Life of St Issa
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[edit] Definition
The Life of St Issa purports to be an account of the life of Jesus, including, most controversially, an account of the “lost years” of Jesus; which it explains by giving an account of Jesus travelling in India during that period.
[edit] Note on the “lost years of Jesus”
The Bible misses out a whole chunk of Jesus’ life, between the age of 12 [1] and “about 30” [2], known as the “lost years”. These "lost years" have always been a magnet for cranks. The Life of St Issa purports to fill in the “lost years” between the ages of 14 and 29.
[edit] Nicholas Notovitch
The story begins with Nicholas Notovitch (1858 - ?), a Russian journalist and historian. According to his account, he travelled though Tibet in 1887-88. Having broken his leg, he convalesced in the Buddhist monastery of Himis (sometimes spelt Hemis) with a broken leg; gaining the confidence of the lama there, he had read to him, as he healed, a book of the “Life of St Issa” (that is, Jesus) from which he made notes.
His other works are standard historical fare, with titles such as The Pacification of Europe and Nicholas II; Russia and the English Alliance: An Historical and Political Study; and The Czar: His Army and Navy.
[edit] The Life of St Issa
Chapter I, by way of a prologue, speaks of a “great crime committed in the land of Israel; for they have tortured and put to death the great and just Issa, in whom dwelt the soul of the universe”.
Chapters II – III contain a very condensed version of the history of Israel, in which the chief events are the exodus from Egypt, led by “Prince Mossa” (i.e. Moses) and the invasion of Israel by “pagans from the country of Romeles” (i.e. the Roman conquest).
Chapter IV recounts the birth of Jesus and “the discourses proceeding from his childish mouth” (compare Luke 2:40-47 [3])
In Chapters V – VIII, we go completely off the Biblical rails. These chapters recount Jesus travelling in India and Persia. He preaches monotheism, denounces idolatry, sun-worship and animal sacrifice, and prefers the lower castes of Hindus to the higher castes. He refuses to perform miracles, saying: “The miracles of our God have been worked since the first day when the universe was created; they take place every day and at every moment”.
Chapters IX-XIV recount Jesus’ return to Israel, his ministry there, and his crucifixion; and ends with the apostles “scatter[ing] themselves among the heathen, preaching that they should renounce their errors.”
There are three features of this account noteworthy as not paralleling the gospels.
(1) There is a lengthy passage where Jesus talks about the importance of respect for women; this is most of Chapter XII. It has no parallel in the Gospels.
(2) In the Life of St Issa, it is made quite clear that the Jews don’t want Jesus condemned and that Pontius Pilate does; to the extent that the Jewish elders are said to have gone out and
- ... washed their hands in a sacred vessel, saying: “We are innocent of the death of this just man.
This is the exact opposite of the scene portrayed in the Gospels, where the Jewish elders demand the death of Jesus, and it is Pontius Pilate who publicly washes his hands.
(3) While the Life of St Issa recounts that:
- The next day the crowd found the tomb open and empty. At once the rumor spread that the supreme Judge had sent his angels to carry away the mortal remains of the saint in whom dwelt on earth a part of the Divine Spirit
there is nothing in the text that hints at the physical resurrection of Jesus.
[edit] The Backlash – Part 1
Some of the objections against Notovitch are so feeble that they well deserve to be included in a skeptics’ encyclopedia as an example of how not to debunk things.
[edit] Himis doesn’t exist
One of the early charges made against Notovitch was that the monastery at Himis doesn’t exist, since it wasn’t marked on the maps. It is certainly marked on the maps now, and debunkers as well as believers have visited it, as will be seen below.
[edit] Notovitch never went to Tibet
Many of Notovitch’s early critics denied that he had visited Tibet at all. A look at the next subsection below will show that this charge isn’t true.
[edit] Dr Karl Marx
When challenged on his story, Notovitch named, amongst others who could confirm that he had, at least, travelled in Tibet, one Dr Karl Marx or Marks (no relation, of course, to the famous Communist). Notovitch’s critic, Professor J. Archibald Douglas, writes:
- Careful inquiries have elicited the fact that a Russian gentleman named Notovitch was treated by the medical officer of Leh Hospital, Dr. Karl Marks, when suffering not from a broken leg, but from the less romantic but hardly less painful complaint----toothache.
But Notovitch does not claim that Dr Marx treated him for the broken leg which kept him laid up at the monastery at Himis, he just says that Dr Marx could testify that he was in Tibet. This, as Professor Douglas says, was confirmed by Dr Marx --- at least, the doctor treated a Russian called Notovitch, which is not that common a name, especially in Tibet.
