Buddhism was known in the pre-Christian Greek world through the campaigns of Alexander the Great (see Greco-Buddhism and Greco-Buddhist monasticism), and several prominent early Christian fathers, including Clement of Alexandria and St. Jerome, were aware of the Buddha, even mentioning him in their works.McEvilley, p391Clement of Alexandria Stromata. BkI, Ch XV http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iv.i.xv.html (Accessed 19 Dec 2012) However, the majority of modern scholars who have studied both Buddhism and Christianity hold that there is no direct historical evidence of any influence by Buddhism on early Christianity.Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Volume One) by Robert E. Buswell (Feb 2004) Macmillan pages 159Jesus: The Complete Guide by J. L. Houlden (Feb 8, 2006) pages 140-144Fredriksen, Paula. From Jesus to Christ. Yale University Press, 2000, p. xxvi. Scholars generally consider any such influence implausible given that first century Jews are highly unlikely to have been open to far eastern concepts that appeared opposed to some of their basic beliefs.
Some historians such as Jerry H. Bentley and Elaine Pagels suggest that there is a possibility that Buddhism influenced the early development of Christianity.
There have also been suggestions of an indirect path in which Indian Buddhism may have influenced Gnosticism and then Christianity. Some scholars hold that the suggested similarities are coincidental since parallel traditions may emerge in different cultures.
Despite suggestions of surface level analogies, Buddhism and Christianity have inherent and fundamental differences at the deepest levels, such as monotheism's place at the core of Christianity and Buddhism's orientation towards non-theism.
In the East, the syncretism between Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism was deep and widespread along the Silk Road, and was especially pronounced in the medieval Church of the East in China.In the 13th century, international travelers, such as Giovanni de Piano Carpini and William of Ruysbroeck, sent back reports of Buddhism to the West and noted the similarities to Nestorian Christian beliefs .Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2004, page 160 There are also historical documents showing the syncretic nature of Christianity and Buddhism in Asia such as the Jesus Sutras and Nestorian Stele.
Early Christianity
Suggestions of influence Will Durant, noting that the Emperor Ashoka sent missionaries, not only to elsewhere in India and to Sri Lanka, but to Syria, Egypt and Greece, first speculated in the 1930s that they may have helped prepare the ground for Christian teaching.1. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage, Part One (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1935), vol. 1, p. 449. Asoka's Major Rock Edict 13 details that the Dharma had spread as far as the Hellenistic kingdoms of Antiochus, Ptolemy, Antigonus, Magas, and Alexander. Buddhism was prominent in the eastern Greek world (Greco-Buddhism) and became the official religion of the eastern Greek successor kingdoms to Alexander the Great's empire (Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250 BC-125 BC) and Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BC - 10 CE)). Several prominent Greek Buddhist missionaries are known (Mahadharmaraksita and Dharmaraksita) and the Indo-Greek king Menander I converted to Buddhism, and is regarded as one of the great patrons of Buddhism. (See Milinda Panha.) Some modern historians have suggested that the pre-Christian monastic order in Egypt of the Therapeutae is possibly a deformation of the Pāli word "Theravāda,"See Zacharias P. Thundy, Buddha and Christ Nativity Stories and Indian Traditions (Leiden: Brill, 1992), 244-5. a form of Buddhism, and the movement may have "almost entirely drawn (its) inspiration from the teaching and practices of Buddhist asceticism".Thundy, ibid. They may even have been descendants of Asoka's emissaries to the West.Thundy, ibid. It is true that Buddhist gravestones from the Ptolemaic period have also been found in Alexandria in Egypt, decorated with depictions of the Dharma wheel, showing the Buddhists were living in Hellenistic Egypt at the time Christianity began.The Greeks in Bactria and India, W.W. Tarn, South Asia Books, ' The presence of Buddhists in Alexandria has led zen Buddhist Robert Linssen to write: "It was later in this very place that some of the most active centers of Christianity were established".Living Zen by Robert Linssen (Grove Press New York, 1958) The early church father Clement of Alexandria (died 215 AD) was also aware of Buddha, writing in his Stromata (Bk I, Ch XV): "The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanæ and others Brahmins. And those of the Sarmanæ who are called "Hylobii" neither inhabit cities, nor have roofs over them, but are clothed in the bark of trees, feed on nuts, and drink water in their hands. Like those called Encratites in the present day, they know not marriage nor begetting of children. Some, too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha (Βούττα) whom, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honours."Clement of Alexandria Stromata. BkI, Ch XV http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iv.i.xv.html (Accessed 19 Dec 2012)
Nicolaus of Damascus, and other ancient writers, relate that in AD 13, at the time of Augustus (died AD 14), he met in Antioch (near present day Antakya in Turkey just over 300 miles from Jerusalem) an embassy with a letter written in Greek from the Southern India Pandya Empire was delivered while Caesar was in the Island of Samos. This embassy was accompanied by a sage who later, naked, anointed and contented, burnt himself to death at Athens.Strabo, Geography Bk XV, Ch1, 73 The details of his tomb inscription specified he was a Shramana, "his name was Zarmanochegas", he was an Indian native of Bargosa, and "immortalized himself according to the custom of his country." Cassius DioHist 54.9, and Plutarch69,1 cite the same story. Historian Jerry H. Bentley (1993) notes "the possibility that Buddhism influenced the early development of Christianity" and that scholars "have drawn attention to many parallels concerning the births, lives, doctrines, and deaths of the Buddha and Jesus".
