Photo: Statue of Issa in India
We know little about the life of Jesus Christ, the God-man, in whom divine and human nature are united. Christian books speak of him a lot as the Messiah, Savior, Redeemer and Son of God. But the information about Jesus as the Son of man is fragmentary
The Bible (Gospel of Luke, 2.41-51) describes how, as a twelve-year-old boy, Jesus, together with his parents, came to Jerusalem on the feast of Easter, where his parents then lost him in the crowd, but three days later they found him in full health, quietly talking in the temple with the priests … The next time Jesus' age - about thirty years old - is mentioned only when describing his Baptism in the Jordan River (Gospel of Luke, 3.23). It remains unclear why almost 18 years fell out of the biblical chronology of Christ's life.
The Unknown Gospel
As you know, in addition to the four canonical Gospels, there are many other historical documents (apocrypha) that were not recognized by the official Church and therefore did not enter the Holy Scriptures. So, maybe they contain the clue of where and how Jesus Christ spent almost 18 years of his life?
Our compatriot, journalist Nikolai Notovich, traveled in India in 1887. He wrote a book about this journey, which he published in 1894 in Paris. The book was called "The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, the Best of the Sons of Men." It was published in Russia in 1910.
The book contains the text of the hitherto unknown Gospel, which tells about the life of Jesus (Issy - in Tibetan) in India, originally written in the Pali language.
In addition to the controversial book of Notovich, mention of the Indian period of Jesus' life can also be found in the apocryphal Gospel of Philip, found in 1945 in Egypt. Does this mean that the Christian Church has an insignificant amount of documents that mention the stay of Jesus in India? Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
A reasonable question arises: is it possible to believe the Gospel published by Notovich, which miraculously appeared millennia after the events described in it and which no one had heard of before? Let's dwell on the find of Nikolai Notovich in more detail.
What do we know about Issa?
During his travel to India in 1887, N. Notovich learned about the existence of an ancient Indian manuscript, the so-called "Tibetan Gospel", which was kept in the capital of Tibet, Lhasa.
The document told about the life of the Great Lama Issa (the Tibetan name of Jesus). Continuing his journey, Notovich discovered a translation of this ancient manuscript into Tibetan in the monastery of Himis. The abbot of the monastery read it aloud to Notovich, who managed to write down the text for the translator, and then subjected it to literary processing. The result is a 14-part book that describes the life of Jesus in India.
According to the manuscript, at the age of 13, Jesus left his home in Nazareth and went with a merchant caravan to India, where he studied the ancient Vedas, astrology, magic, and also taught the local population to heal the sick. Then he continued his missionary activity in Nepal and Persia, urging the inhabitants of these countries to abandon the worship of ancient deities, claiming: "There is only one God, and this is our heavenly Father," and then returned to Palestine.
Nicholas Roerich: Issa and the Giant's Head.
Was there a manuscript?
Notovich's book divided the scientific community into supporters of the theory of Jesus' stay in India and its opponents.
For example, the outstanding orientalist Max Müller rightly pointed out the absence of any mention of the manuscript in the collection of sacred texts of Buddhists "Gandzhur" and commentaries to it.
The Indian professor J. Archibald Douglas undertook a journey in the footsteps of Notovich, visited the monastery in Himis, but did not find there either a manuscript or even a trace of the journalist's stay.
However, N. K. Roerich in his book "The Heart of Asia" cites the legends about Issus that he heard during his travels in India and Tibet. He also found out that such Asian peoples as Kalmyks, Olets and Torguts also know about Issa from the "Tibetan Gospel", the same source, a copy of which Notovich found.
Indian scholar Swami Abhedananda, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, a well-known religious leader in India, said that he personally saw the manuscript translated by Notovich in Himis monastery, and was convinced of the correctness of its presentation by a Russian journalist. He also confirmed that the original of the manuscript, of which she is a translation, is in a monastery on Mount Masbur near Lhasa.
In 1939, the American pianist Elizabeth Caspari, who is fond of Buddhism, visited the monastery in Himis, after which she also published her confirmation of the authenticity of the document found by Notovich.
Mysteries of Indian Christology
In 1889, the Muslim Ahmadiyya sect arose in India. Its founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, in particular, believed that Christ did not die on the cross, but plunged into deep meditation, misleading his executioners, who believed in his death. After that, he revived and went to Kashmir, where he preached under the name Issa (in Islam - Isa). Hindus perceived him as the embodiment of the Buddha. He was in India until his death at the age of 120, and then was buried in Srinagar under the name Ruhulla (translated from Arabic as "Spirit of God").
It is noteworthy that in the city of Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, there is indeed a tomb called Rosa Bol ("Tomb of the Prophet"), and Nazrati Yuz Asaf is buried in it (doesn't it look like "Nazarene Jesus"?). For a long time, this tomb, oriented from east to west, according to Jewish tradition, is under the patronage of the local Jewish community.
Indian professor Fida Hassanain in his book "The Fifth Gospel" went even further, claiming that Jesus was in India twice: the first time in his youth, the second time after the crucifixion and miraculous salvation. He mentions the tomb at Srinagar and also gives a detailed list of the Silk Road cities where Jesus stopped on the road to Kashmir.
One of the most interesting publications on this topic is the book by Andreas Faber-Kaiser "Jesus died in Kashmir", where the author gives linguistic parallels between Indian and Biblical names of cities and peoples. In his book, he also cites a prediction from the ancient Purana (Indian sacred book) about the appearance in India of Isha putra (the son of God), who at the age of 13 will come to India to learn wisdom under the guidance of the rishis and siddha yogis, as well as visit the holy places of Hinduism and Buddhism.
So where is the truth?
So, what do we have in the "bottom line"? Firstly, the fact that the biblical canonical texts are silent about both the youthful journey of Jesus to India and his escape from Palestine after the miraculous salvation.
Further, information in apocryphal Christian sources is very scarce, they can be counted on one hand. However, there are facts that, as you know, cannot be argued with. The mention of Jesus' stay in India is found in ancient Buddhist and Islamic canonical texts, as well as in the sacred books of the Persians and Jews.
As you know, Saint Thomas managed to get to India along the roads beaten by numerous trade caravans. This is an indisputable historical fact (he was buried in Madras, and the Cathedral of St. Thomas was erected over his grave). Consequently, such a journey at that time could independently be made by any resident of Palestine.
Descendants of the ancient Jews who settled there after the collapse of the Assyrian Empire still live in Asia, and the roots of ancient Hebrew have been preserved in the names of these tribes and their settlements. It is also interesting that the word for "messiah" (anointed one) in Hebrew, Sanskrit and in Arabic has the same root.
Nicholas Roerich wrote that the image of a fish (a Christian symbol) is often present on Tibetan icons and ritual objects, and a circle in Buddhism is a sacred symbol, just like in Christianity. N. Notovich said that he managed to find out about 63 documents brought to the Vatican by Christian missionaries from China, Egypt, Arabia and India, in which Jesus is mentioned. But the Vatican made it clear to him that the Church was not interested in making these documents public. It is unlikely that the general public will ever be able to see these "good news."
Sergei SUKHANOV
"Secrets of the 20th century" No. 9 2010