off by himself for a while,
leaving his disciples to their own devices in order to test them, and
returning when they got into difficulties. The growing movement
was watched with suspicion by those in authority, and they tried
to suppress it, but without success.

Krishna did not wish to propagate a new religion but simply to
renew the religion that already existed and cleanse it of all its fol-
lies and abuses. His teachings are in the form of poetic parables,
aphorisms and similes very like the recorded words of Jesus. They
are contained in the Bhagavad Gita, which presents the lofty, pure
morals of the sublime view of life in a way simple enough for all to
grasp. Krishna thus teaches his followers to love their neighbours;
he lauds respect for the individual, calling upon all of us to share
what we have with the poor, to do good deeds out of pure altruism
and righteousness, and to believe in the ever-dependable goodness
of the Creator. He instructs us to repay evil with good, to love our
enemies, and he forbids revenge. He consoles the weak, condemns
tyranny, and helps the unfortunate. He himself lives in poverty
and devotes himself to the poor and the downtrodden, He is
devoid of personal ties, and advocates chastity.

Krishna also undergoes a Transfiguration. The Son of God
shows himself in a thousand different divine forms simultaneously
to his favourite disciple Arjuna, and tells him,

The Secret of Jesus 129

Who doeth all for Me; who findeth Me

In all; adoreth always; loveth all

Which I have made, and Me, for Love's sole end,
That man, Arjuna! unto Me doth wend.

(Bhagavad Gite, Canto 11, tr. by Sir Edwin Amold)

Finally, Krishna allows an arrow to strike him in the foot, marking
the end of his ordained life on Earth. But when his followers
search for his body it is nowhere to be found, for he has ascended
to heaven,

The legend of Krishna is probably the oldest source that con-
tributes to the mystical Christ figure, But similarities with the leg-
ends of Dionysos Bacchus (dating from around the eighth century
BC) are equally astonishing. And in addition to the lofty cultures
of ancient Greece and Rome, that of ancient Persia = which also
had its Saviour-Redeemer personalities  equally decisively influ-
enced the eschatological and apocalyptic notions of the Christian
religion.

Chapter Seven

THE SHROUD  A LEGACY
OF JESUS

Accusation and Trial

he political situation in Judea at the time of Jesus was extreme-

ly turbulent, and was regularly punctuated with dramatic
events.

Herod the Great (37-4 BC) had had to deal with persistent civil
unrest, sometimes outright revolt, throughout his reign. Fighting
against him and his successors was a guerrilla army, nationalist
fanatics to a man, determined to do everything they could to
undermine Roman rule. Josephus makes a reference to the leader
of the troublesome 'gang of bandits', one Judas of Galilee, but the
'bandits' would seem rather to have been men of strong religious
convictions, who were basically just trying to defend the faith of
their forefathers against foreign domination!

Among these rebel groups  which included the Pharisees, the
Sadducees and the Rechabites  the Essenes were given special
place, being formally organized as an Order, and having an 'élite
corps' in the form of the Nazarenes (Nazareans). The Sadducees
and Pharisees were eventually to come to a compromise with
Herod's successors, accepting the lure of high office. The
Rechabites, on the other hand, utterly rejected the 'civilization' that
Rome sought to impose on them, and continued to live in tents
outside the towns, as their forebears had done for centuries.

It was probably when Herod's son Archelaus was deposed in
the year AD 6 that the Essenes and Nazarenes returned from exile
in and around the city of Alexandria. Certainly, the monastery of
Qumran was reoccupied from that time.

But it was also at that point that nationalist resentment of impe-
rial Roman domination flared up into guerrilla warfare, particular-
ly in the area administered by Herod Antipas (Archelaus' brother).

The Shroud = A Legacy of Jesus 131

The resistance struggle was mostly conducted in great secrecy by
Essene partisans who could melt invisibly into the countryside.
And so it was that the Essenes and the Nazarenes were actively
and bravely taking on the full strength of the mighty Roman over-
lord even while the conformist Pharisees and the Sadducees were
becoming integrated into the overlord's political system.

After the death of Herod the Great, the country lurched from
one crisis to the next. Many of the native Jewish population were
desperately hoping for a Messiah who would revive the Kingdom
of David and Solomon, and free the land from the hated foreign
dictator.

According to the Gospel texts of Mark, Matthew and Luke, the
period during which Jesus was publicly active lasted for about one
to two years at the most. Only the latest Gospel, John's, refers to
three Passovers in Jerusalem at which Jesus was present. All in all,
it has to be assumed therefore that Jesus stayed in the area for
between two and three years.

During this time, Jesus often crossed the borders of the various
provinces into which Palestine was divided, each time thereby
leaving the jurisdiction of the local religious and secular authori-
ties. Why he should then go to Jerusalem, and by so doing give
himself up to his persecutors, remains a mystery.

And his entry into Jerusalem was particularly spectacular: Jesus
was jubilantly feted as the king who would establish the 'Kingdom
of God'.

By Christian tradition, the "Kingdom of God' is a state of heav-
enly perfection, to be understood in a purely spiritual sense: all
may attain to it through God's own grace and assistance. But what
the masses in Jerusalem were looking for was something of a
rather more worldly nature. Jewish Messianism anticipated a
Kingdom of God that was a new, purified and powerful state of
Israel, and its leader (the Messiah) was expected to be an invincible
military commander and statesman, as King David once had been,
and to free the land from the Roman yoke.

Jesus' view of such hopes is recorded in the Gospel of Luke:
'The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall
they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is
within you' (Luke 17:20-21).

The entry into the city of Jerusalem was an act of unprecedented
provocation. Up to that point, the resistance had operated as an
underground movement: they had not dared to show themselves

openly in the capital. About a week before the great festival of the

132  

Passover, Jesus decided to leave his place of hiding in the moun-
tains of Ephraim (John 11:54), and journeyed with his followers by
way of a detour through Jericho to the capital, some 40 kilometres
away (Luke 19:1,28).

Mark's Gospel tells of the dramatic decision;

And they were on the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went
before them: and they were amazed: and as they followed, they were
afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what
things should happen unto him,

Saying. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be
delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes: and they shall
condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:

And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit
upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.

(Mark 10:32-34)

Five days before the great festival, they reached Jerusalem,
Entering through the city gates, Jesus was noisily acclaimed by the
crowds. But although Jesus was riding a donkey as a gesture of
humility, meekness and peaceful intent, the accI am ation was later
to be tragically misunderstood. "The whole city was in turmoil'
(Matthew 21:10, Jerusalem Bible version). Jesus' strong lyv-worded
statements, and the equally forthright, not to say violent, methods
he used in driving the traders out of the Temple, might perhaps in
a different atmosphere have been understood as being allegorical 
but they were certainly open to being interpreted as a clarion call
to the people to rise up. Some of Jesus' words were the very oppo-
site of conciliatory: "Think not that I am come to send peace on
earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword' (Matthew 10:34).*
And 'I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be
already kindled? (Luke 12:49).

The very first thing Jesus did in Jerusalem was to mount an
attack against the authorities, an attack such as no one had dared
to attempt before. With unmistakable directness Jesus remonstrat-
ed against the guardians of the Law in the Temple. His pointed
and barbed denunciations (Matthew 23) were a public settling of
accounts with his antagonists in front of a great number of enthusi-
astic pilgrims. According to the Gospels, he even went so far as to
drive the traders and moneychangers out of the place of worship.
Of course, such an attack on the authority of the Temple officials
could not be allowed to pass unchallenged  but care was required,
for in such a tense situation any untoward action was liable to trig-

The Shroud = A Legacy of Jesus 133

por a mass uprising. *And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and
sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because
all the people was astonished at his doctrine' (Mark 11:18).

There was always the possibility of riots and other forms of civil
unrest during the holy days of the festival, and Pilate (the
Governor, as representative of the Emperor in Rome) had marched
in trom Caesarea with his cohorts {each of 500 legionaries) to be
ready to intervene if necessary, Such disturbances are only briefly
alluded to in the Gospels. According to Mark, a certain Barabbas
was taken prisoner together with 'them that had made insurrec-
tion with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection'
(Mark 15:7). Mark also says that the chief priests and scribes
"sought how they might take [Jesus] by craft, and put him to death.
But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the
people' (Mark 14:1-2). If Jesus was to be liquidated, both great
speed and great caution were called for.

The Pharisees first tried to get Jesus to incriminate himself in a
public discussion. They asked him whether it was right to pay
taxes to the Roman Emperor. If Jesus had replied in the negative,
he would have been open to the charge of high treason; had he
replied positively, he would have lost all the support and most of
the interest of the people. Instead, he got out of the predicament by
a stroke of genius (Mark 12:14=17). The Sadducees then attempted
tor ridicule his doctrine of reincarnation. This attack too he parried
skilfully (Mark 12:19-27).

The date of the events in Jerusalem still poses a considerable
problem. Meither the month nor the year of the event is to be
tound in the Gospels. Current speculations range from the year 30
to the year 33.

Although all the Gospels agree that Jesus was crucified on a
I'riday, there are two different suppositions about what date of the
month it was. According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus celebrated
the Last Supper with his disciples on the Thursday evening. By the
lewish calendar, Thursday was the 14th of Nisan, the day on
which the Paschal I am b was to be eaten. The Friday after, 15
Nisan, was the first holy day of the Jewish festival of Passah-
Mazzoth. But it is quite unthinkable that Jesus was arrested and
interrogated before the entire Sanhedrin (comprising seventy -one
wish citizens) on that very holy night. Such a violation of Jewish
Law by its own guardians is simply not credible.

An alternative solution is to be found in the gnostically influ-
enced text of John's Gospel. Here, the Last Supper is not specified

134  

as the Passover meal of the Jews, and Jesus has already been cruci-
fied by 14 Nisan. If this is the way it really was, Jesus must have
celebrated without the prescribed unleavened loaves and ritual
utensils, because these are (even now) only prepared for use on the
day immediately preceding the Passover, which is actually called

the Day of Preparation. John's version of events seems logical
enough, but it relies on the assumption that on this occasion Jesus
did not observe the Jewish customs anchored in the Law (although
there were certainly other occasions on which he deliberately
ignored them),

Even the place chosen for the Last Supper suggests the influ-
ence of the Essenes: "Behold, when ye are entered into the city,
there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him
into the house where he entereth in' {Luke 22:10). But in the
Jerusalem of those days, the fetching and carrying of water was
done only by women. So in this particular house the usual customs
obviously did not apply. And in fact the meal did not proceed at
all according to the prescribed rite, but entirely in the Essene man-
ner. They did not eat the sacrificial I am b, but bread, like the
Essenes, who of course did not eat meat at all. In the apocryphal
Gospel of the Ebionites, when the disciples raise the question of
where they should prepare the Passover meal, Jesus tells them, 'I
do not want to eat meat with you this Passover!" The disciples
then have an argument about their places at the table because,
according to the Rule of the Essene Order, each person was
assigned a fixed place according to rank, designated by proximity
to the Master (105a). "And there was also a strife among them,
which of them should be accounted the greatest' (Luke 22:24). So a
kind of Passover meal did take place, but not on the prescribed
day, without meat, and without the usual ritual.

At this point, a question arises that has caused the experts con-
siderable soul-searching  a question to which they have as yet
been-unable to come up with an answer: how to establish the date
of the Last Supper. But the problem is solved automatically if it
was the Essene calendar that was used to set the date for the festi-
val. Because the solar calendar made it possible to divide the year
{counted as 364 days) into 52 weeks, there was no remainder in

days left over at the end of each year (as there was with the Jewish
calendar). New Year's Day always fell on a Wednesday in spring.
Accordingly, the Essene Passover on 14 Nisan regularly occurred
on a Wednesday, and so must have taken place two days before
the orthodox Jewish Passover that vear. John's Gospel is thus also

The Shroud  A Legacy of Jesus 135

correct in saying Jesus was crucified on 14 Nisan, for what he has
in mind is the official calendar, which put the Crucifixion on the
day before Passover,

The entire sequence of events in Jerusalem now takes place over
a period of three days and can be established logically and conclu-

sively:

liresday evening: the Last Supper

arrest at Gethsemane

preliminary hearing by Annas

threefold denial by Peter

Wednesday morning: the beginning of the trial before the
Sanhedrin

examination of witnesses by Caiaphas
Jesus kept in custody overnight

receives ill-treatment in Calaphas' prison

Wadetesday night:

Thursday: the Sanhedrin reconvenes to announce
judgement
Jesus handed over to Pilate and interrogated
Jesus is passed over to Herod Antipas
Friday: the political trial continues before Pilate

the scourging, the crowning with thorns
the sentencing
crucifixion at about the sixth hour {12 noon)

An unusual incident took place during the arrest of Jesus by the
lemple guards after the meal: "Then Simon Peter having a sword
drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right
var, The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter,
Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? {John 18:10-11), Why was Peter car-
rving a sword?

Since the second century BC, the Sanhedrin (Greek-derived
Hebrew: * Assembly') had represented the highest Jewish authority
not only in matters of religion but in all secular, national and judi-
vial affairs to which wiere was a religious aspect. Before rule by
Home, the Sanhedrin also wielded considerable political power. It
was composed of seventy members  priests, elders and scribes 
under its president, the current chief (or high) priest, at this time
Joseph Caiaphas. Among the elders of the assembly was Joseph of
Arimathea, a rich and influential land-owner who voted against

the decision of the High Council to put the Nazarene to death
{Luke 23:50-51).
136  

After detailed cross-examination of the witnesses, the chief

priest, Caiaphas, concluded by posing the crucial question: 'I
adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the
Christ, the Son of God' (Matthew 26:63). When Jesus answered,
"Thou hast said [it], Caiaphas took this as a Yes  from which there
was no turning back. According to Jewish Law, anyone who arro-
gated divine honours to himself was a blasphemer, and was liable
to immediate capital punishment. Actually, the Jewish Law stipu-
lated execution by stoning, but Jesus could not be taken out and
summarily stoned to death because the Sanhedrin had only recent-
ly received an order from Rome that no one was to be put to death
without the prior approval of the Roman procurator. Another fac-
tor was that all business before the Sanhedrin had to be concluded
during the hours of daylight (between dawn and dusk). If all the
seventy council members had been summoned and the trial had
taken place at night, the entire proceedings would have been ille-
gal from the start. In Luke's Gospel there is confirmation that the
session took place during the day (Luke 22:66). The assembly did
not reconvene until the following morning (Thursday) to
announce its judgement: 'When the morning was come, all the
chief priests and elders of the people took council against Jesus to
put him to death: And when they had bound him, they led him
away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor" {Matthew
27:1-2).

Pilate seems to have been unhappy with the case from the very
beginning (John 18:31) because, as he said himself, he could find

no count on which Jesus might be guilty. He tried to get him set I

free but, failing in a demonstrative gesture washed his hands of
the matter to preserve his 'innocence' {Matthew 27:24). Pilate's

attempt then to pass the delicate matter on to the local Jewish eth-

narch, Herod Antipas  who happened to be present for the festi-
val  also failed, for Jesus would say nothing at all. He was sent
back again to the procurator (Luke 23:6-16), who at last gave in to
the will of the mob that had been stirred up by Caiaphas and the
priests, and turned the Nazarene over to them for execution as
they demanded.

To bear in mind that Jesus the Nazarene belonged to the New
Covenant of the Essene movement, presumably as one who

observed the Community Rule without actually belonging to the

enclosed community, is to be able to find an explanation for quite a

few of the contradictions and puzzles of the Gospel stories that is

relatively straightforward and makes perfect sense. It certainly

The Shroud  A Legacy of Jesus 137

explains how Jesus could be prosecuted by the Orthodox Jews and
yot find himself on trial for his life in the secular and political
courts at the same time. Indeed, considering the scant nature of the
historical sources at our disposal, it is selely in this light that the
events surrounding the end of Jesus' ministry in Palestine can be
convincingly and satisfactorily accounted for.

Problems arising from the popular understanding of the
"Resurrection from the dead' and the 'bodily Ascension' of Christ
are rather more difficult to solve. The available literary sources do
not explain why Jesus was declared dead just a few hours after his
crucifixion. His legs, after all  unlike those of the two men cruci-
fied with him = had not been broken. (Fracturing the legs would
have decisively shortened the torment, which could otherwise last
up to five days.) No wonder Pilate was very surprised when he
was asked to release "the body': "And Pilate marvelled if he were
already dead' (Mark 15:44).

no one saw the Resurrection = or, at least, we are told of no one
purporting to have seen it  which means the Resurrection of Jesus
from the dead has to remain purely a matter of faith. So the
Church's teaching on the critical subject of the Resurrection must
be regarded as an inference after the event, an interpretation!

The matter might be left to rest there: either one believes in
Jesus" Resurrection or one does not. Surely it would in any case be
impossible now, so far ahead in time, to turn a critical spotlight on
a historical event two thousand years ago and find out exactly
what happened. It would indeed be quite impossible  were it not
for an amazing piece of evidence that enables us to examine the
events surrounding the Crucifixion in great detail, even while
using the most modern tests technology can devise: Jesus' shroud.

The Turin Shroud

And now when the even was come, because it was the [Day of]
Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,

Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable (a wealthy: Matthew, Luke)
counsellor {who was a disciple of Jesus: Matthew, John) (although a
secret one for fear of the Jews: John) (who had not agreed to their deci-
sion and action: Luke), which also waited for the kingdom of God,
(Luke) came, and wenl in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of
Jesus (Matthew, Luke, John)

138 Jesus Lived an India

And Pilate marveled if he were already dead: and calling unto him
the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.

And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph
(Matthew, John),

And he bought fine liner. and took him down, and wrapped him in
the (clean: Matthew) linen (Matthew, Luke) (linen wraps: John), and
laid him in a (his: Matthew) (new: Matthew, John) sepulchre (in which
no body had been laid before: Luke, John) which was hewn out of a
rock (Luke), and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.

{Mark 15:42-46)

The linen mentioned here is today preserved in Turin, constituting
an authentic document that has virtually by a miracle captured
one of the most important moments in the history of the world for
posterity, and this in something approaching a three-dimensional
representation.

The famous Shroud of Turin is 4.36 metres long and 1.10 metres
wide, and shows with astonishing clarity the impression of a man
that has recently been crucified. One half of the shroud shows the
back and, because the shroud was wrapped around the man's
head at about its middle, the other side shows the front. The head,
the face, the thorax, arms, hands, legs and feet of the man are easy
to recognize within the impression. The colour on the fabric is for
the most part sepia in tone, although grey in some areas. Traces of
blood are clearly visible, and appear as a very pale crimson.

On first looking at the Shroud as a whale, one's eyes are first
led to two dark stripes running vertically down the length of the
Shroud, which extend to two larger, rhombuoidal spots, These are
burn marks that have been repaired with lighter-coloured stitches.
Their peculiar shape arose as a result of the shroud's almost being
lost in a fire in the Chapel at Chambéry, in France, in 1532, when
lying folded in 48 layers in a silver casket. In the heat of the blaze,

the silver container began to melt on one side, until streaks of I

molten silver left the geometrical pattern of scorch-marks in the
folded material (Plate 29).

If it is really Jesus' image on this piece of material, and the
authenticity of the cloth can be proved, then this document not
only represents a scientific sensation of the utmost importance, it
can also serve as the only acceptable scientific basis on which the
question that has occupied so many for so long may be settled
once and for all: did the Resurrection of Jesus actually happen?

There may be initial reservations over whether any length of
fabric could really survive a period of time amounting to almost

The Shroud  A Legacy of Jesus 139

two millennia while suffering so little evident damage. Yet it is a
fact that there are many pieces of linen that are considerably older
and better preserved than the Shroud of Turin. Well-preserved
exemplars are to be found in the collections of the Egyptian
National Museum in Cairo, the Egyptian Museum of Turin, and
the Egyptology departments of historical museums in London,
Paris, Berlin, Hildesheim and elsewhere, some specimens going
back 3500, even 5000, years. The dry climate of the Near East is
particularly favourable to the long-term preservation of textiles
and scrolls. In each case the vegetable substance is mainly cellu-
lose, a very stable molecule.

The Greek word sindon (sometimes translated in English as
muslin') in the Synoptic Gospels refers to a length of linen. The
Shroud is of linen, the fibres twilled together in a ratio of 3:1, creat-
ing a fishbone weave. In Jesus' time this was an extremely rare
form of loom work, requiring a great deal of expertise, and proba-
bly very expensive. The only surviving examples of this kind of
material woven in the first century come from the Roman province
of Syria, to which Palestine then belonged. (Twilling was intro-
duced in western and northern Europe only in the fourteenth cen-
tury ADL)

On using an electron microscope to examine the strands in 1973,
Professor Raes of the University of Ghent in Belgium discovered a
few traces of cotton, a plant that was not under cultivation in the
Mear East at the time of Jesus. In contemporary Syria and
Mesopotamia, however, cotton imported from India was cccasion-
ally used for weaving, although the cotton had to be processed
beforehand on a special loom.

The Swiss botanist and forensic scientist Dr Max Frei made use
of complex techniques of pollen analysis to arrive at some sensa-
tional discoveries. Dr Frei took twelve samples, each ten to twenty
square centimetres in area, from different parts of the Shroud's sur-
face, on adhesive tape. Under the scanning electron microscope, he
found, in addition to dust and the linen fibres, between one and
four grains of plant pollen per square centimetre. Grains of pollen
are between (1.0025 and 0.25 millimetres in size, and are therefore
not generally visible to the naked eve. But the tiny grains are sur-
rounded by a double skin, the chemical composition of which has
not been fully determined even today, The external shell is by itself
so durable that under certain conditions the pollen can survive
intact for several millions of years. Moreover, every species and
variety of plant has tiny pollen grains of an appearance quite dis-

140  

tinctive from those of any other, so that it is possible to tell quite
easily which grain originated from which plant.

In a report on his research published in March 1976, Frei
announced that he had been able to identify a total of forty-nine
different types of plant from the pollen he had found on the
Shroud. Many of the plants still grow in all the areas in which the
Shroud is said to have been kept during the course of its history:
one such is the cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus [fbani). But the sensational
news was that there was also pollen from eleven types of plants
that do not grow at all in central Europe, but are halophytes deriv-
ing from the Near East. Halophytes are plants that flourish only in
soils containing an unusually high proportion of salt  like the
soils of the region surrounding the Dead Sea. Among them were
special desert varieties of tamarisk (Tamarix), seablite {Suaeda) and
artemisia (Artemisia) species.

The history of the Shroud had until this point been traced back
only as far as the fourteenth century, and some researchers had
therefore assumed that it was at that date that the Shroud had been
produced, in France, since when it had always been kept within
the borders of France or Italy. The pollen analysis now offered
clear proof that the linen must have been in Palesting earlier than
this. In addition, it turned out that the kinds of pollen identified on
the Shroud were also to be found in relatively high concentrations
in those layers of sediment in the Sea of Galilee which date back to
the time of Jesus.

Grains of pollen from eight other varieties of plants were char-
acteristic of the steppes of Asia Minor, particularly the area around
Edes=a (today Urfa in Turkey). Dr Frei could not have imagined
how significant this fact was to prove to be,

The Portrait of Edessa

That it is now possible to trace the history of the Shroud all the
way back to its origins(r) is in large measure due to the research of
the English historian lan Wilson." From the great quantity of histor-
ical evidence at his disposal he was able to show that the Shroud
corresponds to the so-called Edessa Portrait, of which there have
been accounts from as early as the first century, and which has
been known as the Mandylion since the sixth century. The story of
the Holy Shroud has all the thrills of a good novel.

The Shroud  A Legacy of Jesus 141

According to the apocryphal Gospel of the Hebrews, which was
used by the Nazarenes, Jesus gave the shroud described in the
Gospels to the 'servant of the priests' after the Resurrection." It is
logical to assume that the recipient of so marked a favour was not
one of the mortal enemies of Jesus. The 'servant of the priests' was
most probably given the priceless gift as a token of gratitude for
some special service rendered. But no matter who took possession
of the sheel after the Resurrection, it was most probably then pre-
served by followers of Jesus, the most likely candidates being
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who had arranged for the
body to be removed from the Cross and placed in the tomb.

But the cloth could not be allowed to remain in Palestine: the
continual and vicious infighting with the forces of the hated
Roman overlords presented too much of a threat. And so the fol-
lowers of Jesus arranged to get the Shroud out of the country. Only
the large, well-established Christian communities to the north
could provide a secure haven for it, such towns as Antioch,
Corinth, Ephesus and Edessa, which lay far from the areas in
which Jesus had worked.

In about AD 325, the Church historian Eusebius (260-340),
Bishop of Caesarea, reported that there had been an exchange of
letters between Jesus and the King of Edessa, Abgar V, known as
Ukkama ("The Black"), who ruled AD 15-50." Eusebius says that he
himself translated this correspondence, allegedly taken from the
archives of the Edessan king, from ancient Syrian (Aramaic) into
Greek. Known and accepted as genuine from very early times in
the West," albeit disseminated in a multitude of variants, this
Legend of Abgar evidently represented a deep-rooted documen-
tary constituent of early Christian faith, which in tum rather sup-
ports the presumption that it is based on actual events.

