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Class
BUDDHIST & CHRISTIAN GOSPELS
Now First Compared
from the Orifrinals
By Albert J. Edmunds
Honorary Member and American Representative of the International
Buddhist Society of Raiigun
Edited with Parallels and Notes
from the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka
By M. Anesaki
Professor of the Science of ReHgion in the Imperial University of TGkyS
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BUDDHIST & CHRISTIAN GOSPELS
BEING GOSPEL PARAL-
LELS FROM PALI TEXTS
Now First Compared
from the On'oinals
By Albert J. Edmunds
Itoii .raiy Member and American Representative of the International Buddhist Society
of Rangun, Translator of the Dhammapada, the Buddhist Genesis, i tc.
Member of the Oriental Society of Philadelphia
THIRD AND COMPLETE EDITION
Edited with Tarallels and Notes
from the Chinese Duddhist Tripitaka
By M. Anesaki
Professor of the Science of Religion in the Imperial University of 'Irky
TOK Y O
THE YUHOKWAN PUBLISHING HOUSP
190S.
?e^
DEDICATED
To my Old & True Friend
John Y. W. MaoAlister
of Londor^.
ir>8519
Preface to the First Edition (1902).
Orientalists are aware that a series of trauslatious entitled
Gospel Parallels from Pali Texts appeared in The Open Court of
Chicago in 1900 and 1901, following npon the translation of the
Canonical Buddhist Nativity legend, which appeared in 1898,
These Parallels have aroused the interest of NeAv Testament
scholars, like llendel Harris and Caspar Gregory, and it is
proposed to reprint them, with additions and historical introduc-
tion, in hook form.
An excellent l)il)liogTaphy (jf former attempts to compare
Christianity and Buddhism will he found in The Dhamrna of
Gotama the Buddha and the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, by
Charles Francis Aiken, (Boston, 1900, p. oo9). From this it
appears that one of the first to institute such comparison was
the well-known German New Testament scholar, Hilgenfeld, in
1867. The first systematic treatise by an English scholar was
(Jhristlanltii and Buddhism Compared, by Bobei-t Spence Hardy
(Colombo, 1874) ; while the standard works upon the whole
subject are two in German by Rudolph Seydel, in 1882 and
1884.
It is l)elieved, however, that our present work is the first
comparison made from the Pali texts themselves. Even Speuce
Hardy did not know Pali, Init Singhalese, and relied upon
medieval Ceylon treatises, in which text and commentary are
confused. He made some use, however, of a pcjrtion of the Pfdi
Canon which was translated to him l)y an ex-monk in Ceylon.
But Sej'del had to rely upon the small fraction of the Canon
wliich had been translated in his time. His son, P. M. Seydel,
edited a posthumous w^ork of his father's in 1897 ; but it still
represented the learning of the Eighties. Moreover the Seydels
include translations from the Chinese and other post-Christian
Buddhist versions alongside of the pre-Christian Pali. Our
present work is the first attempt to compare the Buddhist Pali
with the Christian Greek. Many of our translations in The
Open Court appeared there for the first time in English,
especially from the Enimciations, the Logia Book, and the
Middling and Numerical Collections.
[ 3J 3
OuY l>(X)k Avill cover some three liundred pipjes, siiul as
puhlicatioii may Ix- (Irlnyed, tlie student is presented with the
followiu'!: outh'nc.
Preface to the Second Edition.
Our first edition, ])rinted in 1902, was merely a KJ-page
ahstrac-t of the Avhole Avork. The ])resent edition is also
fragmentary, except that the section dealing with the ]3octrine
of the Lord is printed in full. The ])ul)lication of histori(!al
works is very difficult in this age of ephemera. The only
genuine publishers ai'e governments, universities and learned
societies, together with a very few commercial firms that have
men of leai'uing at their liead. Not having any influence with
the first three, and having sought in vain to find the last or at
least to enlist their co-ope]-ati(^n, I am compelled to print
piecemeal what my funds will permit.
But while the commercial world ignores a -s\-oik of research,
scholars accord it recognition. T. W. llhys Davids, of Lomhm,
in an ai-ticle entitled " Buddhism aiid Christianity," in The
lafcruaUoiial Quarterhj foi- lOOl), has called public attention to
my book in the following words. Speaking of the ]iremature
w( )rk of Se^'del, he says :
"■ We shall soon see. An American schohir, Mr. ]<'dniunds,
of Philadelphia, is on the point of publishing a complete set
of com])arisons between the Nikiiyas and the Gospels, adducing
later materials only l)y way of comparison and carefully
distingiTishing tliem from the earlier documents."'
Foi- fuiiher information I must refer the reader to our first
(jdition, and to the following numbers of the Ohicjigo Opvn
Courf, where many of oiu^ Parallels have appeared : February,
April, June and October, 1900; January and July, 1901;
September and Novend)er, 1902; A]n-il and December, 190:5.
I re])(,'at what 1 said in the ]nT)visional i)reface in 1900:
"No liorrowing is .-dlegful on either side Christian or
JJuddhist- in tliese Parallels. We ofi'cr no llieory Imt present
them as facts. They at least belong to a world of thought
which tlie whole I'jast had in common."
[ ni ]
111 my impuljlislied Historical Iiitroductioii I have admitted
tlie possibility of a knowledge of the Buddhist Epic on the pai-t
of Luke; but his use of it, if actual, Avas veiy slight aud almost
eutirelj^ confined to Ms Infancy Section.
Finally, the Parallels are mainly in ideas, not in words.
3231 Samora Stred, PhUadeJplda :
Good Fviday, 1904.
Preface to the Complete Edition.
The pieseut work is piiit of a larger oii(3 : aIz., ('YCL()i'J>
DL\ EV ANGELICA : an Knglifih Dorwneitfar/j Inlrodiidiou to the
Four Gospels.
I may truly say it is iny lil'e-work. In 1.S75 I compiled a
manuscript Harmony of the Gospels, Avliich laid the foundation
of my studies, after a gocKl Qiiaker knowledge of those corner-
stones of sacred literature. In 1877, I had some instruction in
the Greek Testament and the classics from William Scarnell
Lean. In 1879 I met with two remarkable men, who incited me
io read i\\& Sacred Books of the East, then beginning to appear.
They were Thomas Dixon, the workman-friend of lluskin, and
William Brockie. The latter was a self-made scholar of an
original tyjie, and a philologist of no mean calibre. These two
men set the key-note of my life. In 1880 I ])egan to read the
sacred books, and in 1890 took up a coui-se of study in the
Greek Gospels and the earl}- Fathers, Avith Rendel Harris for
a guide. In 1891 I Ijegan the Documentary Introduction, by
tabulating ])atristic quotations ; and in 1898 finished all but the
portion wln'ch is to deal with tiomparative religion. Since 1895
I have studied Pali literature in isolation, but with frequent
encom-agement from Lanman, the successor of AMiitney as the
leader of American ludianists.
My Oyclopedia, if ever it see tlu' light, will contnin the
following matter:
1. Preface.
•J. The Gospel of Mark in iMiglisli, with ihe coniuion
matter in heavy t^'pe, after the manner of Abbott and Tiush-
brfw)ke, only that the agreements of any two evangelists ari^ so
treated, instead of three or four.
•). The Logia-source similarly f\liil)itiMl Ity tlic matter
common to Iiuk<! and Matthew.
•1. .Ml ([notations fi-om the Gospels and references to the
lite of Christ down to .Instin Martyr inclnsiv(^ (A. I >. 150),
conforin('d to the Kevised Version of 1881, thereby exliibiting
some (juotations disguised in thi^ current translations of the
I'atlifirs.
[ V ]
5. Lists of New Testament books from the earliest MSS.
( paii of this poiiion appeared in Tlie Friend : Philadelphia ;
1st Mo. 28, and 2nd Mo. 4, 1899.)
(). The Eusebiau Canons and Aninionian Sections accurate-
ly tabulated, with contents, besides havingj l)een given in the
margin of Mark.
7. New Testament and patristic passages on the growth
of the Canon, arranged under heads that shew the develop-
ment.
8. JeA\ish and non- Christian prophecies and parallels,
whereof the present work is a poiiion. Under the same head
is included the evangelical element in Philo. I hope also to add
the Talmudic statements about Jesus.
9. List of lost works of the first and second centuries.
10. Jerome's Lives of the Evangelists, with notes, pointing
out older authorities. (Tliis appeared in pamphlet form at
Philadelphia in 1896, and is now exhausted.)
11. A study of the transmission of the different sacred
literatures of the world, compared with that of the New
Testament. (Part of this study was read before the American
Oriental Societ}- in 1896).
12. Appendix on the Infancy Sections (Matthew I.-II;
Luke I.-II.)
Seydel's large work on the Buddhist and Christian Gospels
I have only lately seen, and his smaller one'^^ came into my
hands when my book was almost done; but as this truly
original scholar did not know Pali, and wrote at a time when
even translations from the Buddlrist Canon were few, his work
must needs be done again. It is absolutely imperative to study
these parrllels in their earliest forms, wdiich are to be found
in the Pali Pitakas and the Greek New Testament. Comparison
of late patristic additions is quite another thing. Some of the
most searching Parallels can onlj' be seen by a knowledge (^f the
Greek: e. g. alwviov afiapTr]/j,a and 6 ^pirrro'i ^^vei e'f tov
dioiva.
In choosing these Parallels I have Ijeen guided more by
central ideas than l)y verbal agreement, of which there is little.
Take for example the stor}- of the Penitent Thief. In the
(1) Die Buddha-Legende und das Leben Jesu nach den Evange-
lien. (Weimar, 1877, Ed. 2.) This is edited by liis son, but the father's work
i^. hanlly brought down below 1SS4, the date of the first edition.
[ VI ]
Buddhist and Cluistiaii naiTatives there is iKjtliiiij^ on tlie
surface to suggest a parallel. But, looking dpe])er, Ave fiml in
l)oth the following ceutral ideas:
1. Couversiou of a robl)er.
'1. His complete forgiveness (except as to ])hysiial ]»aius)
.'). Tlis ha})piness hereafter.
Moreover, there is the Johauuiue doctriiKj of the New iJirth,
while a genuine Gosijel spirit of pitj for the ixx)r and outcast
breathes tlirough the whole. No wonder the story A\as so
])opular. As ])oiiited out in my note, it is one out of a choice
group of leading stenos in Buddha's life which Avere gi-aven
on the great Toj^je in the ancient capital of Ceylon, in the
second centuiy before Christ. The (^liinese, too, have more
than one version of the story in separate form, as well as the
Canonical translation in their Agamas.
Wlien a Christian parallel narrative is told by more tlian
one I'jvangelist, my principles of selection are as follows: If one
Gospel agi-ee more closely Avith the iVdi than another, I give
its accomit alone, leaving the student to refer to the parallel or
parallels in other Gospels in the usual A\ay. If there be no such
choice, I give Mark the preference in narrative (and in such dis-
com'ses as he may relate) because of his primac}" among the
Synoptists.*--' If Mark have no aconnt of the parallel in
(piestion, T ])refer the First Gospel to Luke, because (1) it
contains the substance of the lost Ijogia-soun-e (avIhcIi Avas
perhaps older than Mark) in fuller measure than Iju1<(^ ; and
(2) because Luke so frequently agrees Avith the IMli Avhen the
others do not, that I do not Avish to mak(> out a. case for him
by using him Avhere there is no need, ^ly use of the Acts.
Epistles and Apocaly])S(> has been sparing, my aim licing to
<-ompare the Masters. These books doubtless contain, hoAvever,
doctrines and sayings Avhich go back to Christ, as Avell as
acknoAvledged deA'elopments and l»ovroA\ings from non-Christian
fields. r>ut then the IVdi Texts themselves contain the kite
(kn-trines of the Order side by si(l(> Avith the Avords of tlu^
^Faster, the Snrnhd-liltdsild as Avell as lln' '/'"//idtidhi-hhtlslfd.
Regarding these translations, it must be borne in mind
that many of them liave l)een made for the first time in Ihiglisli.
or even in a 'l'2urop«^an tongue. The iVdi language has not been
(2) 'JTie Twontit^th Century Now Tostiinieiit rightly pliioos .Murk nt the hend
of I ho gOHlH'lB.
[ vn ]
studuHl lon«i; euougli to give it tlio fixity oi Greek and Lcitiii.
The oidy Dictionary is far from perfect, tliongli it cost the
lieroic Childers his Kfe. If I have therefore made mistakes, I
shall be grateful to have them corrected. I may be reproached
for translating Brahma, by "Clod," but Buddhists themselves,
though agnostic as regards the Deity, use the name to represent
the Brahmin idea of a conscious Supreme Being, as well as the
Archangel and archangels of their own mythology.
Many of the parallels came to me indepen<lently while
reading the I'ali Texts or their versions ; but I have idso l)een
helped by the works of Max Miiller, lienan, Beal, Tlhys Davids,
Oldenberg, Fausl)oll, Estlin (Virpenter, ('o])leston and Bendel
Harris,'"^ all of whom have pointed out parallels l^etween
Buddhism and (Christianity. I have also found Lillie and
Caras suggestive, th(^ugh ]>y no nieans agreeing with all tlieir
conclusions.
Then I have made use of those scholai's who have traced
the course of Indian connnunications with the west : Robertson,
Claudius Buchanan, Lassen, Beinaud, Priaulx, John Davies,
Birdw(jod, Hopkins and D'Alviella. Nor must I forget the debt
I owe to the London Pfdi Text Society, but f<^r whose valua])le
editions in Koman type, my work could never have been
done.
The lamented Henry C. Warren, in his /J/Kh/hism in
Translations, (Harvard University, 189(5 ) deals more witli tlie
metaphysics of the religion than with its popular aspects.
Moreover, fully half his work is taken from commentaries and
other uncauonical sources. My own rule has been to confine
myself to the pre-Christian canonical texts.
T/ie Dhnmma of Gotamina fJie Buddlta and llie Gospel of Jesns
tlie Christ, by Charles Francis Aiken (Boston, 1900) has come
into my hands in time to profit by some of its useful sugges-
tions. Thus, I have banished the alleged parallel to Nicodemus,
have introduced the words " Capital " and " P?ean " into the
title of the Trinrnphal Entry;, and have given a fuller extract
here than I had done before reading Aiken. I have also added
(3) Especially in correspondence with me. For bibliography generally, I
refer the reader to tlie valuable one in Dr. Aiken's book mentioned below, merely
adding that lie has omitted Neuman's translati(;n of the Mnjjldnia Slluijo :
1890-1902, iiiid has put ^liliiidn omoug the Pali tfxts, instead (jf among the
commentaries.
[ ^'in ]
■ i I'l'Av lines in my iutroductiou ;il)out Buddliists t-ommittiu^
suic-idc. tVc-. These are the cliief phices Avliere ]))•. Aiken has
inrtuenced the text of my Parallels or my Historical Introduc-
tion, but I liaye frequently mentioned him in the notes. When,
therefore, "vve make almost identical statements, as we do in the
case of the lack of Buddhist memorials in the Greek empire,
■sve are -writing indei^endently of each other. On this paiiicular
jK)iut, howeyer, we liaye had a guide in Estlin Carpenter,
T thoroughly agree with the; learned Catholic divine in his
maintenance of the independent origin of Buddhist and Christian
Scriptures, provided we mean their fmidamental documents.
The Epistles of Paul, the Gospel of Mark, and the Logia-Soiu'ce
are dependent for their primary ins])iratiou upon the life and
deeds of Jesus, and secondly upon the Old Testament oracles,
the (Uirent beliefs of the times, as embodied in works like
Enoch : and the personal conA'ictions of earnest men like Paul,
Peter and Matthew. But when we come to late documents,
such as Luke, John, and the canonical First Gospel, other
influences ha^e crept in. This is now admitted by all historical
critics, and the most that T advance in this direction is the
possiblity of the Gentile (xosj^jel of Luke, in ceiiain traits
extraneous to the Synoptical narrative, having been tinged b}-
the Gotamist ]']pic.
Dr. Aiken is just in many of his criticisms upon ceiiain
parallels adduced l)y former writei-s, as far-fetched. But he
goes too far an hen he reduces the parallelisju in the Triumphal
Entry to the bare fact of the Masters entering a city, " which,"'
he truly says, " is no parallel at all." But he omits tlie niunber
of monks who are said to liave surrormded Gotame, vi/., (me
thousand, — a round uumljei', doubtless, but indicative of quite
a company to Avalk into a capital, with a Brahiiin youth at their
liead chanting a pa'an. (Vmsidering that a rising sect wei"e the
guests of a king, T think Uk^ entry A\as decidedly one of
trinm])h, while th(^ ve])ly of Sakko to the ])eo])le, tliat he was
tlie I loyal] attend;int of Buddlia (also onn'tled by Aiken) savom's
somewhat of "tlic king that cometli, " Ac As I have j)ointed
out, t<K), in my note, there is ;i curious verbal likeness between
the (h'eek and tlie JVili of the two refrains. Dr. Aiken says
tliat th(^ story "is not 1'ouihI in llic most aiicieiii forms of the
Buddha legend, ;iiid is entirel\ unknown to tlie iioithern
sch«Mi1.'" I»iit it occurs ill the canonical ITdi of the Ab'ilia\augo,
[ I-^ ]
cue of tlie oldest Biiddliist documents, and is found in ('liinese
in the Madliyamfigama, Sutra 62. (see p. ll(j.)
I repeat that what we are looking for is not Mords, l)ut
ideas. Thus, Pihys Davids' Dialogues of the Buddha, p. 81,
draws a parallel between the Buddhist practice of sail (i. e.
doing everything Avith full consciousness) and the Christian one
of doing all to the glory of God. To the theologian this is no
parallel at all, but to a psychologist like Khys Davids it is one.
Dr. Aiken has not made sufficient use of the Pali Canon ; and
I hope that when his work goes into a second edition, he will
avail himself of our present material.
I wish to thank the veneralile Ellis Yarnall (born in 1817)
who, since 1889, has allowed me to use the Philadelphia
(Franklin) Library in his name ; and Professor Morris Jastrow,
who has been instrumental in giving me full access to that of
the University of Pennsylvania.
I also thank all those who have helped me, not forgetting
the fair wielders oi that convenient instrument, the type-writer.
Many of the i^resent Parallels have apperaed in The Ojxn
Court, beginning with August, 1898. Those headed Healing the
Sid', are reprinted by permission of the editor of Freedom, a
weekly paper formerly published at Sea-Breeze, Florida, where
they first appeared: December 27th, 1899, and January 24th
1900.
In the transliteration of Pali names, I still prefer Neu-
mann's practice of retaining the masculine nominative in o:
e. g., Anando, instead of Jnanda. As Neumann sq^'s, the
ending in a is neither Sanrkrit nor Pali, but EIu. My single
exception is the name of Buddha, properly Buddho. But the
former is now an English word. To Neumann's defence of his
practice may be added the universal rule of European languages
to represent classical names in the nomhiative case. The first
people to transliterate Hindu names into a European alphabet
were the (xreeks, and they used tlie nominative case: e, g.
'E/3az^7;o/3oa9 = Hiranyabalias. Take away the case-ending, and
the identification is incomplete. Not only so, l)ut the o-termi-
nation brings out the likeness of Pali to Spanish and Italian.'^^
(4) Echvin Arnold has set his sesil upon the poetic vehie of the o-ending iu
the line :
" The Buddha died, the ^'leat Tathfigato."
Had he written " Tathfigata," the line \sould have lost its melody. As I am
otte asked what is the source of Arnold's poem, I may Lere state that he tells
[ X ]
L.'istlv, it_ is coiil'iisiiiL!; to an outsider to sec tlic a-tevniiuatioii,
lor lie associates it with the Lutin feminiiKi (unless he have
the «i;(MHl foiinne to know Anglo-Saxon). Except the name f)f
l)ud(lha, tlierefore, my Pali words ending in a art; neuters,
with the terminal nasal elided, or else they are masculines in
c()ni])ositiou, e. g. Dlc/ha, for Digha-Nika^'o. As Sanskrit names
have gained greater currency among us than IVili, I leave them
in their contracted form : e. g. Acjva-ghosha for A(jvaghoshas.
The Four Great Nikavos an; (piotod hy tlieir Englisli
names, thus :
Long Collection = Digha-Nikayo.
Middling Collection = Majjhima-Nikuyo.
Classified ( 'oUection = Samyutta-Nikayo.
Numin'ical Collection =:Anguttara-Ni kayo.
(Hlier ]^H)rtions of the Canon are cited thus:
Major Sec-tion on l)isci])line=r Maliavaggo
Minor ,, ,, ,, =Cullavaggo
Book of Temptations = Mrira-Sainyuttain (in tlie Clas-
siiied (\)llection)
Short Kecital = Khnddaka-lVit]io
Hymns of the Faith ^Dhammapadam
Collection of Suttas = Sutta.-Ni])ato
Enunciations = Udanani
Logia,-l>0()k =Itivuttakani
Biith-Stories = Jatakani
Statement of Theses = Katha-\'attIin
I ]*i'efer to ((uote the nund)er of the Sutta or Nipato, rather
tlian the page of the Ijoudon edition, l)ecause then my refercMices
are (;(|ually good for the King of Siam's edition, EuroyH^an
translations, oi- th<! palm-leav(>s tliemselvf^s.
Passages «(Uoted from othcM' writers ar*^ in tlie usual type,
in <|uotation marks. Th(» ynactice of putting interesting matt(>r
in small type is not a good one. Italics arc used to point out
im])oiiant passages.
In (conclusion, 1 wisli to pay a having tiiiintc, lirst to my
fathfsr, Thomas Ivlmunds, who dif^l in iHSd, and secomlly to
118 hiniHdf : \i/,., Ilanly's Mnnunl of Jiinld/iism (l^"):!), u wovk tVmmleil not upou
IVili, but nj)oii Singhalese trciitiscH, wherein text luul eommi'iitaiy are hopelessly
Tiiixi'd. It is therefore iinj)nssible to ascertain tlie early form of any lej^einl fioni
Ariinld, iiml his work is only valnablf as juM-lry. Har«ly is valuable wh> !\ iisnl
with iliscriniiiiatiuii.
Frederick Dawson Stoue, late Librarian of tlie Historical Society
of Peimsylvania, but for whom this work could never have been
done. M}^ father generously allowed nie to folloAV my bent,
while it was Dr. Stone who endowed me with TIME, Avliich is
dearer to the scholar than lucre, dearer even than life. In
garret or in library, my studies have been pursued amid all the
vicissitudes of a quarter of a centiuy of human existence. I
have often been at sea in my investigations, not knowing
whither I was sailing ; but the Gospels, Christian and Buddhist,
have been my guiding-star, and the study of them my ruling
passion; while such men as Frederick Stone have made it
possible for me to study at all, or even to live. Finally, my
motto has been : BUY THE TRUTH AND SELL IT NOT.
Albert J. Ediniinds.
li:sf(irir<il Socktt/ nf FennsyU-<in'i(( : 1900-1904.
Editor's Preface.
It v»-as in the last Spring that a letter rejiched me from
Philadelphia expressing a warm sympathy Avith my unpul)lished
studies on the Sagatha-vaggo of the Sainyutta-nikayo. Albert
J. Edmunds, a name before unknown to me, was the sender
of the letter. He had a book on the Gospel parallels from the
Pali scriptures Avhich found no publisher and Avliich the author
published paiiially on his oavu expense. My paper on the
Sagatha-vaggo Avas read before the XIII. International Congress
of Orientalists at Hamburg but the research in detail could find
no publisher. These circumstances Avere the first bonds Avhich
connected our mutual sympathy. But as our correspondence
Avent on, it became manifest that our sympathy did depend not
merely upon these outer circumstances but more upon the same
spiritual tendency ;ind the psychical cm-rent flowing betAveen us,
uotAvithstanding difterence of races and distance of abodes.
[ XII ]
My interest in the little book, n pii-ti;il ])ul)liciitioii of
Ivliiinnds' work, ;ui(l my ca^eruess to find out coinmon eleuieutH
lu'tweeii the lYdi Ndiuyos and the (*hinese Aganias aroused in
me a desire to publish the whole of the work A\ith parallels and
notes from the latter. The book now publislied is the result.
The Agamas and the Nikilyos, the one translated into
Chinese but neglected by the Buddhists of the Noi-tli since a
thousand of Aears, and the other kept carefull}^ bj' the Buddhists
of the South in its original IVdi, meet here again printed side
l)y side in Chinese and in English respectively. It seems to
me an undeniable fact that the IVdi Nikayos and tlu; Chinese
Agamas had been derived from the same source. Comparative
study of these t^o In-anches of traditions -will throw some
light on the original construction or content of the Buddhist
scriptures, and conse(iuently on its history. If this ])resent
edition of Edmunds" work may contribute one l)rick to tlie large
edifice of further study of the history of Buddliism my labour
of the edition will not remain A\ith(jut its wage.
As to the relations or relative positions of the two greatest
religions of the Avorld, Buddliism and Christianity, there remains
nnich to be studied and to l)e thought. I shall be contented
A\ith saying that they have still their futures and that they
must recognise each otluM-. America, the Avesteru extremity of
Christendom and Christian civilization, and Japan, the east-
most country with a long historA" of the eastern civilization, are
noA\- confronted face to face on the both sides of the Pacific
Ocean. If these t^o nations could contribute conjointly some-
thing to the civilizati(jn of the twentieth century, A\(>uld it not
be on the line of mutual understanding of the two religions and
the two cultures founded upon them respectively V Europeans
will smile at a thought like this. But I venture to say, tlie
Atlantic Ocean, well-nigh the Mediterranean Sea, is no more
the lak(^ (jf the civilized world. JJuddJia must be recognised liis
significance side l)y side M'ith (*hrist; Nagaijuna with August in ;
Tao-siien with Francis of Assisi ; the i)aintings of the Takiuiia
sc]i(M)| with tliose of tlie (^uatracentos. I wish tliis jmblication
may give Jielj) to th(i mutual understanding of l)()tli jx'oples,
western and eastern, Cliristian and Jhiddhist.
It was my tliought to ])rint the Cliinese pmallels translated
inti. Ijiglish. IJnt most oltliem are too similar to the JVdi to
be translated. I added soine notes to the ))assages which
J_XII^ ]
so differs from the Pali as tt) ])e noticed. The texts Avliicli aj^-ree
Avith tlie IMli as a whole book, sutta or siitra., are called
corresponding texts and signed C. T. Those which agree in
single passages, bnt not as a wliole, are called corresponding
passages and signed C. P. l^eside these two categories, similar
passages, S. P., mean those fomid in different texts and not
quite agi-eeing with the Pali. Those C'hinese words not fomid
in the Pfdi are omitted mostl}- and marked with Some-
times these passages are necessary for the context, they are
printed in square bracksts [ ]. A line means a place
where there is a passage in the Pali but not in the Chinese.
N. C. means Nanjio's Catalogue and the references (as for
example ,^X 39 a) are given after the Japanese edition of
1880-1885 which have a very good arrangement of the whole
Tripitaka (see Naujio, p. xxvi and Takaknsu's Chestomathy, p.
ii, note 2).
My English was printed as it was written down ])y me. I
hope my liad English will not be blamed as a misuse of the
language l:>ut be allowed by scientific men.
Finally I express my gratitude to the Author of the book
that he has alloA\'ed tliis edition of a life-work of Jiis to ])e
published here.
Aiiesaki Masalmi*.
Tolry',, Good Fndaij, April 21st. 1905.
ABBREVIATIONS.
S. B. E. Sacred Books of tlio East. Edited by E. Max
.AUillor. 49 vols. Oxford, 1879-19()4. [Voi. x coutains the
Dhtinmapada Hymns and the Collection of Suttas [Sulla- Kipiito), quoted
here from socoml edition, ISDS. Vol. XI, Dialogues Nos. 13, If. and 17
of the Long Collection; Nos. 2, 0 and !(• of the Middling Collection,
together with Buddha"s First Sermon. Vols. XIII, XVII and XX contain
the Major and Minor Sections of Discipline. .VU other Buddliist transla-
tions in the S. B. E. are of later age.]
Dialogues. Dialopjues of the Bnddlia, Vol. 1. Translated by
T. "\\'. Ilhys Davids. Liiudou, 1899. [Long Collection, Ncs.
1-1:5.1
Neumann. l>ie lleden Gotaino Buddlio's, aiis der Mittlereu
Sainuilun^, Majjliiina-uikayo, des IVdi-Kanous, zum ersteu
:Male iiljersetzt von Karl E. Neumann. Leipzig, 1896-
1902, o vols. [The Middling Collection in German.]
Warren. Buddhism in Translations. By Henry Clarke War-
]en. Harvard I^niversity, 1890. [Contains parts of Long
Collection, Nos. 11, 15 and •22: Middling Collection, Nos. 26, 63 and 72;
and lunch from other parts of the Pali ("anon and Commentaries.]
Grimblot. Sept Suttas Pfdis. Par P. Griinblot. Paris, 1870.
[Long Collection, Nos. 1, 2, 10, 15, 20, ;51, :{2, iuP„li; with translations,
mostly in English l>y Gogerly.]
Oldenberg. Buddlui: his Life, his Doctrine, his Order. By
Hermann 01deul)erg. Translated by William Hoey.
London, 1882.
Windisch. Mara und Buddha. N'ou Ernst Windisch. Leii)zij;-,
1895. [Contains the whole of the Book of Temptations (Mnra-Sauiyntta)
in Ccinian.l
Open Court. (ios[)el Parallels from Pfdi Texts. Translated
from the originals, l)y Albeii J. Ednnmds. Ohicago;
Eebruary, A])ril, .Tune and October, 1900; January and
-July, 1901; September and Ncmunber, 1902; April and
December, 1903. See also August and November, 1898;
June. 1899. [The whole of -Middling Collection, Nos. 8(i and 12:J are
among these, except .stanzas at the end of Sd. In The Buddhist, July,
r.)Ul (Colombo, Ccyl)n) No. SC. is iranslated from a Singhalese gloss.]
SELECTED ERRATA OF
BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN GOSPELS
NOW FIRST COMPARED FROM THE ORIGINALS: BEING
"gospel parallels from PALI TEXTS,"
REPRINTED WITH ADDITIONS.*
In exculpation of the many misprints in this book the author wishes to say
that the Japanese publishers warned him beforehand of their inability to keep type
standing for seven weeks while the mails came and went between them, in con-
sequence of which both parties were greatly hampered in attending to the proof-
sheets and their revision. There are about 500 errata all told, and the following
list.including also some oversights of his own, are the most important ones.
Page v, note i For 187- read iSgj.
I, line 14. For //ort' read A^Occ.
5. " 7- ^or Questio7i x&zA Questions.
5, " 28. Delete quotation marks at the end.
5, " 33. ¥or Minister read Mt?istei-.
12, " I. For Section read Sectio?is,
13. " 18. For omission read omissions.
13. " 19- For i /lis read /lis.
21, " 10. For cares read career.
21, last line but one. For tlie gestation, read gestation.
" 22, lines 7 and 8. For t/iat read t/ie.
" 22, note 56, last line. For 67 read 6g.
24, line 8 from end. For Cai/ casus read Cancasum.
" 24, line 4 from end. For /ointed read fainting.
" 24, last line. For Pot/ai-ab/iage read Pat/a.rib/idgo.
25, line 12. For spirits read spirit.
27, " 4. For Jig ines read Jingers.
" 27, last line but one. For t/ie /lealing re^d /lealitig.
" 31, note 88. For c?96 read /cfg^.
31. " 88. For /.?o read ^o.
" 31, line 9 from end. For A'arfasa read A'arfasa.
* This is the correcterl title of the book.
1
Page 33
37
37
40
4-
4-'
45
47
49
49
55
56
63
63
63
65
65
66
66
66
67
70
70
75
75
92
93
99
99
104
108
108
108
108
III
II I
118
118
119
119
123
123
123
123
125
129
129
136,
line I.
verse 3,
" 3.
■' 5.
line 2.
verse 2,
" 3.
line 3.
" 20.
" 25.
" 15-
lines 15 and 33. Delete quotation marks at the ends of the lines,
line 13. For or read of.
note III. For iSgo read iSgg.
line 4. For herr read IiJtJtcr.
12. Vov fms ve.2iA had.
" i6. ¥ or fact re&A a /act.
note 134. For /'/. read JV.
143, line 2. For Ific read their.
line 7. For on read in.
8. YoT injluencr redid inftuencfd.
5 — 7. Romanize from Ariando . . . .to. . . . hocfy.
I. Romanize Anando.
headline. For 2. The A'atiTity read S- Angelic Heralds So also
pp. 65 and 67.
of verse. For in thirteen troops read: tJie Jiosts of the 'I'hirtv
line 2. For -I'ictor read 7'ictory.
,, 2. ¥or trafpinff read trappings.
,, 2. Yor siiddened rea.A .maddened.
For //i^" read /w ///^.
line 2. For forth to the read forth to lead the.
,, I. For Then read IVhen.
For sage, he read s«^<' //^.
For James' read fames.
For jj, read j-^.
For ow^ read ones.
5, from end. For there of read thereof.
14. For poicer/ess^iess read home/essness.
8. For K J7 read Stanza jj.
3. For^ri,7/fw sazf read ivheti ye sazr.
2, from end. For her read /i/wz,
I. For states read state.
Move [ The A'obf>er.] two lines above.
For in g^reat I Vood read: in the Great Forest.
line 2. For ideal of read: zV/^-a/ or.
For 7rt«r'<^/ca;/ read: Anfahari.
" 10. line 2. For .5o//( ziords are read: 7/(^ second zvord is.
" 10. ,, 3. Delete the second <««.s-<Yi? /o />^.
second paragraph, line 7. For reads read: ;•<"«</
second paragraph, line 8. For alone these read: alone by these.
line 3 from end. Move trance to line above before mind.
note 4, line i. For ffcrm read danger.
line 5. For Testament read AV<r TestatnenI .
Insert quotation marks after on.
After rtzt'rtv, insert: ; the deep breathing is a sigrn that they
are coming on, and not going tncay.
Move (or, Trance) to line above.
For or read : of.
" 2. For /X. j<?read: /A', jj.
Numerical Collection, third paragraph, line i. For i/nality read
single (jnality
line I. For / read //
" 25.
" 24,
note 3,
•• 6.
line
17-
19-
30.
■'
10.
Page 137, line 16 and 17 of English text. Delete: the anointed feet -u-if^ed -u-itli a
TCOfmin's hair.
137, " 3 from end. For J:/ects read £/e(t.
137, note 9 line 8 For 7'erswns read I'ersion.
137, note 9 line 10. Insert initials (A. M.) after note 9
167, line 3 from end. For V/. read IV.
172. " I. For ^/o/^'^ read ^/rt/c.
183, " I. For XIX. residiXX/.
185. The notes are confused. jVote i is to the word .Mcttcyyo (line 11); Xole
2 is to Holy One (line 12) and the figure (j) should be inserted
in the footnote before Arahat; Xole ,,' is Anesaki's to the Chi-
nese, and is wrongly numbered 2.
188, line 12 from end. For both great read; both the great.
igr, long paragraph, line 2. For Afocalypse read: Neic Testament.
198, line 14 from end. Insert a second square bracket after (devaloko.)
198, " 8 from end. Insert a first square bracket before 77//^-.
199, " 24. For fiend read: fiends.
199, After rubric to Parallel 77, add: Pessimism.
211, line 16. For more are read: more zrho are.
213, " 8 from end. Delete M<'.
213, " 7 from end. For James' read James.
218, " 9. For /J/ read iSi.
INDEX.
Page 227. For Mark IX. 38 read Mark IX. 23.
Page 228. For Luke XIX. 27, 28 read Lvke XXI. 27 2S.
Page 229. Under Majjhima Nikayo, delete 33 with title and Page number, and
add the latter to 36.
Page t30. For Anguttara VI. 185, read IF. /8s. For Dhp. 79, read i2g.
CONTENTS.
Preface to tli(.' First Edition.
Preface to the Secoud Edition.
Preface to the Complete Edition.
Abbreviations.
Historical Introduction
The Antiquity of the Prdi Texts
Place of the Nativity Suttas in the Canon
The Christian Infancy Sections
Tlie Possibility of Connection between Christianity and
Buddhism
Part 111. Ministry and Ethics.
9. TheLogia
10. The Golden Rule
11. Love your Enemies.
12. Treasure iu Heaven.
lo. XvaveninG: Within
P.
1.
1.
9.
11.
23.^
0.).
Part I. Infancy Legends
1. Supernatural Birth iy^i
2. The Nativity 53
3. Angelic Heralds and Prophecy of an Aged Saint. 61
Part 11. Initiation and Commencement. 68.
4. Fasting and Angelic Ministration 68.
5. Illumination 69.
6. Temptations of Empire and Power to transmute
Matter 72.
7. Messianic Prophecy : Art thou the Coming-
One? 74,
8. Looking for Messiah 76.
79.
79.
80.
82.
83.
83.
CONTENTS.
P.
14. Tlu; Missionnr.v ("hm-e. 84.
1.'). IJaptisiii S8.
IC. \'i-il 89.
17. (Vlil)acy DO.
18. Tovei-ty i)2.
19. Tlie Discourse on Defilement 93.
•JO. Ten C;onnnanclments 94.
21 . Faith and AVorks 94.
22. The Power of Confession 90.
2:5. (^astes Lost in the Lord 97.
24. Eating with Sinners. The Magdalene 98.
25. Tlie Master Reproached for Generous Fare. . . . 100.
2(1. Conversion of a Leper; Disciples ask why lie
was born to that fate 101.
27. Serving the Sick, serving the Lord 104.
28. Fenitent Rol)ber ; New Birtli and Forgiveness of
Sins 105.
29. Disciples Kepelled I )v Deep Doctrine 114.
00. Triumphal Entry into the Capital ; with Pjpan. ... 114.
01. Psychical Powers 117.
82. The Saint Superior to Harm 120.
88. Power over Serpents 121.
84. Faith to Remove Mountains. 122.
85. Healing the Sick 122.
80. Prayer 124.
87. Mental Origin of Disease 120.
88. Display- of Psychical Power Forbidden 128.
89. Saving Power of Relief 129.
40. Spiritual Sonship and Spiritual Sacrifice 129.
41. The Spiritual Warfare is Internecine 182.
Vuvi W. The L()i-(]. 184.
42. The Saviour is Uniijue 184.
48. 1 have Overcome the World 188.
44. The Light of the World 188.
45. King, Redeemer and Con(|uovor of the Devil. ... 140.
10. liion of his Race 141.
17. The Masttu' Remembers a Pra'-exist(;nt Stat(\ ... 142.
48. Tlie Master knows Ood and his Kingdom 148.
19. Tlie :srasterh(!ars SnixTiial Voices 114.
CONTENTS.
P.
50. The Clii'ist remaius [ou earth] for the iEoii. . . . 146.
51. The Master can renounce or prolong his Life. ... 147.
52. Christophauy : he who sees the Truth sees the
Lord 149.
53. Saving Faith in the Lord 151.
54. Damnatory Unbelief in the Lord 152.
55. The Lord Saves from Hell 153.
56. The Spiritual Life is quickened by Devotion to
the Master and his Doctrine 155.
57. Power over Evil Spirits and Association with
Angels 157.
58. In the World, but not of the world 158.
59. Anti-Docetic : the Lord was a Real Man 158.
60. Self-Consciousness of the Master 160.
Part y. Closing; Scenes ; the Future of the
Church; Eschatology ' 162.
61. Transfiguration. 162.
62. Last Look at the Old vScenes 164.
63. Apostolic Succession 165.
64. Holy Scripture : the Old and the New 167.
65. The Spread of the Gospel 170.
66. Decline of the Faith 171.
67. End of the World 176.
68. Former religions eclipsed by the Religion of
Love 180.
69. The Great Restoration 182.
70. The Second Coming 184.
71. Buddha's Last Meal and the Christian Eucharist. 186.
72. Earthquake at the Master's Death 189.
73. The Master ascends bej'ond human Ken, but is
Present with Disciples 190.
74. Ascension. 191.
75. Gospel preached in the Spiritual World. . . . 193.
7(). Angels worship the Lord and are Saved by Him. 194.
77. The Prince of this World 199.
78. The Psychical Body 201.
79. Apparitions of the Depai-ted 202.
80. After Death the Judgment 208.
81. Few that are Saved 210.
82.
83.
84.
85.
80.
87.
88.
CONTENTS.
The Belcjved Disciple veaclies Heaven liere
Fate of the Traitor
Au .^on-lasting Sin. . .
Universal Salvation
Joj in Heaven over Goodness on Earth
Salvation by the Church
Death in the Open Air
Appendix (Uncanonical Parallels).
1. Mone}' found in Fishes. ...
2. The Wheel of Life
3. Woman at the Well
4. The Wandering Jew.
5. Disciple walking on the Water.
(). God shall be all in all
I'.
211.
212.
213.
214.
215.
21(5.
218.
221.
221.
222.
222.
223.
225.
225.
Index of Passages.
221
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
The Antiquity of the Pah' Texts.
The uuhistoiical cliar;ictei- of mowt tliiugs Hiudii does not
appl,y to the religion of Gotanio. Asoko, the Bjiddhist Constan-
tiue, upon throe different rocks, in different parts of India, and
in t^vo different alphabets, has engraved the names of five Greek
Kings to Avhoni lie sent ambassadors :^'> viz., Antioclms, Ptolemy,
Aiitigonns, Magas and Alexander. These five kings could only
he reigning all at once between E. C. 2(i2 and 258. The first
was Antioclms Theos, who reigned at Antioch from B. C. 262 to
247. The second was the celebrated Ptolemy Philadelphus,
who reigned at Alexandria from B. C. 285 to 247, and was the
founder or expander of the Alexandrine Library. The other
kings were Antigonus Gonatas of Macedon, B. C. 278-239 ;
Magas of Cyrene, 308-258 ; and Alexander of Epirus, 272-219.
How, two of these kings were patrons of learning : Antigonus
attended the lectures of Zeno the Stoic,^'^ and Ptolemy caused
the Pentateuch to be translated into Greek. His librarian,
according to Epiphanius, was anxious to translate also the books
of the Hindus.^^' Asoko declares, in the same edict, that he had
made a "religious conquest," not only in India, but in the
dominions of the five Greek kings, as well as in Ceylon; and
that in all these countries his rehgion was being accepted. In
Edict 2, he informs us that over the same territory he had
caused wells to be dug and medicinal herbs to be planted, for the
sake of man and Ijeast. Now the Ceylon Chronicles confirm the
inscriptions, and record that he sent Buddhist missionaries
into Ceylon, Cashmere, and the realm of the Greeks. In
Ceylon the religion has persisted to this day, with all its texts
and commentaries; in Cashmere it has dwindled into corrupt
(1) Edict 13. Cnnninghaui : Corpus Inscriptorum Indicarum. Lon-
don, 1879. St'nait: Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi. P.iris, 1SS1-188(>, 2
vols. Vincent A. Smith : Asoka. London, lOOl.
(2) Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosophorum ^'IL 8.
(3) Epiphan. de Mens, et Pond. 9. I owe this reference and some others,
to ]':stlin Carpenter. (Xinieenth Centnrt/ : Deceiubor, 1880.) AH have been verified.
UISTOraCAL INXRODrCTIOS.
iusigaifieauce, -while in tlie ancient einpin^ of the Greeks it has
left no rec-ords, except in moments and coins in the Panjab and
Afghanistan. These are proof enough that the absence of sacred
texts in any country by no means implies that I'uddhism Avas
never there. We may tlierefore reasonably conclude that
Asoko's "religious conquest" did at least number some votaries
in Athens, Antioch and Alexandria. If however, the mission
■was not lasting in its results, it was not the fault of either side.
