There is little we know of Jesus during the first part of his life. We are told he was born in Bethlehem around 6 BC. His mother was Mary his father Joseph. The Bible tells us that three wise men came from the East to visit the infant child, a child born in a stable. However, there is hardly a hint of a stable in the Bible. Once you understand the history of Palestine, its customs and accommodations, so the truth becomes apparent. Not that it was ever hidden from us just made mystical to suit certain parties. Jesus was born in an 'inn' as clearly stated or, to illustrate better using the Greek word, a Pandokeion.
In 5th C. BC Greece an inn used for the shelter of strangers (pandokian=’all receiving’). The pandokeion had a common refectory and dormitory, with no separate rooms allotted to individual travellers (Firebaugh 1928).
William Thomson, a Presbyterian missionary to Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, who wrote in 1857: It is my impression that the birth actually took place in an ordinary house of some common peasant and that the baby was laid in one of the mangers, such as are still found in the dwellings of farmers in this region.
The wise men from the East that Matthew and he alone speaks of in the Bible, brought gifts to the baby Jesus. Matthew never specifies how many there were nor where they came from, however, East of Palestine could mean the near east or the far east. Persia, Afghanistan or China or India.
It is customary for Buddhists when an old spirit is reincarnated into a new bodily shell to pay a visit to the child to pay their respects. Although this is just speculation on my part here as I have little in the way of evidence to substantiate my thoughts it is nonetheless feasible. Those that visited the baby Jesus may very well have been Buddhists doing what Buddhists had for 500 years before the birth of the Christian Messiah, visited a recently reborn Lama.
We know of the man, the prophet, The Christ's, adult years primarily from six thousand letters written forty to one hundred years after his death. Many of the words he spoke, wise though they undoubtedly were, contained a great deal of symbolism as did the acts he performed. Siddartha Gautama reputedly fed a host as did Jesus. Whether or not there were five thousand or this too is a symbolic number is hard to tell. The trouble is, as we know from Jiddu Krishnamurti's experiences, once the people begin to add their versions of events all manner of nonsense gets promoted as fact. Fortunately, Krishnamurti ensured by recording his words on film, radio and in books that no one could misinterpret what was said. Even then there were those who said K performed miracles a fact he scoffed. Jesus, in this instance, lacked foresight.
From twelve to thirty there is practically no knowledge nor reference to where Jesus was or how he spent his time. The Bible provides no answers. All we learn from Luke is that during that time Jesus "advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men." Theologian's, men of good faith who believe in God, Jesus and the Trinity, who are able to read the ancient scriptures in the original Aramaic state that there is no mention of a virgin birth only that of a woman with child. Mary (Miriam) was pregnant out of wedlock yet Joseph, a truly wonderful man, took her as his wife then raised Jesus as though he was his son. A loving father to not only Jesus but to his own children yet it was Jesus to who he gave most attention. Why? Could it have been that the young child exhibited signs of being special, of being a Bodhavista?
To travel to India from Israel along the legendary 'Silk Road' would have taken a year to walk stopping along the way to rest, eat and sleep. Joseph recognised the need for his adopted son to learn, to be learned, to have a sound education. In those days there were no universities but there was Nalanda. Nalanda was a Buddhist monastery situated in modern-day Bihar. Nalanda was effectively the earliest form of a university the world had seen. All education was free. It accepted all forms of belief believing all faiths to be equal. The school attracted students from near and far. From nearby Tibet and China but also Central Asia. It is within the realms of possibility that Joseph took his beloved adopted son to what we would now call a university as the boy, having sat among the Rabbis and impressed them, had shown such spiritual promise. Where better to find a solid education along with a loving philosophy than Buddhist Nalanda?
Then we have the resurrection which in itself provides incongruities. Why did Joseph of Arimathea not take into Jesus tomb embalming fluids? Why take alose? Why take Myrrh?
"Afterwards Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jewish leaders, boldly asked Pilate for permission to take Jesus' body down; and Pilate told him to go ahead. So he came and took it away. Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night, came too, bringing a hundred pounds of embalming ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Together they wrapped Jesus' body in a long linen cloth saturated with the spices, as is the Jewish custom of burial. The place of crucifixion was near a grove of trees, where there was a new tomb, never used before. And so, because of the need for haste before the Sabbath, and because the tomb was close at hand, they laid him there" (Jn.19:38‑42 TLB).
The actual length of Jesus' crucifixion provides another puzzle. The usual time allowed for crucifixion to kill a person is numbered in days. Jesus was only on the cross for hours, about six. It is very possible he was taken down after going into a coma. In those days coma's were not recognised or acknowledge as anything other than death. A mistake could have been made which the disciples mistook as death. When Jesus awoke they, and he would have seen it as miraculous and in light of how Roman's crucified so-called Messiah's, Jesus and those who followed him would have ensured he escaped without notice. Less resurrection more resuscitation.
If Jesus did survive crucifixion and if he did flee the Middle East, it is very possible that he fled, as many Ahmadiyya Muslim's devoutly believe, to Kasmir where he continued his teachings. The Rozabal Shrine contains a tomb, a very unusual tomb for unlike tradition demands of Muslim's who face the dead North/south there is one who faces across those other tombs at an angle that forms a T across them, in other words, East/West in the Jewish tradition. This one sarcophagus has a sculpture on it which clearly identifies the feet of the corpse. There are scars on the feet that match those of a man crucified exactly. The name of the man buried here was Youza Asaph a Sufi Saint. It is widely held that Youza was, in fact, Isa or Yeshua, a boy who journeyed to India from his native land of Israel aged 14 and returned to his homeland aged 29. It has been suggested that during the time away he studied Buddhism. Christianity and Buddhism bear many similarities.
As with any path that leads to the truth, this for me shows the many false trails I have wandered down. I have said previously that I didn't think Jesus had knowledge of the Three Teaching's, of Confucius, Lao Zi or Buddha. I now see that he very likely did.
