"Was Jesus a Student of the Buddha?"

[00:00:05] The young man sitting across from me, my office was wearing a necklace with a psychedelic mushroom pendant, a tie-dye shirt and vans shoes. But on his left foot he had a white shoe and on his right foot was a black shoe to signify the end and the young.

[00:00:22] He had asked me to sit down to discuss the teachings of Christ as he was on a spiritual journey of sorts and had found that Jesus might be a suitable guru to receive wisdom from. Now I love conversations like this and I feel like I'm unique

[00:00:35] ly suited to have them. But often they really can be exhausting for me because of questions like this one that seems to find their root and the baseless claims that Jesus was ultimately a Buddhist, Hindu or Taoist who wreak package these teachings in a first century Jewish style.

[00:00:52] That conversation ended after walking to that young man through what the Bible actually instructs regarding Jesus. Yet I seem to hear questions like his routinely echoing through social media. I'm going to message me to tell me of a coworker or fellow student who is boldly

[00:01:07] making these claims and asserting that they are factual and reliable. If these claims were true and by that I mean verifiable or trustworthy, then they would of course be earth-shattering for the two billion Christians who believe their faith

[00:01:22] stems from a Jewish carpenter who was actually the Messiah and the God in the flesh. To believe that Jesus sat at the feet of Buddhist monks in India where that he was swayed

[00:01:32] by Buddhism, having made its way to Israel is to assert that Jesus is not who we think he is and his message is not the unique life-saving good news. We have believed it to be but instead is a repurposed Dharma or Tao.

[00:01:48] Yet the question remains are these claims reliable and is it true that Jesus is not as unique as we have been told that he is? This is an excerpt from an article that I wrote that's available to you on the all things all people blog.

[00:02:07] It's linked in the show notes and it's called was Jesus influenced by Eastern religions. I simplified it for the sake of this podcast was Jesus a student of the Buddha because that's the question I get all the time.

[00:02:20] You'd be surprised actually how often I get that question or a question like it. I teach world religions at the university level and I have students everyone who all say that they've heard someone say that Jesus was obviously influenced by Buddhism or Taoism or Hinduism would have you.

[00:02:39] I had always avoided that question not because I thought it was intimidating but because honestly I thought it was foolish I thought obviously not. In really when you study Eastern religions, which I personally am really passionate about

[00:02:53] studying Eastern religions, you really begin to see it on your own. There's no way he could have studied Eastern religions is we're going to talk about in today's episode but we have to kind of answer this question because more and more especially I think

[00:03:07] in the Western world as young people especially are like this young man who is sitting in my office. They're looking for a guru and they're wondering if Jesus can be it and they're wondering if Jesus can provide for them.

[00:03:21] The things that they see Eastern gurus and Eastern teachings provide for them or even as the new age and the occult is on the rise here in the United States. They wonder if Jesus can fit in that same way like a crystal or like a preferred book

[00:03:40] of charms and spells and ultimately what we see in this question is what we see in so much of the study of religion. Hey does it work for me? Does it fit what I already believe what I already want?

[00:03:55] So we seek out to address this but as is the case at ATAP, we don't just seek it out to repeat what we've heard other people say let's really look so what does it even mean for Jesus to be influenced by the quote Eastern religions?

[00:04:08] So first a disclaimer by all accounts Jesus was actually Eastern and this is something Westerners get wrong. It's like all the time and it drives me crazy. The divide between East and West is often used to some politically and Abrahamic faiths

[00:04:23] that being Judaism Christianity in Islam have often got included in the divide as Western. Yet they find their origins in a world completely foreign to that of the 21st century Westerner. Too often the Abrahamic faiths are identified as Western because Western civilization was

[00:04:41] largely Christian and then his largely been impacted by Islam. So often especially Christianity in Judaism are seen as the hallmark religions of the Western world but the world in which these faiths came about was for all in terms of purposes Eastern.