In those days Edessa was an important centre of commerce not
far off the old Royal Road, which led from Ephesus in the west to
Susa in the east, crossing the old empires of the Lydians, Medes
and Persians, and linking Edessa directly with India and eastern
Asia via the Silk Route. The most valuable commodity of trade in
Edessa was silk from the Far East, and it was in this trade that
members of the large Jewish communities of the town, most of
whom were merchants, were very actively involved. Politically,
Edessa was ruled by the Abgar dynasty from 132 BC to AD 216,

An organized Christian Church was established in Edessa only
during the middle of the second century, under Abgar IX Ma'nu.
According to historical sources, however, it is likely that there was

142 Indin

a fairly sizeable Christian community in Edessa long before this,
and that Abgar V Ukkama, even before the correspondence,
already had some knowledge of Jesus' message,

Eusebius describes how King Abgar Ukkama sent a messenger
to Jerusalem to ask Jesus to come to Edessa and heal him of a
chronic rash. Jesus was unable to make the trip himself, but sent a
disciple by the name of Thaddeus (called Addai in the Syriac texts)
 not the apostle of that name but one of the seventy disciples
mentioned in Luke {Luke 10:1)  with a letter for Abgar. In it, Jesus
tells the king that the disciple will cure him, and that the letter will
afterwards continue to protect the town from harm,

Sometime around 1850 a number of early Syriac manuscripts
were discovered in a monastery near Wadi el-Natrun (the Natron
valley) in the desert of Lower Egypt. Among them was another
version of the Abgar story now known as Doctring Addai," that tal-
lies exactly with the version noted down by Evagrius Scholasticus
(527-600) at the end of the sixth century. And the same version of
the tradition is recorded in the famous festive sermon delivered in
the year 945 to mark the occasion on which the Edessa Portrait was
installed in the Pharos Chapel at the court of the Byzantine
Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos." According to all
these sources, Jesus sent not only a letter to Abgar but also a mirae-
ulously-formed portrait of himself. The king is said to have been
cured at once by the miraculous power of this picture, And imme-
diately after this spectacular miracle, Thaddeus-Addai preached in
Edessa, whereupon Abgar and most of the citizens of the town

were converted to the Gospel faith. The Doctrina Addai gives the
date of Thaddeus' sermon as the year 343 by the Edessan reckon-
ing, which corresponds to the year AD 33  the very vear in which
Jesus was crucified.

Because a burial shroud was in those times considered to be
contaminated with the 'impurity' of death, King Abgar would
have been deeply offended if Thaddeus had handed him what evi-
dently was one. Probably for this reason, Thaddeus folded the
cloth to look more like a portrait on linen, and had it framed in
gold by his Edessan co-religionist Aggai  a man who, according to
Syrian and Armenian sources, was the leader of the Christian com-
munity of the town. It was a task for which Aggai was well suited:
a goldsmith by trade, he was used to fashioning costly chains and
had been responsible for crafting the king's own diadem. In the
Acta Thaddaei of the sixth century (an attempt to explain how the
image had been imposed on the cloth, from a contemporary view

The Shrowd  A Legacy of Jesus 143

point), the term tetradiplon is used to describe the Shroud, and is
probably intended to mean "folded in four double layers"."

If the unwieldy, more-than-four-metre-long Shroud is folded in
ihe middle, and then azain, three Himes, what is left can certainly
be described as four double layers. The resulting rectangle of cloth,
now a much handier 110 centimetres by 34.5 centimetres, simply
displays the head of Jesus, impressively framed, without giving
en grounds for suspecting that it is not the true size of the sindon,

According to the text of the festive sermon delivered at
Constantinople in 945 (referred to above), Abgar Ukkama set the
portrait, in its gold frame, above the town gates of Edessa.

Abgar died in AD 50. He was succeeded for only seven years by
lis eldest son Ma'nu V, before his second son Ma'nu VI came to
the Edessa throne. He, however, reverted to paganism, and brutal-
ly persecuted the burgeoning Christian community there. It was at
this time that the portrait disappeared and no more was heard of it
for five hundred years. The festive sermon of 945 reveals what
actually happened. Aggai, who by this time had been Bishop of
Edessa for twenty-three years (by the reckoning of the Chaldean
patriarchs), spirited the sacred relic away to a place of safety, out of
the grasp of the inimical king. He immured it within the town wall,
in a recess above the west gate. In response, Ma'nu had Aggai cru-
elly executed, on 30 July 57 according to Mares Salomonis.

The first indication that the Shroud had once more come to light
is found in a document written by the Church historian Evagrius
in the year 593. He dates the event to some fifty years earlier. in
May 544. The festive sermon of Constantinople similarly reports
that the picture was rediscovered in Edessa in the sixth century,
and that it was the same picture of Christ that a disciple had
brought to Abgar. According to Wilson, the linen cloth was redis-
covered when the buildings of Edessa were being repaired, by
order of the Emperor Justinian I, after a catastrophic flood in the
year 525 = specifically when the town gate was being dismantled,
The picture was evidently identified at once as the original portrait
brought to Abgar. In 544, Bishop Eulalios wrote that the image dis-
covered was an impression genuinely 'not made by human hands":
in Greek, acheirapoieton." The rediscovered picture was brought to
'the great church' (the cathedral of Hagia Sophia), where it was
kept in a locked silver casket. From this time forward the cloth
became known as the Mandylion, and was considered so sacred
and precious that it was brought out for public veneration only on
the most important feast days.
144  

In 6349 the Arabs captured Edessa and so acquired the Shroud. A
wealthy Christian, Athanasius of the Gmea family, bought back
the linen cloth from the Arabs and concealed it in a crypt in one of
the many churches in the town,

The term Mandylion, used in relation to the picture from this
period, is thought by most authorities to be derived from the
Arabic madd (a word itself derived from late Latin marbelivn),
meaning 'a length of cloth' such as might be used as to make a
veil, a short cloak, a turban or a hankerchief. Personally, 1 would
suggest instead that the title is somehow connected with the
Sanskrit term winrdala, which signifies 'a circle', and specifically a
mystical diagram in circular form. Mandalas were much used in
Tibetan Buddhism. They represent a religious experience in sym-
bolic form, indicating particular spiritual relationships in the sym-
metry of their design, and assist in the meditative disciplines that
lead to Enlightenment.

After the discovery of the Edessa Portrait in the sixth century,
there was a great upsurge in image worship in Christianity. Many
reports of other images of Christ 'not made by human hands' did
the rounds at the time (such as the acheiropoieta of Memphis and
Camuliana). And along with this development, a sudden and
marked change in what Christ was believed to have looked like
became evident. Up until the rediscovery of the Shroud image,
Jesus had been portrayed on classical lines, as a philosopher or
emperor, as a teacher of truth, a good shepherd or a beardless, boy-
ish youth like Apollo  youth being a symbol of the divine. As
veneration for the Mandylion became established, there suddenly
appeared a form of portrayal that was strikingly similar to the

three-dimensional face-on picture on the cloth. A good example of
this is to be seen on the sixth-century picture of Jesus on the silver

vase of Emesa. From then on Jesus was mostly shown in frontal
view, with large, wide-open eyes under pronounced brows, long
wavy hair parted in the middle, divided beard, long aquiline nose,
and of mature age.

The image quickly became accepted with almost doctrinal una-
nimity throughout the whole Christian world. At the Synod of

Constantinople in 691-2 it was decreed that from then on Jesus
was only to be represented in his 'human form', only 'pictures true

to life" were permissible. At about the same date, Justinian II {ruled
685-95 and 705-11) minted his coins with the portrait of Christ for

the first time, and on these too the visage of Jesus was similar to

the 'Shroud' image. The result is that although the literary tradi-

The Shroud  A Legacy of Jesus 145

i is ifn he face
At loast fifteen different amd unmistakable features can be identified on f
on the ie pint are also fo be found on the portraits of Jesus painted by

Byzantine artists.

146 Jesus Lived tn India

tion has bequeathed us no information whatsoever on what Jesus
looked like, he has been portrayed so consistently from the sixth
century onwards that anyone who sees a portrait never has any
doubt about who the subject is!" Historians have listed totals of
between fifteen (Wilson) and twenty (Vignon, Wuenschel)' con-
spicuous features in the Shroud portrait that can be recognized in
images of Jesus from the sixth century onwards,

Until the tenth century  when the Mandylion was moved to
Constantinople  this image of Christ's face was typical in
Byzantine sacred art, along with other elements of the Shroud pic-
ture. Many portrayals of the time present a face-on view of Jesus,
without the neck, within a rectangle that is longer horizontally
than vertically, and that appears to have a grid pattern superim-
posed on it like a net of diagonal lines, the face itself framed by a
circular opening. The general layout of these depictions corre-
sponds precisely with that of the cloth 'folded in four double lay-
ers'. And besides, a portrait within a horizontally-based rectangle
may be considered to offend normal aesthetic sensibilities, and is
accordingly most unusual in all forms of visual representation.

Wilson suggests that the Edessa Portrait, the Mandylion, is the
authentic 'original' which set the course for the history of art.

In the eighth century, the movement known as the Iconoclasts
(the 'image-breakers') came to power in the Eastern Roman
Empire under Emperor Leo IIL. Everywhere, religious images and
icons were torn down and destroyed  but the Mandylion, already
hidden away from the equally image-hating Muslims then ruling
Edessa, survived this period unharmed. Sixty years later, when the
Iconoclasts had officially been discredited, efforts began in
Constantinople (continuing over the following decades) to have
the precious image brought to the capital of the empire. The pro-
ject finally met with success under Emperor Romanus I Lecapenus
(ruled 920-944) who, in 942, sent his most able man, the general
Curcuas, to collect the Christ portrait. It was not long before the
imperial Byzantine army laid siege to the town of Edessa and
demanded the surrender of the Mandylion in exchange for the
release of 200 prisoners and the sparing of the town. To avoid
bloodshed, the Edessans yielded to the Emperor's terms, thereby
gaining both immunity for their town and twelve thousand pieces
of silver. Even then, according to contemporary sources, the
Edessans seem to have tried to fob the Emperor's men off with a
replica twice before they relinquished the real Shroud,

On 15 August 944 the Shroud finally arrived in Constantinople,

The Shroud  A Legacy of Jesus 147

greeted by jubilant crowds. And there it was probably kept for the
next two and a half centuries, in the Blachernai church. (The pic-
tures and "shrouds" produced for the Pharos Chapel must be
assumed to be copies.) Either during the surrender of the
Mandylion at Edessa or while it was in transit to Constantinople,
the picture had apparently come loose from its frame and been
revealed as the complete Shroud. At any rate, Gregory  archdea-
von of the Great Church of Constantinople  gave a sermon at the
triumphal reception of the cloth, in which he mentioned the (c) 
drops of blood, which had flowed out from his side , . , that had
left their impression on the cloth, And in this statement. at least,
lies proof that the Mandylion of Edessa and the Turin Shroud are
the same cloth. If the stab wound from the centurion's spear was
visible, the cloth was no mere towel containing the image only of a
face. The cloth must have originated in the brief period immediate-
ly following the Crucifixion.

The text of a sermon first given by Pape Stephen [11 in 769 had a
passage inserted into it during the twelfth century to the effect that
Jesus had lain stretched out with 'his whole body' on a white cloth

.on which the glorious countenance of our Lord and the full
length of his body were thus miraculously impressed  

Similar references are to be found in the ecclesiastical history of
Urdericus Vitalis (around 1141) and in the Oia Imperialin of
Gervase of Tilbury at the beginning of the thirteenth century."
Over all these years the Shroud was evidently displayed in its full
length on a regular basis in Constantinople. In 1203, the French
crusader Robert de Clari wrote that he had seen the cloth in the
Church of St. Mary the Madonna at Blachernai in Constantinople:
* the Sindon, in which our Lord had been wrapped, which was
displayed every Friday so that the figure of Our Lord could be
clearly seen'

The Mysterious Templars

Robert de Clari had come to Constantinople as a knight on the
Fourth Crusade. After a long siege, the crusaders finally sacked the
wealthy city in April 1204. They destroyed everything that was of
no value to them; everything in the city that was precious and
costly they looted and took away with them, including, without
compunction, the treasures and holy relics belonging to the

148 Didia

The Shroud  A Legacy of Jesits 149

Christian Church, Amidst such chaotic turmuil the Shroud disap
peared, not to emerge again until 150 vears later in France, in the'
possession of members of the de Charny family, who displayed it
in the West for the first time.

A number of theories, some of them pretty far-fetched, have
been put forward to explain how the cloth came to disappear from
Constantinople, and how it ended up in France. Because the cloth'
disappeared for more than a century at a stretch, it was most prob- I
ably in the possession of the same owners throughout the period =
presumably a group closely linked with the crusaders, who were
rich enough not to have to raise revenue by selling the relic, who!
could guarantee its security in absolute secrecy, who had a motive
for keeping it, and who were also connected in some way with the
de Charny family. All these clues point towards the mysterious
Order of the Templars.

The Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of
Solomon, better known simply as the Templars, was founded in
1119 by a group of crusaders led by the French knight Hugues de
Payns. In addition to the standard vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience, Templars swore to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land'
and actively to help in the struggle against the Muslims. The Order
soon became extraordinarily powerful and influential. In the late
thirteenth century, however, rumours began to circulate that the
Templar knights were given to worshipping a mysterious icon at I
secret meetings, Contemporary accounts and the records of the
Court of the Inquisition state that the Templars' icon was an image'
'ona board' depicting a 'very pale and colourless" version of a life-
sized male head 'with a divided beard, such as the Templars
wear', The Templars revered the icon as the 'unveiled face of God'.
Copies of the icon were kept in some of the Templar centres. (A
copy of this type was found in 1951 in a former seat of the Order at
Templecombe in Somerset, England.) The icon matches the
Mandylion image in every detail! The Templars had quite obvious-
Iy come into possession of the Shroud and had made its i image the
focus of their religious worship. But how had they managed to
remove the Shroud from Constantinople unnoticed and bring it to
the West? Elmar R. Gruber has found a solution to this historical
puzzle.

The Templars did not take part in the conquest of
Constantinople because it had nothing to do with their duties in
the Holy Land, but immediately after the city had been taken some
of their agents went there on a secret mission. Only the grounds of

The Foute Taken by the Tass Oleh

The Route Taken by the Turin Cloth

150  

the Bucoleon and Blachernai palaces had not succumbed to the
looting of the crusader soldiery, and then only because the erusad

er leaders had chosen the palaces for their own residence once the
attack had succeeded. The treasures and relics the palaces con
tained were therefore distributed to high-ranking secular and reli

gious dignitaries. In May 1204, Count Baldwin IX of Flanders was
crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Byzantium. To relay this news
to Pope Innocent 11, the new Emperor chose the Master of th
Templar court in Lombardy, one Brother Baroche, who may well
have convinced Baldwin that to remove the Shroud from the
Blachernai church and donate it to the Pope would undoubtedly
secure the Vatican's favour. The mission was kept secret, however,
for fear of possible unrest among the Greek population,

Brother Baroche transported his charge on a ship laden with
riches on a course for Rome. Off the coast of the Peloponnese the
vessel was suprised by six Genoese galleys, and was looted?
Strangely enough, the Genoese pirates then let the ship and its.
crew proceed on its way unscathed  captured ships were usually I
sailed back to Genoa = so that Brother Baroche reached Rome
unharmed in autumn 1204, and delivered Baldwin's letter to Pope
Innocent. Perhaps the Templars had made a secret deal with the
Genoese by which the ship was robbed of its treasures but no harm'
came to the crew, the ship, or the 'worthless' old cloth. Or perhaps
Baroche had in any case removed the cloth from the ship at some I
port of call  the Templars owned an estate on the Peloponnese 
and then allowed himself and his vessel to be taken by the
Genoese, Al any rate, the Shroud had disappeared, and in a letter
of 12 November 1204 Pope Innocent threatened the Genoese with
excommunication unless they returned the stolen relics at once (r)

The whele affair was extremely embarrassing for both Emperor
and Pope, and it was hushed up. The Shroud had 'mysteriously
disappeared',


In 1307, Philippe le Beau of France used the rumours concerning
the heretical icon-worship of the Templars, along with with other
charges ~ such as homosexual practices, and secret deals with the
Muslims and with the Cathars (who had been wiped out a hun-
dred years earlier)  as a pretext to smash the Templars, and to
embezzle the Order's extensive assets.

Two of the last remaining leaders of the Templar Order were
burned at the stake in Paris for heresy in March 1314, even though
they professed the Christian faith to the end, and protested their
innocence. One was the Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de

The Shroud  A Legacy of Jesus 151

Malay; the other was the Master of Normandy, Geoffroy de
Charnay. Despite an intensive search, the prosecutors were unable
to find the 'icon' of the knights anywhere.

A few years later, however, the cloth turned up again, and in
the possession of a Geoffroy de Charny." no less, who, from
genealogical research, could well have been a grandnephew of the
Templar knight whe had forfeited his life, although having no
overt connection with the Order himself. It would appear that the
Templar leaders had hidden the cloth with a relative of Geoffroy
de Charnay (the Templar) who was free of suspicion, in order to
protect it from the persecution of Philippe. This would also explain
why the de Charny family was unable to give any account of how
they came to possess the cloth when they were later accused by
the two bishops of Troyes, Henri de Poitiers and Pierre d' Arcis, of
having displayed a forgery, following a public exhibition in the
collegiate church at Lirey, Although the bishops had never seen the
cloth themselves, they consistently opposed any public exhibition
of the relic. A series of plots were then laid against the de Charny
family, to which Margareta de Charny was able to put an end only
by sending the cloth out of the country. She bequeathed it to the
pious Duke Louis of Savoy, and in return received a rich reward
for her "valuable services". The Duke gave the canons of Lirey 50
gold frangs by way of recompense,

The history of the Shroud is well documented from here on,
and can be quickly summarized. In 1502 the cloth was deposited in
the chapel of Chambéry Castle where, in 1532, it nearly succumbed
to the fire that left the burn marks visible today. In 1578 the cloth
was finally brought to Turin, where it was kept as a family heir-
loom of the House of Savoy for four centuries, until Umberto I of
Savoy, ex-king of Italy, made it over to the Holy See in his will on
18 March 1983, shortly before he died. (Only two weeks earlier,
Pope John Paul II had travelled in person to the Lisbon residence
of the exiled monarch te persuade the old man to bequeath the
cloth to the Haly See.)

Scientific Analysis of the Shroud

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the state of [taly in
1898, the Shroud was once again exhibited to the public. The ama-
teur photographer Secondo Pia then had the opportunity to photo-
152 Tedia

graph the Shroud for the first time in its history. After several
attempts, Pia succeeded in taking a reasonable picture of the
Shroud. As he developed the exposed glass plates in his dark
room, he made a sensational discovery: the negative on the photo-
graphic plate showed a natural likeness of Jesus, pretty well as he
must have appeared in real life. The face familiar to us as the por-
trait of Jesus on the Turin Shroud is produced by the reversal of
light and shade. (The bloodstains, on the other hand, appear as
bright marks on the negative.) This fact alone demonstrates that
the image cannot have been painted by an artist. To create such a
perfect inversion by hand would take mare than even the most
modern technique is capable of. The negative of the photograph
taken by Pia was the starting-point for the modern debate on the
authenticity of the linen.

More recent photographs taken by Giuseppe Enrie in 1931 con-
firm that there is nothing to suggest that the image was painted on
the shroud: no paint, no brush-strokes, no outlining. The body's
impression gradually merges into the cloth: there are no distinct
contours to be seen. These more precise photographs led to a
whole list of new discoveries:

Ii hi *Bath-Place of Moses" in Bijbilara (46 kilometres south of
Hoge), end stone on said fo be around S000 years old

1. The body shown in the illustration is unclothed, just as crimi-
nals were when punished and executed under Roman law. An
artistic representation of Jesus completely naked would have been
inconceivable, a blasphemy of irredeemable proportions,

I A stone bearing an Arsitase inscription, found at Sirkap near Taxila.

2. The image is very obviously of someone who was crucified by
being nailed to a cross, rather than by being attached to the cross.
with thongs (as was also standard practice). Because crucifixions
were frequent, this does not in itself serve to prove that the body is
that of Jesus. It was the first Christian Roman Emperor,
Constantine, who abolished this barbaric method of execution, so
the cloth must have originated prior to AD 330.

3. The beard and hairstyle of the person portrayed were not usual
in the Roman empire except in Palestine. The length of the hair
and the central parting suggest that the victim was a member of
the Nazarene community.

4, The Shroud bears clear evidence of six of the Stations of the
Cross described in the Gospels. Firstly, medical specialists confirm
the presence of a severe contusion under one eye and other super-
ficial wounds apparently caused by punches to the face adminis
tered by the soldiers.

WL "Stone of Moses" or Ka-Ka-Bal, with which Moses is said to
Simons trated his magical skills,

30° The face of the portrait andiefes medi

tant dignity

The Shroud  A Legacy of Jesus 153

5. Secondly, small dumbbell-shaped marks are clearly visible all
over the back of the body, and in some places on the front. There
are more than ninety such wounds in all, from which it is possible
to tell not only how many lashes were delivered during the
scourging, but also that the Roman flagrum was the implement
used. This special kind of whip had three leather straps fitted at
the ends with pairs of small balls made of lead or bone,

fi. The evidence for the third Station of the Cross is that the lash
wounds in the shoulder region were evidently aggravated by the
later application of a heavy weight  an indication that the victim
of the crucifixion did indeed have to carry {at least} the horizontal
beam of a cross.

7. The fourth Station of the Cross is visible in the irregular spots
and streaks of blood on the forehead and the back of the head: evi-
dence of a crown of thorns It was not, however, a plaited coranet
or tiara, as depicted in Christian iconography by almost all artists,
but must have been a 'cap' that covered the whole of the top of the
head, much like Oriental crowns. Any counterfeiter would simply
have produced a copy of the conventional circlet of thorns.

8. The fifth Station, the nailing to the cross, is visible in the streaks
of blood on the hands and feet. From the direction of the larger
trails of blood, it is not difficult to work out that the arms were
outstretched at an angle somewhere between 55 and 65 degrees,
Although artists and iconographers had always assumed that the
nails were hammered through the palms, the bloodstains on the
cloth show that the nails actually went through the wrists.
Experiments by the French pathologist Barbet proved that the
palms could not support a body weight of more than 40 kilograms
{88 pounds) without tearing. What forger would have known that?

9. The last of the six Stations of the Cross is represented by a
wound some 4.5 centimetres long on the right side of the body
between the fifth and sixth ribs. The wound seems to have pro-
duced a fair amount of blood, which fits in with the account in
John's Gospel of a spear injury from which 'blood and water'
immediately flowed out,

10. Neither thigh nor calf show any signs of a major injury, which
suggests that the legs were indeed not broken,

The points enumerated above, all of which coincide with the
Gospel narrative, indicate that this was not just any crucifixion vic-

154  

tim. The Jesuit and historian Herbert Thurston, who was con-
vinced that the Shroud was a forgery, wrote, * If this is not an
impression of Christ, it was painted to look like one. These fea-
tures, taken together, have never been exhibited by anyone else:
since the beginning of the world."

An even mare thorough examination, using the most up-to-date
scientific instruments, was possible only after a Commission had!
been set up for the scientific investigation of the Shroud. In 1969, (c)
Cardinal Pellegrino of Turin appointed a number of scientific spe-
cialists who, together with a panel of doctrinal experts, were to
carry out a systematic examination of the Shroud. The group ini-
tially comprised only eleven specialists, but in the course of the fol-
lowing years so remarkable were the finds that entire institutes
and universities, and even National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) in the United States, became involved in I
the analysis of the linen.

Until then, research had centred on the photographs of the
Shroud, but in 1969 the Shroud could at last be examined directly,
over a period of two days. It seems extraordinary, but the
Commission and its task were kept strictly secret; the names of the
members were not made public until 1976. The results of these first
experiments were very meagre. A number of colour photographs
were produced, and parts of the Shroud were examined under the
microscope, in normal, ultraviolet and infra-red light. A final
report recommended that future research should snip off a number.
of small samples on which a full range of scientific tests might then:
be performed. } :

The ex-king of Italy, Umberto II of Savoy, who at that time was:
still the legal owner of the Shroud, agreed to the requests of the
experts. In 1973, he permitted it to be systematically examined and
tested for three days, after which it was shown on television to an
audience of millions while Pope Paul VI talked about it.

Was Jesus Entombed Alive?

Since the 1950s, a German called Hans Naber (but also using the
names Kurt Berna and John Reban), specializing in writing about
the Shroud, had been gaining some celebrity by producing publi-
cations in a somewhat sensational style. He declared that the
Shroud proved beyond doubt that Jesus could not really have been

The Shroud = A Legacy of Jesus 155

dead when he was removed from the Cross, because a corpse
would not have continued to bleed in the manner that the body
under the linen of the Turin Shroud evidently had.* Maber said he
had had a vision in 1947 in which Jesus appeared and asked him to
testify to the world that the man who had undergone Crucifixion

had only appeared to be dead, but was in fact in a kind of trance
irom which he awoke after three days. Publication of the research
results and photographs of the Shroud finally gave Naber the
opportunity to try to prove his theories, and he managed to find a
number of accredited Shroud experts prepared to support his
attempt. Needless to say, the doctrinal authorities of the Church
had no sympathy at all with his argument  but there came a day
when, amid spectacular press coverage, Naber revealed that he
had received a letter from an anonymous member of the Roman
Catholic clergy. saying that it was not possible on the one hand to
teach that Jesus had died on the Cross for the salvation of
mankind, and on the other hand te revere a shroud which had
never held a corpse. The Vatican found itself obliged to make an
official statement on the affair. and determined at the same time
that a radical and final solution had to be found.

To Professor of Theology Werner Bulst, Maber's claims were
'pure fantasy': Naber was accused of not knowing what he was
talking about, and of having no "scientific background' to boot."
But Naber could not just be ignored, because he was able to arouse
worldwide interest. Nonetheless, the antagonism that Naber
aroused by being persistent finally led to his physical, mental and
financial ruin.

