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The "lost years of Jesus" concept is usually encountered in esoteric literature (where it at times also refers to his possible post-crucifixion activities) but is not commonly used in scholarly literature since it is assumed that Jesus was probably working as a carpenter in Galilee from the age of twelve till thirty, so the years were not "lost years", and that he died in Calvary.[2][3][4]
In the late medieval period, Arthurian legends appeared that the young Jesus had been in Britain.[5][not in citation given] In the 19th and 20th centuries theories began to emerge that between the ages of 12 and 30 Jesus had visited Kashmir , or had studied with the Essenes in the Judea desert.[4][6] Modern mainstream Christian scholarship has generally rejected these theories and holds that nothing is known about this time period in the life of Jesus.[4][7][8][9]
The use of the "lost years" in the "swoon hypothesis", suggests that Jesus survived his crucifixion and continued his life.[10] This, and the related view that he avoided crucifixion altogether, has given rise to several speculations about what happened to him in the supposed remaining years of his life, but these are not accepted by mainstream scholars.[10][11][12]
Contents
Eighteen unknown years
Jesus followed by disciples, James Tissot, c. 1890
New Testament gap
The ages of 12 and 30, the approximate ages at either end of the unknown years, have some significance in Judaism of the Second Temple period: 13 is the age of the bar mitzvah, the age of secular maturity,[2] and 30 the age of readiness for the priesthood, although Jesus was not of the tribe of Levi.[15]
Christians have generally taken the statement in Mark 6:3 referring to Jesus as "Is not this the carpenter...?" as an indication that before the age of 30 Jesus had been working as a carpenter.[16] The tone of the passage leading to the question "Is not this the carpenter?" suggests familiarity with Jesus in the area, reinforcing that he had been generally seen as a carpenter in the gospel account before the start of his ministry.[16] Matthew 13:55 poses the question as "Is not this the carpenter's son?" suggesting that the profession tektōn had been a family business and Jesus was engaged in it before starting his preaching and ministry in the gospel accounts.[17][18]
Background of Galilee and Judea
The historical record of the large number of workmen employed in the rebuilding of Sepphoris has led Batey (1984) and others to suggest that when Jesus was in his teens and twenties carpenters would have found more employment at Sepphoris rather than at the small town of Nazareth.[19]Aside from secular employment some attempts have been made to reconstruct the theological and rabbinical circumstances of the "unknown years", e.g., soon after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls novelist Edmund Wilson (1955) suggested Jesus may have studied with the Essenes,[20] followed by the Unitarian Charles F. Potter (1958) and others.[21] Other writers have taken the view that the predominance of Pharisees in Judea during that period, and Jesus' own later recorded interaction with the Pharisees, makes a Pharisee background more likely, as in the recorded case of another Galilean, Josephus studied with all three groups: Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes.[22]
Other sources
See also: New Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
The New Testament Apocrypha and early Christian pseudepigrapha
preserve various pious legends filling the "gaps" in Christ's youth.
Charlesworth (2008) explains this as due to the canonical Gospels having
left "a narrative vacuum" that many have attempted to fill.[23]Claims of young Jesus in Britain
The story of Jesus visiting Britain as a boy is a late medieval development based on legends connected with Joseph of Arimathea.[5][not in citation given] During the late 12th century, Joseph of Arimathea became connected with the Arthurian cycle, appearing in them as the first keeper of the Holy Grail.[5] This idea first appears in Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie, in which Joseph receives the Grail from an apparition of Jesus and sends it with his followers to Britain. This theme is elaborated upon in Boron's sequels and in subsequent Arthurian works penned by others.[5]Some Arthurian legends hold that Jesus traveled to Britain as a boy, lived at Priddy in the Mendips, and built the first wattle cabin at Glastonbury.[24] William Blake's early 19th century poem And did those feet in ancient time was inspired by the story of Jesus traveling to Britain. In some versions, Joseph was supposedly a tin merchant and took Jesus under his care when his mother Mary was widowed.[25][26] Gordon Strachan wrote Jesus the Master Builder: Druid Mysteries and the Dawn of Christianity (1998), which was the basis of the documentary titled And Did Those Feet (2009). Strachan believed Jesus may have travelled to Britain to study with the Druids.[27]
Claims of Jesus in India before crucifixion
Louis Jacolliot, 1869
The idea of Indian influences on Jesus (and Christianity) has been suggested in Louis Jacolliot's book La Bible dans l'Inde, Vie de Iezeus Christna (1869)[28] (The Bible in India, or the Life of Jezeus Christna), although Jacolliot does not claim travels by Jesus to India.[29]Jacolliot compared the accounts of the life of Bhagavan Krishna with that of Jesus Christ in the gospels and concluded that it could not have been a coincidence that the two stories have so many similarities in many of the finer details. He concluded that the account in the gospels is a myth based on the mythology of ancient India. However, Jacolliot was comparing two different periods of history (or mythology) and did not claim that Jesus was in India. Jacolliot used the spelling "Christna" instead of "Krishna" and claimed that Krishna's disciples gave him the name "Jezeus," a name supposed to mean "pure essence" in Sanskrit.[29] However, according to Max Müller that is not a Sanskrit term at all and "it was simply invented" by Jacolliot.[30]
Nicolas Notovich, 1887
Main article: Nicolas Notovitch
Nicolas Notovitch
Notovitch's writings were immediately controversial and Max Müller stated that either the monks at the monastery had deceived Notovitch (or played a joke on him), or he had fabricated the evidence.[33][34] Muller then wrote to the monastery at Hemis and the head lama replied that there had been no Western visitor at the monastery in the past fifteen years and there were no documents related to Notovitch's story.[35] J. Archibald Douglas then visited Hemis monastery and interviewed the head lama who stated that Notovitch had never been there.[35] Indologist Leopold von Schroeder called Notovitch's story a "big fat lie".[36] Wilhelm Schneemelcher states that Notovich's accounts were soon exposed as fabrications, and that to date no one has even had a glimpse at the manuscripts Notovitch claims to have had.[6]
Notovich responded to claims to defend himself.[37] But once his story had been re-examined by historians - some even questioning his existence, it is claimed that Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence.[36] Bart D. Ehrman states that "Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax".[38] However, others deny that Notovich ever accepted the accusations against him - that his account was a forgery, etc.
