repoman
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I am very poorly informed about this topic, but I thought I would ask the question here.
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Was the temptation narrative of Jesus in anyway influenced by the temptation of Buddha story?
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I don't know why it would need to be. The plot point of a hero being tempted by evil and choosing to reject it and be the good guy instead is one which two people could come up with independently.
You could look at other possible borrowings, whether transmission from Buddhist sources is plausible, and whether material could be better explained as being borrowed from previous Jewish sources etc, or just the kind of thing that is easily invented.
I know there are some people that claim borrowings from Buddhism, but I suspect it's a fringe view.
I know there are some people that claim borrowings from Buddhism, but I suspect it's a fringe view.
ruby sparks
Contributor
Imo it's fringe because the evidence for the input of Buddhism into Xianity is arguably thin (maybe very thin, I'm not exactly familiar).
People cite all sorts of parallels. It can amount to (mere) Parallelism. Certain 'plotlines' and ideas turn up again and again in human history, sometimes historical, sometimes not. Plus there's rampant cross-fertilization, and this can mean that actual events get repeated as versions of each other, or it can mean that what are 'just stories' get repeated as narratives. If we don't know the intent of the writer and what their sources or situations were, it's very hard to tell where it came from or was influenced by or whether it was historical or not.
People cite all sorts of parallels. It can amount to (mere) Parallelism. Certain 'plotlines' and ideas turn up again and again in human history, sometimes historical, sometimes not. Plus there's rampant cross-fertilization, and this can mean that actual events get repeated as versions of each other, or it can mean that what are 'just stories' get repeated as narratives. If we don't know the intent of the writer and what their sources or situations were, it's very hard to tell where it came from or was influenced by or whether it was historical or not.
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lpetrich
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Why don't you try comparing the stories yourself?
Elixir
Made in America
Heck - we can't even settle the matter of whether Melania plagiarized Michelle's speech. Good luck with settling it thousands of years later...
Even if it's difficult to conclusively settle some things, there must be criteria for what is better or worse evidence. We find parallels to be very persuasive evidence in at least some cases.
bilby
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Christopher Booker says that there are only seven basic plots underlying all stories, so it would seem likely that there are plenty of completely independent repeats, and unlikely that it will be possible to distinguish between copying and independent development of similar stories from antiquity.
Joseph Campbell and Erich Neumann (amongst others) consider both the Jesus and Budda narratives as examples of the monomyth; It's a story that gets told over and over again.
Absent some very clear and obvious reason to think that one story is a reworking of the other, it is perfectly plausible that they might be very similar, but unrelated.
Joseph Campbell and Erich Neumann (amongst others) consider both the Jesus and Budda narratives as examples of the monomyth; It's a story that gets told over and over again.
Absent some very clear and obvious reason to think that one story is a reworking of the other, it is perfectly plausible that they might be very similar, but unrelated.
Jobar
Zen Hedonist
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/buddha.html
From that link:
It's well worth reading that page if you're interested in this question.
From that link:
It's well worth reading that page if you're interested in this question.
lpetrich
Contributor
How widespread is this in hero mythology more generally? Consider Lord Raglan's mythic-hero profile. Jesus Christ scores high, like other mythical people -- the likes of Zeus, Oedipus, Perseus, Hercules, Romulus, Krishna, and Moses.
It must also be noted that Jesus Christ was different in several important ways from the Buddha -- mythical heroes aren't all alike.
JC: someone tried to kill him in his infancy
B: nobody did, though his father tried to pamper him
JC: raised a commoner
B: raised a prince
JC: not much about his spiritual journey except for rejecting the Devil's temptations
B: we learn more, like how he almost starved himself at one point
JC: he has a hero's welcome in Jerusalem, but people then turned against him, and he got crucified
B: no such repudiation, and he died pretty much accidentally, from eating tainted pork or mushrooms
JC: he got angry at people who wouldn't listen to him
B: he was much calmer, and he said that someone's unwelcome ridicule was an unwanted gift, and that unwanted gifts belong to their givers
It must also be noted that Jesus Christ was different in several important ways from the Buddha -- mythical heroes aren't all alike.
JC: someone tried to kill him in his infancy
B: nobody did, though his father tried to pamper him
JC: raised a commoner
B: raised a prince
JC: not much about his spiritual journey except for rejecting the Devil's temptations
B: we learn more, like how he almost starved himself at one point
JC: he has a hero's welcome in Jerusalem, but people then turned against him, and he got crucified
B: no such repudiation, and he died pretty much accidentally, from eating tainted pork or mushrooms
JC: he got angry at people who wouldn't listen to him
B: he was much calmer, and he said that someone's unwelcome ridicule was an unwanted gift, and that unwanted gifts belong to their givers
Lion IRC
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If you're fabricating a myth there's no need to consider plagiarism. You're starting with a supernatural blank canvas.
If two fabricated myths happen to share a similar event - so what?
But if you really wanna get yourself into a Dan Brown state of excitement thinking you've stumbled across something earth-shaking you may as well speculate that the Buddah temptation idea was itself borrowed from the story of Job - which predates Buddah a few thousand years.
If two fabricated myths happen to share a similar event - so what?
But if you really wanna get yourself into a Dan Brown state of excitement thinking you've stumbled across something earth-shaking you may as well speculate that the Buddah temptation idea was itself borrowed from the story of Job - which predates Buddah a few thousand years.
lpetrich
Contributor
repoman, haven't you done any research on the temptations of Jesus Christ and the Buddha? Like collecting the appropriate source texts.