On the one hand was a prosel-^'tising Buddhist emperor, and on
the other hand were kings who studied philosophy and trans-
lated what they could find of the Sacred Books of the East.
The lYdi Texts were in existence, at least orally, in the time
of Asoko. On the rock at Bairat in Rajput ana, Asoko recom-
mends to the study of monks, nuns and laymen seven different
poiiions of Scripture.'*^ The titles of five of these can be identi-
fied Avith certainty in the Sutta-Pitakam today.^^^ A sixth can
be identified \\ith reasonable assurance in the Yinaya-Pitakam ;
Avhile the remaining one, which stands first in the list, is entitled
The Exaltation of the Discipline ( Vinayo). This, as I have she^vn
elsewhere, is i)robably the First Sermon, with some introductory
matter. The ]^)eculiar word, translated Exaltation, is foimd in
an adjectival form in a stereotyped phrase of the Pali texts.*^*""
According to the Ceylon Chronicles, Asoko called a Council
of the Order, whereat the Canon was apparently closed. Its
latest treatise, the Statement of Theses, was then promulgated,^'^
while the president of the Council taught Asoko's son the five
Nikayos, the Higher Doctrine and the Discipline : that is, the
three divisions of the Canon. The Island Chronicle, which tells
us this, is at least older than the fifth century after Christ, Avliile
in substance it is centuries older still. Its tnistwoi-thiuess is
confin-meJ not only by .\soko's missionary inscriptions, as we
have seen, but also by the discovery of a sarcophagus at Saiici,
(4) Asoko's word for Fortlon of Scripture or Expositions of Doctrine is used
repeatedly in the Piili texts to mean a discourse of Gotamo's, and it occurs in
one of tliesc very portions selected by Asoko, viz. the Question of Upatisso
(Mabfivnggo I. 23.) The phrase (with dialectical variations) was long perpetu-
ated, and we find it repeatedly in the late patristic Lotus.
(5) Rhys Davids: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, July, 189S : also
^lanual of Ruddhisin, edition of ISOD, pp. 221, 225.
(6) E. g. Udana V. 3. For my identification of the Viniiyu-sanuikkainsa,
.see The Light of Dharma : Sun Francisco, April and July, I'.lUl.
(7) rnkusntji and d<scsi are the words used. I adopt the conclusion of
Oldenberg and others, th:it these words mean "published for the first time."
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE PA I.I TKXTS.
in the heart of ludia, beuiiug the legend : " Majjhimo, the apostle
of the Himalayas." Now the Ceylon Chronicles state that this
very Majjhimo was the missionary sent by Asoko to this region.
Other inscriptions, confirmatory of Buddhist Scriptures and
records, were discovered in 1897 and 1898."<^^) The former, by
Asoko, marks the place where Buddha was b(jrn, mentioning the
name of Lumbini, which is foimd in the sacred texts.^^> The other
inscription, found in 1898, is older than Asoko, and confirms the
book of the Great Decease on the division of the Sage's relics.^^"^
Shortly after the death of Asoko, about B. C. 200, was built
the great rail around the tope of Bharahat in Central India.^"^
Upon this rail, in addition to Scriptual titles, there are the
names of pious Buddhists who are described as "reciters,"
"versed in the Dialogues," "versed in the Baskets," and
"versed in the Five Collections."^'-^ Of these Five Collections or
Nihayos (also called Agamas) four are mentioned by name in
the Divijavadana, a Sanskrit work emanating from a different
school from the one represented by the Pali tests. In Chinese
versions the whole four have been handed d(^wn in literary form,
and bear sufficient resemblance to their Pfdi namesakes to sliow
that both recensions have a common source. ^''^
The Ceylon Chronicles affirm that the Canon was reduced
to writing in that island about 40 B. C, having been transmitted
for four hundred years by schools of reciters. Now we have
sufficient outside testimony from travellers of different nations
Chinese, Arab and English — that manuscripts were copied in
Cejdon from the fifth century downwards. Robert Knox, the
Englishman, saw the monks writing the sacred texts on palm-
leaves in the seventeenth century. Abu-zaid, the Muslim, com-
piling the travels of Arab merchants of the ninth centmy, uses
(8) Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Soc, 1898, p. 533.
(9) S. B. E., Vol. X, part 2, p. 125.
(10) S. B. E., Vol. XI., p. 132. The statement, in the IViIi, that the Sakyas
made a mound like the rest, is omitted in the translation on p. 134. See Ehys
Dayids note in J.R.A.S. 1898, p. 588. Cf gji f^ i fS;^ If; P- 191.
(11) Fergusaon: History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. Lon-
don, 1876, p. 85. Cunningham: The Stupa of Bharhut. London, 1879:
Pillar 85, and Rails 41 and 52, &c.
(12) With the /S'epa/a/.iHO of Bharahat, compare the Tepilako of Milindo, p.
19; also Tiyeiako in Buddhaghoso's introduction to the Yinayo, p. 313 and
Tqntakadh'iro, ibid., p. 299.
(13) Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka, by Bunyu Nanjio. Oxford,
.1883, Column 127,
HISTOUICAL INl'EODUCTION.
the i-emarkable Avcirds : "The Kingdom of Ce3'l(m (Serendib)
lias a hiw, and doctors who assemble from lime to time, just as
the pei-sons who (•ollect the traditions of the Prophet have
reunion among us. The Indians betake themselves to doctors
and write, mider their dictation, the life of their prophets and
the pi-eeepts of their law."'"^' Fa Hien, the C.Uiinaman, in the
fifth century, sjient three years in Ceylon copying MSS., and
t<Jok them to China, We can therefore credit the chronicles of
the island, and trust them Avlien they say that the sacred texts
Avere fii-st A\'ritten do^-n about 40 B.C.
The schools of reciters, A\ho preceded the scribes, are
mentiimed in inscriptions of the third or second centmy B. C. at
Bharahat. They also occiu' in The Questions of King Milindo —
that book which I call the Bnddhist Iren;eus — as well as in the
ancient commentaries and in the Canon itself. King Milindo
has been identified m ith the (Ireek Menandei', who leigned in
the Panjab one hundred yeai*s before (Christ. The work itself
roimdly fixes his date at five hundred j'eai-s after (lotamo's
decease. As most ancient Buddhists, except Asoko and the
Ceylon Chronicles, deal Avitli centuries and not with years, the
date in question roughly corresponds to the first century of the
(^hristian era. The 3 filindo- Questioning is (pioted by Bud-
dhaghoso in the fiftli (\^ntury A. 13., and must tlierefore be dated
between Menander and him. Tlie book itself, when alluding to
Orotamo's prophecy that his religion would last only five hundred
years, does not betray any c(msciousness that it had lasted
longer, and may be reasonably fixed at the time of the Flavian
Emperors, Moreover, the fact that tliis very prediction has
come doAvn unaltered in the canonical Discipline, while it has
been changed to five thousand in post-C^hristian commentaries/''''
is in favor of a pre-Christian origin for the text. When the fiAc
hundred yeai"s had expired, and yet the religion was making new
con(|uests in (^liina, it became expedient for Buddhist Fatliers to
add a ci])her to (lotamo's five hundred. Kcturning to ^Milindo
wc may say tliat, as tliii New Testament is inimannit in llie
pag<'S of Iiinia-us, so are the Pfdi Pitakas in tlu^ ]iag(>sof Milindo.
Ji(ifore Irenams (A.D. 11)0) our r[uotations from the Ciosijels are
(14) .\bfi-zni<1, tninslateil by neinaud in 1845 (after Renamlot, 171S) and
iilitcil by Charilon : \'i>i/ tijeurs cinricns if itiodtiDes : rari-J, 18 iO, Tom. '2, p. lllJ.
(16) r'.p., tlie cotiiiucntiuy oil Ihi' Long C'oll< (ition ai:(l tlie (inat riiioniclo
of Ceylon.
THE ANTiQtlTY OF THE PALI TEXTS.
fragmentary aud iuexnct — not enough to prove l)y themselves
that any Gospel existed in its present form ; though, taken
together -with Tatian's Diatessaron, they prove it- by cumulative
evidence, especially the quotations of Justin Martyr, who Avas
Tatian's master. In the same ^vay, no Buddliist l)ook earlier
than the Christian era and outside the Canon betrays the com-
plete existence of the latter so ])lainly as do the Question of King
llilmdo. Then again, l)y the time of this work, there were
several Diatessarons, sucli as the Lalita Vistara which, however,
may lie lietter compared to an apocryphal Gospel based on
canonical ones. JliUndo's (juotations from the Pali texts are
mmierous, explicit and exact. MoreoAer, this work of an
imkuoAvn Buddhist Father, besides mentioning those versed in
the Dialogues, versed in the Discipline and versed in the Higher
Doctrine, speaks also of reciters of the Birth-Stories and of eaclr
of the Five Nikayos (collections of Dialogues).
In the period between the committal to writing, about 40
B. (*., and tlie Christian era, we have an interesting side-light
thro^\-n upon the transmission of the sacred ])ooks in Ceylon by
the following passage in the History of the Religion {Sdsana-
vamso), a Burmese work of the nineteenth centmy, founded on
older sources : — " Thereafter, in the time of the king named
Nago the Bobber, when the whole of Ceylon was vexed by the
fear of bad monks, the monks who kept up (literally, carried)
the Three Baskets, ^\e\\i to India. Those monks who did not
go thither, but stayed at home, being vexed by fear of famine,
tightened their waist-bands, encased their bellies in sand, and
kept up the Three Baskets."
" Then, in the time of King Kutakannatisso, when the fear
of ]iad monks was appeased, the monks came back from India,
and, together with the monks who had stayed in Ceylon, they
reconciled the Three Baskets with the [recension of the] Great
Minister; and wlieu [the two] were made harmonious, they
established them. Then, when they were established, the^' kept
them up well in Ceylon only."
In the book of Discipline there is a document which I will
call the Covmcil Appendix. It is found in English at page 370
of Vol. XX. of the Sacred Books of the East. Noav this Appendix
knows of the Second Coimcil of the Order one hundred years
after the Great Decease, but not of the Third Council in the
time of Asoko. Moreover, it knows of only two divisions of the
HISTOIUCAL INTKODUCTION.
canon, viz.,' Doctrine and Discipline, but not of the third, viz..
Higher Doctrine. Now, the List was among the Antilcgomoia,^^^'^
of the Second Council, while, as we have seen, an entire treatise
was added to it in the time of Asoko. These facts argue a later
date f(jr the Higher Doctrine and an early date for the Council
Api)endix, wliicli knows nothing about it. The Appendix
represents that the Canon was fixed after the death of Gotamo
by learned monks who knew cei-tain portions by heart. To
those who doubt whether an}' body of doctrine could be as safely
transmitted by schools of reciters as by the texts of conflicting
niauuscripts, I commend the penisal of Max Miiller's remarks
on the mem(n-ies of Oriental and primitive peoples in his History
of Ancient Sanscrit Literature. The Pali texts inform us that
Gotamo's discom-ces and rules of discipline were learnt by heart
and chanted in chorus by his immediate disciples, during his
long ministry of five and forty j-ears.*''^ The Coimcil Appendix
confirms the numeroiLs statemens in the older texts by rejiresent-
iug tliat Gotamo's intimate attendant, Anando, was the gi-eat
autliority for the Dialogues, and Upfdi his master of the Dis-
cipline. The monks who fixed the Canon under their instruction
were careful to "revise corruptions of the text."^^^^
The mention of a Greek kingdom in Sutta Do of the Mid-
dling C<3llection does not prove any more than that certain
dialogues, in their present literary form, mast be later than
Alexander, or even than the fomiding of the Gra^eo-Bactrian
empire about 250 B.C. Now the latter is the age of Asoko,
whose Panjab Edict uses the precise name (Yona-Kambojo)
found in the Middling Collection, which has the longer form (Yo-
naka-Kambojo) '" "\ We have already seen that the Statement
of Theses was first published at Asoko's Council, and the sacred
lore in generid was doul)tless edited in the same age, as it was
also re-edited in Ceylon in the fifth century after Christ f^^ but
(16) AntUegomena, i.e. books in dispute, is an early Christian name for seven
books in the New Testament whose canonicity was debuted for three hundred
years : Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and :3 John, Jude and Revelation. We here
apply the term to ]5uddhist books.
(17) See, for example, S.H.E. XIIT., p. 3U5 ; XX., p. 0.
(18) So I translate the words: Kh'impiphuUam palisaiikhdiim^u, which
Davids and Dldenberg render: "repaired dilapidation." (S.13.E. XX, p. 373.)
rhilders gives an example of the use of the former word which associates it with
Scriptural or textual integrity. (18a) fi^rg, and gjif (|;t^ 84 b).
(19) Great Chronicle, reign of Dhutusono : "Like Asoko the Righteous,
h<' made a recension of the 'ihree liaskefs."
THE ANTIQUITY OV THE PALI TEXTS.
tliis does not upset the liigli ;iutiquity of the ancient nxiclei of
tlie Canon. (Joplestou has g,one too far in relegating tlie Book
i)f the Great Decease to the age of Asoko on account of the
mention of an Emperor (CaJd-avatti) and of topes. But the idea
of an Indian Emperor by no means began with Asoko or even
witli Candagutto, but goes back to the Great Epic, and to tlie
earlier parts of it at that. The Bharmamjd, or king l^y right,
is an ancient ideal of suzerainty over all Indiji. Then, as to the
topes, we know from the Divyavadaua thai, while Asoko built
temples to mark sacred sites, yet rudimentary mounds or topes
existed already.
From the first Christian century on\\'ard a stream of/
missionaries and translators w^ent from India to China, where/
they rendered the sacred writings into Chinese. At first the'
ne\N' Mahayana works, then in the ascendant, were the favorites
for translation ; but in A. D. 149 a Parthian prince, probably
the son of Vologeses II, who died that year, renounced his
kingdom, turned Buddhist, ;ind went to China, where he
translated Hinayann, works. Ancient catalogues credit to him
176 distinct translations, whereof fifty-five are extant. Of
these fifty-five, forty-three are Hinayana.'-'" If we could have
tliese books in a European language and compare them with the
Pali, much light would be thrown on the history of the text,
for several of his versions are identical with Pali Suttas.
Masahar Anesaki is now engaged upon this important work.
Much work has yet to bo done in critical analysis of the
Buddhist l)Ooks. Our knowledge of them is behind the iiuow-
ledge of the New Testament at the end of the eighteenth
ceutm-y. Aftei- a lumdred years of hard work by Pali scholars
Chinese, Tibetan and Singhalese scholars, we may hope to
arrive at a scientific understanding of the ]3uddhist Holy Writ
such as we are now arriving at as regards the Christian. One
of the first things to be done will l)e to tabulate all passages
which the different recensions have in common. This Avork was
begun by Burnouf in 1852, wlien his hand was arrested by
death.'-" He was showing tliat certain fimdamental statements
about the life and powers of Gotamo Avere found in verbal
agreement (except for dialectical differences ) in Pali MSS. from
(20) Nanjio: Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka : Oxford, 1 883, Appendix
II.; 15eal : Abstract of Four Lectures, p. 7.
(21) Le Lotus de la Bonne IiOi. Paris, 1852, p. 859.
HISTOIUCAI, INTKOUCCTIUN.
Ceylou aud Sanslait ones from Nepal. These MSS. re presented
entireh" difterent literary- Avorks, aud yet every uoa\' and
then botli literatures woirld contain ceiiain passages identically
the same. Now, the Tibetans tell ns that four rival schools
aud their subordinate sects recited the Confessional in four
different languages, viz., Sanskrit and three dialects.^"' We
know from the Ceylon sects named imder the last of these
four schools that their dialect Avas the Pali. Now, when Ave
consider that the Pali aud Sanskrit recensions have l>een
transmitted by rival sects, their fundamental agreements must
go l)ack to an antiquity behind both. We Avill i!;ive here in
English the first of Buruouf's parallel texts.'-"'
"A glorious repoil like this has gom? alnoad: They say
he is indeed the Blessed, Holy and aljsolute EnlightcMied One,
endowed with wisdom and conduct, aus])icious, knowing the
imiverse, an incomparable charioteei' of men who are tamed,
the Master of angels aud moi-tals, the Blessed Buddha. What
he has realized hj his o\mi supernal knowledge, he publishes to
this universe, Avith its angels, its fiends and its archangels, and
to the race of philosophers and brahmins, princes and peoples.
He preaches his religion, glorious in its origin, glorious at its
climax, aud glorious in its end, in the spirit and the letter. He
proclaims a religious life A\'holly perfect and thoroughly pure.''
NoAV, this passage, like all Buruouf's parallels, occurs ncjt
once, but many times, in the Pfdi Canon. Indeed it Avill
prc)bablA- be found that all Pali douljlets are fundamental
primitive documents. Such are certainly the legends of the
nativity, as I have ^xnuted out before.*^-^' The best Avay, there-
tore, to begin our proposed tabulation of parallel passages in
different recensions Avill be first to draAv up a list of I'ali
stock passages; then call upon the Sanskrit, (^hinese and
Tiljetan scholars to furnish the cfwresponding ones in their
resi)ectiv(! A(;i-sions. When it is proven that the sects Avho liave
transmitted these passages have lived apart and used dirter(>nt
languages since the first or second century of Buddhism,'-"' N\e
(22) Burnouf : Introduction §L I'histoire du Buddhisme Indien. Ed.
1 hTC, p. ;{97.
(23) IJuruoul cites it from the Lon^ ColU'ctioti, but it also occurs in (ho
JJook of Dibciplinc, where it will be t'ouuil at Ii.'ast twice in Kni^lish. (Miilnl-
ha'i'jo I. '22, and VI. 34. S. H. E. XIII. and XVI I.) rf fg^ f)jS t iiiHB VI' 'il'*'"'-
(24) Open Court : Chicago, June, 181)9.
(25) I. 0. tho fourth imd third (icnturic-^ before Christ.
NATIVJTV SUIT AS.
shall tlieu be able to compile Avitli eeiiainty tlio (^rijrinnl Ncav
Testament of (Totamo.<^^*'>
Place of the Nativity Suttas in the Canon.
As these accoimts have hitheiio been suspected of lateness,
a special inquiry shall be made regarding their antiquity. The
fii-st of them, the Nalal-a Sutta, is the eleventh out of twelve
discourses, constituting the Great Section of the 8utta-Nipato,
Avliich has l)een declared by two such eminent Pali scholars as
Oldenberg and FausboU'-'' to be one of the most archaic in the
Canon. So ancient is it that a commentary on the second part
of it is included among the canonical books, and so far back as
the second century after the demise of Gotamo, ^\■e find its
canonicity called in <xuestion l)y a powerful party at the CVnmcil
of YesaH.^-" Unfortunately this commentary {the Niddeso) does
not Ijegin until the third dialogue after the Nalaka, so that it
does not suppoi-t the text of the latter. But the Nalaka Sutta
is quoted in The Questions of Khvj Milindo, while its story is
used in the Jataka commentary and in early patristic poems
like the Buddha-Carita/-^^ The Jataka commentary, in its
present form, is not older than the fifth century A. D., but
])oth 3IiUndo and the poem of A^vaghosha date from the first
or second. The Nalaka Sutta is also mentioned in Bud-
dhaglioso"s list of contents of the ancient Nine Members of the
Canon — another fifth-century document, based upon antecedents
of unknown antiquity. The Nalaka Dialogue is translated in
Sacred Books of the East, Vol. X, but the learned Danish
translator A\-ill not l)egrudge a neA\- version at the hands of one
whose mother-tongue is Enghsh.
(26) This section of my work was written and rewritten before seeing Rhys
Daviels' JHalogues of the Buddha (London, l-srj'J). His valuable preface covers
the same ground. The principal point be makes beyond the matter common to
both of us, is the use made of the Canon by the Stcdemenf of Theses in the third
century B. C. This early date, however, rests upon traditions which first meet
us in the fourth century A. D., and it is consequently contested by Earth and
other scholars. We may have to bring down the Higher Doctrine (Abhidhammo)
to a latter period.
(27) Oldenberg, Buddha : Sein Leben Ac. Ed. 2 : Berlin. IS'.tO. p. 2-l.\. Ed.
4 : 1903, pp. 234-235. Fausboll S. F,. E. Vol. X., part 2. p. XI.
(28) Island Chronicle V. 37.
(29) S. R. E. XLIX., p. 10. Cf ^pfrffsS (P^-b -lib -45 a).
10 HISTOIIK'AL INTllODUCnOX.
Our secoud Nativity Sutta, tlio Dialogue on Wonders and
Marveh, is Xo. 123 in the Middling Collection, that second of
the Sutta Collections which contain>s 152 of Gotamo's discoui-ses
of medium length. Now, No. Gl of this Collection is among the
titles engi-aved by Asoko upon the Bairat Iiock, already noticed,
while the Avhole Collection existed ceiiainly at the time (jf the
Milindo book, judging from the frequent quotations from it, and
even at the date of the Council Apj^endix, which says that
Anaudo was questioned concerning the Five Collections. But a
more specific witness can be called for our particular Nativity
Sutta in the sculptmes at Bharahat. On Pillar 89 there is
pictiu'ed the incarnation of Buddha : his mother, lying asleep, is
dreaming of the White Elephant descending from heaven io
enter her womb. The legend reads :
BHAGAYATO OKRANTI: {The Descent of the Lord.)
Now, the oldest sacred authority for the story of this
descent from heaven is oui- present Sutta, wliile the added detail
about the mother's dream of the elephant is uncauonical : it is
foimd in the Jataka commentar}'.^ ""' If the commentary matter
is as old as the third contniv before (Hirist. a fortiori tlie
text is.
The Dialogue on AVonders and Marvels Mas first translated
b}' me (though not very con'ectly) in The Open Court (Chicago)
for August, 1898,''-^ with con-ective and critical notes in Novem-
Ijer 1898, and June, 1899. In tlie latter note I traced quota-
tions from the Nati^it}' Sutta in other paiis of the Pali Canon.
The Nativity Suttas, I there said, lie behind tlie Lalita Yistara
and (jther early poems and commentaries. They probably
<ronstituted one of the ancient Nine Membei-s of the Canon called
Marvels. In tlie Chinese Agamas there is an entire section of
the Middling Collection with this title, and the sutra {^^Uij^
^^) that ojoens it is this very Nativity legend. (No. 32 = Pali 123.)
Together with the Samb(xlhi, the Fi-st Sermon, the Chain
of ( 'ausati<jns, tlie Confessional, the Antinomies of the sophists,
and the Book of the Great Decease, the Nativity legends rank
among those prime docnmciits of tlie i(4igioii around which all
recensions rail v.
(30; AVHrri'ii : limldhism in Trmislatioas, p. -13.
(31) To tho details given of previous notices of tbe Dinloguc in English I
Hhuiiltl li;iv.. ii-l.lo.l Rhy« l):ivi(lh' Anier!'-',,. f^rf.,r,s (IHQG).
THE CHUISTIAN i:sKANCY SKCTIONS. 11
Moreover a longer form of the Dialogue ou Wonders and
Marvels, is foimd in the Long Collection, N(x 14 (No. 1 in the
Chinese, 3^>^ifM)- The portion relating to the Nativity agrees
nearly verbatim with its companion of the Middling Collection.
The slight variants, are as Rhys Davids points out in a similar
case, the various readings of the school of reciters who transmit-
ted the Long Collection. I lia^e translated this important
portion in a separate form.*^^'-''
The Christian Infancy Sections.
Even tliongh there be no demonstrable connection between
the Buddhist and Christian Infancy Sections, yet I believe the J
latter to be cast in the same mould of Asiatic legend.
There has been sucli long communication, by migration,
ccjnquest, commerce and philosophy, among the peoples of
hitlier Asia, from the Bosphorus to the Indus, that they may
be said to have a world of ideas in common. Josephus hit upon
a profound historical truth when he made the Nile and the
Ganges the two extreme rivers of Paradise : the region between
them has been the cradle of the oldest and gTeatest religions,
and may be called the Holy Land of the human race.*-^"^*
The primitive Gospel tradition l^egins with the preaching of
John the Baptist (Acts I. 22.) This is the case with Mark, the
simplest and most archaic of the Evangelists, and even with
John, the latest and most recondite. Mark and John relate no
Infancy stories. The Acts and the Epistles contain no re-
ferences to the Virginal Birth. Luke, after his Infancy Section,
begins the true synoptical narrative with an historical introduc-
tion (Luke III. 1), very different from his poetical preface, with
its loose chronology of the census. Matthew, in the correspond-
ing place, begins with the phrase : " And in those days," after
skipping a period of nearly thirty years. Aiigain, the lengili of
(32) The Marvellous Birth of the Buddhas. Translated from the Fuli. By
Albert J. EdmTinds. Philadelphia: McYey, 1899. pp. vii + l'J; second edition,
1903.
(33) I do not attempt to repeat the well-known analyses which disprove the
historicity of the Infancy Sections. They may be found in English in a concise
form in Percy Gardner's Exploratlo Evangellca (London, IS'J'J.) I recommend
to every serious reader this true Eirenicon and masterpiece of scientific piety. See
also Encyclopedia Biblica : articles Jl/aj-y and Yaiivify. (London, 19()"2.)
12 HISTOKICAI, INTltODUCTIOX.
iljp lufaucy Sectiou (Matliew I. — II., aud Luke I. — ^11.) is out
of all pi'o]_xjrtioii to the historical elemeut iu the Gospels. One
of the strikiu<i: proofs of the Evangelical veracity is the dis-
projxuiiou betweeu the leugtli of the uairative of the last fe^\'
weeks of C'lnist's ministry and the fii*st three yeai"s. The
Transliouratiou, Avhich is placed about a month liefore the
Crucifixion, is related in Luke IX. This means that out of
Luke's twenty-two cha])ters (excluding- the Infancy Section)
sixteen relate to the Lord's last month, and only six to his three
years of service. Tlie propoiiion in Mark and Matthew is not
so gi-eat, hut it is sufficientl.^- striking (Mark IX : Matth. XVII.).
Now, the events of the last mcmtli were more vividly rememljer-
ed because more recent and more startling than the events of
the quiet years. It is because the Evangelists were historians,
and not romancers, that they relate<l iu full \\hat was well
authenticated, and in briefer form what was distantly- remember-
ed. But the Infanc}' Sections are out of all proportion to the
i"ecord of Christ's early years; and, Avhile the main Gospel
narrative is suppoiied 1)y frequent allusions in the Acts and
Epistles, the Infancy Sections have no such support. One sign
of fiction on Luke's paii is at I. 70, Avhere he puts into the
moutli of Zacharias a saying which is in Acts III. 21 ascribed
to Peter at the Gate Beautiful :
"Whereof God spake by the moutli of his holy l'ro])liets,
wliicli have 1)eeu since the world began."
This is not an Old Testament quotation, and cannot be found in
the Apocrypha or the Pseudepigrapha. On the other hand,
Luke assei-ts, in his Piologue, that he had acciuatelv traced the
course of all things from the iii-st, and soon afterwaids jiiuts
of traditions gathered auKJiig the Judaean hills. (I. 65. )
Since the discovery of the Sinai Syriac, in 1893, we know
that there were two paii;ies in the early Clmcrh, A\hom anc may
call the Genealogy \y,ivi\ :iud the Virginal Birth party. The
former trac(;d the liiu^age of Jesus through Jt)seph as his
fathe]- ; tlie latter, like Tatian in the second ceutmy, discarded
the Genealogies as useless, and knew of no descent l)ut the
lieavenly one of John's iVologue."'^' The Sinai Syriac r(>ads :
".)ose])li Ix'gat Jesus,"
(34) Conjimn- llie Kiiseliiun Caiiotis. which ci'lhuMtt- Johns I'lolomio with
thf GcnealoKics.
IHE CHRISTIAN INFANCY SECTIONS. 13
wliicli AViis doubtless the original roixdiug of tlie (xenealoij;}'.
Tliat tlie Genealogies were separate docniineuts from tlie In-
fancy Sections is evidenced fi'om tlie fact that, while Matthew's
Genealogy table is prefixed to the Infanc}" narrative, Luke's is
outside of it. Moreover, a number of ancient British manus-
cripts make Matte w's Genealogy a preface standing by itself,
and place aiter it the words :
Finit Prologus. Incipit U v angel i/unP-'^
Marcion, the Gnostic of the second century, who le vised
the Gospel of Luke to suit himself, omitted both tlie Infancy
Section and the Genealogy. He also went further, and omitted
the accounts of the Baptism and Temptation, the Pnxligal Son
and the Triumphal Entr}-, as well as shorter pieces, among them
apparently the single line on the Ascension.''""' Scholars have
decided .that most of these excisic^ns w(>re arbitrary ; Init as he
professed to base his revision upon Luke's first edition, and as
an earlier edition of Luke has been suspected hj modern critics
on textual grounds, it is likely that some of his omission go back
to that edition. Moreover, it is significant that this principal
excisions are passages which have affinities with the (J)ld Testa-
ment and other sacred books, including the Buddhist.
The Harmony of Tatian, dating a quarter of a ceniiuy later
than Marcion, Avhile weaving together the narratives of Matthew
and Luke, foimd no place for the Genealogies, but retained the
Infancy Section. Now, according to Epiphanius,"^^"' the Encra-
tites, who favored virginity, following James the Lord's brotlier,
had books that were written l^y old jnen and maidens, and it
was doul)tless among these votaries tliat the Virginal Biiili
found credit. They of coiu'se repudiated the descent through
Josepli, and therefore discarded the "endless genealogies,"
many more of which were once ]>rolx'bbly extant, besides the two
that have come down to us.
The genealogies were derived, says Julius Africanus, from
the kinsmen of the Lord.^^' Bv this we need not undei'stand
(35) Westcott, article Vul/aic, in Smith's Eib. Die. See also Hug and
Scrivener.
(36) My authorities are Westcott and Sanday. ('ritics are not agreed about
some omissions, bnt those mentioned, excepting the Ascension, are admitted
by all.
(37) Hrer. XXX. 2.
(38) Eusebius, H. E. I. 7.
14 HISTOKUAL I.NTKOUUCTION.
James the Lord's l)iotlier and liis conipeei"s, but a later genera-
tion, such as those "who stood before Doniitian and shewed him
the toil-Avorn liarduess of their hands. Among these people,
JesTLs was simph^ the son of Joseph, as in the Gospel of J(^hu. *•''•''
Sucli was the state of affairs until the first quarter of the
second century, when the (lospel Avas finally (Mlit(Ml. Even
Justin, however, in the middle of the century, recognizes the
existence of the party who rejected the Virginal Biiih. Tlie
op]^^)osite party however, gained the upper hand, but conciliated
the Genealogy partj- bj- incorix)rating the faA'orite documents of
the latter, together with their own opposing ones. In doing
this they omitted the ascription of paternity to Joseph, thiLs
causing commentators endless trouble to account for the fact
that both lists are traced through him, and not througli Mary.
Tliis method of conciliation by juxtaposing contradictory ac-
coimts is eminently Oriental, and I have elsewhere given an
example of it from the Chronicles of Ceylon/^"^ Paul evidently
belonged to the Genealogy paiiy (Romans I. 3) ; but whoever
wrote the Pastoral Epistles (perhaps Paul himseU* ^hen older,
at least in pai-t) was tired of the controversy and was impatient
of " endless genealogies " and " old wives' fables."' (1 Timothy I.
4 ; TV. 7 ; Titus III. 9.) I cannot help regarding these phiases
as pointed allusions to the controversy in f[uestion rather than to
the Gnostic 2Eons and mythology.
The first Church Father who cpiotes the Infancy legend is
Ignatius, in the first quarter of the second centiny. In the
same centur}' the heretic Symmachus wrote a refutation of the
stor}", which is lost. Of its early origin, however, there is no
doubt, for the Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts, which omit the
Marie Apj)endix, added by Ariston, the contemporary of Igna-
tius, include the Infancy Sections as integral poi-tions of
MatthcAv and LTike. If the doctrine of the Virginal Birth has
iiuy New Testament basis at all, it must be sought for, not in
the legendaiy preface prefixed to Matthew's Gospel, nor in the
more artistic one composed by the non-ap(^stolic Luke, but in the
words of the Evangelist John, who took Mary to his own home,
and knciw the fact, if any one; did. In John I. 13, two ancient
Latin MSS. and three early Fathers (Justin Mai-tyr, Ireujrus
and Tertulliau) agiee in the use of the singular number instead
(39) Jolin VI r. 5.
i40) In an article in The New Christianity, Ithaca, N. Y., July, 1S98.
THE CHRISTIAN INFANCY SECTIONS. 15
of the plural, tlius makiuj^- tliat verse a direct attestation of the
Virginal Birth :
" Who was born, not of ])l(^()ds, nor of the ^\•ill of the tlesh,
mn- oi the will of mau, but of God."^"^
Even if ^\•e read the plural, as the mauuscript evidence
requires, there still Hes in the Ijackground of the metaphor the
idea of a virginal uativit}-. Given the Divinity- of Christ, in a
supernatural sense, and the doctrine of such a nativity falls
logically into i)lace. Believers may l)e spiritually born as of
virginal conception, ])ut their Lord ^\as physically so. And we
have the Avarrant of Paul that no man can say Jesus is Lord
except in the Holy Spirit (I Cor. XIL 3.) In shoi-t, the doctrine
of the supernatural Nativity is a matter of faith alone, as Canon
Gore has maintained, and it has no support from the science of
historical criticism.'*^'
Since A^Titing the above, some years ago, I have come to
aei-ee with the Prussian Church Comicil of 1846, that the
Virginal Birth is no necessary part of Christian belief. I leave
the above sentiment as it stands, however, that the reader may
see that my attitude has been conservative, and that I have only
been driven from it by facts. A fact which has had much
Aveight is the following document, which I extract from in its
chief points. It is an old Syriac chronicle, which makes three
things probable :
1. The Virginal Birth story avms still in process of for-
mation in the year A. D. 119.
2. Its origin was Zoroastrian.
3. In its pre-canonical form it is quoted by Ignatius of
' Antioch, who is the first Christian Avriter, outside the Infancy
Sections of Matthew and Luke, to quote it at all. And he
quoted it in the same decade as that indicated by the Chronicle
as the time of the legend's redaction, and by Eusebius as the
(41) I wrote this before seeing Kesch's Kindheitsevangelium (Leip-
zig, 1897)
(42) Before tbe appearance of Gore's Dissertations on th.e Incarnation
(1895), I had spent some years in a study of the Infancy Sections, and had
written an essay which arrived at his conclusions, that is, a belief in the
Virginal Birth as a corollary to the Resurrection, but not on any historical
ground. I cannot here enter into the side-issue since raised by Eamsay. The
futility of basing the Divinity of Christ upon the Virginal Birth is patent from
the fact that Mohammed admitted the latter, but fiercely denied the former
<Koian, caps. TIT. V, XIX.)
IG mSTOKICAL INTIIODUCTION.
pericxl wheu the Gosi)els tliemselves were edited.''"^ It was also
the pericxl of Aiistiou, who wrote the Mark Api)eii<lix, so that
the New Testament Avas still in a ])lastic state.
Concerning the Star ; showing how and through what the
Magi recognized the Star, and that Joseph
did not take Mary as his wife/"^
T will write aud iuforin thee, onr dear brother, t'ouc-eruinic
tht^ rii^hteous of old, and conoeruiujj: the handing doAvn of the
histories of their deeds ; and how, and through Avhat, the Magi
recognized the Star, aud came and worship^jed our Lord with
their offerings; parth' from the Holy Sc-riptm-es, aud pai-tly
as we have found in the tme chronicles, Avhich Avei-e A\Titteu
and comi^MDsed by men of ( )ld in various cities
And as many things, which Moses also neglected, are fouud
in clu'onicles that were written aud laid n\), so too the history of
the Star which the Magi saw, was fouud in a clu^ouicle which
Avas AAiitten and laid up in Aruou, the border of the Moabites
aud Ammonites.^^"^ And this history was taken from the place
in Avliich it was AAiitteu, and was conveyed away and deposited
in the fortress of Ecbataua, wliich is in Persia
All these kings of the Assyiiaus, from the days of Moses
to Opiis the Persian, were on their guard and watching to see
wheu the word of Balaam Mould be fulfilled aud wheu the
legions of tlie Cliittites would issue forth fr(_Mu the laud of
the Macedonians; and how would be devastated the lauds aud
regions of all Asia, and the city of Ephesus, and the districts
of Poutus, and Galatia, aud Cilicia, and all Syria, aud the
spacious coimtry of Mesopotamia and of all the Parthiaus; aud
(how) they would pass on to Nineveh, the city of Nirarod, the
(43) Eusfcbius, JI. E. III. 37.
(44) Translated from the Syriac by William Wright in tho Jour ii.al of Sacred
JMerature: London, October, ISGG. The manuscript of this chronicle is placed
at the sixth century, and the text, being ascribed to Eusebiiis, probably
emanates from a writer of fhe fourth. This remarkable document was pointed
ont to me by Kendel Harris, to whom in turn it had been pointed out by Nestle.
Neither of them, however, is responsiVile for the critical use I have made of it,
though I believe Nestle has written something about it which has not yet found
its way to I'hiladelphia.
(45) The association of the Chronicle with the country beyond .lordun
connects it with tiie Esseiios or other sects intlnencfd by the farther East ;
while t he association with I'ersia connects it with Mazdcism.
Tin: CnUlSTIAN INFANCY SKCTIOX. 17
first of .'ill miglit}' men, and ^vonld wage war violeiitlv >\ itli tlie
Assyrians, and conquer them and subdue tliem.
And when the Persians saw that tlie word of l^alaani had
turned out true and ])ecome a fact, they were also specially
ctoncerned to see Avhen the Star would arise and become visible,
about Avhich he spoke, meditating what might i3ercliance happen
at its rising, and wlience it would appear, and conceriiino- whom
it Avould testify.
And after this Darius, A\hom Alexander the king of the
Greeks slew, there arose King Ai^sun, in whose days cities were
increased' in their buildings in the land of Sj^ia/^''
And from (L) ISCUS to king PIRSHBUR (Pir-Shabur?)
in A^-hose days Augustus Cresar reigned over the Roman Empire.
And in his days was the glorious manifestation of om' adored
Saviour. And therefore in the days of this PIRSHBUR, who
was called ZMRNS, there appeared the Star, l)oth transformed
in its aspect, and also conspicuous by its rays, and terrible and
gi-and in the glorious extent of its light. And it overpowered
Inj its aspect all the stars that loere in the heavens, '^^'^ as it inclined
to the depth, to teach that its Lord liad come down to the
depth, and ascended again to the height of its natin-e, to show
that its Lord Avas God in His nature.
And when the Persians saA\' it, they Avere alarmed and
afraid, and there fell upon them agitation and trembling, and
fear got the mastery over them. And it Avas visible to the inner
depths of the East alone ; and the Persians and the Hiizites, and
the other peoples that were around them, kneAv that this was
what Balaam had foretold. And this apparition and news flew
through the Avhole East: "The king of Persia is preparing
splendid offerings and gifts and presents, and is sending them
])y the hands of the Magi, the worshippers of fire." And be-
cause the king did not know where the Messiah Avas born, he
commanded the bearers of the offerings, (saying) : " Keep
going towards the Star, and Avalking on the road along Avhich.
(46) This refers to the founding, or restoring, of Antioch, Laodicea, Apu-
mea, Edessa, Eeroea, and Pella, by Seleucus Nicator. (Note by Wright)
(47) Ignatius of Antioch, in his reference to the star, agrees with this
passage, and not with Matthew. The story is Talmndic ; so also is the binding
of the infant from the wrath of a tyrant, who slays a slaTe-child, believing it to
be the dreaded rival. The infant is kept in a cave until he is ten years old. (The
Talmud : Selections. By H. Polano. Philadelphia, ]87G. p. 30.)
18 HlSTllUICAL INTKUDUCTIOX.
it runs beftue you; and l»y <lay and iii.u;lit keep c)1)serviiig its
light.'"
And when they set fortli with tht' sun i'loiii tlieir coimtry,
in which this suu (of oiu's) is bom e\evx day, the 8tar too with
its rays was mnuing ou before them, accoinpauyiug them and
•Toing Avith them, and becoming as it were an attendant of theirs.
And they halted in many places, passing by large fortified
towns, and (through) various foreign tongues and different garbs,
that were unlike to one another. And they halted outside of the
cities, and not inside of the cities, tmtil they reached the gates
of Jerusalem, over which the Star stood still, entering and
alarming Jerusalem and its inhabitants, and terrifying also
the kings and priests.
And w hen they had entered within the gates of the city,
it was concealed from them. And when the Magi saw that
neither the kings, nor the priests, nor the chiefs of the people
perceived the coming of the Messiah, and the Star was
concealed, they kneAv that, because they were not woiihy, they
did not perceive the birth of tlie Son, nor were they woi-thy
to behold the Star.
And when the Magi saw that the Star was hidden from
them, they went forth Ijy night from the city ; and at that very
moment the Star appeared unto them ; and they went after the
apparition of it, until it descended and stood still over the cave
of Bethlehem, where was born the Messiah. And in that hour
they opened their treasures, and offered unto Him many
presents and gifts of offerings, bowdng down in adoration before
the Messiah, tliat their offerings might be accepted, and that
they might be delivered from the liateful treachery which they
had seen in Jerusalem, and might reach their oA\-n country
without fear, and might carry back word to those who had sent
them of what they had seen and heard.
And Avhen they had made their offerings, and passed the
night there, the Star too stopped Avith them al)Ove the caveS*^'*
And when they rose early in the morning to set out for
their country, it was for the second time running on and
going Ijefore them on the way, wdiich was different from the
(48) The Nativity in the Ciive is a well-known uucanoniciil tradition ; while
the mention of " a foreign country and of a barl)arons tongnc " hardly <• miports
with I''fjypt, which was so familiar to the Syrians.
THE CHKISTIAN INFANCY SECTIONS. 19
iormer one ; and nntil tliey had entered j their city, it
did not quit them, nor was it concealed as on the former
occasion.
And when they had entered into the presence of the king
M'lio had sent them, they narrated to him all that they had
heard and seen. These things too were written down there in
inner Persia, and were stored up among the records of the deeds
of their kings, where was written and stored up the history
of the legions ef the Chittites and the account of this Star, that
they might be preserved where were preserved the histories of
the ancients.
But Joseph and Mary, when they sa^v treacliery of King
Herod and the envy of the Scribes and Pharisees, arose and
took the Child, and loent to a foreign countrij and of a barbarous
tongue ; and there they dwelt for the space of four years, during
which Herod continued to reign after (their flight). And at the
commencement of the reign of Herod's son, they arose and
w^ent up from that land, to the countr}- of Galilee, Joseph and
Mary, and our Lord along with them, and the five sons of
Hanna (Anna), the first wife of Joseph. But Mary and our
Lord were dwelling together in the house in which Mary re-
ceived the Annunciation from the holy Angel <^^^
and eleven, in the second year of the coming of our Saviour, in
the consulship of Caesar and Capito, in the month of the latter
Kanun, these Magi came from the East and ^\■orshipped our
Lord at Bethlehem of the kings. And in the 3'ear four hundred
and thirty (A. D. 119), in the reign of Hadrianus Caesar, in the
consulship of Severus and of Fulgus, in the episcopate of Xystus,
bishop of the city of Home, this concern arose in (the minds of)
men acquainted with the Holy Books ; and through the pains
of the great men'*' in various places this history was sought
for and found, and a\ ritten in the tongue of those who took this
care.
