part0010

The earliest, pre-Christian monasteries in Egypt and the Holy Land…almost certainly were evolved from those introduced by Emperor Aśōka’s missionary monks. Can the archaeologists establish otherwise? Some of the early Christian Fathers, themselves, considered the Therapeutae to be Christian—they had no idea that these movements existed long before the presumed birth of Jesus. If Christianity was an outgrowth of these Buddhist movements, then the Christian Fathers were partly correct.

This contention of Buddhist monastics in Egypt centuries before the common era rates as singularly important in Jesus-mythicist studies, as, we assert, it was significantly in Egypt, particularly at Alexandria, that much of the Christian effort took place.

The Buddhist attitude toward women—such as being subservient to men in the monastic hierarchy, as well as the doctrine that a woman must reincarnate as a man in order to attain to enlightenment—is reflected in the Pauline doctrines of exhorting women to be obedient to their husbands and to remain silent in church.

From this day on the nun shall not be allowed to reprove the monks officially, but the monks shall be allowed to reprove the nuns officially. This regulation shall be honored, esteemed, revered and worshiped, and is not to be transgressed as long as life shall last. (Lockwood, 93)

Some of the particulars in this section, such as ritualistic and administrative traditions like the patriarchal or guru lineages and master-disciple relationship (Lockwood, 96-98), as well as apostolic succession, are clear firsts within Buddhism and likely were adopted from there into Christianity.

At this point, Lockwood (99ff) touches upon one of the more important discussions concerning the Buddhist presence in ancient Egypt: The mysterious Therapeuts at Lake Mareotis, near the city of Alexandria. Regarding the spread of Buddhism, after citing passages from Buddhist texts, Lockwood remarks:

The Buddha’s knowledge, then, was to be passed down generation after generation of monks, under the guidance of leading Elders (“mahā-thēra-s ”), who had attained a thorough knowledge of the doctrine. It is in this sense that the term “theraputta ” came to be applied to Buddhist monks in a monastery under the leadership of a Mahā-Thēra (“Great Elder”). “Thēraputta ” (Pāli) is a compound of the two words: thēra— elder, and putta = son(s). The fem. of the Pāli word thēra (“elder”) is thēri , from (Skt.) sthavirī or sthavirā , and “daughter,” (Skt.) putrī . Emperor Aśōka’s medical missionary monks who arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 3rd century BCE and their followers and converts were to be known by this name, which, to the Greeks, would sound like “therapeutai .” These monks’ skill in healing the sick, both physically and spiritually, would enhance a medical connotation of the Greek term, “therapeutai ,” and its later English offshoots, “therapy,” “therapeutics,” etc.

Lockwood goes on to discuss the Therapeuts in greater depth, along with presenting views assigned to Christ in the New Testament that reflect Buddhist monasticism. Lockwood’s assessment of the Therapeuts as Theraputta appears to have been staring us in the face for quite some time, since it has been known for decades that there are figures in Buddhist lore called “Theraputta,” both as a name and as a title.

It is interesting to note the similarities between the Essenes and the followers of Buddha. The Buddhists were also called Theraputta , a Pali form of the Sanskrit Sthiraputra, meaning the son of Sthira, or Thera: one who is serene…

Indeed, we must keep in mind the Theravada school of Buddhism as well, the term “Theravada” meaning the “Teachings of the Elders,” a concept crystalized at Ashoka’s Great Council in 240 BCE . It has been suggested that the Theravadins may thus have been those sent out by Ashoka to “all points of the known world.” The word “Theraputta” appears to postdate this time.

In any event, needless to say, this source of the Greek name for this group of monastics described by the Jewish philosopher and writer Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE -50 AD/CE )—a name he attests is so ancient as to have lost its origin—rates as highly satisfying for a number of reasons, not the least of which that it explains how so much Buddhist doctrine ended up in the Christian effort, which is clearly a combination of Judaism and Paganism, including and especially Buddhist and Egyptian religion. Here we find these two major influences dovetailing in precisely the area and the era in which much of Christianity was evidently founded.

