Jesus in India, Tibet and Persia - An Account Missing from the Bible

[Music] ah [Music] almost everything we know about jesus is from the bible we can read detailed accounts of so much of what jesus did and said in the four new testament gospels of matthew mark luke and john these gospels tell us a great deal about the events surrounding his conception and birth they also provide a lot of detail about his ministry in palestine and his trial crucifixion and resurrection all of which occurred during the last three years of his life however they tell us very little about the years in between there's a short account in

the gospel of matthew which describes how the holy family traveled into egypt shortly after the birth of jesus to escape the slaughter of the innocents by king herod and returned to nazareth after herod had died but it doesn't mention what happened between these two events there is however an account of that journey which has been faithfully retained in the traditions of the coptic church egyptian christians have kept alive the memory of places where the holy family are believed to have stopped during that journey and have built churches on many of these sites this coptic christian

tradition helps us to fill in some of the details of what happened to jesus in the period between the holy family's escape to egypt and their return to nazareth the gospel of luke records another event that took place in these intervening years when jesus was just 12 years old it tells of how jesus remained behind after celebrating passover in jerusalem whilst his parents began their journey home unaware that he wasn't with them and when they found him not they turned back again to jerusalem seeking him and it came to pass that after three days they

found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors both hearing them and asking them questions and all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers and when they saw him they were amazed and his mother said unto him son why hast thou thus dealt with us behold thy father and i have sought thee sorrowing and he said unto them how is it that you sought me whiskey not that i must be about my father's business dispensed picture of a very assured and independent youth who was already demonstrating an astonishing wisdom

way beyond his years it's therefore surprising that the only gospel reference to the next 18 years of his life is one short sentence in the gospel of luke which states and jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with god and men [Music] it seems unlikely that this remarkable young man who could hold the attention of elders in the temple of jerusalem for three days didn't do or say anything worth recording over the next 18 years is it possible that there is in fact an account of this period of his life to be found

outside of the bible after all the sacred traditions passed down through the coptic christian church record the journey taken by the holy family in egypt so could there be other non-biblical sources that can provide details of what happened to jesus during these missing years [Music] in 1887 a russian explorer and writer named nicholas notovitch made a remarkable discovery which appeared to throw a new light onto those missing years he was traveling through the himalayas and during the course of his journey he stayed at several monasteries where he heard accounts of a great prophet called issa

who had come to india from palestine one buddhist monk described issa as one who was greater than any one of all the dalai lamas and who constituted part of the spirituality of our lord he told notovitch that issa had traveled from palestine and lived and preached in india for many years before returning to his homeland there he was tortured and put to death but his teaching had been embraced and spread worldwide by the descendants of those who killed him notovitch was astonished by this revelation it was clear from these statements that the monk was implying

that this prophet issa was actually jesus could it really be true that jesus had traveled to india it certainly seemed possible especially since issa was the arabic version of the hebrew name yeshua from which we derived the name jesus notovitch then traveled into the himalayas where he visited hemis monastery the largest buddhist monastery in ladakh he arrived during a festival and witnessed a performance of music and dance when this had ended a chief lama invited notovitch to join him for some refreshments they talked together at first discussing the performance which they had just witnessed but

eventually notovitch brought up the subject of the prophet issa the llama confirmed that the story of issa was true and revealed that there were over 80 000 ancient scrolls held in lasa monastery the residents of the dalai lama in tibet many of these recorded the lives of buddhist saints including issa he explained that these were written in pali the sacred language of buddhism and that it was the custom that when a student monk visited lhasa he would make translated copies of one or more sacred scrolls which he would then do an aid to his convent

on his return the monk claimed that the library at hemis contained many of these copies including several which described the life and acts of the buddha issa he told notovitch that should he ever return to the monastery he would find these scrolls and show them to him that return visit happened much sooner than anyone expected a few days after leaving the monastery to continue his journey notovitch fell from his horse and broke his leg he returned to hemis where the monks kindly allowed him to stay whilst he recovered from his injury during the course of

his convalescence the chief lama brought two large bound volumes to him yellowed by time and he read out various verses which related to issa these verses were translated from tibetan by notovitch's interpreter revealing an extraordinary account of the life of jesus as preserved in ancient tibetan sacred [Music] scrolls [Music] the documents told of how a divine child called issa was born in israel to devout parents throughout his childhood he demonstrated a deep understanding and wisdom way beyond his tender years when he reached the age of 13 an age when many jewish males were traditionally betrothed

issa was expected to take a wife rich and noble people began to call it his parents house wishing to make this remarkable child their son-in-law but issa was unwilling to marry instead he secretly left his parents house at night and joined a group of travelling merchants who had embarked on a long journey east they were following an established overland trade route which connected palestine with far distant countries such as persia india and even china israel remained part of this group of travelers until they reached the punjab in india where he parted company with them he

