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BLOG DEALING WITH THE LIFE OF JESUS AND HIS TEACHINGS - HIS TRAVELS TO THE EAST - INDIA PERSIA AND TIBET - CRUCIFIXION - HIS TOMB IN SRINAGAR, KASHMIR
My own study of great spiritual teachers like Jesus, like Siddhartha Gautama, like Sathya Sai Baba, has made me realize that enlightened teachers do not think in term of ‘mine’ and ‘theirs’, but always in term of ‘ours’…meaning that over and above their own condition, they are more concerned with the good of humanity and the world as a whole, not just with part of humanity, for those who claim they are Hindus, Christians, Muslims or Buddhists…etc……Becoming enlightened, for me, means becoming aware of one’s true nature…That one is not just associated with the physical body which serves as one’s vehicle everywhere in life, but that one is also –and more importantly- part of the universal body of God…..People who are stuck with the issue ‘This is Mine, this is My religion, this is My culture….’ are actually still far from having understood the truth that Jesus came to teach us two thousand years ago…This is just petty-mindedness and it is clear that Jesus wanted us to evolve from that kind of mentality.
To support this idea, I will now refer to someone that I’ve just discovered recently. His name is Daniel Meurois-Givaudan. He is a French writer, now established in
This is how Daniel would answer the present issue I am dealing with now. In one of his conferences in 2004, entitled ‘The first teachings of Christ’, this is what he had to say on the subject. I will quote three extracts from this conference which sum up what I’ve just stated here.
I Crucifixion and Post-Crucifixion message of Christ
“Jesus studied and practised a certain number of disciplines, not only in Palestine in the midst of the Essene Brotherhood of Carmel, but also in Egypt, in India, in the Himalayas. In fact, when he was 14 years of age, as soon as he left
Then, he went through
Then he stayed in
According to what he had told us himself –because sometimes, he also spoke to us, while we were together, of aspects of his life-, this attempt on his life has been extremely formative for him because it taught him that he had not come to do a work that should have political implications. Indeed he had tried to intervene in the Indian society to break the caste system there. We can note that two thousand years later, the same thing was tried by Gandhi and he has been killed.
It is as from this moment, Jesus told us, that he decided to keep things straight and to focus his mission essentially on the mystic aspect, even if it had some revolutionary aspects which would have some real repercussions on society.
As we explained in The way of the Essenes, Jesus did not die on the cross. There has been clinical death or N.D.E, but his return to life was nevertheless due to a complicity between certain factions of the Brothers of Heliopolis and certain Romans who agreed to pierce his side - but not the heart as some have claimed- in order to release the pleural liquid so that he can continue to breathe.
Indeed, crucified men would not die of their wounds but of suffocation. People thus believed that he had died but he had rather sunk in a coma. In the Gospels, one wants to make us believe that Jesus had lost so much blood that there was only water running out of his body… but that is false, the wounds did not bleed to this extent, and the water which came out of his body was the pleural liquid.
It must be noted that during the first centuries of Christianity, Christ was never represented crucified; he was shown in all his glory, only the finality of his work was shown, not the suffering, which was very different in term of thought. But, when he started being shown on the cross, he was shown, not with a wound on his heart, but on his left side as we can still see with a number of statues of Jesus on the cross.
Well then, as far as I can say, he survived from his wounds, but the aim was to make believe that he had died so that he could be removed as fast as possible from the cross. Now, it is clear that, to succeed, this also demanded a lot of his own capacity of regeneration, in the hours and the days that followed, to regain a lot of his strength. On the other hand, he also received help from the Essene healers.
All this did not take place like a plot; we simply wanted to save him because we thought that he shouldn’t die like this and that if he had a chance, it shouldn’t be missed. Indeed the crucifixion situation took place at a very high and mysterious level, but we soon realized, under the impulsion of Joseph of Arimathea, that we could not prevent this idea of resurrection which corresponded to the archetype that was very deeply rooted in the conscience of humanity.
