A review of "The Lost Years of Jesus"
This book is published by Church Universal and Triumphant, also known as Summit Lighthouse. The extensive foreword is written by their leader, Elizabeth Clare Prophet. The rest of the book contains documents purportedly proving that Jesus spent his "lost years" (from age 13 to age 30) in India, Tibet and Persia, studying Hinduism and Buddhism. The foremost of these documents is Nicolas Notovitch's well-known "Life of St. Issa", first published in 1894. The book also contains three other texts supposedly confirming Notovitch's discoveries, by Abhenanda, Nicolas Roerich and Elizabeth Caspari. The Russian journalist Notovitch claimed to have discovered startling new stories about Jesus when visiting a Buddhist monastery at Himis, in the Ladakh area of Kashmir in India, close to the Tibetan border.
Virtually all scholars reject these documents, and believe that Jesus never set his foot outside Palestine and its environs. In my opinion, they have good reasons for doing so. For starters, nobody have seen the original manuscripts of these remarkable documents, only the translations made by Notovitch and his backers. There are also various discrepancies between the various accounts. In a foreword to "Life of St. Issa", Notovitch says that he did *not* translate a single manuscript. Rather, the monks at Himis showed him scattered passages about Jesus in several different ancient manuscripts, which Notovitch then re-arranged into a suitable, Gospel-like narrative. Tacitly at least, Notovitch is admitting that he was to some extent using his own creative imagination. This makes "Life of St. Issa" a paraphrase at best, a forgery at worst, even if we accept that the monks did show him some documents. However, both Abhenanda and Caspari claim to have seen a *single* manuscript with the Issa story in it, and Abhenanda even claims to have translated it. (What Roerich is claiming is frankly a bit unclear.)
A curious aspect of the documents, if one takes the trouble to read them, is that Jesus is said to have criticized both Hindus, Jains and Zoroastrians, and he doesn't sound very Buddhist either. Indeed, Jesus sounds like a 19th century liberal Protestant, which makes you wonder what exactly he is supposed to have picked up in India and Tibet in the first place? Notovitch's document can be read as a liberal Western criticism of barbaric India and Persia, rather than "proof" for Hindu-Buddhist influences on Jesus.
Another thing that strikes an out-sider as somewhat suspicious is that all people who confirmed Notovitch's story had *religious* reasons for doing so. Abhenanda was a disciple of the great Vivekananda, the founder of the Ramakrishna Mission. Nicolas Roerich was a Theosophist, and eventually founded a Theosophical off-shot of his own, Agni Yoga. And Caspari was a member of Mazdaznan, a nominally Zoroastrian but actually Theosophical group. In and of itself, the religious convictions of a person doesn't disqualify him or her as a serious witness, but when only people with a vested interest claims to have seen otherwise unaccesible documents (or was it just one document?), one is bound to suspect something. A cover-up? Wishful thinking? A little bit of both?
Be that as it may, I nevertheless recommend this book for students of comparative religion and others interested in these issues. It's the only collection of all pertinent writings on the subject (from the "pro" side) I'm aware of. Therefore I give it five stars, despite the questionable contents of the documents it reprints.
This book is published by Church Universal and Triumphant, also known as Summit Lighthouse. The extensive foreword is written by their leader, Elizabeth Clare Prophet. The rest of the book contains documents purportedly proving that Jesus spent his "lost years" (from age 13 to age 30) in India, Tibet and Persia, studying Hinduism and Buddhism. The foremost of these documents is Nicolas Notovitch's well-known "Life of St. Issa", first published in 1894. The book also contains three other texts supposedly confirming Notovitch's discoveries, by Abhenanda, Nicolas Roerich and Elizabeth Caspari. The Russian journalist Notovitch claimed to have discovered startling new stories about Jesus when visiting a Buddhist monastery at Himis, in the Ladakh area of Kashmir in India, close to the Tibetan border.
Virtually all scholars reject these documents, and believe that Jesus never set his foot outside Palestine and its environs. In my opinion, they have good reasons for doing so. For starters, nobody have seen the original manuscripts of these remarkable documents, only the translations made by Notovitch and his backers. There are also various discrepancies between the various accounts. In a foreword to "Life of St. Issa", Notovitch says that he did *not* translate a single manuscript. Rather, the monks at Himis showed him scattered passages about Jesus in several different ancient manuscripts, which Notovitch then re-arranged into a suitable, Gospel-like narrative. Tacitly at least, Notovitch is admitting that he was to some extent using his own creative imagination. This makes "Life of St. Issa" a paraphrase at best, a forgery at worst, even if we accept that the monks did show him some documents. However, both Abhenanda and Caspari claim to have seen a *single* manuscript with the Issa story in it, and Abhenanda even claims to have translated it. (What Roerich is claiming is frankly a bit unclear.)
A curious aspect of the documents, if one takes the trouble to read them, is that Jesus is said to have criticized both Hindus, Jains and Zoroastrians, and he doesn't sound very Buddhist either. Indeed, Jesus sounds like a 19th century liberal Protestant, which makes you wonder what exactly he is supposed to have picked up in India and Tibet in the first place? Notovitch's document can be read as a liberal Western criticism of barbaric India and Persia, rather than "proof" for Hindu-Buddhist influences on Jesus.
Another thing that strikes an out-sider as somewhat suspicious is that all people who confirmed Notovitch's story had *religious* reasons for doing so. Abhenanda was a disciple of the great Vivekananda, the founder of the Ramakrishna Mission. Nicolas Roerich was a Theosophist, and eventually founded a Theosophical off-shot of his own, Agni Yoga. And Caspari was a member of Mazdaznan, a nominally Zoroastrian but actually Theosophical group. In and of itself, the religious convictions of a person doesn't disqualify him or her as a serious witness, but when only people with a vested interest claims to have seen otherwise unaccesible documents (or was it just one document?), one is bound to suspect something. A cover-up? Wishful thinking? A little bit of both?
Be that as it may, I nevertheless recommend this book for students of comparative religion and others interested in these issues. It's the only collection of all pertinent writings on the subject (from the "pro" side) I'm aware of. Therefore I give it five stars, despite the questionable contents of the documents it reprints.
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