Missing Years of Jesus Christ in India

 

Missing Years of Jesus Christ

By Vinod Hariharan

Nothing much is known , written ,spoken about the early life of Jesus . it is not a part of any of the discourse or prayer meetings as well. But there are researched data and proof confirming some of part of his early life .Including his year of birth and the place of birth has dualities attached .

Jesus’ birth is written as some time between 7 and 4 B.C.E. If Jesus was born during the time of Herod the Great, as is stated in the Gospel of Matthew, he would have had to have been born prior to 4 B.C.E., the year Herod died. This is one stalemate

And next is why would “Jesus of Nazareth” be said to have been born in Bethlehem instead of Nazareth, the hometown of his parents? It was likely to fulfill a prophecy that the Messiah would be born in the “City of David,” which is Bethlehem. So Luke tells the story of Joseph ( father of jesus) traveling to Bethlehem for a census to be counted in the place of Joseph’s birth—something that has absolutely zero precedent and/or evidence in antiquity.

The virgin birth is the doctrine that Jesus was conceived and born by his mother Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit  as a boon . It is attested in the gospels of Matthew and Luke and affirmed in both the Apostles' Creed 

Jesus was known as only Son of God , but he had siblings. Jesus had four brothers named in the Bible (James, Joses, Judas and Simon), along with some sisters (Mark 6:3). This would not be a problem, except for the rise of the tradition of Mary’s perpetual virginity, which argues that she not only conceived through a boon and gave birth to Jesus, but that she remained a virgin throughout the remainder of her lifetime. This conflicts with the Bible, which says specifically that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Interestingly, Catholics traditionally solved this problem by arguing that the supposed “brothers” mentioned in Mark 6 are actually “cousins,” while the Greek Orthodox tradition solves this problem by arguing that Joseph was married prior to being married to Mary. According to the tradition, it was with his deceased wife that Joseph had “James and Joses and Judas and Simon,” meaning that the brothers mentioned in the Bible are half-brothers of Jesus by a previous marriage, such that  Mary remained a perpetual virgin.

 Firstly, the actual birth day of Jesus was not December 25. The date we celebrate was adopted by the Christian church as the birthday of Christ in the fourth century. Prior to this period, different Christians celebrated Christmas on different dates.

 Notovitch ,a Russian Christianity researcher  is known for his 1894 book claiming that during the unknown years of Jesus, he left Galilee for India and studied with Buddhists and Hindus before returning to Judea. Notovitch's claim was based on a document he said he had seen at the Hemis Monastery while he stayed there. Jesus picked up spirituality in Budhist Monasteries in Himalayan regions of India and Nepal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Notovitch

Although Notovitch had been discredited in Europe, certain individuals in India considered his story to have credibility. Swami Abhedananda claimed to have visited the Hemis monastery in 1922 to verify the reports of Notovich that he had heard the previous year in the U.S. He claimed that lamas at the monastery confirmed to him that Notovich was brought to the monastery with a broken leg and he was nursed there for a month and a half. They also told him that the Tibetan manuscript on Issa was shown to Notovich and its contents interpreted so that he could translate them into Russian.^[17] This manuscript was shown to Abhedananda,^[18] which had 14 chapters, containing 223 couplets (slokas). The Swami had some portions of the manuscript translated with the help of a lama, about 40 verses of which appeared in the Swami's travelogue.^[19][a] The original Pali manuscript—allegedly composed after Christ's resurrection^[a]—was said to be in the monastery of Marbour near Lhasa.^[21]

Years later, in 1921, a contemporary of Swami Vivekananda, called Swami Abhedananda, also visit the Hemis Monastery in search for truth, and also to study Buddhism. The Indian monk too claimed to have come across the same manuscript as claimed by Nicolas Notovich himself. But here too, the book jacket was supposedly translated for him by a local lama, and the story was equivalent to the one published by Notovich.. After the death of Swami Abhedananda, one of his disciples had visited Hemis Monastery, yet again in search for the document. However, he was told that the document has disappeared.

^{https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/destinations/ladakhs-secret-a-russian-journalist-an-indian-monk-and-the-lost-years-of-jesus-christ/as67725533.cms#:~:text=You%20for%20sharing!-,Ladakh's%20secret%20%E2%80%93%20a%20Russian%20journalist%2C%20an%20Indian%20monk%2C%20and,around%20since%20before%2011th%20century.}

Author Alice Dunbar Nelson includes a review of The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ in her 1895 collection Violets and Other Tales.^[24] In 1899 Mirza Ghulam Ahmad wrote Jesus in India (published in 1908) and claimed that Jesus had traveled to India after surviving his crucifixion, but specifically disagreed with Notovitch that Jesus had gone to India before then.^[25][26]

Other authors have taken these themes and incorporated it into their own works. For example, in her book The Lost Years of Jesus: Documentary Evidence of Jesus' 17-Year Journey to the East, Elizabeth Clare Prophet asserts that Buddhist manuscripts provide evidence that Jesus traveled to India, Nepal, Ladakh and Tibet.^[27] In his book Jesus Lived in India, German author Holger Kersten promoted the ideas of Nicolas Notovich and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Gerald O'Collins classified Kersten's work as the repackaging of the same stories.^[28] In his 2002 comedic novel Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, absurdist author Christopher Moore parodies the notion that between the ages of 15 and 30, Jesus traveled to Tibet to study Buddhism in a monastery (after first having traveled to Afghanistan), then to India to study Hinduism.

 

It is said that post crucifixion, Jesus came back to Srinagar .

Tourists flock to 'Jesus's tomb' in Kashmir
By Sam Miller Srinagar A belief that Jesus survived the crucifixion and spent his remaining years in Kashmir has led to a run-down shrine in Srinagar making it firmly onto the must-visit-in India tourist trail.

 

The US-based Christian sect, known as the Church Universal and Triumphant, is the best-known modern supporter of the belief that Jesus lived in Kashmir, though they don't believe he died there

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8587838.stm#:~:text=Officially%2C%20the%20tomb%20is%20the,out%20his%20days%20in%20Kashmir.

Eventually Church has to bring out the facts on missing years of jesus from the age of 12 to 30  and then post crucifixion.

 

^Credits:

^{Wikipedia on Notovich}

^{jesus lived in India book by Holger kersten, a German scholar}

^{Articles by BBC, TOI  as pasted above and google searches}