In fact, during the first hours, we could argue as much as we can with people saying that he has not died, that he had simply regenerated and that we could see him, we quickly realized that people did not want to believe us, because for them, he had to be resurrected, it had to match with the great Osiris myth. If we consider all the great avatars of Vishnou, we will note that most of them had a death with resurrection. This happens because it is a model in the subconscious mind of humanity.
Therefore we realized that it was futile to try to explain the truth and that, finally, it would do a lot of good to people to believe that this resurrection on the physical level did indeed take place. It is possible that Jesus would have been capable of regenerating by himself completely, I am not saying otherwise, or trying to diminish his capacities, but the fact is that it took place like I just described.
I had the delightful joy of being there when he came out of the tomb, and then, he had to be literally charged on a horse because he was very much weakened, but if he managed to survive, it was essentially due to his yogic regenerating powers. Then, he continued to re-oxigenate himself for some few weeks, after that, there was that famous meeting at Emaus with Thomas, and many other apostles, and myself with them. He continued to give us his teachings and explained to us why it was useless to fight against this idea of resurrection. He also gave us guidance for the work to come, and repeating that there was no religion to create….because here, we were beginning to see that with such a great death, it would give an impulse to his message. It’s often the death of a great being that give the impetus to his message because it literally prints it in the collective conscience and gives a dynamic to his message.
At this moment, we saw that what we have worked for three years, even more for some, was beginning to bear fruits in an incredible manner, because so many things started being said about Jesus, and there were people who added things on top of that, pretending that they had saw Jesus coming out of the tomb and rise to heaven, etc….people became delirious in many ways. Even among those who were at his side and who respected him, there were some who were telling stories, to give more strength to the message they believed in. Some pretended they had seen him, touched him and even assisted to his resurrection and ascension, etc…
We try to stop that, but it eventually gave birth to many small schools of thought, which later gave birth to some gospels which we would qualify as apocryphal today.
Nevertheless, during that time, Jesus practically gave each one of us, a direction and saw to it that we kept that way and warning us not to transform his sensibility and thought into a religion. On this aspect, we have to admit that we failed completely….but I also think that it was inevitable and I am persuaded that, as far as possible, he tried to guide us in another way.
(Note that Daniel was called Simon at the time of Jesus and that he was from an Essene family, and from the age of 6, was placed in the monastery at
III The foundation of Christ revolution
“We will now see the major foundation of the teachings of Master Jesus. I have to say that he was not the first to elaborate on this teaching on Earth. 1500 years before him, the Pharaoh Akhenaten had also set the basis of this teaching in the collective conscience or in the collective subconscious mind.
Akhenaten started with the basis that there is only one God and that there was no need for any priest to communicate with this unique divinity, that each of us had the capacity to plunge directly into the divine, that each of us had access to the One whom, personally, I call the Big Boss!
But this idea has been further explained and with stronger force by Master Jesus, and we can even say that it’s the fundamental idea in his teachings: “Address yourself directly to your Father, you need no temple or priest!”….and he said this while respecting the temples and the priests, but his principle is that we all had, each and every one of us, access to the divine. It was a revolutionary idea and this is what disturbed the Pharisees who feared that they would lose their power if people learned that they could address themselves directly to God without going through the priest. It was the whole social edifice which was being shaken.
However the aim of Master Jesus was not to shake the society at that level but to send each one of us to his own self, by saying: “You are beautiful, noble, great and true enough to have inside access to the Father without having to go through someone else. Now, if you don’t feel ready, not strong enough, you can still turn to someone or go to pray in a temple, but the real temple is inside of you.”
Here, he was putting his finger on something which is really not well understood today by us, the human beings. He was putting his finger on the fact that there is fundamentally no difference between God and us. Of course, he did not say so to the mass because he would not have been understood, and it would have ended badly for him. But in the small circles of initiates who had the possibility to come closer to him, he compared each of us to the cell of a human being.
On this subject, we have the impression sometimes that we’ve discovered this notion of cell in modern time, but it existed since the earliest Antiquity, certain Greeks even spoke of the notion of atom, this is to say that the notion of the infinitely small has already existed on Earth for a very long time.
