Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 166
Prophet" or "Leader of Travellers" I for the first time wondered if the hero of the legend could have had something in common with Jesus' activities in Mesopotamia. They were both Jews and both travelled out of religious motives. . Yet it was difficult to explain the change of favourable qualities of the model into a bad character of the definite product of Christian phantasy. We must not forget that this metamorphosis took place of course in the Christian and not in the. Islamic mind. Had the Christian author dared to describe Jesus' travels in the trails of Ahasverus he would have been put on the stake on the spot. . But why did this legend appear in Europe only in the 13th century? It was not until later that I grasped the impact and extent of the Nestorian Church on the history of Asia and could admire the Mongol Nestorians who tried to take Jerusalem for. Christianity in the "Crusade of the yellow" A. D. 1259. As a further step I learned more about the sociology of the crusades: not only rich gentry and hierarchy took part in them, but a great burden was put on an immense mass of simple and poor believers. The cruel fight being ended, the individual members of the crusade had opportunity to learn different views about. Christ than their own dogmatic ones. Just for the eastern Christian Jesus was more a man than God. For some Christian heretics he was only a man. Following the Kinitic creed he was their progeny and had some share in Judas' suicide. In. Islam he was a man, a Prophet and a forerunner of Muhammad. . The crusaders learnt from Christian heretics of more different aspects of this wonderful character. It is plain that the humiliating traits and stains had to be shifted from Jesus on to a scape-goat. In the medieval Europe naturally and only on to a Jew. . This is why the "travelling Jew", originally being the travelling prophet Isa. appeared in Europe with the end of the crusades. . IV. The last point of my paper concerns the relation of Jesus to Buddhism. A certain similarity between the Christian and the Buddhist movements and later churches was striking the. Christian missionaries and tradesmen who came from Europe to. India like Marco Polo. More striking was the liturgy and ritual 171