[00:05:00] So we need to realize that first century Israel was certainly a place where the world view more likely actually resembled that which we would call Eastern today. So we use Eastern as an adjective, of course we are usually referring to Hinduism, Buddhism,

[00:05:15] Chinese religions and their various offshoots and schools of thought and these are the schools of thought or religions that people claim Jesus has been influenced by or even as you're going to find out has studied actively and some people actually make the assertion that Jesus

[00:05:30] may have gone in his lost years to places like India to study. So let's start with the first assertion that is probably the easiest to negate which is that Jesus might have been influenced by Taoism.

[00:05:48] And if you don't know Taoism is a Chinese religion, a Chinese philosophy really and the word Tao or Tao you see it either sometimes DAO or T-A-O. It means way and the goal in the teachings found in the Tao is to live in harmony and

[00:06:08] balance with the natural world and it has a spiritual life force called Chi which animates and inhabits all things to give it breath or life. And so the idea that Jesus was influenced by or a proponent of Chinese Taoism really can be cast aside quite quickly.

[00:06:25] Not only is there absolutely no evidence of Taoism having been conflated with the message of Jesus, the two sets of ideas run counter to one another in almost every way. In my opinion what has likely caused any suggestion of the two having been tied to one another

[00:06:42] is the semantics found within each in the similar use of words and ideas. You see the word WAE of course being substantially used in Taoism because Tao means WAE. And so while this might seem similar at first glance to the Christian teaching on the Holy Spirit

[00:06:59] you see that the Chi animates and it habits things or gives it breath. So we see a good example here that oftentimes these assertions, these assumptions are made because there's a similarity.

[00:07:11] People say how the Chi animates with breath in the Holy Spirit animates in a way that we call breath, right? Actually the study of the Holy Spirit and new mythology. If you think about your dad's pneumatic air pump, right? It's the prefix Numa means air or breath, right?

[00:07:30] So yeah there is a similarity. But what we have to stop at is that while there might seem similar at first glance to the Christian teaching on the Holy Spirit in this case we see within Taoism no aspects

[00:07:43] of personality within the Chi as opposed to the deeply personal and ultimately divine Holy Spirit found in the New Testament. This is one small example of the fact that just because there are similarities between two

[00:07:57] systems of faith, two worldviews does not mean that they came from the same source. And that suggests that they do especially as boldly and as confidently as some of these people have and you'll see really some bold and confident claims here in a minute.

[00:08:14] It's really just reckless and we're actually going to talk about that quite a bit is the recklessness that is required to make some of these to make some of these claims. And so the similarities and some antics, but there's no historical evidence to suggest

[00:08:29] that Jesus was influenced by Chinese Taoism or was it even a really familiar in his lifetime with any Chinese philosophy. And more substantial and more popular and prevalent claims are that Jesus would have been influenced by the religions of South Asia.

[00:08:46] It's a most commonly claims like the ones that prompted this episode are made in regards to the religions of South Asia having played a role in shaping the early Christian message even going so far as to say that Christ himself spent his adolescence under the tutelage

[00:09:03] of those in South Asia who could instruct him in the ways of Hinduism and Buddhism. And there's an article from the Society for Buddhist Christian Studies by James Hanson. And actually as far as I can tell this article is really where most of this argument comes from.

[00:09:24] And Hanson made the argument that not only was Jesus certainly influenced by Buddhism, but that quote, there is convincing evidence that he was also a Buddhist. So discussing the similarities between Jesus' teachings and those attributed to the Buddha,

[00:09:42] Hanson said quote, they're so striking that even if no historical evidence existed, we can suspect that Jesus studied Buddhist teachings and that the prophecy and legend of Jesus was derived from Buddhist stories. Many of the proponents of these arguments call into question, Jesus' lost years between

[00:10:02] his birth and public ministry around 30 years old. There's a text called the Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, Russian journalist Nicholas notovitch claimed to have visited a monastery in Kashmir, India, North India where he found texts that suggest Jesus traveled there around the age of 14 and returned Israel

[00:10:23] in his late 20s. It's important to note though, these claims, the existence of these texts and notovitch's entire visit have been shown to be a hoax. So despite the lack of history of city behind these claims, their legend has lived on as

[00:10:37] a popular myth that gets repeated to people like me in offices like Mon, by young men, like the one who is sitting on my couch. And in fact some of the best arguments for Jesus' travel outside of Israel are simply just arguments from silence.