In 1973, when the latest results of the research came out, it
looked as if the widespread doubts brought to prominence by
Maber had been exploded. It is fairly simple, after all, to determine
the presence of even minute quantities of blood by means of chem-
ical analysis in a laboratory. The most common method by which
this is done is what is called the peroxide reaction: even the merest
trace of the red blood pigment haemoglobin releases oxygen from
hydrogen peroxide, which in turn causes the colourless basic
reagent benzidine to oxidize, so turning the solution blue.
Haemoglobin and the product of its decomposition, haem, are:
very stable molecules that may continue to react normally even
after many centuries.

Several threads from various bloodstained areas were carefully
plucked from the material and examined by two independent lab-
oratories in Italy. The result seemed to be a major setback  all the
156  

results of the tests proved negative. It seemed as though the spots
that looked like blood were not blood at all!

The bloodstains on the feet (had it actually been blood) were of
course enough to confirm Naber's theory that blood had flowed
after Jesus was removed from the Cross. But now it was much eas
ier for everyone involved to claim that the Shroud was the work of
an ingenious forger, and there was no need to have to admit that
Jesus was still alive when he was removed from the Cross.

Publication of the Commission's report in 1976 caused the news
of the 'forgery' to spread like wildfire. What was not published,
however. was the fact that there was no known substance that!
could have been used for any such forgery, and that haem,
although relatively stable, loses its stability, decomposes, and so
becomes untraceable if exposed to high temperatures  as the
Shroud had been in the fire of 1532.  I

Whether the blood was real or not was a question not satisfacto-
rily answered until several years after the investigations of 1973. In
1978, the Shroud had been in Turin for exactly four hund red years,
and to celebrate the occasion it was once again exhibited to the
public, From 28 August to 8 October, more than three million pil-
grims gazed at the most valuable relic in Christendom, probably.
the authentic image of Jesus. Then, before the evening of the last
day of exhibition was ended, the linen was removed from its bul-
letproof display frame and laid out on an adjustable bench. In o
room in the Palazzo Reale, which adjoins the cathedral, two teams:
of top scientists were waiting to begin a research programme that

was to last for two weeks, One group was predominantly.
European, and included Turin's microscopy specialist Giovanni
Riggi, the pathologist Baima Bollone of Milan, the physicist Luigi
Gonella of Turin, and the forensic scientist Max Frei of Zurich. The
other group consisted of twenty-five American specialists in us
fields of photography, spectroscopy, radiography, computer tech
nology, organic chemistry and physics, equipped with an extraors
dinary array of sophisticated instruments, some of which had been
specially constructed for the planned analysis of the Shroud.

In the days that followed, using a time-consuming but rigorous
working procedure, a great number of photographic negatives,
special types of photographs, graphs and tables of data were pre-
pared, which were then evaluated with the help of large compul-
ers in the United States. The Shroud was first divided into a grid of
sixty individual sections in order to carry out a precise photomets
ric survey. Each of these sections was then carefully photographed,

The Shroud = A Legacy of fesus- 157

using a whole range of different filters. The negatives then served
as the basis for a number of optical experiments. In NASA's photo-
graphic laboratory, the tonal (light-dark) values of the photographs.
were digitized (converted into computer data), which made it pos-
sible to enhance small areas of contrast in the picture, revealing
fine details otherwise invisible to the human eye. The method even
made it possible to reconstruct a life-size, three-dimensional relief
of the body in the picture. If it had been a forgery, the proportions
would have come out all wrong, On the basis of the relief it was
possible to determine the actual height and weight of the body:
about 1.50 metres tall and 79 kilograms in weight.

It was also possible to calculate the distance between the body
and the cloth at every point, using the tonal values. The impres-
sion was darker at the places of direct contact between body and
Shroud, and the greater the distance between the Shroud and the
body the lighter the tone on the Shroud. The researchers then

found that there was a direct relation between the image on the
Shroud and the distances between the Shroud and the body: this
confirmed the long-held assumption that the image must some-
whow have been formed by contact with the body. And investiga-
tions of the fibres under the electron microscope revealed that the
image was not produced by any detectable particles of substance,
but that the fibres of the Shroud where the image was visible are
themselves darkened on their surface, unlike those in non-image
areas,

One experiment that was performed directly on the cloth itself,
X-ray fluorescence spectroanalysis, finally provided proof that the
the bloodstains do actually derive from the presence of blood. In
this test a part of the linen was subject to a high dosage of radia-
tion for a short period, and thus induced to fluoresce. Because
every molecule fluoresces in its own unique way under the influ-
ence of high radiation levels, the atomic structure of a material can
be determined from its fluorescence spectrum, The marks showed
significantly large amounts of the element iron, which is a major
constituent in blood, and specifically in haemoglobin.

For the American chemist Dr Walter McCrone, the presence of
iron was proof in itself that the Turin Shroud could not be genuine,
as he declared very publicly at the annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science at the end of 1971, and
repeatedly thereafter. He regarded the iron in the marks as a sure
indication that paint containing iron oxide had been used  a type
of paint that had not been invented until the fourteenth century.

158  

Dr McCrone had never even seen the Shroud at first hand!

The paint hypothesis was refuted by a different experiment in
which particles of the Shroud were treated with hydrazine and
vaporized formic acid, and then subjected to ultraviolet light.
Under such conditions, porphyrin molecules turn a bright red, and
the technique showed they were present on the Shroud. Porphyrin
is a precursor in the metabolism of haem, and is an established
indicator of the presence of blood in cases where the haem itself
has been destroyed by high temperature.

This method of ultraviolet fluorescence photography also.
proved that there were two different types of burned areas. In
1532, the Shroud smouldered in its casket in the palace chapel of
Chambéry, confined in an atmosphere containing little oxygen. I
The reddish fluorescence of the singe-marks confirmed the smoul-
dering fire in the silver casket, as known in its history. Other burn.
marks show a fluorescence of a different colour, suggesting an
unknown second episade of burning, in an 'open' fire. (This evi-
dence also refutes the hypothesis that the body in the Shroud
somehow left its image on the cloth by some process of irradia-
tion.)

The experiments of the US researchers show that the differing.
degrees of sepia coloration in the image is due to a change in the.
chemical structure of the cellulose of the linen. In laboratory exper-
iments it was possible to simulate the same differences in colour-
ing by using various oxidizing agents to decompose the cellulose.
of the linen. Oxidation images grow more distinct as they age.

As early as in 1924, the French biologist Professor Paul Vignon
had achieved great success with his experiments in what was then
termed 'vaporographic theory'. Vignon proved that a sweating
body placed on a linen that has been soaked in a mixture of light
oil and tincture of aloes (Aloe medicinalis) produces the same col-
oration as that on the Shroud, because the sweat decomposes to
form ammonia vapours, which then cause an oxidation process in
the cellulose to take place. This coloration is strongest at the point
of contact between the linen and the body, and becomes weaker as
the distance between the body and the linen increases. (This also
explains why the impression resembles a photographic negative.)
Vignon explained that the impression on the linen is principally
caused by the ammonia vapours released during the evaporation
of uric acid from a feverish body. The solution of aloes and myrrh
adsorbed in the linen reacts with this, and ammonium carbonate is
formed, the vapours of which colour the linen fibres. And in the

The Shroud  A Legacy of Jesus 159

damp atmosphere between the skin and the linen, the degree of
coloration is in direct proportion to the proximity of body and
linen.

The rather more prominent coloration of the bloodstains is the
result of a stronger chemical reaction. John's Gospel describes how
large quantities of aloes were used in the burial of Jesus "He came
therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also
Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought
a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes
with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury' (John
19:38-40).

Vignon's experiments, though convincing, became the target of
severe criticism in 1933, for the simple reason that the body salts
and body heat necessary for the chemical reactions and evapora-
tion could not have been present in sufficient amounts in a corpse.
Nonetheless, it had been established that mixtures of aloes and
myrrh in humid conditions could indeed create permanent impres-
sions of a body on a fabric. Vignon showed that even the very brief
exposure time of forty-five seconds could leave a faint impression,
forming a clearly recognizable positive image when seen on a pho-
tographic negative.

Proof that the impression on the Shroud was of vaporographic
origin could have put an end to virtually every other speculation 
but the Christian Church objected to this neat solution on three
counts:

a) According to the strict regulations involved in an orthodox
Jewish burial, the corpse would have had to be physically and ritu-
ally cleansed before being embalmed. Marks such as bloodstains
would have been impossible.

b) If the body had been properly wrapped up in the Shroud as pre-
scribed, an overall impression that was somewhat misshapen and
distorted across its width would have been produced, quite unlike
the impression on the fatter lower surface, completely altering the
image. This argument can be safely dismissed, because the soaked
linen becomes rather stiff, so the material would not fold around
every contour of the body, but only touch it on the more promi-
nent parts.

c) Corpses do not sweat and do not emit body heat.
Professor Vignon's theory, the result of forty-six.years of research,
1640  

was discarded on the strength of this last objection  because
corpses do not sweat. But had Jesus still been alive, the high body
temperature caused by his wounds would have made him sweat
more profusely than ever!

The Radiocarbon Dating of 1988

Today there is a simple test to determine the age of all organic
material, by measuring the levels of the radisisotope carbon-14
{chemically the same element as common carbon, CY, but with two
extra neutrons in the nucleus, which makes the atom so unstable
that after a while it decays radioactively). Living organisms absorb
carbon dioxide from the air. incorporating the carbon in their
structure. When the life of the organism comes to an end, the
radioactive carbon continues to decay at a very slow and constant
rate (at the rate of about half of all the material every 60K) years,
its "half-life'). Because the proportion of C* in the atmosphere is
constant (replenished by radiation from space), all that has to be
done is to measure the ratio of C* to CY in what is left of the old
organic material, do a simple calculation in relation to the half-life,
and the age of the archaeological find can be determined with a
precision of close on 10 per cent.

Before the 1980s, however, a large sample of the material under
examination was required  and in the process completely
destroyed by fire = and no Church authority was going to allow
Christianity's most important holy relic to be mutilated or even
visibly damaged in such a way. But for some years now it has been
possible to date even the tiniest quantities of a material, and in
April 1988, once Umberto II of Savoy had been persuaded by the
Pope to bequeath the cloth to the Holy See, the Vatican (forced into
action by Naber's spectacular publications) ordered a radiocarbon

examination of the Turin Shroud in the hope that it would show
once and for all whether the relic was genuine or not.

Three laboratories specializing in the dating of archaeological
material  in Zurich, Oxford and Tucson (Arizona)  were given
postage-stamp-sized samples of the Turin cloth. Six months later,
in October 1988, the sensational result was announced to the pub-
lic: the examination had shown beyond doubt that the doth origi-
nated in the Middle Ages (somewhere around 1260 to 1390).

This finding, which contradicted all previous research results, at

The Shroud = A Legacy of Jesus 161

once aroused my suspicions about how carefully the radiocarbon
dating had been carried out. I had studied the history of the
Shroud for many years: I knew for certain of many things that
actively proved that the cloth had existed before the Middle Ages.
I had to look into the testing procedure, It was the start of three
years of detective work which took me to all the places that fig-
ured in the radiocarbon testing.

As I tried to track down clues and find out more about the cir-
cumstances, 1 discovered that a multitude of contradictions and
inconsistencies lay like a cloak over the course of the testing proce-
dure. Soon it became apparent that the scientists who took part in
the testing had something to hide. Questioned about details, they
became entangled in contradictions and even resorted to falsifica-
tion when they realized the official version of the events of the pro-
cedure was in jeopardy. The director of the investigation, Dr
Michael Tite, was donated a million pounds for a new institute by
unnamed 'friends and sponsors' (ironically, Dr Tite received the
money on a Good Friday!) and Cardinal Ballestrero of Turin sud-
denly and unexpectedly went into retirement shortly after the pub-
lication of the test results, and was no longer available to answer
questions on the subject.

By devious means and with great difficulty, I was finally able to
obtain greatly magnified photographs of the pieces of cloth that
the laboratories had been sent to put a date to. I had these photos
examined by several institutes specializing in such work, and com-
pared the digitized images on a computer with a photograph of
cach original fragment directly before it was cut off. The results
were conclusive: the cloth pieces dated in the laboratories could
not have come from the original cloth!

Pursuing my investigations 1 found out that the samples exam-
ined by the radiocarbon technique had been taken from a vestment
that had been kept since 1296 in the basilica of Saint-Maximin in
southern France, the cope of Saint Louis d'Anjou. This proved
once and for all that the dating of the Turin Shroud had been
manipulated: the idea was to present the cloth as a medieval
forgery, and so put an end to all the discussions about whether
Jesus had survived the crucifixion  discussions that were rocking
the Christian Church to its foundations.

The full story of my astounding exposure of this massive fraud
perpetrated on the public is to be found in The Jesus Conspiracy: The
Truth abort the Resurrection,(tm) a book I wrote in conjunction with Dr
Elmar R. Gruber.

162  

The radiocarbon dating of 1988 has turned out to be no m

than a cynical attempt at criminal deception. It certainly does ol

prove the Shroud to be a mere 700 years old  in fact, the inten
al and fraudulent falsification of the test results is yet one m

proof that the Turin Shroud really is the shroud in which Jesus w :
once wrapped, and that Jesus was still alive when he was 'laid

rest" in it.

Chapter Eight

'DEATH' AND
'RESURRECTION'

Two Burials in John's Gospel

Many of the ideas put forward in this chapter are based on the
work of Elmar R. Gruber, as published in the sections he con-
iributed to The Jesus Conspiracy, which we wrote in conjunction
with each other.)

I us go back once more to that dramatic hour on Good Friday,
when Jesus was nailed to the Cross and on the same day hasti-
ly put in the tomb.

The story of the Crucifixion comes down to us via the three
Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John, and several apocryphal
texts. Reading all four Gospel texts in parallel, which is quite an
effort in itself, it is possible to discern a whole collection of points
of variance in addition to all the points of agreement ~ a situation
that makes it difficult to form a clear and consistent overall picture
of events.

It is John's Gospel that generally exhibits the greatest diver-
gence from the three other Gospels. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark
and Luke are for this very reason described as 'synoptic', meaning
'from the same viewpoint'; the many points of agreement in the
texts can be listed in order and compared side by side  a correla-
tion that suggests they derive mainly from one identical source.
john does not fit into this pattern. Although the text of John was
completed in Ephesus towards the end of the first century, and
was the last of the four Gospels to be written, it is considered to be
the most authentic of all four narratives. In particular it includes
such episodes that do not occur in the other Gospels as the wed-
ding at Cana, the conversation with Nicodemus, and the raising to
life of Lazarus. [ts detailed and historically accurate descriptions

164  

of topographical features (notably the layout and landmarks of
Jerusalem before the Revolt of AD 66) lead to the conclusion that
John himself, or the informant using his name, was personally pre-
sent in these places at the time of Jesus. The strikingly mystical and
Gnostic tone of his account, and the immediacy of his personal
relationship with Jesus, suggest that John ought to be the most reli-
able witness not only to the events but also to the teachings of his
master.'

Reading the text, we are at once given the impression that it is
an eyewitness account we are hearing. Whereas the Synoptics
merely state that Jesus received a burial according to Jewish cus-
tom, John tries to present the burial in the context of the discovery
of the graveclothes on Easter morning, as actually seen by him or
told to him at first hand. The ltalian professor of literature Gino
Zaninotto highlights this in an excellent piece of linguistic analysis
= although he then comes to the somewhat audacious conclusion
that John was an eyewitness also of the "Ascension,

In the middle of John's Gospel is one story that can perhaps be
said to represent the crux of the entire Book: the account of the
raising to life of Lazarus (John 11:1-45)  an episode that does not
appear in any other biblical Gospel. A version of it was apparently
once included in an early form of Mark's Gospel, but was later

removed, evidently at the behest of Bishop Clement of

Alexandria'

The Lazarus story is of great significance to us here because, in
telling it, John provides a detailed description of the burial cus-
toms of his time. Although the narrative is ambiguous on many
points, with the result that there have been many different inter.
pretations, one thing it states positively is that Lazarus was well
and truly dead. He is described as being bound hand and foot in
graveclothes, and the description in the original Greek includes the
word keirfai (elsewhere in English translated as 'swathing bands").
This is where we encounter the first problem in translation: how
are we to understand 'bound hand and foot'? The Jews are not
known to have bound the limbs of the dead, except perhaps in
order to transport the corpse to the grave.' The word keiriai refers
to bands of linen long enough to wrap around the whole body. So
we should not take this passage to mean that Lazarus was tied
only at the wrists and ankles, but rather that his whole body was

wrapped in linen bands up to the wrists and ankles, and excluding
the hands and feet. Indeed, had Lazarus' feet been tightly tied, it is

hard to see how he could have come out from the grave by himself

Death" and 'Resurrection' 165

when Jesus commanded him to (John 11:44). In addition, Nonnos,
the celebrated Greek epic poet of the late classical period, used the
same word in his paraphrase of the Gospel of John, describing
Lazarus as having been 'wrapped in linen bands from head to
foot',

Interestingly, John uses a quite different word for the cloths in
which Jesus was wrapped in the tomb: othonia. The plural of otho-
nip, it has no connotations of any specific part of the body, and is
much more an equivalent of the generic term 'cloths' than of the
more descriptive "swathing bands'.

Lazarus' face was 'bound about' (peridedemenos) with something
called a soudarion (literally 'a cloth with which to wipe away
sweat', Latin sudarizm). In this case it was probably being used as a
chinstrap, bound around the head of the corpse to hold the lower
jaw tight to the upper.

John again finds different words to describe the burial of Jesus.
The face of Jesus was not bound about with a soudarion, but was
instead 'wrapped' (entetyligmenon) in one. Indeed, he says quite
clearly that the cloth was placed 'upon the head" (epi tes kephales),
presumably to exclude other alternatives, particularly that the
cloth was used to hold the mouth shut. In all the literature on the
Turin Shroud = the works of Barbet, Bulst and Currer-Briggs, for
example  there are constant references to the idea that a chinstrap
can be seen in the image on the Shroud. But there is actually no
visible trace of any such band. It would at the very least have
made some lasting impression on the hair of the beard and on the
sides of the face. The 'chinstrap' is one of those odd vagaries
superimposed on the folklore of the image by being somebody's
pet hypothesis,

In using different vocabulary for different events, it would seem
that the author of John's Gospel fully intended to draw a marked
distinction between the burial of Lazarus and the burial of Jesus,
and so point up the differences between two incidents that were
superficially similar. He was in this way making it quite clear to
any reader attentive enough that the two events were utterly and
fundamentally incomparable. The raising of Lazarus from the
dead is described in words and images all to do with the normal
burial of a dead body. In Jesus' case, however, everything suggests
that it was not an ordinary burial at all.

166  
In the Lord's Tomb

Let us continue our examination of these differences. Lazarus came
forth (ex-elthen), and the word that is used implies that he came
forth without any help. He made his way out of the cave that was
being used as a grave, and was thereupon released from his linen
wrappings so that he could move freely. Typically, a Jewish tomb
consisted of a cavern excavated in a rocky hillside, in which shelf-
like chambers about 50 centimetres wide, 80 centimetres high and
2 metres deep (kikim, the plural of kik) were cut. Corpses in their
wrappings were deposited lengthways, head first, in these cham-
bers." Every indication, explicit and implicit, in the narrative sup-
ports the understanding that Lazarus' burial was in truth a final
interment.

The burial of Jesus, however, is described in quite a different
way. Jesus was not deposited in a chamber cut perpendicularly
into the rock wall of a tomb, but set down on a stone surface or
open ledge, On the morning of the 'resurrection', Mary Magdalene
sees the 'angels in white', as they are called, 'the one at the head,
and the other at the fect, where the body of Jesus had lain' (John
20:12). Jesus was not deposited lengthways into a kik, for if he had
been, no one could have sat at the head end,

At this point one possible objection is that Jesus could have been

buried in what is called an Arcosol tomb. This form of tomb archi-
tecture is characterized by a large recess or vault carved at a height
above the floor into the side wall of the burial chamber, above a
stone platform or sarcophageidal trough. In this case it would be
quite possible for the "angels' to sit at both ends of the corpse. But
archaeological evidence is against this, Arcosol tombs were devel-
oped anly during the early Byzantine period, some 200 years after
Jesus' burial. Prior to this there was a short period when late
Roman shaft tombs were in use. But the most widespread and typ-
ical tomb structure of Jesus' time was the chambered kdkim tomb,
and quite evidently the tomb in which Jesus was placed was also
of such construction.

The interior of a kdkim tomb was reached via an entrance below
ground level, which was often closed with a movable stone. The
tomb consisted of a large main cavern, in the sides of which a
number of kikim had usually been carved, each to take one body,

At the centre of the cavern there was a square depression in the
floor, which served as a drainage area. Each side of the depression,
and at the same level as the entrance from outside, there was a sur-

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 167

; : areal
face on which a corpse could be laid out for washing and oiling
Even in the daytime it was dark enough in the tomb to require the
use of lanterns set in niches: Jewish law did not permit burial after

sunset or before dawn.

Reconstruction of a Kikim Tomb Structure

168  

John tells us that Jesus' favourite disciple ran to the grave (20:5).

and 'stooping down, and looking in' saw the linen clothes. Mary

Magdalene 'stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre' (20: 1,

and saw the two "angels" at the place where Jesus had lain. Two
conclusions may be derived from these statements. One is that the
plan of Christ's tomb as reconstructed by Brother Hughes Vincent,
and often reproduced, is altogether wrong. It suggests that Jesus
lies in an Arcosol tomb, and in a chamber that is reached by pass-
ing right through another one first. It would be impossible to see
the place where Jesus lay by stooping in front of the entrance.

The second conclusion is that these statements support our
assumption that the burial of Jesus was not completed. If he had
already been lying in a kék, the place would again not be visible
from the tomb entrance. The light passing through the very low
doorway only reaches to the middle of the main cavern. The body
of Jesus could therefore only have lain somewhere around the
middle of the cavern, on the ledge around the central depression in
the floor, and certainly not inside one of the tomb kdkir.

Mow let us look more closely at the Greek text of John: "Then
took they the body of Jesus, and wound (edesar) it in linen clothes
(othowiois) with the spices (meta fon aromaton), as the manner of the
Jews is to bury (entaphiazein) (John 19:40).

For various reasons the interpretation of this sentence has
caused many commentators considerable difficulty. The verb deo,
of which edesan is a derivative, ordinarily means 'to tie up', 'ta
bind fast". But things are generally tied up with strips of fabric
(spargana, keiriai), with ropes (desmoi) or with thongs, not with
cloths. Savio avoids the problem by translating deo as *to wrap up',
on analogy with certain Greek texts in which it is used with the
preposition en."

In Mark (15:46) the verb used instead is eneileo a word that while
it describes Jesus as covered with a cloth also emphasizes that the
body was wrapped up quite tightly, almost done up like a parcel.
But it still does not suggest a complete bandaging process as used
to enwrap a mummy. The verb kateilisso would be more apt in
expressing that, as used, for example, by Herodotus to describe the
wrapping of an Egyptian mummy and on another occasion the
bandaging of a Greek soldier's injury. But one specific usage of the
verb enecileo in ancient Greek texts has to do with a certain way of
preparing food: first 'wrapping' it in fig leaves." The word was evi-
dently used as the preferred term by which to describe how Jesus'
body had been covered, in particular to make some reference to

'Death' and 'Resurrechion' 169

the tight (perhaps because damp) binding caused by the aromatic
substances absorbed in the cloth.

In order to justify the unusual terminology in this description,
several linguistic commentators have suggested that same kind of
embalming process was intended. They refer to the hundred
pounds of aromatic substances procured by Nicodemus: 'And
there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by
night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hun-
dred pound weight' (John 19:39). One hundred pounds = forty-five
kilograms  is an enormous weight of relatively light materials! If
the aloes and myrrh were in dried or powdered form, the quantity
making up that weight would have occupied a whole palette of
sacks, and Nicodemus would have needed a number of assistants
to help in transporting the load. Transport would have been even
more difficult if the substances were in suspension in wing, vine-
war or oil.

The theologian Paul Billerbeck describes the event as if an
embalming was to take place, using the aromatic substances sus-
pended in oil. But Rabbinic texts refer only to the external oiling of
the bodies of the departed. The addition of spices is nowhere men-
tioned, let alone in these quantities: it was never part of Jewish
customs, and nor was embalming." It would be pointless, in any
case, to perform an embalmment in the way described. To prevent
the gases of decomposition from distending and then rupturing
the body, the entrails would have had to be removed via an inci-
sion that was repulsive to the Jews on both aesthetic and religious
grounds, and these substances if applied would not by themselves

have been effective in halting further decomposition. Many biblical
authorities in consequence find this passage in John's Gospel both
incomprehensible and perplexing. One commentator, Haenchen,
can only conclude, "The writer of this verse had no idea of Jewish
burial rites, and knew nothing about embalming either."

