A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s7.44

v2.c19.s7.44

¹ See above, p. 251; *Bergh van Eysinga*, p. 75 ff.; *Garbe*, Contributions, p. 19 ff.; Indien und das Christentum, p. 70 ff.; Charpentier in ZDMG 69, 442; E. *Hennecke*, Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, 2. Aufl., Tübingen 1924, p. 95 f. Even *Götz* in "Der Katholik," 1912 (IV, 9), 271, says: "An influence on the part of Indian and presumably also Buddhist traditions on the apocryphal writings of semi-Christian elements of the West is, then, an historical fact." J. Kennedy in *JRAS* 1917, 508 ff., explains the undeniable resemblances between the apocryphal stories of the childhood of Jesus and the Buddhist legends, by the hypothesis of Christian-Gnostic influences on Buddhism. Among those who make it their principle to deny any connection whatsoever, even in this case, we may mention *Clemen* in Zeitschf. f. neutestament. Wiss. 1916, 131 ff. and *Günter*, l.c., 74 ff., 78 f., 91 f.; see, however, *Haas*, Buddha etc., pp. 12 f., 22 f. As early as in 1762 the Augustine hermit Georgius pointed out that a similar story to that told of the five-year old Jesus and Zakchaios in the Gospel of St. Thomas, was told in Tibet about Buddha, see L. *Conrady*, Das Thomasevangelium (Thelog. Studien und Kritiken, Gotha 1903), p. 403 ff.