[edit] Too many carnivores
Another of Professor Douglas’ complaints is that:
- During his journey up the Sind Valley M. Notovitch was beset on all sides by 'panthers, tigers, leopards, black bears, wolves, and jackals.' A panther ate one of his coolies near the village of Haïena before his very eyes, and black bears blocked his path in an aggressive manner.
The claim to be “beset on all sides” by such a quantity of large carnivores, on the part of Notovitch, would seem remarkable if Notovitch had made any such claim; but he did not. What he actually says is:
- The defile of the Sind, sixty miles long, is above all famed for its inhospitable inmates, among whom are found panthers, tigers, leopards, black bears, wolves, and jackals. [our emphasis]
This is merely information about the fauna of the region, not a claim to have been “beset on all sides” by the carnivores named. Notovitch does recount a close night-time encounter with a panther which ate one of his coolies; he also says that he shot two of a family group of bears (which only turned “aggressive” after he started shooting at them). He never claims to have seen a tiger, a leopard, a wolf, or a jackal, and after his encounter with the bears he says that “my sporting escapades came to an end: from that time I only met with wild goats”.
[edit] The missing photographs
Another critic snidely writes:
- It is no doubt unfortunate that M. Notovitch lost the photographs which he took on the way, but such a thing may happen, and if an author declares that he has travelled from Kashmir to Ladakh one can hardly summon courage to doubt his word.
Given the evidence of Dr Marx and others that Notovitch did indeed visit Tibet, we may say that it is indeed unfortunate that his photographs were ruined by premature exposure to light: however, Notovitch visited Tibet, and the absence of the photographs says nothing for or against his story.
[edit] The Life of St Issa is not in the catalogues
There are two standard Tibetan catalogues of Buddhist manuscripts, the Kangyur and the Tengyur, and the Life of St Issa does not appear in either of them.
It is hardly surprising that the Life of St Issa doesn’t appear in the Kangyur, since this is a catalogue of texts spoken, or supposed to be spoken, by the Buddha. The Tengyur is a catalogue of commentaries on the Buddha’s words. The Life of St Issa, if it exists, would not appear in either of these catalogues, since it falls into neither category.
[edit] The Backlash – Part 2
The complaints listed above are trivial. There is one, however, that is crucial. Professor J. Archibald Douglas visited the monastery at Himis, and was assured by the chief lama that the Life of St Issa did not exist.
This would seem to be conclusive. But there is still a twist in the tale.
The lama might have lied, and might have had good reason to do so. In the nineteenth century, there was a distressing tendency for Western scholars simply to steal documents that they felt were valuable; and suspicion of such motives has survived well into the twentieth century. To quote the anthropologists Snellgrove and Skorupski, writing in 1975 of the very monastery in question:
- Hemis is not an easy monastery to get to know. It seems to attract far more visitors than any monastery in Ladakh, and very few of them have any idea of what they are looking at. This tends to produce on the part of the monks a supercilious attitude, and even outright contempt, and they seem convinced that all foreigners will steal if they can. There have in fact been quite serious losses of property in recent years.
Dr Robert Racvicz, another modern researcher, writes that it would take “several months” to gain the confidence of the monks at Himis before they would display their documents. And Nicholas Roerich, who claimed to have seen the manuscripts in question, and of which more will be written below, wrote:
- Regarding the manuscripts of Christ --- first there was a complete denial … Then, slowly, little by little, are creeping fragmentary reticent details, difficult to obtain.
This, at least, was Notovitch’s excuse: that a quick visit and peremptory demand to see the manuscripts, on the part of Professor Douglas, would meet with a flat denial that the manuscripts existed in the first place.
This argument cuts both ways. If Notovitch wanted to invent a mysterious manuscript, the existence of which could be believed in even if its existence was denied, then there would be no better place to pretend to have seen it than in a Tibetan lamasery.
[edit] Swami Abhedananda
[edit] Nicholas Roerich
Nicholas Roerich ( 1874 - 1947) was a remarkable man; we might perhaps have more confidence in his testimony if he had been less remarkable. A charismatic individual, regarded by his followers as a spiritual guru, he was active in the Theosophical movement; these, to a skeptic, are not the best of credentials.
By profession he was variously a poet, author, lecturer, theatrical set and costume designer, explorer, archaeologist and anthropologist, but it is as a painter that he is best remembered; many of his works are on display in the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York (which also has an excellent website [4]). His paintings have an otherworldly, luminous quality; the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, described the view of the earth from space as being “just like the paintings of the artist Nicholas Roerich”.