But let us pause a moment to consider the matter. We have
already seen that John makes a clear and deliberate distinction
between the burials of Lazarus and of Jesus, and it is most likely
that he chose his words with equally careful deliberation to dis-
close to those who could read between the lines a situation that is
not readilv apparent in a superficial understanding of the text. The
attentive reader would already have been alerted to the greatest
difference between the burial of Lazarus and the burial of Jesus 
that the first burial had been completed and the second remained
unfinished. But why would Jesus' believers and followers have

170  

given their beloved master a half-finished burial after being in such
a hurry to get him into the nearby tomb? It makes no sense at all. (c)
Scriptural commentators have a lot of difficulty with this
strange 'burial' of Jesus. They often try to sidestep it by saying that
Jesus burial took place in untoward circumstances: at twilight on
Good Friday just as the Sabbath was about to begin, a day on:
which interment was not permitted, causing everything to have to
be done with undue haste. The burial of Jesus was thus unde
en at such speed as only to fulfil the minimum of the custom
burial rites, and to leave the actual interment incomplete. But this
idea makes little sense, and for a number of reasons.
For one thing, it is just not accurate to claim that complete bu
was riot permitted on the Sabbath, The Rabbinic texts state no su
thing in specific terms. One text says that complete burial
allowed on the Sabbath as on any other day; another says tha
such cases the corpse should first be covered with sand to preserve
it until the Sabbath is over, when the burial can be completed."
the same time, by following Jesus Joseph of Arimathea
Nicodemus had already taken up a stance that represented the
abrogation of their formef adherence to Jewish customs and tradiss
tion, so it seems unlikely that they would be particularly con
cerned to observe such customs when it came to events and
actions of such mamentous importance. i
There was no need, then, for a curtailed, hasty burial rite pers
formed simply to comply with the customs. Nonetheless, there
every indication that Jesus' followers acted with maximum sp
and maximum efficiency following a well thought-out plan. So
what really happened in the tomb cavern? I
Let us read the crucial sentence again in the light of the conclu=
sions we have already come to: "Then took they the body of Jesus,
and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of
Jews is to bury. The spices were aloes and myrrh, this much
know. Myrrh was used as an ingredient for embalming by the
Egyptians, but did not feature in the burial rites of the Jews:
Instead, Jewish custom prescribes that the body of the deceased)
should be washed and oiled, the hair cut and tidied, and that #
body should then be dressed again and the face covered wi

cloth. Washing the body was of such critical importance that it ha
to be done even on the Sabbath day." Yet there is no mention of
any of this in John's Gospel. Nor was there any oiling of the ba dy.
Instead, as we are told, the women came to the tomb on Sunday to
oil Jesus' body. Whatever Joseph and Nicodemus were doing, it

'Death' and "Resurrection 171

had absolutely nothing to do with Jewi ial ri

that they buried pol a way Sil bein i
and then goes on to describe a burial which directly contravenes
the custom!

Now why should he do this? Did he really not know the burial
rites? Of course he knew them, because he described a standard
burial in the story of Lazarus. Here too, then, just as we had to dis-
cern a deeper truth in the comparison of differences in the descrip-
tions of Lazarus' and Jesus' burials, we have to discern what John
was really trying to get across by obviously contradicting himself.
So what happened in that rock-heswn tomb if it was not a burial?

The Mysterious 'Aromatic Substances'

The most unexpected feature of all that i ; 2 3
wid the buria I os fhe io is the 'Srl hn
arge quantity . What was the poj i
nothi ng to do with a burial? a gsi
Contrary to the view of some auth i
mentioned by John is Aloe perryi, 1 jt is ahisa drsde
that the species used was instead Aloe vera Aloe pera isa plant
native to the south-western portion of the Arabian Peninsula and
to the offshore island of Socotra (which is why it is occasionally
called Aloe soccotring), where it grows together with over a dozen
other types of alee. Its south-west Arabian habitat was not far from
the trade route that led from southern Arabia to the Mediterranean
in classical times. A fleshy. juicy plant, it could quite easily survive
the long caravan and sea trade routes without drying out, and it is
well known that a brisk trade in plants from oh et Arabia
with dealers in Palestine and the adjoining areas took place. Aloes
were used in medicine ard to Make incense as far back as in the
second and third millennia BC. A sticky gel taken from the plants
was used for various purposes in antiquity, notably for healing
wounds, topical infI am mations and burns, The gel can be obtained
by seraping off thin cells of leaf pulp (parenchyma) from the hard-
vr outer Jayers. The yellow resinous exudate that oozes from cut
sti an to i i rn In the ancient medicinal herb
markets this was sold under the pa :
rich in phenols, especially loin." me bitter aloes, a compound
The second type of spice applied by Nicodemus was myrrh, a
172  

gum-resin derived from shrubs of the genus Commiphora, which
belongs to the family Burseraceae. The aromatic fragrance of
myrrh played an important part in ancient rituals in India and the
Orient. The holy oil with which the tabernacle and the ark of the
ancient Israelites were anointed also contained myrrh, as one of
the 'principal spices' (Exodus 30:23). Records in ancient Egypt
describe how myrrh came from the legendary land of Punt (which
was probably located on the coast of what is now Somalia).
Hippocrates praised the disinfectant power of myrrh. It was used
from very early times for the medication of wounds. In the Middle
Ages myrrh was considered to be extremely important in the treat-
ment of plague and other forms of infectious disease.

Both substances, aloes and myrrh, were commonly used in the
treatment of large areas of injured tissue because they could easily
be compounded as pintments and tinctures. Some specialists claim
that the Jews often mixed myrrh with ladanum, the resin of the
rock rose (Cistus species, not to be confused with the opiate lau-
danum).* This was used especially for plasters and bandages." It is
evident that such mixtures represented the universally trusted
means of achieving the most rapid and effective healing of
wounds, combined with the greatest possible protection against
infection, at the time of Jesus.

There can be no doubt that Nicodemus procured a truly amaz-
ing quantity of highly specific medicinal herbs for the sole purpose
of treating the wounds on Jesus' body. Such spices could have had
no other function.

The realization gradually dawns that John's style of writing was
very carefully cryptic enough both to reveal a great deal about a
singularly important event to readers who have their wits about
them, and to conceal that same information from the eyes of peo-
ple who do not know enough to look for it. Jesus was not
described as being buried ~ could not be buried ~ because he had
not died on the Cross!

The author of John's Gospel, who was an eyewitness of the

events at Jesus' tomb (or got the details from someone who was)
and was also fully briefed by Joseph of Arimathea and
Micodemus, wrote in a way that would tell anyone who knows
how to read between the lines what really happened during and
immediately after the Crucifixion. He makes it quite clear, there-

fore, that while the outward trappings of an ordinary Jewish burial
were maintained and kept visible, in reality there were efforts
behind the scenes to "bring Jesus back to life' in the privacy of the

'Death' and "Resurrection" 173

tomb cavern, under the direction of Joseph and Nicodemus. And
the loyal friends of Jesus did not attempt this by endeavouring to
perform a miracle like those he had performed himself, but by
applying the art of medical healing.

Crucifixion: The Medical Facts

The events that took place in the rock tomb, not far from the site of
execution, must be interpreted as an attempt by members of an
Essene community to treat the seriously wounded Jesus with med-
icinal herbs. Why Mark should employ the verb eneileo now
becomes clear: the word was generally used in connection with the
cooking of food wrapped in leaves, as we have seen. To treat Jesus,
the Therapeuts evidently packed him round with a fairly tight,
sweat-promoting poultice that incorporated a large quantity of
herbs, in overall effect not too unlike the culinary method, John's
edesar othoniois ("and wound it in linen clothes') has to be seen in
this context for its true meaning to be recognizable. What was
meant was riot a mere covering or wrapping, but an actual ban-
daging in strips that went around the whole body, tightly encasing
it. Dioscorides, the Cilician physician of the first century AD, also
used both the verbs deo and eneileo to denote wrapping in linen
cloths."

There was obviously no intention of burying Jesus. Instead, he
was to be brought to a safe place where he could rest in peace
while he healed. What better place for someone to 'rest in peace'
than the tomb of a person believed dead! Of course we are not told
anything about washing the corpse, a procedure so important in
Jewish burials. Joseph did not wash Jesus, because he was not
dead. In medical terms, washing was certainly not a good idea
anyway. The act of washing would only have caused the numer-
ous wounds caked with dried blood to start bleeding all over
again. Joseph and Nicodemus must have applied the curative
herbal solution to the body with the utmost care, to make sure that
this did not happen.

In the face of such radical conclusions, it is right to wonder how
possible it is for a person to survive crucifixion at all,

Death on a cross was considered by the Romans to be the most
demeaning and frightening method of execution, Cicero called it
the 'most horrible and repulsive form of capital punishment'. Only
174  

in exceptional cases were Roman citizens ever sentenced to this

punishment, and they were always citizens of the lowest social
class. But in territories occupied by the Romans, crucifixion was as
much a medium of execution as a deterrent, keeping the potential-
ly rebellious peoples docile and subservient. Palestine had long
been notorious as a hotbed of nationalist fervour. Between the time

of the Maccabees in 167 BC and Bar Kochba in AD 134, there were

altogether some sixty-two episodes of revolt, war and rioting
against domination by faithless outsiders, first by the Greeks, and
then by the Romans. All but one of these disturbances started in
Galilee  Jesus" home area. It is therefore hardly surprising that
crucifixions were an almost routine affair there,

Crucifixion was alien to the Jews. For them the lawful means ol
capital punishment were stoning, burning, beheading and stran-

gling. But according to Mosaic Law it was permissible to hang up

a criminal who had already been executed 'on wood', as an addi-
tional punishment and humiliation: "For he that is hanged is
accursed of God' (Deuteronomy 21:23), The crucifixion of a crimi-

nal was therefore under no circumstances to be allowed to defile'
the Sabbath, the beginning of which is represented by twilight on.

the preceding day, the Day of Preparation.

In order to avoid provoking even worse civil unrest, the
Romans made sure they did not wilfully offend the religious senti-
ments of the Jews. Onee the official Roman death sentence ibis in

erucem ('you shall go to the cross') was passed, care was taken to'
see that the execution was completed before the Sabbath. In the:

case of Jesus' crucifixion, therefore, the greatest haste was called

for because it took place on the Day of Preparation. [t had to be
over before sunset, But that was not easy to arrange, because the:

special feature of crucifixion was that its agonizing torture was

protracted over time. It was carried out in such a way as to extend
the pain and misery of the guilty usually over a period of some

days until they eventually expired.

There was considerable variety in the actual structure of the

cross and the way the the victim was attached to it. If the full body
weight of the crucified person was suspended solely at the wrists,
death would accur within five to six hours through gradual suffo-

cation, and not through blood loss or other any cause. In this
extreme posture, breathing is so severely curtailed that the body is

no longer properly supplied with oxygen. After a relatively short
time, unconsciousness results, and the consequent hanging for-

ward of the head then further reduces air intake." To prevent such

'Death' and *Resurrection' 175


Mls through the hands and feet do not wecessarily damage any hanes or imjor
Mood vessels, Without some form of tnalgesic these injuries wold certainly
hive beens very painful, but in no way fatal,

an "easy" death, a small wooden cross-piece called the suppedaneum
was often fixed to the vertical post of the cross, on which the vic-
tim might prop himself up for as long as his strength allowed. This
cross-piece should not be imagined as a short plank nailed on at an
angle, as is depicted in Byzantine crucifixion scenes, The suppeda-
neum was a small, horizontal crossbeam, which the crucified per-
son was able actually to stand on.

Mot for nothing de the oldest pictures show the crucified person
standing, as for example in the 'mock' crucifixion of the Cappella
I"alatina.

Attachment to the cross was by binding with thongs or by trans-
fixing with nails at the hands and feet, The crucified person could
then delay his death by his own effort, by supporting his weight
with his arms at the point of attachment or with his legs on the
crossbeam at the feet. Occasionally a piece of wood to sit on (sedile)
was also fixed at the appropriate height, which presumably also
alleviated the pain somewhat while yet prolonging the agony even
further. As Mero's personal philosopher Seneca wrote in a letter,
"The life of the person sentenced to this punishment trickled away
drop by drop."

The Gospels report that Jesus was nailed on the cross al the
sixth hour (12 noon) and gave up his spirit at the ninth hour (about
three in the afternoon). Towards evening, the man taken for dead

176  

was removed from the cross. This unexpectedly rapid death on the
cross was of concern to Pilate himself: obviously extremely surs
prised, he asked the leading centurion if everything was in 0
(Mark 15:44). That same concern and surprise is still in evidence
today. Many authorities, especially expert medical ones, have
undertaken considerable experimentation and research to try to.
come up with an explanation for the rather suspiciously rapid
'death' of Jesus. No author has found the problem easy to solve.
The most common idea is that the harsh treatment of Jesus before
his crucifixion must have been responsible: it had so severely!
undermined his physical condition that he succumbed to the tors
ture of crucifixion after only a short time. Such explanations are
prety flimsy. =

For one thing, unlike the strictly ascetic monastic community of
the Essenes, Jesus was no frail ascetic," but relatively tall, strong:
and robust (according to the Shroud, about 1.82 metres tall and 79
kilograms in weight), a man 'in his prime'. After a night of ill-treat=
ment he nonetheless talked to the court the next day in a very
clever way, obviously in full possession of his mental faculties, ass
would not be possible in a state of exhaustion. Moreover, Jesus
was relieved by Simon of Cyrene of the burden of having to carry
the crossbeam (patibrlum) of his cross for much of the distance of
about 550 to 650 metres from Pilates Praetorium to the site of exes
cution.

'That Simon of Cyrene was co-opted at all has been taken by
many commentators as proof that Jesus was in a very weakened
state, no longer able to bear the weight of the beam. This too has to:
be queried. As for the scourging, Jesus was treated no differently'
from any other sentenced person. Everyone sentenced to death by:
crucifixion first endured such torture. Under Jewish law, thirty=
nine lashes were the maximum that could be administered; a third
of these on the chest or front side, the remainder on the back.
priest carried out this punishment in the synagogue with a three
thonged whip of calfskin. Of course we are not told whether they
kept to the correct number of lashes in the case of Jesus. In the
Gospel of Peter's description of Jesus' being nailed to the cross it
says, 'But he kept silent, as if he felt no pain.' It is probable that
during his training Jesus became adept in the art of mastering pain
through meditation, just like Indian yogis. Exercises that lead to
this ability are practised by a great number of religious sects
throughout the East: they have been scientifically investigated and
are well documented.

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 177

In most cases, the arms of the sentenced person were first fixed
to the patibulum, which he then had to carry on his shoulders to
the place of execution. The weight of this crossbeam varied
between about 18 and 30 kilograms. So considerable strength was
needed to be able ta carry the heavy load, The Gospel accounts tell
us that Jesus was only nailed to the cross at the site of execution.
He was laid naked on the ground, where his wrists were nailed to
the patibulum, and the pafibulum was nailed to the upright post
(stipes). Then the whole construction, with him on it, was raised to
the vertical,

Strange, is it not, that the death throes of other victims of cruci-
fixion lasted so much longer than in Jesus' case, considering his
well-trained and strong constitution. In the autobiography of
Flavius Josephus, whose writings tell us so much about the cus-
toms and events in Palestine at the time of Jesus, there is an infor-
mative passage concerning a crucified man who recovered after
being taken down from the cross:

I was sent by Titus Caesar with Ceralius and a thousand riders to a
certain town by the name of Thecoa, to find out whether a military
camp could be established there. On my return I saw many prisoners
who had been crucified, and recognized three of them as former com-
panions of mine. Much affected, it was with tears in my eyes that T
went to Titus and told him about them. He at once gave the order that
they should be taken down and given the best treaiment so they might
recover, But two of them died while being treated by the doctor; the
third did get better.

it is difficult to see how Jesus could have given up the ghost so
early, and that "with a loud cry', a departing gesture which to the
medical experts is both incomprehensible and perplexing. A closer
study, however, shows that this too is a significant indication that
Jesus was taken unconscious from the Cross.

The way the two men crucified next to him died is described in
graphic detail in John's Gospel:

The Jews therefore, because it was the [Day of] Preparation, that the
bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that
sabbath day was an high day.) besought Pilate that their legs might be
broken, and that they might be taken away.

Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the
other which was crucified with him.

{John 19:31-32)

So the two criminals crucified with Jesus, who had certainly

178  
undergone the same sort of ill-treatment he had beforehand, were.
still alive. Their legs were broken so they could no longer take
their weight on their legs and straighten up, and so they painfully
suffocated to death within a few hours. \
'But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead
already, they brake not his legs' (John 19:33). This is very strange, i
not inexplicable, behaviour by the Roman soldiers. Why did su
hardened soldiers not break Jesus' legs too, to make sure of hi
death? The scriptural interpretation provided  that the word o
the prophet in Exodus 12:46 had to be fulfilled (" neither shall ye:
break a bone thereof')  is no help at all. The question has to
asked instead what the roughnecks could have been thinking of to.
exempt Jesus from the usual cruelty. They must  and rightly
have had their doubts about whether Jesus was really dead; they
must at the very least have viewed his unconsciousness form wi i
scepticism. Otherwise they would not have bothered to thrust the
spear in his side. Surely it was only to be expected that the brutals

ized soldiers would break the legs of all the crucified men, to be
sure that they were all dead. Up to this point, moreover, Jesus had
apparently been treated with even more than the usual contemp ;

suffering blows to the face, given the mock sceptre, and having t e
crown of thorns put on his head. Why this sudden change of mood
 this 'privileged' and unreasonably compassionate treatment?

The Gospels provide no consistent answer to this question, Thi
only point they agree on is that Jesus died as early as the nintk
hour, uttering a loud cry, while those crucified next to him visibly
lingered on in their wretchedness. According to John (19:34), one
of the soldiers drove his spear into Jesus's side, and blood and
water flowed out. Luke and Matthew contribute nothing to this
scenario because neither of them mentions this event. Mark, how:
ever, leaves us an interesting clue (15:44-45). Pilate, surprised tha
Jesus is already dead, summons the centurion, who confirms
death, and Pilate then releases the body of Jesus. The centur
who has obviously checked the death of Jesus to his satisfaction,
the same one who, moved by the events during the Crucifixion,
praises Jesus as the true Son of God (Mark 15:39; Matthew 27:545
Luke 23:47). Who was this centurion?

In the apocryphal literature surrounding Pilate he is called
Longinus and represented as the captain of the guard in charge of
the Crucifixion. And according to a tradition to which Gregory
Nyssa himself testified, Longinus was said later to have beco
the bishop of his home territory, Cappadocia. This 'change of

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 179
heart' may mean that he had some connection with Jesus and his
followers before the Crucifixion, and may even have been a secret
believer in Jesus himself. Many of the problems surrounding the
events of the Crucifixion would then instantly be resolved. Joseph
of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the centurion Longinus were
among the secret followers of Jesus. Influential in position and
rank, they were informed well enough in advance about what the
publicly seditious advent of Jesus would lead to. Joseph was high-

ly respected as a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Since the sec-
ond century BC this had been the supreme High Council, with
authority over all affairs of state in which the Jewish religion was
involved, including judicature. It consisted of seventy members
under the chairmanship of the High Priest. Nicodemus, who was
initiated by Jesus under cover of night (John 3:1-22}, was also a

Jewish councillor. Thanks to these offices, Joseph and Nicodemus
had doubtless been kept well informed about the time and place of
the execution, and were thus able to plan the rescue of their mas-
ter. There is an echo of the advance infomation given to
Nicodemus to be found in a much revered medieval legend that is
part of the stories of the saints: it tells how Nicodemus, in a letter
sent to Mary Magdalene, warns Jesus of an attack by the Jews
while he was in Ephraim (John 11:53-54).#

Joseph and Nicodemus knew that the crucifixion itself could not
be avoided. But if they could manage to get Jesus down off the
cross early enough, and provided everything else went as planned,
it would be possible to keep him alive, and he would probably be
able to continue his mission under cover. It was crucially impor-
tant to the whole operation that the apostles were not involved.
Ihey had gone into hiding in fear of persecution. No action would
be taken against the respected councillors Joseph and Nicodemus
or the Roman centurion, So there was just a short time in which
the risky venture might be carried out successfully.

The Wound in the Side and the Potent Drink

Let us return to the spear-thrust into Jesus' side. A close look at the
original Greek reveals that the verb used to describe the thrust of
the soldier, nyssein, has the meaning 'to prick', 'to puncture', and
does not really apply to a thrust with full force, let alone deep pen-
piration. In the Vulgate (the universally known Latin translation of

180  

the Bible), the verb used is aperire, an inaccurate translation basica 
ly meaning 'to open up'. But the fundamental meaning, the intend-
ed meaning, is something different again. The action was a
procedure that served as a kind of "official confirmation' of death:
if the body showed no reaction to a superficial stab, it could be
assumed that the person was dead. It was probably the centurion;
mentioned in the Gospels who performed this test himself. It was
certainly not meant to be a death thrust  after all, Jesus was
believed to be dead already, and so much so that his legs were left
unbroken. An experienced soldier would in any case hardly have
intended to kill by thrusting a spear into the side: for that it shoul
have been from the front, through the heart. The Roman soldiers of
the day generally used the type of spear called a hasta or pilum,
with a thin, tapering blade about 25 to 40 centimetres long, broads
ening just before the shaft. Like a stiletto, the blade was just right
for scratching the skin a little to see if the crucified person showed!
any reaction. :
Seriptural authorities find it difficult to explain the discharge of
blood and water. Some can only regard it as a miracle, in consider-
ation of how the circulation stops at death. Others discern more
significance in a symbolic interpretation of the elements blood and.
water. Scientific explanations have also been educed, notably to the
effect that the 'water' was in fact blood serum, which separates as
blood coagulates. But decomposition of the blood in that manner
only begins six hours after death, at the earliest!
But we must not discard this passage of John's Gospel as of no
significance. We must assume instead that our eyewitness infor-
mant meant to lay special emphasis on the blood and water, For
the sentence that follows this passage runs, "And he that saw it
bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith
true, that ve might believe' (19:35). This is crucial, and fits nicely
with what we already know of John's style of writing = a depics
tion on two levels, as it were: an outwardly obvious description for
undiscerning readers, and a number of cryptic references strewr
throughout the text for those who know how to read between
lines to discover for themselves. The special emphasis so evidently
put on testifying to the blood and water that flowed from Jesus(r)
side is actually intended to make it clear that Jesus was still alive.
Even if many centuries were to pass before the circulatory
nature of the human blood system was discovered, it was common
knowledge at the time of Jesus that corpses do not bleed and blood
serum is not seen on the wounds of a body that has just died:

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 181

Origen (185-254) himself, who believed for a fact that Jesus was
dead at the time the blood and water issued from the wound, felt
obliged to point out that corpses do not bleed.

The expression Mood and water occurs as an idiom in other lan-
guages. In the ornate Arabic language. for example, it is used to
emphasize the force of an event. In modern English we can say
that someone 'sweats blood" when making a great effort (without
meaning that blood actually oozes through the pores of the skin),
but the German equivalent is 'to sweat blood and water', Blut und
Wasser schwitzen. It might well be, then, that the same expression
used in describing a wound means no more than that a consider
able amount of blood is visible, Jesus was obviously only appar-
ently dead. The quantity of blood discharged, and the emphasis
put on it by immediately asserting that it was a true observation,
were meant to point to this very fact.

Everything that was to happen, once the spear-thrust had con-
firmed death, had been carefully arranged beforehand by Joseph
and his assistants. But the man from Arimathea had begun making
the necessary preparations a long time before.

The first action the wealthy Joseph had taken was to purchase a
garden in the immediate vicinity of the Crucifixion site." With wise
foresight, he decided to have a new tomb excavated from the rock
on the estate = somewhere to which a supposedly dead body could
be brought quickly for safety. That it should be a tomb unusued
till then was essential: to lay Jesus to rest in a tomb in which others
were already buried would have given rise to strong legal and
moral objections, for the presence of the body of an executed crimi-
nal would normally be taken to dishonour the bodies of the faith-
ful who already lay in the tomb. There could be no objection to a
'burial' in an empty tomb, particularly since, as Josephus reports,
political criminals who were executed by the Romans  as Jesus
wag  might certainly be afforded an honourable burial such as
was denied to an ordinary criminal.(r) Naturally, Joseph of
Arimathea could not say that he was busy preparing a tomb for
jesus. The Gospels therefore have it that Joseph brought the body
of Jesus to lie in his own new family grave.

The Gospel passage stating that it was a tomb for Joseph's own
use was intended to be taken literally by undiscerning readers
who would not think twice about it(tm) Actually, the new tomb con-
structed in the garden near Golgotha was not meant for the dead
at all, neither Joseph and his family nor anyone else, It was intend-

ed solely as a practical precaution, to avoid having to move the

182  

seriously wounded Jesus very far should they succeed in getting
him off the Cross soon enough. Jesus' persecutors would means
while contentedly think him dead and buried. !

