It is generally well known that Christians don’t tend to hold favorable views towards the founders of other religions. At least historically, Christians have generally seen founders of non-Christian religions as heretics or false prophets. This is why, for instance, as I discuss in this article from June 2020, in his poem The Inferno, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (lived c. 1265 – 1321) portrays Muhammad, the founder of Islam, being tortured in Hell with his torso split open from his chin to his anus and his guts spilling out, dangling between his legs.
For this reason, many people may be surprised to learn that Siddhārtha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, has actually been honored as a saint in Christianity for well over a thousand years under the name Ioasaph, which is ultimately derived from the Sanskrit word bodhisattva. It’s a bizarre, fascinating story of religious cross-culturalism that demonstrates how surprisingly interconnected the cultures of the Old World were during the Middle Ages.
The origin of the Christian Buddha
The story of how Siddhārtha Gautama became revered as a Christian saint begins with Manichaeism, a syncretic religion founded in the third century AD by the Iranian prophet Māni. Manichaeism teaches that, throughout history, there have been many prophets who have been sent by God to preach his word.
The most important of these prophets include Zarathustra (the founder of Zoroastrianism), Siddhārtha Gautama (the founder of Buddhism), Jesus Christ (the founder of Christianity), and, of course, Māni himself. Consequently, Manichaeism incorporates aspects of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Christianity.
Unlike Christianity and Islam, Manichaeism never really became the dominant religion in any particular region, but it remained a minority religion in the Middle East and in East Asia throughout the Middle Ages and it exerted some degree of influence on the other religions in those regions. Notably, from the reign of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi (ruled 775 – 785 AD) onwards, a large number of Arabic translations of Manichaean writings flooded into the city of Baghdad.
ABOVE: Tenth-century AD Manichaean scroll fragment bearing the image of the Gautama Buddha
The Kitāb al-Fihrist, an Arabic bibliographic work composed between c. 987 and c. 988 AD by the scholar Ibn al-Nadīm, specifically records the existence of three books in the Arabic language about the Gautama Buddha, who was known in Arabic was Būd̠āsaf—a name derived from the Sanskrit word bodhisattva. One of these works had the Arabic title Kitāb Bilawhar wa-Būd̠āsaf, which means The Book of Bilawhar and Būd̠āsaf. Although the original Arabic work has not survived, it is believed to be the source for all later versions of the legend of Barlaam and Ioasaph.
In around the ninth century AD, a Christian adaptation of the Kitāb Bilawhar wa-Būd̠āsaf was composed in Georgian, titled Balahvar and Iodasaph. The complete text of this adaptation has survived through Codex No. 140 of the former collection of the Georgian Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem, which now belongs to the library of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
In around the eleventh century AD, a Georgian monk named Euthymios the Athonite adapted the Georgian story of Balahvar and Iodasaph into Greek, giving it the title Barlaam and Ioasaph. The story almost immediately became wildly popular in Constantinople and throughout the Byzantine Empire.
ABOVE: Fresco of Euthymios the Athonite, the translator of Barlaam and Ioasaph, from the Protaton Church at Karyes, Mount Athos
The Greek version of Barlaam and Ioasaph
The version of the story in Greek opens by introducing a king in India named Abenner, who supposedly lived around the same time as Constantine I, who despises and persecutes Christians. To his great horror, Abenner is informed by his court astrologers that his own son, Prince Ioasaph, will soon abandon the deities of his father, convert to Christianity, and refuse to inherit the throne.
Abenner is so horrified that he orders for his son to be kept in total isolation from the world in a magnificent pleasure palace with no windows through which the prince might be able to see the outside world. He forbids all poor people, sick people, disabled people, and old people from entering the palace and does everything in his power to ensure that the young prince will not be exposed to any kind of suffering that might make him question his worldview.
When Ioasaph reaches adulthood, however, he desperately wants to leave the palace to see the outside world. Eventually, after much pleading, Abenner agrees to let him go outside into the streets—but, first, he orders for the streets to be cleared of all poor people, sick people, disabled people, and old people so that his son will not see anything that might make him want to convert to Christianity.
Despite his father’s best efforts to prevent him from seeing the horror and suffering of the real world, Ioasaph encounters a leper, a blind man, a decrepit old man without any teeth, and, finally, a corpse. He discovers that suffering and death are a part of life. Consequently, his entire worldview is shattered and he begins to worry about the vanity of existence.
ABOVE: Thirteenth-century Greek manuscript illustration of Ioasaph announcing his departure from the palace
Then, God sends a Christian hermit from the city of Senaar named Barlaam to meet with Ioasaph. Barlaam manages to gain entry to the palace by pretending to be a jewel merchant. He gets the palace staff to leave him alone with the prince by telling them that the jewel in his possession is so precious that he can only show it to the prince himself.