(49) Here some sixteen or seventeen lines of the Syriac text have been
purposely erased, probably on account of some statement which a later reader
considered heretical. (Note by Wriglit)
(50) My friend, Henry L. Gilbert, Ph.D., Rector of Caldwell, N. Y., tells me
that the Syriac worJ, translated " great men '', means magnates or grandees.
[This promising scholar was taken from us in June, 1904. His essay on Hebrew
Proper Names is quoted in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible.]
20 HISTOEICAL INTUODUCTICJN.
Here ends the Discourse on llie Star, Avhicli was eom])ose(l
1)v ^lar Eusol)ius of Osfsarea.
With tliis account compare the follo\vini<; from Ignatius,
Avho A\-as martyred aliout 118, a year before the redaction of the
leo-end. As this Avas the work of the magnates or leaders of the
chiu-ch, Ignatius Avould be one of the compilers ; and it is there-
fore very significant that lie is the first to allude to it.
Ignatius, Epistle to the Ephesiars, Cap. 19.
Hidden from the prince of this age were the virginity of
Mary and her child-bearing and likewise also the death of the
Lord— three mysteries to be shouted— the which were done in
the quietness of (lod. How then were they manifested imto the
ages ? A star shone in heaven alx>ve all the stars ; and its light
was imspeakable, and its newness brought amazement ; and all
the rest of the stars together, Avitli sun and moon, l)ecame a
chorus to the star ; but itself was transcendent in its light beyond
them all ; and there was trouble to know whence (came) the
ueAniess which was unlike them. From that time every sorcery
and every bond was dissolved ; the ignorance of wickedness
vanished away ; the old kingdom was pulled down, when God
appeared human-^^•ise unto newness of everlasting life ; and that
whicli had been ^jerfected with Clod took a l)eginiiing. Thence
all things Avere stiiTed up, because there was meditated the dis-
tructiou of death.
Tiie Arabic- Infancy (lospel expressly connects tlie visit of
the Magi a\ itli a ^irophecy of Zc^roaster. Modern scholai-s are
gradually acce])ting the view that Pharisec = Parsee. Tliis means
that the Tharisees, Avith their doctrine of angels and a futxu-e life,
Avere the Persianizing pai-ty in the JeAvish churcli, whom the
conservative Sadduc(!es opposed. As no developed escliatology
apixsars in the rent:iteuch, Avhictli was the sole canon of the
latter, tliey regarded tlie eschatoh)gy of Daniel, Enin-h and Tobit
as f(^reign. And they Avere right. Th(> Tabnud tells that the
JeAvs brought tlie names of tlu; angels fnuii llabylon. In the
pre-exilian book of Sanniel, Jehovah tempts David to number
Israel; Avheivas in the i)ost-exilian Chronicles, the tem])ter is
Satan: Aliriiii:iii iiad entered into IlebreAV conceptions during
lh(! two liundnHl years that J'alestine was a Persian province.
At the tim<! of the Ai)ostles. tlH>. presenet; of Parthians at the
THE CHIUSTIAN INFANCY SECTIONS.
21
feast of Peuteeost, the prevalence of Mitlu-aism in the Eoniau
Empire, and the Ma/xlean influences in the ue^v religion of
Elkesai, all x)oiut to a continnauce of connection between Hebrew
and Parsi thought."'^
In some respects the Christian legend comes nearer to the
Mazdean than to the Buddhist. This is especially- seen in the
Temptation story, so closely connected with the hero-legends of
Christ's Nativity and early life. Like Jesus, Zoroaster repulses
the Evil One by quoting 8criptm-e ; like him, too, he is offered
worldly emi^ire to renomice his spiritual cares. The Avesta says :
'' ilenoimce the good law of the worshippers of Mazda, and
thou shalt gain such a boon as the mm-derer gained, the ruler of
the nations." The Pahlavi texts have : <'-^
" It is declared fi.e. in a lost Nosk of the Avesta) that
Aliriman slujuted to Zoroaster thus : ' If thou desist from tliis
good religion of the Mazda- worshippers, then I will give thee a
thousand years ' dominion of the worldly existence, as Avas given
to the Vadakan monarch, Daliak.' "
The idea of repulsing Maro with Scrix^tm-e would be un-Bud-
dhistic : Gotanio vaimted that he was independent of the Yedas.
In the Nativity, again, the theistic Mazdean is naturally
nearer to the theistic Cluistian than to the Buddhist. A ray of
the Divine Glory (Hvarenoj enters the mother of Zoroaster, just
as the Holy Ghost overshadows Mary. The Buddhist doctrine
of Gandharvas operating at birth applies to every one, and
makes all birth supernatm-al. Moreover, in the Pali Suttas,
there is no virginal l)irtli for Buddha, but only a marvellous one.
It is when we get to the later Lalita Vistara that the mother
abstains from intercourse for thirty-two months, so that the ten
months' gestation cannot have l)een human.<^'''
As I hinted in my note of 1898, ^^'^ the oriental practice of
abstinence dm^ing the gestation may be at the r(;ot of the whole
doctrine of a virginal bii-tli.
(51) In Epiph. XIX. 2, the brother of Elkesai is indebted to a Levite from
Susa, who had worshipped Artemis and fled from the wrath of Darius.
(52) S. r>. E. XXIY, p. 103.
(53) Cf. Virgil, Eclogue 4; Suetonius, Augustus 91.
Suetonius wrote in the twenties of the first century. His Augustan birth-
story has points of a'^reen;eut with Matthew, Dlgha 14, and the Mazdean marvels.
In spealdDg of the Lilita Vistara. I take it as it stands, without regard to state-
ments in other Buddhist books. But see note to § No. G in the Nativity Sutta.
(54) Opni Ccnni : August IS'IS, p. 48^.
22 lIlSTetRICAI, INTRODUCTION.
In fact, in the primitive Buddliisin of the Pali texts, there
ai-e two germs of the legend :
1. Abstinence during gestation.
'2. The gandharva mythology.
Tlie second element apj)ears in the Middling Collection,
Dialogue No. 38, and is translated in our present work. Accord-
ing to this idea, every human being is born by that conjunction
of a spirit called a gandharva with the parents at that time of
conception. It is possibly at the root of Luke's story about the
Holy Gliost ovei-shadowing Mary. I shall show later on that,
while Matthew's Infancy Section has a Mazdean basis, Luke's
may have a Buddhist one. We \ia\e seen that Ignatins of
Antioch was the fii-st to quote the Mattlnxian legend, and that he
quoted it in its pre-canonical form. The fbst writer to quote its
canonical form is Justin Martyi', and even he has such uncanoni-
cal details as the birth in a cave, the Magi coming from Arabia,
and Herod as " King of the Assyi-ians."
Basilides, who comes chronologially between Ignatius and
Justin, alludes to the Magi and the star ; but we cannot be
certain that he is using the canonical som-ce : his reference is too
brief. He also is the first to quote the Infancy legend of Luke.
Harnack thinks that the Virginal Biiih was based upon a
misunderstanding of Isaiah YLl. 14 : " Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and l)ear a son."'^'' It is well known that the Hebrew
word here is not virgin, but young woman. .Aud yet the Septua-
gint has nnpOevos. May not this rendering have been due to a
knowledge of the Zoroastrian myth about the Saviour-bearing
maidens V Harnack admits that Je\\ish Apocalypses wdre full
of Babylonian and Persian mythology, and that the early
Christians accepted them, while he insists that the Christian
Nativity legend Avas home-born."^''' But it is higlily probable
that the mysterious Lawgiver of the Essenes (Josephus, Wai-s II-
viii. 0.) was Zoroaster, and not Moses, and that through both
Essenes and Pharisees ( = Parsees) the Judaism of the time of
Clnist had been tinged with Mazdean thought.
(56) Harnack : History of Dogma (English translation, liomlon, 1894, Vol.
I, p. 100.)
(56) " Kiirly Cliiistiaiiity was freo I'rom Geutilo myths', says ho, '(so far as
these had not already been received by wide circles of Jews (al)ove all. certain
Habylonian and I'ersian myths.)" For a reuiarkable proof from the Talmud of
Persian oschatology reaching Palestine, see the note to our rarallcl entitled :
"The (Jreat IJestoratioTi," N(\ 07 infra.
CONNECTION BETWEEN CHRISTIANITV AND BUDDHISM. 23
Tlie question of Luke's use of the Buddliist lufaucy legend
is part of the larger one of his use of the Buddhist Canon, and
will be discussed below. In his anxiety to adapt the Gospel to
all nations, he probably took from that source his stories of the
,\ngelic Heralds and the Prophecy of Simeon ; and possibly also
the Charge to the Seventy and the central idea of the Penitent
Thief.
The Possibility of Connection between
Christianity and Buddhism.
At the time of Christ, the religion of Buddha was the most \
powerful on the planet. It was still making new conquests, and ',
w-as fiUed w ith the missionary spirit. Its only real rival as a
world-power, was Mazdeism, which, though active in the cult of
Mithras, was already on the wane. In the Parthian Empire,
Buddhism and Mazdeism met, but the history of their intercom-se
is obscure. Om- present business is to enquire into possible
intercom-se between Buddliism and Chi'istianity.
^Vliile the progress of knowledge is, on the one hand,
deepening our consciousness of the solidarity of human thought,
and forbidding us to set up the cry of borrowing when two
legends— a Hindii and an Aztec are alike— on the other hand, it
in. teaching us how widespread was the intercom-se of the
ancients : how persistently they took and gave ideas ; and how
eagerly they recognized in a foreign divinity the featm-es of their
own. To steer between these two opposing cmTents is not
always easy, but our principle should be to regard nothing as
borrowed unless proven by express reference, by identity of text,
or sequence of narrative, accompanied with demonstrable inter-
com*se.
Until Kobert CUve inaugm-ated the new era of cosmic rela-
tions in 1757^''' by giving India to the English, the greatest
name in this respect was ALEXANDEPt. Among his
memoranda, says the Sicilian Diodorus, were several public
schemes, such as the construction of a road through Noi-thern
Africa but none were so magnificient as this : —
(57) Swedenborg was a true prophet when he proclaimed that this re-
markable year was the hinge of an reon. He could not have said this by mere
political calculation, for the news of the battle of Plassey in June, 1757 did not
reach Europe until early in 1758. Before that time the seer of Stockholm had
had the vision whereon he based his statement.
24 HISTORICAL INTIiOJiUCTluX.
" (He (Iccroeil) tliut there slioiild be iuierchaiiges between
cities, and tbat people should ])e transferred out of Asia into
Eiu'cpe, aud t-onversoly out of Eiu'ope into Asia, to the end that
the tMO ^ci-oat continents, by intermarriages and exchange of
good offices, might l)ecome h(^mogeneous and established in
mutual friendship. "'^'^^
The literal execution of this plan a\ as hindered by the great
Captain's death, Init in spirit it Avas amply can-ied out in his cit}'
at the mouths of the Nile. Until the translation of the Sacred
Books of the East into English in the nineteenth centm-y*
nowhere Avas there developed so active an intercourse between
the mind of Europe and the soul of Asia as in the city of
i .Alexandria, from the translation of the Pentateuch in the third
centm-y before Christ to the commentaries of Origen in the third
centmy after him. This Avas made possibile by the foiuiding of
Mj'os Hormos on the lied Hea and (^harax at the mouth of the
Euphrates. Tlie former carried the trade of India to Mexandria ;
the latter, to Damascus. It was at Charax that the Jewish
merchant conveiied the exiled Izates to the religion of his
fathers ;'^''^' and this is only a stray example of ^^•llat must have
gone on continuall}' in these cosmopolitan marts.
Tlien, also, Alexander took with him to India three thousand
Cxreek artists and actors anIio laid the foundation of a long
intellectual connection betAveen Hellenist and Hindu cultm-e.*-^^
Hilgenfeld has pointed out that Alexandria is mentioned in the
Great Chronicle of Cejdon as sending Buddhist monks to attend
a cei'emony in that island in the second century bef(jre Christ.
Lightfoot combated this view in his essay on the Esse nes, and
identified the Alexandria Avith Alexandria ad Caucasus. Rhys
]>avids, too, in his 3Iilindo, identifies the one there mentioned
Avith the Paujilb Alexandria.^'"''^ "' But Sjdvain LeAd considers both
Milindo's city and the one of the Great Chronicle to l)e the
Egyptian capital, pointed out that the Hindu astronomers ahvays
call th(i latter " the citA' of the Greeks," Avhich is the term of the
Chronicle.""''^ The associated places in tlir Clnoniclo ar(^ mostly
in India, l)ut Pallavabhage is Paiihia.
(58) Diodonis Siculns xviii. 4.
(59) JoKcphus, Antiquities XX. ii. '•>.
(60) I'lutarcli, \'il. Alex. '7'2. Tex*'''''*" uicans aitiliccis, but inclmlos .icturs
au<l artiKts. I'lutiirch only gets them as far as Ecbatana, bnt iloublless umny
went to India : they certainly did later on. (60 a) l»iil,5jiit('i'iS''^ *33 h).
(61) Revue do rilistoire dos Relifjions : I'aris, IS'.)1.
CONNECTION' BETWEEN CIIUtSTIANITV AND UlDDIilSM. 2o
Aristotle Avas the contennx^rary and tutor of Alexauder, and
died within a rear oi him. He conversed Avith a Jew in Asia,
who came from the region of Damascus, and belonged to a sect
in that country that Avas derived from the Hindu philosophers.'"'^
This man, said Aristotle, gave him and his companions more
information than they imparted in return. Now, as Gotamo had
given a missionary charge, there is no reason Avliy his monks
should not haA"e gone to Syria, even before the mission of Asoko
in the centm-y after Alexander. If they did, an historical crux
might be soh'ed : tlie origin of tlie Esseues. l^ut to this Ave shall
retm'ii.
The successors of ^Alexander a\ ere animated by his spirits :
Seleucus of Antioch sent Megasthenes as ambassador to the court
of Patna, and bade him Avrite a description of India, Avhile
Ptolemy of Alexandria despatched Dionj'sius Avitli the same
intent.'^*' ■' The court of Antioch patronized Berosus,*^"^ Avho
trauslateil the sacred records of the Clialdeans, Avhile the court of
Alexandria founded the library and began to translate the Old
Testament. The descripti(jn of India Avhich Megasthenes produced
l^ecame the great authority of the West xmtil after the Christian
era. Candragupta, the king to Avhom he Avent, A\'as the grandfa-
ther (if Asoko. Bindiisaro (or Ainitraghata) who came l)etAveen
them, kept up the interest of his sire, by sending to Antioch for a
sophist."''-*^ The immortal xlsoko set his croAvu upon this inter-
course by introducing the religion of Gotamo to the notice of the
Hellenist kings. We have already marvelled that these
monarchs, Greek and Hiudii, Avho were stretching out their
hands toAvards each other, should have left no further record of
their intercourse. The Hindu Avas anxious to sjiread a knoA\'ledge
of his sacred lore, and the Hellenist Avas anxious to translate it.
We shall presently see the reason of the silence.
Passing from the third century before Christ into the
second, Ave come to Alexander Polyhistor, a Avriter of Asia Minor.
In a passage preserved to us by Cyril of Alexandria, this author
(62) Joiseplius, Against Apion, I. 22. Clearchus of Soli, the authority here,
considered the Jews themselves as of Hindu origin ; but allowing for this
exaggeration, the fact underneath it probably is, that a certain sect had such an
origin.
(63) Pliny, Nat. Hist. VI. 21.
(64) Tatian, To the Greeks, cap. 3(i.
(65) Athenreus Ihipnosoph. XIY. (h. IWndusfiro wanted to buy a sophist,
but was refused.
2G HLSTOUICAI. INXKODUCTION.
shews a knowledp^e of Buddliisin iu Bcaetria, callinp; tlie religious
meu there bv tlie well-kuowii uaiue of Samanas. In a passage
of Clement of Alexandria,'^'" Polyhistor's work on India is also
quoted, and in the immediate cont(^xt Clement describes the
uaked ascetics who venerate the truth (i.e. DJiaimno). These
were the Jains or other like sects, but uot Buddhists. Clement
goes on to describe the pjTamidal topes, Avhicli contained the
boues of a God. These were probably Buddhist. Samcmas
ia-e/jvo!) may be either Buddhists, Jains or other non-Brahmin
sects. In the second centui-y l^efore Christ, we also meet witli
Hindi! mahouts on the elephants of the Syrian army. (1 Mace.
YI. 37).
In the same century (about B. C. 110) the (Ireek king
Menauder (in Pali Milindo) who reigned in the Panjab, had a
celebrated discussion with the Buddhist sage Nagaseno. preserved
to iLS in The Questions of King JJilindo,^*'" ''^ translated in the Sacred
Boohs of the East. Tliis great \\'ork of Buddhist patristics (the
Buddhist Irenjeus we may call it ; for just as the New Testament
is first immanent iu the pages of Irenit^us, so are the Pali Pitakas
in the pages of 3Iilindo) — this work s1io\as us that Hindu
philosophy, both Buddliist and Brahmin, was inquired into by
intelligent Greeks. It shows us that schools of reciters, at the
time of Christ, were keeping up the Pali (^auon.'^'^^"^ Each (V)llec-
tion of the Dialogues had its own professors, wlio knew it l)y
heaii. There Avere also special reciters of the Jatakas.
Passing now into the first centra-y ])efore Christ, we c-ome to
the Indian embassy- to Augustus, mentioned b}' Horace as a
recent event in liis Ode on the secular games iu B. C. 17. A
member of this embassy, says Strabo, burnt himself to death in
a public place in Athens, and an epitaph was A\Titten over his
ashes, which called him Zarmanochegas, i.e. cnDaajidcdryas,
" teacher of the philosophers," a name which has been jjerverted
by writers who did not understand Lassen's German translitera-
tion. (I give the recognized I%uro])ean one (jf to-day). We must
rememl)er tliat the Greek y = y, not g. Note also that tlie
linal-s is tin; proper nominative ending, though we generally
omit it, and Avrite gniniandcdri/a. As the Buddhists were
forbidden to commit suicide, tliis asi-etic ixnhaps belonged to
another Hindu sect. At the same time, Buddhists did commit
(66) Stromata 1I[. 7. (66 a) ;j|!;tJtE^ (><• •'• >-■"• ^■^''^' ^''"^)-
(67) Milindo, pp- •'*'. •^*'--
CONNECTION BET\YEEN CHRISTIANITY AND BDDDHISM. 27
suicide, mikT iii spite of the formal ijrohibitiou, (xotaino himself
condoned the suicide of Godhiko and others, -while in the seventh
ceutmy we find I-Tsiug protesting against Buddhists taking
their lives and burning their figures. Lightfoot considered that
Strabo's hero is alluded to by Paul in 1 Corintliians XIII. 3 :
" If I give my body to be bin-ned, but have not love, it profiteth
me nothing."
We now come to tlie time of Clnist, when Htrabo saw a
hundred and twenty sliips ready to sail from the Ked Sea to
India.^*^-^ The apostle Thomas, according to Christian tradition,
preached to King Gondophares, who reigned on the Indus, and
whose coins are still to be seen. Not only so, but coins of all the
Roman Emperors, from Augustus to Hadrian, are in the museum
at Madras.^^'') The Acts of Thomas are therefore not all inven-
tion : Gondophares was a real king. Von Gutschmid, in 18(34,<'''>
suo-sested a connection l)etween the Acts of Tli(5mas and Buddhist
missionary tales ; but the parallels he drew were rather vague.
There is no need to say that the lion of the Thomas-legend is the
Lion of the tribe of Sakya, when it may just as well be the Lion
of the tribe of Judah. Incited by Rendel Harris, I have search-
ed those acts for more distinct traces of Buddhist influence, and
he seems to think I have found some. In a prayer which is
present in certain recensions, the Apostle addresses the Holy
Spirit by the un-Christian title of " presbyter oi the five mem-
bers," whicli are :
Intelligence
Thought
Purpose
Reflection
Reasoning
Now, Nos. 1-3 correspond to the first three ot the Buddhist
members of wisdom, which occur so frequently in the Pali texts.-''^
The last two are also Buddliist ivitakka-vicdro). The basis of
the Acts of Thomas is Christian, and the Buddhist element is
subordinate, but it is there. The miracles of the healing are
Christian, for, beyond a feAv cases of mind-cm-e, I know of none
(68) Geography 11. Y. 12.
(69) Eae: Syrian Churcli in India. Edin., 1892, p. 22.
(70) Apnd Sylvain Levi : Journal Asiatiqne, 1897.
(71) E.g., in the Book of the Great Decease. Au entire section of the
Samyiitta Nikfiyo is also devoted to them. (Bojjhango, ^jS^)-
28 HISTOltlCAL INTKODUCTIOX.
siK-h iu the Pfili Canon. On the other hand, the title, " good
Physician," applied to Clirist is Buddhist, not Christian. This
epithet, ■vvliit-Ji is popular among Christians to this day, is
nowhere in the Xew Testament, 1)nt is found iu the IJuddhist
Cauon."-^'^
Besides the Acts of Thomas there is a Gospel of Thomas.
Though neither of these books belong to the fii-st centmy,
wherewith we now are dealing, it is convenient to treat them
here, for the sake of their feigned apostolic author and his
supposed connection with India. The Gospel of Thomas, like
his Acts, contains a probable Buddhist element ; for we find
therein the same legend as in the Lalita Yistara, how the
spiritual hero shewed a knowledge of the alphabet when a master
attempted to teach him. This story in both Buddhist and
Christian apocrypha (for the Lalita Vistara is a Buddhist
apo-.ryplioii] belongs to the same sphere of folk-lore. If there is
borrowing, it is on the Christian aide : the Lalita Vistara is a
l)ook of Indian antecedents and of Indian deA'elopment.
In the fii"st century, or perhaps in the second, there reigned
in the valley of the Indus the Buddhist emperor Kanishka,
whose famous Coimcil did so much to give political prestige to
patristic Buddhism. One f)f this monarch's coins, which has
come down to us, actually has on it the image of Bnddhn. with
liis UMTue in Greek letters -y^^
HOAAO.
Wheiever this coin circulated the name of Buddha \\ ould be
known, and many a Greek may have seen it fur tlu> first time
thereupon.
In the fiist centiuy also (the reign of Claudius; the uatm-
alist Pliny met with amljassadors from Ceylon.^'^^ This embassy
arose; from the circumstance that a Koman voj'ager was driven to
that island by ;i storm, and st;iyed there six immths. As he
Jcaiid ilic laiKjiiCKjc, he must have gotten to know something about
the religion. Now, Plin">' uudei-stood from his informants that
Hercules was Avorshii:)ed in the island. As the Greeks and tlie
(72) Sutta Nipato 500 ; Itivuttaka 100. " Imcompnrable physician," isi
the exact phrase, (of l^^ [% t \l\^ fit pp. 212-213).
(73) Percy (ranlrnr: Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of
Bactria and India: : Loudon, ISHO.
(74) Nat. Hist. \ '.'21.
CONNECTION BETWEEN CHKISTIANITY AND BUUDHISM. 29
Homaus alwa^'S endeavored to express the names of foreign deities
by equivalents among tlieir own, Hercules in tliis case probably
means ]juddlia. Moreover, the Singhalese told the Romans that
there were fi^'e hundred towns in their island. Now, five hundred
is a favorite round number in tlie Pali texts, and merely means a
goodly quantity. There is no proof that the Ceylon ambassadors
were Brahminizing Tamils, as Priaulx and Lightfoot maintained,
and that Pliny's Hercules was Rama. Hercules is both human
and divine enough to be an equivalent for Gotamo. The
islanders dressed like Arabs, and traded with the Cheras of
Southern India (" Seres " being probal)ly a scriljal blunder, says
Kenned}').
In the latter part of the first centur}' flourished Dion
Ohrysostom who, in an oration to the Alexandrians, reminded
them that in their cosmopolitan city were to be found Badrians
and Scythians, Persians and Hindus. He also has a discoiu'se
on a Libyan fable. Now, Jacobs has shown that these very
Libyan fables were akin to the Hindu, and that a number of
tliem found their way into the Talniud.*^"''^ Their Hindu origin is
proved by the fact that, of those found in Hindu, Greek and
Hebrew forms, the Hebreio form agrees witJi tLe Hindu against
the Greek. The first of these Talmudic fal)les which can be
dated is the Lion and the Crane, in the Great Connneutary on
the Pentateuch : it Avas told l)y a Rablji in A. D. 118. Rabbi
Meir, in the second century, was the last of the Talmudic
fabulists: lie knew three hundred "fox-fables."' Now, the fables
collected by Babrius in the third century from ^Esopic and
Libyan sources appear to have been three hundred in number.
Rabbi Jochanon, in the first century, is said to have kno\A'n both
the fox-fables and the Lil)yan fables ( Mshle Kohdin). TJiere is
no need to make the Ceylon embassy the channel whereby these
stories got into Palestine : there was intercoiu'se enough without
that. The discovery of the monsoons, in the middle of the first
century, together Avith the unsettled state of Parthia, increased
the Indian trade of Alexandria. In tin's century or the next was
written The Periplus of the Red Sea, a manual of Eg^'ptian trade
with India ; Avhile in the middle of the second century the
Georgraphy of Ptolemy shewed a knowledge of Asia, to the
confines of the Chinese Empire. At the foot of the Bolor Tagh
(75) ^I^soij's Fables. Edited by Joseph Jacobs. London, 1889.
30 HISTOiaCAL INTRODUCTION.
Ptolemj' marks a trafliuj:2;-post ^vllpre Imsiness Avas done witli the
Serffi or Sores.^'"'
Who AV(>ro the Seres? The k'arneil researches of Lasseu
aud Iveiiiaiid make it clear that tliey were the inhabitants of the
Chinese Empire. According to these scholars, the name is
neither geographical nor ethnological, hut commercial, and
means fJie Silk People. But the term A\as used ^ith gi-eat
latitude, and is also associated with India. In the Jataka Book
there is an Indian country (^-alled Seii,'^"^ while even to-day there
is a region and a town of Sirikul in the southern part of Chinese
Turkestan, just north of Cashmere. Tliere is also a dialect in
Sindli called Siraiki. A mixed caste or people the Sairandhras
(also corrupted into Sairindhras) are mentioned by the Hindu
geographer Yaraha Miliira, of the sixth century 'A. 1). This
term apparently means Sores and Andhras, or Seres subject to
the Andhra d^-uasty, which arose in the Dekhau, conquered
Magadha in B. C. 26, and ruled India until A. D. 430.<^«)
Cunningham places the SairantUiras east and south of the Satlaj,
in the modern Sarliind. It is the regi<^n wliere the Satlaj and
the Jamna nearly meet.
Now, Fa-hian,'"'-'^ in the fifth century, describes an idyllic
people, who were governed without cajjital punishment, Mere
vegetarians and abstainers from wine ; and he places them to the
south of this region of Sarhind.'^"^ This is the famous Middle
Comitry of the Brahmins.'^'' Onesicritus, a companion of
Alexander in the fouiih century before Christ, described the
Musicani, a similar people.*^^-' They had gold and silver mines,
yet did not use those metals : so also Fa-hian's Middle-Country
men used cowries. Now Buddha forbade the use of gold and
silver to monks,^**^' and if his religion became earnestly adopted
(76) The Seres are mentioned by Virgil (Georgica II. I'il) and by Horace.
The latter (Carm. I. 12) has " Seras et Indos," thus recognising their difEerencs
yet contiguity. For the classical references generally, see Lassen, Vol. I.
p. 320.
(77) Jataka 3. The Tolavaha of the J.Uaka is probably the Tel., a
tributary of the Mahfinadl, and still an oil-bearer, as the name implies.
(78) Diitt : Ancient India : London, 1893, p. 118.
(79) Ancient (leorgraphy of India : London, 1871.
(80) Fa-hian, Cap. Ifi. (^iffijf-i;, fj^-; 2(1).
(81) To bo carefully distingnished from the Middle Country of the I'.uddhist
IJook of Discipline.
(82) Strabo, C.pog. XV. I. 31.
(83) IVitimokkha (S. R E. XIII, p. 2(V)
COXNECTIOX BEXWEKN CHUIiTIANn Y AND BUODHISM. 31
]:>y a State, it is easy to ses liow the ])roliibitiou A\ould exteud to
the laity. Eveu the lait}- were forliiddeu to deal in slaves/^*) and
Onesicritus says the Musicaui had none.
Again, the Clementine Recognitions, in the third Christian
century, haye a like idyllic description of the Seres, in a passage
ascribed to the school of Bardesanes, a Syrian Christian, 200 A. D.,
^^dlo is credited witli a work on the Indian Gymnosophists.^"^^
The Musicani, the Sairaudhras and the Middle-Coimtry-men are
some himdreds of miles apart, but they are all in the region
boimded by the Indus, the Janma, and the Vindln'a Mountains.
As the classical writers ii])o\<.e loosely, and as the same people
could change their location, or the same name be more widely
applied, or the same ciyilization be extended in its intiueuce, the
three writers in question,— a Greek of the fourth century before
Christ, a Christian of the third century after him, and a Chinese
Buddliist of the fifth,— may all l)e describing the same folk.
Pliny, in the first century, apparently makes the Seres the
Cliinese, describing their situati(jn in North-Eastern Asia, after
passing the wastes and sayages of Siberia.^'''' Their manners are
mild and they shun intercom-se with strangei-s. They are doubt-
less the same as the Serse described to Pliny by the ambassadors
from Ceylon as dwelling beyond the Emodian Momitains, and
haying no j^roper language, but onlj' uncouth sounds ; they also
are reseryed in their intercourse.'^"' The cotton-tree of the Seres
is apparently mentioned by Pliny. Now, cotton was a Hindu
product, and the Sanscrit word for it, Jcarpasa, was boiTowed by
the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans. Though known in
China as a garden plant, it ^^'as not raised there for trade until
the Tartar conquest in the thirteenth ceutm-y.*^^^^ The Seres,
with their cotton-plant, would therefore be a Hindii people ; but
the western nations confused cotton and silk. Thus Ammianus
Marcellinus, in the foui-th century, who, following Ptolemy^
places the Seres in Chinese Turkestan, mentions the silk {sericum)
there, and says that silk, formerly worn only by nobles, was now
(84) Aiiguttara Nikayo, V. 177. Translated by me in leaflet form
(Philadelphiii, I'JOO).
(85) Nathaniel Larder, Works : London, 1788, Vol. 2, p. 299.
(86) Nat. Hist. YL 20.
(87) Ibid., VI. 24. The Seres north of the Himrdayas are of course the true
ones, not to be confounded with the Cheras mentioned above.
(88) The Cotton-l'lant. (U. S. Department of Agriculture : Washington
890, p. 120)
82 HlsrOltlOAl- INXliODCCTIOX.
used by the lo^\•est."*^' He pr()l)al)l3- meaus cottou, for it seems
that silk was not kuowu here so earlj/^^^ Tliis ccjuutry is the
true lioine of the Seres. It is described by the (Chinese pilgrims
as zealously ]juddliist. The uaines of the m(nuitaius and rivers
given l\y Ptolemy and Ammianus identity Serica ^itli Chinose
Turkestan beyond a doubt.
But ancient authoi-s sjjeak of Seres not only in Turkestan, l>ut
iu Cliina and in Paiihia ; for nip])olytus tells us that Elkesai got
liis mixed religion "from Seres of rarthia.'"^"" Now, what class
of men, of Jlindii origin, were to be foimd in all these places?^'*-'
Answer : Buddhists. It is to be noted that Pliny is the first to
find them (as we presume) in China, whither they went in the
sixties of the first century. Pliny WTote in the seventies. But
]3uddhists were known iu the Chinese Empire before the time
of Christ; and after all, Pliny may not have been deseiibing
Siberia and C'hina, but regions further south.
I will now transcribe tlie three descriptions of Buddhist
civilization already mentioned, using the current translations.
Strabo ((pioting Onesicritus) says this : ^^-'^
"He expatiates also in praise of the comitry of Musicanus,
and relates of the inliabitants what is common to other Indian
tribes, that they are long lived, that life is protracted even to the
age of one hundred and thirty years : (the Seres, however, are
said by some writers to be still longer lived) ; that they are tem-
Ijerate in their habits and healthy, although the country produces
everything in abimdance.
(89) Ammianus Marcell. XXIIT. fi. See also Smith's Diet, of Greek and
Roman Geography, articles Emod! and (Erhanle.% which are much clearer than
the article Serica.
Gerini in Journal of the lloyal Asiatic Soc, 18'J7, also identities the (Echardes
with the Tarim, though he extends it to the Hwangho, which the Chinese
believed to have underground connection with the Tarim. The name CEchardos
appears to survive in the name Ukiat (French Onhiat) a tributary of the Tarim'
also called the Shakh-yar-daria. (Vivien St. Martin, appendix to Julien's Hiouen
Thsang, Vol. :J., p. 2r.3). It appears to me that the name of the Auxasian Moun-
tains, one of the three sources of the (Kchardos, is preserved in the modern
Ak-HU, and Gerini evidently agrees with this, for he identifies these mountains
with the Tien-Shan, jnst north of Ak-su and Harashar.
(90) Klapri>tli and lleinaud : Journid Asiatiiiuc, :\Iars-Avril, ISOD. y. Vy-.
(91) llippolytus: Ilaer, IX. 8.
(92) I'ausanias (VI. '2'i) reports an opinion that the Seres were a mixture
of SeythiatiH and JliiiduK.
(93) Geography XV. i. :M. Cunningham jihif. s tlic Musicani on the I'.ast-
ern backs of thf Indn^. Iti latitude '27^0 North.
CONNECTION BETWEEN CIIIUSTIANITY AND IJrDDIIIS:^. :33
"The following are tlieir peculiarities : to liave a kind of
Lacedffinionian common meal, Avliere thej eat in public. Their
food consists of Avliat is taken in tlie chase. They make no use
of gold or sih^er, althougli they have mines of these metals. In-
stead of slaves the}' employed youths in the HoAver of their age,
as the Cretans employ the Aphamiot^e, and the Lacedemonians
the Helots. They study no science Avith attention but that of
medicine ; for they consider the excessive pursuit of some arts, as
that of Avar and the like, t<5 be committing evil. There is no
process at Liav l)ut against murder and outrage, for it is not in a
persons's own poAver to escape either one or the other ; but as
contracts are in the poAver of each individual, he must endure the
Avrong if good faith is violated by another; for a man should be
cautious Avliom he trusts, and not disturl) the citA' with constant
disputes iu couiis of justice."
" Such are the accounts of tliose avIio accompam'ed Alexander
in his expedition."
The Clementine Hecognilions say this : ^'"^
" There are, iu every country or kingdom, laAvs imposed by
men, enduring either by Aviiting or simply through custom,
[which no one easily transgresses. In short, the first] Seres, ^^^^
[avIio dAN'ell at the beginning of the world,] ^^^' have a law not to
know murder, [nor adultery,] uor Avhoredom, and not to commit
theft, and not to worship idols ; and in aU that comitry, Avhicli
is very large, there is neither temple [uor image,] uor
harlot nor adultress, nor is any thief biought to trial. But neither
is any man ever slain there ; and no man's liberty of will is com-
pelled, according to yom- doctrine, by the fiery star of Mars, to
use the sword for the mmder of man ; nor does Venus, iu conjunc-
tion Avith Mars, compel to adultery, although of coiu'se Avith them
Mars occupies the middle circle of heaven every day. But
amongst the Seres the fear of laAvs is more powerful than iJie
configuration'^'' of genesis.''
" There are likeAvise amongst the Bactrians, in the Indian
countries, immense multitudes of Brahmans, avIio also themselves,
from the tradition of their ancestors and peaceful ciistoms and
(94) Clem. Eecog. IX. 19.
(95) Ensebins omits. (Ev. Pnep. VI. 10)
(96) Eusebius transposes, with different meaning, and ba< not'" who dwell."
The words in brackets that follow are omitted by him.
(97) Latin, r.onstellatio.
34 lilSTOiaCAI- INTXJOULCTKjN.
laws, neither coininit iniirder nor Jidnlteiy nor worsliip idols/'"^
nor have the practice of eatinj^ animal lood, an; never drunk^
never do an^'thing maliciously, but always fear God. And these
things indeed tliey do, though the rest of the Indiaas commit
botli mnrdc'Ts and adulteries, and wtn-slii]) idols and are drunken,"
Arc.
The passage about the Seres, if not ])orro\veil from the school
of Bardesaues, maj' come from the coni])anions of Alexander, like
the story in Strabo. But the ensuing account of the Bactrians
miLst be of later date, for the Bactrian Buddhists arc evidently
meant, and Buddhism entered Bactria under Asoko, in the tliird
century B. (*. The follo^A■ing ])assage, in the Clementine Becogni-
tions, is from a part of tlie A\-ork not ascribed to Bardesaues:*'"-'^
"The Seres, because they live chastely, are kept free from
all [evils] ; for Avith them it is imlawful to come at a woman after
she has conceived, or while she is l)eing purified."""' No one
there eats imclean flesh, no one knows aught of sacrifices : all are
judges to themselves according to Justice."
The ]3uddliists have always l)een non-sacrificial, and in
their first five hundred years they made no idols. It A\'as for
this reason that Celsus, in the second century, called the Seres
atheists (V/^eoi).""" But such a character has never belonged to
the i-eligion of China, whether ancient or modern : the Chinese
have sacrificed animals from remote antiquity, and their ancestral
tablets are ornamented with images of monsters. That the
Seres Mere liuddhists there can be no doubt.
Even four hundred years after Christ, \\]uni images were
common, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim could ANiite thus:""-'
(98) Latin, simulacra. Above, it is renderetl "image," while the word
" idols " is tdola. Cf. Arian, Indica 10 : " The Hindus make no monuments to
the deceased." This refers to iiyjiiii^a, or ornanionlal sepnk-hers : it d<ies not
preclude the rudimentary primeval topes.
(99) Clem. Rccog. VIII. 48.
(100) Compare the conduct of Duddha's mother (Digha 11 and Majjhima
123). The Essenes also practised it. (Josephus, Wars II. viii. I:}.) The Hindu
Law-book of Vishnu enjoins it. (LXIX. 17).
(101) On^en, contra Celsum VII. (J'2.
(102) Fa Hian, Cap. IG, Legge's translation, ISHC.
I U FORM);,
CONXECTIOX BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AXD BUDDHISM. 35
" All south froia tliis [Matliurfi aud the Jaiuua] is named the
Middle Kiugdoin. Iii it the heat aud cold are fiuel}' tempered,
aud there is ueither hoar-frost uor suoaw The people are
uumerous aud happy ; they have uot to register their households,
or atteud to auy magistrates aud their rules. Ouly those avIio
cultivate the royal laud have to pay (a portion of) the gain froui
it. If they Avaut to go, they go ; if they -waut to stay ou, they
stay. The king governs Avithout decapitation, or (other) corporal
pimishineuts. Criminals are simply fined, lightly- or heavil}-, ac-
cording to the circumstances (of each case). Even in cases of
rej)eated attempts at wicked rebellion, the_^' ouly have their right
hands cut ofif. The king's body-guards and attendants all have
salaries. Throughout the whole country the people do not kill
any living creature, uor drink intoxicating liquor, uor eat onions
or garlic. The only exception is that of the Candalas. This is the
name for those who are (held to be) wicked men, and li^'e apart
from others. When they enter the gate of a city or a market-
place, they strike a piece of wood to make themselves known, so
that men know and avoid them, aud do uot come into contact
with them. In that country they do not keep pigs aud fowls,
aud do not sell live cattle ; in the markets tliere are no butcher's
shops and no dealers in intoxicating drinks. In buying and sel-
ling commodities they use cowries. Only the Candalas are
fishermen and hunters, aud sell flesh meat."
jNIuch commentary will yet be made upon these remarkable
passages. They exhibit a tiaie aud consistent picture of Bud-
dhism in its palmy days.'^"''^' They are confirmed ])y Pliny's
description of Ceylon in the first ceutmy :''"^^ he says they had
neither slavery nor lawsuits ; the king was elective aud liable to
impeachment aud even death. Capital sentences generally,
however, could be appealed from to a jury of seventy.
Ever since the (Chinese arms A\'ere pushed to the Bolor Tagh
in the second centur)- before Christ, tliere has been intercourse
between the Chinese and the Parthiaus or the Persians ;^"'''^ and
(103) The influence of Buddhism on civilization L.is been well treated by
James Emerson Tennent in his standard work ^n Ceylon i (London, 1859). The
artificial lakes or reservoirs of Ceylon are among the wonders of the world.
(104) Xat. Hist. YI. 24, quoted before.
(105) IJe.il : Buddhism in China : London, 1884, p. 45.
It is significant that the Septuagiut should have J'ersians in Isaiah XLIX.
12, as a translation of Sinim. If Sin were really China, it would only be known
through a ISactrian or Persian medium.
3G HISTORICAL INTRODUCTIOX.
hetweeu the Chinese aud the Hiudus kmger still. But what iin-
inediately concerus lis is the intercourse of the Greeks and liomaus
witli the East. Fergusson has shown that, after the conquests
of Alexander, tliei-e was a continual march of Greek art across
the continent of Asia. In the early centuries of the ( *hi'istian
era the Hellenists were carving statues of Buddha in Bactrian
monasteries, aud the Acts of Thomas represent that a Hindu
rigent came to Palestine to seek for artificei-s. This Grjieco-Iudian
aii Avas centered in the city of Taxila in the Panjfd), Avhich is
often mentioned by Greek writers; Avhile, acccwling to Hindil
ones, it w^as a seat of imiversal learning. How often, in the
Jjitaka tales, is the Bodhisat educated at Taxila !
I will not be so bold as to associate the Essenes witli J3ud-
dhists, though Beal's identification of 'Eacnjvoi, 'FjcraaiOL, with
Isino, Isayo, the tA\'o plm-al forms of a common Pali term for a
Buddljist, is very tempting.^'"'^ I have found both of these forms
in the Samyutta Nikayo. If ever Essenisin had a Buddhist
element in it, it was ceiiainly overlaid Avith others, notably
Mazdean. The names of the angels and the books that the
Essenes might not communicate could not be from genuine
Buddhism, which is exoteric and non-magical. The lawgiver
whom Joseplms says they honored was probably Zoroastei.^'"'^
The Essenes had a doctrine of ])re-existence, l)ut not of
transmigiation. 'Sow, pre-existence without transmigration is
Mazdean. This confirms Lightfoot's position, that Mazdeism in-
fluenced the Essenes. Philo's description of them, in his essay
On fhe Virtuous Icing also/ree, has the same mixture of non-Bud-
dhist and (piasi-Buddhist practices. I*hilo associates the Essenes
with the Hindu gymnosophists ; not, however, as having a i';unmou
origin but as l)oth exemplifying the fieedom of virtue. For this
reas(jn, viz., that the emancipated human spirit in all ages, when
establishing a society, is liable to do the same things, we cannot
predicate a connection l)etween Essenism and Buddliism as
proven, l)ut only as ]0()ssible. The p(jssibility is ]ieight(>ned l)y
two things: (1) the coiuKM-tion re])oit('d l)v Aristotle between a
Jewish sect ucar Damascus and tlic Jliiuh'i ))hiloso])]ii'i-s ; aud (2)
tlu! ]K!i'sistent (dl'orts, in the s(3Cond and third centuries after
Christ, on tlu^ part of heresiarchs (bLlkesai and ^lanil to fram(> an
(K-lecticism out of Mazdeism and Buddliism. Why should not
(106) Abitract of Four Lectures: London, 1882, p. 1(53.
(107) Jnseplins, Wars, IJook TF. viii. 7.
CONNECTION JJKTWKEN CHRISTIANITY AND BUHDUISM.
37
this tendency reach back further than Mani and Elkesai, aud
recede even to the times of Thomas and Mattliew, of Ptolemy aud
Asoko, oi Aristotle ami Alexander ?
