Did Buddhism influence Christianity or vice versa?
Aside from the obvious historical fact that Shakyamuni predated Jesus
by several hundred years, an impressive study by Zacharias Thundy
"convincingly shows that the basic Buddhist texts and traditions are
older than comparable Christian writings, and that borrowings in the
overwhelming majority of cases were by the West from the East rather
than vice versa. He comes to the conclusion that the sources of stories
about Jesus's childhood mainly lie outside the Jewish tradition, and
that this foreign influence existed from the start of writing down the
Gospels... Even [the concepts of] immaculate conception and virgin
birth are foreshadowed in Buddhism... The idea of virgin birth accorded
with moral and spiritual purity, with the absence of sin, was thus
already present in Buddhism."
Although the life stories of Guatama and Jesus differ, abundant
commonalities can be found in the main details of these two narratives:
"We may summarize the pattern in this way. A divine figure in heaven
is aware of the problems of humans. The descent is accomplished
quickly, but since it is descent into a real human body he must enter
materiality as an embryo in the womb of a female human. There is no
human male involved in the conception, and the assistance of the angels
in not sexual. The baby is born in nearly the normal manner. He is
honored by angels and then by humans. Prophets announce that the baby
will become a spiritual teacher and make right the miserable current
state of human affairs. The story continues with the teaching and
mission of the great person, and ends with his ascension to the highest
heaven, or his nirvana in the Buddhist case.
Let's examine one particular episode to illustrate the extent to
which the two stories are similar . In some older Buddhist texts, the
ability to walk on water is listed among the Buddha's main magical
abilities. Because these two episodes of walking on water have so many
consistent components they are listed below.
=B7 Both Jesus and the Buddha are in a solitary place.
=B7 Both are involved in religious practices (prayer/meditation).
=B7 Both pace up and down on the water, described in the same terms in
both Pali and Greek.
=B7 Both are walking on rough or turbulent water.
=B7 Both stories shift focus to the disciple(s).
=B7 On the water is a boat filled with men.
=B7 Those in the boat are astonished by the man walking on water.
=B7 They do not know the man walking on water, and they question him.
=B7 Both Jesus and the Buddha identify themselves with the words "It
is I."
=B7 The men want to take the water walker into their boat.
=B7 Jesus and the Buddha enter the boats
=B7 A disciple (Peter/Shariputra) also tries to walk on water.
=B7 Neither Peter nor Shariputra is as successful - Shariputra loses
his concentration and begins to sink; Peter sinks because of lack of
faith.
The extensive correspondence of these two narratives had led scholars
to conclude that the New Testament authors borrowed from Buddhist
sources. The story of the temptation of Christ also closely follows the
Indian precedent of the temptation of the Buddha, leading many
researchers to see this as another conclusive borrowing. These are just
two examples.
The parallels between the Buddhist and Gospel stories are so strikingly
similar in terms of content, significance, and syntactic
characteristics that one study closed with the following. "This is
not to be understood as a biographical anecdote worked up from one of
Jesus's poetic teachings, as a transformed parable, but fundamentally
as a legend which penetrated the realm of early Christianity from
outside - and we have reason to believe from Buddhism - which was
viewed in good faith as being a simple event in the Master's life and
was handed down by the Christian community until Luke recorded it in
writing and this was taken from his life of Jesus into the long
complete second Gospel.
How much appropriation from Buddhism into the life story of Jesus has
there been? One scholar suggests at least eleven parallels while
another argues for as many as fifty-one. What has become clear, as
research continues, is that there was indeed extensive borrowing from
the life story of the Buddha incorporated into the Gospel accounts.
by G. Martin
Book Titles...
The Original Jesus
Two Masters... One Message.
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