Appendix · a side path

The “lost years” of Jesus and India

The Gospels say almost nothing about Jesus between the age of twelve and about thirty. Since the 1890s some writers have claimed he spent those years in India and Tibet. This page sets out what the Bible says, what the claim says, who has supported it, and what historians found when they checked. The aim is to describe the story respectfully, not to argue anyone into or out of a belief.

1. What the Gospels say

Canonical text

“And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.”— Luke 2:42, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

“And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”— Luke 2:51-52, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

“And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,”— Luke 3:23, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

Between Luke 2:52 and Luke 3:23 the text is silent. Luke 2:51 places him back in Nazareth “subject unto them.” The only other clue often cited is the wise men “from the east” at his birth:

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.”— Matthew 2:1-2, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV

2. The claim: Notovitch’s Life of Saint Issa (1894)

Disputed claim Nicolas Notovitch, a Russian traveller, published La vie inconnue de Jésus-Christ in Paris in 1894. English translations followed in 1894–95; the Connelly & Landsberg version is on Project Gutenberg. He said that in 1887, while recovering from a broken leg at Hemis monastery in Ladakh, lamas read him a Tibetan text about “Issa,” which he wrote down through an interpreter. The route it describes:

“Then Issa secretly absented himself from his father's house; left Jerusalem, and, in a train of merchants, journeyed toward the Sindh,”— The Life of Saint Issa, IV.12, in Notovitch, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, tr. Connelly & Landsberg · Project Gutenberg #29288

“In his fourteenth year, young Issa, the Blessed One, came this side of the Sindh and settled among the Aryas, in the country beloved by God.”— The Life of Saint Issa, V.1, in Notovitch, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, tr. Connelly & Landsberg · Project Gutenberg #29288

“He spent six years in Djagguernat, in Radjagriha, in Benares, and in other holy cities.”— The Life of Saint Issa, V.5, in Notovitch, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, tr. Connelly & Landsberg · Project Gutenberg #29288

“After six years of study, Issa, whom the Buddha had elected to spread his holy word, could perfectly expound the sacred scrolls.”— The Life of Saint Issa, VI.4, in Notovitch, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, tr. Connelly & Landsberg · Project Gutenberg #29288

“The countries round about were filled with the renown of Issa's preachings, and when he came unto Persia, the priests grew afraid and forbade the people hearing him;”— The Life of Saint Issa, VIII.1, in Notovitch, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, tr. Connelly & Landsberg · Project Gutenberg #29288

“Issa—whom the Creator had selected to recall to the worship of the true God, men sunk in sin—was twenty-nine years old when he arrived in the land of Israel.”— The Life of Saint Issa, IX.1, in Notovitch, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, tr. Connelly & Landsberg · Project Gutenberg #29288

In the book, Issa leaves Jagannath (Puri) after trouble with the Brahmins and settles “in the country of the Gautamides,” then leaves “Nepaul and the Himalaya mountains” for the west (VI.2–5). Hemis in Ladakh is where Notovitch said he heard the text. It is not a stop on Issa’s route.

A note on the name “Issa”

Historical source “Issa” is a spelling of ʿĪsā, the Arabic name for Jesus used in the Qur’an and by Muslims (in full ʿĪsā ibn Maryam, “Jesus, son of Mary”; overview). Persian uses the same form. Max Müller noted this in 1896: “Isa is the name for Jesus used by Mohammedans” (The Nineteenth Century, 1896). Jesus’ own Aramaic/Hebrew name was Yeshua.