The term Theraputta as meaning “son of the elder” makes sense also in consideration of the Therapeutan hierarchy as described by Philo, who discusses younger acolytes serving their elders. The most logical conclusion here is that Buddhist monks did indeed travel to Egypt, as stated in Ashoka’s inscriptions, to establish monastic communities, the “descendants” of one of which were the Therapeutai, who were largely Hebraic and Judaic in ethnicity by the time of Philo. In this scenario, their allegorical works as described by Philo and later identified by Eusebius as the early forms of the gospels were Jewish-Buddhist texts. Interestingly, we find this Therapeutan network not confined to Alexandria but also named as such in other locales, such as on the Greek island of Delos, where thrived a synagogue as well. 7

In this regard, there does indeed exist evidence that Jews were influenced by Indian religion. In Against Apion (1.22/1.179), Jewish historian Josephus (37-c. 100 AD/CE ) recounts the words of Clearchus of Soli (fl. 320 BCE ), who told the story of his master Aristotle’s conversation with a Jewish man from “Celesyria” or Syria. Aristotle (384-322 BCE ) supposedly stated that the man told him these Syrian Jews “are derived from the Indian philosophers; they are named by the Indians Calami , and by the Syrians Judaei , and took their name from the country they inhabit, which is called Judea...” 8

Hence, at least three and a half centuries before the common era there were purportedly Indian “Jews” in Syria, whose institutions and communities may have welcomed readily the missionaries from Ashoka a few decades later.

Lockwood (101) further states that by the first to second centuries BCE the Buddhist supernatural hierarchy of the godman above the devas or “angels” and bodhisattvas or “saints” was already being formulated, such that this structure takes priority over and likely influenced the Christian supernatural hierarchy of Christ above the angels and saints.

In this section (102), Lockwood also provides a useful compilation of the earliest extant imagery depicting the Buddha, from the Swat area (100-50 BCE ) to the Gandharan (2nd -3rd cents. AD/CE ). Here we can see that the tradition was begun well before Christ’s purported advent, continuing to the time of the Christian effort, reflecting precedent and likely influence from Buddhism upon Christianity.

Later Christian imagery shows Christ with the same or similar hand mudras as Buddha, as well as in a pose between the “two thieves,” analogous to the Buddha situated between the two subordinated Hindu gods Brahma and Indra. These two Indian gods, we learn from Lockwood (169), are depicted as representing the two ways in which Buddha is tempted by the demon Mara. Hence, they are comparable to the two “thieves” or lawbreakers in Christian tradition. (See also Lockwood, 102, 160)

The Therapeuts, Essenes and various unnamed mystery school brotherhoods all reflect influence from Indian spiritual traditions—and indeed we hear about the numerous Indian teachers from Alexander’s expedition, along with stories of the Greek sage Pythagoras (“Buddha”+ “guru?”) learning from Indians. In this regard, Clement Alexandrinus (Strom . 1.15) says, “Pythagoras was a hearer of the Galatae and the Brahmins.” 9

We also read about the sage Apollonius of Tyana journeying to the East to learn from the masters, including Indians, such as his own purported master, the “oldest of sages” Father Iarchus or Iarchas (“Arhat?,” “Acharya?”), described as both a “great Buddhist religious reformer” and the “leader of the Brahmins.”

Into an analysis of possible Buddhist influence on Christianity must also be factored the Greco-Bactrian kingdoms to the east of the germane area, as well as the bursting forth of trade from India with the Roman discovery in the first century BCE of the Indian monsoon wind shift accessible through the Red Sea route.

There exist numerous factors that speak of a significant and largely previously unaccounted Indian presence and influence in the Mediterranean at the precise time when Christianity was being formulated, including the following:

In addition to that of Buddha, the story of the Hindu god Krishna appears to have been known at Rome and elsewhere in the empire, likely because of Indian slaves bringing with them their worship. Hence, any universalizing efforts on the part of the Christian creators would likely incorporate elements of Krishnaism as well, which it evidently did. 10

In the opposite direction, Lockwood (104) describes a Buddhist text from Sri Lanka, the Mahâvamsa , which records the journey in 140 BCE of some 30,000 monks from a city called “Alexandria” to an important Buddhist council on that island. According to the text, the gathering drew 1.436 million monks from around the known world, not counting those already on Sri Lanka. Also according to the Mahâvamsa , these Alexandrian monks were led by a Greek named “Thera Maha-Dhamma-rakkhita.”

Here we learn that there existed a massive Greco-Buddhist presence in the second century BCE at a city named Alexandria! Lockwood (105) next discusses which Alexandria the city in question may have been, among a list of several cities so-named from Egypt to India. In this regard, Lindtner cites Mahâvamsa 5.80 as stating:

“...the ruler (king Asoka) bade the kings all over the earth begin (to build) vihâras and he himself began to build the Asokârâma.”

