From the account of his birth and his brief stay in Egypt when he was very young, the next time Jesus is mentioned in the gospels is when he was 12 years of age, and then nothing at all until he was around 30. Many have speculated about what Jesus did from ages 12 to 30. Some claim there is evidence that he traveled, so we’d like to know, “Did Jesus go to India?”
Some bible scholars argue that there is no biblical evidence to support the idea that Jesus visited India at any point during his earthly life, particularly before He began His Ministry. In contrast, some historians claim that he went to India. However, there is insufficient proof that Jesus went to India.
Read on to find out more on this topic, and related questions, including: Does the Bible show that Jesus traveled to India? According to the Orthodox Church, where was Jesus before he started his public Ministry? How does the Bible describe the life of Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30? Why do some historians believe Jesus went to India when he was 13? Why did Jesus go to India, according to the Nicolas Notovitch scrolls? Did Jesus go to India as a teacher or a student? Other theories about the lost years of Jesus also exist.
Does the Bible show that Jesus traveled to India?
The Bible does not seem to support the idea of Jesus traveling to India. It is recorded that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Judea. In Matthew 2:15, it is also recorded that his family fled with him to Egypt when he was an infant. His family’s return to Nazareth after Herod’s death is also documented in Matthew 2:19–23. Jesus is said to have visited Jerusalem at the age of twelve, where he spent a few days in the temple before returning to Nazareth (Luke 2:41–51). He is known as the carpenter’s son, and it is believed that he learned the trade from his earthly “father,” Joseph, in Nazareth, before beginning His public Ministry. The idea that he spent his life before his public Ministry in Nazareth seems to be supported by several scriptures, including:
John 1:46 Nathanael said, “….come out of Nazareth?” Luke 4:6: “… he came to Nazareth, …. “These and more imply that people familiar with him knew he lived in Nazareth.
According to the Orthodox Church, where was Jesus before he started his public Ministry?
The Orthodox Church is reported to hold that Jesus was raised and grew up in Nazareth before beginning his public Ministry. The church is said to hold that although the Bible doesn’t directly say this, it implies it in several passages. The church quotes Luke 4:16 and 22–24.
From these scriptures, the Orthodox Church notes that Luke says Jesus was “brought up” in Nazareth. They highlight that Luke implies that Nazareth was Jesus’ hometown more than once. According to the Orthodox Church, this proves that Jesus was a well-known regular in the Nazareth community and that he never lived anywhere else in his youth until his public Ministry.
How does the Bible describe the life of Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30?
His years between when he was 12 and 30 years of age are not extensively covered in the Bible. Scholars state that what is known is that he was a resident of Nazareth, a little mountain town. Some Christians interpret Jesus’ mention in a query in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 as proof that Jesus worked as a carpenter before the age of 30. The tone of the text that leads to the query “Is not this the carpenter?” suggests that he was known in the area, supposedly supporting the idea that, before the beginning of his Ministry, he had been primarily identified as a carpenter in the gospel narrative. It has been observed that Jesus seems to have been actively involved in the profession, which some have surmised was a family business. Elsewhere, Luke 2:52 states that Jesus “grew in knowledge and renown, and the favor of God and men.” From these, some have concluded that he worked with Joseph as a carpenter. He learned a skill and was a likable member of the community.
Why do some historians believe Jesus went to India when he was 13?
Most of Jesus’ travel to India hypotheses appear to be based on the comparison of Jesus to the “Kashmiri Issa Yuz Asaf,” which is said to translate to “Jesus, Son of Joseph.”
One such is Holger Kersten, who in 1994 published “Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion,” which purports to provide irrefutable proof that Jesus did reside in India.