"Notovitch responded publicly by announcing his existence, along with the names of people he met on his travels in Kashmir and Ladakh. . . . He also offered to return to Tibet in company of recognized orientalists to verify the authenticity of the verses contained in his compilation. In the French journal La Paix, he affirmed his belief in the Orthodox Church, and advised his detractors to restrict themselves to the simple issue of the existence of the Buddhist scrolls at Hemis."[39]Although he was not impressed with his story, Sir Francis Younghusband recalls his meeting with Nicolas Notovitch near Skardu, not long after Notovitch had left Hemis monastery.[40]
Levi H. Dowling, 1908
Main article: The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ
In 1908, Levi H. Dowling published the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ which he claimed was channeled to him from the "Akashic Records" as the true story of the life of Jesus,
including "the 'lost' eighteen years silent in the New Testament." The
narrative follows the young Jesus across India, Tibet, Persia, Assyria,
Greece and Egypt.[41] Dowling's work was later used by Holger Kersten who combined it with elements derived from other sources such as the Ahmadiyya beliefs.[11]Rejection by modern mainstream Christian scholarship
Modern mainstream Christian scholarship has generally rejected any travels by Jesus to India, Tibet or surrounding areas as without historical basis:- Robert Van Voorst states that modern scholarship has "almost unanimously agreed" that claims of the travels of Jesus to Tibet, Kashmir or rest of India contain "nothing of value".[8]
- Marcus Borg states that the suggestions that an adult Jesus traveled to Egypt or India and came into contact with Buddhism are "without historical foundation".[9]
- John Dominic Crossan states that none of the theories presented about the travels of Jesus to fill the gap between his early life and the start of his ministry have been supported by modern scholarship.[7]
- Leslie Houlden states that although modern parallels between the teachings of Jesus and Buddha have been drawn, these comparisons emerged after missionary contacts in the 19th century and there is no historically reliable evidence of contacts between Buddhism and Jesus.[42]
- Paula Fredriksen states that no serious scholarly work places Jesus outside the backdrop of 1st century Palestinian Judaism.[43]
Claims of life after surviving crucifixion
Further information: Swoon hypothesis and Islamic view of Jesus' death
The swoon hypothesis
in critical western literature concerns later years of Jesus after the
crucifixion, with a range of hypotheses that suggest later death in Kashmir, Rome or during the Siege of Masada in Judea.[10][11]The traditional Islamic view of Jesus' death does not propose later years of Jesus, since based on the statements in Quran 4:157–158, most Muslims believe Jesus was raised to Heaven without being put on the cross and God transformed another person (at times interpreted as Judas Iscariot or Simon of Cyrene) to appear exactly like Jesus who was crucified instead of Jesus.[44] Some interpretations of Hadith and other traditions have Jesus' life continuing on earth. Ibn Babawayh (d.991 CE) in Ikhmal ad Din recounts that Jesus went to a far country.[citation needed]
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, 1899
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Movement
In his 1957 book "The Wisdom of Balahvar," David Marshall Lang presented evidence of how confusion in diacritical markings in Arabic texts transformed Budhasaf (Buddha-to-be) into Yudasaf, Iodasaph, and then Yuzasaf, and resulted in the Ahmadiyya assertions; also confusing Kashmir and Kushinara, the place of Buddha's death.[47] The Swedish scholar Per Beskow in Jesus in Kashmir: Historien om en legend (1981) also concluded that Ahmad had misidentified traditions about Gautama Buddha in the Bilawhar wa-Yudasaf legend as being about Jesus. Beskow updated his conclusions in English in 2011.[48]
Meher Baba, 1925
Meher Baba (1894-1969)
Main article: Meher Baba
According to Indian spiritual master Meher Baba, when Jesus was crucified, he did not die physically. But, He entered the state of Nirvikalp Samadhi
(the I-am-God state without bodily consciousness). On the third day, He
again became conscious of his body, and he traveled secretly in
disguise eastward with some apostles, most importantly with Bartholomew and Thaddeus, to India.