Once they are finally alone together, Barlaam shows Ioasaph the jewel and the prince realizes that it really represents the Christian faith. Barlaam teaches him all about Jesus through parables and Ioasaph realizes that the only way to escape from suffering is by renouncing all worldly possessions and desires and living out the rest of his life as a Christian ascetic.
When King Abenner discovers that the predictions of his court astrologers have been fulfilled and that his son has converted to Christianity, he tries to threaten him, but his threats are all in vain. Next, he tries to bribe him by giving him half of his kingdom to rule over. Ioasaph nonetheless remains so dedicated to his new faith that he not only rejects his father’s offer, but eventually prevails in converting his father to Christianity.
Finally, having succeeded in converting his father, Ioasaph abdicates from his position as prince and goes out into the wilderness to live out the rest of his life as an ascetic hermit.
ABOVE: Fourteenth-century French Manuscript illustration of Barlaam teaching the young prince Ioasaph about Christianity
The spread of the Ioasaph story throughout Christendom
Soon after Euthymios the Athonite translated the story of Barlaam and Ioasaph into Greek, the pair of saints became honored in Eastern Orthodoxy with a feast day on 27 August. Meanwhile, their story began to rapidly spread throughout Christendom. Over the course of the following centuries, the Greek narrative was adapted into Latin, Old Slavonic, Armenian, Arabic, Amharic, Provençal, Middle High German, and even Old Norse.
By the thirteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church had given Barlaam and Ioasaph an official feast day on 27 November. The Italian hagiographer Jacobus da Varagine (lived c. 1230 – 1298) incorporated a Latin version of the story of Barlaam and Ioasaph into his collection of saints’ lives The Golden Legend, which he composed between 1259 and 1266.
The English publisher William Caxton (lived c. 1422 – c. 1491) printed an English translation of The Golden Legend in 1483, which included the story of Barlaam and Ioasaph. Caxton’s English translation ultimately became the source for the story of the three caskets found in the comedy The Merchant of Venice, written by the English playwright William Shakespeare (lived 1564 – 1616).
Europeans noticed similarities between the story of the Gautama Buddha and Saint Ioasaph as early as the fifteenth century, but it was only in the nineteenth century, as Buddhist texts were being translated into western European languages for the first time, that western scholars came to realize that the story of Saint Ioasaph was actually based on the story of the Gautama Buddha.
The story of Barlaam and Ioasaph provides a fascinating example of how western cultures have been influenced by Buddhism. Of course, this influence goes both ways, since western cultures have been influential on Buddhism from a surprisingly early date; indeed, as I discuss in this article from May 2020, the traditional iconography of the Buddha is heavily influenced by earlier ancient Greek iconography.
ABOVE: Russian engraving from 1680 depicting Barlaam showing his precious stone to Prince Ioasaph
Thanks for this, it is timely for me. I took a course on Asian Philosophy (so, Buddhism obviously) last winter, and I’m signed up for history of Medieval Europe this coming year. The course description indicates that it will emphasize connections to the rest of the world during the period.
I wrote this article partly because I am taking a Chinese history class this semester and the professor talked about the spread of Buddhism throughout China during the late Han Dynasty, which reminded me of the story of Barlaam and Ioasaph.
If you are currently studying Chinese History, let’s see some more blog posts on the subject. I’d love to see you do one on the Xiongnu and the Huns.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll definitely think about that.
Just Chinese history will take you nowhere. Buddhism started in middle of India. Buddhism is considered a part of Hinduism. It is not a separate religion.
There is no dispute that Jesus learnt Buddhism. Either from Buddha or some senior Buddhism saint. There is no dispute over it. After have taught, he preached the same.
However, the place where he learnt Buddhism is one fact people are not sure of. Some say Afghanistan, some say place just beyond his empire.
While talking about the same. Again the dispute arises, was he really killed, putting him up on cross.
Historians say, such practice never existed in that empire. So, how did unique practice limited only to Christ.
Being born a Jew, a member of ruling family.
Most important thing for a Jewish parents is ensuring his son or daughter gets married. So, how was Christ not married.
Perhaps you can help me comparing dead sea scrolls to the Bible.
I am already signed up to take a class on Hinduism next semester.
As far as Jesus is concerned, it is an open question whether Jesus was influenced in any way by Buddhism. Certainly, some of Jesus’s reported teachings do bear certain resemblances to Buddhist teachings. On the other hand, however, any influence would have had to have been extremely indirect, since Jesus lived his entire life in the region of Galilee and there was very little direct contact with Buddhism in that region.
There is not a single reputable Biblical scholar who seriously believes that Jesus ever went to Afghanistan or India. Those stories originate from a thoroughly debunked hoax perpetrated in the late nineteenth century by the Crimean adventurer Nicolas Notovich (lived 1858 – after 1916). I wrote about it in this Quora answer.