We now come to Elkesai. Hippolytus tells us that this
teacher's book Avas obtained "from Seres of Parthia."'^^'*'^' This
A\as at the end of the first ceutury, the year 100 being refeiTed
to as the opening of a new era. Now, Elkesai's book taught that
Christ was repeatedly incarnate — a thoroughly Buddliist idea ;
and we have already seen that Seres are Buddhists. But
Elkesai's baptism and augelology are more likely Mazdean.^'"^'
Without going to so late an age as that of Mani (third cen-
tury j or, later still, to the Pahlavi version of Barlaam and
JoasajyJt, ^^■e may find earlier traces or religious eclecticism in the
Persian or Parthian Empire. The predecessor of Mani called
himself Buddas and Terebinthus, and gave out that he was bom
of a virgin.' ' '"' He travelled among the Persians who were settled
in Babylonia. His doctrine of a virginal biiih was either late
Buddliist or else Mazdean. It is the Saviors of Mazdeism who
are born of virgins by means of the miraculously preserved seed
of Zoroaster : Buddha's mother, on the other hand, though pm-e
and good, is not a virgin but a wife. Terebinthus (a name, I
strongly suspect, derived from his supposed Bo-tree) wrote four
books :^"^' Mijsterks, Gospel, Treasure, and Chapters. Each of
these titles is Buddliist : Adbhuta, Saddharma, NidJu and Eavda.
In fact, Nidhi-Kanda, '" Treasure-chapter," is a well-known
Pali Sutta, in an ancient and popular Buddhist anthology. Now,
Ave know from Chinese records that there Avas much Buddliist
]n-opaganda in Bactria and Paiihia in the early Christian cen-
turies : many monks from these pai-ts took Buddhist books into
China. If the records of Western Buddliists had been as
carefully kept as those of the Chinese, Ave should doubtless have
knoAvledge of their activity in the valley of the Euphrates. But
the hurricane of Islam destroyed them. Sylvain Levi, hoAvever,
(108) Ilaer. IX. 8.
(109) Bai^tism is DO part of a genuine IJiuldliist initiation, ami the Essene
practice may therefore be Chaldean, Parsi or Levitical. The phrase, " sprinkled
-svith the sprinkling of discipleship,'' in the IJook of the Great Decease, receives
no confirmation from the Book of Discipline, and is therefore figurative. With
baptismal rites in later corrupt Buddhism we have nothing to do.
(110) Socrates, H. E. I. 22.
(111) Cf. the Bo-trees of different Buddhas, Digha 14, translated by me
(Bhiladelphia, 18901 and now by llhys Davids (Dialogues of the Buddha, vol. 2.)
38 HISTOUIC.VL INTllODUCTIOX.
tells a stow from an Armenian liistoriau of a riindu colony in
Armenia, -wliicli lasted from the fii"st centiuy to tlie fourtli.^"-' It
is such links as this that enal)le ns to undei-staud how it was that
the early Christian Gnostics <i;ot liold of Hindii ideas. Jlippo-
l^^;^s tells ns th;it tlie Docetists maintained that Christ came to
abolish transmij^Tation.'^"'^ Now (lotamo says, on the first ])age
of the It'ivuttaha, tlie Buddhist Lo^ia-ljook : " I am yoni' surety
against retiuu t(^ eai-tli."^'""^
Baur and Garbe have, moreover, ^x)inted out that the ( Juostic
classification of men as material, psychical and spiritual, cor-
responds to the Tliree (xunas of the Sankhya philosophy/'"'
Plutarch gives us an exam])le of a barbarian (evidently a Hindu
or a Hindu proseMe) talking philosophy to a Greek/"'' Jle
made his appearance every year in the region of th(^ lied Sea,
living the rest of the time in the wilds, and having intercourse
with demons and pastoral nymphs. He said the demons inspired
'him, and explained a doctrine found in the first Sutta of the
Jj( )ng Ci^llection : how that spirits, when exi)elled from a lower
sphere, upon the dissolution of the universe, migrate into a higher
one until a certain cycle is fulfilled. His noticm of a ])lurality of
worlds m:\\ also be Hindu, but his number 183 is har<l to account
for.
Basilides, in tlu; first half ol the second century, lias also a
parallel to the Sutta metioned. The passage is so extraordinary,
so thoroughly- Buddhist, and so imlikely to hav(! l)een derived
elsewhere, that T avIII ((note both it and the liuddhist text. The
Sutta says /"«'
" Now there comes a time, lu'ethrcn, avIku], sooner or later,
after the lapse of a long, long period, this Avorhl-system i)asses
away. And when this happens, l)eings have mostly been born in
the Weald of liadiance, and there they dwell made of mind, feed-
ing on joy, radiating light from tlunnselves, traversing tlu^ air,
continuing in glow; and thus Ihcy remain lov a long, long jM-riod
of tinu!.
" Now the ;rc comes also a time, bn.'thriMi, wiicn sooner or
later, this world-system begins to re-evolve. When this happens
(112) Revue (le I'llistoirc dos IJeligions, Ib'J).
(113) iiaer. viii. :!. (113 M)irM'^£W^- -f^miSJl^'kiltl'lTuKtJ- -■' •')•
(114) llichard (liirbe : I'hilosopby of Ancient India. Cliiciipo 1S07. j.. Is.
(115) l)e Def, Ornc. 21,22.
(116) Umbuin-.Taid Sutta, llbys Davids' Ivanslation, 1899. [Dhdoijucs vf ll,e
CONNECTION BETWKKN ( UltlSTIANITY AND BUDDIII-Slt. 39
the Palace of Bralima apperrs, but it is empty. Aud some beluji;
ov other, either Ijecanse liis span of years has passed or his merit
is exhausted, falls from that World of Kadiance, aud comes to
life iu the Palace of Brahuia. Aud there also he lives uiade of
miud, feediug ou joy, radiatiug light froui himself, traversiug the
air, contiuuiug iu gloi-y ; aud tlms doBS he i-emaiu for a loug, hiug
period of time.
"Now there arises iu hiui, froui his dwelliug there so loug
aloue a dissatisfactic^u aud a lougiug : ' () ! would that other
beings might come to join uie iu this place !' Aud just tlieu, either
l)ecause their spau of years had passed or their merit was ex-
hausted, other beiugs fall from the world of Piadiauce aud appear
iu the Palace of BrahmiL as companions to him, aud iu all respects
like him. Ou this, brethren, the one who Avas first re-boru
thinks tlms to himself : ' I am Brahma, the Great Brahma, the
Supreme One, the Mighty, the All-seeing, tlie Ruler, the Lord oi
all, the Maker, the Creator, the Chief of all, appointing to each
his place, the Ancient of days, the Father of all that are aud are
to be. These other beiugs are of my creation. And why is that
so? Awhile ago I thought, " Would that they might come ! "'
And on my mental aspiration, behold the beings came.'
" Aud those l)eings themselves, too, think thus : ' This must
be Brahma, the Great Brahma, the Supreme, the Mighty, the
All-seeing, the Euler, the Lord of all, the Maker, the Creator, the
Chief of all, appointing to each his place, the Aucieut of days,
the Father of all that are and are to be. And we must have beeu
created by him. And why ? Because, as we see, it was he who
was here first, and we came here after that.'
"On this, lirethren, the one who first came into existence
there is of longer life, and moi'e glorious, aud more powerful than
those who appeared after him. And it might well he, brethren,
that some being on his falling from that state, should come
hither. And having come hither he might go foi-th from the
household life into the homeless state. And having thus become
a recluse he. In' reason of ardour, of exeiiion, of application, of
eaiuestuess, of careful thought, reaches up to such i-apture of
heart that, rapt iu heart, he c<alls to mind his last dwelling-place,
but not the previous ones. He says to himself : ' That illustiious
Brahma, the Great Brahma, the Supreme One, the Mighty, the
.\ll-seeing, the Ruler, the Lord of all, the Makei-, the Creator,
the (^hief of all, appointing to each his place, the Aucieut of days.
40 HKTOKIC.U. IXTKODLXTION.
tlif; Father of all that are and are to Ijo, lie l>v "svIkjih mc ^vere
created, lie is steadfast, iniinutaWe, eternal, of a nature that
knoAvs no c-hauge, and he Avill remain so for ever and ever. But
we "who were created bv him have come here as heing im])ei-
nianent, mutable, limited in dm-ation of life.
" This, brethren, is the fii-st state of Ithings on accoimt of
A\hich, starting out from Avhicli, some recluses and Brilhiaans,
being Eternalists, as tf) some things, and Non-Eternalists as to
othei-s, maintain tliat the soul and the \\ovh\ are pai-tly eternal
and i)artly not."
According to Hippjjlytus, Basilides taught this:'""^
" The Gospel came, sa^^s [Basilides,] first from the Sonship
through the Sou, that ^vas seated beside the Arcliou, to the
Archon ; and the Ai'chon learned that he was not God of tlie
imi verse, but ^\as begotten. ]3ut, [ascei-taining that] he has alxne
himself the deposited treasure of that Ineffable and Unnamordjle
[and] Non-existent One, and of the Sonship, he A\as both con-
Aei-ted and filled with terror, when he was brought to understand
in -what ignorance he -was [in^'olved.] This, he says, is what has
been declared : ' The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Avisdom.'
For, Ijeiug orally instructed by Christ, who was seated near, he
began to ac<|uire Avisdom, [inasmuch as he thereby] learns avIio
is the Non-existent One, Avhat the Sonship [is,] Avhat the Holy
Spirit [is,] Avhat the apparatus of the uuiAei-se [is,] and a\ hat is
likeh- to 1)6 the consummation of things. This is the Avisdom
spoken in a mystery, concerning Avliich, says []3asilides,] Scri-
ptm-e uses the following expressions : ' Not in Avords taught of
human Avisdoni, l)ut in [those] taught of the Spirit.' The Archon,
then, l)eing orally instructed, and taught, and being [thereby]
filled Avith fear, proceeded to make confession concerning the sin
whicli he had committed in magnifying hinrself. This, he says,
is Avhat is declared: 'I liaA'e recognized my sin, and T know my
transgression, [and] about this I shall confess forever."
This idea, that an angelic ])('rsonage Avrongly imagines liini-
self to l^e the Supreme Being, is found, I l)elieve, in no icligion
but Jhiddhism. The further idea, that he should l)e instructed
by CJirist, is also found there: in the foi-tv-ninth Dialogui^ of the
cuddling Collection, i »fi['iif,'fi:7v:ili'jf'l|ll-^!^' Gotaino instructs the
iJialima IJalcko tliat lie is not immortal.
(117) lliicr. \ii. 1 1, IMinlmrgh fiunsliitiuu.
CONNECTION BEinVEEN CHUISTIANITY AND IJL'UDIIISM. 41
Before Ave leave tlie second century Ave ninst notice t^vo
tilings :
1. The mention of BtuldliM ])\ (lenient of Alexandria ;
2. The finding of the Gospel of MattheAV in India hy
l*aiitieiius.
Clement, in the closing decade of the second century, says
this:^^'^>
" Philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, Hourished in
anti(puty among the barbarians, shedding its light oAer the
nations. And afterAvards it came to Greece. First in its ranks
Avere the prophets of the Egy])tians ; and the Chaldeans among
the Ass^-riaus ; and the Druids among the Gauls ; and the Samanas
among the Bactriaus; and the ])liilosopliers of the Celts; and the
Magi of the Persians, anIio foretold the Saviour's liirth, and came
to the laud of Juda, guided by a star. The Hindu gymnosophists
are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers.
And of these tliere are tA\'o classes : some of them called Samanas,
and others Brahmins. And those of the Samanas, Avho are called
forest-dA\'ellers, neither inhabit cities nor have roofs oyer them,
but are clad in the bark of trees, feed on nuts, and drink Avater
in their hands. They knoA\' neither marriage nor begetting of
children, like those noAv called Encratites. There are also among
the Hindus those Avho obey the precepts of Buddha, Avliom, on
account of his extraordinary sanctity (or, Samana-shiji) tLey haAe
exalted into a god."^"'"'
Clement maA' be quoting Megastlienes here, or Alexander
Polyhistor : we do not kuoAV. He quotes both these authors by
name in this yery chapter. Polyhistor described the Bactrian
topes, and Clement also quotes his description in another place,
as Ave liaA'e seen before. Tliere may have been Buddhist books
in the Alexandrine Lil)rary — a thing Ave should yery much like to
kuoAv. We do knoA\' from Pliny that there A\ere Zoroastrian ones
translated b}^ Hermippus; and yet (Jlement, Avho alludes to
Zoroaster, does not quote them, l)ut says that secret Mazdean
books Avere read by the disciples of Prodicus the heretic. Cle-
ment's noii-(pTotatiou of Buddhist 1 xxiks therefore cannot of itself
(118) Stromatal. 15.
(119) Lightfoot corrects rriaulx in criticising this passage, which is abridged
by Cyril, and not necessarily quoted from Alexander Polyhistor, as Trianlx
believed.
42 UISTOKICAL INXKODLCTION.
throw (l()iil)t on tlieir existence in Alexandria ; Imt, taken toG;ethor
Avitli tlie silence of all the ancients, it does throw doubt. Still
the fact remains that Mej^asthenes, .Alexander Polyhistor, and
other Avriteix on India were read in Alexandria; while tlie
intercourse whiili we have proved between East and West makes
it probable that more direct knowledge 'existed tlier*?. This inter-
(•(jin-se also makes it likely that India itself is meant in the story of
PantaMnis, and not merely some lied Sea country loosely called
India. Milne Rae, in his work on the Syi'ian (Jlmrch in India
( (noted above, considers that Jerome's identification of Panta'uus'
India with the land of the Brahmins proA^es the case. Tlie
moiiS(X)n has brought Alexandria near tt) the ports on the Indus ;
and just as the Mahdi's proclamation of 1884 spoke of Suez and
Ooustantionple as neighboi"S because the Nubians embark at the
one for the otlier,'^-'^^ so in the second century, Avas India the
neighbor of Mexaudria. It is therefore to be taken as fact of
history that when Pantanius went to India, he found the gosi)el
of Matthew already there. Kenan has shown that Semitic
dialects were engrafted upon Indian languages by tralhckers ;
and the widespread use of Semitic letters on coins and inscrip-
tions makes it quite uatin-al for Pauticims to have found tlie First
(Tos])el in India in Aramaic ones."'-"
Moreover, at the end of the fourth century, CJuysostom tells
us that the Hindus, as well as the Syrians, Egyptians, Persians
and Ethiops, had translated the doctrines of John."'"^ It is in a
rhetorical passage about the intluen(;e of John, compared with
that of P^'tliJigoras and Plato; but as we know that vcn'sions of
the New Testament have come down to us from most of ^'-'•'■' tlie
other nations mentioned, it is reasonable to believe that by tlie
time of Ohrysostom the Hindus had also a version. This is con-
tiriiKMl by Socrates,^'-" who says that Bartholomew was ap])ointed
missionary to tliat pait of India contiguous to Rthio])!;!, meaning
doubtless the (loromandel coast, whi(;h was in constant com-
munication with the lied Sea jxjrts. Socrates alsci tells us that
(120) Renan : llistoire du Penple tVIsrael, Vol. 2.
(121) Asoko's edict at Shahbuzgarhi is in a Semitic cbaractiT, though in a
Pali or rrakrit <lialect ; and this character continued in use for souk- tinic later.
See llawlinson's Tartliia : N. Y. ]S!):S, pp. 3:»1 .t H'x
(122) Homily 2 on John.
(123) Hug says that the Persian ( iospels are post-Musliiii, so that wo cannot
count upon that version as early.
(124) IT E. I. 10.
CONNECTION BETWEKX CHIUSTI.VNITY AND BUDDHISr^r. -lo
the Indians oi the interior were not converted till the time of
Constantine. This period coincides with what Max Miiller calls
the Renaissance of Sanskrit literatme, whereto he ascribes tlie
later episodes in the Great Epic, such as the Bhagavad-Glfd. If
this be so, then the incarnation-doctrine of the latter may liave a
Christian origin. Other possible allusions to Christianity in the
Great Epic have been noticed by Washburn Hopkins/'-''^ Cosnias
Indicopleustes found the Syrian church in Lidia in the sixth
century, and Nicolo Conti in the fifteenth."'-"^ The disappearance
of the Hindu version of the New Testament is much less astoni-
shing than that of the Pali Canon on the Indian continent.
The names of Greek benefactors of native shrines are fomid
engraven in Indian caves, as at Kharli.'^'-'' The Kliarli cave is
Buddhist, and appears to antedate the Christian era. Other in-
scriptions of- the same kind Ijelong to the early Christian
centuries. Now, we have seen that there was intercourse — -
religious, philosophic, literary, artistic and commercial — between
the Greeks and the Hindias, all the time from Megastlienes to
Hippolytus. Estlin Carpenter has pointed c^ut that the latter
A\Titer (third century ) gives the fullest accoimt oi the Hindus that
we possess since that of the former. Tliis is probably because a
traveller of the second or third centur}^ had furnished new
materials, but it does not imply any intercom'se between East
and West in the interval which includes the Christian era.
^Y[\en Estlin Carpenter wrote, in 1880,^^--^ Jacobs had not yet
traced the Jatakas into the Talmud (1889). Strabo's observa-
tion shows that at the time of Christ the intercoiu'se was at its
height.
The first century was a time of religious ferment, from the
Nile to the Yangtse-Kiang. The Paiihian Yologeses Avas collect-
ing the scattered Zorosatrian Avesta,^'"'^ while the Indo-Scythian
Kauishka was giving imperial sanction to the Sanskrit com-
(125) Religions of India : Boston, 1895, p. 431.
(126) Hakluyt Society: London, 1857. The same volume (India in the
Fifteenth Century) contains the travels of Athanasius Nitikin, who found the expir-
ing remnants of Buddhism in central India, sadly mixed with Taivism.
(127) Beal: Buddhism in China: London 1884, p. 139. Sylvain Ltvi :
Revue de I'Histoire des Religions : Paris, 1891, part 1, p. 44. INIinayeflf : Recherches
sur le Boitddhisme : Paris, 1894, p. lOfi.
(One of them reads : Bhnmma-Yiivnndm Dhenil.a^ia, i.e. donation of the pious
Greek Dhenika). (A. M.).
(128) Nineteenth Century: December, 1880.
^129) Darmesteter. Introd. to S. B. E. IV, p. XXXUI.
44 HisxoiacAi. iNrKoDi"(.;Tio.\.
meutaries on the Cuuou of the Buddliists.""'"' The Emperor of
China had a dream Avhicli resulted in the official introdnction of
Buddhism into his dominions, at the verj' time, perhaps the
very year, when Paul was standing before Nero/'' ' Thomas^
says the legend, was preaching to the Hindus, and Matthew to
the Parthians (even if neither got further East than Edessa),
Avhile the Buddhist father A^vaghosha was carried into Bactria
by Kanishka/"-' He it Avas who wrote that celebnited treatise,
lately translated by Suzuki in Chicago, which played for Bud-
dhism the part of Origen for Christianity— laid the basis of a
religious philosophy. Each of these daring thinkers aimed to
supply the deficiencies of his Master : Origen, in the third
century, framed into intellectual outlines the gnomic utterances of
Jesus and the half-sketched system of Paul ; A^vaghosha, in the
tirst century, established a relation between raan and the
primal Being which Gotamo had set aside.
We thus see that in the first century there arose a tidal
wave of religion from the Levant to the Yellow Sea, but in
earlier ages there had been similar uprisings in the region
between the Ganges and the Nile. I am never tired of repeat-
ing that this region is the Holy Land of the human race, and
was so regarded by the ancients, some of whom, says Strabo, con-
sidered all Asia as far as India to be consecrated to Bacchus.''"'
Even now we all look to that region : Heblew and Parsi,
Hindfi and Christian, Buddhist and Muslim, all seek the fount
of their faiths in that mystic realm. The lost religions of
Babylon and Egypt were born there. ]"]veu the Greeks and the
]lomans were debtors thereto for the cults of Bacchus and
Mithras and perhaps for the Mysteries of Eleusis. Among the
great nations of to-day, only those Chinamen and Japanese who
practise their ancestral religions uninfluenced by Buddhism are
(130) llinon Tsiang, liook III. Cf. Rhys Davids' nolo in introduction to S.
]!. K. XXXVI.
(131) IFarlez f^ives .'\.. 1). (13 (Mc'moires do r.\nidtmie Koyalu de IJelgiiiue,
1KJ3.)
(132) Jk-al, Four Lectures, p. XI. Suzuki's translatioQ of Arvaghosha's
treatise on Faith : I'bicaKo, 1900, pp. 11, 12. According to the Tibetan account,
nlso given by Suzuki, Ai.vaghosha was too lAd to go to Hactria. bit sent a disciple
of his, with a letter on Kuddhism.
(133) (Jeog. X. :3. t'£ Justinns Xl.II. :!. where ircrt-.ilts and I'.acchus are
caJli d Kings of the Ea:-t.
CONNECTION BETWEEN CHKISTIANITY AND RUDDllISM. 45
aliens tliereto. But, with all its corruptions, the faith of Gotamo
has always been a power among them ; and today the thoughtful
among those distant Mongols set their faces toward the Ganges.
Religious ideas, like all others, are spread by political
power and military force. Lightfoot has shown that even the
disintegration of an empire scatters far and wide the seeds of
its thought. Thus did Persian ideas persist from the Bosphorus
to the Indus long after the glory had departed from the house
of Cyrus. Thus too did the Greek tongue become the sacred
language of the Christians when the Greek arms had long since
succumbed to the Roman. Still, it is martial might that tirst
makes a nation strong enough for its thoughts to take root
among strangers, generally among tiiose who have felt the force
of its arms So in the regions of Aram and Persia, as empire
rose upou empire, wave after wave of thought, with Aramaic for
a vehicle; ''^^^ had rolled from Taxila to Damascus.^' '-^^ The
Semitic idolatry of Solomon, with its germs of monotheism ; the
Tamrauz-cult of Nebuchadnezzar ;^'^«^ The Mazdeism of Darius
Hystaspes,^"^' the Hellenic arts of Alexander, and the Judaism
of John Hyrcanus^''^'^ had left their impress on the East. The
Greek language, which the arms of Alexander had spread over
this Holy Land, became a vehicle for a Gentile version of the Old
Testament, while the very king who patronized its translation
received a message from Asoko. The message implies an embas-
sy, and the eagerness of Philadelphus to collect and translate
the literature of Asia would lead us to hope tliat Asoko sent him
some specimens. Unfortunately, however, we cannot be sure
that Hindu sacred oracles, whether Brahmin or Buddhist, had
then been committed to writing. The Great Epic of India pro-
nounces a curse on him who sells, defiles or lorltes the Veda f'^^
but the composition of this vast body of poetry extends over a
period of a thousand years, divided by the Christian era ; and
we do not know whether the curse was called forth by some
actual attempt to write or sell the Veda, and even if so, at which
(134) Ezra VI. 7 ; Josephus, Wars, Proem.
(135) Clem. Alex, to the (!reek«, cap. 5.
(136) Ezekiel VIII. 11.
(137) Behistan Inscription.
(138) .Tosephus, .\ntiq. XIII. ix 1 ; Stiabo XVI. ii. 3i.
(139) Max Jliiller : History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature : London, 185'J.
p. 502. Professor C. E,. Lanman tells me that the passage occurs in Parvan XIII.
This entire book is one of the later acMitions to the Epic.
40
HISTi lUlCAL INTliODUGTION.
cud of the thousand years the attempt was made, there might
liave leen some writing of Hindu hiws at the time of Phi-
hidelplms and Asoko (for the Sutra period had closed,)'^""' but
hardly of the Veda.
As to tlie Buddhist oracles, the Three I'askets were first
committed to writing, so far as we know, about 40. B. C, and
then onl}' at the Great Monastery in Ceylon. Four hundred
years after Christ, Fa Hian found written copies rare in con-
tinental India. If any Hindu writings found their way to
Alexandria they were most probably popular literature, but not
the sacred books. The Talmudic fables which we have men-
tioned came doubtless through an oral channel. In spite of
Strabo's complaint of the ignorance of merchants,*'"' some
travellers must have been intelligent enough to make this
transference of folk-lore. Indeed nothing in the East travels
quicker than a good story.
The Greeks and Piomans evidently knew more about
Brahmins than about Buddhists, as we may see from writers
like Hippolytus, who give clearer accounts of the former than of
the latter Magastlienes was their chief authority, and he was
ambassador at a Brahmin court, before Buddhism was clothed
with political power.
The monks whom Asoko had sent forth to preach the
doctrines of Gotarao may have gone to Antioch and to Alex-
andria, but they settled no further west than Persia. Albiruni
makes tlie Persian province of Khurasan the western frontier of
Buddhism, at least of its continuous extension. Mithra-worship
lias left traces of its prevalence from Bactria to Northumber-
land,^"-^ and if Buddhism had been half as prevalent, it would
also have left remains. Every nation where it ever was planted
lias contributed to its literature, from Tokyo to Astrakhan ; and
even where Buddhist books have disappeared, as in India
proper, the national literatuae bears witness to its power ; so
that in Syria, where it has left us little, we cannot reckon it to
liave been a power on ;i footing with Hellenism and Mazdeism.
(140) ]l.)i.kiiis: Heliyioiis of India (Jioston, IH'Ja, ix H.)
(141) (Jeog. XV. i. 4.
(142) Clem. Alex, tu the (lieflcs : cap. 7, ; Jkal, Jiiul.lhisin in China p. ]'Js.
Tho text hcreis just as I wrot.' it lidor.' roa.lin-; Aikcn'.s fxclU-nt statement uf
the limits oi JJuddhisni.
CONNECTION r.KTV, KKN CHUISTIANITV AM) BfDltHISM. 47
And vet the inigiation of the Jatakfis and the Buddhist touches
in the acts of Thomas leave us a loophole wherethrough some
influence uvaj have passed. I now propose to shew that this
influence is traceable in the Gospel of Luke
We hav(^ seen that Marcion, in the first half of the second
century, had a recension of Luke which lie accounted genuine,
and which omitted certain sections dependent upon the Old
Testament and other sacred books. It was the aim of Marcion
to clear the new religion of all association with the past, and to
make it a revelation from the God of Jesus, avIio was above the
Demiurge.*^"'^ But the aims of Luke were broader : he wanted
to adapt the Gospel to the votaries of older faiths, on his
principle that God had spoken b}' the mouth of his holy prophets
since the world began, and that in ever}' nation the worker of
righteousness is accepted of him. He has in his Gospel a
section known as the Perean Section, co)itaining stories coming
from Perea, that eastern parts of Palestine beyond the Jordan,
where the influence of other cults was felt. The Buddhist was
possibly one of them. Alblruni says that, in the tenth century-,
the remnant of the Sabians (whom he associates with Buddhism )
^vere living in Harran. Now, Ave have laid down the principle
that no borrowing is to be alleged except in cases of identity of
text or frequence of narrative, accompanied with demonstrable
intercourse. The intercourse between Buddhist lands and
Palestine has been proven. We have no identit}' of text between
Luke and the Pitakas, except a partial verbal agreement
between the Buddhist and Lucan Angelic Plymns :
Sutta-Nipato, Nalaka-Sutta. Luke II. 10-11.
[Angels speak.] And tlie angel said unto
The Bodhisat, the best them. Be not afraid; for be-
iiicomparable gem, hold, I bring you good tid-
Is born for weal and wel- ings of great joy which shall
fare in the world of men, be to all people : for there is
In the town of the Sakyas, born to you this day in the
in the region of Lumbini. city of David a Saviour, whieli
Therefore are we glad is Christ the Lord,
and exceedingl}- pleased.
But in the matter of sequence of narrative, we have a clear
(143) According to Albiruni, however, Marcion and Bardesunes were
JMiizdeans who embraced Christianity, biit mixed it with the former faith.
48 HISTOlilCAI. IXXr.cJDUCTlOX.
case in the Iiifanc-v Section. The whole narrative of Christ's
Nativity in Lnke is more closely parrallel to Jjuddha's than to
those of Zoroaster, Augustus, or any other hero of antiquity.
Here are the parallels, which tlie reader may verify froni the
translations in this book : —
1. The theory of a spiritul power overshadowing the
mother.
'I. The vision by a hermit (shepherds in Luke) of angelic
hosts rejoicing.
o. Tlie Angelic Hymn.
4. The prediction about tlie career of the Saviour Ijy an
aged hermit who had been looking for him.
To these we may add, from the body of Luke's Gospel (not
liowever, on the ground of sequence) :
5. The charge to sixty-one disciples (seventy in Luke), to
preach the Gospel.
(]. The Penitent Thief.
7. The Ascension.
Now, all these incidents are peculiar or original to Luke,
and are nearly all demonstrabi}' liction. This can be proved
within the New Testament itself. The unhistoric character of
the Infancy Section, which contains Nos. 1-4, has long been
suspected, and is now being admitted by Chsistiau scholars.
The Charge to the Seventy is proved to be liction by Luke him-
self, for, in his 22nd chapter, he correctly (in agreement Avitli
Mark and Matthew) ascribes to the Charge to the Twelve an in-
junction which he has omitted in his account of that charge, and
transferred to the charge to the Seventy. (Cf. Liike X. 4 with
XXn. 35). The repentance of the d3'ing thief is proved to be
fiction by Mark, our most veracious Evangelist, who says that
l)oth the malefactors reviled the Lord. The Ascension is at least
under suspicion as a later legend, because absent from Mark, John
and Matthew, absent from Luke hitoself in some MSS., and
only found in its developed form in Acts.*^ " All this is a chain
of cumulative evidence which is hard to resist.
I do not say that Luke borrowed these straight from the
Ijuddhist legends ; still less do I deny the truth of the great
Christian doctrines that lie behind them. All I maintain is : It
is more than mere coincidence that the Gentile Evangelist, wIkj
(144) Tlmt is, the oljoctive .Ascension, not tho spiritual ouo of Lnke IX. 51.
CONNECTION ItKTWKKN' .CIIKISTIANITV AND BUDDHISM. 49
alone*-"'' tells most of these stories, should hit upon some of the
most salient narratives (for sucli are Nos. 1-6) of the Buddhist
Gospel, which at tliat very time was the domijiant religious
force on the continent of Asia. In the verj- years when his
master Paul was standing before Nero, Buddhism was entering
China ; while so far Avest as Persia, and probably to some extent
on Babylonia, the faith was known/"") Luke then, who aimed
to make the Gospel universal, as Paul had done, was influence
by the Bhddhist Epic, but did not slavishly copy it. I would
not, Avith Seydel, extend the Buddhist influence to the entire
Christian Epic, but limit it to the Gospel of Luke and perhaps
John. Even in doing this much, I submit it only as an hy-
pothesis.
In comparing tlie two Gospels we must distinguisli three
things :
1. The facts of the founders' lives as Eastern prophets.
Their fasting and desert-meditation ; their missionary charge ;
their appointment of a successor ; their preaching to the poor ;
their sympathy with the oppressed ; their self-assertion as pat-
terns of the race; their transfiguration on the eve of death;
their forecast of faith's triumph and decline ; their exaltation in
the ideal world : all these are hard biographical facts.
2. The influence upon their biographies of the hero-legends
of their native lands and those of neighboring nations. Under
this head come the Messianic features : tin birth-marvels ; the
fight with fiends (with of course a foundation in fact) ; the
expected return in glory of the Master or his remote successor;
and their superhuman powers.^"^' Under tliis head, the Buddha-
legend may go back to the Indian Eishis, and the Christ-legend
to Elijah and Elisha. Both may have caught a tinge from
Zoroaster, and CJn-ist from the earlier Buddha ; while the later
Buddha-legends may have been influenced by rising Christianity,
as Beal suggested.
(145) The conception by the Holy Ghost is also told by the Canonical
Matthew ; but Luke's whole Gospel preceded this redaction of the Matthean one.
In other words, the supernatural birth was imported by Luke into the New
Testament, while the editors of Matthew, following suit, gave a Zoroastrian form
to the same.
(146) Mani knew of Buddhism in Babylonia in the third century, and it
was probably there earlier. (Alblruni. London, 1879, p. 190.)
(147) We mean here only the absurd ones, such as finding money in fishes
and flying across the Ganges. The true ones, of psycliic influence and healing
IDOwer, come under our first head.
oO UISTOIUCAL lNTl:()))i:CTIUN.
3. The presence of m pie-liistoric liero-mytli, more or less
bodied forth in Osiris, Hercules and Wain.-imoincn. As Greek
has borrowed a few words from Sanskrit, yet botli go back to an
Aryan parent, so is it with the faiths. Ay, and there may be an
Ugro-Aryan still farther back in the sea-like wastes of time.
As in geology the fundamental gneiss of the Ne^v World is not
visibly connected with that of the Old, but both are a common
outcrop from the primeval earth, — while yet again at points a
visible connection may be found, — so is it with religion. Under
tliis head, therefore, are included those resemblances which liave
their ground in tlie luiman mind itself, and belong to the domain
of psychology.
Buddhism seems to have been destined to travel from the
East to the further East ; Christianity from the East to the West.
Reuan has said a remarkable thing about the non-importation
of Christianity into the far East : —
'* Arabian countries did not lend themselves at all to the
new preaching, and the lands submitted to the Arsacidae were
open but little to efforts coming from Roman countries. In the
geography of the apostles, the earth is very small. The first
Christians never dream of the barbarian world nor of the
Persian ; even the Arabian world hardh' exists for them. The
missions of Saint Thomas to the Parthians, of Saint Andrew^ to
the Scythians, and of St. Bartholomew in India belong to legend.
The Christian imagination of the early times turns little toward
the East : the goal of the apostolic journeyings was the extremity
of the West, [Rom. XY. 19 and 28 ; Clem. Rom. 5 ;] in the East
one would say that the missionaries regard the limit as already
reached."^'^''^ Renan has here seized upon a great central fact
with that insight Avhich belongs to the true historian : the
limitations of the apostles set the current of Christianity toward
the West.
Dramatic in the highest is the course of the two great world-
faiths : Buddhism has rolled from the Ganges to the Pacific,
and Christianity from the Jordan, in the reverse direction, again
to the Pacific, until in Japan and the United States, after their
age-long and planetary march, they stand looking at each other
across that ocean — once a Spanish, but now an American lake.
Just as the Greek New Testament words iH'cshyfer, church, and
(146) Of course Renan is licre speaking of tbe iipostloH, Imt he also doubts
the visit of Pantir'nus to India in the second century, which we have maintained.
CONNKCTION BET'W'EEX CHXilSTIAXITV AND Dl IJI'HISJf. 51
the like, are spread through all the languages of Christendom from
Hellas to Iceland, so are the Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist words
for the same things spread through all the tongues of Buddhadom.
Sometimes too they have encroached upon each other's realms.
Thus we find the Greek and Latin Samanoem carrying the old
Pali word Samava to the banks of the Tiber ; and, long before
the Clivian era of cosmic intercourse, the Christian monks on
Ehine and Tyne took the old term still farther from its homes
on the Ganges, the Mekong and the Yang-tse-kiang.
Christianity spread the Roman form of the Plioenician
alphabet over Europe and America, while Buddhism spread its
Pali form over the continent of Asia and the islands of the sea.
The old alphabet of the Philippine Tagals is derived from
Asoko's Pali, and in that dreamy archipelago the two great
world-forces, Avhich first met when the Spaniards landed in the
sixteenth century, have now, at the dawn of the twentieth, begun
a new act in the drama which only time can unroll.
Apart from the external embellishments of the two Gospels,
Buddhist and Christian, there is, as Schopenhauer maintained,
a profound agreement between them. On the surface, i. e. in
the realm of emotion, they are diametrically contradictory : one
ignoring a personal God, and the other proclaiming him ; one
teaching self-salvation, assisted by a Saviour ; the other preach-
ing salvation through Christ alone, seconded by one's prayers
and efforts ; one asserting a past eternity of transmigration that
must end in Nirvana ; the other ignoring the past, but clinging
to a future eternity of personal redeemed life. Yet, deep in the
region of truth, the twain are one : both proclaim the necessity
of a second death, a death of self : " whoso seeketh his soul shall
lose it, but he that loseth it shall find it." Both maintain, in
different ways — one emotionally, and the other intellectually —
that self is unreal, that we metaphysical islands were once parts
of a continent, and may yet be so again.'^^'"'
Buddha, while subordinating the ofiice of the personal
Saviour,^^admits it.'^^'^^ He recognized his personal power
also when he said his religion would wane after his death.
Jesus said the same. According to a later authority, there were
(149) John xvii. 22, 23 ; I Cor. xv. 28. Matthew Arnold's wonderful expres-
sion of this, in his Switzerland, is, from 'a Hindu standpoint, the high-water-mark
of European poetry.
(150) See oiir translations from Itivuttaka 92 and Majjhima 22.
52 HISTORICAL INTKUUUCTION.
no Arahats after the first Buddhist century ; wliile tlie Mi/indo
represents that Devadatto was only saved from everhisting
perdition by joining the churcli.
(^ The Buddhist Nirvana is tliat of the intellect : lossof self in
the universe ; the Christian Nirvaiia is that of the heart : loss of
self in others. And yet the Christian humiliation before the
deity recognizes the former truth, Avhile the Buddhist love-
meditation {Metfa-cittam) admits the latter. Only in Christianity
this second truth becomes objective and dominant. The touch-
stone is the Gospel cures. The works of healing are the key to
Christ. Beyond such cases as we liave here translated of Stoical
mind-cure, the Pfdi Scriptures have nothing like them. Indeed
Buddha could never have Avrought them : Jiis energy was spent
upon philosophy. He gathered strength in the wilderness to
solve problems ; eTesus, to heal disease. Buddha would almost
have regarded Christ's method as shallow : it was the disease of
existence itself that he wanted to heal. On the other hand,
even Jesus recognized the temporary nature of his cures aud the
stern ascendancy of evil on the physical plane, in that terrible
parable of the unclean spirit's return.
The two great philosophers of the two faiths strove to till up
the deficiencies of the Masters : * Origen attempted to give us the
metaphysics neglected by Christ; A^vaghosha, the worship
neglected by Buddha. But all is so far imperfect : all that we
have gotten iji this stage of our planet's spiritual liistory is two
extreme points in its orbit wherefrom to calculate the parallax
of far-away stars Without these extreme points we can only
calculate on the basis of the earth's diameter, whereby no
parallax can be had, so that all theology that neglects one or the
other of these cosmic faiths can deal onl}^ with the neighboring
planets of its own religious system, but can never hope to let
loose the imprisoned mind into the vast Beyond. The Christ-
Metteyyo is yet to come, who shall make the measurement : the
prophet of a perfect bidanco between mind and heart, -whom
Emerson sighed for, and for whom the ages ^^•ait.
I'.ND OF HlSTORIC.\L INTRODUCTION.
GOSPEL PARALLELS
FROM
PALI TEXTS.
PART I.
THE INFANCY LEGENDS.
\. Supernatural Birth.
Luke I. 35. (mm-^^^'S.)
The Holy Gliost shall come upon thee and the power of the
Most Higll shall overshadow thee : wherefore also the holy thing
which is to be born shall be called the Son of God.
Middling Collection, Dialogue 38."^
(Quoted in the Questions of King Milindo, p. 123 of the lYili, but omitted
in the translation in Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXXV.)
Conception takes place, O monks, by the union of three.
In this world the father and mother are united. The mother
may be capable, but the genius '-^ may not l)e ready. It is by
the union of these three, O monks, that conception takes place.
C.T. f\^M ^^^^'M (N.C. No. 201 of No. 512. R- b 68 b.)
2. The Nativity.
[Neither of tlie Christian Infaiic}^ Legends (Matthew I-II ;
Luke I.) have enough in common with the Buddhist to be here
transcribed. I only give the following Dialogue, because of the
dominant idea of a wonderful birth. But the conclusion of our
(1) Neumann, in his German translation (Vol. I. p. 420), expands the text
here, presumably from the commentary.
(2) (?anf//ir«56o'_(Sanskrit, Gandharv i). Cliineso reads ^F^- fragrant deposit.
(A. M.)
54 GOSPEL PARALLELS. PAllT I.
Infancy KSection (tlio uiiiTiitive next to this onci will ))iesent
remarkable a|j;reements with Luke 11.]
Dialogue on Wonders and Marvels.
Middling Collection, Dialogue 123.
Thus have I heaed. At one season the Ijord was stayiup;
at Savatthi in the Conqueror's Grove, the cloister-garden <jf the
Feeder of the Toor. Now a number of monks, upon retumin.ii;
from the (juest of alms, and having eaten their meal, Avero sitting
assembled in the room of state, when the following (-(mversation
arose :
"Wonderful, O In-other! marvellous, O bvotlier 1 is the
occult power and magical might of the Tathagato :'^^ Avhen, for
(example, h(^ has knowledge of the Ijygone Bnddhas who have
gone into Nirvana, have broken down obstacles and avenues,
exhausted their transmigTations and passed beyond all pain,
and the Tathagato i^erceives : " Such were the families and such
the names of the Blessed Ones ; their clans were so-and-so ;
such were their morals, such their doctrines, their wisdom,
their dwellings, and their manner of release."
.Aiter such talk as this, the venerable Anando said to the
monks : " Wonderful, l)rethren, are the Tathagatos, and endowed
witli wonderful (pialities ; marvellous, brethren ! are the Tatha-
gatos, and endowed Avith marvellous (qualities."
Such A\as the ccmvei-sation among the monks when it was
l)roken off. Noav, tlie Lord, having arisen from retirement at
eventide, came into the room of state and sat doAvu upon the
seat prepared for him. While sitting there the Lord addressed
the monks and said : " jSIonks ! What now is th(^ sul»ject of
yom- discoui-se wliihi sitting together? And Avliat, morc^ov.M-,
Avas your conversation which ,you just broke oft'?"
They answered : " Here, Lord, having retiuiied frojii the
.[uestofalms and having eaten our meal, Ave have been sitting
assembled in the room of state, Avhen the folloA\ing convei-sati(Mi
arose: ' Wonderful, O brother ! marvellous, O brother ! is the
occult ixjAver and magical might of tlu^ Tathagato," u^tc., repeatinl
from above, down to the end of Anando's simh'cIi). ' This, rioid,
Avas our convei-sation which Avas broken olV. Just then the TiOiil
aniAed.'
(1) 'I'll.! iii.l'liiiitr iuti.-lr iiijiy I..' ivn-l.To.l lioro witli o<\n:i\ i)nii>ri.'ty.
2. THE NATIVITY. 55
Now tlie Lord addressed the venerable Auando : "And
so, Anando, may tlie wonderful and marvellous qualities of the
Tathagato become more and more apparent."
[Anando replied] : " In my presence, Lord, loas it heard
from [the lipfi of] the Lord, and in my presence received : ' Anando,
the future Buddha is mindful and conscious lohen he is horn icith the
Tusitd body. This fact, Lord, that the future Buddha is mirulfid
and conscious ifhen he is born tvith the Tusitd body, I hold to be a
tronderfil and marvellous qucdity of the Lord." ' ^"^
2. " ' Anando, the future Buddha abfxle for a lifetime in
tlie Tusita l)ody/ '''^
C.T. Ff'lSnJ ^^WfilS fX. C. Xo. 32 of No. 542. ^E 44-45.)