This was called Jesus resurrection. After reaching India, Jesus
traveled farther east to Rangoon, in Burma, where he remained for some
time. He then went north to Kashmir, where he settled. After Jesus's
spiritual work was completed, Jesus subsequently dropped his body, and
the body was buried by the Two Apostles in Harvan, at Kan Yar, district of Kashmir.[49] This theory of Meher Baba was endorsed by other masters like Swamy Abhedananda, Shankaracharya, etc. Modern Research about the Tomb of Jesus by Nicholas Notovitch, Fida Hasnain, Aziz Kashmiri, James Deardoff, Mantoshe Devji etc. also approve this Gospel.[50][51]Holger Kersten, 1981
In 1981, Holger Kersten, a German writer on esoteric subjects popularised the subject in his Christ Lived in India.[52] Kersten's ideas were among various expositions of the theory critiqued by Günter Grönbold in Jesus in Indien. Das Ende einer Legende (Munich, 1985).[53] Wilhelm Schneemelcher states that the work of Kersten (which builds on Ahmad and The Aquarian Gospel) is fantasy and has nothing to do with historical research.[11] Schneemelcher states that Kersten combines elements from various previous authors such as Notovitch, Ahmadiyya beliefs, and Levi Dowling.[11] Gerald O'Collins also states that Kersten's work is simply the repackaging of a legend for consumption by the general public.[12]Among texts cited by Kersten, following Andreas Faber-Kaiser, is the third khanda of the Pratisarga Parvan in the Bhavishya Mahapurana which contains discussion of "Isa Masih" and Muhammed. However Indologists such as Grönbold note that this section postdates not just the Quran,[54] but also the Mughals. Hiltebeitel (2009) establishes 1739 as the very earliest possible date for the section.[55]
Other theories
A number of other theories have been proposed, e.g., in 1992, in her book Jesus the Man, Barbara Thiering suggested that Jesus and Judas Iscariot had been crucified together but Jesus survived, married Mary Magdalene, traveled around the Mediterranean area and then died in Rome.[10][56]In 1995, Kenneth Hosking also suggested that Jesus survived crucifixion, but stated that Jesus was the Teacher of Righteousness mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls and decades later (73-74 AD) died as the leader of the Jewish forces which unsuccessfully fought the Romans during the Siege of Masada.[10][57]
Mormonism and claims of Jesus in the Americas
According to the Book of Mormon, Jesus visited the American natives after his resurrection.[58] While Mormon scholars have interpreted it to mean Jesus, some historians and archaeologists believe that the story of Quetzalcoatl dates back at least 900 years before the time of Christ, with some signs pointing to 3000 or even 5,000 BC.The book of Third Nephi states:
- "10. Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. (...) 12. And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude fell to the earth; for they remembered that it had been prophesied among them that Christ should show himself unto them after his ascension into heaven. (...) 14. Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world."[59]
Artistic and literary renditions
Jesus in the workshop of Joseph the Carpenter, by Georges de La Tour, 1640s.
Edward T. Martin's book King of Travelers: Jesus' Lost Years in India (2008) was used as the basis for Paul Davids' film Jesus in India (2008) shown on the Sundance Channel. The book and film cover Martin's search for Notovitch's claimed "Life of Issa."[61]
The book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore, is a fictional comedy which tells the story of Jesus' adolescence and his travels to India and China from the point of view of Jesus' best friend Biff.[62]
See also
References
- Maass, Donald (Mar 14, 2011). The Breakout Novelist: Craft and Strategies for Career Fiction Writers. p. 222. ISBN 1582979901.
Further reading
- Fida Hassnain. Search For The Historical Jesus. Down-to-Earth Books, 2006. ISBN 1-878115-17-0
- Charles Potter Lost Years of Jesus Revealed., Fawcett, 1985. ISBN 0-449-13039-8
- Elizabeth Clare Prophet The Lost Years of Jesus: Documentary Evidence of Jesus's 17-Year Journey to the East. Gardiner, Mont.: Summit University Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0-916766-87-0.
... Jesus' putative travels to India and Tibet, his grave in Srinagar, Kashmir, and so forth. Scholarship has almost unanimously agreed that these references to Jesus are so late and tendentious as to contain virtually nothing of value for understanding the Historical Jesus.
St Augustine wrote to the Pope to say he'd discovered a church in Glastonbury built by followers of Jesus. But St Gildas (a 6th-Century British cleric) said it was built by Jesus himself. It's a very very ancient church which went back perhaps to AD37
- Unknown years; Perspectives on Jesus. Biblical; ... The years of Jesus' ministry have been estimated using several different approaches. [250] [251] ...
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