The suggestion that an adult Jesus traveled to India and was influenced by Buddhism before starting his ministry in Galilee was first made by Nicolas Notovitch in 1894 in the book The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ which was widely disseminated and became the basis of other theories.The Unknown Life Of Jesus Christ: By The Discoverer Of The Manuscript by Nicolas Notovitch (Oct 15, 2007) Forged: Writing in the Name of God--Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are by Bart D. Ehrman (Mar 6, 2012) page 252 "one of the most widely disseminated modern forgeries is called The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ" Notovitch's theory was controversial from the beginning and was widely criticized.Simon J. Joseph, "Jesus in India?" Journal of the American Academy of Religion Volume 80, Issue 1 pp. 161-199 "Max Müller suggested that either the Hemis monks had deceived Notovitch or that Notovitch himself was the author of these passages" Once his story had been re-examined by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence.New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. 1: Gospels and Related Writings by Wilhelm Schneemelcher and R. Mcl. Wilson (Dec 1, 1990) page 84 "a particular book by Nicolas Notovich (Di Lucke im Leben Jesus 1894) ... shortly after the publication of the book, the reports of travel experiences were already unmasked as lies. The fantasies about Jesus in India were also soon recognized as invention... down to today, nobody has had a glimpse of the manuscripts with the alleged narratives about Jesus"Indology, Indomania, and Orientalism by Douglas T. McGetchin (Jan 1, 2010) Fairleigh Dickinson University Press page 133 "Faced with this cross-examination, Notovich confessed to fabricating his evidence."
Rejections of influence Most scholars believe there is no historical evidence of any influence by Buddhism on Christianity. Leslie Houlden states that although modern parallels between the teachings of Jesus and Buddha have been drawn, these comparisons emerged after missionary contacts in the 19th century and there is no historically reliable evidence of contacts between Buddhism and Jesus.Jesus: The Complete Guide 2006 by Leslie Houlden page 140 Albert Schweitzer, in his Quest of the Historical Jesus, also rejects any notion of Buddhist influence on the tradition of Jesus, in which he says "the attempt to use the Buddhist world to explain the tradition of Jesus and his teaching...is pointless," and that "there is no possibility of demonstrating a direct influence of Buddhist ideas on Jesus' thought," although he allows for a very indirect influence.
Other scholars such as Eddy and Boyd state that there is no evidence of a historical influence by outside sources on the authors of the New Testament, and most scholars agree that any such historical influence on Christianity is entirely implausible given that first century monotheistic Galilean Jews would not have been open to what they would have seen as pagan stories.The Jesus legend: a case for the historical reliability of the synoptic gospels by Paul R. Eddy, Gregory A. Boyd 2007 page 53-54Gerald O'Collins, "The Hidden Story of Jesus" New Blackfriars Volume 89, Issue 1024, pages 710–714, November 2008 The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism states that theories of influences of Buddhism on early Christianity are without historical foundation.
Modern scholarship has roundly rejected any historical basis for the travels of Jesus to India or Tibet or influences between the teachings of Christianity and Buddhism, and has seen the attempts at parallel symbolism as cases of parallelomania which exaggerate the importance of trifling resemblances.Van Voorst, Robert E (2000). Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. Eerdmans Publishing. page 17The Historical Jesus in Recent Research edited by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight 2006 page 303
Inasmuch as there is a single unified system known as Christianity, excluding the claim that the Trinity cannot be monotheistic, Christianity is traditionally viewed as being monotheistic and relies on the notion of a creator deity to establish objective morality, heaven, hell, and create the world. Traditional forms of Buddhism endorse a form of polytheism. However, these deities are not creators in the Christian sense: morality, heavens, hells, and the creation of the world come about due to ignorance, karma, and rebirth. All these non-Enlightened deities are all bound by saṃsāra just like human beings. Enlightened deities (Enlightened beings), arhats, and bodhisattvas surpass the gods. The gods are still trapped by ignorance, karma, and rebirth. Thus, there is no singular all-powerful and eternal creator deity in Buddhism.Brahmajāla Sutta: The All-embracing Net of Views | https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.01.0.bodh.htmlThe Boundaries of Knowledge in Buddhism, Christianity, and Science by Paul D Numrich (Dec 31, 2008) page 10Communicating Christ in the Buddhist World by Paul De Neui and David Lim (Jan 1, 2006) page 34
The central iconic imagery of the two traditions underscore the difference in their belief structure, when the peaceful death of Gautama Buddha at an old age is contrasted with the harsh image of the crucifixion of Jesus as a willing sacrifice for the atonement for the sins of humanity. Buddhist scholars such as Masao Abe see the centrality of crucifixion in Christianity as an irreconcilable gap between the two belief systems.Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue by Masao Abe and Steven Heine (Jun 1, 1995) pages 99-100Mysticism, Christian and Buddhist by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki ((Aug 4, 2002)) page 113
Post Apostolic Age
Church Fathers