^^^^i^ ^^^
:f lt^lt#, ^i^iUM^, -^-k^m^ ^^±mt^^ w^c^#
3. " ' Anando, the future Buddha is nundful and conscious
ichen he vanishes from the Tusita body, and descends info his
mother s iromb.'^^^
(2) Repetitions similar to those italicised in the above paragraph occur at the
beginning and the end of the eighteen statements which follow. They are here
numbered for convenience. Nos. 3 to 18 are substantially identical with the
passage in Di^ha 14 (^M^c^fS) translated by me from Pftli. (The Marvellous
Birth of the Buddhas : Thiladelphia, 1899, pp. 5-11.) Passages or phrases found
in other parts of the PaU Canon are also itaUcised. They prove that the Nativity
document is one of the ancient strata of the Scriptures. (See my note in The
Open Court : June, 1899.)
(3) One of the spheres of the devaloko or angel world. The word body may
also be rendered host, i.e. angelic society.
(4) Conversation of the monks and other things are omitted in the Chiuose,
and the birth of Kficyapa Buddha (MM^') i^ the Tnsitfi (^^^ is repeated.
All is spoken by Anando. (A. M.)
(5) The superiority of the Buddha Kficyapa as an angel to the other angels
in the Tusita is here spoken of. (A.M.)
(6) Statement No. 3 occurs in the Decease-Book III. 15. (giMiSfTlS,
^jl 13 b.) The words Descent of the Lord (Bhagavato okranti) occur among the
Bharahat inscriptions in India (third or second century B. C.) as the title of a
sculpture representing the incarnation.
50 GOSnX TAltALLELS. I'AIiT I.
4. '' ' Anniulo, tcJioi the future Buddha vanishes from the
Tusitd liody, and descends into his mother s icomh, then, in the tcorld
of the ancjeh, together icith those of Ilciro and Brahma, and unto
the rare of jMosophers and Brahmins, princes and peoples, there
aj^pcars a splendour, limitless and eminent, transcendimj the angelic
viiglt of the angels. And even in the boundless realms of space,
vith their darlness upot darl-ness, irhere yonder sun and moon,
so magical, so mighty, are felt not in the shj, — there too aptpears
the splcndoiir limitless and eminent, transcending the very might
of the angels, so that beings loho are born there *^^ observe among
themselves, by reason of that splendour : ' Friend, it is said that
of/ier beings are born here, uiid this myriad -fold uiiivcu'se quakes
and shakes and tremeudoiisly treral)les: a splendour limitless and
eminent ap|3ears in the Avorld transcending even the angelic-
might of the angels.'
5. " ' Anando, when the future liuddha is descending into
liis mother's Avorab, the four sons of the angels, who keep watch
over the four quarters, approach him and say : " Neither moiial
nor demon shall harm the future Buddha or his mother.'
6. " ' Anando, when the future Buddha is descending into
his mother's womb, she is pure from sexuality,*^^^ has abstained
(7) This passiigo, down to " born here," with slight variiitions, occurs in the
Numerical Collection, IV. 127. The sixbstance of it is also in the Sanskrit
of the Divyavadana, p. 204.
]\Iaro, the Buddhist Tempter, is not purely evil, like the Zoroastrian Devil,
but an aijgel in good standing, being the ruler of the highest sphere of devos,
immediately below the seraphic IJrahmri-hcavcn. Karl Neumann regards liim
as the equivalent of the Greek Pan.
The house was full of light at tiie birth of Moses, according to the Talmud,
(Wiinsche : Erliiuterung der Evangelien aus Talmud und Midrash : 1S78, p. li.)
Before the birth of Zoroaster the village " became all luminous." (S. B. E. XLVII,
p. 30). Wiinsche comiiarcs witli the Talmudic birth-light the star in Matthew Tl.
Tlie book of the Great Decease, III. 15, has : " then thii earth rocks and
fjualce.s and shahrs and Ircinew^onsUj Irrnihles." This betrays a later origiji for
onr present Sntta and its fellow (Digha 14) where tlif earthiinake is extended
tl) the whole universe.
(8) Diogenes Laertius on the birth ot Plaf(j : "Then slic kept h.r pure
of raaiTiago until the birth." (Lives of the Philosophers, I'.ook :!.) This
abstinence, ascribed to the mother of I'iato, we know from the context to imidy
THE XATIVITV.
fro)n taling life, from theft, from evil conduct in lusts, from, lying,
and from nil Mnds of wine and strong drink, luhirh are a cause of
irreligion.'
7. " ' Anaiido, when tlie futme Bnddlui is desceiidiiit>; into
liis mother's womb, there arises not in his mother any histfnl
intent toward men, and she is invioLible by the impure thougilit
of any man/ *^^'
8. " ' Auando, wlien the future Buddha is descending into
his mother's womb, she is possessed of the five pleasures of the
senses ; she is surroimded by, estabhslied in, and endowed witli
the five pleasures of the senses.'
nmm$, ^liinm^m^^u', m^i^mi^, mmmmfi^
:^^nM.mf^ v]^^nmjimr^mjin- -jki^n^n^^t^o
ii divine paternity, such as that which is the subject of the Ion of Euripides.
The abstinence of Gotamo's mother, on the other hand, implies no such thing,
biit merely refers to the period of gestation. Such abstinence is enjoined in the
Institutes of Vishnu, liXIX. 17, and was also observed by the Essenes.
(Josephus, Wars II., YIII. 13). It is a familiar practice of Oriental hygiene.
Moreover, (lotamo is credited with parents (Milindo IV. 4. 11, quoted
from some Sutta not known to Khys Davids in 1890.) Nevertheless, in the
Lalita Vistara the doctrine of a supernatural birth is certainly implied : the
queen-mother abstains for thirty-two months before the Nativity. (Foucaux's
translation from the Sanskrit : Paris, 1884, pp. 29, 44). Here also we find the
myth about birth from the right side, quoted by Jerome. The Lalita Vistara's
date is unknown, but the cycle of legends therein was known in China in the
first century, from a Buddhist source. (S.B.E. XIX.,. p. XVII).
The words in italics constitute the first five prohibitions in the IJuddhist
Ten Commandments. It wiU thus be seen that the Buddhists believe in some-
thing analogous to the Immaculate Conception, but not in the Virginal Birth-
two doctrines that are often confused. On abstinence from wine, compare John
the Baptist : Liike I. 15.
On the other hand, the Buddhist Doc-etists (Lokottaracudlno) maintained
that Crotamo's son Rahulo was miraculously born, having descended from heaven
into his mother's womb, without human paternity. (Mahavastvi, Vol. I., pp.
152, 154: Paris, 1882.)
(9) llhys Davids, in The International Qiaarterly (Burlington, Vermont, 1903)
has suggested that this statement m.ay have been the germ of the later myth of
a Virginal Birth.
(10) Statement No. 5. is not found in the Chinese. We find there more
repetitions than in the Pali and the things ascribed not to the mother but to
the baby in womb and coming out of it. In the womb the baby Buddha lies
on the right side. (A. M.)
58 oospKL P-uurxELS. I'Aitr i.
9. '" Aujiudo, Avlicn tlie future Buddha is descending into
Lis mother's womb, she h.is no sickness at all, hut is happy,
Avith her ])ody free from pain, and sees the future Buddha"
transparently in the womlj (literally, gone across the womb)
in full possession of all his limbs and faculties. Eyen as a
cat's eye gem, Anando, being radiant, fine, octagonal and well
Avi-ought, is therefore stiimg upon a dark blue string, or upon
a taA\ny, or a red, oi- a white, . or a j'ellow string, so that
any man with eyes, upon taking it in his hand, may reflect :
" This cat's eye gem, being radiant Arc is therefore stmug
u])on this dark-blue string, or yelloAv string, even
so, Anando, Avhen the futiu-e Buddha is descending into his
mother's womb, she has no sickness at all, but is happy, "ssith
her Ijody free from pain, and sees him transparently in the
woml), ill full ])(jssession ef all his limbs and faculties." ' ^" •
^iciiHiHrtf , ^iiiZior^ im^'f, mmm'^, imim^"^
10. " ' Anando, seven days after the hirth of the future Buddha,
his mother departs this life, and is horn with the Tusitd body.' ^"-^
11. " ' Moreover, Anando, Avliile other women bring foi-th
after a gestation of nine or ten months, the future Buddlia's
mother does not act in the usual way Avitli him : just ten months
does she caiTy the future Buddha liofore she l)rings him forth.'^"^
12. " ' Moreover, Anando, Avhile other women bring foiili
sitting or lying doAvn, the futme Buddha's mother does not
bring him forth in the usual Avay : she actually brings him forth
standing.'
13. " ' Anando, Avhen the future Buddha leaves his mother's
womb, princes are the first to receive liim, and common folk
afterAvards.' *'*>
(11) Tho detail ubont iJiiinless ihiKl-birtli is in the apocryplial gospel of the
Pseudo-Matthew, Chapter 13 ; so also is the one below, No. 15. Xulla sawjuinis
effusio in nascente, nvlhis dolor m pariuriente, are the words. Standing on his feet
(No. 17) is there too.
(12) This statement is, prul)ably < rroiu^ously confoundi'd with statement l:!,
ascribed to the birth of the Huddha. (A. :M.)
(13) These words oiciir, lait in the plural, in Udana V. 2.
(14) Snetf)niiis on .\ugnstns, 1)4 ; Virgil. Eclogue 4.
(15) The words rendered '• princes " and " common folk " are literally anyvls
and human beiifjs. It is thus easy to see how these Oriental tropes can give rise
to mythol(»gy.
THE NATIVITY.
14. " * Anando, when the future Buddha leaves his mother's
womb, lie does uot touch the eai-tli : four sons of the j)rinces
[or, angels] receive him and present him to his mother. ' May
Your Majesty be ])lessed,' they say : ' unto you is born an
eminent son.' ' '^^'
15. " ' Anando, when the future Buddha leaves his mother's
womb, he leaves it quite clean, undefiled with matter or blood, ^'"'
Init pure, clean, and undefiled by any impurity. As in the case,
Anando, of a gem or a jewel laid in Benares cloth, the gem or
jewel does not defile the Benares cloth at all, nor the Benares
cloth the jewel or the gem, (and why ? — ^because they both are
pm-e) : even so, Anando, when the future Buddha leaves his
mother s womb, &c undefiled by any impurity.' ^^^'
16. " ' Anando, when the future Buddha leaves his mother's
womb, there appear two showers of water from the sky, — one
of cool water, and the other of warm, to supply the needed w^ater
for the future Buddha and his mother.'
(19)
17. , " ' Anando, the new-born future Buddha stands sheer
upright on his feet, walks northwards with a seven-paced stride,
with a white canopy "^-"^ held over him, and looking foiih in all
directions, utters the l^ull-like speech : "I am the cliief in the
world, I am the best in the world, I am the eldest in the world.
This is my last existence : I si tall now he horn no more.'"' '
(16) Cf. liUke I. 28. "May Your Majesty be blessed" is literally:
•' Goddess, be then blessed.' The word god or angel was always used in addres-
sing kings and queens. '• Yes, God," in the Jataka Book, means " Yes, Your
Majesty."
Cf. also the birth of Zoroaster : " Unto him is born at his house a l)rilhaut
man-(child)." (S.B.E. XLVII, pp. 31.)
(17) There is a third word here, ucZcZena, which I cannot translate. Uddo
means generally an aquatic animal.
(18) Statements Nos. 10-15 are not tomid in the Chinese. (A. M.)
(19) These statements occur in the Chinese after the passage corresponding
to No. 17. The first part states the pond in which the mother purifies herself.
The second agrees exactly with No. 16. (A. M.)
(20) " Canopy " seems to me a more dignified translation than " parasol "
or " umbrella " : it is an emblem of royalty. The J.ltaka commentary says that
the god Brahma held it! The words italicised occur in (lotamo's first sermon.
(S.B.E. XI., pp. 153 ; XIII, pp. 97.)
GO GOSPEL PAKALLELS. PART I.
18. " ' Auaiido, Avlieu tlie future Buddha leaves his mother's
Avomb, then in tlio worhl of the angels, together A\itli those
of Maro and Brahma, and imto the race of philosophers and
l)ralimins, princes and peoples, there appears a splendour limit-
less and eminent, transcending the angelic might of the angels ;
and even in the boimdless realms of space, Avith their darkness
upon darkness, where yonder sun and moon, so magical, so
mighty, are felt not in the sk}-, there too appears the splendom-
limitless and eminent, transcending the very might of the angels,
so that beings who are born there consider among themselves
by reason of that splendour : ' Friend, it is said that other
beings are born here, and this myriad-fold universe quakes and
shakes and tremendously trembles : a splendour limitless and
eminent api^ears in tlie world, transcending even the angelic
might of the angels." ''--^
19. "'Therefore, Anando, do thou hold tliis also to be a
wonderful and marvellous quahty of the Tathagato : nameh',
that his sensations are known (or, perceived) ^hen they arise,
knoAvn when they continue, and knoAvn when the}' decline.
Known are his ideas av hen tliej- arise ; his reflections are knoA\-n
when they arise, and known when they decline. Therefore,
Anando, do thou hold this also to 1)e a wonderful and marvellous
(juality of the Tathagato.'
" Tliis fact also. Lord, that tlie sensations of the Lord are
known when they arise, known when they continue, and known
when they decline; that his ideas are known that his
reflectious are known this also, Lord, I liold to l)e a
wonderful and marvellous quality of the Lord.""
Thus spake the venerable Anando. The Master assented,
ami the monks were rapt and rejoiced at the utterance of the
venerable Anando.
(21) Here the words of the mterance nre Avanting. After this pas.sage there
itre emiuicratcd various flowcr.s showoriug down from heaven to the ground where
the hahy Uuddha was born. Cf. Tarall 3. Note 4. (A. M.)
(22) End of agreement with the Digha Snlta. In saying that these docu-
ments aw later tlian the Decease liook, I do not mean to impugn their high
antiquity. They are prolmbly the work of the second generation of disciples,
i.e. counting fmm the death of (lulanio.
THE NATIVITY.
01
(Here ends) tlie Dialogue on Wonders and Marvels, third
(in a pai-ticular subdivision of the Middling Collection.)'-'^
3. Angelic Heralds and the Prophecy
of an Aged Saint.
Luke II. 8—40. (^&jn^.-~^A-raO)
And tliere were shepherds in the same country abiding in
the tield, and keeping watch by night over their flock. And an
angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the T ord
shone around about them : and they were sore afraid. And the
angel said unto them. Be not afraid ; for behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people : for
there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord.
And this is the sign unto you ; Ye shall lind a babe
w-rapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. And
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
host praising God and saying :
Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased.
And it came to pass, when the acgels went away from them
into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go
even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing tliat is come to pass,
which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came
with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the babe
lying in the manger And when they saw it, they made known
concerning the saying Avhich was spoken to them about this
child. And all that heard it wondered at the things which were
spoken unto them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these
sayings, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that
they had heard and seen, even as it was spoken unto them.
And when eight days were fulfilled for circumcising him,
his name was called Jesus, which was so called by the angel
before he was conceived in the womb.
(23) In the Chinese the last part of this sutta is wanting au.l instead of it
other marvels in Bnd.lha's life, as for instance, shade of a tree not removing
from Buddha's seat, are stated. (A. M.)
G'J GOSPEL PAKALLKI.S. PART I.
And when the days of tlieir purification according to the
law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought liim up to Jerusalem,
to present liim to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the
Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy
to the Lord,) and to offer a sacrifice, according to that which is
said in the law of the Lord, a ])air of turtledoves, or two young
pigeons.
And behold there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was
Simeon ; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for
the consolation of Israel : and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
And it had been revealed unto him b}' the Holy Spirit, that he
should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came in the Spirit into tlie Temple : and when the
parents brought in the child Jesus, that the}' might do concern-
ing him after the custom of the law, then he received him into
his arms, and blessed God, and said,
Now lettest thou thy servant depart, 0 Lord,
According to thy Avord, in peace ;
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples ;
A light for revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of thy people Israel,
And his fatlier and his mother were marvelling at the
things which were spoken concerning him ; and Simeon blessed
them, and said unto Mary his mother. Behold, this (child) is set
for -the falling and rising up of man}' in Israel ; and for a sign
which is spoken against ; yea and a sword shall pierce through
thine own soul ; that thoughts out of many hearts may be reveal-
ed. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of
Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (she was of a great age, having
lived with a liusband seven years from her virginity, and she
had been a widow even for fourscore and four years), which
departed not from the temple, worshipping with fastings and
supplications night and day. And coming up at that very hour
she gave thanks unto God, and spake of him to all tliera that
were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. And when they
had accomplished all things that were according to the law of
the Lord, thoy returned into Galilee, to tlieir own city
Nazareth.
And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom :
and the grace of (Jod was upon him.
2. THE NATIVITV. 63
Collection of Discourses (Sutta Nipato)
Stanzas 679—700.
(Translated by Vincent Fausboll of Copenhagen, the Nestor of Prili scbolais,
in Sacred Books of the East, Vol. X, Part 2, p. 124 seq.)
S. p. 1. i^i:i^^m^U- (X. C. Xo. 66fi, ^t (;l.-7a)
2. m^^f^UJL (X. C. Xo. GG4, M1- 30 a)
3. ^f^n^l^-U (X. C.No. 803, Mt8:^.-i)^>'
Joyful aud ecstatic, in thirteen troops,
Sakko and Indo and angels white -stoled,
Seizing their robes and sounding high praises.
Did Asito the hermit see in noonday rest.
Seeing the angels with minds rejoicing and delighted,
He made obeisance aud forthwith spake thus :
Why is the assembly of the angels exceedingly pleased ?
Wherefore do ye seize your robes aud wave them ?
" When there was a battle Avith the devils,
A victor for the angels and the devils defeated,
Then there was not such astonishment :
W^hat portent is it the deities have seen that they rejoice ?
" They shout and sing and make music.
They whirl their arms and dance :
I ask you, O dwellers upon Meru's lieight,
Remove my doubt quickly, O venerable ones ! "
[The angels answer :]
(1) These three texts which seem to have supplied materials fqr the com-
position of the Lalita Vistara or must have descended from the same source as
the latter have their respective corresj)onding passages to these stanzas of the
Sutta Xipfito. No. 1, gives the conversation between Asito and angels in prose
as narrated by Asito himself to King Cuddhodana. This corresponds to stanzas
679-084.
The following part is mi;ch abridged in Xo. 1.
In Xo. 2, there is no conversation between Asito and angels nor narration
about it. He sees many wonders and comes down from his mountain abode to
Kapilavastu. The following part, stanzas 685-694, is given partly in prose and
liartly in verse. This text mentions not Asito's nephew.
The name of the nephew (or disciple) is given in No. 3, as Xarada (or Xfirana?
&MM< Naradatta in Lalita Vistara, Xara-kumara MMM.^- i^ p'cii'tiS^S)-
ytanzas 695-700 do not agree literally with the passage in No. 3 but in sub-
stance. (A. M.)
64 GOSPEL I'Ali.VLLKLS. P.VllT I.
" Tlio Boclhisat, the bo?;t ineoinparuble gem,
Is born for weal and welfare in tlie world of men,
In the town of the Sakyas, in the region of Lumbini,
Tlierefore are we glad and exceedingly pleased.
" He, the highest of all beings, the head-person,
The chief'-^ of rneu, the highest of all creatures,
AVill set rolling the wlieel [of religion]
in the hermit-named forest,
Like the roaring mighty lion mastering the deer."^"-
[1] iiijAfra,
mth^\h^:k-y(:mmrmno
[2] #iii^rit:Jr,^H^^, ^\^^^^mA3h, tmitmmf^o
(continued to the next section)
±n, ''mMfm, mmt^ii ^^^itrnm^ \^imi]i\y^Myiii
Hearing that sound, he came down
from the Heaven of Content,
And entered Snddhodano's abode :
There seated he addressed the Sak3'as thus :
Wliere is the'^* prince ? I desire to see him."'
There was the prince like glowing gold,
Veiy skillfully Avrought in the forge's mouth,
lilazing in glory and the lofty air of beauty :
Unto him named Asito the Sakyas shewed their son.
(2) Literally, hull.
(3) (lotiinio's tirst Sr rinon wiis in tlio Door I'ark noiir Hcnfires.
(4) 'I'hiH part corrcsjionding to the last stanza ahovc translatoil agrees per-
fectly Avith statement 17 of the imrallel No. 2. (alx)ve p. 5:i). (.\. M.)
(5) 'J'liis Avord may also he rendered " boy."
3. THE NATIVITY. 65
Seeing the prince aglow like flame,
Pure as tlie chief of stars wandering in the sky,
Like the burning sun in autumn free from clouds,
He joyfully obtained great delight.
The angels held in air a canopy,
Many-branched and thousand-ringed :
Chowries with golden staves were fanned ;
Unseen were they Vvho carried the chowries and the canopy.
The hermit with matted hair, called Kanhasiri,
Wlieu he saw the yellow trapping bright as a golden piece,
And the white canopy liekl over his liead.
Received him delighted and happy.
But when lie had received the chief'"^ of the Sakyas,—
He who was wishing for him, and knew
the signs and the Hymns,
With placid thoughts gave utterance to the speech :
" Tliis is tlie unrivalled One, the highest among bipeds."'^^
Then, remembering his own migration.
He was suddened and shed tears.
Seeing this, the Sakyas asked the weeping liermit
Wliether there were danger for the Prince.
Seeing the Sfikyas sad, the liermit spake :
" I remember naught unhappy for the Prince :
There will be no danger at all for him ;
He is no ordinary being. Be not dismayed.
" Tliis Prince will reach the summit of perfect
enlightenment :
Seeing supernal purity, he will set rolling
the wheel of the Doctrine,
Out of pity for the weal of the multitude,
And his religion will be prosperous.
(6) Literally Ball.
(7) I prefer to be literal here, at the expense of a Western smile, because
the association of men with animals is thoroughly Buddhistic
GG (iOSl'lJ, PAlJAI.l.KLS. I'AKT I.
" My life below will not l)e long,
And the midst oi it all my appointed time will come :
I shall not hear the Doctrine of the peerless leader ;
Therefore am I afflicted, unfortunate, and suffering."
m'^^\HA]g±=fl\', [2] i±-f-^>^Mmii^m.4^-^ Wit
nm, #^u^f^i], rmm^, -mmmo
-^mm^, ^mmo'
mn^Mm tn^^B r^m¥Mit aftfiM1il:lti1
Having given much gladness to the SakNas,
From the midst of the tow^u lie went forth
to the life of religion.
Taking pity on his nephew,
He caused hini to accept the Doctrine of the peerless leader.
" Then thou hearest from others a rumour,
sa3'ing ' 13nd<lha,' —
One who hath reached perfect enlightenment
and M'alketh the way of the Doctrine, —
Co thither thyself, and en<iuire thereon,
And lead the life of religion with that Blessed One."
Instructed by him, the friendly-minded,
By him who hath seen in the future the superlative purity,
That same Nalako, with an accumulation of merit,
Dwelt in watchfulness over his faculties,
looking forward to the Victor.
THE NATIVITY.
C7
Hearing a voice wliile the Victor set
rolling the excellent wheel,
He went and saw the chiefest'^'^^ of hermits ;
The excellent sage, he asked about the best sagacity,
When the time was come whereof
he had been instructed by him called Asito
End of the theme-verses.''-*^
This speech is acknowledged
To be Asito's exactly :
Therefore I enquire of thee, O Gotamo,
AVho art perfect in all doctrine.
Unto me who go houseless,
Wishing for the mendicant life,
Explain to me when asked, O sage !
Sagacity, tlie highest path.
[3] \i^mmmm^u., mMmir,iW>mtm^ mi^ih^n^
mm'^o
?i-o "
Wd^iiijAi^iifci^B, mmmumo
WT
[Kellogg, in his Light of Asia and Light of the World
(London, 1885) disparages the parallel between Asito and
Simeon (Luke II.) destroying it detail by detail. But he
overlooks the connection of Asito with the account of the
angelic heralds. It is this organic connection which establishes
the parallel between the Nalaka Sutta and the Second of
Luke.]
(8) Literally, bull.
(9) The King of Siam has " theme-narrative."
PART II.
INITIATION AND COMMENCEMENT.
* * 4f -Jf * * v!"
4. Fasting, and Angelic Ministration.
Matthew IV. 2 nnd 11. (.r^^fiirac?)- i f-)
And when he fasted forty days and forty nights, he after-
wards liaugered Then the devil leaveth him ; and behold,
angels came and ministered unto liim,
Luke IV. 2. {mmi^(^=.)
And he did eat nothing in tliose days.
Mark I. 13. {M.1im-<^t^)
And he was in tlie wilderness forty days tempted of Satan;
and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered
unto him.
Middling Collection No. 36.
(Translated into Gormun by Xoumann, Die Keden Vol. I. pp. iiso. t.)
Then, O Aggivessano, the angels (devetd) saw me and said:
" The ijhilosopher Gotamo is dead." Other angels said : " He
is not dead, but he is dying." Others again said : " He is
neither dead nor dying, but an Arahat is tlie philosopher
Gotamo : such a mode of life is only that of an Arahat." Then,
Aggivessano, I tliought : " Wliat if I now fast entirely?"
Forthwith there came unto mo angels who said : '• O worthy
One, do not so, fast not entirely. But if thou do, we will instil
angelic sap"^ through thy pores : so shalt thou remain alive."
(1) Neumann has " (Ifw " (T/iav).
ILLUMI^'ATIO^■. 69
Then, Aggivessauo, I thought : "If now I were to fast entirely,
these angels would instil angelic sap through my pores, and I
should thus remain alive, which on my part would be false."
And then, Aggiressano, I cried baclv to the angels and said :
" It is enoush."
fc>'
s.p. mmmm&''" (N.c.No.sso.i^tsgb)
[Dr. Aiken was unfortunate in not using the Majjhima-
Nikayo when diccnssing the subject of the fast. {Dhamma of
Gotamo, p. 201). He charges Seydel with doing violence to the
legend by making the fast precede the Enlightenment, and he
appeals to the Mahavaggo in support of his charge. It is true,
the Mahavaggo relates that Gotamo sat in meditation under
different trees for twenty-eight days after the Enlightenment,
(presumably without eating), but the fast in question is the one
related by Gotamo himself in our present text, and it 2:>receded
the Enlightenment.]
5. Illumination.
Mark I. 9-11. (,{|jn®-^A-t-)
(Translated from the text of Westcott and Hort.)
And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from
Nazareth to Galilee, and was baptized of John in the Jordan.
And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens
rent asunder, and the spirit as a dove descending INTO him :
and a voice came out of the heavens, Thou art my beloved Son,
in thee I am well pleased.
Justin Martyr, A. D. 150, reads : " Thou art my beloved
Son: TBIS DAY HAVE I BEGOTTEN THEE." {Trypho
88).
(2) As far as I know there ir, in the Chinese no text corresponding to the
Middling No. 3G. Here I take a passage similar to that. (A.M.)
(3) The Devatfi (or Devaputra) says: "There is fine heavenly food and
drink here in my pores." (A. M.)
TO GOSPEL PAKALLELS. PABT 2.
Luke ni. 22. (mm^^ =.-i- -.)
(Translate^l from the Cambiitlge Codex/') sixth century).
Aud the Holy Ghost descended INTO liim in ;i bodily
form, as a dove ; and there was a voice out of the heaven :
Thou art my son : THIS DAY HAVE I BEGOTTEN THEE.
[The writer to the Hebrews, when using the same woids
(Heb. I. 5) is quoting the Second Psalm, but there is just a pos-
sibilit}^ that lie also had in mind the original Gospel reading of
the words uttered at the Baptism. They agree in idea with the
other reading given above : that, at the Illumination (as baptism
was called among the early Christians) the Spirit " entered into''
Jesus, i.e. his spiritual birth then took place. But when the
doctrine of the virginal conception supplanted this earlier and
simpler one, tlie word 'e;rt, iqwn, was substituted for et?, into ;
and it became heresy to maintain that the Holy Ghost entered
the Lord at Baptism instead of at conception. Wescott and
Hort, and indeed all scientific editors of the Greek text, read et?,
in Mark I. 10, and I cannot understand why The Twentieth
Century New Testament, which is generally so faithful to Hort's
text, has here perpetuated the King James' translation of "upon."
It was doubtless such readings as this in the original Mark that
made this Gospel the favorite one with the Unitarian party
among the early Christians, as related by Irenanis. (Hrer, IH.
11.,)]
Middling Collection, Dialogue 35.
[After relating how he took food at the end of Jiis fast,
entered into the Four Trances {Jhnitas) aud gained the Three
Knowledges, viz., insight into his former existences, intromission
into the spiritual world, and arrival at the Four Trutlis about
Suffering, Gotamo says : ]
This knowledge as the third, o Aggivessano, I reached in
the last watch of the night; ignorance was dissipated, knowledge
arisen; darkness dissipated, insight arisen, even as it is for one
who dwells earnest, ardent and strenuous.
(1) (Cambridge foc-.simile, 18Di), which, with a mianiflcence worthy of a great
world contro. tho city of riiiladclitliiii has jilnced freely at the service of scholars.
ILIX'MINATIOX.
71
«. P- ^t^fMMKr'^. (N. C. No. 859, Mt 91a)
[This is the regular account of the ewVighienment {So mhodhi),
which recurs in several Dialogues of the Middling Collection^
and also at the opening of the Book of Discipline, not yet
translated.]
Middling Collection, Dialogue 26.
(Translated into ^English l>y Warren : Buddhism in Translations, p.
338 ; and into German by Nenmaun : Die Reden Gotamo Eiiddho's : Vol. 1.
p. 2GG.)
Now, monks, did I wander seeking what was good, search-
ing for the incomparable, supernal path of rest, wandering from
place to place in the land of Magadlui, and 1 proceeded to the
fortified town of Uruvela. There did I see a delightful spot of
earth : a pleasant wooded landscape, a clear flowing river, tit to
bathe in, delightful, with pasturage around (or, a resort for alms
nearby.) Then, monks, did I think: "Delightful indeed is
this spot of earth ; pleasant the wooded landscape ; the river
flows clear, fit for bathing, delightful, with pasturage around.
It is sufficient for the strenuous life unto a noble youth desirous
thereof." And I sat down there, saying: "This is sufficient
for the strenuous life."
Then, monks, did I, who by myself Avas subject unto birth,
marking the misery thereof, search for and find the birthless
incomparable yoga-calm of Kirvfma ; marking the misery of
decay, disease, death, sorrow and corruption, whereto I was
subject, I sought and found the incomparable yoga-calrn of
Nirvana, without decay, without disease, deathless, painless,
unsullied. Then within me did arise the knowledge and in-
sight :
" Immovable is my emancipation. This is my last ex-
istence ; I shall now be born no more !"
And I thought, o monks: "I have attained unto this
doctrine, which is profound, hard to perceive and understand,
quiet, refined, beyond the sphere of reason, recondite, felt only
bv the wise."
72 GOSPEL r.Vj;.\LLELS. I'AUT "J.
[Then follows Gotamo's hesitation about preaching his
religion to the sensual world, and the descent from lieaven of
the Supremo Brahma to beseech him to preach it. (See Sacred
Books of the East Vol. XITI, pp. 84-80). Like others of our
Parallels, the present one is psychologic, not literary : the same
mental crisis iu the lives of the Masters is meant, and is met by
each according to the needs and motions of his country's mind.]
C.T. r[ipn| M^M (N.C. No. 204 of No. 542, ^-fc 74b).
itmmm mmm M_h-5oaiB. mmiium n
"^B.^--. mi^AL, l^frf^B^I, ^(3i«i-
6. Temptations of Empire and Power to
transmute Matter.
Luke IV. 3-8. (if&iin(?frac)H-A)
And the devil said unto him, If thou art the Son of God,
command this stone that it become bread. And Jesus answered
unto him, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone.
And ho led liim up and showed him all the kingdoms of the
world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To
thee will I give all this authority and the glory of them : for it
liath been delivered unto me ; and to Avhomsoever I will 1 give
it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be
thine. And Jesus answered and said uato him, It is written,
Thou shalt M'orship the Lord thy God, and Him only slialt thou
serve.
[Luke af^ain .igrocs witli the Tali by associating these two
temptations, whereas Maltliow dissociates them].
TEMPTATIONS. 73
Book of Temptations. Chapter on Dominion.
(Translated in substance by Oldenberg, in his Buddlut : English edition,
1882, p. 312. Windisch translates fully, together with the whole of the Book of
Temptations, in his M'lra und Buddha : Leipzig, 1895.)
At one season the Lord was staying in the land of the
Kosala, among the Himalayas, in a log-hut. While thus living
in hermitage retired, the reflection arose within him : " It is
really possible to exercise dominion b}' righteousness, without
slaying or causing slaughter ; without oppression or the )naking
thereof ; witliout sorrow or the infliction thereof."
Then Maro, the Evil One, perceived in his heart the thought
which had arisen in the heart of the Lord and he approached
the Lord and spake thus : " Lord, may the Lord exercise
dominion ; may the Auspicious One exercise dominion b}'
righteousness witliout slayiiig or causing slaughter ; without
oppression or the making thereof ; without sorrow or the inflic-
tion thereof,"
" What seest thou in me, O Evil One, that thou speakest
thus to me ?"
" Lord, the Lord has practised the four principles of
psychical power, has developed them, made them active and
practical, pursued them, accumulated, and striven to the height
thereof. So, Lord, if the Lord desired, he could turn the
Himalaya, the monarch of mountains, into very gold, and gold
would the mountain be.
" The whole of a mountain of gold, of fine gold.
Twofold, were not enough for one.
Let him who knoweth this govern his life.
He who hath seen Pain and whence its rise,
How could such a one bow to lusts ?
He who knoweth that the substratum of existence is
what is called in the world ' attachment ',
Let that man train himself in the subdual thereof."
Then Maro, the Evil One said : " The Lord knows me ;
the Auspicious One knows me." And he vanished thence,
unljappy and disconsolate.
C. T. lipiJlH-i-;^ (N.C. No. 544, Mffl 27-28).
74 GOSPEr PARALLELS. PAKT 2.
^ii]i\^jk^,^^\^^^mm \f-jk±> n^'Mim
^f^ni"
mi^w<o "
"lfM^iM<ir !i\v3\h':£l^ -Al^ltb^
^>fii^^;n>i jm^^mm #^fi5i-iJio''
7. Messianic Propliecy: Art thou
the Coming One?
Luke VII. 16-19. iWmm^'D-ty'^—i-Ji)
(Here again Jjuke is closer to the Prili than the parallel in Matthew XI.)
And fear took hold ou all : and tliey glorified God, saying
A great jDropliet is arisen among us : and, God hath visited his
people. And this report went fortli concerning hini in the wliole
of Judfca, and .-ill the region round about.
And the disciples of John told him of all tliese things.
And John calling unto him two of liis disciples sent them to
the Lord, saying, Art thou lie that comoth, or look we for
another.
Long Collection, Dialogue No. 3.
(Translated by Khys Davids ; Dialogues of the Buddha, ls;i;i, p. KiO.)
Now at that season a youug Brahmin of the Ambattho
[clan] was a pupil imder the Brahmin Pokkharasiidi, and he
was ;i reciter, knowing by heart the Vcdic Hymns,'^'^ master of
the three Vcdas, itc
And rokkharasadi the lUahmiu addressed tlie young
brahmin Aml)atili(), saying : " Dear Ambattlio, this philosopher
Gotamo, the Sakya man, who has gone fortli as a hermit from a
Sakya family, is wandering about in the land of tlie Ko.sala wiili
(1) M)iul'i(lli'irn, liternlly, " carrying the ^fantrns."
7. MESSIANIC PROPHECY. 10
a great congregation of monks, with some five hundred monks,
and has arrived at Icchanankala, Avhere he is staying in the
grove of that name. Now regarding that Gotamo, the following
glorious report has gone abroad : That Blessed one is a Holy
One, a supremely Enlightened One, endowed with wisdom and
conduct ; auspicious, knowing the universe ; an incomparable
charioteer of men aaIio are tamed, a Master of angels and
mortals, a Blessed Buddha. What lie has realized by his own
supernal knowledge he publishes to this universe, with its
angels, its fiends and its archangels, and to the race of
philosophers and brahmins, princes and peoples. He preaches
his religion, glorious in its origin, glorious at the climax,
glorious at the goal, in the spirit and the letter. He proclaims
a religious life wholly perfect and thoroughly pure ; and good is
it to pay visits to sucli holy one. Come, now, dear Ambattho,
go to tjie philosopher Gotamo, and find out whether the report
gone abroad regarding him be true or not : whether Gotamo be
such as they say or not. In this way we shall get to know
about him."
C. T. ^M Hft^lS (N.C. No. 545, ^A 07).
m^mm^m o
" But Sir, how shall I know whether Gotamo be so or not?"
" Ambattha, there have come dowm in our Yedic Hymns
thirty-two marks of a Great Soul,^-' and to any great soul posses^
sed there of only two destinies are possible : If he adopt the
domestic life, he will become a king, a righteous world-ruler, a
king of righteousness ; victorious to the shores of the four seas,
arrived at the security of his country, and possessed of the seven
treasures, which are these : the Wheel (or, Empire), the Elephant
(2) Or, Ideal Manbood. Compare '■ the Son of Himianity " of D.miel, Enoch
and the Gospels.
76 GOSPEL PARALLELS. PART 2.
the Horse, tlie Gem, the Woman, the Treasurer, and, for the
seventh, the Counsellor. He -will have more than a thousand
sons, heroes, of mighty frame, crushers of alien armies. He
will dwell in this ocean-gii-t earth overcoming it, staffless and
swordless, by righteousness.'"' But if, on the other hand, he go
forth from the domestic life into the homeless one, he will be-
come a Holy One, a fully Enliglitened One, who lifts the veil
from the world.'"
[We here see that the Hijidii Messianic prophecy, like the
Hebrew, left it uncertain whether the Coming One was to be a
temporal or a spiritual potentate. We may also observe that,
just as in the New Testament,'^) v/e find oracles quoted as if from
sacred Avrit which are not found therein, so, too, in the Buddhist
Scriptures, there are oracles, like our present one, not found in
the canon of the Vedas.]
8. Looking for Messiah.
Luke X. 23-24. {Wimt<^--\-ii&m)
And turning to the disciples, he said privately, ]31essed are
the eyes which see the things that ye see : for I say unto you,
that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which
ye see, and saw them not ; and to hoar tilings which ye Jiear,
and heard tlioni not.
(3) Cf. Isaiah XI. 4.
(4) Cf. Mark IV. 22.
(5) For instiincf, Mark IX. i:}, uii uncaiionicul prophocy aliout Elijah, which
Rendc! Harris has fonml in a cllection of Jcwi.sh lore, asc-rihi'il to rhilo, puhlislnil
at IJasIo in 1527.
LOOKING FOK MESSIAH. 77
Matth. XIII. 16-17. (,l|?kfi?+HO-^:^.at-^::)
But Ijlessed are your eyes, for they see ; and your ears, for
they liear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and
righteous men desired to see the things which, ye see, and saw
thera not ; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them
not.
(Cf. also Luke II. 25-38.)
Major Section on Discipline, I. 22.
(Translated iu Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XIII, p. 140).
Now Seniyo Bimbisaro, the king of Magadha, having seen
and grasped and known and penetrated the truth, having passed
beyond all doubt and cavil, having gained full confidence, de-
pendent upon no one foi- the Master's holy lore, spake tlms unto
tlie Lord :
" Lord, in the days when I was a prince, I had five wishes,
and they are now fulfilled, I wished that I might be inaugura-
ted as king (literally, spriiiMed for the sovereignty). This, Lord,
was my first wish, and now it is fulfilled. And then might the
Holy Supreme Buddha descend into my kingdom. This, Lord,
was my second wish, and this is now fulfilled. And might I
reverently approach the presence of that Lord. This, Lord, was
my third wish, and this is now fulfilled. And might that Lord
preach his religion unto me. This was my fourth wish, and
this is now fulfilled. And might I understand the religion of
that Lord. This was my fifth wish, and now it is fulfilled."
C.T. Rg^#Hi^H i^'-*"- No- 111'- nil. K' -o^'"'^
m-'b J m^%mi:o J^^im^^mmtmo ^n %
(6) The Mahi9asaka Vinaya E:^# omits this story. Our text quoted here
from the Dharmagupta Vinaya counts six wishes, fourth of which expresses the
wish to become delighted with the interview with the Buddha. (A.M.)
78 GOSPEL I'AUALLELS. PABT 2.
Middling Collection, Dialogue 130.
(Translated from the paialk-1 passage iu tbe iSuiueiical ('oilection by Henry
C. Warren : Jh((l.Uds)ii iu Trati'ilaiiOHS, 1890, p. 258).
In a former existence, O monks, King Ynmo thouglit to
himself: " All those, alas I -who do Avicked deeds in the world
must suffer such manifold retribution ! Oh, that I may become
a man, and a Tathfigato arise in the -world, a Holy Supreme
Euddha ; and that I may sit at the feet of the Lord, and the
Lord may preach liis religion unto me, and I understand the
religion of the Lord !"
Now this, Oimonks, that I speak, I heard not from any one
else, whether philosopher or brahmin ; but, monks, what I
myself have known and seen and understood, that alone I speak.
Thus spake the Lord.
C.T. 4lI?pJ 5^i5li|M (N.C, No. 01 of No. 542. ^e'TS).
"&^^ ^^p-^ -^fSo n:]^^B^^n/^^>
PART III.
MINISTRY AND ETHICS.
^ ^ -.<r ^ * ¥■ *
9. The Logia.
JESUS SAITH is the formula in the Egyptian Logia-frag-
ment found in 1897, and is of frequent occurrence in the Gospels.
The ancient Christian Logia-Book, or primitive Gospel of
Matthew mentioned by Papias (Eusebius, H. E. iii. 39) is lost ;
but the Buddhists are more fortunate in having their Logia-
Book extant. It is called the Itivuttaka, that is, the Thus-Said.
Its antiquity is attested not only by the internal evidence of
terseness and simplicity, but by the external evidence that the
name itself is one of the ancient Nine Divisions of the Scriptures
which antedate the present arrangement of the Pfili Canon.
The formulae of the Itivuttaka are the following : —
1. This teas sold by the Lord, said by the Holy One, and
heard by me.
2. This is the meaning .of ivh/.d the Lord said, and here it is
rendered thus [in verse.]
3 Exactly this is the meaning spoken by the Lord, and thus it
loas heard by me.
These three formuUT; accompany each of the first 79 para-
graphs (sidtas) of the Itivuttaka ; No. 80 has the first two formulae
only ; Nos. 81-88 have none of them ; Nos. 89 and 90 have all ;
Nos. 91-98 have none ; Nos. 99-100 have all ; Nos 101-111 have
none ; the closing sutta, No. 112, has all three. Five of the suttas
that want the formulae (Nos. 101, 105, 108, 110, 111) are found
in the Numerical Collection, as well as two where they have
80 GOSPEL PARALLELS. PAUX 3.
been supplied (Nos. 00 and 112). It is therefore probable that
the original Itivuttaka has been added to, and this is borne out
by the fact that the snttas increase in length towards the end.
Moreover, the suttas borrowed from tlie Numerical Collection all
occur aftir No. 80, where the formuhio cease to be rogular.*^^'^
These avlier pa}'t of the Itivuttaka appears to be of great
antiquitj'. Its themes are found all through the Canon in a
more developed form, but they are here expressed with a terse
simplicity and with the solemn deposition in each case that
Buddha spoke them.
C.T. ;4C^|M (NC. No. 714, M^, •21-52)(2)
2. mm^^^-^^mmmMca,
3. (Omitted in the Chinese).
10. The Golden Rule.
Luke VI. 31. (S&fin{SAc5Ht-)
As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them
likewise.
(1) If it be said that the Aiiguttam borrowed certain snttas becaiise they were
numerical, the fact confronts us that Nos. 108 and 110 to 112 are not numerical ;
while Nos. 1-G, which are not l)orrowed at all, one would expect to find in the
Eka-Nipato.