[00:10:52] But I mean by that is because we can't account for what Jesus was doing in those quote-unquote lost years other than the instance of him being left in Jerusalem by his parents. Because there's essentially a 30 year gap that we don't know what he did, he seems to

[00:11:11] have been influenced by Buddhism so people are coming to the conclusion that he was obviously influenced by Buddhism. And his article, Hanson once again seems to argue that that Jesus' lost years must have involved some instruction in outside faith because of the wisdom Jesus demonstrated

[00:11:30] later in his life. Hanson refuses to believe that a carpenter with little spiritual education could be the wise Messiah we meet in Jesus. He says quote, being one of the greatest moral prophets to ever bless humankind, he would

[00:11:44] not have spent his formative years contented to be a carpenter in his boyhood community, which would have nullified everything about his prophecy as the Messiah, his anointed birth and his prodigious childhood. So let's pause and let me go ahead and say this.

[00:11:59] Some of the smartest, most Holy Spirit filled guys I know are tradesmen. And so never mind the fact that what Hanson is suggesting here if somehow you've missed it. What he's saying is that, hey we have Jesus being prophesied as the Messiah, as this important figure.

[00:12:16] And then we have these lost years and then we have him show up in his early 30s and man he's wise, he's doing these miracles, he has these earths chattering teachings. There's no way he was just a carpenter. How ridiculous of a notion is this?

[00:12:36] This is what American academic scholarship has resulted to is that we have a whole arguments being founded on arguments from silence with logic that is based on the fact that, hey, how could Jesus be so wise if he was just a construction worker?

[00:12:55] I mean this is really like I'm an academic but man this is why people hate academics. Is because this guy is basing this whole idea of never mind the fact that Jesus, the Bible says he's the son of God, that the Bible gives an answer for this.

[00:13:11] This James Hanson refuses to even recognize that and instead says, well hey, a mortal likely explanation with no evidence is that he left Israel and he left that life and he went and studied under Buddhist monks.

[00:13:27] This is reckless, this is ridiculous and it's foolish, it's dangerous but people are falling under this trap unfortunately and this is the state of American academia and it's degenerative, it's devolving truth and the pursuit of truth in the American university. It's unfortunate. So like I said, it's fair.

[00:13:53] Listen if Hanson and other non-Christians are to reject the divinity and the messiah ship of Christ because they don't believe it, right? That's a faith claim, that's a truth claim, that's fine, that's fair. But to reject the Bible suggested answer to Hanson's claim that the source of Christ's

[00:14:12] wisdom is his divinity, is the fact that he's the son of God, he's the son of man, he's the Messiah, to so to reject that. But then also while celebrating that wisdom, right? The whole reason that we're even having this conversation is because they see in Jesus something

[00:14:31] amazing, something to be celebrated. They see somebody that the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount were earth shattering, that he upended the social order. So on one hand it's hey look at how amazing Jesus is but what the Bible suggests about him can't possibly be true.

[00:14:49] This is called cognitive dissonance. The fact that you believe two different things that do not work together at all and in the two different things are Jesus is worth believing in in some form of fashion.

[00:15:02] He's worth admiring, he's worth following in some respect and all the information we get about Jesus by the way comes from the Bible but the Bible can't be trusted. And so what we have here is somebody who wants to have their cake and eat it too.

[00:15:19] And this is really the genesis of a lot of these arguments. Is that hey I see something in Jesus that I really, really like but I don't want everything that comes with him. I don't want the sunship. I don't want the Jewish background.

[00:15:32] I don't, I want the Beatitudes, I want the Sermon on the Mount but I don't want the cross and I don't want the resurrection. And you can't do that. You just can't. So the whole argument that Jesus must have laughed and gone to India, this is pure speculation

[00:15:47] and it's dangerous and it's reckless, it's foolish and it's leading people astray and it's not only leading people astray in a way of faith but it's leading people astray in an epistemological way. It's teaching people that it's okay to form and fashion truth, however you see fit

[00:16:06] and that you can make these purely speculative arguments if they make sense to you because that's really what Hanson's done here. And so what do we do then? I teach world religions, I travel around the world to teach world religions, I write these

[00:16:21] things and I'll go ahead and say it can seem like on the surface that there are similarities between not just the Buddha and Jesus but a lot of religions in Jesus but specifically

[00:16:32] the issue that we have to deal with quite a bit as Buddhism in some ways rises in popularity in the West is what do we do at the similarities in the sayings between Siddhartha, Gautama, the Buddha and Jesus.