He is also remembered for the “Roerich Pact” [5], an early international agreement whereby it was agreed that combatant nations would spare each others’ museums, art galleries, libraries and universities; he was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his books Himalaya and Altai-Himalaya Roerich records having seen a number of manuscripts, and heard a number of oral traditions, concerning the life of Jesus and of his travels in the East. These closely parallel the accounts given by Nicholas Notovitch: the accounts agree on Jesus' preference for the lower Hindu castes; on his condemnation of idolotary, sacrifice and sun-worship; his speech on reverence towards women; his refusal to perform miracles (though Roerich quotes another source, “historically less established” which has Jesus performing miracles of healing); and on the detail that Jesus was persecuted at the instigation of Pilate.
Unlike Notovitch, the writings of Roerich did not attract the same sort of criticism and disbelief; on the contrary, his account was generally accepted. One possible reason for this is that, unlike Notovitch, he didn’t make the legends of “St Issa” the purpose or centrepiece of his book, but mentioned them amongst many other legends he’d gathered in his travels, including a number concerning the flying carpet of King Solomon.
The one thing he did not do, and which no-one has done, was actually to bring home one of the disputed manuscripts.
[edit] Mrs Gasque and Madame Caspari
In 1939, Madame Caspari, a Swiss musician, and Mrs Gasque “a religious leader” (again, not the best of credentials) were travelling in Tibet and came to the monastery at Himis. The monks, according to their testimony, showed them scrolls and said “These books say that your Jesus was here”. Neither woman was able to read Tibetan, but Madame Caspari took a photograph of a lama holding the scrolls.
The reader will note that this story contrasts strongly with the idea that the monks were reticent in showing the manuscripts.
If the testimony of Caspari and Gasque is true, this is, so far as we can discover, the last time that any European set eyes on these manuscripts.
[edit] The authenticity of the manuscripts
Supposing these manuscripts to exist, could their contents possibly have been authentic? We know that Alexander the Great conquered northern India centuries before Jesus’ time; we know that merchants of the Roman Empire sailed east to India and Sri Lanka (which they called “Taprobane”). There are accounts from the first century AD, by Roman citizens such as Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and Strabo, of Indian philosophers and their teachings[6]. It is not, therefore, impossible, that an inquisitive and unorthodox Jewish rabbi of the first century might have traveled to India to study or confute the religious ideas of the subcontinent.
On the other hand, we know that there are many totally spurious stories of the travels of Jesus. He is, for example, supposed to have traveled to Glastonbury in England; this legend is based on an early medieval fraud (see the article on the Holy Grail). Indeed, if Jesus had visited all the places he’s supposed to have visited, he would have been the most traveled man ever until Marco Polo or Captain Cook.
[edit] Conclusion
Conclusion: there is no conclusion. The most skeptical, or most credulous mind, can entertain the following possibilities:
- The manuscripts never existed, and all the claims to have seen them are fraudulent.
- The manuscripts existed, but are late pseudepigrapha, composed after 19th century missionaries brought Christianity to Tibet.
- The manuscripts are early apocrypha, reflecting an early Christian tradition but essentially false.
- Jesus visited India as a young man.
More could be known if only anyone could get their hands on these elusive manuscripts. The antiquity of the manuscripts themselves could be discovered through carbon-dating or paleography; the antiquity of the original manuscripts (for the extant MS might only be copies) could perhaps be deduced on linguistic grounds. Or perhaps they don’t exist.
The manuscripts may never have existed, they may be stored in some dark corner of a Tibetan monastery, or they may have been destroyed by the Communist Chinese. We have remarked that if Nicholas Notovitch wished to invent a manuscript, with the least chance of his story being falsified, he would have done well to claim that it was stored in some Tibetan monastery. Over a hundred years later, this is still true; and we are faced with a genuine puzzle, for though the story is, we may think, implausible, it cannot be ruled out.
[edit] Links and References
- Some of the information in this article is taken from The Lost Years of Jesus by the New Age author, charismatic cult leader, and downright kook Elizabeth Clare Prophet [7]. Despite Ms Prophet’s firm belief in, not only the existence, but the authenticity, of the elusive manuscripts, and the fact that she is evidently completely barking mad, her work is invaluable in that it contains, in full, Notovitch’s accounts of his travels, and seems to contain the only extant English translation of the relevant portions of Abhedananda’s In Kashmir and Tibet.
- The Life of St Issa, Best of the Sons of Men --- the Notovich document in English translation.
- tombofjesus.com --- for those who prefer their history to be a little bit silly.