(2) The Chinese Itivrtika contains the following sections and sutras :
1. EkaniiVita ] \ |^ |
GO.
fl. 18)
2. Dvinipata \ II. 17 ,'- 49.
( III. 14)
3. Trinipfitu -J Jj j"^ i 28. Total i;{7 sutras :
.■\mong these we find the following suttas of the Pali failing in (he Chinese.
22 (Ek. III. 2), 43 (I)uk. II. G.),
50-58 (Tik. I. l-'J), Gl (Tik. II. 2.),
G3-73 (Tik. II. 4-III. 4.), 75 (Tik. III. G.),
77-78 (Tik. Ill, 8-9), 81 (Tik. lY. 2.),
87-88 (Tik. IV. 8-9), !)2-04 (Tik. V. :5-5),
'JG (Tik. V. 7), !l!) (TUv. Y. 10), Total :{4.
The Catukkaiiijirita as a whole is wanting in tlie Chinese, Nevertheless some
of its suttas are found in the Chinese, incorporated in other Nipatas. They are :
Tali lOG (Cat. 7), in Chinese Dvin. II. 17.
„ 107 (Cat. K). in „ „ ][. 8. (.A. M.)
10. THE GOLDEN RULE. 81
Romans XII. 15, 16. (m,rjS+-'?)t5L.^>)
Hejoice with tliem that rejoice ; weep witli them that weep.
Be of tlie same mind one toward another.
Hymns of the Faith, 19 and 130.
(Translated by Max Miiller ; S. B. E., Vol. X, Part 1. p. 3G).
All men tremble at the rod, all men fear death :
Putting oneself^''^ in the place of others, kill not nor cause
to kill.
All men tremble at the rod, unto all men life is dear :
Doing as one would be done by, kill not nor cause to kill.
C.T. ji^lijmi}'^ (N.C. No. 1365, Pi^^. 9!) a)
-w^w¥L ^-^^^^m ^^.^'^nm m^mi^
Collection of Discourses, Stanzas 148-150.
(Translated in S. B. E. Vol. X. part 2, p. 25.)
(It is also in the Short Kecital, a rnannal fcr novices.)
As a mother her own son.
Her only son, at risk of life would guard,
Even so toward all beings
Let one practise infinite sympathy*^-^'
-In all the world ;
Let him practise a purpose unbounded,
Above, below and across.
Unhindered, without hate or enmity.
Whether standing, walking or sitting,
Or lying down, so long as he keeps off sloth.
Unto this mindfulness let him devote himself
This mode of life divine they call.
(3) [" Putting oneself in the place of others," and " doing as one would be
done by," are variant translations of aitiinam upainamkatvcl, i.e. "having made
oneself a likeness." Fernand Hii, in his French translation, renders the i^rase
each time : Qu'onfasser ce quon voudraU que fit auh'uL]
(4) These lines are not found in other Chinese versions. (A. M.)
(5) Literally, " unbounded friendly mind (or purpose)."
S'2 GOSPEL PARALLELS. PART 8.
S.P. iiltjIMJl (X. C. Nu. 13G5 ^^ 0(; a)
mr^r^n -Bnm^^ Jimr^'^ mmw^
>r^mm:i il-i"^^i> ^fMr^^ rrilMf.
(/JcflLQf,^ -^i^mir. jmfi^S 7^^i:>;ii:ly^'"
11. Love Your Enemies.
Luke IV. 27-28. (S&,'jnrfPl'7;--f-t,A)
But I say unto j'ou whicli hear, Love your enemies, do good
to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, pray for them
that despiteful!}^ use you.
Hymns of the Faith, 3 5.
(Translated in S. B. E., \o\. X., Part 1. [.. i.)
" He abused me, lie beat me,
Overcame me, robbed me."
In those who harbour such tlioughts
Their anger is not calmed.
Not by auger are augers
In this world ever calmed :
By absence of anger are ang^.-rs calmed.
This is an ancient doctrine.
C.T. ;fJ:-'P3iii_L (N. C. No. l:3f;5, jlf;^; Dob).
iiiiiL:s<j- i^EiAM ^-xmi- Hwmn
miEmi mmm] -r^m^m wcmnn
mm-^ mmm ^^-laaiift ^m'^^<
Hymns of the Faith, 223. (S. i:. i:. Vui. x, Part i. y. 5sj.
(See also Jataka 151, where a story is based upon tlie precept.)
Let one com^uer wrath by absence of Avrath,
Let one conquer wrong by goodness,
(6) Also found in ili^^v^M (N.C. No. 1353, ^f^ Gflb). These lines of the
Chinese Dharniapu la oeeur in the first part of it which is failing in the Tali.
The Chapter (No. 7 and called " the Love ") in which these verses occur may be
another version of Metta-sutta of Khandha-paritta. (Frankfurter p. 90-'Jl)-
(.\.M.)
12. TREASURE IN HEAVEN. 83
Let one conquer the mean man by a gift,
And a liar by tlie truth.
C.T. '/ilfJ^SJl (N.C- No. 1365 iS5^, 101 b).
fs^mmm mmr^m mmmm ^mmwi
* :|: :(: :<; :<; * ^,
12. Treasure in Heaven.
Matthew VI. 19, 20. {^^m^.(^±-X, =-t).
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, Avhere
moth and rust doth consume, and where thieves break throush
and steal : but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where theives do not
break through nor steal.
Luke XII. 21 and 33. (j&fiBff--h-«ni--2SI:HtH:).
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not
rich toward God
Sell that ye have, and give alms ; make for 3-ourselves
purses Avhich Avax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth
not, Avhere no tJiief draweth near, neither moth destroyeth.
From the Treasure Chapter in the Short Recital.
Let the wise man do righteousness :
A treasure that others can share not.
Which no thief can steal ;
A treasure which passeth not away.
S.P. yi'pjIMJb (N.C. No. 1365., pg^p^ Utui).
Mtui; 5^iiAM- r^mr^^< yKtfir-m
13. Ravening- Within.
Matthew VII. 15. {j^jizm-to^i-Ti).
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.
84 GOSPEL PARALLELS. P.UIT 3.
Luke XI. 39. {mm-t-<^^i'A).
Aud the Lord said iinto liim, Now do ye Pharisees cleanse
the outside of the cup and of tlie platter ; but your inward p.irt
is full of extortion aud wickendness.
[In the Matthsean parallel to this passage in Luke XI,
(viz., Matth. XXIII. 25) we read : " Within they are full," i.e.
the cup and platter. Luke, as usual, agrees with the Pali.]
Hymns of the Faith, 394.
(Translatea iu S. B. E. X, Piirt 1. p. !)0).
What use to thee is matted hair, o fool I
AVliat use the goat-skin garment '?
Within thee there is ravening ;
The outside thou makest clean.
C.T. iii^^y (X. C. No. 1305 g)^;"s 105 a).
mmmm -^mmM i^^r^m 'Mm^^
**>);;}:;(;:):*
14. The Missionary Charge.
Mark VI. 7-13. (.^niRfj-.^-t-i-H).
And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them
forth by tAvo and tAvo ; and he gave them authourity over the un-
clean spirits ; and he charged them that they should take nothing
for their journey, save a staff only ; no bread, no wallet, no
money in their purse ; but to go shod with sandals : and, said he,
put not on two coats, i^nd he said unto them. Wheresoever ye
enter into a housp, tiiere abide till ye depart thence. And
whatsoever place siiall not receive you, and they hear you not,
as ye go forth thence, shake off the dust that is under your feet
for a testimony unto them. And they went out, and preached
tliat men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and
anointed with oil many tbat were sick, and healed them.
Matthew XXVm. 19,20. (^;jkm:i+A'D-i'A,:^t).
Go ye tliereforo, and make disciples of all tlie nations.
14. THE MISSIONAKY CHAKGE. 85
baptiziDg them into the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatso-
ever I commanded you : and lo, I am with you always, even
unto the consummation of the age.
Luke X. 1. (S^lin(f+0— ).
Now after these things the Lord appointed seventy others,
and sent them two and two before his face into every city and
place, whither he himself was about to come.
Major Section on Discipline, I. 10, 11.
(Translated in S. B. E. XIII. p. 112).
At that time there were sixty-one Arahats in the world/^'
And the Lord said unto the monks : "I am delivered, O
monks, from all fetters, human and divine. Ye, O monks, are
also delivered therefrom. Go forth, O monks, on your journey,
for the weal and the welfare of much people, out of compassion
fo]- the world, and for the wealth and the weal and the welfare
of angels and mortals. Go no two of you the same [way].'-^
Preach, O monks, the Doctrine which is glorious in its origin,
glorious at the climax, glorious at the end, in the spirit and the
letter. Proclaim a religious life wholly perfect and thoroughly
pure. There are beings whose mental eyes are darkened by
hardly any dust, but unless they hear the Doctrine they will
perish. They will understand it.
S.P. 4^^f^i|S (N.C. No. 6S0., MA 73 b-71 a).
(1) Kendel Harris suggests a parallel, if not a connection, with Luke's
Seventy who went to the Gentiles. "As the hammer that strikes emits a
multitiide of sparks, so is every word emanating from the Holy One-Blessed be
He — heralded in seventy different languages." (Ba\)ylonian Talmud, Tract
Sabbath, chap. 9.)
(2) Mdrn und Buddha, p. !)1.
SQ GOSPEL PARALLELS. PART 3.
^mmn^. mmM. mn^M mmj&m^^ issT^^ifirevi:-*
[Dr. Cains has pointed out to me the significant fact that
the preaching of the Gospel to the nations is a later addition to
the New Testament. This is borne out by the archaic oracle in
Matthew :
" Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into
any city of the Samaritans ; but go rather to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel Ye shall not have gone through the
cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come." (The 31issionary
Charge in Matthew X. 5-G and 23 ).
It is Luke alone who invents the mission of the Seventy
(i.e. to the seventy nations of the world, according to Jewish
geography). As we pointed out in April, 1900, there is a
parallel here with the sixty-one Arahats sent forth by Gotamo.
That Luke invented the story of the Seventy is betrayed by
himself, for, in XXII. 35, he agrees with the Petrine and Mat-
thfcan tradition, in ascribing certain words to tlie Charge to the
Twelve from which he has wrested them to make up his ideal
Charge to the Seventy :
" When I sent you forth without purse and wallet and shoes,
lacked ye any thing V And they said, Nothing."
Luke puts the words, "no purse, no wallet, no shoes," into
the Charge to the Seventy (X. 4), while in the Charge to the
Twelve he reads ; " nor wallet, nor bread, nor money ; neither
have two coats." But there is no mention of shoes. (Luke ix.
3).
In the Gospel tradition generally the great Missionary
Charge is the one given after the resurrection :
" Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Ghost." (Matth. XXVIII. 19).
Tlie Trinitarian formula betrays the lateness of the redac-
tion, but the passage is older than the redaction, for the
substance of it is found in the Fourtli Gospel : " Peace be
unto you : as the Pather hath sent me, even so send I you."
(3) Two CliiiHsc Vinaya texts (N.(\ Nos. 1117 and 1122.) preserve this pas-
sage in simpler maimer. Here we take the cornispondence from the Chinese
Mah'ivastn (N.C. No. CBU) whic-.h in this respect nsrees liest with the I'aH-
Further rompare my rJi^ f)]! ^ ft ij fJU \>. r.O-.^.l . (A.M.)
14. THK MISSIONAKY CHARGE. bl
(Joliu XX. 2Lj. I have little doubt that tlie Mattlisean charge
read originally : " baptizing them into my name," simply ; to
which Eendel Harris assented wJien, in 1900, I pointed this
out to him. After reading the present statement {Open Court ^
Septemher, 1902) he wrote to me as follows:— "In regard to
the last verse of Matthew, we are now in a position to speak
more positively. As the result of Conybeare's examination of
the manner in which Eusebius quotes the closing passage, it
may be taken as proved that the Old Cesarean form was as
follows :
' Go and make disciples of all nations in my name, and
teach them everything that I have commanded you.
See Preuschen's Zeitschrift II. p. 275.
So there was not even a baptismal command, any more
than a mention of the Trinity."]
As a Christian believer (though attached to no sect or
church whatever) I personally maintain that the post-resurrec-
tion missionary charge is no mere fiction introduced to imitate
Buddhism (granting that even the catholic Luk«^ knew thereof,)
but a reality. It is my conviction, after long research and
thinking, that the Lord Jesus was vividly present, in some
guise — whether palpable or visionary matters little — to his
disciples after death, and especially to Peter. I believe too
tliat he impressed their minds with his wishes, which had
expanded since the days when he forbade ministrations to
Samaritans and pagans. Unfortunately the account of the
great appearance to Peter has been lost, if not suppressed by
the Church. It probably contained the Cl)arge to Peter
(misplaced in Matthew XVI.) and some matter relating to the
descent into Hades mentioned in Peter's Epistle. But this
leads us to the question of the lost ending of Mark, and is out
of place here. I will only quote the proof-texts for an appari-
tion to Peter :
Mark XVI. 7 : " Go, tell his disciples and Peter, He
goeth before you into Galilee : there shall ye see him."
(Cf. also Mark XIV. 28, fortified by the parallel in Mat-
thew, but weakened by its omission in the Vienna Gospel-frag-
ment from Egypt. )
1 Cor. XV. 5. " He appeared to Cephas."
Luke XXIV. 34. " The Lord is risen indeed, and hath
appeared to Simon."
88 GOSPEL PARALLELS. PART 3.
Eusebius, H. E. n. 1. Clement [of Alexandria] in
the seventh book [of his Institutions] writes also thus :
" The Lord transmitted the Gnosis unto James the Just,
John and Peter after his resurrection."
Shahrastani of Persia, A. D. 1150.
" After he was dead and crucified, he returned, and Simon
Peter saw him and He spake with him, and transmitted to him
the power. Then He left the world and ascended into heaven,
and Simon Peter was his vicar." ( Haarbrucker, Vol. 1. page.
261).
■» -::■ ^ ^ -:f '.r *
15. Baptism.
Matthew III. 14. (j^^i^hi^^+H).
John Avould have hindered him, saying, I have need to be
baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ?
John IV. 2. (*^|^(5Pq®-)-
Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples.
Long Collection, Dialogue 16.
(Book of the Great Deceiise. Translated in S. B. E. Vol. XI, p. 1U9.)'"
Now Subhaddo the hermit said unto the venerable Atiando :
" Lucky, friend Anando, very fortunate, friend Anand(\ are ye
who have here been sprinkled with the sprinkling of disciple-
ship in the presence of the Master ! "
m^mm\\nm, -'A^'t-mmn. mm\\mmM'W\ "o
[Though this expression be figurative— for there is no such
rite in the Book of Discipline— yet it implies the practice as
existing at the time of Gotamo. The commentator Ijuddhaghoso,
(1) 'J'Le Chinese Dirpba (No. 2 of No. nla, Jk^\, 2]ft) has all the paragraphs
about Subhailda except G'l and iu. Instead of (SfJ it has : Buddha said to
Subhadra : " As I have told you (the ordin:ition) depends upon the person (to be
ordained)." 07 is omitted hero. Other ver.sions of the Decease Book, i.e. i^^\^^^'\-
Jc (N.C .No. 543, J5!:= 5a), %mmM. (N-C. No. 552, ^^r 18-i;»). -Afi?3?3f.'i?T (N'
C. No. 118, j5^i- 3ib), WCOiMM.!- (N. C. No. 11!), Jk'V IS'^) Ij'^^e longer passage s
about Subhadras ordination, bit without mentioning the sprinkling. (.V.M.)
IG. vKiij. 8'J
iu the fifth centmy, quotes older writers ns saying that Anaudo
poured water over Sabhaddo's Jiead See note in S. B. E. xi, p.
110. The introduction to S. B. E. XLV. gives an account of
Hindu Baptist theories.]
16. Vigil.
Mark I. 35. (.^nji^-^Hi-E).
In the morning, a great A\-liile before day, he rose up and
went out, and departed into a desei-t place, and there prayed.
MarkVI. 46-48. (,inrRi5^«rai'?^>-A).
He depaiied into the mountain to pray About the
fouiili watch of the night he cometh unto them.
Luke VI. 12. {mMB^.^)-]r=.)-
He went out into the mountain to pray ; and he continued
all night in prayer to God.
Mark XIV. 37. 38. (.^pjt5i-K©st-t,A).
And he cometh and fiudeth them sleeping, and saitli unto
Peter, Simon, sleepest thou ? Couldest thou not w^atch one hour ?
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation : the spirit
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
["Watch," ypip/opeco, Latin vigilo means to keep vigil. An
examination of the New Testament passages where the Avord
occurs is very instructive. My friend Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie,
Ph. D., M. D., has paid much attention to the question of vigil,
especially, in its physiological bearings. See his book, Re-
generation the Gate Heaven.]
Major Section on Discipline I. 1.
(Translated in S. B. E. Vol. XIII, p. 74. Same passage in
Enunciations I. 1-3).
The Lord sat in the posture of meditation for seven da3'S,
enjoying the bliss of deliverance ; and at the end of that period
he arose from the trance and thought out the Chain of Causation,
90 GOSPEL FAHAl.LELS. PAKT '3.
ill direct and revei"se order, during tlie first watch of the night —
And again during the middle watch Ami again during the last.
C.T. UiM^-^-Ji. (N.C.N0.1122.3M-89)
ci". rq»#Hi-— iN.c. No. 1117. mn 6).
Enunciations VI. 9.
Tlius have I Jieaid. Once the Ijovd Avas staying at Sftvattlii,
ill the Victor's Grove, the cloister-garden of the Feeder-of-the-
Poor. And at that season the Ijord was sitting thronghont the
thick darkness of the night in the open air, witli oil-lamps
biirnijig.
[See also Emmciations I. 7, translated l)eio\v, Parallel 57;
also 8. P. E. Vol. XX, p. ^IM).]
S.P. IHHii-Z: (X.C.No.51<5, KH25a).
(Corresponding to the Samyutta II. 2. 8).
S.P. fp]JlPH-f-JL (Ditto, MH y^i^)-
(In the Yaksha Section).
17. Celibacy.
Matthew XIX. 10-12. (.i^;!<f* |-/LOt-t--).
Tlic disciples said iinto him, If the case of the man is so witli
liis wile, it is not expedient to laanv. But he said niito them,
.Ul men cannot receive this saj'ing, hut tliey to whom it is given.
For tliere are ennnchs which were so horn from their mother's
womb: and tliere are eunuchs, which were made eunuchs Tl)}'
men: and there are euniuihs, wliich made tluMusolvos (muiucIis for
the kiiimlom of heiivcirs sake.
17. CELIBACY. 91
1 Corinthians VII. 32, 33. (Efi*^ijijSt'^:)Hi--,H).
I would have yon to be free from cares. He that is mimar-
rieJ is careful for the things of the Lord, how lie may please the
Lord : but lie that is married is careful for the things of the
world, how he may please his wife.
[Li this famous chapter, for Avhich Paul disclaims inspira-
tion, the monastic ideal of later Christendom is foreshadowed.]
Long Collection, Dialogue 16.
(Book of the (h-eat Decease. V. 3 5. Translated in S. B. E. Vol. XI, p. 01).
Lord, how shall we behave toward womankind ?
Don't see them, Anando.
But, Lord, if we do see them, how then ?
Don't speak to them, Anando.
But, Lord, if we have to speak, how must we behave ?
Anando, you must exercise meiital collectedness (.sati).
S. T. itWH-^"A (^^- ^- ^'o- 543, ^H l)a)
Mn-k^m -^M^nm m^mnm mmrj^Amo^
Long Collection, Dialogue 1.
(Translateel by Rbys Davids : Dialogues, Vol. I, p. 4).
Renouncing uncliastity, the philosopher Gotamo is chaste.
He walks afar and abstains from the act of sex, the rustic law
{<l/iamnio).
C.T. :g;N^fjjif«i (N. C. No. 21 of Xo. 545. ^A 72 a).
(1) Here the passage is taken from the Chinese Ekottara. The Chinese
Dirgha omits this part (Cf. S. B. E. Vol. XI. p. XXXVIII). In other versions this
is either omitted or given simply expressing the necessity of Chastity. (A.IM.)
02 GOSPEL I'AUALLELS. PAKT 3.
18. Poverty.
Luke VI. 20. (S&Jn^j^^-t)
He lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said : ]jlossed
[are] \e poor : for voin-s is the kiugdom of God.
[The parallel in Matthew V. 3. has : " Blessed are the poor
in spirit," — thus altering the povei-ty from actuality to sentiment.
But Luke, as usual, agrees Avith the Buddhist tradition. Kenan
long ago pointed out that Luke has more passages in ]jraise of
povei-ty than the other Evangelists, See, for example, Luke XII.
33 : " Sell that ye have and give alms " — a passage peculiar to
Luke. So also does Fausboll ])arallel the Lucan parable of the
Kich Fool with the Dhaniya Sutta (S. B. E. X, pai-t 2, p. 3) ;
where the herdsman glories in his possessions, and the L(jrd in
his s])iritual attainments and eaiihly powerlessness.]
MatthewiVIII. 20: (.s,*(Sa «>-+).
Luke IX. 58. (mmA<^Ti.-fA).
The foxes have lioles, and the Ijirds of tlie heaven [have]
nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
Hymns of the Faith, 200.
All ! \i\e we happily in sooth, —
We who have nothing :
Feeders on joy shall we be.
Even as the Angels of Splendour.
C. T. •/J:-'p)if¥.T (X.C. No. ISr.o. i^;?; 101 a)
n^\i'i< fPf^M-^ ^^JMn-^ iD^-H-5^
Hymns, 91.
The thoughtful stvuggh^ oiiwanl,
And delight not in abode :
Like swans who leave a lake,
Do tliev leave house and hf)nie.
C. T. iJ;- 'iiJl'i^.Ji (N.c. No. i:m.-,. i/jj^ ys i...
.6fj'i'.K^^. ^"mnm wimm mmM
11). THK DISCOUKSE ON DEFILEMENT. 93
Hymns, 421.
Wlioso before, l)eliiii(l and in tlio midst
Hath naught his own, —
Possessing nothing, clinging nuto naught, —
Him do I call a Brahmin.
C. T. 'l^ 'p]mT (N.C. No. 13G5. ^^ 105 b).
fm=f'i^ 7^^\^mti mmmt^ mnmr
Collection of Discourses, V. 37.
Just as a great bamlni entangled is
"With Ijranches in each other, so the care
Of children and of wife ; but like the shoot
Of bambu clinging not, let one alone
Wander as wandei'eth an elephant.
[Whole pages need to be copied from the Pitakas to set foi-tli
in its fullness the Buddhist asceticism, while the glamour of the
open-air freedom that shines over all is echoed in the New
Testament by such expressions as : " Consider the lilies," &c.
The sections on Celibacy and Poveiiy have been added in 1904,
after looking through Seydel.]
19. The Discourse on Defilement.
Mark VII. 15. m^m-t(D-i'£.).
Hear me all of you, and understand : there is nothing from
without the man, that going into him can defile him : but the
things which i)roceed out of the man are those that defile the
man.
Collection of Discourses II. 2.
Destroying life, killing, cutting, binding, stealing, speaking
lies, fraud and deceptions, -worthless reading, intercourse with
another's wife, — this is defilement, Ixit not the eating of flesh.
[We do not give the entire Sutta ; it is found in S. B. E., Vol.
X, part 2, p. 40.-41].
94 GOSPEL PAKALLEI.S. P.UiT 3.
20. The Commandments.
Mark X. 19. a^mm-i'ej'i-k).
Tliou knowest the coinniiiudnients. Do not kill, Do not
commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not
defraud, Honour tliy father and mother.
[This is an abridgement of the list in Exodus XX. Those
commandments which deal with duties toward the Deity are
omitted, and aniono- them the observance of the Sabbath].
Short Recital.
1. I t)bey the commandment to al)stain from taking life.
2. To abstain from theft.
8. Unchastity.
L. Lying.
o. Wine and strong drink, wliich are a cause of irreligion.
(5. Unseasonable meals.
7. Dance, song, music and shows.
7. Using garlands and i^erfumes for decoration and adorn-
ment.
9. High or broad beds.
10. I obe}' the c(mnnandment to aljstain from receiving gold,
silver or money.
[Nos. 6 to 10 were binding only u]">on inouks].
S. P. IkM^tdhB (^'- ^- ^''^- -1- of ^'o- 545, f^fy. 72).
21. Faith and Works.
James II. 14; 24; 26. m^K:i^^-l-m.-\tn< n-^>)-
Wliat doth it jtioiil, my Iir(>thr('ii, if a man say he hath
faith, l>ut liavi' iioi works? Can tliat faitii sa\(>him? Yo see
20. FAITH AND WOEKS. 95
tliut ])y Avorks ;i nuui is justifii'd, uiid not only by fuitli For
as the body jipart from tlio spirit is dead, even so faith a])art
from works is dead.
Logia-Book 32, 33.
Tliis A\as spoken l)y the Lord, spoken by the Ai-ahat, and
heard l)y me. A person possessed of two qualities, O monks, is
cast into hell just as he deserves. What are the two '? Evil
conduct and evil belief. A person possessed of these two quali-
ties, O monks, is cast into hell just as he deserves. This is the
meaning of what the Lord said, and here it is rendered thus :
By evil conduct
And by evil belief,
Of these two qualities
A man possessed
After the body's breaking is a fool.
Who rises again in hell.
Exactly this is the meaning of what the Lord said, and thus
it was heard b}' me.
This was spoken b^- the Lord, si)oken by the Arahat, and
heard by me. A person possessed by two qualities, O monks, is
cast into paradise just as lie deserves. What are the two'?
Good conduct and good belief. A person possessed of these two
qualities, O monks, is cast into paradise just as he deserves.
This is the meaning of what the Lord said, and here it is ren-
dered tlius :
By good conduct and g(jod l)elief,
By these two qualities A man possessed,
After the body's Ijreaking he is Avise,
And rises again in paradise.
Exactly this is the meaning of what the Lord said, and thus
it was heard l)v me.
C. T. 4viV|^.|^Z:5S:^— (N. C. No. 7U, M;?; 31 b-32H)
-mmmmj&wtim^pmr-i^ m^mm^mm^i'so mm
96 GOSPEL PARALLELS. PAKT 3.
timUMM: Iwm^^m '^'kmW\'
^^m^\^, 'i-m'WMo -^ri^m-Ho -Mmm,~^^m^o m^
-mmmm^ ^^m'wjimmr.m 't^m^i^, ^it'^^o m
mit0t~'d: mwm^^^ ^m^^m^
mmf^mfi^ nm^^w?: '^^.'Km^
22. The Power of Confession.
1 John I. 9. {H^M^-n—^Ai
If -we confess our sins, lie is faithful nnd righteous to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all uuiighteousness.
Romans X. 10. (W^ms-\^<=^t)-
With the inoutli confession is made unto salvation.
Long Collection, Dialogue No. 2.
(Trauslaleil by ]!iirDouf, ap. Grimblot: Sept Suilas rdllf!, p. 243. Al-;o by
Ehys Davids : Dialogues of the Buddha : London, 1809, p. 94).
Truly, then, gi-eat King ! ;i transgression has made thee
transgress, as an ignorant, infatuated criminal, — thee who couldst
deprive of life thj- righteous father, tluit righteous King. But
because, great King ! thou hast seen [all] transgi-essiou from [this
one] transgi'ession, thou hast made expiation according to the
Doctrine, and Ave accept this from thee ; for this is an advance,
() groat King! in the ]3iscipline of a Noble One: a Noble One
Avho has seen ;dl transgression from one transgi'ession makes
expiation according to the Doctrine : for the future he undergoes
restraint.
[In .bltaka. 431, the Ijodhisat and his mistn^ss arc saved by
speaking the truth. Lying is Avorse than adultery].
C. T. il- |;ii| V'J; ["j f||:|?S (N. C. No. -27. of No. 545, /^ A «!» ")•
v^A^KM^lit, m'>:iiM^ 75I?^T6 ^mmUv\^, n^'I^^^
23. CASTES LOST IN THK LORD. 97
23. Castes lost in the Lord.
Galatians III. 28. (i!ra!4^tH«>ii-A)
Tlieie can be neither Jew uor Greek, tliere can be neitlier
bound nor free, tliere can be no male and female : for ye all are
one man in Christ Jesns.
Mark III. 34, 35. (,^prfi|;Ht7)-itt-PH, WE)
And looking round on them which sat ronnd about him, he
saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren I For whosoever
shall do the Avill of God, the same is my brother, and sistei-, and
mother.
John XV. 14, 15. {^mB-tri.co-\^m, hE)
Ye are 1113' friends if ye do the things which I conunund you.
No longer do I call yon slaves; for the slave knoweth not what
his Lord doeth : but I have called you friends ; for all things that
I heard from mv Fatlier I ha\e made known unto vou..
Enunciations V. 5 ; Minor Section on Discipline, IX. 1.
(Translated in S. B. E. XX., p. 304). '
Jiist, ( ) monks, as the great rivers, — to Avit : the Ganges, the
-Tamna, the Kapti, tlie Gogra, the Mahi, — Avhen they fall into the
"Teat ocean, renounce their former name and kind and are
comited as the mighty sea : just e^'en so, monks, do these four
castes, — to wit : the Nobles, the Brahmins, the Tradesfolk, and
the Slaves, — when the}- have gone forth from domestic life into
the homeless one, under the Doctrine and Discipline made public
by the Tathagato, renounce their former name and clan, to ])e
num])ered with the Sakya philosophers.
S. P. itMl^~\^—"^>-^XM (N- C- No. 543, Vk^ 3-4).
ItltJE, ^^mi^MyK ■■ ■ fffm&B (Ganga,) ffgl (Sindlm)
^^x (Bhaksa), m^ (Sita), mmmM^AmE.w^:^^'¥,
Mo nm^Ammmm, m^^^^ {ii^^m, mii*& uwcp
nmu^-c rw^fm^ ui^i^^-mmim n^^k^MW^xnm
w&mmo M^myt^M^^nm. ai^^it^^ wum-^f,'^-
g mwM ^7-c w^mm h^, '^ * n^:mimmyMo
9S r,(hSI*IX PARALLELS. PAIil '■>
[i-'m-tlifr \vf lijivf passages similar to this iu various texts.
Amoug them ^f^HP"HI^il5i Jiud 0^0 (Nos. 35-3G of N.C. No.
542)<^" agi-ee nearly with the Pali. There five rivers, '[Wf/jn (Ganga),
^tW^ (Yaimma), ^2pi^ (qarabhu), MMBW'e (Aciravati or
Airavati) and /^^ (Mahi) are emmiK'vatod. Of. inv fg#^f^#
f^ p].. OS-99. (A. .^L)].
24. Eating with Sinners. The Magdalene.
Mark II. 16. (,i|rijR?.-<7j-hA)
The scribes of the Pharisees, ^hen they saw that he was
eating Avith the sinners ami pnblic-ans, said unto his disciples. He
eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners.
LukeVII. 37-38. (s^upfeTL-ejHi- t,iii-A)
.And behold, a Avoman Avhicli Avas in the citj-, a sinner ; and
Avlien she kneAv that he Avas ' sitting at meat in the Pharisee's
house, she brought an alabaster cruse of ointment, and standing
behind at his feet, Aveeping, she began to Avet his feet with her
tears, and Aviped them Avith the hair of her head, and kissed his
feet, and anointed them Avitli the ointment. Noav AA'heu the
Pharisee Avhich had bidden him saAv it, he spake Avithin himself,
saying, This man, if he Avere a prophet, A\'oiild have perceived
Avho and Avhat manner of Avoman this is Avhich toucheth him, that
she is a sinner.
Luke VIII. 1,2. {mmA<^j~,=.)
And it came to pass soon afterAvards, that he Avent about
through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good
tidings of the kingdom of God, and Avith him the tAA-elve, and
ceiiain Avomen Avhicli had been heald of evil spirits and in-
firmities, Mary that Avas called IMagdolcnc, from Avhom sevcm
devils had gone out.
Matthew XXI. 31, 32. <SbMmu-^m-',nz)
Jesus saith unto them. Verily I say unto you, that the publi-
cans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before j'ou.
(1) These agree with the Anguttiira VIII. 19. No. 3.'j is the immll.l text to
that and tho piissapo is fdiuid in Vol. IV. p. '2ii'2. (.\.M.)
24. EATING WITH SIXXERS. THE JIAGDALEXE. 99
For Joliu came unto you iu the way of rigliteousuess, and ye
believed liim not : but the publicans and the harlots believed
him : and ^^e, when saw it, did not exen repent yourselves after-
ward, that ye might believe him.
[The identification of the woman who was a sinner with
Mary of Magdala is not cei-tain, though popularly accepted].
Major Section on Discipline, VI. 30.
(KeiDeatecl in Long Collection, Dialogue 16., Eoolc of the Great Decease
Translated in S. B. E., Vol. XYII, p. 105, and XI, p. 30).
Now Ambapiili the harlot heard that the Lord had come to
Yesali, and was staying in her own mango-grove. Then Am-
bapali the harlot made I'eady her best carriages, mounted her
best carriage, and depaiied from Vesjlli with her train. Then
she went to her own mango-grove, and having gone as far as the
gi'ound was passable for cfirriages, she alighted from her carriage
and proceeded on foot to where the Lord was ; and approaching
him, she saluted him and sat on one side. And while she was
so sitting, the Lord instructed, incited, excited and delighted
Ambapali the harlot v.ith religious discoui'se.
And being thus instructed, incited, excited, delighted, she
addressed the Lord thus : " Let the Lord and his Order of
monks consent to take dinner with me tomorrow."
The Lord consented by silence. And Ambapali the harlot,
having observed his consent, rose from her seat, saluted the Lord,
and keeping him on her riglit hand, depaiied.
[The noble youths of the city are indignant at the invitation,
and offer the couiiesan one hundred thousand pieces to give up
her intended entertainment of the Buddha, so that they may
invite her. But she refuses ; and next day, after the meal,
presents her mango-grove to the Master and his Order].
C. T. ^c^M'ifM (^- C- ^^o. 545, R/L llb-r2).
fijiMiiW, w:mmm§.mMi r^^'^mmmmh mm
PW D
100 GOSPEL l'AlULr.EI.S. TAKT 3.
M^n^^^ mivkB- RTiiikm nfswdc^^'
[This passage is not foni 1(1 in tlic two niiiicsc \iijaya t(<\ts
(N.C. Xos. 1117 A- ^V12).]
25. The Master is Reproached for
Generous Fare.
Matthew XI. 19. (Mji^mt-^^i-^)
Tlie Sou of mau came eating aud diiuking, and thev say,
Behold, a gluttouous mau, aud a winebibber, a friend of publi-
cans aud sinners ! An<l wisdom is justified by their works. .
Middling Collection, Dialogue 26.
(The narrative is given by Bndaiia hinise]! in the first person. Translated
l)y Warren, p. 313. Repeated in Mahavnggo. I. U (in the third person), and tr;ms-
hited in S. B. E., Vol. XIII. p. 92).
Now the company of the five monks saw me ( Mahavaggo
huH the Lord) coming from afar; aud when they saw me they
took counsel together, saying; ''Brethren, here comes the
philos(jpher Gotamo, who lives in abundance; who has giv<Mi n])
ascetic exei-tion, and has turned to an abundant life, l^et ns
not salute him, nor rise from our seats Avhen he approaches, nor
take his bowl and robe from his hands. Ihit hit us put a seat
here ; and if he likes lie may sit down.
[The sacred narrative proceeds to tell how the august \no-
sencc of the newly enlightened sage awt^d the company int..
breal<iiig their resolution, and showing liini «Ine reverence].
C. T. il'H|.W.^^2 (^'- ^- ^■'> ^•■-- '.^ L- 75a)
2(5. CONVEKSIOX OF A I-KPiai. 101
26. Conversion of a Leper; Disciples ask
why he becaine so.
Matthew XL 5. {^jXBi^-'^^.)
The l)liiiil receive their siglil, aud the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and
the poor liaA'e good tidings preached to them.
John IX. 1-3. (|^^fUf.;fL0-- -H)
And as he passed by, he saw a man blind from his l)irth.
And his disciples asked him, saying. Rabbi, who did sin, this
man, or liis parents, that he shonld be born blind? Jesns
answered. Neither did this man sin, nor his parents : Imt that
the works of God shonld be made manifest in him.
[x\s in tlie case of the first Nativity legend, the following-
passage is not set forth as an exact parallel, bnt rather as breath-
ing the spirit of (lospel scenes : preaching in the open air and
consoling the pour and despised].
Enunciations V. 3. ^^'
Thus have I lieard. At one time the Lord was staying at
liajagah.-i, in the Bambu-gTOve, beside the Squirrels' feeding-
gi'oimd. NoA\' at that time there was a leper at Ilajagaha named
Snppabnddho, who was a poor, wretched and woe-begone man.
And at that time the Lord, surrounded by a great company, sat
an(^preached the Doctrine. And Suppalmddho the leper saw
the great crowd assembled from afar, and when he saw it he
thought : " Doubtless there is something being distributed here
to be eaten. What if I approach the crowd? Perhaps I shall
get at least something of what is to be eaten here." And Sup-
pal >uddho the leper forthwith approached the crowd. But^he
saw that tlie Lortl, surroimded by a great company, sat aud
preached the Doctrine, and when he saw it lie thought: "No-
thing is being distributed here to be eaten. This G(.)tanio the
philosopher is preaching his doctrine to the company. What if
I listen to the Doctrine? " So thinking, he sat on one side and
said, "I too will hear the ]3octrine.'"
(1) For this rendering, andits reason, see my remarks in the New ('hurcli
Messenger : ilay 1, 1901.
102 GOSPEL PAUVLI.KLS. PAKT O.
Tlieii the Lord, surveying Avitli his mind the entire compa-
ny, reflected : " There is some one now liere wlio. is eapaljle of
discerning the Doctrine." And foi-thwitli the Lord saAv Suppa-
bnddho tlie leper sitting with the company, and Avhen he saw
him, he thought : " This man here is capable of discerning the
Doctrine."'
He delivered a catagorical discourse ajjplicable to Suppa-
1 tuddlio the leper : viz., a discourse on giving, on conduct, and on
Paradise and he made clear the evil conse(pience of lusts and
the advantage of depai-tiug from depravity and sin. When the
Lord discerned that the mind (jf Suppabuddho the leper was
softened, unbiassed, exalted, and purified, tlien he made clear
that which is the'"' supreme sermon of the Buddhas : viz., Pain,
[its] Origin, [its] Cessation, and the Path. Even as a pm'e and
utterly speckless robe receives the dye, so in Suppabuddho the
leper, in the very place Avliere he sat, there arose the stainless
and spotless eye of the ]3octrine : Whatever has an origin nnist
needs have a cessation. And foiihwith Suppabuddho tlie leper,
having seen the Doctrine, liaving reached it, understood it,
and dived into it, having passed beyond doubt and cavil and
gained full Icnowledge, dependent upon no one else for the
religion of the Master, rose from his seat, jipprojiched the Lord,
and saluting him sat on one side ; then, so sitting, he said to the
Lord : " It is excellent. Lord, it is excellent. As one raises what
has been thrown do-\\-n, or reveals what has been hidden, ov tells
the -way to him who has Avandered, or holds out a lamp in the
(larlvuess that those A\ho have eyes inay see the oljjects, even so
lias the Doctrine been made cle:ir in manifold exposition
(jjariTjaijof^ by the Lord. And I, even 1, Tjord, take refuge in
the Lord, the Doctrine and the Order. May the Ijord receive me
as ;i disciple who liave taken refuge from tliis day foiih so long as
•(2) Sniuulkanalha dhammaiksanit. The adjectivo is important, being con-
nected with Asoko's -word snmukkan.ia , in his list of saoved Belections. I have
shewn in the supplement to my Bud<lhist jMbUoijntph!/ (San Franci-co, lODl) tliat
Asoko's First Selection was probably the First Sermon itc.
(3) Another important word. The most fundamental maxim of (iolamo's
is called a ;)'/r;i/«)/o of the Doctrine (S. U. E. XUI, p. U"-) ; and Asoko nacs this
very term to designate a portion of sacred lore. The same term is solf-appliod to
tho Lotus of the Good Law in the Sanskrit collection. Moreover, at the Council
of Vesrdi the parties contended about what had bcH-n spoken with pariyAyo and
what without jiariyfiyo. "We know from Majihima No. IS that Hotamo said som-"
things concisely, wliidi moidjs jifterwards expanded.
26. CONVKIWION OX'' A LEPKK. 103
life endures ! " And forthwith Suppabnddho the leper, being in-
structed, incited, excuted, delighted M'ith the doctrinal discourse of
the Lord, Avas pleased and rejoiced at the speech of the Lord, and,
rising from his seat, sfdutoid the Lord and, keeping liira on his
right hand, departed. And forthwith a cow, even a 3^oung calf,^"
attacked Snppabuddho the leper and deprived him of life. And
foiiliTN-itli a number of monks approached the Lord, saluted him
and sat ou one side, and so sitting those monks said to the Lord :
"Lord, the leper named Suppabnddho, wlio was instructed,
incited, excited, delighted with the doctrinal discoui-se of the
Lord, has died. What is his future state and supernal destiny ?"
— " Suppabnddho the leper, O jnonks, is learned, aiid has entered
upon the Doctrine's lesser doctrine ; he did not take offence at
me, to whom the Doctrine relates. Suppabnddho tlie leper, O
monks, I)y the destruction of three fetters, is an Liitiate,*'^' not
liable to be overthrown, steadfast, and having for his destiny
complete Enlightenment."
When this had been spoken, a certain monk said to the
Lord : '' Lord, what now is the cause and the ground of Suppa-
bnddho being a leper and a poor man, a wi-etehed and woe-be-
gone man? "
" In a former existence, O monks, Suppabuddho the leper
A\as the son of the treasurer in this -ser}' Kajagaha. He was
going out of the palace garden, and saw Tagarasikhi, a secretly
Enlightened One,*^^^ going for alms around the city, and v/hen he
saw him he thought: "Who is this leper Avho is travelling
about?" And he spat insultingly, and went on his wav. By
the result of that deed lie was tormented^'' for many years, for
Inmdreds, for thousands and hundreds of thousand of years in
hell. By the remainder of the same deed's result, he became a
poor man in this very Kajagaha, a Avretched and woe-begone
man. Having come to the Doctrine and Discipline made knoAvn
by the Tathagato, he accepted them together ; he accepted the
conduct, the teaching,'-^ the resignation, and the wisdom. Hav-
ing come to this and accepted this, he was born, upon the
(4) I am not sure of this translation. According to Fali usage, the term
" young calf" may be used adjectively, and mean that the cow was attended by
or defending its calf, or even pregnant therewith.
(5) See Khys Davids, Manual of Buddhism p. 10!).
(6) Paccekabuddho, a i'uddha who does not proclaim his knowledge.
(7) Literally, cooked.
(8) Literally, the thing heard isntam).
1(»4 GOSl'KL I'AKALLELS. PAKT o.
Jissolutiou (»f the Ixulv after desitli, in tlie liii[»pv states of the
world of Paradise/'-'^ in th(! society- of the Tliiity-three Angels.
Tliere he outshiues the other angels in s])lendor and glory. And
I'oiilnvith tlie Lord, having understood the fact, on that oeeasion
gave vtuit to the following 3-jnunciation :
•• Jft' wlio hatli eyes, even though inie([ual, wlien energy is
found in hiiu,
Ts ](-avne<l in the -world of tin- living, nnd sin mid slniii evil
deeds."