[00:16:48] There's a book called Jesus and Buddha, the parallel sayings in it the liberal New Testament scholar Marcus Borg attempted to demonstrate the supposed similarities between the sayings of Siddhartha, Gautama, the Buddha and Jesus so I just want to list a few out for you.

[00:17:04] So here's one from the Dhamma Pata, 1311, here's the Buddha. The Averricious do not go to heaven, the foolish do not extol charity, the wise one however rejoicing in charity becomes thereby happy in the beyond. And here's Jesus's parallel saying according to Borg, if you wish to be perfect

[00:17:25] go, sell your possessions and give them money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. That's Matthew 1921. Here's another, here's the Buddha from Dhamma Pata, 154. That us live most happily, possessing nothing. Let us feed on joy like radiant gods.

[00:17:44] And then in Luke 6 verse 20, Jesus said, blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God. And lastly from La Leda Vistara Sutra, 18 Buddha during the six years that the Bodhisattva practiced austerities, the demon followed behind him step by step, seeking an opportunity

[00:18:03] to harm him. He found no opportunity whatsoever in one way discouraged and discontent and Borg suggests that Luke chapter 4 verse 13 is parallel when it says, when the devil had finished every test he departed from him until an opportune time.

[00:18:20] So I'll leave it up to you, go back and listen to those things or you can go read the article, I have them printed out in the article and see what you think but in evaluating these

[00:18:29] seemingly parallel things, there are quite a few conclusions that we could come to other than a supposed Buddhist influence. The first and possibly most important one that many proponents seem to overlook and would

[00:18:43] be almost impossible for a young person who hears these claims to realize is that many of the most reference parallel things come from text within the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism and the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism came after the life of Christ.

[00:19:01] Mahayana Buddhism developed much later than the life of the Buddha even, and in most ways it's largely departed from the original teachings of Sadātaka-tama. So not only could these quote unquote sayings loosely attributed to Buddha instead actually

[00:19:17] be influenced by Christ, it is incoherent to claim similarities between Gautama and Jesus from within a tradition, the Mahayana tradition that has hugely moved away from the most attested two teachings of Gautama basically. The Mahayana tradition, if you study the teachings of the Buddha in what's called

[00:19:34] the Pali Canon which is the most attested to an oldest Buddhist scriptures with the Mahayana Buddhists teach is hugely different than what the Buddha teach or what the Buddha taught. From the Pali Canon, the earliest Buddhist texts in the ones most often used within the

[00:19:54] Taravada Buddhist tradition which is a more traditional branch of Buddhism and it's remained most aligned with the teachings of Gautama. We see that many of the parallel things are not actually as similar as someone like to suggest they are.

[00:20:09] So when they're closely compared they sound similar but often they're either saying very generalized things that are found in most spiritual maxims were ultimately saying different things altogether. So for instance the reference from Dhamapata 154, quote unquote like radiant gods, is quite

[00:20:28] different from Christ's charge that the poor would one day possess the kingdom of God. So here we find possibly you know the largest issue with any claim of Buddhist Hindu or Chinese influence on Jesus Christ ultimately suggested a worldview that runs completely

[00:20:43] counter to much of what is found in these Eastern religions. What Christ suggested is unique and so does it sound similar at times to things that other spiritual teachers have said sure? And that's fine you know but Christ introduced so many new ideals, so many earth shattering

[00:21:04] ideals that these other religions are merely just a shadow of. So here's a couple questions then right if we're really talking about let's not just cherry pick certain teachings or sayings of Jesus and say hey look he used similar words

[00:21:24] that the Buddha used and then make an entire worldview based off the fact that oh Jesus must have traveled to North India. Let's really look at the entire world view that Jesus introduces in the New Testament and that is a Palsos spread over the normal world.