The fact that the Crucifixion took place on the Day of
Preparation was, if anything, an advantage, because it meant they
could greatly speed up the 'burial' without arousing suspicion. OF
course they had to make sure that Jesus really did seem to have
died. This toa they could not just leave to chance,

The Gospels tell of one other thing that happened just before
Jesus is described as dying on the Cross: A

Mow there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge

with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop [a plant used for ritual daubing
and put it to his mouth.
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is fine

ished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
{John 19:29-30)

How did Jesus come (apparently) to die immediately after he had
taken the bitter drink? Was it really vinegar that he was given? It.
was Fully in line with Jewish custom to offer a person sentenced to
death wine spiced with myrrh or incense in order to alleviate the
pain with its slight narcotic effect. A passage in the Talmud states,
"The one on his way to execution was given a piece of incense ina
cup of wine, to help him fall asleep" (Sanh. 43a). But there is no
mention in the Gospels of a spiced wine. All the evangelists agree
that it was a liquid with a very bitter taste. In Latin, 'vinegar' is
acetum, closely related to the old stem ac- 'sharp', and acid in
English. The Roman soldiers not only allowed Jesus to be given
the drink, one of them even helped Jesus to take it (Matthew 27:48;
Mark 15:36; Luke 23:36; John 19:29), 1

Let us look more closely at how it happened. The sponge was
offered to Jesus on a hyssop stem. Hyssop is a plant with a weak

stem hardly suitable for holding up a wet sponge with, Even a
bundle of hyssop stems might not have sufficient rigidity to make:
it possible, although Jesus on the Cross may not have been very
high off the ground. On some crosses, the sentenced person was
fixed with the feet only just above the soil, and in such a case the
sponge would not have to be lifted up to any real height to be
offered. But perhaps the instrument used to offer Jesus the "vine
gar" has been subject to a simple linguistic mistake  hyssos 'a short.
spear' has all this time been understood as fyssopos "hyssop'. It is a
soldier who offers Jesus the sponge, according to the Synoptic

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 183

authors, so that it is more than merely possible, it is likely, that
some such verbal error occurred. We might even have reason to
suppose that it was the centurion Longinus who raised the sponge
tor the lips of Jesus on his spear(tm)

The drink of vinegar is mentioned in John's narrative in a way
that makes it look as if the vinegar had been brought to the site of
the Crucifixion for the very purpose. It was a part of the prepara-
tions that Joseph, Nicodemus and the centurion had made in order
to carry out their plan. What the bitter liquid actually was can only
be guessed at. In those days there was a wide assortment of anal-
gesic and narcotic substances available: the healing arts of the peri-
od were excellent at compounding mixtures with different effects
on the body. Perhaps the drink was a bitter wine to which a mea-
sured quantity of opium had been added. The exceptional anaes-
thetic and sedative power of opium was well known to the Jews
even in pre-Christian times, Opium is the dried form of the milky
juice obtained from unripe seed-heads of one species of poppy
(Papaver sonmiferum). This poppy was widespread in Palestine, so
it is certainly possible that Jesus was given opium dissolved in
some liquid while on the Cross.

The narcotic' effect of opium is so strong that it can lead to a

state of complete torpor, in which a person has no external sensa-
tion whatever. The principal alkaloid in opium (its most active
constituent) is morphine, which is a powerful sedative and narcot-
ic, and which can depress respiration, A second alkaloid in opium,
papaverine, has no analgesic effect but is an excellent muscle-
relaxant.

In combination, and together with other pharmaceutical sub-
stances, opiate solutions are not difficult to adjust to have any
specifically required effect. Indeed, such a drug cocktail would
have been ideal for the purposes of Joseph and his colleagues: not
only was Jesus gen the best of pain-killers, the dose was
designed to make him lose consciousness in a short time and so be
able to hang limply 'dead' on the Cross. The appearance of sudden
death was enhanced by the fact that opium reduces and sharply
slaws the heartbeat, it depresses breathing to an extraordinary
degree, and it renders the body completely limp. And yet, admin-
istered in the correct dosage, as known to the experienced Essene
Therapeuts, it constituted no real danger to the heart  on the con-
trary, it was actually beneficial to it.

On the other hand, perhaps the supposed drink of vinegar
instead contained the active ingredients of the sacred drink of the

154  

Indians and Persians, Soma and Haoma (respectively). Persian cul-
tic worship of Mithras included a Haoma sacrifice very similar to
the Christian Mass (Holy Communion or Eucharist). Professor.
Seydel writes:

The form of the sacrifice of Haoma was identical to the usual Persian

sacrifices for the dead. Small round pieces of bread the size of a thaler

coin were offered up and consumed with the Haoma drink: Hacma
was originally the pressed juice of the soma plant Asclepias acida, with
which the Vedic Aryans sprinkled the sacrificial fire. It was considered

a symbol of divine life, a drink of the gods, and the drink of immortal-

iby
Soma, the sacred drink of India, enabled an adept to enter a death-
like state for several days, and to awaken afterwards in an elated
state that lasted a few more days. In this state of ecstasy, a 'higher
consciousness' spoke through the adept, and he had visionary
powers. In addition to Asclepias acida, the Soma might alse have
contained Indian hemp (Cannabis indica)  tradition has it that it
featured in the drink of Zarathustra, at least. Pictures of Asclepias
acida are found inscribed by the graves of the early Christians in
the catacombs of Rome, where it is shown as a variety that bears I
longish fruits  a variety not to be found anywhere in Europe.

A European equivalent of Asclepias acida (which is a milkweed),
in many respects, is the swallowwort {Vincetoxicum hirundinaria),
Its efficacy as an antidote to poison is demonstrated by its Latin
name: vince-foxicum is literally "defeat the poison'. Dioscorides, the
Greek physician and pharmacologist of the first century, called the
plant the "dog strangler" in his Materin Medics, and wrote that the
leaves mixed with meat could kill dogs, wolves and foxes (Mat.
Med. 4,80). Yet the poison could also be used as an antidote for the
bites of poisonous animals (Mal. Med. 3,92). A botanical reference
book written in 1563 (Mattioli, p.337) also eulogizes it: "This is a
splendid root against all poisons, of consummate substance and
quality, which is why it is called Vince-foxicum in Latin  that is,
conqueror of every poison. It is thus used even against the plague,
and taken in wine, after which one sweats profusely." Pronounced
sweating and a dry mouth (note 'I thirst', John 19:28) are symptoms
typical of poisoning. In Switzerland, swallowwort is called the
'Master-herb', and in Austria, 'Jewish herb' or "White Cross herb'.
Could there just possibly be an ancient memory of the plant's most
historically important use echoed in these names?

A magical potion that has the property of putting living people

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 185

into a long-lasting state resembling death is by no means unheard
of, and is even comparatively common in stories and literature,
The best-known example is Romeo and Juliet. In every case, the
'death' involved is actually a state resembling coma, in which all
the life-signs, such as respiration, heartbeat and pulse, are no
longer noticeable.

Had Jesus actually been close to suffocation on the Cross  and
it is suffocation that virtually all the forensic experts assume was
the cause of death = the loud cry before he "died', as specifically
mentioned by the three Synoptic evangelists, would have been
quite imposssible. A choking, breathless person could hardly have
managed to gasp out a whisper. But Jesus cried out. And John
relates that, 'When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he
said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost'
(19:30). Jesus was able to say these words once he had taken the
drink and felt its narcotic effect increasing. He was able to say
them because he was close not to death but to a deep, induced
state of stillness.

Traces on the Cloth

Mow let us compare what we are told in the Gospel accounts with
what we know about the impression of the body on the Turin
Shroud. There are bloodstains on the Shroud. If a corpse had been
buried in the linen cloth, the burial could not have been according
to Jewish law because the corpse would then first have been
washed down with warm water.

The peculiar position of the body is also striking. In a book
repudiating the authenticity of the Turin Shroud, Joseph Blinzler
argues that it is... hardly conceivable that the disciples placed
the hands in such an unseemly and impractical position, as seen in'
the image of the Turin Shroud, while interring the Messiah.'
Apart from the fact that no one has ever said that the disciples
were in the sepulchre at the time, it should be pointed out that the
position of Jesus' body precisely matches that of the skeletons
buried in the cemetery of the Essene monastic settlement at
Qumran near the Dead Sea. "The position of the corpses in their
graves is generally identical  As a rule, the body is in a supine
position, the head to the south, and the hands are crossed together
over the abdomen, or lie at the sides.

186  

Jesus is supposed to have hung dead on the cross for three
hours. If it happened, the consequences can be described with
absolute certainty. According to all modern medical authorities,
rigor mortis would have begun setting in some thirty or so min-
utes after death. The muscles of the body would have become
completely stiff and immobile in three to six hours, depending on
the temperature of the surroundings  the higher the ambient tem-
perature, the faster the stiffening. Rigor mortis is caused by com-
plex biochemical processes, but centres principally on a decline in
levels of the metabolic energy compound ATP (adenosine triphos-
phate) after cessation of the heartbeat. The entire skeletal muscula-
ture becomes utterly rigid in whatever position the body has
assumed in death, and only when rigor mortis relaxes and wears
off  after four to seven days  can the body's posture be changed.

Once Jesus lost consciousness on the Cross, his body would
have sagged. His weight, previously supported primarily by his
legs as held fast by the nail through his feet, would iastead have
been taken by his arms as held fast by the nails through the wrists.
His legs would thus have bent acutely at the knees. His head
would have fallen forwards, his chin coming to rest at the top of
his breastbone. And after the three or four hours that the body is
said to have been left on the cross, it would have become rigid in
this position. But a close look at the impression of the back of the
body on the Shroud immediately reveals that the whole of Jesus'
body was laid out quite flat on the cloth. The legs are straight, not
bent, and the arms were evidently mobile when positioned (or
they would have tended to spring apart to the posture of the
Crucifixion).

A few Shroud commentators have suggested that the arms were
probably bound together at the wrists. But any such cords or
straps would have obscured the bleeding at the wrists, which can
plainly be seen on the cloth. Monsignor Giulio Ricci, a member of
the Centre for Shroud Research in Rome, has an individual solu-
tion to the problem: he assumes that the Shroud was itself tied
tightly around the rigidly stiff and grotesquely bent corpse with
external cords." But this explanation is utter nonsense, for the
impression clearly shows that the Shroud was initially spread out
flat, both underneath and on top of the body. Otherwise extreme
distortions in the width would be apparent {rendering the comput-
erized scan impossible),

The fact that there was obviously no rigor mortis at the time
when Jesus was taken down from the Cross is proof enough that

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 187

=r

The body ley stretched out quite flaf on an even surface, and was slightly cush-
ined (with cloths).

he was not dead. And even more cogent evidence is provided by
the bloodstains visible on the Shroud. ;

For two separate bouts of bleeding can be clearly distinguished,
Firstly, there are traces of the blood which flowed when Jesus was
nailed to the Cross. Secondly, there are vestiges of the fresh blood
which flowed from the body when jesus was already lying hori-
zontally in the cloth!

To take the bloodstains on the head first: the sharp points of the
mass of thorns which was pressed mockingly on fo Jesus" head
would have left minute punctures, small bul penetrating, in the
thin skin of the head. As long as the 'crown of thorns' was on the
head, the thorns sealed the tiny wounds (diameter between 1 and
2 millimetres) quite well. The small amount of blood that managed
to flow out past the thors coagulated at once and became encrust-
ed in the hair, and this is the case in all the lesser wounds, But at
the back of the head, the image on the Shroud clearly shows many
blood trails of a larger size, and streaming in all directions. This
blood obviously trickled on to the cloth when the body was laid on
the linen only shortly after the thorns had been removed. The
blood vessels in the thin skin of the head are numerous but very
small, and well supplied with blood as long as the circulatory sys-
tem remains intact. In a dead person, as soon as the heart stops,
the blood is withdrawn from the capillary vessels just under the
surface of the skin, turning the skin 'as pale as a corpse', and there
is no way any more blood can emerge from such small wounds

188  
because intravascular blood clotting immediately seis in.

On the portrait of Jesus in the Shroud, a large bloodstain on the
forehead is visible in the shape of a backwards 3. Such an unusual
shape can only be formed if the head is slightly raised from the
horizontal (some kind of pillow was most probably placed under
the back of his head as he lay on his back). The slowly flowing
blood then runs down to a crease in the forehead, collects a little,
and as more fresh blood joins it, spills over and down to the next
crease in the forehead. This forehead wound, also caused by the
crown of thorns, is located on the uppermost point of the entire
body (lying flat). Even if it is possible for blood to flow from large
wounds on a corpse under certain conditions, it is not possible
under any circumstances at the highest part of the forehead, Sud
bleeding is possible only if the circulatory system is fully opera-
tional!

Almost as far from the ground as the forehead are the hands,
one placed over the other. Here it is particularly evident how fresh
blood has run on to the cloth in addition to blood that had already
dried. Three trails of blood can clearly be distinguished on the
wrists, running in different directions. Simple measurement of
angles provides unambiguous indications of how these blood trails
originated. The left hand lies over the right and covers its nail
wound, so the calculations only involve the visible wound on the
left hand. When the nail was driven through, some blood ran into
the furrow between the tensed muscles along the forearm and
finally dropped vertically downward, under the influence of gravi-
ty. These small, vertical streamlets all run nearly parallel. From
their direction we can work out the angle of the arms in relation to
the crossbeam of the Cross: it was about 20°, This also makes pos-
sible the calculation of the difference in vertical height between the
upright and sagging postures of the body on the Cross.

But in relation to the position of the arms there remains one
item of great curiosity. Two of the major blood trails confirm the
angle of the arms while Jesus was on the Cross, but the third blood
trail, from the same point of origin, is distinctly visible on the
Shroud at a totally different angle, and has not been mentioned in
the studies of any of the better-known Shroud commentators. In
fact, they have kept very quiet indeed about it  and no real won-
der: the shape and direction of this third blood trail prove that it
could only have been formed after the nails were removed from
the wounds. The removal of the nails at the wrists made the
wounds start bleeding again, and the blood spread across the hand I

'Dreath" and "Resurrection" 189

fiecawse the body on the Cross was upright whem conscious but sagged when
iregmsctens, two markedly different positions car be mathematically defined by
calculation of the angles of the blood trails on hands and arms,

as it lay flat. It is clearly visible in addition that the edges of the
third blood trail are much less sharply defined than those of the
two other trails, indicating that the first two blood trails had
already dried and were moistened again by the aloes in the cloth,
whereas the fresh blood of the third trail is surrounded by fringes
of watery serum. Such serum fringes are formed by the activity of
the clotting factor fibrin present in fresh blood, and appear only
when blood collects on a surface that slopes shallowly and cannot
flow away freely. As long as Jesus was hanging on the Cross, the
blood could flow from the wounds, leaving trails of coagulated
blood without any serum fringes and with clearly defined edges.

Cm the Shroud the right arm appears a little longer than the left.
Such minor distortions in the front-view image show that the linen
did not lie stiffly across the body. Because the cloth instead con-
formed to the curved shape of the body, the wound in the side has
also left a clear imprint. On the frontal view, next to one of the
patches on the burned areas, there are sharply defined trails of
blood that stem from the wound in the side, and which coagulated
on the Cross.

Parallel with the wound in the side, a conspicuous blood trace
runs transversely across the back. The blood has an appearance
quite different from the blood on the front of the body. Again there
are clear edges of blood surrounded by serum fringes, a sure sign

190  

Blood collected in the lumbar arch
between the mid-back and the but
tacks. This blood can only have flowed
after the body had been laid out hori-
zontaily.

that this too was blood that flowed while the body was lying in
the cloth. The blood  and there is a considerable quantity of it 
can only have flowed on to the cloth when the body was already
lying horizontally. A trail of blood would otherwise lead down
towards the lower abdomen. This blood certainly comes from the
wound in the side. As Jesus lay in the healing cloth, the lateral inci-
sion started to bleed again. Naturally, the stream of blood did not
run down the length of the body but took the shortest route under
gravity to the surface the body was lying on, under the right arm,
to collect across the back and in the arch of the lumbar region.

Let us look at what the experts have to say about this. If the
arms of the body are raised into the position of the crucifixion,
wound in the side shifts upwards by quite a margin. The scientis
at the East Midlands Forensic Laboratory consider it most unlikel
nonetheless, that a spear-thrust at the site of the side wound cou
have touched the heart. They see no life-threatening danger even
the point penetrated to some depth. The spear would only have:
pierced the membrane lining the chest cavity, causing 'blood and
water' to flow out, a watery pleural fluid that had collected
between the lungs and the chest wall during the violent treat-
ment."

On the matter of Jesus' wound in the side, someone once asked E
Dr W. Bonte, a forensic specialist and Director of the Institute
Forensic Medicine at Dusseldorf University, whether blood coul
flow from an open wound between the fifth and sixth ribs about
centimetres right of centre, from a corpse lying flat on its back,
without applying mechanical pressure from outside. The wound
had initially been inflicted while the body was upright, and the.
body was later laid on its back. To ensure a truly unbiased opinion,

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 191

the expert was not told which 'criminal case' was involved. The
answer given by the forensic expert is extremely informative:

1. Blood flows spontaneously from a wound in a corpse only if

a) the wound opening is located in an area in which the blood
has collected (hypostasis) as may be evident from skin dis-
coloration (livor mortis), or

b) the wound opening leads to a blood-filled cavity, the blood
is still (at least in part) liquid, and the level of the cavity is
vertically higher from the ground than the opening of the
wound.

2. According to your description, however, the wound opening
was situated in the right front thoracic wall, about 10 centime-
tres to the right of the centre line. With the corpse in a supine
position, this corresponds fairly exactly to the highest point of
the corpse. So neither of the above conditions is satisfied:

a) the opening of the wound opening was not in an area of
hy postasis, and

b) blood could not have flowed out through the wound from
the right thoracic cavity because it would first have to rise
up against the fluid pressure. The same holds for other possi-
ble sources of bleeding (lung, lung vessels, heart chambers).

3. I therefore consider a spontaneous postmortal evacuation of
blood from a wound aperture in such a location to be out of the
question.


4. On the other hand; an outflowing of blood in the quantity you
describe, together with the direction of flow, would be in agree-
ment with the supposition that the person concerned was at
this time still alive. It is not uncommon to find, in forensic med-
ical practice, that blood flows from a wound opening in precise-
ly the location described here and in the direction of flow you
have described, from a victim still living, lying on the back.
This is especially true if larger arterial vessels are punctured
and if the blood pressure provides the necessary vis a fergo
[force from beneath] for the blood column to rise against the
hydrostatic pressure."

This reply from an expert who was unaware of the delicate subject
on whom he was giving his expert opinion is remarkable in many
ways. It shows that an unbiased analysis of the facts leads to
results quite different from those presented by people who want to

1492 =  

use the Shroud to prove that Jesus died. When Karl Herbst after-
wards informed Professor Bonte-about the real subject of his expert
opinion, and told him of some of his colleagues' arguments, his
response was clear: 'I do not wish to revise my earlier reasoning. In
my view everything suggests that the circulation had not yet
stopped. OF course I concur with Professor Bollone that an emis-
sion of blood from a stab wound in the chest can occur during the

transport of a corpse in a sort of passive way. But then one would.

have to ask whether the shroud was wrapped around the body
when the transporting began. And if this were the case, no "static"
traces and imprint patterns would have been formed, which
always allow a direct topographic alignment with a supine body. 1
would rather have expected numerous traces from brushing con-

tact, arranged in a more random and irregularly scattered manner.

To my mind the pattern actually found suggests that the person
concerned was wrapped in the cloth only at the entombment, and
this most probably by first laying the body flat on the cloth and
then placing the other half of the cloth over the body. I cannot see
how a passive emission of larger quantities of blood could happen
during this operation of laying out the body."

Severe bleeding is also evident from the wounds caused by the
nail through the feet. On the rear image it is clear that the blood
from the wound runs down to the heels, collects there and,
because fresh blood is still pumping out, flows on to the cloth to
the right.

The 17-centimetre-long trail of blood is interrupted because the
blood comes up against a fold in the cloth, before flowing further
to the right. The last part of this blood trail can be found at the
very far end of the Shroud, where one end of the sheet lay over the
other so that the fresh blood stained both places. Once more the
fact remains: blood simply cannot flow like this from a corpse that
has been dead for several hours. The heart and circulatory func-
tions were still intact, although respiration might have been greatly
reduced.

The haemorrhaging in the region of the feet shows the flow of
fresh blood very clearly. Bodily movements made while laying out
the body caused the open wounds to start bleeding again, and the
blood spread out in all directions. The dark impression of the blood
streamlets leaves no doubt that this blood reached the cloth only
after the entombment. Because the fabric was steeped in resinous
aloes at the spots where it touched the skin, the blood could not be
absorbed into the cloth but spread out across its surface.

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 193
bis

The blood traces on the feet show
particularly well how the blood
spread oul tn all directions on dhe
surface of the Shrowd after the body
hard Beers taken dot frome the Cross,

To establish clinical death presents doctors with difficulties even
today. The use of modern drugs, for example, can induce so deep a
coma that false diagnoses may easily be made. A well-known
method for establishing death used to be to make a small incision
in the heel or the wrist. If arterial blood flows, the circulatory sys-
tem is still operating, Corpses just do not bleed!

In Jesus' case, there were a total of twenty-eight wounds that
continued to bleed even after his removal from the Cross. This
proves that Jesus could not possibly have been dead when his
body was laid in the tomb.

The Open Rock-Tomb

From the moment that Jesus was seen to hang unconscious from
the Cross, Joseph made haste to secure the release of the body as
soon as was humanly possible. He exerted all his influence on
ilate to obtain an instant release. One seriptural authority even

194  

suggests that the wealthy Joseph paid a high sum in bribery Ig
speed things up." It is by no means inconceivable. Joseph wis
pressed for time, and any means would have seem justified to him
if it would cut short the slow bureaucratic process, The men crugl
fied with Jesus had their legs broken, but in Jesus' case the cen ri-
on just checked with his spear-thrust that he was dead. Pila i
released the 'corpse', and at once Joseph and Nicodemus took
Jesus from the Cross and brought him to the tomb in the rock

In the seclusion of the tomb cavern, preparations for the healing
of Jesus got under way on the ledge in the middie of the floor. Th
opium drink helped him to sleep deeply, out of pain. He wa
packed around with the vast quantity of medicinal herbs to mak
his wounds heal faster. But Joseph and Nicodemus knew t

ers might steal the body to pretend there had been a miraculow
resurrection. According to Matthew (27:62-66), they asked Pila
for someone to guard the tomb. They could not form a watch
the sepulchre themselves because it was the Sabbath. The lon
time went on, the more difficult it would become to get Jesus
and away unobserved. It is not possible, at this distance in time, to
tell whether a Roman guard was in fact assigned to the tomb;
although Matthew (alone) does say so. It may well be, however
that it was introduced into his text to add dramatic effect to the
appearance of the angel. The Jews' urgent desire to have a guarg
set over a corpse must have seemed bizarre to the Romans, and i
is very unlikely that they complied with such a request. y

So for the Sabbath, at least, the team had the time to take care
Jesus. As soon as he was able, though, he would have to be quickly
moved elsewhere, to avoid further problems from the Je
authorities.

When the women came to the tomb with the oils for anointing
on the first day of the week, they found the stone rolled aside and
the tomb empty. Let us see what the Gospel accounts say. Luké
writes:

Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they
came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had pre
pared, and certain others with them.
And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereaboul

'Dreath' and 'Resurrection' 195

behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth,
they said unto them, Why seck ye the living among the dead?

{Luke 24:1-5)
Mark tells it like this:
And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it
was very great,

And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on
the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affright-
ed. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted; Ye seck Jesus of
Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the

place where they laid him.
(Mark 16:46)

After his so-called 'resurrection' Jesus is said to be constantly
entering through locked doors and appearing to the surprise of his
followers (John 20:19-26). So why, it seems pertinent to ask, was
the massive stone rolled aside from the tomb entrance, from the
very place where this miraculous 'resurrection' was held to have
happened? It would surely have been a more astonishing 'miracle'
if the stone had had to be rolled aside to let in the women with the
oils for ancinting, only then for it to be discovered that Jesus had
vanished from the sealed chamber. The open tomb is evidence that
eomeone had had to act fast and move Jesus out of the tomb,
Essene friends were obviously still at the tomb  Luke's men with
the shining garments, Mark's young man with the white garment.
The shining white robe certainly implies that they were Essenes.
Jesus had probably been led out just a short while earlier. Because
the festival of the Passover always coincided with the full moon, it
was easy to travel in the bright moonlit night. Perhaps the Essenes
who stayed behind were there to collect certain items and seal the
tomb. The shocked women received clear replies from the Essenes
to their questions: Jesus had risen again and was therefore no
longer there. He had indeed arisen  that is, out of his drug-
enhanced coma. The Luke text is even clearer: 'Why seek ye the
living among the dead?" Does that not compel us to believe that
Jesus was alive, that it had been possible to save him? Is this not
the clear message we get from these Gospel passages?

john, who does not report the episode with the women at the
sepulchre, relates in detail an event which it seems must have
taken place before the women arrived {John 20:1-18). Mary
Magdalene comes to the tomb early in the morning, when it is still

196  

dark, and sees the stone rolled away. Shocked, she runs to Peter
and John, and wails that someone has taken the Lord out of the
sepulchre. When the pair arrive at the tomb and peer in, they see
only the linen cloths: there is no trace of Jesus anywhere. Mary
Magdalene, who stands weeping before the tomb, asks the garden-
er if he had carried the body away. When the supposed gardener
addresses her by name, she realizes it is Jesus,

It is remarkable that Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus for the
gardener. Is this the One resurrected in glory  a figure unrecog-
nized by one of his closest companions and thought by her to be
the gardener? What probably happened was that they had only
just led Jesus out of the tomb when Mary Magdalene appeared. So
as riot to attract attention, they had dressed him in simple gar-
ments such as a gardener might wear. The weakened Jesus may
even have been given a garden implement as a makeshift walking
stick to lean on. All of these factors then led to the mix-up. In addi-
tion, gardeners have their skin tanned to a darker brown by their
constant work out in the sun. The face of Jesus was swollen by the
injuries, and the aloes and myrrh solution leaves a characteristic
brown coloration. This was surely why Mary Magdalene did not
recognize her master in the early twilight, and not because he
showed himself in a 'transfigured' body as one resurrected.

The apocryphal Gospel of Peter describes how the guard at the
tomb saw three men emerge from the tomb 'and two of them sup-
ported the other one'! Does a person resurrected in glory need
such support? Certainly not  but an injured person who has to be
brought to safety, and who has just come round from a coma, does.

After relating these events, the Gospels, in the passages con-
cemning Jesus, become sparser and less reliable, because from here
on they are entangled in the myth of the 'resurrection' and in a the-
ological interpretation by which Jesus corresponds to the resurrect-
ed Christ. One thing is certain, however: Jesus was with his
disciples again for a while, perhaps in Jerusalem, but mainly in
Galilee.

