A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s7.5

v2.c19.s7.5

What Seydel undertook to produce with inadequate material, for Buddhist literature was but very incompletely known in his day, namely, a "Buddhist-Christian Gospel Concordance," was once again attempted later, on the basis of a far more accurate knowledge of the Pāli and Sanskrit texts, by the American scholar *Albert J. Edmunds*.¹ He expressly states that he is not out to prove the dependence of the Christian sacred scriptures upon the Buddhist texts, but only to compare the two religions, "as such a comparison will finally have the effect of making them respect each other." Nevertheless he inclines to the view that Christianity, as the more eclectic religion, borrowed from Buddhism, and that St. Luke, in particular, was acquainted with a Buddha-epic. On the other hand, it is precisely Edmunds' comprehensive collection of all the passages in both literatures which can possibly be dragged in, as it were, for comparison, which shows most clearly, firstly, that there is no instance in which a loan on the part of the four gospels must necessarily be assumed, secondly, that in most instances there is only a similarity of ideas, which does not presuppose a literary connection, and thirdly, that in the best cases, only a possibility of mutual influence can be admitted, and that this *possibility* amounts to *probability* only in very few cases. Very frequently, indeed, Edmunds' comparison of the texts shows how very much greater the differences are than the points of contact.