[00:21:39] So why is it that Jesus despite his alleged schooling in Buddhist and Vedic literature Vedic is Hindu? Why is it they made no suggestion that remotely resembles reincarnation or some saura? Why is it that he makes no suggestion of anything that resembles Anatman which is a very

[00:21:57] famous Buddhist principle that really means no self or no soul? Right Jesus's teachings are actually hinged on the fact that there's an immaterial component to every human. That that runs hugely contrary to the Buddhist teachings.

[00:22:11] Why is it that at the root of Christ's instructions on morality and justice, there's no nod towards karma? Right there's like one verse then I have to deal with every year every semester that I teach my university course.

[00:22:26] There's one verse that I have to deal with in helping undergrad students understand that karma is not biblical and of course that's you reap what you sow. That's Paul. Right so Jesus never comes out and teaches anything that resembles karma.

[00:22:43] This is of course a hugely integral part of South Asian worldviews. Because ultimately Christ wisdom was not found rooted in the various schools of thought that suggests those ideas. Instead it was an entirely new way to interpret reality that was as the church has historically taught

[00:23:03] rooted in a Jewish worldview. It is irresponsible for those making these suggestions to ignore this huge overarching issue. It's in abuse of the study of religion. It is poor scholarship. And honestly I truly believe in the sound so reactionary alarmist. I truly believe it's spiritual warfare.

[00:23:28] If somebody had told me like five or six years ago that I was going to say that academia was a breeding ground for spiritual warfare, I think I would have laughed you out of the room.

[00:23:36] But the more and more I research and the more and more I find liberal theologians and not even just liberals but just reckless people. Finding one word, finding one phrase in a text and obscure can in somewhere.

[00:23:51] And not only changing their entire world view but putting it online and suggesting that it's in an arguable fact. That's what we have here. Is that I get questions all the time you probably do too if you're kind of an explorer type

[00:24:10] who's sharing their faith or at least engaging with people who from other faiths. You find that people just throw away comments like, well you know Jesus and the Buddha, they were pretty much the same. It's like, no they weren't. Not in the slightest. Not at all.

[00:24:25] Just because people sound the same when we quote them doesn't mean that they sound to the same at all when they actually said what they said. So rarely do I get upset or animated while in the midst of research. I'm a fairly dousa, I believe they're not.

[00:24:43] But I found myself not only shaking my head while researching this question but genuinely experiencing anger at the reckless scholarship, quote unquote scholarship that has led to this deep confusion. The sad reality is that most who hear and choose to agree with these arguments

[00:24:56] rooted in falsehoods and legends will never look into just how shallow those roots truly lie. In the face of an ancient faith that stands on its own merit too many are buying into the schemes of the enemy to cast a confusing light on the truth.

[00:25:12] If someone chooses to disregard the teachings of Christ, let them do it on the merit of those teachings and claims and not by casting doubt in disingenuous ways. The world we live in is one that is filled with a deep spiritual confusion, not simply disagreement.

[00:25:27] It's not just that we're disagreeing with each other. It's not that well you believe what you believe and you can really back it up and I believe what I believe and I can really back it up.

[00:25:35] And your truth is different than my truth. It's not just disagreement, it's spiritual confusion. We live in a world where we're with our scales on the eyes of some. And it's holding them back from actually seeing the truth and its arguments like this that are

[00:25:49] hurtling us towards not being able to make sense of the spiritual climate we live in. We're in the name of pluralism and tolerance we simply decide that all religions must come from the same place and therefore have the same merit. The overwhelming problem is that when we

[00:26:04] make room for all truth to be combined into one truth, we end up with no truth at all. In this case we've ended up with a Christ that is neither himself nor the Buddha. For these two men agreed

[00:26:15] on very little and unfortunately we are finding ourselves in a world that does not know that. So no Jesus was not a student of the Buddha. He was not a student of Buddhism. He never traveled

[00:26:26] to India. We have no real reason to believe that. Jesus is where the Son of God, he was the Son of man, he was the Messiah. He came God in the flesh and John 1 says that he took on flesh and

[00:26:38] he dwelt among us. The world knew him, the world rejected him and the dark saw the light and the dark rejected the light and he lived a perfect life. He lived a sinless life because he