Master Jesus compared each one of us to a cell belonging to the Great Body that we could call God, and he said that we were not outside God, we were part of His Body, He is inside of us and we are inside of Him, there is no separation, no frontier. When we speak of God, we are already placing a boundary in between Him and us, meaning that we place him outside our conscience.
Master Jesus said that we, as incarnated humans, when we consider one of our cells, are in fact behaving just like God when He addresses to one of his own creatures, and the work of God through each of His own creatures is a work on Himself to make each of his own cells conscious of itself and conscious of being part of a Great Body called God.
And what is requested from us as human beings is the deification of every cell of our body (physical, ethereal, emotional, mental, etc…). What we should not do is to create division, fractures at all level of our being, of our reality. We should recreate the marriage between the subtle and the dense, between the divine and the human incarnated.”
(Extract from the 2004 seminary in
This whole process of rediscovering the life and teachings of Jesus should therefore lead man to realize he needs to raise himself above this tribal mentality so common today in between people of the world, above this notion of ‘my religion’ v/s ‘your religion’, or even the idea of ‘superior’ and ‘inferior’ religions because truly, religion is merely the product of our human mind while spiritual enlightenment should in fact be the real focus in our evolution. What Jesus brought to us is wisdom, and wisdom can come from anywhere and from anyone; it doesn't have to be only from someone of my own race or religion; wisdom is universal...And Jesus is a universal master!
(Click on the photo for a clearer view)
One of the most cited documents by scholars (See Jeff Salz’s comment in previous video) who have interested themselves in the journey of Jesus to
The important thing is that this document is one which contains references to Christianity, and most importantly to Jesus as being 'Isha Putra' or ‘The Son of God’, and his arrival in
[Bhavishya Purana: Pratisarga Parva, Chaturyuga Khanda Dvitiyadhyayah, 19th Chapter, Texts 17 to 32] Transliteration of Sanskrit text:
vikramaditya-pautrasca
pitr-rajyam grhitavan
jitva sakanduradharsams
cina-taittiridesajan
bahlikankamarupasca
romajankhurajanchhatan
tesam kosan-grhitva ca
danda-yogyanakarayat
sthapita tena maryada
mleccharyanam prthak-prthak
sindhusthanam iti jneyam
rastramaryasya cottamam
mlecchasthanam param sindhoh
krtam tena mahatmana
ekada tu sakadiso
himatungam samayayau
ekadaa tu shakadhisho
himatungari samaayayau
hunadeshasya madhye vai
giristhan purusam shubhano
dadarsha balaram raajaa
ko bharam iti tam praaha
su hovacha mudanvitah
iishaa purtagm maam viddhi
kumaarigarbha sambhavam
mleccha dharmasya vaktaram
satyavata paraayanam
iti srutva nrpa praaha
dharmah ko bhavato matah
shruto vaaca maharaja
prapte satyasya amkshaye
nirmaaryaade mlechadesh
mahiso 'ham samaagatah
mlecchasa sthaapito dharmo
mayaa tacchrnu bhuupate
maanasam nirmalam krtva
malam dehe subhaasbham
naiganam apamasthaya
japeta nirmalam param
nyayena satyavacasaa
manasyai kena manavah
dhyayena pujayedisham
suurya-mandala-samsthitam
acaloyam prabhuh sakshat-
athaa suuryacalah sada
isha muurtirt-dradi praptaa
nityashuddha sivamkari
ishamasihah iti ca
mama nama pratishthitam
iti shrutra sa bhuupale
natraa tam mlecchapujaam
sthaapayaamaasa tam tutra
mlecchasthaane hi daarune
svaraajyam praaptavaan raajaa
hayamedhan cikirat
rajyam krtva sa sasthyabdam
svarga lokamu paayayau
Here is an English translation of this passage (Quoted from Search for the historical Jesus by Prof. Fida Hassnain, pg 191):
“During this period, Shalivahana, grandson of Vikrama-Ditya, laid hold on the kingdom of his father. He defeated the invincible Sakas (Scythians), and fought off the hordes from Cheen (
He took possession of their treasures, and those who deserved punishments were punished. He also demarcated the border between the Aryans and the Mleechas (Amlekites), fixing the Sindhu (River
During this period, the king of the Sakas came to Himatunga (
“Know me as Ishwara Putram, (or ‘Son of God’), or Kanaya Garbham (‘Born of a virgin’). Being given to truth and penances, I preach the truth to the Amlekites.