was just 14 years old his fame quickly grew as he traveled south beyond the punjab before living for a time amongst jain devotees just as in palestine word quickly spread about this extraordinary young man who was highly regarded and admired by those he lived amongst despite their pleas that he should remain with them is a left to continue on his journey east stopping at jagannath which we now know today as puri there he was warmly welcomed by brahmin priests and stayed in jagannath for six years he studied the hindu scriptures and traveled around the holy

cities of the region where he became loved by all he happily mixed with the poor instructing them and preaching that all children were dear to god whilst rebuking the brahmin priests for their worship of idols and their contempt for those born into the lowest castes of indian society the priests were so angered by this that they sent servants to find issa and kill him but hearing that his life was in danger issa escaped at night and began a long journey north [Music] after reaching tibet he stayed with buddhist monks perfecting his knowledge of the sacred

pali language and studying and teaching the sacred texts he remained there for another six years before leaving the himalayas and beginning the long journey west back to his homeland of palestine as he crossed rajputana he continued preaching about the need to do good to one's neighbor and to abandon the worship of idols the local people took issa and his teachings into their hearts which once again led to a confrontation with the priests the people began destroying their idols having believed the teaching which issa had given them this caused panic amongst the priests who fled in

order to escape their vengeance isla's reputation grew and spread even to neighbouring countries and so when his journey west towards palestine brought him into persia the zoroastrian priests became alarmed and forbid their people to listen to him but despite this warning the people in all the villages welcomed this earth and listened devoutly to his sermons eventually the priests gave orders for issa to be arrested and brought him before their high priest for questioning him the high priest accused the sir of blasphemy and sowing doubt into the hearts of believers but he in turn rebuked the

high priest saying that he should not worship the son which is just a part of god's creation instead he should worship only the one true god who created the sun and all that is about above and below isa told the priests that by teaching their followers to worship the son which moves only according to the will of god they were leading god's children astray after hearing his so speak the priests decided not to punish him directly but instead took him outside of the city walls leaving him to the mercy of wild beasts however no harm

came to issa and he continued his journey back to palestine arriving there in his 29th year the next part of the story was apparently written some three to four years after the death of issa it was taken from accounts related by merchants who had come to india after traveling through palestine it described how he delivered his teaching to the palestinian people attracting thousands of followers until eventually the authorities became concerned at his popularity and decided to act it told of the arrest trial and crucifixion of issa in similar terms to the gospel accounts of jesus

but with one key difference whilst the bible states that it was the jewish priesthood that was determined that he should be crucified these manuscripts claimed that it was pilots who wanted to put jesus to death and it was the priests who argued for his release there were other departures from the bible story but it's not too surprising to find these differences in the buddhist version of events after all new zealand's death came to india through the accounts of merchants who had traveled from palestine where they'd heard stories of what had happened to issa the version

of events these merchants heard and later retold may well have been tainted with a particular bias especially since the story was being relayed by people of different creeds and cultures [Music] however in spite of these differences it was very clear to notivate that this prophet issa whose life was recorded in the buddhist scrolls was indeed jesus christ [Music] through these manuscripts he'd made an extraordinary discovery of what had happened to jesus during the gospels missing years [Music] after notrevich had completed his journey he wrote an account of his travels and his amazing discovery he showed

it to a cardinal in rome who tried to persuade notovitch to abandon his plans to publish the book by offering him money instead an offer which he refused to accept his book the unknown life of jesus christ was eventually published in france in 1894 and not surprisingly it proved to be extremely controversial some alleged that notovitch had made up the story of issa others claimed that the buddhist accounts of the life of jesus couldn't be trusted and there were even those who claimed that notovitch hadn't traveled to ladakh and questioned whether there was even a

place called hemis monastery in the town of lei one of the most damning critiques of the book came in an article titled the alleged sojourn of christ in india written by professor max muller of oxford university a renowned scholar with a keen interest in sacred texts from the east muller formed an initial impression that the book was a fraud an impression that appeared to be confirmed when local english officers made on-the-spot inquiries in ladakh on muller's behalf they reported that no russian by the name of inotevic had passed through lay and there was no record

of any traveler resting in hemis monastery while recovering from a broken leg another blow to notovitch's account came in 1896 when james archibald douglas an english professor from the government college in agra traveled to hemis monastery in order to check notovitch's claims according to douglas the chief llama denied the existence of any manuscripts that mentioned the name of issa either in hemisph or any other buddhist monastery he also claimed that during his 15 years as chief lamarine hemis a period which covered nortovich's visit no one had been allowed to translate any of the monasteries manuscripts