[00:26:51] was God. While he was here, he did amazing things. He did miracles. He walked on water. He healed people. He provided for people. He said things that just like blew people out of the water. If

[00:27:03] you go read Matthew 567 it's going to blow you out of the water if you let it because it's things like love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. That's earth shattering. You know

[00:27:18] like, and then to cap it all off right, to prove that he's not just a guru. He died. He died on the cross and the gospel of Luke says that in the middle of the day he cried out his last cry and in that moment

[00:27:37] the sun's light failed and later Paul would teach us that Christ didn't just take on a curse. He became the curse and he became sin. He who knew no sin became sin so that in him we might

[00:27:55] become the righteousness of God and Christ was killed. He was dead and he was buried. I believe that while he was buried he went to Sheel, the grave and he proclaimed victory to the disobedient

[00:28:08] spirits who had up to that point sought to plague humanity and bring them with them to an eternity of suffering. And then on the third day he rose from the dead because he couldn't stay dead. Right,

[00:28:22] he's the king of life and he came back and he announced victory to humanity like he had announced victory to the disobedient spirits. And after he had walked his disciples his first generation of followers through what all of this meant in the implications that it had on them

[00:28:39] in the world before the coming of the Holy Spirit and the form of Pentecost he ascended. And he is now in the throne room of God and the heavenlies and he's advocating for those who follow him as Lord.

[00:28:52] Not just those who walk an aisle, not just those who say their Christian but those who actually follow him as Lord. I've studied every religion on planet Earth. I don't say that like

[00:29:01] boldly I don't not an expert in every single religion on planet Earth. But this is what I do, this is what I lay up and I think about. Jesus isn't the Buddha. Like Buddhism's interesting, Hinduism's interesting. Jesus isn't Galatama. He's not the Buddha. He's not Krishna. He's better.

[00:29:25] Like he's more amazing than anything else in the world of religion. And I know as a Christian as a pastor, as a Christian professor, right some of you might hear that and say yeah of course you

[00:29:36] think that. I didn't always think that. I was convinced of that. And millions and millions and millions and billions of people throughout time had been convinced of that and for 2,000 years,

[00:29:47] much of humanity has been convinced of that because it's easy to believe. So no, Jesus isn't the Buddha. The Buddha certainly isn't Jesus. And so no, Jesus wasn't a student of Indian gurus. He amyping and he likely never visited an monastery in North India. He didn't need to.

[00:30:07] And you don't need a guru. You need a Lord. So I want to tell you though, be into that story through no counsel of my own that young man sitting on my couch a few years ago

[00:30:18] showed up at my church and he'd been led to Christ. And I don't think I played a really big role in that. But he had been completely changed and he had matching shoes. So not that, not that

[00:30:32] that part really matters that much but obviously it demonstrates so much of what's going on inside of him. But so I invite you to reflect on this, send it to a friend who's questioning.

[00:30:44] And if you have any questions hit me up on Instagram at allthings.allpeople or you can email me, Jeremy, and all things all people doubt org. And we're going to keep going, exploring the darkest

[00:30:55] places and worldviews and equipment Christians to engage them with the gospel. And while yes I travel places and I go to temples and I go to see other religions with my own eyes. Sometimes exploring

[00:31:08] the darkest places in worldviews is actually just doing the research that no other Christian is willing to do. And so we explored today. I hope that you've come into some new territories of truth and that either eyes have been open to just exactly who Jesus is. And so

[00:31:24] until next time, thank you for joining in on Basecamp, a podcast ministry of all things, all people. I'm Jeremy Jenkins. Thanks. Thank you for listening to this episode of Basecamp. If you want more help engaging the least

[00:31:44] reach people in the darkest places with the gospel, I want to invite you to join the all things all people engage network. By joining the Engage Network, you will receive training in worldview and world religions, leadership, discipleship, evangelism and apologetics. You'll also

[00:32:02] receive demographic analysis and outreach strategy that will help you to accurately target your city with the gospel and access to all of ATAPs educational materials. If you want to learn more, just go to all thingsallpeople.org and click on Engage Network. Thanks for listening. I hope you love

[00:32:22] the show.