27. Serving the Sick, serving the Lord.
Matthew XXV. 44, 45. (,i|^(iJ^ii-EcoL'Mtra, /a
Then shall they also answei-, saying, Lord, Avhen saw we
thee au hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick,
or in prison, and did not minister unto thee ? Then shall he
answer them, saying, ^'erily I say imto 3'ou, Inasmuch as a'ou did
it not unto one of these least, ve did it not unto ^m\
[Cf. also Jojm XLII. :)-5, the washing of the disciples' feet,
for something of tlie s^Wi-it of this scene].
Major Section on Discipline. VIII. 26.
(Translated iu S. r>. E., Vol. XVIl., p. "240. IMy attention was drawn to this
passage by reading Copleston).
Now at the season a certain monk was sick at the belly, and
lay prostrate in his oavii discharges. And fortlnvith the Lord,
ui>on goiug round the sleeping places, with the veneiable An.-indo
in attendance behiu<l, came to that monk's .abode, and saw him
so. And he went u]> to liim, and asked him : "' What ails thee,
O monk?"
'■ \ ajii si«k at the i)i'll\. O Loid."
'■ Jlast thou then, O iiiii)d\, any oiic to ^\■ait iipDii llice?
" \o <iii(% ( ) Lord,"
'• Why do not the monks wait upon llifi'?'"
'* liecausc, liord, I am useless to tlu^ monks.
Then the l^ord addressed tlie venerable Anando: "(Jo
Anando, and liring water, fjcd us l)ath<' this moidv. "
(9) Sa'i'io. tlie Swarpa nf fbo Brahmins.
27. SEUVIXG 'lliE SICK, SICKVING XHK LOUD. 105
' JMei) SO, Ijonl," said tlie veiieniMe Auuiido, in ;isseiit
liiito the hnvd, and ])rouglii tlie water. And tlie Ijord poured
the water over that niouk ; and the veii(>ral)le Anando Aviped lihn.
And the Lord grasped him l)y tlie head, and the venerable
Anando l)y the feet, L'fted him up, and laid him on liis Ijed.
And lorthAvith the Lord, in that ccmnection and witli that
for a text, assend)led tlie (Order of ijionks, and asked them : " Is
there, O inonks, in sneh and snch an abode, a monk wlio is
sick?"
"There is, () Lord.''
"Then what ails him, O inouksV "
" Lord, that venerable one is sick at the belly."
" And is there any one, O monks, to wait npon him? "
" No one, Lord."
" Why do not the monks Avait upon him"? '
" That monk. Lord, is useless to the monks. Tlierefore
they do not Avait upon him."
"Monks! Ye liaA'e neither fathers nor mothers to A\-ait
upon you. If, () monks, ye Avait not one upon another, Avho is
there indeed Avho Avill Avait upon yon'^ Whosoever, 0 inonl's,
icovld iixnt upon mr, let hiiii luait upon the sirl:"
S. P. i-^Mi i^- C. No. 543, ^- iDb),
28. The penitent Robber :
Exhibiting Buddha's Doctrine of the new
Birth and the Forgiveness of Sins.
Luke XXIII. 39-43. {mnmn^^on-jL—mi'^)
And (jue of the? malefactors Avhich Avere hanged railed on
him, saying, Aii not thou the Christ ? save thyself and us. But
the other ansA\"ered, and rel:)nking him said, Dost thou not even
fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnatic^n ? And Ave
indeed justly ; for Ave receive the due rcAvard of (mr deeds : but
this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said, Jesus, remem-
106 GOSPKL I'AUALLELS. PART 3.
ber me when thou comest iu thy kingdom. And he said unto
him, Yerily T say unto thee, Today shalt thou be Avith me in
Paradise.
John III. 5. (*^$ftf#HtDK)
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a
man be born of watei- and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God.
Mark 11. 5. {^^mB-y^Ti.)
And Jesus seeing their faith saitli unto tlie sit-k of tlie palsy,
Son, thj' sins are forgiven.
[Cf. also Eusebms, H. E. III. 23 (the story of tlio ajjostle
Jolni pursuing and converting the roblier).]
Middling CoUlection, Dialogue No. 86. ''
(TranslHted by MeniiiaDii, in Vol. U. pp. -io-l-lT-l of his Retien).
Thus liave I heard. At one season tlie Lord uas staying at
SclA atthi, in the Conqueror's Grove, the cloister-garden of the
Feeder of the Poor. And at that season, there was a robber
named Finger-garland (Angulimaio) in the realm of Pasenadi,
the King of Kosala ; au<l he was barbfirous, red-handed, devoted
to killing and slaughter, unmerciful to all who live. B.y him
towns, villages, and districts were made as though they had
never been. He sknv men all the ti)iie and wore a garland of
their fingei-s.
Now the Lord, having dressed ])etimes, took liis b(j\vl in his
robe and went to Savatthi for alms. When he had gone round
it, and had returned from the quest of alms iu the afternoon, lui
rolled up his mat, took his bowl in his robe and entered upon
the high-road where Fingor-garland the robber was. Then the
herdsmen, cattletenders, and farmers, who wvvo, A\orking, saw
the Lord going thith(!i-, ami railed to him: "O philosopher!
(1) There is a conupt version < f this story in Spence Jltirdy, tri\nslatc;l fiuui
ijiedL-cval Ceylon Kources, but the present is its first translation from the Prili.
Its antiipiity is attestod by tho P.tli Great Chronicle, which tells iis that it was
sculptured, toKcjlhcr with othor IcadinR stories from Buddha's life, upon tbe
t,'ieiit Tope at the capital of (•••ykin, ia the second century IJ. ('. The scvilptures
of similar scenes at IJharaha' and Saflci f orbi 1 onr rejei'tinq tlie ('!ir.»nicle's list
(it Ceylon sculptures as iietion.
28. THE PENITENT ROBBER. 107
Go not upon that vtjiul ; for a r(jbber named Fiugev-garland is
thereou, wlio is barbarous, rod-lianded, devoted to killing and
slaughter, unmerciful to all who live. B}^ him towns, villages,
and districts are made as if tlie_y had never been. He slays men
all the time and wears a garland of their fingers. () philosopher,
men go upon this road only in companies of ten, twenty, thiity
or forty ; and they go armed for fear of Finger-garland the
robber."
When they had said this tli(^ Lord went on liis wav in
silence. And a second and a third time they said so, but still
the Lord A\'ent on his wav in silence.
C.T. :til[SriJHi— t^'- C. No. 5i3, fkr. ?3b-5G).(->
mku^o -mm^&'^mmm.mi^w^mo mm -mrm
A^t^fti^ o
Now Finger- gar land the roljber saw the Lord coming from
afar, and seeing liini he thought to himself : " This is wonderful,
this is marvellous : men go upon this road only in companies of
ten, twenty, thii-ty or foi-ty, and they go armd for fear of me ;
but this philosopher, it seems, is alone, without any one, open
to attack. What if I ]iow take the life of this philosopher?"
Then Finger-garland the robber took his sword and shield, got
1 )ow and quiver ready, and pursued the Lord. But the Lord
juit foi"th such an effort of psychical power, that Finger-garland
the roliber, going with all his might, could not overtake the Lord
(2) 'J he same story is foimd also in both versions of the Chinese Samyukta
(M£ 5-6 and HP) 20-'21) with some abbreviations. Here I quote the text
from the Chinese Ekottara, found in the Sixth Nipfita. The Ekottara version
contains some additional remarks, but ^Yhen we leave them out the text agrees
nearly word to word with the Pali. Words in brackets Avere sujpplied from the
Samyutta versions in order to make the agreement with the Pali complete
shows the omission of the Chinese passages which are not found in the Prdi an!
—shows the place corresponding to the P.ili not found in the Chinese. (A.M.)
108 (iC)t>i'j-.L I'ai;ali.i:l.s. i-aut o.
j^oiii^ \>\ liis iimev force [palxdi):''' So tlie rol)l)er tli(m}j;lit to
himself : *' Tliis is AV(mderfiil, tliis is miivvellons : liithei'to I liave
fliased and rauglit an elephant running, a hois«\ a chariot, or a
deer: l»nt now, ^oinjj: Avith all my miji;ht, I cannot oAertako this
])hilos(»])her 5i;oinjj; l)y liis inner force." He stood and said to the
fjovil : " Phih)soplier, stand ! Phikjsopcr, standi "
" I am standing, O Fin<j;er-<2;arLind ; stand thou also ! ""
Then Fin^er-<^arland the robher thouj>ht to himself : '■ Tlicsc
SiXkya philosophers tell the truth, and mean what they say. And
vet this philosopher, even Avhile he is <4oiu<i;, says, T am standing-,
() Fin,u;er-jj:;arlaud ; stand thou ;dso I ' What if I now ask him
I wliat he means] ? " Then th(; robher addressed the Lord witli
a stan/a :
" Philosopher, thou sayest, ' I am standing',' while thou ai-t
^oin^, and thou callest me standini;- when thou art not
so ;
••I ask thee, pliilosoplier, tliis ((iicstion : Ifow art tlioii
standinji; when T am not standini;'? "
[The Lord :] " 1 am standinrj, O Finu;er-^"arlaud, (dirayH <ini(in<i
(i.U being sy^ haviuii; laid asi(l(> the staff;
" But thou ai't unrestrained aniouji; living; t]iin_L!,s : tlierefore
I am standinjj; and thou art not."
•■ i.oiiL;- has the great Seer (/s/),'"'' tliis ])hiloso]jher d(>l)atinLj
in j.;Teat Wood, been revered l)y me ;
[The Kol)ber:] "I myself will renounce evil tor Ion*;', having;
lieard thy stan/a that is linked Avith religion.
" Even thus does a robber resemble a sword or a weapon
at the pit and ])recipice of Jiell:"' '^'""
Till' robl)er bowed at the feet of the ,Vns]M(ious ()n('. and
begged of him initiation on the s\v.A.
Tlien liuddha, the (\)mpassionatf' StvM-. lif wlio is ^last.r of
the Avorld Avith its angels.
Sai<l to him : " Come, () nioni< ; and this was all there was
i< I make hini a monk.
(3) S.inslcrit. I'rthriH, tlie woll-kuown term, in the S;iiukliya iibilosopliy. Ut
iili-iil of imuioidiiil jiiatter. the laincl-stiitl'' of freiitivt' power.
(4) Cf. Rev. Ill 2') : IJeboM, I staii.l jit tli«' door, :iii<l knocl;.
(5) Sanskrit, l!,sl,i.
(6) TaitvaL'dl. 'I'he wnnl is not in Cliil lors, hut tln' ti'Xt horo is torrupt.
(Chinese reads : ■• Ifi' thicw liis swonl into tlcop (hottom of a) prt'i-ii'ict-.")
(A.M).
28. tuj: penitent iioBiiEP.. 109
""' ^mnmrn ■■^MMnM--^m\fnmmi\o "
^j^m&imm-^m^ mmm^jo
"^rfnUsO^ mnw^Ui mm^iitm mun'Siii'o
'•iti:^3-Ef:t-: ^«l^-l7J Tk'rfiU'b ^mnmW^ "
i\mmm\ ^j-'mri^'''" "^
mm^n i^mm^
"'^^Mijm m^i^yf'^m ^mi&k^ i}sisi^^ti"o
Xow the Lord, with Fhiger-gaiiaud for au attendant phil-
osopher, ^\-ent on his journey toward Savatthi and in due time
aiTived' there; and there the Lord stayed at Savatthi, in the Con-
queror's Grove, the cloister-garden of the Feeder of the Poor.
Now at that season a great crowd collected at the palace-gate of
Pasenadi, the King of Ivosala, and there went up a hue and cr}' :
" Your Majesty, there is a robber in your realm named Finger-
garland, who is barbarous, red-handed, devoted to killing and
slaughter immerciful to all who live. By him towns, villages, and
districts are made as if they had never been. He slays men at
all time, and wears a garland (if their fingers. Let your Majesty
arrest him."
Now Pasenadi, the King of Kosala, departed that day from
Savatthi with some five hundred horses, and proceeded to the
cloister-garden. He went l)y cliariot as far as the ground Mas
(7) Here is inserted an episode. It tells that the robber was trying to kill
his mother in order to get a nximber of fingers necessary to fill up his finger-
garland because it was his oath and that jnst at the moment he caugHt sight of
the coming philosoi^her. In this wise in the Chinese version .\ngiilimala is not
a mere robbor. The same story is told in a Mahayana text i^M^SlfS (N.C. No.
431, l^i' 4 lb). His garland was to be dedicated to a certain god in order to be
jinrified from his sins. (A.M.)
(8) Here is added a discourse on the .six false views arising from attachment
to egotism. On .account of this remark the story is taken in into the sixth
Xiplta. (A.M.)
no GOSI'EL I'AUALLELS. I'AiiT 3.
passiible for cliaiiots, autl tlieu aliglited, and Aveut on foot to
where the Lord was. Goin^- up to the Lord, he sahited him and
sat resj>eftt'uly on one side. While he so sat, the Lord said to
liini : " O great King, is Seniyo Bimbisaro, the King of Magad-
hcl, provoked at you, or the Liechavi [c4an] of Yesali, or other
rival kings'?" "Nay, Lord, none of these kings are provoked
at nie. But, Lord, there is in my realm a robber named Finger-
garland, who is barbarous, red-handed, devoted to killing and
slaughter, unmerciful to all mIio live. By him towns, villages,
and districts are made as if the}' had never been. He slays men
all the time and wears a garland of their fingers, fjord, I fear
I shall not arrest him."
mii^'&nmMM m^ts^Mm^mm^mm^^o — m^-
^mwmmiif^-z^ 'imnmwmm ^,^ -m ^o mm
wm^^:EB, " :feaE^^ 0 mmm, m^f^msmm "o iimm
" But, Great King, if you saw Finger-garland with his hair
and beard cut off, having put on the yellow rcjbes and gone forth
from domestic life into the homeless one ; abstaining from taking
life, from theft, and from lying ; eating one meal a day, chaste,
moral, Avitli a glorious religion, what Avould you do to him ?"
"Lord, Ave should salute him respectfully, or rise in his
presence, or offer him a seat, or present him with robe and alms-
boAvl, a dwelling-place, the requisites for sickness, medicine and
conveniences ; and we should appoint for him the protection,
toleration and defence that are due to religiou.*^''^ But, Lord,
how could there be such moral restraint in an immoral, Avicked
man like him ? "
\\\:msB^ "^a.'v: KJllsIS^. -niv^SJI/^. }il^^i£i#, 3^
^^>M "o
(9) Rhys Davids translates the same phrase in the Long Collection thus :
"watch and ward anil guard, ncconlinp to the law." The "or" in our present
translation of this pira^riph arisos from a difference in the text.
28. Tin: I'knitext hobbkr. Ill
Now id that time the veuerable Fiuger-garlaud was sittiug
not far from the Lord. Then the Lord, stretching out his riglit
arm, said to Pasenadi, the King of Kosala : " Tliis, great King,
is Finger-garland ! " Then the king was seized with fear, con-
sternation and horror, and the Lord, seeing him so, said to liim :
" Fear not, great King, fear not ; there is nothing for }-on t<j fear
any more." So the King, who had been terrified, became calm
again, and went up to Finger-garland, saying to him : " Surely
Your Reverence is not Finger-garland ? " " Yes, great King."'
" What is the clan of Yonr Revereuce's father, and what is
the clan of your mother ? "
"Great King, my father is a (Taggo, and my mothe]- ;i
Mantani."
" ^^s.y it please Your Reverence, Gaggo-Mautani-son, €
shall supply you with a robe, alms-bowl, and dwelling-place, and
with the requisites for sickness, medicine and conveniences.
But at tliat season the venerable Finger-garland -was a
forestdweller, ^^■ith an alms-ljowl, and wearing three robes taken
from dustheaps. So he said to the king : " Enough, great King :
three robes are mv full outfit."
^R« 1^0, "mmiihiEiiz^ M'^mif^m^^m^
Then Pasenadi, the King of Kosala, approached the Lord
saluted him respectfully, and sat on one side. And so sitting,
the King said to the Lord : " Wonderful, O Lord ! marvellous,
O Lord ! is it even until now, O Master and Lord : men are
tamed among the untamed, pacified among the unpacified, and
among those who have not attained, they are brought to Nirvana
(literally, extinguished among the non-3xtinct)P'^> He, Lord, whom
(10) A magnificent paronomasia, quite untranslatable: aparinihhutanam
partnibbdpetd. Both words are causative, and the literal translation would be
very cumbrous : -'caused to bo extinguished among those not caused to be ex-
tinguished."
llli fiOSPKL lAKAUT.LS. rAUT •*.
Avc could not tainc hy start" ov sword, is tamed by tlie Lord ■\vitli-
out staff and without sword. But now, Lord, ^\^^^ innst i>;() : Ave
liavp much to do, much business on liand.'
" Just as you think fit, gi'eat King."
So Pascnadi, the King of Kosala, rose from his seat, sahited
tilt' ijord respectfully, and keeping him on liis riglit liand, de-
pai-ted. Then the venerable Finger-garland, having dressed
l)etimes, took bowl in r(il)e and went into Savatthi for alms.
And going through Savatthi from house to house for alms, he
saw a woman in the agonies of travail, and thereupon thought to
himself : "Alas, how beings suffer ; alas, liow ])eiiigs suffer I "
mmm^mtmj^^ winm^i^ii&n^z m\\mMmr\mm
Now the venerable Finger-garland, having gone t(^ Savatthi
for alms and returned in the afternoon, approached the Lord,
saluted him, and sat as usual, and said : " Lord, today on my
begffini*; rounds in Savatthi, while T went from Jiouse to house, I
saw a woman in the agonies of travail ; whereupon T thought to
myself : ' Aliis, how beings suffer ; alas, how beings siiffer' I
" Well now, Finger-garland, go to Savatthi, g(^ up to that
A\oman and say this : ' Since I was born, sister, 1 do ncit remem-
ber that I ever purposely took the life of anything that breathes.
]>y this truth be there safet}' to thee and safety to thy womb.' "
" But Tjord, that would surely be for me a deliberate Wo : by
me. Lord, have many breathing things been reft of life."
" "Well, then, Finger-garland, go to Savatthi, approach that
woman and say : ' Sister, since I was BoiiN of THE NoBLE
Birth I do not remember that I cjver pmposely took the life of
aught that breathes. By this trntli be there safety to thee, and
safety to thy womb."
"Even so, fjord,"' said the venerable Fingo'-garland, in
assent unto the Lord ; and going into Savatthi, he approached
il)!i1 woman and Said : ' Sister, since [ was Bol^X OF THF. NoBLK
THE PENITHNT EOBBER. 113
Birth I do nut remember th;it I ever })uvp<)sely took tlie life of
aiTs;lit that hreatlies. By tliis tiTitli he then} safety to tln^*- and
safety to tliy ^vomb."
Whereupon tliere Avas safet}' to that woman and safety to
her womb.
^mMWM^mmmt m^wmj^mmm^^-M
mmmfm, " *p^, i&^r -^mmmm A^^mm, a^
MmmAni^PMmmo
And forthwith the yenerable Finger-garLand, dwc^hng alone,
retired, earnest, ardent and streunous for a little time, realized
by his own supernal knowledge, and eyeu in this world, that
incomparable goal of the religious life, for the sake whereof do
yeritable gentlemen go foi-th from the domestic life into the
homeless one : he perceived that birth was destrov'ed, that the
religions life was liyed, and duty done, and after this existence
there was nanght bev'ond. And so the \enerable Finger-garland
became one of the Arahats.
N(nv the yenerable Finger-garland, liaA ing dressed betimes,
took bowl in robe, and went to Savatthi for alms ; and on one
occasion a clod of earth ^vas thrown and hit his })erson ; upon
another occasion a stick, and 3et again a stone. Then th(;
yenerable Finger-garland, with his head broken and the blood
flowing, his Ijowl broken and his robe rent, approached the Lord.
And the Lord saw him coming from afar, and said to liim :
" Bear up, O Brahmin, Ijear up ! You are feeling in this loorld
the effect of some deed for luidcli you icould hive J>een tormented in
hell for inamj years, for many hundreds and thousands of years. '
Then the yenerable Finger-garland, Avheu secluded and
solitary, felt the bliss of deliyerance, and on that occasion gaye
VI 'ut to tlie following Enunciation.
114 UOSPEL TARALLELS. PAKT 3.
mii^j,vm^o mmnu^ ^^-^mm, rn^km!!^ mi^^^'mr^un
[The (liak)gue ends Avitli a. page (jf rugged verse, Avliicli
recurs iu the Book of Htaiizas bj- 3Iouks, aud probabl}' goes
1 >ack to some expressions of Aiigulinialo himself. Because the
siitra is accompanied by stanzas, tlie Chinese Agamas have it in
the Bhikshu section of the Sagathavaggo of the classified Collec-
tion instead of in the Middling.
The words italicised are impoiiant. This is the doctrine
r)f the forgiveness of sins. To the Arahat all the past is
Aviped away, and he onh' siifiers such physical effects of evil
as tliose described ; Ijut no retribution can foUoAv him beyond the
graye.]
29. Disciples repelled by Deep Doctrine.
Johu VI. 66. («M^[^;;(?):^i-;^).
Upon this many of ins disciples went l^ack, and walked no
more with liini.
Namerical Collection VII. 68.
Now, when this discourse [on Burning] was spoken, hot
l^lood gushed from the mouths of some sixty monks, Avhile other
sixt}' rejected the teaching, and went back to the world, saying :
" Hard is the Lord, yery hard is the Lord ! " But the heai-ts of
yet other sixty inonks, who clung not to the Depravities, were
emancipated.
•jf * i~ * -:^ -If- •*
30. Triumphal Entry into the Capital ;
with Paean.
Luke XIX. 37-38. {S»;jii(* |-A^Jt^l■-L^||•A)•
And as he was drawing nigh, [oven] at the descent ol" the
Momit of Olivex, tlie w]iol(^ multitude r^f tlie disciples began to
30. TlilUMPHAL ENTKY INT(> THK CAPITAL ; WITH I'AJEN. 115
rejoice aud praise God ^\itli a loud voice for all the powers wlricli
they had seen ; saying, Blessed is the King that cometh in the
name of the Tjord : peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
Major Section on Discipline, I. 22.
(Translated in S, B. E., Vol, XIII. p. 141).
NoA\' 8oniyo Bimbisaro, the King of Magadha, when the
night had passed, commanded excellent food, both hard aud soft,
to be prepared, and the time to be announced to the Lord, thns :
" It is time, Lord : the meal is read}-."
Aud the Lord, having dressed betimes, took his bowl in his
robe, aud entered Kiugshouse (Rajagaha) with a great company
of monks, Avith a thousand monks who had all been wild ascetics
before.
!N^ow at that season Sakko the Lord of the angels, assuming
the appearance of a young brahmin, walked in front of the com-
pany of monks with tlie Buddha at its head, and sang the folloTA-
ing stanzas :
The KSelf-C'Outrolled One with the self-controlled,
together with the wild ascetics that were ; the
Emancipated One with the emancipated,
The altogether Golden, the Lord, hath entered Kings-
house.
The Delivered One with the delivered, together with
the -^vild ascetics that were ; the Emancipated One
with the emancipated.
The Altogether Golden, the Lord, hath entered Kings-
house.
He who hath crossed [the ocean of passion,] with those
who have crossed it, together with the wild ascetics
that were ; the Emancipated One with the emanci-
pated ;
The Altogetlier Golden, the Lord hath entered Kiugs-
house.
Eudowed with ten nobilities of mind, ten powers,
imderstanding the ten conditions, and of ten pos-
sessed.
The one with retinue of hundreds ten, the Lord, hath
entered Kiugshouse.
\
llG r.OSl'EI. PAIULLELS. I-AUT 3.
C.T."' I'q^f1tH-^H (N.c. No. ]ii7;j?i]Eio).
MvJ;! ^mil^Wm^b
mt^i^ m^mmAmmio
wm-\nm- ■!^'i^:^^n/'£ m'Mmw 'm^Mm.
m^-7k{L-}!^
When men suv Sakko the Lord of the jiugels, they said :
" Tliis yoimg brahmin is handsome indeed, fair to behold, givinc;
deliglit. To ^vl^om does this yomig brahmin liolong?" [i.e.
AVhose attendant stiident is lie ?]
Wherenpon Sakko th(? Lord of tlie angels addressed those
men with a stanza :
" He who is entirely tamed, imrivalletl Uuddiia,
The Arahat, the Avorld's Anspicions One, his attendant am 1/
C.T/-'^ E^|1^--i-r< (X.C. No. 1122.51^-2).
"jfMtiinj^^ mtMB^i nVi^WM m^^^^^M
''fmt-W^^ /i^J^ilWJ: m.^\lM^ nMl\!rM
|lt Is doubtless hyptsrcriticism to observer tliat Luke s refrain,
alone among the four Evangelists, wlio all dcsciibc this scone, is
furi(wsly parallel to the IVdi :
KvXoyrjfxevo^ 6 epx^fJ-^^'Oi BacrjXeu^ :
iaJA-ahain TAMSI BHAG.WA.
(1) We Lave ia thf Chinese three (at least) different versions of thi-? story.
The one I quote here i.s in the Vinaya Text of the J)harui!igupta School. The
secona which I qnotc for the next section is in that of the MahicfisakaR. Properly
speaking hoth of these have not the first stanzas spoken by Sakko (danto <laniehl
etc). I supplied them from the stanzas spoken r)y Sakko in answer to the people
which are longer in the Dharuiagnpta Yinaya.
The third is found in the Madhyama-againa No. fd. Hut this version omits
Sakko's stanzas in IJuddha's praise. (.\.^I.)
(2) Taken from the Mahirasaka Vinaya which r.nd.r-; IJrahniana Ly ^tTc
i.e. lli(! (Jod IJrahm'i. (A.M.).
31. I'SYCHICAL POWERS.
117
So also the mention of po^vers (Svimixet^) recall^ tlio Jnsahoh, of
our passage.]
31. Psychical Powers.
Aristion's Appendix (Mark XVI. 17, 18 .
And these signs shall follow them that l^elieve : in my name
shall they cast out demons ; they shall speak -with [new] tongues
they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing,
it shall in no wise Imrt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick,
and thev shall rec<n-er.
Numerical Collection III. 60.
(Compare ulso Middling Collection, Dialogue No. 6, translated in S. B.
E XI: Long Collection, Dialogue No. 11, translated in Dialogues of the
Buddha (1899), each l.y Ehys Dayids, and the former also into German by
Neumann).
O Brahmin, there are these three miracles.*^'^ What three V
The miracle of x^sychical power, the miracle of mind-reading,
and the miracle of education. What, O Brahmin, is the miracle
of psychical power ? In this case, O Brahmin, one enjoys in
various wai's a kind of psychical power : from being one he be-
comes multiform, from 1)eing multiform he becomes one; he
appears and vanishes, [over] he goes without hindrance to the
fai-ther side of a wall or l>attlemeut or moimtain, as if tlu-ough
air ; he plunges into earth and emerges, as if in water he walks
(1) Patihariya is the regular word for a display of magical power or jugglery,
and is best rendered " miracle." The word Iddhi, translated " psychical power
is more dignified. Burnouf renders it " puissance surnaturelle."
Luke XXIV. 31, 36. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him ;
and he vanished out of their sight And as they spake these things, he him-
self stood in the midst of them.
John XX. 19, 20. When therefore it was evening on that day, the first
day of the week, and when the doors were shi;t where the disciples were, for
fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them. Peace
be unto you
And after eight days again his disciples wt;re within, and Thomas with them.
Jesus Cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be
unto vou.
118 GOSPEL PAllALLELS. PAIIT 3.
ou the water withtmt dividinp; it, as if ou eaitli /-^ like a bird on
wing he travels through the air in the ixisture of meditation
and 3-onder sun and moon, so magical, so mighty, he feels and
tenches with his hand ; Avhile up to the Avorld of GcmI ho reaches
even in the l)ody. This, O Brahmiii, i>^ called the mira«-le of
psYchical power.
C.P. ik |>l'I I'l^ 01'^ (N.C. No. -i-t. of No. 5ir.. f^r/L ^'^ ^)-^''"
And what Brahmin, is the miracle of mind-reading? In
this case, O Brahmin, one reads minds by visible indication, and
says : " Your mind is thus, your mind is so, your heai-t is s<i-
and-so," Even if he read much, it is always as he says, and not
otherwise. Again, O ]3rahmin, one reads minds not by visible
indication, but by hearing the voice of men, demons or angels,
and then declaring the state of mind ; and even if he reads much,
he is ahvays right. Nor alone these means does he read, but he
hears the sound of thought-vibrations from thinking and reflect-
ing, and in this way comes to read the mind and heaii. And as
before, he is ahvays right. Then again, besides visible indica-
tion, voice and thought vibration, one ascei-tains the trance-mind
of a ]nau absorbed in rapture beyond tlxjught and beyond
reflection, by heart-to-heai-t perception, so that one can say:
" From the determinate mental conformation of this friend, from
the nature of his heait;, he will tliink such and such a thought."
And as before, he is always right. Tliis, () Brfdnn in, is cnlli^d
the miracle of mind-reading.
(2) Mark VI. 48, and parallels (told of Chri.st). And seeing them distres-
sed in lowiDf,', for tho wind was contrary unto them, about tlic fourlii watch of
the night he coiucth unto thnui, walking on tho soa.
Matthew XIV. 29, (told of Peter). .\nd he snid, Com.-. And rcter wont
down from the boat, and walked upon tho waters, to come to Jesus.
(3) ("f. also i^mtli.il'k-' <'3, N.C. No. 5l:i) which connei-ts tho sermon with
the story of the conversion of three Kacyapa's.
The text corresponding to Sangarura of the Aiiguttara here translated is
found in No. Ill of tlie Chinese Madhyauia. (A.M.).
31. PSVCHICAL POWERS.
119
Wliat, uow, Bniliuiiu. is tlie miracle of eaucMtioii V
In this case. O Bvalirain, one educates on this wise : ' ' Tliiuk
thus instead of so ; consider thus instead of tints. llenoimce
this ; train yourself in that, ;i.ud abide therein." This, Brahmin,
is called the miracle of education. And tliese are the three
miracles.'^' Wliich of the three, think y<^n, is the most excellent
and most refined ?
^m^^ im\i^ iB«» g#rPi^^>iiiisa-/±-t4^
Well, now, Gotauio, as to the miracle of psycliical ixnver, he
.vh(^ performs and experiences this has the benefit rdl to himself.
This kind of miracle, Gotamo, appeai-s t(j me a natural accom-
paniment of religion. And I think the same of the second, the
miracle of mind-reading. But that last one, Gotamo, that miracle
of education, appears to me the most excellent and most refined.
Wonderful, O Gotamo, marvellous, O Gotamo, is this good saying
of yours ; and wo hold that you are endowed with all three of
these miracles. Gotamo can indeed practise every one of the
aforesaid psychical powers, from becoming multiform to reaching
in the body unto the world of God. Gotamo can ascertam the
mind of man absorbed in rapture beyond thought and beyond
trance reflection, by heart-to-heart perception, and can say from
the determinate conformation and the nature of the heart what
the thought will be. And Gotamo can educate by telling what to
(4) In Di"ha No. 11, Gotamo says : '• It is because 1 see the germ m miracles
of psychical power and of mind-reading, that I detest, abhor and despise them.
In the uDcanonical Sanskrit DivyaTadana, he says that he commands the disciples
not to work miracles, but to hide their good deeds and show their .ins.
(5) This passage in brackets corresponds to the Kevaddha 9 f. (p. 2U). J he
Chinese Ekottara (^- G3a) which differs in other respects from the Anguttara
a<.rees here with it. It reads : i^immmm^k^i'^^^'^m^^^'^^^^^^^
m^^^Tjti^ mM^An, ^"S-in^Aff. m^^mmmmt mn^mmmto
(A.M.)
1^0 GOSPEL PAUALLKLS. PAKT -i.
tliiuk and what to consider; what to renounce, wlieiein to train
oneself, and wlieiein to abide.
It is trne, O Brahmin, tliat I have attaiued to all that yon
have said, and I will fmiherniore ass(;rt that I t-an do each of tlie
three miracles in qnestiou.*^'"''
But is there, Gotamo, a single other monk who is (nidowed
with these miracles besides Toui-self ?
Brahmin, not only one, nor a hundred, nor Uvo, three, four,
or fi\ e hundred, but even more monks there are avIio are endoA\'ed
with these three miracles.
But, Gotamo, where do these monks nnw d\\ ell V
In this \eij Order, O Brahmin !
Excellent, O Gotamo ! excellent ! As one raises what has
been tlu'owu doA\ n, or reveals what has Ijeeu hidden, or tells the
way to him A\ho has gone astray, or holds out a lamp in the
darkness that those who have ev-es may see the objects, just
even so has the Doctrine been made clear b}- Gotamo in manifold
exposition. And I, even I, take refuge in Gotamo, his Doctrine
and liis Order. May Gotamo receive, as a lay-disciple from this
da}- foi-tli as long as life endures, me wlio liave tnken refague [in
him].
32. The Saint Superior to Harm.
Luke X. 19. (mmt^'tJi).
Behold, I ha\e given you authority to tread upon serpents
and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy : and nothing
sliall ill nnx wise hurt von.
Aristion's Appendix iMarkXVI. 17, 18;.
And these signs shall follow them that believe : in my nam<?
shall they ca.st out demons ; they shall speak with [new] tongues ;
they shall take up serpents, and if they drink ,niy doadly tiling,
it sliall in no wise ]inrt tiiein.
Numerical Collection XI. 16.
(l^uotedin 77.< Q>i,.^/i,„.s •>/ Kl,,., M:!:,„la .■ S. l;. i;, V,.I WW. ,, •j7:».
also Birtli-Story, No. lii'J).
(6) In this ami siiuilai- casos the tedious repotifions of the original are con-
(len.'tod into the stvlo of onr Wost<rn rhftoric.
33. POWKU OVEK SERPENTS. I2l
Eleven benefits, C) monks, are due from the ciiltivatiou of
Lo^e, — from practising it, developing;, making it active and prac-
tical, pursuig it, accmnnlating, and striving to tlio lieiglit of its
lieaii-deliverance .
What are the eleven ? — One sleeps iu peace and ^vakes in
peace ; he dreams no evil dream ; he is dear nnto mortals and
immortals ; the angels -watch over him ; fire, poison, sword can
harm him not ; (Quickly his heart is calmed ; the aspect of his
countenance is serene ; he meets death undismayed ; and should
he fail of the Highest, lie is sure to go to the world of God.
C.T. it HlZg-f- 4: (N.C. No. 543., ^H i8b).
Wio ^\nn-Y-o i?A-$, '1^% ^MM'f^, ^n. A^, z^m, -^^<
33. Pov^/e^ Over Serpents.
Luke X. 19, I as jibove), (Justin Martyr adds centipedes).
Minor Section on Discipline, V. 6
(Translated in S. B. E., XX., P. 75).
Xow at that season a ceiiain monk died of the liite of a
serpent. They told the matter to the Lord And he said:
"Now surely that monk, O monks, did not diftuse his Love
toward the fom- royal breeds of serpents ! Had he done so, he
Avould not die of the bite of one."
[The reason ^\-hy I capitalise Love is l)ecause it is a techni-
cal term, and means literally and forcibly hMvikj v:liat is good.
By a systematic practice of this love-meditation, or iwojection
of aftectionate thought-waves toward all creatures, Gotamo, as
Ave have read in a former translation, became the Deity of a by-
gone cycle].
C.T. 2f.^#r.-f'A- (X.C. No. 112-2, 51-52 a).^"
j:[:i£B^ef*o \mmt\iz^%\ c/'o mt «^:€^l> g^
mz>^i$M^tzmWi^io ^
(1) We have this story and the stanzas Virfipakkheldin the Pfili Anguttara
IV. 6. (Vol. II. p. 273) and in Chinese ^fi5^,{®(^ b 3S), ^M^ h (^'C- ^^o. 511.,
g- 50). Cf. flJ3 B > f£^ Pi5 P- 11^ (•')• i'^-^^-)-
122
GUSPEL PAUALLELS. VXUT 3.
34. Faith to Remove Mountains.
Matthew XVII. 20, 21. (.!i|>kf,!;t-fcou-,il--).
And lie suitli nuto them, Because of your little fjiitli : for
^■f'lilj I say mito you, If ^-e lia^e faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye sliall say imto tliis mouutain. Remove hence to yonder place ;
and it shall remove ; and nothing fehall be impossible unto you.
[Repeated in Matthew XXI, Avhich is parallel with Mark
XI. But the added verso which appears in some MSS., Matt.
XVII. 21, is analogous to Gotamo's exclamation about ignorance],
Numerical Collection VI. 24.
Monks, a monk endowed with six (pialities ran t-leave the
Ifinullaya, the monarch of mountains. But what a doctrine for
\\h ignorance ! Which are the six?
Monks, suppose a monk is expert in the attiiinmi^iit of
Trance (or concentration), in the maintenance thereof and the
rising therefrom : expeit in the obscure hitimations of trance^ in
its range, and in earnest aspiration thereunto. A monk endowetl
with these six qualities, C) monks, can cleave tlie Hinifdaya, the
monarch of mountains. But what a doctrine for vile i-^norance !
[In the niediH'\;d Additions to the Talmud, there is a story
told by Rabbi Nathan of a stone-c;utter avIio broke up a mijuntain
piecemeal, and pushed the last remaining rock into the Jordan.
Tliough told as a parabl(\ it ap^iears to preserve some remi-
niscence of a Palestinian trying to carry out literally the words
of Christ. See Rodkinson's Babylonian Tnlnmd. tianslation of
tract Aboth, ]). 29].
35. Healing the Sick.
Matthew VIII. 16. (jS^kC'JAcDl-,-';).
When (jvcn was come, they brought unto liini many de-
moniacs: and he cast out the spirits /r/M <t imnl .md heal, d all
tliat were sick.
(TJic i)arall.l |.assai<c in Mark I. 34. says that he healed
iivniy^ not all j.
35. IIKAUNG THE SICK.
John XV. 3. (iji^ifti^+E^^i).
Already ye are <-le:iu because of the icord wliicli I liuve t^pokeu
Tiiito you.
[It is true tliat spiritual cleanness is liere meant, l)ut we
know tliat in the Testament, the two go hand in hand. See Mark
n. 5 ; John V. 1-1:].
Classified Collection XLVI. 14.
Thus ha^e I heard. At one season the Lord was staying at
Rajagaha, in the Bambu Grove beside the SquiiTols' feeding-
ground. Now at that season the venerable Kassapo the Great
was staying at the Fig-tree Grotto, and was sick, suffering and
severely ilk Then the Lord, having arisen from his evening
retirement, went up to the venerable Kassapo the Great, and sat
on a seat prepared for him. And so sitting, the Lord said : .
" I hope you are bearing up ; I hope you are able to move, and
that yoiu- pains are going away, and not coming on. Deep
breathing is a sign that they are going away, and not coming on.
" No, Lord ; I am not bearing up ; I am not able to move ;
my severe pains are coming on ; they are not going away. '
"Kassapo, there are these seven branches of wisdom
thoroughly taught by me, practised and developed; and they
conduce to higher knowledge, to full enlightment, to Nirvana.
What are the seven ? They are :
[1.] Mental coUectedness.
[2.] Search for truth.
[3.] AVill-p<v.\er.
[1.] Joy.
[5.] Peace.
[6.] Siistained coUectedness.
[7.] Equanimity, (or. Trance).
" These are the seven branches of wisdom thoroughly taught
by me, practised and developed ; and they conduce to higher
knowledge, to full enlightment, to Nirvana."
"Cei-tainly, O Lord, these are the Inanches of wisdom.
Certainly, O Auspicious One, these are the branches of Avisdom."
This' is what the Lord said, and the venerable Kassapo tlie^
Great was rapt and rejoiced at the utterance of the Lord. And
the venerable Kassapo the Great got up from that sickness ; and
so his sickness w-as renounced.' ^^
(1) Fnhlno, the reRnalav word for renonncing or forsaking sin.
J -J} GosrKf. iAi;\r.i,r,Ls. ]'Ai;r :>.
Ditto. XLVI, 15.
[Tlu^ moil' celebrated (lisc-ii)le ^I<);i,;^allriiio is rured in tlie
saiae way at tlic Vulture's Peak].
Ditto. XLVI 16.
At oue .season the Lord Avas staviiiji; at liaja<i,a]ia, in the
Bainhu (xrovo l)eside the Squirrels' f eediu^-gnmud . Now at
that seasou the Lord was sick, siilleriuy, aud severely ill. Aud
the venerable Oundo the Great went up to the Lord, and sat re-
speetfullv on one side. And Avliile lu^ was so sitting, the Lord
said to him: "(^nid<>, call to mind the seven l)ran('hes of
wisdom."
" Lord, there are these seven b'rauclu^s of wisdom thorouglJy
taught by the Lord, practised and developed ; and they conduce
to higher knowledge, to full enlightenment, to Nirvana."
[Cundo then recites them, as given above].
" Cei'tainly, Cimdo, these are the branches of wisd(»m ; these
are the branches of Avisdom."
This is what the venerable Cundo tlie (neat said, and the
Master approved. Then the Lord got u]) from that sickness;
and thus his sickness Avas renounced.
[All three of these passages are in the Paritta, an ancient
I'ali manual of Scriptural selections for use in dail^'life. It was
paiily translated into French (but with none of these passages i
by Leon Feer in 1871, who also, in 188:5, translated the first of
the three from the Tibetan. The Paritta or Parittam (i.e. Defence)
is used in Ceylon to this day as a Avard against evil. The Greek
historian Arrian (second century, but using pre-Christian sources)
bears Avitness to the Hindii l)elief in spiritual healing. He says
{Indica 15) ; " The St^phists Avere supposed to cure whatever
Avas curable, not Avithont (h)d [ovk avevdeov). ]
■3* -:f * -:v- -:=• * -f
36. Prayer.
Mark XI. 24, ^^5. (.(TiMri'.'/l- -^wn.W-H:.
All tilings w liutsoever yc^ \)ray and ask for, bt^icAc that ye
liave received tliem, and y(.' shall have them. And w hciisovcr ye
stand jmiying, forgive, if ye liav(> aught against any one; that
your Father ;d<o whirli is in jica\(ii ni:iv foi-yivc \ on \oMr
trespasses.
36. PRAYER. 125
Middling Collection, Dialogue 41-
Citizens, if a pious <iik1 upriglit man slionld wisli : " Oli,
that I, upon tlie body's dissolution after death, may be born into
fellpwship with a great family of [the caste of the] Nobles! " it
will come to pass ; upon the body's dissolution after death he
will be born into fellowship with a gi-eat family of Nobles. And
why ? Because he was pious and upright.
Citizens, if a pious and upright man should Avish to be Ixjru
after death into a great Brahmin family, a great middle class
family, or into fellowship Avith the various orders or angels
[which are enumerated], he will be so, because pious and upright.
And if he should wish, after destruction of the cardinal vices, to
realise by his own supernal knowledge in this present world, to
he initiated into, and abide in the yiceless deliverance of heart
and intellect, it will come to pass.
Classified Collection XLI. 10.
(3n this occasion the citizen*-'^ Citto was sick, suliering and
severely ill. Then a number or park-fairies, forest-fairies, tree-
fairies — fairies dwelling among the lords of plants, grasses and
forests — ^came flocking together unto the citizen Citto and said :
" Pray,*^-' citizen, that in the future you may be a king, an em-
peror (caJckavatti)."
C.T. llplTll-hZl (N.C. No. oU, m.^2 ah).