After hearing this, the king was astonished. He asked: Which religion do you preach? The dignified person replied:
O king, I come from a land far away, where there is no truth, and evil knows no limits. I appeared in the country of the Amlekites. And I suffered at their hands.
I appeared as Isha Masiha,(or Jesus the Messiah). I received Messia-hood or Christhood.
I said unto them, ‘Remove all mental and bodily impurities. Recite the revealed prayer. Pray truthfully in the right manner. Obey the Law. Remember the name of our Lord God. Meditate upon him whose abode is in the centre of the sun.’
When I appeared in the Amlekite country, I taught love, truth and purity of heart. I asked human beings to serve the Lord. But I suffered at the hands of the wicked and the guilty.
In truth, O King, all power rests with the Lord, who is in the centre of the sun. And the elements, and the cosmos, and the sun, and the God, are eternal. Perfect, pure and blissful, God is always in my heart. Thus my name has been established as Isha Masih.
After having heard the pious words from the lips of this distinguished person, I felt peaceful, made obeisance to him and returned.”
In this document, we can find clear indication that the presence of Saint Isa, (Name also given to Jesus in Buddhist and Islamic texts) which we believe to be Jesus himself, has been noted in
Jesus’ appearance is described: he has a ‘golden’ complexion or fair complexion and wears white clothes, which is the colour worn by the Essenes in general (We will explain this in next articles). He says that he comes from the
Time spent on the cross
First and foremost, you have to know that IT IS possible to survive from crucifixion. Although it was one of the most atrocious punishments inflicted on criminals in ancient times, there are known cases of people who survived the experience. The 1st century Jewish historian Josephus reported (In the Life of Flavius Josephus) seeing three of his friends crucified, and after having appealed to the Roman commander Titus to free them, they were brought down from the cross and given medical attention. Two of them died eventually, but one of them survived.
With accounts of historians like Josephus, we know that criminals who were crucified had to be left on the cross for several days before they died. And death would occur because of exhaustion and suffocation, not because of their wounds. As time passes, the criminals, feeling exhausted, would have less strength to hold on their feet. Being held up in position only with their arms stretched, it would cause their lungs to be compressed, making it impossible to breathe properly until they suffocate. But in general, this would happen after two or three days. Sometimes, to hasten their death, the legs of the criminals would be broken very soon, making them suffocate immediately and die more quickly.
In the case of Jesus, the accounts of the canonical gospels themselves provide us with some information about how much time he spent on the cross. Many scholars believe that this time is not long enough to have caused death.
In Mark’s account, chapter 15, verse 25, we can read the following: “And it was the third hour, and they crucified him” (The third hour in Jewish time corresponds to
With verses 34 to 37, we read the following: “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?....... And one ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to take him down.. And Jesus uttered a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.” (The ninth hour corresponds to
That would mean that he remained on the cross at least six hours before he appeared as dead to all. While some have suggested that people gave him a substance to drink with the vinegar, causing him to fall unconscious, it is clear that he spent only 6 hours on the cross.
With the other accounts of Mathew, Luke and John, we either note the same time spent on the cross or even less. But it is with John’s account that we have the shortest time:
“Now it was the Preparation of the passover: it was about the sixth hour. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold, your King!..... They therefore cried out, Away with [him], away with [him], crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then therefore he delivered him unto them to be crucified.”
In this account, the trial took place much later, at
“The Jews therefore, because it was the Preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross upon the sabbath (for the day of that sabbath was a high [day]), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away.”