Very few precise conclusions can be drawn about the events that
took place during the period of time after Jesus' disappearance
from the tomb, because the descriptions given are so confused.
That there were three days said to have passed between
Crucifixion and reappearance corresponds merely to a mystical
period that played a role in older resurrection myths. Jesus may
well have been looked after for a longer time, until he gradually
took to showing himself once more to his followers. In any case,

'Death' and Resurrection" 197

such meetings seem always to have been of short duration and in
secret, He could not show himself publicly, of course, or he would
instantly have been arrested again. His appearance seems to have
been affected so much by his injuries at first  his face was proba-
bly very swollen for a while  that even his friends had difficulty
recognizing him when they saw him.

In considering Jesus' appearances to his followers, it is essential
always to bear in mind that they are recorded in writing in a way
that conforms with the theology of his 'resurrection', as was devel-
oped after the event. All of Chapter 21 in the Gospel of John,
which contains the appearance of Jesus by the Sea of Tiberias, is
the work of an author who did not write the rest, and has simply
been tacked on. The chapter seems to have been written by John
the priest, and to have been included in the writings of John the
favourite disciple on account of their identical names.(tm)

Immediately after the Crucifixion, Jesus' disciples left to go back
sadly to their former occupations, Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael
of Cana and the sons of Zebedee resumed fishing (John 21:2). Only
when Jesus told them he would meet them himself in Galilee were
they fired with fresh enthusiasm (Matthew 28:10).

His encounters with his one-time travelling companions are
presented as 'appearances' because Jesus is said to have entered
into their midst through locked doors  and yet the physical corpo-
reality of Jesus is emphasized at the same time. The disciples were
baffled: most of them had probably not been told about the rescue
operation mounted by Joseph and Nicodemus, who did not belong
to their circle. The last thing the Gospels report about Jesus, shortly
before his departure from Palestine," is his continued endeavour to
explain to the disciples once and for all that he had survived the
Crucifixion and had recovered. But at first the disciples thought he
must be a ghost:


And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts
arise in your hearts?

Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and
see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his
feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wandered, he said
unto them, Have ye here any meat?

And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honey-comb.

And he took it, and did eat before them.

(Luke 24:38-43)
198  

Jesus is keen to demonstrate to his followers that his body is quite.
earthly in nature, just as it had been before. He stresses his physi-
cal presence by allowing them to touch him, and by eating food,
and tells them plainly that he is no ghost. To prove that his body
has not been 'transformed' in any way, he also shows the marks of

his wounds and even asks "doubting Thomas" to touch the wound
in his side with his hand. Later he revealed himself to the eleven as

they were sitting at table, and criticized their lack of faith and their
obduracy in not believing those who had seen him after his rising


again (!) (Mark 16:14). That Jesus was there in person was the
result of no administrative error, no trickery, no illusion; his body

is as human as theirs, neither transfigured nor that of an astral pro-

jection or a ghost  this is the message he tries to get the disciples
to take in.

'Resurrected' or 'Arisen'?

A comparison of the actual vocabulary in the Gospel of John and
in the Synoptic Gospels affords a fairly detailed reconstruction of
events. On the ledge around the central depression in the floor of

the tomb cavern, a number of cloths (othonia) made of an undyed
(kathara) piece of linen (sindon) were laid out. Over these cloths

another strip of linen (sowdarion) was spread out. A solution of the
medicinal herbs aloes and myrrh was applied to the naked body of
the unconscious Jesus, which was then laid on the length of linen.
The end of the cloth was lifted and folded back over to cover the

body. In this way the whole body, was covered (enfylisso). The

quantity of the aromatic substances in the cloth (some 45 kilo-
grams!) made the gigantic poultice-bandaging so heavy that the
body was firmly and completely wrapped up (eneileo) as if in a
hefty quilt.

If we now re-read the passage in John's Gospel that details the
events surrounding the discovery of the empty tomb (John
2(:1-18), bearing in mind the reconstruction as outlined so far, the
full meaning automatically becomes clear.

First Mary Magdalene runs to Simon Peter and the favourite
disciple of Jesus and excitedly tells them that someone has
removed the body of Jesus from the tomb. What she does not say
is that the body has somehow been stolen: her statement is neutral
on the subject of how Jesus might have disappeared from the

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 199

tomb, We are not even told why Mary Magdalene went to the
tomb so early in the moming while it was still dark. John does not
say that she wanted to anoint the corpse, as the Synoptic Gospels
say was the case with the women they describe. When talking to
I'eter and John, she simply says, 'They have taken away the Lord
out of the sepulchre   It is as if the people she was talking to
knew who "they" were.

Based on this first sentence, a further reconstruction of events is
both possible and plausible. During the night, once the medicinal
pucking with herbs was in hand, Joseph and Nicodemus visited
some of the followers of Jesus. In particular, they approached Mary
Magdalene, Simon Peter and John, who could be regarded as inti-
mate companions. They briefly explained to the three what role
they themselves had been playing, and that they were trying to
save Jesus from death with the aid of Essene friends. Should their
efforts be met with success, their amazed listeners could begin to
hope again. But whatever happened, Jesus would have to be taken
#5 soon as possible from the present unsafe hiding place, and
brought to somewhere secure, away from the watchful eyes of the
lerusalem priesthood. To say any more might be to jeopardize
everything. It was possible, after all, that one of the disciples
would be arrested and, if tortured, betray their plans.


Mary Magdalene, amazed and overwhelmed at what she has
heard, cannot restrain herself for long. She sets off for the tomb to
see for herself how true Joseph's words were. There she finds the
stone rolled away from the entrance, and runs immediately back to
the two others to confirm to them that it had happened. As Joseph
had said, 'they' = he and his assistants  had removed Jesus from
ihe tomb. She was quick to add, 'and we know not where they
hive laid him'. If she had been talking about a grave robbery, this
additional remark would have made no sense at all. The victim of
a robbery obviously does not expect to know where the stolen
goods have been taken. She is evidently referring to the Essenes
who, after wailing as long as they could while still under cover of
darkness, had taken the first steps to get Jesus away.

Mow it was the turn of the two disciples to be utterly amazed,
and they make for the tomb at a run. The youthful John is faster
and reaches the entrance first, from where he cautiously peers
inside. But the ingenuous Peter goes right on into the tomb cavern
and looks around. He notices a crumpled heap of cloths and, sepa-
rate from them, neatly folded, the healing cloth which Joseph had
mentioned. Only at this point does John also dare to enter the

Nh Cinnd Shepherd." Jesus as an Apollo-
Swill By tee third century, the authenti
Slit of Jens as on the Mandylion hud still
el Becanne widely Knot.

200  

tomb, and, as the report says, "he saw, and believed'. yr

This most interesting passage is usually taken as the basis fo
the Christian doctrine of the Resurrection. The action of
and believing' in this way  an action that occupies an in
place in Johannine theology  is commonly interpreted as co
ring immediacy and absolute reality on the Resurrection of Ji
At the same time, according to the Gospel writer, only
favourite disciple 'saw and believed'; Peter merely 'saw', The nex
verse provides the solution: "For as yet they knew not the scrips
ture, that he must rise again from the dead."

It is possible to claim that at the time the Gospel of John wa
being written, the doctrine of the Resurrection, as formulated by
Paul (especially in chapter 15 of his first letter to the Corinthians)
was already generally accepted by the early Christians, It would
have been natural, therefore, that the author of the Gospel, whi
obtained his facts as (or from) an eyewitness, was concerned abou
presenting the events in a theologically correct way. So he goes or
to forgive Peter for not immediately believing after seeing what he
saw, because after all he was not yet aware of the biblical text in
which the Resurrection had been foretold. 4

The rains of the royal palace in Nisibis,
wo Miganylvin. The border between Syrian amid
Yurkey runs right through the site of the

 RURTER Je

case, then, he is not really talking about the death and resurre
but about the rescue of Jesus. So let us briefly have a look at that
scriptural passage which the disciples did not know about.

It is not easy to identify. Most scriptural authorities agree
according to Acts 2:25-28 it has to be Psalm 16:8-11. Those
from the Psalm read:

1 have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand i
shall not be moved. i
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also
shall rest in hope.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence iz fulness of joy;
at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore,

===ry

Is this the promised Resurrection, as elucidated by scripturs
authority? Try as one may, it is impossible to discern any ment
of resurrection here, Quite the contrary. The precondition for resus
rection, as Paul stresses, is death. One can use the adjective "res
rected' only to describe a person who has once died. It is on

Rhy te adis ih Sealy
45 The tordstone is covered by a tick cloth.

46 The tombstone is a kind of cemotaph or memorial, acting as marker fo the actual sarcoy
wich is located in a crypt benenth.

'Death' and 'Resurrection' 2m

basis that the Christian says in the Creed, Jesus died and then 'rose
from the dead'. But the Psalm speaks rather of saving from death,
Peter misinterprets it in referring to it while explaining the secret
of the Pentecost as the promise of resurrection (Acts 2:25-28),
Perhaps this has something to do with his not believing when he
saw the linen cloths in the tomb, because he remained loval to the
mythical tradition of the Resurrection. For, taking the facts as they
are, the 'seeing and believing of the favourite disciple can only be
understood as his believing what Joseph of Arimathea had told
them. The favourite disciple saw, that no one was buried in the
grave, and the separate cloths confirmed for him the statement
that Jesus was still alive. He therefore believed not in the
Resurrection but in the rescue of Jesus! That is the key to this Bible
passage.

It is possible that the notion of Resurrection in the Bible stems
from a tradition aware of these efforts to heal Jesus. The fascinating
work of the linguist and theologian Father Giinther Schwarz has
revealed an exciting new view of the matter. For the terms 'rise'
and 'coming back to life" that are found in translations of the Bible,
in the original Aramaic derive, as Dr Schwarz proves, from a ver-
bal root meaning 'to resuscitate't(tm)

Schwarz explains,

The linguistic evidence is conclusive: not "resurrection. but 'resuscita-
tion" is the only meaning possible for both these Aramaic words, one
of which Jesus would have used. I am referring to the synonymous
words achafula and fechijjute, Both nouns are derived from the verb
chajn "to live', and consequently mean  I repeat = 'resuscitation', and
nothing else"

This discovery is quite sensational and at once lends a meaning to
the biblical texts that is in perfect agreement with our analysis so
far. Even the New Testament Greek word corresponds in its root
meaning neither with the original Aramaic concept nor with the
meaning of 'resurrection' as established in the Christian usage:

anhistemi means "to wake', 'to rouse" (lransitive), and 'to get up',
'to come up" (intransitive); anvstasis means 'a rising up'. Only by
the later Christian interpretation is anhistemi made to mean 'to
raise from the dead' (transitive) and "to rise from the dead' (intran-
sitive), and anastasis "resurrection".

In the light of what we now know, let us again consider the pas-
sages in Mark and Luke in which the women at the tomb are told
about the disappearance of Jesus by the men clad in white. Mark

202  

writes, "And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek bie of
Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen, he is not here: oa
the place where they laid him' (16:6, comparable with Hath Ww
28:6, although there the actual events are given a Satelt t dra-
matized setting involving an angel who performs theatrica bi
an earthquake, and petrified tomb guards). The curt query by (he
white-robed men in Luke, asking why they seek a living person
among the dead (24:5), is as clear as can be, Jesus lives, he is res-
cued, he has no business with a tomb any more, the living belong.
among the living. He had gone ahead to Galilee, where his follow=
in again. i

hie de how Jesus had great difficulty convincing,
the disciples of his presence in the flesh. The reason for tif :
twofold. Firstly, the majority of the disciples had not been told:
about the resuscitation attempt, and so were convinced hor
looking at a reanimated corpse or a ghost. And cal Si
death by crucifixion of Jesus marks the point at whi isto

ry ends and Christian theology (the doctrine of the pri
begins. Jesus' life as a human individual comes to a close wei
point, and replacing it, the story of Christ  the mythically glorified
Reality  commences.

Chapter Nine

AFTER THE CRUCIFIXION

Paul Meets Jesus at Damascus

fer recovering from the ordeal of the Crucifixion, Jesus stayed

in hiding. He could no longer teach in public, for his persecu-
tors would soon recognize him and they would not let him escape
a second time. He had to get right away from the threat posed by
his enemies: 'And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lift-
ed up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he
blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heav-
en. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with
great joy" (Luke 24:50-52).

To picture the farewell scene, the best way is to reconstruct the
events at the very place where they happened. From outside the
city of Jerusalem the path to Bethany climbs quite steeply over the
southernmost foothills of the range that includes the Mount of
Olives, up to the 'Peak of the Ascension'. A person who walks
over the summit and down the other side is quickly lost to sight,

But there is an eyewitness to testify that Jesus did not just disap-
pear once and for all, and whose testimony cannot be dismissed

out of hand as a fabrication: it is Paul. Although he was not per-
sonally present as a witness at the events after the Crucifixion, he
did meet Jesus some time after the 'Ascension'  an encounter that
was lo change his whole life.

Paulus (Saulus) had been one of the most zealous and fanatical
opponents of the New Covenant movement. He may even have
heard rumours to the effect that Jesus, although presumed dead,
was continuing his activity in hiding, 'And Saul, yet breathing out
threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went
unto the high priest. And desired of him letters ta Damascus to the
synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were

men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem' (Acts
9:1-2),
204  

After much intensive research, the psychiatrist Wilhelm Lange-
Fichbaum,' was able to draw up a detailed portrait of the personal-
ity of Paul in his well-known work Genius, Madness and Fame. In
external appearance, Paul was frail, unprepossessing and shortish,
but at the same time his temperament was austere, ascetic, impetu-
ous and impulsive. The zeal he displayed in the persecution of
Christians compensated for his own feelings of inadequacy. :

Quite the most attractive feature of Paulinism is ils notion of
redemption and release from inner tensions (particularly sexual
needs and the fear of death). Paul had boundless energy and a.
matching ego. He suffered sorely from blackouts and moods,
which he bI am ed on demons. Recent commentators have shown
that the cause of what he often described as a 'thom in the flesh (2
Corinthians 12:17, cf Galatians 6:17), was not epilepsy, as formerly
suggested, but was probably (and tragically) his own homosexual-
ity, The problem gave him a strong dislike of sex and sexuality
altogether, a disposition that was fundamental to his development
of an ascetic doctrine of marriage that has turned out to be central

to the notions of women and of sexuality that have dominated
Christian attitudes from then until now. Jesus, on the other hand,
had an open, almost 'modern' attitude towards women. In contrast
with the misogynous outlook of contemporary society. he had
female disciples and taught women as well as men. Apocry hal
tradition says that Mary Magdalene was especially close to him,
and was one of his most intimate companions and most faithful
followers. The four Gospels of the Bible also report that she was:
the first person to see Jesus after the Crucifixion. But Paul gives his
own list of the people who saw the resurrected Christ: the list con-
tains no mention of Mary Magdalene and includes only men.

The amazing experience that Paul underwent near Damascus.
was thus no mere vision (nor even a hallucination brought on by.
an epileptic attack, as often suggested):

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there
shined round about him a light from heaven: i

And he fell to the arth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul,
5 st thou me? 1
pu cl nab ie art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am  Jesus.
whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have.
me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arse, and go into the city, and


] h hat thou t do. )
it shall be told thee wha mus (Acts 93-6)

After the Crucifixion 205

Now Damascus was in the middle of Syria, where the Jews had
been hated since the uprising of the Maccabees (165 BC), and
where the spiritual centre of the Essene Order also happened to be
at the time. Perhaps Saul had taken part in an initiation ritual, and
was 'blinded' for three days (Acts 9:8-9) by the Soma drink.

Sossianus Hierocles was an important Roman official; the gover
nor of Phoenicia, Lebanon, Bithynia and Egypt, he was even in his
day considered one of the most brutal persecutors of the early
Christian communities. A sentence in his book To the Christians
runs, "After fleeing [!] from the Jews, Christ collected as many as
nine hundred men all given to robbery." We have already noted
elsewhere what kind of people such terms as 'bandits' and 'rob-
bers' were usually applied to by Latin speakers. It is quite possible
that the Essene community in Damascus had nine hundred mem-
bers.

Paul was baptised and introduced to the teachings by Ananias,
a follower of Jesus living in Damascus. According to Acts 9,
Ananias was asked by Jesus himself to visit Saul, but he was at first
very reluctant because he knew of the persecutor's record to date.
Jesus dismissed this objection with the words; 'Go thy way: for he
is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles,
and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great
things he must suffer for my name's sake' (Acts 915-16),

Henceforward Paul would be the most zealous proclaimer of
the new faith. He felt the fascination of Jesus' personality, and at
once recognized the wider significance of the task that the
Nazarene had given him. With even greater zeal than in his perse-
cution of Jesus and his followers, Paul took on the task of spread-
ing his own interpretation of the new teaching. The encounter
between Jesus and Paul in Damascus took place around two years
after the Crucifixion. No less than 300 kilometres north of
Jerusalem, Jesus must have felt relatively safe from his enemies in
the care of the Essenes.

The Journey to Paradise

Provided a religious community accepted the Roman state cult,
Rome tolerated the exercise of other religious practices. But the
Jews had special privileges, and were exempt even from having to
participate in the state cult. The first expansion of the New

206  

Covenant took place under the protection of the Jewish exemption
regulations. But when it became clear to the Romans that the fol-
lowers of Jesus had little connection with Judaism, and might in
addition be numbered among political agitators, the Christians (as
they became known collectively) forfeited all claims to tolerance,
and hostility was openly manifested instead. At first, the Christian
communities were persecuted by the Roman state system at the
local level only, as alleged disturbers of the peace. A state-con-
trolled general persecution was not to start until the second half of
the third century.

Immediately after the Crucifixion, the animosity of the Jews in
Jerusalem forced the first Christians to expand their universal mis-
sion to address the much wider territory of the Roman Empire.

In Damascus, then, Jesus could enjoy the benefit of Essene pro-
tection. About five kilometres outside Damascus there is a place
that is still called Mayuam-i-Isa, "The place where Jesus lived". The
Persian historian Mir Kawand cites several sources which state
that Jesus lived and taught here after the Crucifixion.

The followers of the 'new teaching" continued to grow in num-
ber, not least because of Jesus' own personal efforts. But rumours
of Jesus' presence in Damascus  rumours that Paul had actually
travelled to investigate, after all  would have become more and
more substantial, and it must gradually have become too danger-
ous for the Nazarene to continue to reside in the Roman province
of Syria.

Persian traditions tell how, while Jesus was staying in
Damascus, he received a letter from the King of Nisibis in Asia
Minor, in which the king asked Jesus to come to cure him of an ill-
ness. Jesus then gent his close disciple Thomas on ahead, with the
message that he himself would soon follow. And shortly after, he
travelled to Nisibis with his mother Mary. In Jami-ut-Tawarik, the
Persian scholar Fakir Muhammad says that the king had already
becn healed by Thomas before Jesus arrived in Nisibis with his
group. Imam Abu Jafar Muhammad wrote in his famous work
Tafsir-lbn-i-Jarir at-Tabri that Jesus' stay in Nisibis came to represent
a considerable danger to the Nazarene, and that it was at the risk
of his life that he appeared in public.'

From Nisibis, Jesus first went north-west. At any rate, the apoc-
ryphal Acts of Thomas relate that Jesus visited the court of the King
of Andrapa, where he suddenly appeared during the festivities at
the princess' wedding. Andrapolis was in Paphlagonia (modern
Iskilip, in the extreme north of Anatolia), and had belonged to the

After the Crucifixion 207

Roman province of Galatia since 7 BC. The wedding festivities at

the royal court were the scene of a reunion for the apostle Thomas

and his master, for they had apparently travelled there separately.
Thomas was commissioned by Jesus to go to India.

But he did not want to go there, and said he could not travel because
of weakness of the flesh. 'How can 1, a Hebrew, travel and preach the
truth to the people of India? And as he reflected and spoke thus, the
Saviour appeared to him in the night and spoke to him: 'Do not be
afraid, Thomas, Go to India and preach the word there, for my Grace
is with you." But he would not obey, and said: "Send me anywhere you
want, but somewhere else! For I shall not go to India."

(Acta Thome 1)

According to the Acts of Thomas, Jesus thereupon sold the reluctant
Thomas as a slave to the Indian merchant Abban, who had been
asked by King Gundafor (Gondaphares) to find him a carpenter.
{Discoveries of ancient coin hoards have confirmed that the Indo-
Parthian King Gundafor was indeed on the throne during the first
century.) Jesus signed a contract with Abban, 'settled for a sum of
three pounds of unstamped silver". This unusual story presumably
indicates that Thomas' fare to India was paid by Jesus, and that in
this way Jesus was making sure that Thomas would get there.

Like the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, the Acts of Thomas are of
Syrian origin, and can be traced back in tradition to the missionary
activity of Thomas himself in Edessa. Tradition furthermore has it
that during the fourth century, long after the apostle had died near
Madras in southern India, his remains were brought back to
Edessa. The Acts of Thomas and the Gospel of Thomas are closely
related. Both are esoteric works of the Gnostics written in Syrian
Aramaic (Syriac), and used at the beginning of the third century
by the late-Gnostic Manicheans (Mani was born in 217). A 'Gospel
of Thomas' is first mentioned and quoted by Hippolytus (Ref. V
7,20) in his report on the 'Naassenes' in about AD 230.

The name of the apostle Didymus Judas Thomas means 'Judas
the Twin' (Greek didymus and Aramaic toma' both mean "twin",
and it may well indicate a particularly close relationship with
Jesus. In Coptic texts, the word 'twin' seems to be replaceable by
{and therefore synonymous with) the expression "friend and com-
panion', The Acts of Thomas state that Thomas was afforded the
privilege of being let into Jesus' deepest secrets. In Chapter 39, the
apostle is addressed with his special title, "Twin brother of Christ,
apostle of the Highest, and initiate, sharer in the knowledge of the

208 lesus Lived in India

hidden word of Christ, thou who receivest his secret pronounce-
ments'. And in another version: "You who have had knowledge of
the secret Word of the Giver of Life, and who have received the
hidden Mysteries of the Son of Ged'.* Thomas is thus the keeper
(the root meaning of 'Nazarene' of the secret words of Jesus
revealed uniquely to him.

In the Gespel of Thomas (in the Coptic Gnostic texts of Mag
Hammadi), there is the following passage:

Jesus said fo his disciples, 'Compare me to someone and tell Me whom
I am like." Simon Peter said to Him, "You are like a righteous messes
gor." Matthew said to Him, "You are like a man who is a wise philosos
phar." Thomas said to Him, "Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of
saying whom You are like! Jesuz said, 'Tam not your master. Because
you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling
spring which I have given." And He took him and withdrew and told
him three words, When Thomas returned to his companions, they
asked him, "What did Jesus say to you? Thomas said te them, "11 tell

you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and

throw them at me, and a fire will come oul of the stones and burn you
up.'

L {Logion 13)
Thomas had evidently penetrated to the deeper dimensions of
knowledge, and now seemed to be almost an equal of Christ,

Conversions effected by the apostles play a great role in the Acts
of Thomas. There are many descriptions of rites of initiation that
include sacramental elements. The new convert was 'sealed' by
anointment with oil, and by participation in the Eucharist. Only
bread was consumed at this Mass or Eucharist (or Holy
Communion), for the chalice was only used to contain water. In
the second part of the Acts of Thomas, the Indian king Misdai says
that il, water and bread were elements in the apostles' 'magic'.
The initiate was called a servant or handmaid of God, was said to
share in the Power of God, and was thereafter considered a mem-
ber of the fold. Becoming the 'servant' or 'handmaid' 'in the power
of' God explains how it came about that Thomas was 'sold as a
slave' to someone called Abban (Abba, Father").

Elevation from ordinary Brother of the Essene Order to a higher

Nazarene was sealed by anointment of the head with consecrated

oil, and further anointing the naked initiate.

The Nazarenes must have looked very similar to one another.
They were all clothed in the same white robes , and all wore their
hair and beards in the same style. 50 it is possible that the term

After the Crucifixion 209

'twin', when applied to Thomas, was simply an allusion to the
similarity in outward appearance between the two men. Accounts
of mistaken identity in the Acts of Thomas read like a comedy of
errors, although Thomas was a good ten years younger than Jesus.

On the same wedding night, the King of Andrapa showed the
apostle Thomas into the bridal chamber, so that he might convert
the newly wedded couple. After Thomas had prayed with the cou-
ple, everyone else left the room.

But after everyone had left and the doors had been closed, the bride-
groom raised the curtain of the bridal chamber to call his bride. And
he saw the Lord Jesus speaking with the bride, resembling Judas
Thomas, whe had just blessed them and left them. The groom said to
Jesus: 'Did you not just leave? How did you get back in?' But the Lord
replied: 'I am not Judas surnamed Thomas; I am his brother." And the
Lord sat down upon the bed, asking them to sit down on couches, and
proceeded to tell them: 'Remember, my children, what my brother
said to you and to whom he commended you

j (Actae Thomae 11-12

An earlier chapter (Chapter 8) describes the meeting between
Thomas and a Hebrew woman who played the flute at the wed-
ding festivities. Since the fall of the kingdom of Israel (722 BC)
there had probably been Israelite communities scattered through-
out the Middle East, It is likely that as he travelled ever eastwards,
Jesus was always able to find a welcome among the far-flung
Children of Israel, or at least with sympathizers of the Israelites. In
Parthia {modern Iraq and Iran) there were major Israelite settle
ments, according to the Book of Esther. The Israelite communities
later formed an alliance ko put up strong resistance to the Emperor
Trajan's invasion (around AD 115).