[Music] despite notovitch's robust attempts to defend his integrity his reputation and the credibility of his book had both been severely damaged [Music] many years later however evidence to support his claims began to emerge when other travelers stayed at hemis monastery in 1922 swami abed a disciple of the indian saint ramakrishna left the united states where he had spent several years living and teaching and he set out to cross the himalayas on foot from tibet to kashmir he stopped at hemis monastery where the monks confirmed all the key details concerning notovitch's convalescence at hemis like notobich

he was shown a tibetan manuscript which gave an account of the life of issa and he wrote down several passages from these documents which he later published in a book written in bengali titled journey into kashmir and tibet further corroboration of the notovitch account quickly followed professor nicholas roerich was a well-known russian philosopher writer and artist who extensively explored the himalayas during the 1920s during those travels he came across the legend of christ's visit to india on several occasions and came across trees and ponds where jesus is said to have stopped to rest during his

travels and a cave where he is believed to have meditated these legends were confirmed by chief lama at a monastery in ladakh there he was shown a manuscript containing many of the passages that notovitch and abedinanda had recorded as well as other texts one of which told of how jesus was welcomed to tibet by a buddhist sage named mintzi and how he taught and healed the sick in ladakh and the third confirmation of the existence of the scrolls came in 1939 when gloria gask who was head of the international fellowship of faith traveled to tibet

to study buddhism with her friend elizabeth caspari their journey took in hemis monastery where they were warmly welcomed during the course of their stay the chief librarian brought out three parchment books protected between pieces of wood and wrapped in green red blue and gold brigade material with great reverence the chief librarian unwrapped one of the books and presented it to them saying these books say your jesus was here he allowed the two astonished ladies to photograph him holding these sacred texts so is it true that there are buddhist manuscripts that document the life of issa

and if there are is their story of issa to be believed as we've seen the gospels don't make any mention of what jesus did between the ages of 12 and 29 but christians have always been told that jesus was a carpenter working in palestine during those years clearly the buddhist story of jesus journey into the east completely overturns that 2000 year old christian tradition so is it really possible that unlikely as it may seem jesus did indeed travel through persia india and tibet there are several reasons why we might choose to question this account can

we be sure that the buddhist manuscripts definitely exist after all as we've already seen there have been occasions when the chief lama himself has denied their existence if they do exist can we trust that the buddhist account of the story of issa is true and even if we accept it is true can we be certain that issa and jesus are the same person [Music] it's possible that the buddhists mistakenly confuse the stories of two different people the jesus we know from the bible and another completely different holy man from palestine who perhaps travel through india

then we have the journey itself with such a long journey across difficult terrain have even been feasible at the time of jesus and finally would the devout sons such as the 13 year old jesus really have left home to travel alone in strange lands for 16 years leaving behind his devoted parents family and friends let's examine these one by one if nicolas notovitch had chosen anyone to corroborate his story he couldn't have asked for better witnesses than those who followed him to hemis swami abed and ander had spent many years living and traveling through india

as a monk before coming to the west to teach the vedanta hindu philosophy he was highly regarded as one of the most remarkable spiritual and cultural ambassadors of india to the outside world professor nicholas roerich was a renowned artist writer philosopher and mystic who was nominated three times for the nobel peace prize in recognition of his efforts to promote international peace through art and culture and gloria gasque was the head of the british branch of the international fellowship of faith an organization formed to promote an alliance between spiritual seekers whilst elizabeth caspari founded montessori schools

and training centres throughout the united states now we might not know a great deal about the character and integrity of nicholas notovitch but it's clear that those who confirmed his story had impeccable reputations it's hard to imagine that any one of these people would have made fraudulent claims about seeing the sacred buddhist manuscripts covering the story of issa let alone all of them it's still intriguing however that these later visitors to hemis should have been shown the issa manuscripts when attempts by muller and douglas to verify their existence were met with firm denials there are

however reasons why the monks would have given very different responses the journeys through india made by swami abed and ander nicholas rorich and elizabeth caspari and gloria gasp all had a spiritual purpose this is in stark contrast to the visits to hemis by both professor douglas and the english officers who made enquiries on behalf of max muller their sole purpose was to question the monks to establish whether notovitch's claims were true this direct approach wouldn't resonate well with buddhist monks who traditionally will test the motives of any questioner before revealing sacred truths and the fact

that these people were also english officials would have only added to their caution after all many of india's greatest treasures had been plundered during the years of british rule with precious jewels artworks and cultural artifacts finding their way into british museums as well as personal collections of the rich and powerful the monks must have been aware that the manuscripts shown to nurture beach would be coveted by the british and so it's perhaps no surprise that they would have flatly denied that they existed so it seems we should accept that the manuscripts do exist but what

