Indische Invloeden op Oude Christelijke Verhalen. By Gustaaf Adolf van den Bergh van Eysinga. Leiden, E. J. Brill. 1901.
The question of Indian influences on early Christian narratives is of much importance to folklore students in reference to the general problem of transmission of folktales. To us, the consideration of the question seems an odd subject for a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Nor could it be treated under existing conditions in England with freedom from bias or without the strongest suspicion of the advocacy of a foregone conclusion. In Holland, however, people think differently. There it is possible, as this essay shows, for a student of divinity to investigate scientifically, and to set forth without fear the results of his inquiries into the materials of the canonical and apocryphal Gospels, even though his conclusions may seriously qualify the evidential value of those documents.
Dr. van Eysinga begins by a criticism of his predecessors in the same field. Students of Buddhism have frequently noticed coincidences between the legend of Buddha and the narratives of the Gospels, canonical and apocryphal. The latest and most systematic attempts to prove a connection are by Professor Seydel of Leipzig. They are embodied in his Das Evangelium Jesu in seinen Verhältnissen zu Buddha-Sage und Buddha-Lehre (1882), and Die Buddha-Legende und das Leben Jesu nach den Evangelien (1897). Dr. van Eysinga has examined afresh the passages alleged by Seydel and other scholars as proofs of Buddhist influence, together with other parallels. Each parallel is analysed in detail. The textual resemblances between the Christian and Buddhist writings are noted, the resemblances of incident and circumstance are discussed; and where the story as told in the Gospels appears inconsistent or needing explanation, the author turns to the Buddhist legends to seek for light.
He then considers the intercourse between India and the West in pre-Christian and early Christian times, both by sea and land. Intercourse there certainly was before the time of Alexander the Great. But the invasion of India by that conqueror and the establishment of a Greek realm in the Panjâb led to much coming and going, increased trade and exchange of ideas between the East and the West. The author traces the various routes, and he
