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Was Jesus a Buddhist?

Or at least affected by Buddhist Teaching? Buddhism had reached as far as Egypt by the time of the early Christians. There was a branch of Buddhist Jews in the Holy Land, called the 'Theraputae'.

Ancient Christian doctrine had a lot in common with Buddhism, including the belief in Reincarnation. This remained until c 343 CE when all such references were removed by a corrupt Roman Emperor, at the Treaty of Nicea, where several Western Bishops' lives were threatened if they did not concede to remove the references from the Bible.

Buddhism was spread largely by the Silk Route.

According to Buddhism, 'God' was made into a Stream Entrant, by the Buddha (c 500 years BC). See e.g. the following discourse, the Discourse on the questions of Sakkha (Sakkapanha Sutta), DN 21: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.21.2...

Also the Aquarian Gospel says that Jesus travelled throughout Asia Minor during the 16 or so years he is not accounted for, in the Bible. It is said there that he learned meditation from Indian Rishis, as well as other skills...

6 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Jesus never existed.

  • 1 decade ago

    Could have been - though probably not - the message has been incredibly distorted over the years if he was. More likely he had contact with Hinduism rather than Buddhism. Alexander the Great had a Brahman Priest in his retinue. 500 years after the Buddha's death Buddhism underwent a few changes in India due to the successful resurgence of Hinduism which incorporated and developed a lot of the Buddhist philosophy into its own system. Buddhism responded by becoming more like Hinduism - developing a hierarchy of Gods, Bodhisattvas and Deities for the ordinary people to worship.

    Perhaps those ideas were developed into a western form of Buddhism that was subverted into Christianity. After all a culture that crucifies its holy men and women is probably capable of anything!

  • Yoda
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    This is from one of the earliest known Christian documents written before the word Christian was used to describe Jesus' associates. It was called the Gospel of Thomas by translators and was dug up near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945. It is from a Coptic manuscript which was probably transcribed from Greek during the 4th century, but thought to be written by the Apostle Thomas perhaps during and after Jesus' ministry.

    I am quoting from verse 13:

    13. Jesus asked his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like?"

    Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger."

    Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."

    Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like."

    Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."

    So I ask you: was "the Buddha" actually Buddhist, or is that only a representation of the man which his followers codified into thought?

  • 1 decade ago

    No, Jesus was not a Buddhist. But, He employed the same principals, techniques and attitudes as the Buddha which was an affront to His earthly tribal affiliations

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  • 1 decade ago

    "One by one the tide of time engulfed the sects of the early centuries, until of the whole number only one survived in its primitive integrity. That one still exists, still teaches the doctrine of its founder, still exemplifies its faith in works of power. The quicksands which swallowed up

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    [[Vol. 2, Page]] 290 ISIS UNVEILED.

    every other outgrowth of the religious agitation of the times of Jesus, with its records, relics, and traditions, proved firm ground for this. Driven from their native land, its members found refuge in Persia, and to-day the anxious traveller may converse with the direct descendants of the "Disciples of John," who listened, on the Jordan's shore, to the "man sent from God," and were baptized and believed. This curious people, numbering 30,000 or more, are miscalled "Christians of St. John," but in fact should be known by their old name of Nazareans, or their new one of Mendaeans.

    To term them Christians, is wholly unwarranted. They neither believe in Jesus as Christ, nor accept his atonement, nor adhere to his Church, nor revere its "Holy Scriptures." Neither do they worship the Jehovah-God of the Jews and Christians, a circumstance which of course proves that their founder, John the Baptist, did not worship him either. And if not, what right has he to a place in the Bible, or in the portrait-gallery of Christian saints? Still further, if Ferho was his God, and he was "a man sent by God," he must have been sent by Lord Ferho, and in his name baptized and preached? Now, if Jesus was baptized by John, the inference is that he was baptized according to his own faith; therefore, Jesus too, was a believer in Ferho, or Faho, as they call him; a conclusion that seems the more warranted by his silence as to the name of his "Father." And why should the hypothesis that Faho is but one of the many corruptions of Fho or Fo, as the Thibetans and Chinese call Buddha, appear ridiculous? In the North of Nepaul, Buddha is more often called Fo than Buddha."

    Source(s): Writing is from late 1800s
  • bo k
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    If Jesus was a Buddhist, he would not have mentioned the GOD.

    Buddhists never bother if the GOD exists.

    Source(s): Buddhism
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