(John 19:31)The bodies of the crucified had therefore to be removed from the cross before the end of the day, and not surprisingly, the two other men who had been crucified along with Jesus were still alive. And their legs had to be broken to hasten their death. But in the case of Jesus, they apparently found him unconscious and thought that he was dead.
But one detail should strike the reader in the gospels’ accounts. In John
“The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs. How be it one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and straightway there came out blood and water.”
If Jesus was already dead then, we might wonder why so much blood and water came out of his body when his side was pierced with the spear. This can only happen when his heart is still beating, even if, faintly. Blood stops circulating inside the body as from the moment the heart stops beating. In the case of Jesus, this is a clear proof that it hadn’t happen yet.
Another detail we should note is that Pilate himself, when asked if his disciples could take the body of Jesus, was surprised to hear that he had died so quickly. In Mark, chapter 15, verse 44:
“And Pilate marvelled if he was already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.” And the centurion reporting to him is the same who said earlier on: “Truly this man was the Son of God.” (Mark
It is a noble man named Joseph of Arimathea who went to ask for the body of Jesus. It is said that he was a disciple of Jesus; he was a rich man and clearly had influence in
“And when even was come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus` disciple. This man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded it to be given up.” (Matthew 27:57-58)
If we read accounts of that period, we would learn that condemned men, under Roman rule, those who were crucified, had their bodies simply left in the desert to be devoured by wild beasts. They didn’t have the honor for being placed in a tomb anymore, unlike Jesus. The fact that Pilate authorized the body of Jesus to be taken by the disciples is probably a sign that Pilate himself had a certain degree of respect for Jesus.
We know of at least one letter of Pilate which testifies that. In one letter written to the Emperor Tiberius, Pilate talks of his admiration for Jesus, and even the protection he granted to him at times. An authenticated copy of this letter is found in the Library of Congress in Washington:
“A young man appeared in
Later, I wrote to Jesus requesting an interview with Him at the Praetorium. He came. When the Nazarene made His appearance I was having a morning walk and as I faced Him my feet seemed fastened with an iron band to the marble pavement and I trembled in every limb, as a guilty culprit, though He was calm. For some time I stood admiring this extraordinary
Now, Noble Sovereign, these are the facts concerning Jesus of Nazareth and I have taken time to write you in detail concerning these matters. I say that such a man who could convert water into wine, change death into life, disease into health, calm the stormy seas, is not guilty of any criminal offence and as others have said, we must agree truly this is the Son of God!
Your most obedient servant,
PONTIUS PILATE”
The herbs brought by the disciples
In John’s account, we also learn that after the body of Jesus was taken away by Joseph, Nicodemus brought some herbs to the tomb:
“And there came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to him by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. So they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.” (John 19:39-40)
This famous mixture of myrrh and aloes has intrigued scholars a lot, since these were also healing herbs. These herbs had curative properties, and known to have been used by Romans and Greek as far as 300 BC for their healing properties. Myrrh could be used as anti-inflammatory and aloe could also be used to heal wounds. (Read here) Could these herbs have been used by the disciples themselves to heal Jesus’ wounds or at least start a treatment before putting him in the tomb? The tomb belonged to Joseph himself and it was very close to the crucifixion scene. (Read here as well). If Jesus was really dead, one may wonder why they needed so much herbs for him, because this is really an extravagant amount. In ancient medical treaties, it is known that a mixture of these two herbs could be a very effective remedy for wounds.
What might have happened inside the tomb
This is a question that has intrigued scholars for years. Should we accept the official version of the church and believe that Jesus was really dead on the cross, or do we consider all the signs that I’ve just enumerated? We know, according to gospels’ accounts that the tomb was guarded, at least most of the time, but some of the guards were very fearful of the signs that they saw around them in nature. Did they stay in post all the time?