Many of the place-names along the old Silk Route suggest a
connection with Jesus or Mary, especially as stopover stations.
Near Ephesus, on the west coast of what is now Turkey, for
instance, stands a 'House of Mary'. Perhaps Jesus and his mother
sojourned there before continuing their journey eastwards.

A number of historical documents refer to Jesus' stay in Persia.
The name and title of Jesus vary from country to country, and are
constantly adapted from language to language, according to local
conditions and traditions. In places where Jesus staved for a longer
period, local names are more likely to have been preserved over
the years. After all, it seems that more than sixteen years elapsed
after Jesus' Crucifixion before he arrived in Kashmir with his
entourage,
210  

In Parthia, Jesus was evidently known by the name Yuz Asaf.
The meaning of the name is given in the Farlang-i-Asafia, an
ancient work recounting the history of Persia, which relates that
Jesus (Hazrat Issa*) healed some lepers, who were thereafter called
Asaf  'the purified'  having been cured of their complaint. Yuz
means 'leader', so Yuz Asaf can be taken to mean 'leader of the
healed', a common epithet for Jesus, and probably alluding to
Jesus' mission to cleanse 'impure spirits', and lead all back to the
true Faith. Jesus would probably be able to move with greater safe-
ty and evade his persecutors more easily under this new name 
after all, the Persian priests were not likely to have forgotten his
earlier visit to their land.

According to the traditions, the prophet entered the land from
the west. His words and teachings in content no different from
those of Jesus Christ, he is also said to have resided in Mashag,
where he visited the grave of Shem the son of Noah (fami-ut-
Timwarik, Viol. 11). Various manuscripts have been preserved which
tell how Yuz Asaf preached all over Persia (modern Iran), and con-
verted a large number of people. Details of his teaching (such as
Agha Mustafai's Alwali Alaliau-i-Paras) confirm again and again
that Yuz Asaf and Jesus were one and the same man.

The official poet at the court of Akbar, the Moghul Emperor of
India, called Jesus Ai Ki Nam-i-fo Yus o Kristo, or 'Thou, whose
name is Yuz or Christ'. Although the Greek title Christos has
assumed various derivative forms that have become established in
various languages of the West, in the East it is the name Yuz Asaf
that has been preserved down the centuries,

Place-names which apparently commemorate the presence and
activity of Jesus are also to be found in modern Afghanistan and
Pakistan. For example, there are two plains that bear the name of
the prophet Yuz Asaf in eastern Afghanistan, near the towns of
Ghazni and Jalalabad, to which tradition says Jesus once went,

Then there is the presence of Jesus and Thomas in Taxila (now in
Pakistan) at the court of King Gundafor during the twenty-sixth
year of his reign (AD 47), as recorded in the Acts of Thomas. Thomas.

is asked by the king to build a magnificent palace, but the apostle

instead distributes the money meant to pay for it among the needy.
Thomas thanks Jesus for this opportunity to render service;

'I thank thee, CO) Lord, in every way that I can, you who died for a short
while [1] that T might live eternally in You; and for your selling me, in
order to liberate many others through me' And he never ceased Lo

After the Crucifixion 211

teach and give relief to the troubled, saying, "The Lord gives this to
you, and ensures that everyone receives nourishment. For he is the
nourisher of orphans and the provider for widows, and offers the gift
of tranquillity and peace to all who are troubled.

(Actae Thomae 19)

Eventually, the king himself was converted, to mark the event
receiving a 'palace in heaven'! Thomas initiated Gundafor and his
brother Gad, 'sealed' them by baptism with water, by ancinting
with oil, and by celebrating the Eucharist, and so brought them as
sheep into the fold of the Lord. 'For we have heard said that the
God that you worship recognizes his sheep by his seal." At the con-
clusion of the initiation rite, Jesus himself appeared, and said,
'Peace be with you, Brothers' (Actae Thontae 27)"

The text continues; "And [Thomas]  took bread, oil, vegeta-
bles and salt, blessed them, and gave them to the assembly. He
himself continued his fast, however, for the Day of the Lord was
dawning.'

Jesus apparently did not reside continuously at the court of the
king, although he returned there regularly, At any rate, the follow-
ing night he again visited Thomas, who was expecting him, and
told him:

Thomas, rise early, bless everyone, and after prayer and worship, go
along the path east for two miles, and there I shall show you my glory.
Through the work that you are about to begin, many will come to seek
refuge in me, and you will triumph over the world and the power of
the enemy.

{Achar Thorne 29)

At the place described by Jesus, the apostle found a young boy
who seemed to be dead. He brought him back to life, in the pres-
ence of a number of spectators. The youth, who is described as
'comely', told Thomas that he had seen Jesus: "For 1 saw that man,
as he stood next to you, and I heard what he said to you: "I have
many miracles to perform through you, and there are great works
that 1 shall accomplish through you..."

The next clue to the road taken by Jesus on the way east is locat-
ed ina small town called Mari, 70 kilometres east of Taxila. In this
idyllically situated mountain resort (formerly spelled Murree on
English maps) on the border with Kashmir, a grave has been main-
tained and honoured from as far back as anyone can remember
and is known as Mai Mari da Asthan, the 'Final Resting-Flace of
Mother Mary".

212  

When Jesus reached this area with his group, his mother would
have been over seventy years old, and no doubt tired after the long
journey. Because there is no evidence of a tomb of Mary anywhere
else, it is quite conceivable that Mary was buried here. Jesus would
certainly not have gone on without her otherwise, leaving her
behind unprotected and at the mercy of his enemies. Like many
graves in the Kashmir region, this tomb is aligned in an east-west
orientation, whereas in areas of IsI am ic culture the graves are
always oriented north-south, The tomb of Mary is located on Pindi
Point, a mountain outside the small town, and is revered by the
IsI am ic population as the tomb of the mother of Jesus. (By
Muslims, Jesus, or Issa, is revered as one of the greatest prophets.)
Today the site belongs to a military exclusion zone becaue of its
proximity to the ceasefire line.

The area around Mari was Hindu at the time of Christ. But the
Hindus normally cremate their dead and scatter the ashes; only
monks (sadhus) and saints are interred. Because the grave dates
from pre-IsI am ic (therefore Hindu) times, the person buried there
must have been regarded as a saint.

When the IsI am ic hordes pressed through to northern India in
the eighth century and part of the native population was convert-
ed, the conquerors destroyed many of the places of worship of the
'infidels'. The shrine of Mary's tomb, however, was left unharmed,
presumably because the Muslims were able to recognize from the
special position of the grave that it was a shrine of one of the
'Peoples of the Book' = the Christians or the Jews  whom they
respected (Plate 39).

In 1898, the British army built a watchtower right next to the
monument, but this did not deter the many pilgrims from visiting
the sacred shrine. Then in 1917, the order went out from one
Captain Richardson to raze the tomb to the ground in order to
keep the pilgrims away from the military zone, Loud cries of
protest from the population prompted local officials to intervene,
and destruction of the shrine was halted before it could be com-
pleted. The struggle over the Tomb of Mary is all on record in the
archives of the local administration, filed under the date 30 July
1917. The tomb was restored in 1950, soon. after which the watch-
tower was removed. Today the tomb is "decorated" with the mast
of a television transmitter.

An asphalt road now runs from Mari, through wooded moun-
tain scenery, to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, 170 kilometres
away. About 40 kilometres south of Srinagar, between the villages

After the Crucifixion

213

The Route Jesus took to India.

214  

of Maugam and Nilmag, in a broad open valley, lies the Yus-Marg,
the 'Meadow of Jesus', whete Jesus preached  or so it is stated in
the tradition of the shepherd tribes known as the Bani-lsrael, the
'Children of Israel', who are said to have settled in the area from
722 BC.

The Acts of Thomas go on to tell how the apostle Thomas lived
for a while as a missionary at the court of the Indian King Misdai
in southern India, where he again won many followers and con-
verted a great number of people. Eventually he fell into disfavour,
however, and met the fate of a martyr. When Marco Polo returned
to Europe in 1295 from his twenty-five-year stay in the Far East, he
brought news of the masses of Christians living on the east coast of
southern India, who worshipped the tomb of the apostle Thomas,
and who used a red earth tinted by the martyr's blood to perform
faith healings. The great Venetian traveller also found Christians
on the Malabar coast on the west side of southern India (now
Kerala), who called themselves "Thomas Christians'. Their form of
Christianity 'could be traced back a long way', Marco Folo noted.

But there are much earlier documents which bear witness to the
presence of Christians in India." Tertullian lists India among those
lands 'ruled' by Christianity. Ephraem Syrus (or Ephraim of Syria,
about AD 306-373) tells of the missionary activity of Thomas in
India, and Anorbius {around AD 305) also counts India among the
Christian countries. And one of the dignitaries attending the
Council of Nicea bore the title Bishop of all Persia and Greater
India.

The tomb of the apostle Thomas is revered by Christians to this
day in the southern Indian town of Mylapore near Madras, even
though his bones are said to have been taken from there to Edessa
long since, at the beginning of the fourth century.

In the year 1900, a short article appeared in an English journal
which attracted the attention of the entire theological world. The
report announced that among the ruins of the Indian city of
Fatehpur Sikri {not far from Agra, some 175 kilometres south of
Delhi), a saying of Jesus that was completely unknown in the
Christian West had been found engraved on a wall. Fatehpur Sikri
was for a brief period the capital of the Moghul Empire in India
under the Great Moghul Akbar (1542-1605), only to be abandoned
a few years after it was built. The Great Moghul made a triumphal

entry into the city in May 1601, and to commemorate the event he
had the aforesaid inscription carved on the southern main gate
(Buland Diarwaza) of the grand mosque. Almost twenty years ear-

After the Crucifixion 215

lier, in 1582, Akbar had proclaimed a rational monotheism {Din-i-
Nahi) in an attempt to combine the many religions of India. He had
made a thorough study of Hinduism, Parseeism and Jainism, and
he learned all he could about the Christian Gospels from
Portuguese Jesuits who lived at his court. His plan was to unite
India, which at the time was split into religious factions, with a sin-
gle religion to be based on the essential tenets of all the teachings.
Akbar must have selected this particular saying of Jesus because it
seemed to him to be the best possible formulation of his ideas, or
he would hardly have given the quotation such precedence.

The words are inscribed on the left side of the enormous arch:
way, as one leaves the precincts of the mosque via the main gate,
along with a reference to the occasion it commemorated and the
date:

Jesus {peace be with him) said: "The world is a bridge. Pass over it 
but do not settle down on ie!"

In another place, above the archway of the north wing of the
mosque (Liwan}, the same saying is found in a modified form,
'Jesus (peace be with him) said: "The world is an over-proud
house, Take this as a warning, and do not build on it!(tm)

The Portugese missionaries could not possibly have told Akbar
of this agraphon (Greek 'unwritten': the technical term for a saying
of Jesus not contained in the Gospels) for the saying is not to be
found in any Christian text. Nor is it included in the very extensive
Life of Jesus that the Jesuit Jerome Xavier wrote for Akbar. So it is

quite possibile that the agraphon really does derive from the early
Thomas Christians. The initial words of the sayings, an introducto-
ry phrase that is always the same, is also found in the later IsI am ic
accounts of Jesus, which has led most Orientalists to infer that the
saying came to India via IsI am . But this need not be the case, for
there is conspicuous agreement between these sayings and the far
earlier sayings of Jesus in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, both in
form and in content. The Gospel of Thomas is now accessible in its
entirety thanks to the sensational finds at Nag Hammadi in 1945.
The 'Gospel' is not a coherent narrative like the biblical Gospels,
but a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus (Logia), in an arbitrary
order. Most of the Logia are introduced with the same formula,
'Jesus said.. 

The Gospel of Thomas opens by saying what it is: "These are the
secret words that Jesus spoke while he was alive, and that
Didymus Judas Thomas wrote down. And he [Jesus] said,

214  

"Whoever comes to understand these sayings will not taste

death."

Even if it were not possible to prove that the apostle Thomas
visited India, there is considerable evidence of missionary activity
throughout India long before the Muhammadan conquest.
Pantainos of Alexandria is said to have stumbled on Matthew's
Gospel in Aramaic while on his missionary travels in India in
about AD 180.

The Chronicle of Seert (I section &, para 5) relates that Bishop
David of Basra (a contemporary of Metropolitan Papa who died in
All 316) went to India and preached there with great success.

In about the year 335 (as reported later by Philostorgios, before
AL 433), the Emperor Constantine sent Bishop Theophilus to India
to reform the liturgy and ritual worship of the Church there.

At the end of the fourth century, Symeon of Mesopotamia men-
tions the martyrdom of Indian 'barbarians' for their Christian faith.

In about AD 490, Bishop Ma'an of Persia sent his writings to
India (according to the Chronicle of Seert, [1 section 9),

And finally, Cosmas Indicopleustes has left us a record of a jour-
ney to India that he undertook in around AD 525, giving precise
geographical details. He found Christians on the island of Sri
Lanka, and on the Indian west coast, 'in Male, where the pepper
grows [that is, Malabar], and in the place called Kalliana [Kalyan,
near Bombay], and he states that Kalliana was the seat of a bishop
who had been to Persia."

Although it is evident that Jesus was known in India long
before the arrival of IsI am , statements about him in the Koran are
revealing. The Koran says that Jesus did not die on the Cross,
but survived the attempted execution and then lived in a 'happy
valley".

The 'True' Jesus in IsI am 


Issa, the name commonly used for Jesus in IsI am , derives from the
Syriac Yeshu. The reason that the accounts of the prophet Issa in
the Koran are so extensive is probably to correct the 'distorted and
twisted image in the writings of his followers'. Jesus is thought of
as the last great prophet before Muhammad. He is even said to
have prophesied the coming of the 'greatest of all prophets':

Affer the Crucifixion 217

Ihave yet many things 1o'say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is 'come, he will gide you into
all grith: for he shall nak speak of himself: but whatsoever he shall
hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. (c) 1

Ele shall glorify me: for he shall receive 'of mind, atid shall shew it

ED yond
Ze {John 1612-14)

Muhammad considered himself to be the promised "Spirit of
truth', and therefore felt that he was called upon lo reinterpret the
teaching of Jesus, and to rehabilitate the man' after his supposed
shameful death 'on the Cross; After being relieved of the humilia-
tion of death by crucifixion, Jesus was welcomed into the IsI am ic
fold as the one preparing the way for Muhammad. At the same
lime "The Messiah, the son of Mary, was a Messenger; other
Messengers {like him] Had gone before" (Koran 5.76):

About Jesus' mission, the Koran says: 'And verily, to Moses We
[that is, God] gave the Book and we sent other Messengers in his
footsteps, and we' gave Jesus, the son of Mary, visible signs, and
strengthened him with the Spirit of Holiness (Koran'2, 88).

The Koran clearly rejects the assertion of Christian theology that
Jesus is man and God: f Ľ

People of the Book, do not transgress the hounds of your religion.

Speak nothing but the truth about Allah. Truly the Messiah, Jesus the

sem of Mary, was only a Messenger of God and [a fulfilment of] his

Word which he sent down to Mary, and a gift'of Grace from him. So

believe in God and his Mbssdngirs, and do mot Say: [there are] "Three".

"Farber, and it shall bebetter for you. Truly, God is one God alorie. Ii

is far from His holiness that he'should have a son! i !
: ] * an{Koran Ł472)

And in another place,
They imitate the infidels of eld. God confound them! How they are
led astray! They worship their Tabbis and their monks as gods besides

God, and the Messiah the sor of Mary. And yet they were ordered to
serve the one God only. There is no God but him. Exalted be He above

those whom they diify beside Him! A
Ty : {Koran 930-31)
The Koran cledrly states that Jesus did not die on the Cross, and
that the Jews were deceived: fl I

They denied the truth, and uttered a monstrous falsehood against
Mary. They declared, 'We have put to death the Messiah Jesus the son

218  


of Mary, the Messenger of God." They did not kill him, nor did they
crucify him, but he was made to appear [as one crucified] to them,
Those that disagreed about him were in doubt about his death; what
they knew about it was sheer conjecture . In reality, God lifted him
up to His presence; He is mighty and wise.

(Koran 4,156-157)

The Arabic word for "crucify here clearly denotes "put to death by
crucifixion'. But this passage shows that in the Koran a crucifixion
without the death of the one crucified is not out of the question.
What is more, at the time the Koran was written the Jews them-
selves seem to have been in doubt about whether Jesus really died
on the Cross,

The Koran also does not neglect to provide an answer to the
question of where Jesus went after the Crucifixion: "We made the
son of Mary and his mother a sign to mankind and gave them a
shelter on a peaceful hillside watered by a fresh spring" (Koran
23,51). How well this description of the place of refuge applies to
Kashmir is absolutely astonishing. In another translation, the place
in the mountains is even called 'a green valley",

According to Mirza GhuI am  Ahmad (founder of the IsI am ic
Ahmadiya reform movement, born in Qadian, Punjab, in 1835) the
Koran confirms the truth that Jesus was saved from death on the
Cross, and so from an accursed death that would have been
unworthy of him.

One or two passages of the Gospels seem also to confirm Jesus"
survival of the Crucifixion. Jesus made a statement comparing
himself to Jonah, who had survived being ingested into the belly
of a whale and had then reappeared. If Jesus had been lying dead
in his sepulchre, there would be no parallels to be drawn between
the two. 'For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the
whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth' (Matthew 12:40).

For the Ahmadiya sect (still a popular form of IsI am  today),

Jesus" overcoming of the torment of crucifixion is a fulfilment of

prophecies in the Old Testament. Isaiah's 'righteous servant', for
example, 'was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgres-
sion of my people was he stricken . Yet it pleased the Lord to
bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin,  he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand" (Isaiah 53:8, 10). 'Cut off out
of the land of the living' and some other references to what might
be taken for death notwithstanding, the Book of the prophet Isaiah

After the Crucifixion 219

nowhere says that the promised servant of the Lord actually dies,

Even the prophecies of Psalm 34 say nothing about a death of
the future Messiah: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but
the Lord delivereth him out of them all' (Psalms 34: 19). So God can
hardly have planned for Jesus to die the shameful death of cruci-
fixion. From the traditional viewpoint of the Arab, a man js only
accursed if he turns away from God in his heart, 'becomes black',
has no love for God, is robbed of God's mercy for all time, and is
void of all knowledge of God: if he, like Satan, is full of the poison
of deceit, and is no longer reached by a single ray of the light of
love; and if he rejects all relations with God, and is full of resent-
ment, hate and enmity towards God, so that God becomes his
enemy and turns from him in disgust! Mirza GhuI am  believed that
Christians could not ever have been made fully aware of the hor-
ror and shame attached to the description 'accursed on the wood',
ar they would never have made death on the Cross such a feature
of their worship of the virtuous Jesus.

Some modern specialists in Eastern philosophies are of the
opinion that the truth about Jesus and his teaching has, in some
ways, actually been better preserved in IsI am  than in Christianity.
Arabia, they say, became Christian at the time. The Christian
Muhammad attempted through his message to protect the origi-
nal eich of Jets ape fe pitluierating distortions, but his
message too was distorted after his death just i
bist edb oo just as the teaching of

Jesus in Kashmir

If Jesus really did live in Kashmir for a considerable length of time
= if, in other words, tradition is right in averring that he eventually
died in Srinagar when he was over 80 years old  then it should be
possible to find some evidence in ancient Indian literature of how
he spent the last thirty to forty years of his life.

The trouble is, writers in India in those ancient days refused to
allow foreign influences to impinge upon their own culture, even
in referring to historical events. One example of this is the com-
plete absence of contemporarily written records or descriptions
even of Alexander the Great's imposing military incursion into
India. Specialists in Indian history are agreed that there was no
systematic written history in India before the spread of IsI am ."

EE  

20  

The ancient narratives of the Hindus are called the Puranas
(Sanskrit, parang "old") From the fifth or fourth century BC until
the seventeenth century AD they have been constantly extended
by the addition of further 'stories'. The entire collection currently
runs to eighteen volumes, all written in Sanskrit, the old sacred
language of India. The ninth volume, called the Bhavishyat Maha-
Purarti and written between the third and the seventh centuries
AD, contains a supplement that describes how Jesus came to India,
The description is so clear that there can be no doubt about whe'its
subject is.

The Purana reports that Israelites came to live in India, and
then; inrverses 17-32, describes Jesus" appearance on the scene!'

Shalivahana, the grandson of Vikramajit, came to power. He van.
guished the attacking hordes of Chinese, Parthians, Scythians and
Bactrians. He drew' a bordér between the Aryans and the Mleccha (the
non-Hindus), and ordered' the latter to withdraw to the other side of
the Indus. One day, Shalivahana, the lord of the Shakas, come to a
snowy mountain, There, in the Land of the Huna, the powerful king
saw a handsome man seated on the mountain. He had a white body,
and he wore white garments. i

The king asked the holy man, 'Who are you?

The other, replied; 'Know: that I am Ishaputra [Sanskrit, Son af
God', born of a virgin: proclaimer of the teachings of the barbarians
[Miecchin], which bear thee truth,"

The king then asked him, "What teachings do you mean? I I

The other replied, 'At the end of the Satya Yuga," the Golden Age, I
appeared as Masiha [the Messiah] in the depraved land of the unbe-
ligvers. The goddess Ishamasi also appeared before the barbarians
[Dasyu] in a terrible form, I was brought before her in the manner of
the unbelievers and attained the Mastha-tva [Messiah-hood]. Hear, O
king: I brought the religion unto the unbelievers. After the purifica-
tio of the spirit and the cleansing of the impure body, and after seek:
ing refuge in the prayers of: the Naigama, man will ˘ome' to worship
the Eternal. Through truth, meditation and recollection of 'spirit, man
will find his way to Isha [Sanskrit 'God' who dwells'in the centre of
Light, who remains as constant as the sun, and whe dissolves all fran-!
sient things for ever. Thus was Ishamasi destroyed, and the Form of
Isha was revealed in the heart, ever pure and bestowing happiness;
and I was called 1sha-Masiha.'

After the king heard these words, he bowed before the teacher of
the barbarians and sent him on his way to their terrible land."

The 'teacher of the unbelievers' refers to himself as Isha-Masiha.

After the Crucifixion #74 I

The Sanskrit word Jsha means 'Lord' and is used for 'God". Masiha
corresponds to the word 'Messiah'. Thus Isha-Masiha means "the
Lard, the Messiah', Elsewhere the white-robed man calls himself
Isha-putra, 'Son of God', and says that he was born of a virgin
{Sanskrit kumari). Because there is no comparable legend to be
found before this in Indian literature, the person described has to
be Jesus: The 'goddess Ishamasi' 'to be a general expres-
sion for everything evil and wicked: the name is not found any-
where else in the literature. The word Naigama is evidendy: the
name of some holy scripture(s), but there are no references to
it/ them anywhere else either. Some translators assume that it
refers to the Vedas.

According to Professor Hassnain, King Shalivahana ruled in the
Kushan period from AD 49 to 50. Other commentators put the
start of the Shaka or Shalivahana era at AD 78. i

The only "snowy mountains' in India are in the Himalayan
ranges. Scholars have not yet been able to locate the 'land of the
Huna' precisely, but it must be a region of the western Himalaya,
somewhere between the foothills in the Punjab and Kailash moun-
tain in western Tibet near the Indian border; this vast area also
includes Ladakh.

Further evidence that Jesus visited the Himalayan area is pro-
vided by a grave mentioned by the painter Nicholas Roerich in The
Heart of Asia, published in 1930. The grave lies to the north of
Ladakh in neighbouring East Turkestan, now the Chinese province
of Sinkiang (Xinjiang), nearly 10 kilometres from the town of
Kashgar, and is said to be that of a certain Mary who was among
Jesus! following. The apocryphal Gospel of Philip mentions three
wornen who did not leave Jesus' side after the Crucifixion. All
three were called Mary: his mother, her sister (the wife of Cleopas,
perhaps?), and Mary Magdalene 'who was called his companion',
The notion that this grave near Kashgar is of (one or other) Mary
could very well thus be based on fact. I

"During the latter years of his life in India, Jesus would not have
remained at the same place but would have moved from place to
place as an itinerant minister for as long as his health permitted.
There are, however, many indications that he always came back to
Kashmir. '

About 60 kilometres solth-east of Srinagar and only 12 kilome-
tres from Bijbihara (the place of the 'Stone of Moses') is Aish-
Mugam, a cave extending some twelve metres into the

 le

prod  

mountainside, at the entrance to which a magnificent shrine has,
been erected. The sacred building contains the reliquary of
Zainuddin Wali, an IsI am ic saint, who lived in the cave during the
rule of Sultan Zainul Abidin Badshah (1408-61).

The most prized possession of this saint was a staff that had

been given to him by Sheikh Noor Din Wali. The staff is still there,
considered to be a most valuable relic, and is closely watched over

by the tomb attendants, who always keep it covered with a green

cloth. When the faithful of the region perceive themselves to be
under threat from some emergency, especially an epidemic, they

make a pilgrimage to Aish-Mugam confident of being hel /
the miraculous power of the staff. The dark brown otal is am :

metres long, and 25 millimetres thick; it is made of olive wood,

and is known either as the 'Rod of Moses' or as the 'Rad of Jesus',
Thase who reverence this relic believe that that the traveller's staff

first belonged to Moses, who used it when he made his way to
Kashmir, and was later used by Jesus as a symbol of his Mosaic

heritage. The staff was formerly kept in the Khangahi Muhalla

quarter of Srinagar, before it found a worthy site in Aish-Mugam.