It is sometimes suggested that “Issa” is short for the Sanskrit Īśvara (Ishvara). The two words sound alike but are unrelated. Īśvara means “lord” or “ruler,” and in philosophy the Lord or a “special Self” (overview). In the Yoga Sutras it names the Lord to whom the yogi may devote himself:

“Or [concentration] is attained by devotion to the Icvara.”— Yoga Sutra I.23, tr. J. H. Woods (1914); “Icvara” is the scan’s rendering of Īçvara/Īśvara · source

“Untouched by hindrances or karmas or fruition or by latent-deposits, the Icvara is a special kind of Self.”— Yoga Sutra I.24, tr. Woods · source

3. Who has supported the India story

4. A different theory: Kashmir and the Roza Bal

Disputed claim This is a separate story and should not be confused with Notovitch’s. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya movement, wrote Masīh Hindustān Mein (Jesus in India), completed in 1899 and published in 1908. It argues that Jesus survived the crucifixion, travelled east through Nisibis, Persia and Afghanistan to find the lost tribes of Israel, and died of old age in Kashmir. Ahmad identified the Roza Bal shrine in Srinagar, traditionally the tomb of a sage called Yuz Asaf, as the tomb of Jesus (Jesus in India; Roza Bal; Ahmadiyya text at alislam.org). The map shows this route as a dashed line.

The theory concerns the years after the cross, not the “lost years,” and Wikipedia notes that Ahmad specifically disagreed with Notovitch. Mainstream Muslims and secular historians do not accept it, and it conflicts with the Christian belief in the resurrection. A caretaker of the shrine told reporters that “the theory that Jesus is buried anywhere on the face of the earth is blasphemous to Islam” (Wikipedia, Roza Bal).

5. What the investigators found

Historical source Both articles below appeared in the London monthly The Nineteenth Century and are transcribed by Roger Pearse.

Max Müller, “The Alleged Sojourn of Christ in India” (October 1894)

“But, taking it for granted that M. Notovitch is a gentleman and not a liar, we cannot help thinking that the Buddhist monks of Ladakh and Tibet must be wags, who enjoy mystifying inquisitive travellers, and that M. Notovitch fell far too easy a victim to their jokes.”— F. Max Müller, The Nineteenth Century 36 (1894), pp. 515–522 · source

J. Archibald Douglas, “The Chief Lama of Himis on the Alleged ‘Unknown Life of Christ’” (April 1896)

Douglas, a professor at the Government College, Agra, went to Hemis in 1895 with an interpreter and put written questions to the chief lama, who signed and sealed the answers on June 3, 1895:

“Answer 4. There is no such book in the monastery, and during my term of office no sahib has been allowed to copy or translate any of the manuscripts in the monastery.”— Chief Lama of Hemis, in Douglas, The Nineteenth Century 39 (1896), pp. 667–677 · source

“I have been for forty-two years a Lama, and am well acquainted with all the well-known Buddhist books and manuscripts, and I have never heard of one which mentions the name of Issa, and it is my firm and honest belief that none such exists.”— Chief Lama of Hemis, Answer 5, same article · source

Douglas also found that a Russian named Notovitch had been treated at the hospital in Leh “suffering not from a broken leg, but from the less romantic but hardly less painful complaint——toothache” (same article). Müller’s postscript withdrew his kinder theory:

“He was not hoaxed, but he tried to hoax us.”— Max Müller, postscript to Douglas, The Nineteenth Century 39 (1896) · source

Modern scholarship

• Historical source Bart D. Ehrman, Forged (2011): “Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax.” (as quoted in Wikipedia; book text not checked directly)
• Historical source Gerald O’Collins, SJ, “The Hidden Story of Jesus,” New Blackfriars 89 (2008): Jesus’ “supposed life and death in India” is “a ‘thesis’ that was invented without a shred of evidence in the 1890s” (abstract, Cambridge University Press).
• Historical source Per Beskow, Strange Tales about Jesus: A Survey of Unfamiliar Gospels (Fortress Press, 1983), pp. 57–65, calls the Notovitch text “the best-known Gospel forgery of modern times” (as quoted in the Internet Archive catalogue note; book text not checked directly).
• Historical source Robert Van Voorst says modern scholarship has “almost unanimously agreed” that claims of Jesus’ travels to Tibet, Kashmir or India contain “nothing of value” (as quoted in Wikipedia).

Interpretation