about the content is that necessarily true the buddhists who originally wrote these accounts could have based them on ancient myths or unproven local traditions they could even have invented the whole story but again this is unlikely the manuscripts held in hemis were tibetan language copies made from ancient scrolls stored in the principal buddhist monastery in lhasa these originals were written in pali which is the sacred language of buddhism it's inconceivable that buddhist monks would have recorded the story of issa in that sacred language if there had been any doubt that it was an accurate account

of the life of a deeply revered buddhist saint so we can be quite sure that the buddhist monks believed their story or this is life to be true so are issa and jesus one and the same person [Music] the interactions between issa and the various spiritual leaders that he meets is definitely consistent with the personality and beliefs of jesus that we find in the bible the gospel of matthew states that when jesus was asked which is the greatest commandment he replied i shall love the lord thy god with all thy heart and with all thy

soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself the story of issa shows his commitment to upholding these commandments and his courage in standing up to priests who violated them through their teachings and actions this brought him into direct conflict with priests on three occasions during his journey in jagannath the brahmin priest tried to have him killed when he rebuked them for worshiping idols rather than the one true god and for their mistreatment of the poor priests in

rajputana also wanted to take vengeance against him when they found he was preaching about the need to do good to one's neighbor and encouraging the people to abandon their idols and in persia when he was accused and brought before the zoroastrian high priest issa had the courage to denounce their worship of the sun accusing the priests of leading people away from god [Music] all of these acts are entirely consistent with the actions of the biblical jesus who had the courage to openly condemn the jewish chief priests and scribes for hypocrisy and for failing to practice

what they preached like the priests who he'd met on his travels they conspired to have him killed this time culminating in the crucifixion so the accounts of issa and jesus show them to be characters with the same spiritual principles the same courage and the same willingness to directly oppose any priesthood that was leading their followers astray this makes it very likely that issa and jesus are indeed the same person is it realistic that he could have traveled such a huge distance to these far distant lands well although the journey from palestine to india and tibet

involved traveling several thousand miles there was a well traveling caravan route between these countries known as the silk route even in the time of king solomon merchants used this route to travel to and fro between israel and the far east trading goods it's quite plausible that jesus could have joined a group of such merchants and so it's certainly possible that he could have made this long-distance journey [Music] and finally is it conceivable that jesus would have left home on its own at the tender age of 13 to travel with strangers to a far distant land

it's hard to imagine a 21st century child behaving in that way but jesus was living in very different times and of course he was no ordinary child we saw earlier that the gospel of luke tells us how at the age of 12 jesus was astounding scholars in the temple this account makes it clear that jesus was very independently minded even at that young age and very happy to sit and discuss spiritual matters for days without needing the presence of his parents it's also clear from later passages in the bible that jesus was aware that his

ministry in palestine had to wait until the right time for the divine plan to unfold the gospel of matthew states how jesus spoke to the multitudes about john the baptist saying for this is he of whom it is written behold i send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee similarly the gospel of john gives an account of jesus first miracle at a wedding in canaan galilee just before the start of his ministry when his mother mary told him that the horse had run out of wine jesus initially responded saying woman

what does this have to do with me my hour has not yet come but he then agreed to mary's request by turning water into wine even as a 13 year old child jesus must surely have been aware of the need to allow this divine plan to take its course that he should keep a low profile until john the baptist had prepared the way only then would it be time for jesus to begin his ministry from the bible we know that the twelve-year-old jesus had amazed all who had heard him speak with teachers in the temple

of jerusalem and from the buddhist account of his life we hear how he had already gained the admiration of the local populace to such an extent that noble families were calling on his parents to arrange a marriage for him there was surely a risk that his reputation may spread even more widely amongst the people that were waiting in expectation for the coming of their messiah by traveling far away he was able to avoid the attention of those in palestine until the appointed time whilst immersing himself in other spiritual cultures in order to grow in wisdom

and stature and in favor with god man the evidence strongly suggests that the buddhist account of the life of issa is indeed a true account of the years which jesus spent traveling in the east and fills in the large gap in the biblical account of his life but one mystery does remain however if this is true why isn't this story taught to christians catholic children have traditionally been raised to believe that theirs was the only true faith and that the religions followed in the east were pagan it clearly would have been impossible for the church

to maintain that position whilst at the same time teaching that jesus spent more than half his life living amongst the priests and followers of those religions and of course if the vatican did know about his journey east they certainly wouldn't have any wish to reveal it there has however been a changing attitude amongst the church hierarchy in recent years indeed in 2018 the pope hosted a conference involving representatives of the buddhist hindu sikh and jain religions he's urged buddhists and catholics to come closer to advance in knowledge of one another and in esteem for their

respective spiritual traditions and offer the world a witness to the values of justice peace and the defense of human dignity who knows perhaps the day will come when the church itself will tell the story of how jesus spent his time during those missing years from the [Music] bible [Music] you