Another point to note is that it was a new tomb, belonging to a disciple of Jesus. It could well have had a secret passage inside leading somewhere else, a secret passage allowing someone to reach Jesus while the tomb was closed from outside. In Luke 23:53, it is said:
“And he took it down, and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb that was hewn in stone, where never man had yet lain.” We know that Joseph of Arimathea was an influential and rich man. There is a possibility that he could have intervened himself.
But we don’t even have to stretch it that far to believe that Jesus was indeed not dead when he was put in the tomb. Notovitch account of Jesus’ life reveals to us, that during his stay among the Brahmin priests and yogis, he was taught a number of things, like healing wounds and restoring the human body. We know that he has always been a good healer, doing so many extraordinary feats in public. If he came out of his sleep, or coma while being in the tomb, he could have healed himself, even using the herbs that were there with him. Later, I will tell you of another possibility to explain his survival.
In all cases, there are numerous accounts that show that Jesus did not die on the cross, but continued to live hereafter for a long time, and died at an old age. But most of these accounts exist outside the Christian canon. For some very obvious reasons, they have been suppressed and ignored by the Church. That’s why most Christians have either never heard of them, or believe them to be rumours, when in fact some of these accounts are from texts that have very significant importance in other traditions….Like Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.
The attitude of the Orthodox Christians has always been to treat these texts as heresies, and it would be hard to make them even look at some of these texts. These texts simply frighten many of them. It can be a difficult experience for people to learn that what you’ve been taught to believe throughout your life suddenly appears as not true. But if only they would dare to go outside tradition, they would see that there is even more to discover about Jesus, that the picture that is now being projected of him by the Church is an incomplete one, even a distorted one. The real Jesus was a far more impressive being than what orthodox Christians have been made to believe. People need to realize that, if indeed Jesus survived crucifixion and continued to live after that, he would have left the Roman jurisdiction at all cost to avoid further trouble with the Roman authorities. It would mean that we would probably find signs of his post-crucifixion life in texts elsewhere, texts outside the Judeo-Christian tradition, these precise texts that a Christian would never consider to study.
There was a time when the Church would wildly defend the idea that the earth is flat until proven wrong by scientists. There was a time, as well, right in the middle of the 17th century, when a fierce conflict broke, opposing scientists like Galileo and Church representatives, over the question of whether earth was revolving around the sun or not, and the church representatives would publicly state that the idea that the Sun is stationary is "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture..."; while the Earth's movement was also considered as an heretical idea, contrary to theological 'truth'. Up to this day, it is still with the same persistence that they would defend the idea of the resurrection of Jesus and his bodily ascent to heaven, despite the fact that many of the church ministers, priests and bishops themselves have come to doubt the literal meaning of resurrection.
How can we know that Jesus did survive crucifixion and continued to live hereafter? Simply because there are evidences of his presence elsewhere after the time of crucifixion, and even a tomb in
Let me first deal with that question of bodily ascent of Christ. Every living creature dies; human beings, animals, and plants are all subjected to the same law of life and death. The only one in history of mankind to have escaped death, according to the Church, is Jesus! All prophets of the world have eventually died one day: Mohammed,
I will not try to diminish the value of his message by any means. Actually, what I am going to tell you in the rest of this article is not meant to undervalue his message in any way. For me, he is still the enlightened being with a mission to lead others to truth. But I hope you realize that this idea that Jesus rose from the dead can indeed have a negative effect in the mind set of those who share it, the Christians in general, even leading them to believe that other religions inspired by the ‘simple human beings and mortals’ can only be inferior compared to the true religion of Christ.
What I am trying to do here is to show to my readers the universality of world religions. If God, the unique God I believe in, is the inspiration behind the major religions of the world, then, it shouldn’t be a problem to reconcile the messages of their founders to mankind. But in the case of Christianity as it is, the concept of resurrection is a serious obstacle in achieving this. You will find now that Jesus himself has never taught this concept of resurrection to his disciples, that this is an idea that crept in among the early church fathers probably, but it ended up influencing the whole western world through the Christian churches.