Could it be true? From Alasanda the city of the Yonas came 30.000 monks (Mahâvamsa 29.39). To judge from the context, this city seems to be the Alexandria near Kâbul (Geiger). 11

One can argue endlessly about the reliability of the Mahâvamsa , but in my mind it’s quite reasonable to interpret the statement as referring to the capital city of the Greeks (i.e., Egypt’s capital city, Alexandria)!

I have arguments in mind to demonstrate the significant authoring by Sanskrit and Pâli knowing scholars located in Alexandria, Egypt, of many Buddhist scriptures that have heretofore been assumed to have been authored in India. So much so that I wrote you about my theory that the rise of Mahâyânism was very much influenced by Buddhist scholars in Alexandria. 12

Again, Lockwood raises up the Therapeuts of Philo to illustrate the significant presence of monastic—indeed Buddhist —practitioners at Alexandria by the time of Christ’s alleged advent (early 1st cent. AD/CE ).

Interestingly, it is in this Sri Lankan chronicle the Mahâvamsa where we hear about the warrior-hero Theraputta . Could these 30,000 Greek monks from Alexandria be followers of Theraputta, as their cultic figurehead?

More discussion follows regarding the use of relics by religionists, a tradition clearly present in pre-Christian Buddhism that appears in later Christianity, possibly emphasized at Alexandria following the mass meeting in Sri Lanka around 140 BCE , after which the Buddhist monks likely returned to Alexandria with a renewed fervor to spread Buddhism. Conversely, Lockwood avers in private correspondence that it is possible the Alexandrian Buddhists began to focus on relics based on their experience with Egyptian religion, with its emphasis on a physical afterlife, a notion subsequently brought to the Buddhist world by these Therapeuts.

Other than this possible Egyptian derivation, the great emphasis on relics appears to be peculiarly Buddhist—until Christians evidently adopted it from Buddhism. The same contention may be made concerning the practices of confession and absolution, which Lockwood (111-115) shows existed in Buddhism before Christianity, likely comprising one source of filtering and syncretism.

Vested interests such as The Catholic Encyclopedia dismiss the Ashokan inscriptions, because, they claim, there is no physical evidence of Buddhist presence in the West, such as the well-known stupas or stone pillars by practitioners. Firstly, one wonders if, by using the principles of upaya-kaushalya , the likewise popular Egyptian djed pillar was utilized instead of the stupa . Secondly, the presence of the monasticism itself serves as physical evidence, as it has been filtered through the “natives” and their traditions, which in this case constituted the Egyptians, Greeks, Jews and Romans. Indeed, rather than stupas serving as evidence of Buddhist influence in Roman lands, one could point to all these other factors, including relic veneration along with confession and absolution, as such evidence.

Lockwood’s discussion of Buddhist councils (116ff) demonstrates a well-established structure, organization and hierarchy that were evidently copied centuries later by Christians. These facts are reflected also in the astonished remarks of Catholic/Jesuit missionaries and monks who noted the extraordinary similarities between Buddhism and Christianity—for which notice the Jesuit missionary and traveler to the East, Abbé Huc, for one, was ex-communicated.

As we know, for centuries after Christ’s purported advent, Christian authorities convened several councils (Lockwood, 118), in which doctrines were hashed out, often violently. That such Christian authorities were aware of Buddhism from a fairly early period is clear from remarks by Church fathers Clement of Alexander and Jerome. It is likely much more was written about the subject that has been destroyed and censored from the literary/historical record.

The next subsection discusses the mechanized printing of scriptures as a Buddhist innovation, yet another first that would indicate influence from Buddhism to Christianity, rather than the other way around, as many Christian scholars have attempted to prove. Interestingly, we discover that the first mechanically printed text was created in Korea in 750 AD/CE , a Buddhist sutra impressed on a single sheet of paper. The earliest printed book is that of the Diamond Sutra, in Chinese, completed in 868 AD/CE . The Koreans and Chinese continued the innovations for centuries before the West heard about Johannes Gutenberg’s “invention” (refinement) of the printing press (15th cent.).

Finally in this section is the discussion of alms-giving, a distinctly Buddhist tradition that likewise ended up within Christianity (Lockwood, 122-129). This practice of alms-giving allows for the monks and nuns to meander, imparting blessings upon the faithful, in much the same way we see Jesus and his homeless band of brethren wandering around the countryside.