]
[Citto refuses to pray for temporal Prosperity, and instead
he converts his friends and kinsfolk to Buddhism, after which he
dies. In both Christian and Buddhist texts we have the central
idea that the strong aspiration of a good man takes effect. But
he must first be good.^'^^ To the Christian it is the answer of
God to petition ; to the Buddhist it is the response of cosmic law].
(1) Gahapati, literally "householder," but meaning also a village magistrate,
a financier, a commoner, a social magnate.
(2) J'anklheJd. The use of this word in Buddhist literature is equivalent to
the Christian praying.
(3) Coiiipiire 'Middling Collection, Dialogue G, translated in S. ]?. E. XI.
12G GOSPEL PARALLELS. PAUT 3.
37. Mental Origin of Disease.
Mark II. 5. (.^pXf^-cDE).
Jesus, seeiujjj iJieir fiiitli, saitli niito tlio sick of tlic ]);ilsy,
Son, tliT sins are fomiven.
John V. 14. {,?^^[^sc^-)-hW).
liehokl, tliou alt made whole: sin no nioic, lest a uoi-se
thing befall thee.
Classified Collection XXXV. 74.
This took place at Stlvatthi.
A ceitaiu monk approached the Lord in the usual ^\■ay, and
sitting on one side, he said unto him : " Lord, there is in such
and such a cloister a new and inexperienced monk who is sick,
suffering and severely ill. Will the Lord be so kind as to go to
him and comfort him? "
Then the Lord, considering that this monk Avas a novice
and sick and inexperienced, "went to him. Now when that monk
saw the Lord coming, even from afar, he began to make room on
the couch. Then the Lord said to him : " Come, noAv, there is
no need to act thus : there are seats here made ready : I will sit
on one of them." And the Lord did so. AVile sitting, he said
to the monk : " Surely, monk, you can bear up ; 3'ou are able to
move ; the pains are going away and not coming on. Your deep
breathing is a sign tliat they are going away, and not coming
on."
" No, Lord, I cannot bear up ; 1 am not able to move ; my
sharp pains are coming on ; they are not going away. The deep
l)roathing is a sign that they are coming on, and not going away."
C.T. ifinjui^-t: (N.C. Xo. r>-Ji, i^zq 9b 10 a).
i'^{^<^mmmm^%mm
itiL^]'-'>M^, j'jm^mmm ]itnmimxm^.!±''o
" 3Ion\; you laivc not any retnorse or regret about anytJdng,
have yon ?
37- MENT.U, ORIGIN OF DISEASE. 127
" Certaiuly, Lord ; I lunc uaicli remorse and much regret."
" Yon certaiulv are not to lilaint^ for .-iny miscondnct ? "
"It is not that, Lord.""
"Well, monk, if you are not to ])lame for any misconduct,
tlien why li.-ive you remorse and regret ? "
" Lord, I do not know the meauinp; of tlu^ doctrine of moral
purity taught b}' the Lord."
" Well monk, if you do not know tliat, ^\]l;lt doctrine taught
by me do you kuoAv the meaning of ? "
" Lord, I know the meaning of tlie doctrine alxmt jiassion
and abstinence taught by the Lord.""
"Good, monk, good. It is well that you kn(jw the meaning
of the doctrine about passion and abstinence taught by me, for
the meaning of these is the doctrine I teach. What think you,
O monk ? Is the eye permanent or impermanent ? "
" ImX3ermaneut, Lord."
"Are the ear, the nose, the tongue, the Ixxly and the mind
permanent or impermanent? "'
"Impermanent, Lord."
"But is the impermanent painful or pleasant? "
" Painful, Lord."
" Well, then, can you predicate of what is impermanent,
painful and lial)le to change : ' This is mine, I am this, this is
myself? "
"No, Lord, you cannot."
" Monk, when the noble and learned disciple sees this, he
grows weary of the eye, "ueary of ear, nose, tongue, bod}^ and
mind. He knows that after this existence there is no beyond."
This is what the Lord said, and that monk was rapt and re-
joiced at the utterance of the Lord. .Ajid while that exposition
was being uttered, there arose in that monk the piu'e and spotless
eye of religion, namely the truth, that whateyer has the quality
of beginning has also the qualit}" of cessation.
128 GOSPKL PARALLELS. I'AIIT 3.
myjntiL'} "^^Hi]v^> KSrs^^o 5:H- ^lhi, rnuirm
\7:^ ffi^^it, mnm'^ mmm
[Tlie (juestiou about leiuoise ami regret brings out the idea
tliat disease is tlic rusiilt of siu or of l)ad ineutal states induced
tliereb}'. In Majijldnia 36, a .Tai)i objects that tlie Buddliists
have mastery over tlieir niiuds, \n\i not over tlieir b<5dies. Gota-
luo replies : " Wlien th(i body is uncontrolled, so is the lieaii :
Avlion tli(> b(>(l\- is (•oiitrollcd, thf ho;irt is b'kfnvisc'"'!
38. Display of Psychical Power Forbidden.
MarkVIIl. 11, 12. (j&NmA^jt -, i-).
And tlie Pharisees came forth, and began to question ^\vi]i
him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And lie
sighed deeply in his spirit, and saitli, Wliy doth this generation
seek a sign? Verily, I say unto you. There shall n(^ sign lie
liMA'cn inito this !>T'ner.'itiou.
Minor Section on Discipline, V. 8.
(Translated in S. 15. E. XX. p. 81).
Ye arc; not, () monks, to dis])lay psj'chical jiowcr or miracle
of suixirhuman kind before tlie l;iity. AVlioeAer does so is guilty
of a misdemeanor.
C.T. WMY-lirV- (X.c.Xo.ii2i>.. ?;.j>M;ib).
•» * * vf -:?• ■'.': -.i
od. SAVING POWlIli OF BELIEF. 129
39. Saving Power of Belief.
Mark IX. 38. {^^smjio^^f^A).
Jesus said imto liim. If tliou canst ! All tliiui;-s aro possi])lo
to liim that lielievetli.
Ci. John III. 18. and the Xew Testament thioni^hont.
Numerical Collection I. 17.
Monks, I do not perceive nuother single (juality ^-hereby
Iteings, upon the dissolution of tlie body after death, rise again
in states of suftering, Avoe, destruction and hell, to ])e compared,
O monks, to false Ijelief .
Beings possessed of false lielief, () monks, upon the dissolu-
tion of the body after death, rise again in states of suffering,
"Woe, destruction and hell.
Monks, I do not perceive another (piality wheieb^- beings,
upon the dissolution of the body after death, rise again in the
world of weal and paradise, to he com]iared, O monks, mHIi
Right Belief. ='>
Being-s possessed of Eight Belief. O monks, upon tlie dis-
solution of the body after death, rise again in the world of
paradise.
C.T. A-^^Br. (X.C.Xo.714, 51^ 30 a).
is:m't^-n, li-rr-yi mm%^^ f^nl^^mn^ mm^x^ ^
m-<i'\-mMm^, ffifijsgi, v^mmm^ mmmMc —
ij^^;mn, -ffirW-^i^ 0TiilEM, ^JfB^-R tbiEjIft^, ^
m^-\nBmm<)^^ ^^rw, mmmm^ nmi^mo
40. Spiritual Sonship and Spiritual Sacrifice.
John I. 12-13. (i^j^iW— '?5-f--.,i-H).
But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to
becoijie children of God, even to them that believe (^n liis name :
(1) The first step in the Noble Eightfold Path of Gotamo's famous Sermon
in the Deer Park near Benares. The doctrine of the saving power of Belief is
tlins fundamental in Buddhism.
130 (.OSPEL PARALLELS. I'AUT 3.
Avhicli were boi'U, uot of blood, ikh- of the will of the llesli. nor f)f
the -will of man, but of Gofl.
John III. 5-7. (;i;^]^f^^(7).7i~b).
^'el•il_^, ^el■ily, I say unto tliee, Except a man be ])oiii of
Avater and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That ■v\4iich is brirn of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said nnto tliee. Ye
must be born anew.
Romans VIII. 17. m^WAo^-i'-t)-
If children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-lieirs \\ith
Cluist; if so be tliat we snfler Avith him, that we may be also
glorified with him.
1 Corinthians IV. 15. (^rW^mft^^f^)-
For though }-e should ha-\e ten thousand tutors in Christ,
yet have ye not many fatliers : for in Clnist Jesus I 1)egat you
through the Gos]^)el.
Galatians IV. 19. (jnti^kSrao ^A)•
M}" little chikb'en, of Asliom I am again in travail until
Christ he formed in \o\\.
Philemon 10. (iui^?-ijpgfti-,'.
I beseech thee for my child, wliom I ha\(' in-gotten in my
bonds.
Matthew IX. 13. (^-ki'li^A'^t^).
(On sacrifice)
But go ye and learn what this meaneth, I desire merc_>', and
not sacrifice : for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners,
[I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, is a quotation from Hosea
VI. 6.].
Matthew XII. 7. {SyMlft^t---^^)-
But if ye had liuowii what this meaneth, I desire mercy,
and ]iot sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Hebrews IX. 23. miiM^iL<^ii-^)-
It was necessary therefore that the copies of tin- things iu
40. SPIRITUAL SONSHIP AXD SPIRITUAL SACRIFICE. 131
the heaveiis should be cleaiised v.itli these; but the heaveiily
thiugs themselves with lietter sacrifices tlian these.
Logia Book, 100.
This -w as said by the Lord, said by the Araluit, aud heard
by me.
Mouks, I am a Brahmiu, suitable to beg of ; drinking ahva3"S
pure drink ; wearing my last body ; an incomparable Healer and
Physician. Ye are my lawful sons, born of my mouth, born of
my religion/^* created by religion ; spiritual heii-s, not carnal
ones.
There are also, O monks, both carnal and spiritual alms ;
carnal and spiritual distribution ; carnal and spiritual help. And
the spiritual is always the chief.
And again there are two sacrifices ; carnal sacrifice and spir-
itual sacrifice ; and of these twain, the chief one, monks, is the
spiritual sacrifice.
This is the meaning of what the Tjord spake, and here it is
rendered thus :
He who, ^\ithout stint, hath offered a spiritual sacrifice —
The Tathagato, who pitieth all beings —
He indeed is the Ijest among angels and moiials :
Sentient beings worship him who hath passed beyond
Existence.
Exactly this is the meiining of what tlie Lord, said, and thus
it was heard bv me.
S.P. IjIJll-h^ (N.C. Xo. 54G, gE76a).
mz
(1) Or, spiritually born {(7/i«)?7'/Ha-borii).
(2) Logia 100 is wanting in the Chinese Itivrtika (N.C. No. 714), but this pas-
sage ■with omission of the utteracce about the spiritual sacrifice is found in the
text corresj)ontling to the Saniyutta Till. 7, i. e. the text above cited and JflpBlEg
"hE (N.C. No. 544, £|P1 G3). Similarity of this Logia passage -with the Sela of
the Sutta Nipfita is also to be noticed. To this latter text we have a correspond,
ing text in the Chinese Ekottara (If pfllHi'T'^, ^H 42-43), but the stanzas are
omitted. (A.M.)
132 GOSPEL rAi:Ai.i.i:i.s. i>ai;t 3.
41. The Spritual Warfare is Internecine.
Luke XII. 49-53. (if&jra(^rl--'?>['4-|-A-E1-^)-
T fuiue to cast fire u])t)ii the eaiili ; and wliat \sill I, if it is
alvrady kindled? ]3nt 1 liave a baptism to !>(> baptized witli ;
aud lioAV am I straitened till it be acc(jmplisliod I Thiuk ye that
I am come to give ytesbce iu the eartli? I tell aoit, Xay, bnt ra-
ther divisiou: f(K there shall be from hencefoitli five in i^ne
honso divided, three against two, aud two against three. They
shall be divided, father against S(m, and sou against father;
mother against tlaughter, and daughter against lier mother ;
mcjtlier- in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law
airainst her mother-in-law.
Matthew X. 34-36. {^:k.Bt^^nm—^^Y:^-)-
Think not that I came to send j^eace on the earth : I came
not to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a luan at
variance against liis father, aud the daughter against her mother,
aud the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-Lnv : and a man's
foes shall be thev of liis own liousehold.
Hymns of the Faith 294, 295.
Motlier aud father having slain,
And two kings of the Wairior caste ;
A kingdom aud its people liaxing slain,
A JJralniiin scatheless goes.
M(jthor aud father having slain,
Aud two kings of the Brahmin caste.
Yea, aud an eminent man besides,
A liralimin scatheless tjoes.
[There was a law iu aucieut India forl)idding a Ihahmiu to
be executed though guilty of the Avorst crimes. (S. ]>. E. Vol.
II, p. 2J:2 ; XIV, PI). 201 and 233). Tlie Buddhists, who so often
use the word Brahmin in. a mystic sense, alhide here to the kill-
ing of our ]>^ychical ])areuts, i-raviug and ignorance. See the
note in JJeabs Dhaiamapada j'ro."i (lie. Chinese. Paul Cams, in
(|Uoting tliis note ( Buddhism nnd Us Chrisllau Critics, p]). liJO,
191 j lulduces ]\ratthew X. 21 as a. i)aridleb Ihit th<> text refeis
to Persecution. Tlie true ])ai'allel is based ujiou an oracle of tlie
41. TH1-: Sl'IiaiTAL AVAIiFAKK IS IXTKKNECINE. iMo
l^iopliet Micali's (WI. 6). In Mattlie^v, the prediction of per-
secution is closely associated witli the mystic utterance about
spiritual warfare, hut Jjukt' ri,uhtly separates the h\o (Luke XII.
4-12 ; 40-53)].
PART IV.
THE LORD.
-:f -;<■ -;f -:^ ^ * t*-
42. The Saviour is unique.
John I: 14 and 18. a'MB-^tm,-f'A).
Tlie Word became tlesli, aud dwelt among iis (and Ave beheld
liis gloiy, glory as of the only hegotten from the Father), full of
grace and truth jS'o man hath seen God at any time; the
only hegotten Son, Avhicli is in tlie bosoin of the Father, lie ]i;ith
declared liim.
Hebrews IX : 26. {^i\^M^j^.<^^-;o.
Now once at the end of the ages liath he been iiianifested to
put aAvay sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Numerical Collection I, 15.'"
(TninsLiled iu substanco by Oldcuberg : liuddha, English translaiion, 18^2,
p. 328. Cf. Long Collection, Dialogue 2S;('-) MiiMling Collection, Dialogue 115,
Chinese 181. f^-t 32 a).
(1) In the Chinese Ekottara there is no text exactly agreeing ^vith this, but
we liavc in three passages mention of one Tathfigata apjiearing in the world.
IBPilH (N.C. No. 543, R;-- Ift b) ; ^/■■\\i\rm]\i: m2r/iD3K:-fia?f iF-K- Jlt
nW -AffiJJim":
i„] /,: (Do. K:- i!>b) : ^^■■■^-Ammiit m.iTj'^fvSwsMSiiMHUR m^ ."-
«^-'A ii\mm, ia::fi-^AR j&m}^.^'^-
RA (Do. !k- :iOb): ■ AfUiJii^lH-^-KiEf:] •Aii5li--E!R;¥'nii':!.llirJl,11M»t
(2) AVith thi-; a;^;roes in substance liHt'jffiJCtVilffi (N.C. No. 545, (18), J^fi G3a),
There wo read : VmflW^MMmmh Efil't:!'. myi'\''V']^Bn'i?S'^til^9mM^^'
tHjiikmi^Alo ^•^- 1 ho Lord is incomparable in his wisdom, incomparable in his
miraculous powers ; all the nscets and priests in the \NnrM cannot excell the
Tat'ifigata (in these respects). (A.M.)
4:2. THE SAVIOUK IS UNIQUE. 135
It is iiiilikelj and impossible, O monks, tor two Araliats wlio
are i)erfect Buddlias to arise simultaneously in the same world-
system ; tliis is not likely. But it is likely, O monks, for one
Araliat wlio is a perfect Bndd]iii. to arise in one -world-system;
this is quite likely.
C.T. 4*1^"I ^1?-® (N.C. No. 181 of Xo. 542, ^-t 32 a)
[A similfir statement is made of an emperor,''"^ and then it is
denied that a woman can be a Buddha, an empeior, a Sakko, a
]Mrir(X or a Brahmfi.]
Numerical Collection IV, 36.
(I'artly translated by H, Kern : ^lannal of Buddhism : Leipzig, lSj-'«, p. CI).
Once the Lord had entered upon the main road between
High-town and Wliite-towu. ' Now- Dono the Brahmin entered it
likewise. And he saw the wheels on the Lord's feet, with their
thousand spokes, their tires and naves, and all their parts com-
plete. Having seen them, he thought to himself "Wonderful
and marvellous indeed ! These cannot be the feet of a human
l)eiug."'
Then the Lord, stepping aside from the road, sat at the root
of a tree in the postme of meditation, holding his body, erect,
looking straight before him, and collecting his mind. And Dono
the Brahmin, following the Lord's feet, saw him sitting at a tree-
root with serene and pleasing looks, his faculties and mind at
peace, with the highest control and calm, in the attainment [of
trance], subdued and guarded. Upon seeing the hero (literally,
the elephant), with his facultips at peace, he approaclied tlie
Lord and said :
" Are you not an angel? "
"' No, Brahmin ; I am not au augi^l. "
"Are you not a celestial genius'?"
"No, Bralnniu ; I am not."
"Are 3'ou not a goblin?"
"No, Brahmin; I am not a gol>lin."
" Are you not a man ? "
"No, Brahmin ; i am not a man."
(3) I was interested to learn lately from the lips of a Hindu that the ancient
title ca/.;fcauaY<i is applied today to the Qnoon ,,f England as Em}>r -^-^ -^ Tndin.
(Note of 1899).
136 GOSl'EL I'AK.VLLtl.s. I'AKt 4.
'• I you are none of these, -what are ^on, theu ? "
" Brahmiu, those Depravities Uifiavd) ^vherefrom, as an angel,
I shoulil tonsider myseli' undelivered, are for me reuouuced,
uimM)ted, dug out, anniliihited, unable to rise again in the futur(>.
And tlio.se Depravities Av]ierei'roni, as a genie, a goblin or a man,
I should consider myself imdelivered, are likewise renounced
and uprooted. Monies^" even as a blue lotus, a A\ater-rose or a
A\hite lotus is born in the Avater, grows up in the water, and
stands lifted aboAe it by the water uudefiled, even so, Brahmin,
am I born in the A\orld, groAvn up in tlie world and I aljide,
overcoming the world, l)y the world inidotil(>d. O, Brahmin, vou
must call me a Buddha."
S.T. mW" (X.C.Xo 51i.ig-23a).
-Itm C^^-J^jfJUAFaliS^f] miM'^ (Ukkattiii) pg%|f:
(DakuraV, ^^- # 'h Pul C-tMT^A^ul^jE^lO - ^ W Kl B
ii-, mmmW' ^^w^- ^-i^f^. ^imm^it^n¥.4rm^<r^
(4) Evideutly h slip of tlie scribes for " O Brahniin." The passage occurs in
Siiijiyuta XXII, 94, translated lielow, Parallel 58.
(5) Cf. The Chinese Ekottara i^mil-f- (X.C. Xo. 543, r>c— S2-SJ). where
the same thing is toM of Mandgalyayana, and SlJJS-}-:^. (C.N. No. SIC, ^gE S(> a)
which acjrees perfectly with the version here <iuoted, except the plac.-, (at Cala-
village in Kerala).
In a chapter ot the l.itir Chinese iJhanuapada version corresponding to XXII.
of the I'.di w.- lind a pas,-,age similar lo these stanzas ; i.e.
im'3::K{.m'\ US, (X.C. Xo. \m, y^j:;^: no b).
(iT^^-'liiic-i: < »no who overcomes himseU is a hero,
5Kf fM [[M £udf)wed with all good conducts ;
^r-?C??i£'^ He is neither deva nor gandharva,
^H5E&?i;?c' Xur Mara, nor Brahin:..
Further on the exercise of self-control is ailn.onish. d. (A.M.)
(6) Fere are enumerated Xaga. G,iudhi>rv:i, Asun., Carnda, Kint.ara and
Mahoraga. (A.M.)
42. THE SAVIOUR IS UNIQUE. 137
'''''xtmmm mmmMX nmm^m t^mmmm
yaa#A^v mmm^. k\i-jkm-\Mm -m^EV^':
ti^mmmz kum'tm^ m^h'^y^^ mAi^m-yK
m^^mn '^^^nmm ""'nk^^nmto'"
Note on the Grotesque in Buddhism.
The comparison of Buddlui to an (,4epluiut""'^ excites in some
n smile. But the eh'])liaiit is just as gentle as the lamb and far
more majestie, vet we are not shocked by the Apocalyptic Laml)
upon the throne of the Godhead. I am told that ceiiaiu items
in the Buddhist Scriptures are trivial or grotesque. x\re the
Gospels free from the like ? Joseph's \)erplexitY at the pregnane^"
of Mary, till a dream assures him it is supernatiu'al ; the food
and raiment of the Baptist ; the fantastic scenes of the Tempata-
tion ; the baptismal Dove ; the transnmted water ; the extem-
]_K)rized creation of fishes ; the Devils who know the Son of God ;
the clay and the spittle ; the Gadarene swine (so liumoroush"
depicted by Carl^de) ; thf coin imthe fish's mouth ; the Matthsean
parallel lietween Jonah's three nights and Christ's ; the rivers
that flow from a believer's l)elly ; the l)lasted fig tree ; the
Mattligean mistake about the Uvo asses ; the anointed feet wiped
with a Avoman's hair ; the whi])ping of the hucksters ; the Mat-
thiean apparitions of the corpses ; the hand in the resurrected
side ; the risen Lord eating broiled fish ; the vision of the sheet-
full of animals ; the Elects collected 1 ry a trumpet ; the
adulterers cast into a ])ed: are not all these New Testament
incidents and saws grotesque except to us wlu) are powerfully
(7) The answer of Buddha is given in verse. (A.M.)
(8) This coriesponds to the PSli stanzas : Yu ve<li &c. (.V.M.)
(9) "We have in the C^hinese three versions of the text corresponding to the
Pali Anguttara IV. 3f!. Two are found in the Brahmana-sainyiikta of the
Samyukta-agama and one in the sixth division (38^'^ Chapter of Nanjio's Cata-
logue) in the Ekottara. The three agree with the Prdi in substance. The Sam-
yukta versions give the name of the Brahmana (Dona in Pali) as Dhilma or Smol^e
and give ^3. of the Pali in verse after the stanzas of '[ 4. (omitted in the
translation above).
The Ekottara versions gives no name of the Brfihmana and explains what
are the six senses and how these are annihilated in Buddha. This part stands
for V 3. and 4. of the Pali.
(10) Cf. Lahtavistara Chaii. V., kd'i:llWJ'^?^\ G b.) and Wiudisch at the XII.
. Congress of Orientalists. (A.M.)
138 GOSPEL, lAUALLKI-S. PAliT 4.
|iS3'eliologized l»v the Cliristian ideals? No pliilosopher -svill
inako objection for a moment to the Biuldliist books on tlie
score of tlie ji^-otesf^iue.
43, I have Overcome the World.
John XVI. 33. (*l]|ft(ig.-h;^'^nfH).
]>e of i^ood cheer : I liave overcome tlie A\()i'ld.
1. John V. 4, 5. (,*:^4aii5-S£'?)iy,2£).
Whatsoever is beji;otten of God overcometh the world : and
tliis is the victory that hath overcome the world, [even] our
faitli. And who is he that overcometli the world, but ]je that
believctli that Jesus is the Son of God?
Numerical Collection IV. 36.
(Cf. also Calssitied Collection XXII. t}4, Leiow trimslated in Parallel No. 5"^).
I am boru in the Morld, gi'OAvn up in the world, and liaviug
overcome the world, I abide by the same undehled. [liepeated
fioin above].
S.P. m^m (X.C.XO..V14, £5 -.:^:-ia).^'^
[This Parallel is verbal : 'eyco veviicijKci tov Kaaf.Lor=[aha7n'\
lulcain dhldhliuipjo . Tlie oIkuii is understood in tlie vlhardmi I
abide. Ahliihliuyya is the verbal noun, whicli is so much used
in iVili. Consideriuu; tliis idiom, it is no strain of grammar to
translate lolcam abhihlixtji/n. vi/i'ir'hiii. : "T liave overcome the
Awirld and abide " Xc]
44. The Light of the World.
John VIII : 12 {i!/.,m^i'A>^^'\-z)-
Jesus si)ake nnto them, sayiug, I am tlie light i)f the world.
(1) TLift I take from the verse spoken of in the preceeding note 7. to Parallel
•12. It correspnndH to the Pali n« upaUppam'i lokenu. TJnfortnriately the w<jrds
for lok tm ahhllhuyyi are wanting in both versions of the Samynkfa. Insteail of
thorn both have six or seven linos, last of which road : " Th« end uf birth and
deatVi is roaohed (by iik i." ■?yV:-'V'jr^.-,
44. 't'Hi: IJGH'L' OF THE WOULD. 139
John IX : 5-7. {^i^^Wiff)^-^)-
Wheu I am in the world, I am the light of the world . ^Vheu
lie had thus spoken, he spat upon the gromid, and made, clay of
the spittle, and anointed his eyes with the clay.
[Ol^serve the connection between light and the eye.]
Classified Collection LVI. 38.
Monks, s(j long as moon and smi arise not in the wtjrld, so
long is there no appearance of great glory, of great splendor.
Then is there gloom and darkness dense : night and day are
known not, nor months and fortnights, nor seasons of the year.
But wheu, O monks, the moon and sun arise in the world, then
is there appearance of great glory, of great splendor: gloom and
dense darkness are no more ; then night and day are known, and
months and foi-tnights and seasons of the year.
Even so, monks, so long as there arises no Tathagato, a Holy
One, a perfect Bnddha, so long is there no appearance of great
glory, of great splendor. Then is there gloom and darkness
dense': there is no proclamation of the Four Noble Tiiiths, no
preaching thereof, no publication, no establishment, no exposi-
tion, analysis, elucidation. But when, O monks, a Tathagato, a
Holy One, a perfect Buddha ariseth in the world, then is there
appearance of great glory and of splendor great; gloom and
dense darkness are no more : then is there proclamation of the
Four Noble Truths ; there is preaching thereof, i)ublication,
establishment, exposition, analysis, elucidation.
C.T. #i5nli-3i (N.C. No. S41, £5:^ 80 b).
m\\mmmm\i.^ -^vinr^^m^w, -tjj^Mir^^aiit
mm^ ^mmmm^ mmf^% mmu^ MriR^Mo ■•••;•••
Long Collection, Dialogue 16.
(Book of the Great Decease. Translated in S. B. E., Yol. XI, p.p. U'.t, 122, 127).
To(^ S(3on will the Lord enter Nirvana ! Too soon will the
liO GOSPEL I'AK AI.I.KLS. PAliT 4.
Aiispicions One enter Nirvauu ! Too soon Avill the Li£,']it of tlie
World nitorally. Eye in tlie Wcnid) vanlsli ;n\iiy !
C.T. UpiJiir'^ i'Bl (N.C No. 2. of No. 545, l/:Ji U a, 20 b, 21 a).
iS^^- Jl#g}^^j;.#ff, pp. 180-181).
45. King, Redeemer and Conqueror
of the Devil.
JollU XVIII : 37. imm-l'Acr.iW-t).
rilute tlieioie said nnto liini, Ait tliou a king tlien? JesiLs
answered, Tliou savest that I am a king, To this end have I
been born, and to this end am J ronu^ into the world, that I
should bear witness nnto tlie truth. Every one that is of the
trnth hearetli my voice.
Mark X : 45. (r^u/f^ i-(?j|/Lit5j.
For eerily the Son of man c-amo not to be ministered nnto,
bnt to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
John XII : 31. a'MBir.ujm-).
Now is the jndgment of tliis world : now shall tlie prince of
this world be cast ont.
Sela-Siitta.
(Double text : C'ollectiun of Siittiis aad :\Iulilliuf,' C()llecti(.-n, Dialogue 92). 0)
I am a King, () Selo I
An iucom])arable King of religion.'-^
By religion I set rolling a wheel,
An irresistil)le Avheel
(1) This sutta is found neither in the Chinsee Madhyuma nor in other
Chinese text, but the persons of Sola (J(g?f(') and Kei.iiya (Jfl^f?) are found in a
tSutra of ifillMjl'Ll-f;; (N.C. No. 513, //^.H 12). This sutra aj^aees in substance with
the Dighfi No. 27. A<i'jti,'r>i, which is also tonnd in BiM44Si\'l (N'-C. No. 5 of No.
545).
The utti'.raucc of Huddlia tliut he is a ndigioiis Kiuj,' is found in <\\o places
of the Chinese Kl.otlara (f/--^ 5S b, fX:H 52 a). There we read :
n'^^l[&l\l ^ , ^4 II ii- l- 0 »nd
n'^M^.h^T-o (A.M.)
i;2) Or TruUi (as in John :) /'//.()»»/('<. which we ceuerallv traiislat.-- I>iK-tiiiie."
4G. LION OF HIS KACE. 141
Wliiit (mglit to 1)0 supremely kuowu 1 kn(^^\■,
What ought to be perfected I perfect,
What ought to 1)6 renounced I renounce :
Tlierefore, O Brahmin! am I Buddha.
DiscipHue thy doubt of me,
SmTender thyself, O Brahmin !
Hard to obtain is the appearing
Of fully Enlightened Ones repeatelly.
He who indeed is hard in the luorld to obtain,
In manifestation repeatedly.
Tliiiif uUi/ Englifjldened One, O Bndnnin, ;im I.^"'
Physician incomparable''^^
Godlike, ])eyond measm-e,
A ci'usher of the Devil's army.
Having subjugated all enemies,
I rejoice as one who hath nowhere a fear.
Thou <irt Buddha, thou art the Master,
Thou art the Sage who overcomest the Devil,
Tliou hast cast off all inclinations :
And having crossed over thyself, liast ferried this
[human] race across.
46. Lion of his Race.
Revelation V : 5. (S^^ii^s^e).
Weep not: behold the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah,
the Hoot of David, hatli overcome, to o]^)en the l)ook and the
seven seals thereof.
Numerical Collection V. 99.
" Lion," O monks: this is the appellation of the Tathagato,
the Holy One, the fully Enlightened One. Because, monks,
Avhen the Tathagato proclaims the Doctrine to a company" he
does so with a lion- voice. If he proclaim it unto monks or nims,
he proclaims it comprehensiveh', with nothing omitted ; and
(3) Xumerical Collection 1 : 13.
(4) rtiviitakii, ICO.
142 GOSPEL PAUALLiXS. I'AXiT 4..
likewise unto lay-disciplos, -svlietlier meu or womeu. And if,
monks, tlio Tatliagato proclaim the Doctriue to tlie commou
jieople even, avIio merely care for food and maintenance and
Avealtli, lie proclaims it comprehensively, Avith nauf^ht omitted.
Wliat is the reason? The Tatliap;ato, monks, is Aveip;hty in
reli«T:ion, an authority in religion/''
(1) tf^I>nJlig-t-r. (X.C.No. 513, ^H24u).
(2) lllJtiJH (N.C.Xo. 54-4, ^- IGb).'-"^
( 3) i^miL-\'-\^ (N.C. No. 543, ^- 36 b).
±M»iI^t^o C2) tm ItiS, liiii, m^i&Mm?^
47. The Master Remembers a
Preexistent State.
John XVII: 5. (^^ji^fii^i--L'®ii:).
And n(jw, () Father, glorify thon me ■\\ith thine t)A\ii self Avith
the glory which I had Avith thee l^efore tiie world A\as.
Logia-Book, 22.
This Avas spoken In" tlie Lord, s])okcii l>v tlio Arahat and
heard bj' me.
O monks, be not afraid of gocxl a\ orks : such is the name for
liap])iness, for Avhat is Avished, desired, dear and delightful, namely
good Avorks. And for a long time have I knoAvn, monks, the
Avished-for, desired, dear, delightful and severally eujoj-ed results
of good Avorks done for a long time. Having practised Bene-
volence for seven yenrs, I did not return to this Avorld dming
seven reons of consummation and restoration. Yea, monks, at
the consummation of an a^on I Avas an Angel of Splendor, and at
the restoration I rose again in the empty palace of the Brahmas.
(1) C£. Murk i: 22. And they were astonished at bis toncliing: for be
laugbt them as having authorily, and not as the scribes.
(2) AVe have no jiassngo wholly agreeing ■with the Fali above translated.
The Chinese paralles were brought together from three different texts. For the
last sentence compare 9113 B i \\\iA% V- ^'"'- (A.M.)
48. THK ."\I.\STEK KNOWS fJOi> ANJ) HIS KINGDOM. . 14^:
Yea, then, () monks, I was a Bralimu — the Great Brahma, cou-
querinji;, iiucouqtierecl, allseeing, controlliug. And thirty-six
times, O monks, ^vas I Sakko, the lord of tlie angels ; manj'
Jmnddreds of times I was a king, a righteous emperor, a king of
righteousness"^ victorious in the four quarters, securely establish-
ed in my country, and possessed of the seven treasures. Now
what was the doctrine of that region and kindgom ? This is
what I thought of it, O monks : What deed of mine is this the
fruit of? Of what deed is this the result, wherehy noAv I am
thus magical and mighty? This is what I thought of it, ()
monks : This is the fruit of three deeds of mine, of three deeds
the result, whereby now I am thus magical and mighty, to wit :
alms, control and abstinence.
[The substance of this Sutta is then put into two stanzas,]
Exactly this is the meaning of wliat the Lord said, and thus
it A\as heard by me.
^M, j^iMSl:. -#^& u^-^^^M.Mio mM'^miti
mmr-n^wm^c -ffir^-is^^f ja^.f., m^brnm, $^.nmd:o
fia^M. m^k-^m m^-iSM^ Mm^m^ -^bmmm^mc
[Platonism, Philouism and Mazdeism, M"ith its uniucarnate
pra?existence, are doubtless nearer to the thought of John's Gos-
pel than the Buddhist doctrine ; but still there is a parallel.]
48. The Master knows God and his Kingdom.
John VI: 46. mmm-:^^(^mtA).
Not that any man hath seen the Fathei', save he which is
from God, he hath seen the Father.
JohnVII: 29. {mMe,^^^i\-K).
I know him ; because I am from him, and he sent me.
(1) Or, King Ly right, dlmrmikn dharmaroju, the Epic title of a Hindu
suzerain.
(2) The Chinese Itivrtika has not this sutta. The passage is taken from
an apopokryph. Preceding this passage we find two stanzas very similar to
those of the PaH Itiviittaka. (A.M.)
144 oi)Spi;l i'Ai;Ai.Li;r.s. rAi;T 4.
John VIII : 42 : 55. {^Mm'\(^m-\-:.iLtTi).
•Ifsus said unto tln'iii, If (lodwen? your Futlxer, yt^ would
I')\(' mo: for I i-auui l'()-i-tli and am fonio from (Jotl: for neither
]i{iv<3 I c-oiae of uiysolf, l)ut ]i(.' seut ine an<l ye have uot
kuowu him : but I know liim ; and if I sh<juid say, I know liim
not, 1 shall he like unto you, a liar: l)ut I know liim and keep
his word. ,
Long Collection, Dialogue 13.
(Translated in S. ]5. E., XI and in Sacrel Boohs of th" H'cUhisls; Vol. 2, each
time by Rhys Davids : 18S1 and lH<:)/.i).
That man, () Yasettho, l)orn and brou.i^ht up at Manasfikata,
mij>ht hesitate or falter when asked tlie way tliereto. But not
so dot^s the Tatlmgato hesitate or falter Avhen asked of the kiuji;-
dom of God (Avorld of Brahma) or the patli that j.>;oeth thereto.
For I, O Yasettho, kuoN\- l)oth (-rod and the kin<i;dom of God and
the path that goeth thereto ; I know it (^vcn as om/'^ who hatli
entered the KinG;dom of God and Itr-en born tliere.
C.T. Ul^'i'lzr.llM:fM (X.C. No. 20. of No. 545, i';t;t80).
^^iiif f'iiA n^m,m, s«Wo ^^A^mn
49. The Master hears Supernal Voices.
Mark I. ]1. (,b|],;(!J,c-c) f--).
A V()i('(' c-ame out of th(3 heavens: Tliou ait my In^lttved
Son, in tliee I am well ])1 eased.
[Aeeordinp; to Mark, it would ap})eai- that this voie(> was
luiard ])y Jesus only. ^Matthew's Gcjspel, by alterin«:; the verb
from the second pei-son to the third, conveys tlie idea that it was
lieard by tli(} sjiectators, as in John XII. '29.]
(1) The Siani text has " oven as Bruhmfi " (i.e , God or archangel). Though
tli<; Jinddhists held that the supremo Godhead was an ofllce, not a person and
that the Buddha himself had hold that office in a past eternity (see above) yet they
ascribed to the chief Brahma .all tlie Thristian titles of the DHty (Long Collection,
Dialogues 1 and 11).
48. THK JIAiSTKli HEARS SUPKUNAL YOICKS. 1-45
Long Collection, Dialogue 14.
(Tiauslated by Albert J. Edumnds : Marvellous Birth nf the Unddbas :
rbiladelpbia, 1899, p. 5; second edition, 1903, pp. 5 and 12).
[Ill auswer to tlie question as to Low Buddha gains liis
knowledge of former existences.]
Monks, tliis quality is well acquired only by a Tatlia.gat(j,
whereby lie remembers the by-gone Buddlias, cmd spiritual beings
{devcda) hove also fold Jiim.
C.T. ^M'k'M^ (N.C. No. 1. of. No. 545, ff:A 1 ■•^).
Book of Apparitions (Devatri Saij)yutta, :iiPpltBp1.ycM;)-
That angel (or, spirit), standing on one side, ejaculated this
stanza 1 before the Lord.
[Frecjuent formula in the Books of Apparitious.]
Logia-Book, 82.
Monks, these throe angel-voicps go forth among tlje angels
from time to time.
CT. ^^ifM (N.C. No. 7U, M'^olb).
[They are three exclamations of angelic encouragement : (1)
When an asectic reuoimces the world ; (2) When he has attained
the sevenfold wisdom ; (3) Wlieu lie has destroyed the Depravi-
ties. (1) .^i^ai^d^f, C2) ^^^^fmnmmm^'^fMnm^m (S)
The passage on Psychical Powers (Parallel 31) affirms that
hearing voices of angels and of distant men is one of the gifts (^f
the Master. It is well known that religious geniuses, like
Socrates, Fox, Swedonborg, Woolmam and Shillitce, have always
lieen accustomed to hear voices that guide, warn or encoui-age
them. Some alienists maintain that tins is a symptom of in-
sanity'. But is not insanity a perversion of real powers ? And
whereas the voices of genius mean something, tlioso of tlie mad-
14G gusi'j:i. tauallkls. taut 4.
I
man mean nothiu!^. Take, for example, the voice that told Fox
that to be bred at Oxford or Cambridge did not qualify a man
to be a minister of Clirist. It has lately been i)ointed out (see
Dictionary of National Bio(jraphij, aiiicle on Saltmarsh) that the
words heard Ijy Fox occur almost verbatim in a A^•ork by Salt-
marsh, published in IGJrO, the very year in which Fox heard the
voice. The A^iter in the Dictionary says that Saltmai-sh
anticipated Fox, biit he means as to date of j)ublication. Noav
what Fox heard may have come direct from the mind of his con-
temporary felloAV mystic which would be sending forth vibrations
to impinge upon congenial spirits. In my impublished i-evieAv
of the great work of Frederic Myers, I have |>ointed out iniothov
coincidence of this kind. I
50. The Christ remains [on earth] for the /Eon.
John XII : 34. (*^j|a;¥t^'^Htra).
The nniltitued therefore answered him, We have heard out
of the Law, that the Clirist abideth forever \eh top alo)va, for the
Oion.']
Enunciations VI, 1. and Long Collection, Dialogue 16.
(Book of the Great Decease. Translated in S. B. E.. Vol. XI, p. 40).
Anando, any one who has practised the four principles of
]3sychical power — developed them, made them active and practi-
cal, pursued them, accumulated and striven to the height thereof
—can, if he so slundd wish, remain [on eaiih] for the ?pon or the
rest of the jcon.
Now, Anando, the Tathagato lias practised and i)erfected
these ; and if he so should wish, the Tathagato rniiM remain fon
earth] for the ceon or the rest of the feon.
C.T. M^VMUM (N.C. No. -2. of. No. 515, l^-Ji IS a).
[Tlie woj'ds in italics agree with those in the Greek of John,
51. THE MASTER CAN KKNOUNCE OK PIIOLONG HIS LIFE. 147
except the mood and tense of the verb. Ilendel Harris has poin-
ted out to me that the tense of {j.evei is ambiguous, being either
present or futm-e. This is because the oldest manuscripts are
without accents. Tathdgato is a religious title equivalent to
Christ. Its exact meaning is still debated, but its analogy to
Sugato is obvious, and Rhys Davids' translation of it as Truth-
vnnner is probably as near the mark as "vve shall ever get.
As our text occurs also in the Sanskrit of the Divyavadana
(which has an independent transmission) its antiquity is ceiiain.
Moreover, the Book of the Great Decease and that of Enuncia-
tions are two of the oldest in the Pali, Enmiciations being also
one of the Nine Divisions of a lost arrangement of the Canon.
The ascription of the sa}'ing in John to " the multitude "
shows it to have been a cm-rent belief at the time of Christ. It
is not a New Testament doctrine, though the physical Second
Coming has been assimilated to it. Commentators have been
at a loss to identify the Old Testament passage (" out of the
Law") which is supposed to be quoted. The Ticcntietli Century
Neiv Testament proposes the Ai-amaic version of Isaiah IX : 7 as
the som-ce. The learned August Wiinsch, in his work on the
Gospels and the Talmud, says that the source is unknown. Be
that as it may, we have here a verbal Pali parallel :
o Xpicrro? jjuevei t't? top auova : Tathdgato kappam tittheyya.~]
51. The Master can renounce or prolong
his Life.^'^
. JohnX: 17, 18. (|.^|^(#t'?)t-t:, t a).
Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my
life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it awaj^ from me,
il)ut I lay it down of mj'self. I have power to lay it down, and I
have power to take it again. This commandment received I
fi'om my Father.
Book of the Great Decease, Chap. 3.
Now not long after the veneral)le Anando had gone, Maro
the Evil One approached the Lord, and standing beside him, ad-
dressed him thus :
(1) This section must be read with No. 50, which it immediately follows in
the Pali.
1-48 GOSPKL TAliALLKLS. VMlT 4.
" O Master, let the Lord now pass into Nirvana, let tlie
Auspicious One pass Into Nirvana : now, O jNIastei', is tlie time
for tlie Lord to pass thereto ; and morever this word was spoken
by the Lord : O Evil One, I shall not pass into Nirvana till my
monks and nims, my la3'men and laywomeu become wise and
trained disciples, apt and learned, reciters of the Doctrine, wal-
king in the Doctrine and the precepts, walking consistently,
living out the precepts : until they have giasped the teaching for
themselves and shall announce and proclaim it, pulAish, estal)lish
and reveal, explain in detail and interpret, so that when a
different system shall arise they may thoroughly refute it by tli*:;
Doctrine and proclaim the Doctrine with its miracles
And now, Master, is the Lord's religion spirituaUj- strong,
thriving, widespread,
Buddhist & Christian gospels. Being gospel parallels from Pali texts [reprinted with additions] now first compared from the originals
Edmunds, Albert J. (Albert Joseph), 1857-1941