A theory by Nicholas Roerich, who documented his trips to India’s Ladakh region in 1925, predated Holger Kersten’s. From there, he describes the stories about Issa that the Ladakhi people and lamas had told him, including the claim that Issa (Jesus) had journeyed from Palestine with traders and was a teacher in India. Roerich notes the extraordinary closeness of the Ladakhis’ accounts to Notovitch’s records, despite the Ladakhis’ unaware of Notovitch’s work. A lengthy section of his writing matches sections of Notovitch’s book. He also recalls that different texts and legends about Jesus (Issa) are mentioned in other travelers’ accounts and that he personally saw the famous Abbot of Hemis in Notovitch’s account. However, it has been observed that the real reason Roerich’s work could resemble Notovitch’s is that he borrowed heavily from him.
Yet another theory was espoused by Levi H. Dowling in his 1908 “Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ.” In the book, Dowling claimed to have discovered the authentic account of Jesus’ life, including the “missing” eighteen years absent from the New Testament. The story follows the child Jesus through Egypt, Greece, Assyria, Tibet, India, and Tibet. Notably, Holger Kersten later adopted Dowling’s work and merged it with ideas from other sources, like Ahmadiyya’s teachings.
These theorists have been criticized for having their works focus mostly on tales and lacking supporting data. In addition, it has been observed that they appear to have heavily borrowed from one another’s writing. As a result, biblical scholarship does not regard them seriously.
Why did Jesus go to India, according to Nicolas Notovich scrolls?
The first contemporary writer to claim Jesus went to India was Nicolas Notovitch, a Russian war correspondent. In his 1894 book “La vie inconnue de Jesus Christ” (The Life of Saint Issa), Notovitch claims to have found proof that Jesus traveled to India, Tibet, Persia, Greece, and Egypt. Notovitch claimed Jesus did this in his youth before returning to Judea to begin his public Ministry at 30. In his account, Notovitch said Jesus was in India studying with the Hindus and later the Buddhists.
However, Notovitch’s tale began to unravel when travelers and authors started discounting his narrative. For starters, it is reported that Abbott of Hemis outrightly denied that he stayed there. His book, it has been said, featured tales that were rife with unfathomable impossibilities. It appears that the book he accused Abbott of reading did not even exist. It has been suggested that Notovitch was either the subject of a joke or that he created the evidence.
Did Jesus go to India as a teacher or a student?
In “The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ,” which claims to be the published version of Notovitch’s purported notes, it is alleged that Jesus traveled to India as a student. According to the story, Jesus went there with a caravan of merchants when he was thirteen to learn about their sacred laws. He studied the Vedas, the holy texts of the Brahmins, for six years while living among them.
Then Jesus ran away and joined a group of Buddhists, where he studied the texts of Buddhism and picked up Pali, the dialect of Theraveda Buddhism.
He eventually returned to Palestine at the age of twenty-nine, equipped with all the sacred wisdom of the East, and started his public Ministry.
Other theories about the lost years of Jesus
Some Japanese people hold that Jesus traversed the country during the “lost years” and may have lived on in Japan after the crucifixion. The tradition is said to have originated in Shing, Aomori.
According to some Arthurian traditions, Jesus visited Britain as a young man, resided at Priddy in the Mendip Hills, and constructed the first wattle cottage at Glastonbury. The narrative of Jesus visiting Britain inspired William Blake’s 1800s poem, “And did those feet in ancient time?” According to certain accounts, tin dealer Joseph of Arimathea took care of Jesus after his “father,” Joseph, passed away. The 1998 book by Gordon Strachan, “Jesus the Master Builder: Druid Mysteries and the Dawn of Christianity,” served as the inspiration for the 2009 television program “And Did Those Feet?” Jesus might have been in Britain to learn with the Druids, according to Strachan.
References
- Did Jesus ever travel to India?
- Did Jesus travel to India before his Ministry?
- The Mystery of Jesus Missing 18 Years
- What did Jesus do between ages 12 and 30
- Did Jesus Go to India? A Modern Gospel Forgery.
- Legend of Jesus living in Japan
- Jesus may have visited the UK
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