The name Aish-Mugam is said to refer to Jesus. Aish is said to
derive from Isha or Issa, and mugam means 'place of rest (or
repose)'. This rather suggests that the isolated cave might once
have served as a place where Jesus could withdraw for a while to
devote himself to quiet meditation. There is, of course, no longer
anything to prove the truth of such traditions,

But there is evidence for the presence of Jesus in Kashmir that js
much more solid than mere oral traditions: testimonies in stone
which have survived the vicissitudes of the centu ries, more or less
intact, as archaeological treasures. One such lapidary piece of testi-
mony to the presence of Jesus in Kashmir is an inscription on the
Takht-i-Suleiman, the "Throne of Solomon', the history of which is
recounted by Mullah Nadiri, a historian who lived during the rule
of Sultan Zainul Abidin. In his History of Kashmir { Tarikh-i-Kashmir),
written in 1413, he reports that the Temple of Solomon (which was
already a thousand years old at the dawn of the Christian era) was
restored by a Persian architect, by royal command, during the
reign of Gopadatta, son of Rajah Akh. The Hindus noticed that the
Persian was a 'barbarian' who followed a foreign religion. During
the renovation work, four sayings in Old Persian were inscribed at
the side of the steps leading up to the grand entrance:

er the Crucifixion 223
Aft

Maimar een satoor raj bilisht zargar, sal pamjah wa chehar.
"The constuctor of these columns is the most humble Bihishti

Zargar, in the year fifty and four.'

Een satoon bardast khuvaja rakan bin mara.
'Khwaja Rukun, son of Murjan, had these columns built."

Dar een wagat wuz asaf davwa-i-paighambar-imikunad. Sal penjak wa
chahar.

"At this time, Yuz Asaf announced his prophetic mission. In the
year fifty and four."

Aishar yuzu paigharar-1-bani israil ast.

'He is Jesus, prophet of the sens of Israel'

Mullah Nadiri continues:

At the time of Gopadatta's reign, Yuz Asaf came from the Holy Land
up into this valley, and announced that he was a prophet. He epito-
mised the peak of piety and of virtue, and proclaimed that he was
himself his own message, that he lived in God day and night, and that
he had made God accessible to the people of Kashmir. He called the
people unto him, and 'the people of the valley believed in him. When
the Hindus came to Gopadatta in indignation, pressing him to deal
with the man, he turned them away.

I have also read in a Hindu book that this prophet is really Hazrat
Issa," the Spirit of God (God's peace and good will be on him), and he
adopted the name Yuz Asaf. True knowledge is with God: He spent
his life in this valley, k

After his passing, his body was laid to rest in Mohalla Anzimarah.
It is also said that the light of prophecy emanates from the tomb of
this prophet. King Gopadatta ruled 60 years and two months, before
passing away. After him, his son Gikaran mounted the throne and
ruled for the span of 58 years *

King Gopadatta ruled in Kashmir from the year 53 onwards. The
year given in the text as year 54 of Rajah Gopodatta's reign was
AD 107 by modem reckoning. The Rajah's rule thus fell within the
reign of the great King Kanishka of the Kushan dynasty. The text
does not indicate whether Jesus was still alive at the time,

No fewer than twenty-one references in ancient texts have been
found so far to bear witness to Jesus' stay in Kashmir,
Geographical testimony is provided by the names of many towns
and places in Kashmir, for instance:

2M Jestis Lived in Tula
Aish-Mugam Yus-Marg
Arya:lssa i "Yusnag
Issa-Brari Yasuo
Issa-eil Yuzu-dha
Issah-kush Yuzu-dhara
Issa-mati Yuzu-gam
Tssa-Ta (c) Yuzu-hatpura
L-yes-lssa Yuzu-kun
I-yes-th-Issa-vara  Yuzu-maidan
Kal-lssa Yuzu-para
Ram-Issa Yuzu-raja
Yus-mangala Yuzu-varman

At the time when Kashmir, the 'Happy Valley! was
the centre of a great religious, cultural, intellectual and political
revival, The kingdom of Kashmir was the centre of the enormous
Indo-Scythian empire, and was ruled by the great King Kanishka 1
(AD 78-103) of the, Kushan dynasty. JAn excellent statesman, and a
kindly. and wise ruler, Kanishka attempted to unite the. motley
mixture of races in his country through a policy of toleration and
generosity. The combined harmony of Indian and Greek philoso-
phy reached a peak in the culture of Gandhara. The academic cen-
tre of this meeting of cultures was the ancient University ok Tenclly
which was already famed farand wide.

In Buddhism Kanishka saw the perfect matrix for the reiizaton
of his ideas, and sought advice and instruction among the
Buddhist monks. He was dismayed, however, to find that the
Buddha's teaching had fragmented into So many schools and sects.
Following the advice of the philosopher Parshwa, Kanishka sum-
moned the Council of Haran (Harwan in Kashmir) with the aim of
restoring unity to the fragmented religious community by a
process of scrutinizing and formalizing the Buddhist texts. After
more than three hundred years, another Buddhist Council took
place = the Fourth  attended by 1500 scholars and monks. This
Council helped to establish the new Mahayana as a popular, reli-
gion, The priests of the Hinayana were reluctant to lose their privi-
leges, and attempted a final stand in opposition ta the Council, but
they were unable to hold sway. Instead, the Mahayana was finally
confirmed as an independent religion, opening a way to salvation
for all people.

The present version of the Lalilavistars  the Buddhist text which
shows the greatest similarities to the New Testament  also dates

After, the Crucifixigrn 225

from the Council of Haran:

Haran's location, just 12 kilometres from Srinagar, permils the
speculation that Jesus himself might have been present at this
important roseking 'he may even have played an important part in
it.

Kanishka was so impressed with the results. of the Council that
he converted to Buddhism himself, and he turned the administra-
tion of his kingdom over to the community of Buddhist monks;
whose spiritual leader was the great Nagarjuna, Hig) most influen-
tial philosopher of Mahayana Buddhism.

One more clue to the residence of Jesus in ancient Kashmir is
provided by the text of the Rajah Tarangini; a history of Kashmir
written in Sanskrit verses by Pandit Kalhana in the twelfth century,
It counts as one of the earliest genuinely historical records in the
literature of India. The Rajah Tarangini contains a great number of
legends and stories passed down by oral tradition from ancient
times. Many of these narratives were richly embellished, however,
over the course of time, making it difficult now to recognize the
historical; facts. The work. relates the story of a holy. man named
Isana, who performed miracles very similar to those of Jesus, Isana
is said in. addition to have saved the influential statesman Vagzir
from: death on the cross, and (tg have brought him back to life,
Afterwards Vazir became the ruler of Kashmir, and governed for
forty-seven years. According to Kalhana, lsana was the last
reformer in Kashmir, and lived and worked in the first century
AL It seems likely that the Bxdomnan: sar was none other. than
lzsa-lesus,

The Tomb of Jesus in Srinagar

During the Middle Ages. the story of Barlaam and Josaphat was a
literary theme familiar to every educated person. There was a
great variety of translations and versions of the story: throughout
Europe and: the Near East, but the original has been attributed to
St.John of Damascus (John Damascene), a distinguished Arab
Christian, who lived, in Jerusalem in around 700. The story  also
known in some countries as 'The Prince and the Dervish'  may be
quickly summarized. I

Abaner, a powerful king of Indis i told by an astrologer that
hie. handsome and virtuous son Josaphat (or Joasaph) will convert

226  

from IsI am  te Christianity. In order to avert fulfilment of the
prophecy; the king has a magnificent palace built for the prince to
grow up in, completely isolated from the outside world. Despite
these measures taken by his father, Josaphat happens one day to
see a blind man. On another occasion he encounters an aged man.
And finally he sees a lifeless body. Because the young man has
only ever otherwise seen young and beautiful people surrounding
him in the palace, the encounters are completely new experiences
for him, and open his eyes to the realities of human life. In the end,
the prince meets the ascetic Barlaam, who converts him to
Christianity. Although the King tries to dissuade his son from join-
ing the new faith, and even offers him half his kingdom, Josaphat
renounces all worldly riches, withdraws into solitude, and passes
the rest of his life as a devout hermit.

This charming and touching tale is full of such profound truth
that Barlaam and Joasaph were canonized as martyrs by the
Roman Catholic Church in 1583, and given a feastday in the litur-
gical calendar. Under 27 November the rubric reads: 'In India, by
the borders of Persia, Saints Barlaam and Joasaph. Their marvel-
lous works were described by St. John of Damascus." Not for
another century did it apparently occur to anyone that the
story is simply a variant on the legend of Prince Siddhartha's
royal upbringing, which led him to renounce his family and
property and set out in search of Enlightenment. The name
Josafat{Josaphat/ Joasaph sounds so Jewish that no one ever
doubted its Jewish origin. But in fact the the name can be traced
back without difficulty to an utterly different source. John
Damascene's Greek Joasaph is an attempt al the Arabic Judasaf,
itself a borrowing from Kashmir Yusasaph. But the Kashmiri and
Arabic forms are spelling mistakes: the letters I and B are nearly
identical in Syriac, Arabic and Persian, and Judasaf corresponds in
fact to an original Budasaf = a word that is quite recognizable as
Bodhisattva, an 'Enlightenment being', a Buddha in the making.

The exotic-sounding name Barlaam can also be traced back
across the bridge of languages to its actual origin. In Arabic,
Balauhar means the same as the Sanskrit word Bhagvan, 'the
Exalted One', thus 'God'. The linguistic origins of Judasaf-Budasaf
now make it clear that the IsI am ic prophet Yuz Asaf was really a
Bodhisattva.

A Bodhisattva is characterized by all-encompassing, boundless
compassion. He takes on the suffering of all beings, and leads
them to liperation. His one aim is to save all beings from the mis-

After the Crucifixion 227

ery of ignorance, even if this means he has to take on the guilt hir-
self. Jesus also uncompromisingly followed this ideal, accepting
the responsibility for all the sins of the world, and even finally
allowing himself to be nailed to the Cross as a 'sacrificial I am b',
All the characteristics of a Bodhisattva are also to be found in
Jesus.

The embodiment of limitless compassion in Buddhism is
Avalokiteshvara, whose name derives from Ishvara (Lord ruler')
and ava-lokita ('[he] who looks down in compassion [on the
world]'). Avalokiteshvara possesses great and miraculous powers
which enable him to surmount all difficulties and dangers. From
the beginning of the second century, Avalokiteshvara has often
been portrayed in the visual arts with marks on the surfaces of his
hands and feet symbolizing the Buddhist Wheel of Doctrine, Many
Western commentators have recognized the stigmata of Jesus in
these wheel signs, and have seen them as proof that
Avalokiteshvara and Jesus are one and the same.

When the important Fourth Council of Kashmir was held in
Haran near Srinagar under the auspices of Kanishka the Great,
Jesus  if he was still alive  must have been more than eighty
years old. We have suggested that he might even have had some
part in this event, which was to have such great significance for
the Buddhist world, as a highly revered saint  a suggestion for
which admittedly there is no proof, although the known facts
allow scope for such speculation. At any rate, the reforms intro-
duced by the Council were in complete accord with the teachings
of Jesus.

Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, noted a saying of the
Prophet to the effect that Jesus lived to the advanced age of 120
years." There is, it is true, no archaeological evidence for this
claim, but such an advanced age does not seem to be uncommon
among the saints given to an ascetic way of life, who keep the
physical body under the complete control of the spirit. There are
many reports of Tibetan holy men who have attained ages of 130,
150, or even more.

The historian Sheikh Al-Sa'id-us-5idig, who lived until AD 962
in Khurasan (Iran), tells of the two journeys of Jesus to India, and

of the ending of his life as Yuz Asaf in Kashmir in his famous work
Hiemiil-ud-Din. This book was republished in Iran in 1883, and later
translated into German by the famous expert on the East Max
Miller. The book contains a parable of Yuz Asaf that is found in
almost identical form in the New Testament:

228  

People, hear my words: a farmer goes to sow his fields. Then the birds
come and eat the seed. Other seed falls on the path. And behold; some
falls on the rock where there is no earth, and withers away. Some falls
urider the thorns and cannot grow. The seed that falls on the goad
earth, however, sprouts and brings forth fruit. The sower js the sage
andthe seeds are his words of wisdom. The seeds that are eaten by the
birds are like people who do not understand the words. The seeds that
fall gn to the rock are the words 'of wisdom that goin one ear and
carne out the other. The seeds that land under the thorns are those
who actually hear and see, but do not act accordingly. But the seeds
that land on the good earth are like those who hear the words! of wis
dom and; act accordingly.'

An Arabic version of the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, The Book of
Balaihar and Budasaf (pp-285-286), published in Bombay, tells how
Yuz Asaf died:

And he reached Kashmir, which was the farthest region in which He
ministered, and there his life came to a close. He left the world and
bequeathed his inheritance to a certain disciple called Ababid who had
served him; everything he did was perfect. And hé admonished him
and said to him, "I have found a worthy shrine and decorated it and
brought in I am ps for the dying. I have gathered together the flock with
the true face, which had been scattered and for whom I was sent. And
naw [shall draw breath in my ascent from the world, fre˘ing my soul
from my body. Heed the commands that were given to you, and do
not steay from the: path' of trdth but Keep firmly to it 'with 'gratitude =
and may Ababid be the leader.' He then bid Ababid to level off the
place for him; then he stretched his legs out-and lay down; and, turns
ing his head to the north and his face to the east, he passed away >

The tomb of the prophet Yuz Asaf is today located in the middle of
Srinagar's old town, Anzimar, in the Khanyar quarter. The build-
ing later constructed around the tomb is called Rozabal or, Rauza
Bal. Rauza'is a berm used to denote the tomb of a celebrated per-
sonality: someone noble, wealthy ar saintly. The building is rectan-
gular in plan, anda small porch has been added to it. Above the
entrance to the actual burial chamber is carved an inscription
which declares that Yuz Asaf entered the valley of Kashmir many
céfituries ago, and that his life was dedicated to manifesting the
truth. There are two different tombstones in the floor of the inner-
most burial chamber, surrounded by 'wooden railings to which
strong 'beams have 'been added, covered over with a heavy cloth.
The larger tombstone is that of Yuz Asaf, the smaller that of the
IsI am ic saint Syed Nasir ud: Din, who, was buried here as recently.
as in the fifteenth century.(r)

After the Crucifixion 225

1 Giravestone of Jesus uz Asaf

2 hE af Swed Nayir-ud-[in
3 Chigalled Toctpring

4 Signkboard

5 Walkediup entrance tb crypt


6 Susronding cormdor

T Entzance

& Terrace

5 Maoshem cometery

10 Roadway

Plan of the Tomb of fesus

'Both tombstones are aligned northe=south; following IsI am ic cus.
tom, As is also-usual for IsI am ic tombs in India, these tombstones
are just markers: the actual graves are located in'a crypt below: the
floor of the building. A tiny 'opening allows a visitor to look down
into the burial chamber below. The sarcophagus containing the
earthly remains of Yue Asaf is aligned east-west, in accordance
with Jewish custom! This is clear proof that Yuz Asaf could not
have been an IsI am ic saint And among the Hindus and Buddhists,
only ascetics (sadhus) and saints are buried (corpses are formally
cremated). So here lies a person who was revered as a saint even
before the arrival of IsI am , when Kashmir was Mahayana
Buddhist and Tantric Hindu. The etymology of the name Yur Asaf
has shown that it can have derived from Bodhisattva. This means
that a person lies buried here who was revered in pre-IsI am ic
times as a future Buddha, who according to legend came from the
West, and whose grave is aligned in an east-west orientation, like
the graves of the Jews. All this does not prove that it is the body of
Jesus the Nazarene that rests in the ground here, Yet the many fac-
tors that indicate a close connection between Mahayana Buddhism
and the origins of Christianity, the literary and historical evidence

ee 

230 Jesus Lived inn India

that Jesus survived the Crucifixion, and the equally substantial ref-
erences to Jesus' spending the last years or decades of his life in
India, especially in Kashmir, would all together appear to justify
the assumption that the body of Jesus does indeed lie buried in
Rozabal.

It has always been a practice of worshippers to place candles
around the tombstones, When the centuries-old layers of wax were
removed some time ago, a sensational discovery was made: a pair
of footprints was carved into the stone  a widespread tradition in
Asia at the shrines of saints  and beside them lay a crucifix and a
rosary. The footprints were meant to indicate the identity of the
deceased, rather like a fingerprint." As with the swastikas on
Buddha's footprints, Yuz Asaf's footprints feature a unique and
unmistakable mark of identification. The sculptor of the relief has
very clearly shown the scars of the Crucifixion wounds, The posi-
tion of the wounds even shows that the left foot had been nailed
over the right, a fact that is confirmed by the bloodstains on the
Turin Shroud. Because erucifixion was unknown as a form of
death penalty in India, it is not only possible that the body of Jesus
lies buried here, it is very likely indeed!

Many ancient literary works in Kashmir testify to the fact that
Yuz Asaf and Jesus are the same person. One old manuscript
describes the shrine as the grave of [ssa Rooh-Allah (Jesus, the
Spirit of God', the Holy Spirit). Thousands of the faithful make
pilgrimages to this tomb  not just Muslims, but Hindus,
Buddhists and Christians as well. The true importance of this mod-
est shrine has been preserved in the memory of the descendants of
the ancient Israelites to this day: they call the shrine 'the tomb of
Hazrat Issa Sahib', the tomb of the Lord Jesus.

Age-old documents state that a protective building had already
been constructed over the crypt by AD 112. Since that time, the
tomb has been tended by the same family, with the office of tomb
attendant being passed down in an unbroken line from father to
son. In 1766, the keepers of the tomb were issued with a charter
officially confirming the importance of the sacred site. In the for-
mal decree issued by the Grand Mufti (or 'Teacher of IsI am ic reli-
gious law') Rahman Mir are the words: 'Here lies Yuz Asaf, who
rebuilt the Temple of Solomon at the time of King Gopadatta, and
who came as a prophet to Kashmir. He ministered to the people,
declared his unity with God, and was a lawgiver to the people.
Since then his tomb has been honoured by kings, state officials,
high dignitaries and the common folk.'

After the Crucifixion Pk) I

I visited Srinagar in 1984 as a member of a delegation of spe-
cialists and journalists, and our team was formally received by the
Governor of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Farooq Abdullah.
On that occasion I told Dr Abdullah that I would be very interest-
ed and gratified if the sarcophagus could be opened and exam-
ined. Some time previously, 1 had transferred a considerable sum
of money  totalling many thousands of deutschmarks, the gener-
ous donation of a lady reader of the first edition of this book = to
the administrators of the tomb, and the renovation work it
financed was under way at that very moment, so I judged it a
good opportunity to suggest opening up the grave. Governor
Abdullah at once made all the necessary arrangements for the
unsealing and inspection of the tomb chamber, and even assured
us of police protection should any physical attack be made by irate
fundamentalists.

On the evening before the projected tomb opening, an outbreak
of shooting in the old town of Srinagar resulted in the loss of seven
lives. The chief of police thereupon urged us not to proceed with
the operation, fearing a further escalation of the disturbances, and
saying that he could no longer vouch for our safety.

During the 1960s, the unexplained disappearance of a hair of
the Prophet Muhammad's beard that had been kept in the
Hazratbal mosque in Srinagar, regarded as the most sacred IsI am ic
relic in the country, led to a public uprising in Kashmir which last-
ed for weeks. The people of the valley considered the central gov-
ernment in Delhi responsible: the joining of Kashmir with the
Indian Union in 1948 has never been accepted by large sections of
the (predominantly IsI am ic) population, and this has made the
'Happy Valley' a chronic trouble spot.

In the face of such potentially explosive religious sensitivities,
we were unfortunately obliged to postpone the operation we had
planned to some later date.

And up to the time of writing (May 1993), it has still not been
possible to have the sarcophagus opened and studied. Since the
summer of 1989 a situation tantamount to civil war has developed
in Kashmir due to the activities of various guerrilla groups. All
tourist travel in the valley has ground to a halt. The old town area
of Srinagar, in which the tomb is located, is the central lair of the
underground fighters who, for the most part, lie hidden while the
Indian army scours every street corner and alleyway. Regretfully, 1
must therefore strongly discscage any visits to the tomb until the
situation in Kashmir improves. seems to be little prospect of

icv) Testes Lived in' Ireelin

that at the moment. In any 'case; in view of the fact that the site of
the tomb is right next to the River Jhelum and must have been
flooded 'many times over the past two thousand years, nol too
much should be hoped for from the opening of the sarcophagus.

Jesus or Paul?

Many faithful Christians may object that with the arguments
adduce in this book I am robbing Christianity of an essential ele!
ment, an élément that alone can give hope and solace! redemption
from sin {which causes the suffering in 'the world) by the vicarioas
sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, for all those who acknowledge his
teaching. But it is precisely this form of the doctrine of salvation' in
traditional Christianity that rests almost exclusively 'on the work
of Paul, and was never taught by Jesus. Paul taught that the whole
fuiction of Jesils centres on hus sacrificial death, that through the

shedding of his blood he has absolved the faithful of their sins and

released them from chaos and the domination' of Satan. In fact;
Paul does not relay a single syllable of the direct teaching of Jesus.
in his epistles, nor does he tell a single one of his parables. Instead)
he builds up a philosophy of his own onthe Basis of his own per-
sonal understanding (or misunderstanding) of Jesus" teaching.

'Paul insists that on account of the &in'of Adam' all people are
subject to the wrath of God from the start (see Ephesians 2:3), and
are lost without exception (Romans 5:18; 1 Corinthians 15:18), for
all are subject to sin (Romans 3:9; Galatians 3:22; Colossians 2:14).
Ged has given his judgement of condemnation against all people
(Romans 5:16).

'Out of the Good News brought by Jesus, Paul has made news

that is dark and threatening, from the menace of which only he
could show the way out. And this' way out'was the salvation of
humanity through thi sacrificial death' of Christ: "Therefore as by
the offence 'of one, judgement came upon all men to condemna-

tom; even so by the righteousness of ong the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life" (Romans 5:18). And in the letter to

the Colossians he describes Jesus as 'Blotting out the handwriting

of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and
took it out of the way, nailing it to hig cross' (Colossians 2:14),

But the terrible thing about the dectrine of salvation according.
to Paul is his attitide that the individual tan contribute nothing

I

After the Crucifixion 233

towards his salvation in his miserable life: not through any good
works of his own, not through any change of lifestyle however
much for the better, can the individual justify his being saved, rec-
onciled with God (cf Romans 3:24, 9:16; 1 Corinthians 1:29:
Galatians 2:16), i

For according to Paul it is exclusively the grace of God which

brings us to salvation: 'For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest
any man should boast' (Ephesians 2:8-9),

According to Paul a person may be saved merely by the single
act of baptism, becoming a child of God and a completely new
being. Every claim to cooperating in salvation by one's own effort
is, by this teaching, to be regarded as a belittling of the sacrifice of
Jesus, as an attempt to save oneself that cannot but fail,
Conversely, every person, however good and exemplary a life he
may have led, must in this schema be considered lost if he fails to
accept the sacrifice on the Cross for himself personally as his com-
plete salvation. Such ideas are totally alien to Jesus.


Most Christians are of the opinion that the greatness, the
uniqueness, of Christianity stands and falls with this teaching. Yet
it proves to be a fiction, far removed from the ideas of Jesus. Not
even a hint of this so-called Christian doctrine of salvation is to be
found in the Sermon on the Mount  the quintessence of Jesus'
message  or in the Lord's Prayer (the Our Father), or in the tradi-
tional parables told by Jesus!

Jesus was not concerned with constructing a philosophy that
might be based on his life and on his message that might free peo-
ple from the sufferings of earthly existence  he actually lived what
he taught. Toleration at all times, care for the welfare and benefit of
others (human and animal), giving and sharing, selflessness in
helping others to carry the burden of their suffering, a universal
and unconditional love for all  this is the way bf perfection that
lesus demonstrated in his life,

APPENDIX

Chronological Table

The Middle East
BC

Abraham leaves Haran with his tribe

Hebrew tribes travel to Egypt, led by Joseph
Rule of Hyksos ends: start of oppression

Moses; the Exodus from Egypt

Settlement in Palestine

King Solomon

Partition into the northern kingdom of Israel and the
southern kingdom of Judah

The prophet Elijah

Sargon [1 of Assyria conquers lsrael; the ten tribes of
Israel disappear for ever.

Possible reference by prophet Ezekiel to the Temple in
Kashmir

End of the kingdom of Judah

Babylonian Exile (lasting about 50 years)

Birth of Jesus

Death of Herod the Great

AD

Archelaus is deposed; 12-year-old Jesus in Temple
First journey of Jesus to India

Return from India, and entry into Jerusalem

John the Baptist executed

Crucifixion of Jesus

Paul meets Jesus in Damascus and is converted
Jesus with the king of And

Jesus in Edessa and with the king of Nisibis

Appendix 235

Inaiia
BC

Indus Culture (Harappa)

Compilation of Vedas

The 'Lost Tribes of Israel' settle in northern India
Gautama Siddhartha Sakyamuni, (the) Buddha

First writing of Buddhist sutras

The Indian Emperor Ashoka sends Buddhist missionaries
as far as Marseilles (Roquepertuse)

Mahayana Buddhism moulded by the idea of the Saviour
(Bodhisattva)

AD

Jesus stays in the university town of Taxila (Punjab);
appears at the court of the Indo-Parthian ruler, Gundafor
Jesus at the court of the local king Gopananda
(Gopadatta), ruled about 49-109

Jesus travels as a itinerant preacher under the name Yuz
Asaf in Kashmir and neighbouring regions

Jesus meets the local king Shalivahana

Inscription on the Temple of Solomon in Srinagar

Reign of King Kanishka

Fourth B ist Council at Haran (Harwan) in Kashmir
The body of Jesus entombed in Srinagar

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