Resurrection is a religious theory suggesting the possibility of human beings to rise again from death in their own body and flesh. In other words, dead people simply sleep until they are woken up for final judgement at the end of time. Reincarnation, on the other hand, is the idea that the soul migrates from one body to another, that when any living entity dies, its spirit or soul leaves the dead body and may enter a new body (That of a new-born entity).
With religions that predate Christianity, there is the belief that man is born again several times on earth and goes through the cycle of birth and death until he frees himself from the shackles of his mortal body. Hindus believe in rebirth, Buddhists as well believe in it. If you study the Bible closely, you will find that Jews as well, at the time of Jesus and before the time of Jesus, also believed in rebirth.
In Matthew, chapter 16, Verse 13-14, we can read the following:
“Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of man is? And they said, Some [say] John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
(Read here as well)
In other words, they are suggesting that others around them thought that Jesus was Elijah, John the Baptist or Jeremiah born again. Why would they say such a thing if, in their time, around that period, there wasn’t the belief that man could be born again? You will note that Jesus himself doesn’t correct them in saying that.
It is true that the bible contains arguments against reincarnation and rebirth, but most of these arguments come in the writings of people living after crucifixion of Jesus. This belief in resurrection, bodily resurrection, seems to have appeared with the early church fathers, who had to explain to the mass, the disappearance of Jesus after he was raised from the dead, and therefore was born the idea of Jesus’ bodily ascent to heaven. It is very much possible that the close disciples of Jesus themselves had to come up with an explanation, and they simply could not reveal the truth to the rest of his followers because it could endanger the life of their master. It is possible that they themselves invented the idea that God, the Father, took back Jesus, his Son, in Heaven.
Resurrection is a concept that Paul would defend scrupulously in his letters afterwards. In Corinthians, Chapter 15, verses 12-14, he states:
‘Now if Christ is preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain.’
It should be noted that Paul himself had never known Jesus personally and had never met Jesus himself. He became a follower after having a vision of him on his way to
I will now quote a series of sayings attributed to Jesus in one gospel written by the apostle John himself……Yes! A gospel written by one of the 12 apostles of Jesus, and approved by the rest of the apostles…It does exist. It has been called the ‘Gospel of Holy Twelve’ by the translator of the text, the irish Rev. Ouseley. (Look here) I will present the details of the origin of this gospel in another article. For the time being, let me quote the appropriate sayings of Jesus to support this idea I am trying to convey here.
In the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita,
"Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I perpetually cast into transmigration, into various demoniac species of life" (16,19). And also: "Those who worship me and surrender all their activities unto me, being devoted to me without hesitation, engaged in devotional service and meditating unto me, I deliver them quickly from the ocean of birth and death" (12,6-7).
In the Gospel as written by John, Jesus is reported as saying:
“As ye do unto others, so shall it be done to you. As ye give, so shall it be given unto you. As ye judge others, so shall ye be judged. As ye serve others, so. shall ye be served.
For God is just, and rewardeth every one according to their works. That which they sow they shall also reap.” Lection 18, verses 11-12
This is the law of Karma as taught by
Lection 24, verse 4, Jesus also states:
“And Iesus spake unto them of the law of love and the unity of all life in the one family of God. And he also said, As ye do in this life to your fellow creatures, so shall it be done to you in the life to come.”
Or Lection 34, verse 10,
‘For as ye have done in this life, so shall it be done unto you in the life to come.’
For a more in-depth discussion on the subject, read here
I'd like to quote someone on the same subject here:
Jesus is a universal master and his teachings- his real teachings that is - are meant for the whole of humanity, not just those who call themselves Christians. He aimed at teaching mankind a very simple way of connecting with God. This blog has been created to support this idea, and to reveal the similarities in between the different faiths of the world. Documents will be analysed, those supported by the Church and those not supported, and parallels made with other religious scriptures from Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam....Please visit regularly and leave your comments if you wish. Thank you for your interest.
Scroll down to bottom of page to view the selected bibliography for this study of Jesus' life. This blog also hosts a series of video documents, all pertinent to Jesus' life and teachings. Take the time to go through the entries and find out for yourself.