Your claim that crucifixion was never practiced in the Roman Empire is entirely false. Crucifixion is an extremely well-attested Roman method of execution that was widely used in the first century CE when Jesus was alive. It is referenced literally hundreds of times in surviving ancient sources. For instance, the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (lived 106 – 43 BCE) alludes to the fact that crucifixion was sometimes used as a punishment for enslaved people in his Defense of Rabirius 5.16. Meanwhile, the Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus (lived c. 37 – c. 100 CE) records in The Jewish War 5.11.1 that, during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Roman general Titus ordered his men to crucify so many Jewish civilians that they couldn’t even find room for all the crosses.
There is also extensive evidence for the Romans using crucifixion as a method of execution from the archaeological record. Notably, in 1968, archaeologists working in the city of Jerusalem excavated the bones of a Jewish man named Yohohanan who was crucified by the Romans in the first century CE. They actually found a heel bone with a nail driven through it. It is abundantly clear that crucifixion was indeed a real Roman execution method.
Finally, it is highly unlikely that the historical Jesus ever married. There are various reasons why we know this. I address the subject at length in this article I published in October 2019.
Your patience with the many correspondents pushing a barrow is admirable, as is your prolific scholarship and contributions here and on Quora. I enjoy them.
Hinduism is of course simply a term that gets applied to any of the many beliefs and religious practices of Hindustan. So you will get differing viewpoints of which is ”authentic” . In fact, i think its the melange, the mix of fine and gross differentiations between the different ideas and traditions that makes Hinduism what it is.
As to any connection between Buddhism and early christianity, I am sure you’d be aware of the missionaries sent out by Emperor Ashoka who established communities/monasteries in Sinai and Syria, probably bringing the practices that led to christian monasticism, the desert fathers ( asceticism) etc. There are reports also of a couple visiting Athens ( I think) in the years before christ.
May I suggest that as you read different commentaries and scholars of eastern philosophy, make sure your bullshit detector is turned up to ”highly sensitive”.
I have as a layperson been interested in these many topics, although not as a scholar. An old friend of mine is a Shaolin master. From an Italo-Croatian background and raised in Australia, he studied philosophy and classical Chinese at university and, more importatly, is a lifelong philologist, spending much time scrutinising original languages and etymologies and contexts of source material that is rarely referenced by many academics or even practitioners. Most tend to reiterate the various interpretations and commentaries they have read and often ignorantly assert things that suit their preconceptions, which then get picked up and repeated, the mere repetition lending a faux- authority to them. He has disabused me of many misconceptions around buddhism, vedas, vedanta tantra etc as well as western philosophy. of course we disagree on some things but his down to earth cynicism and concern with pragmatism usually end up being right. That is the basis of my advice to beware the BS that become academic myth.
In fact it was he who told me of the traditional australian method of detecting bullshit, possibly coming down many millennia from the indigenous people whose culture is the longest continuous one on the planet. Here it is in a nutshell: You find a pat in the field. How to tell if its bullshit or cowshit? Pick it up and throw it in the air. If it falls back to earth, its cowshit. 😀
Hi Spencer, i’m an avid reader of your articles, and I really enjoy the depth and attention to detail. So keep up the good work! I just wanted to know if you’re considering launching an app or if you have any other future plans for the page?
Thank you so much for the positive feedback! It is always a true joy to hear that people are reading and enjoying my work!
I am not, however, currently considering launching an app. My plan for now is simply to keep writing articles. I have thought about possibly starting a Patreon account or a YouTube channel at some point, but I haven’t figured out how either of those things would even work, so, for now, I’m going to stick with what I know.
Nice to see you delving into the Eastern stuff and good article as usual. Have you thought about doing anything on Padmasambhava or King Rama?
I do not currently have plans to write about either of the figures you have mentioned. Is there anything in particular about them that you would like me to write about?
I would love to see a post on whether there is any solid historical evidence for Rama. There is very little on this subject in English and much of it really isn’t good.
https://ensignmessage.com/articles/buddha-the-israelite/
I’m concerned with the Revisionist history regarding the Christian Buddha identified in scripture as the Israelite Buzzi (Buddha) and would introduce a alternative version to real history. Jesus/YahuSha didn’t create Christianity Pope Constantine 1 is the pagan culprit.
Siddhārtha Gautama was definitely not an Israelite. He was an ethnic Śākya who was born in the Śākya Republic in what is now Nepal.
Also, Constantine I was a Roman emperor, not a Pope, and he did not create Christianity in any sense. In fact, his influence on Christianity has been greatly exaggerated. Here is a link to an article I published in August 2019 in which I thoroughly debunk the claim that Constantine is responsible for the creation of the New Testament canon. In reality, most of the canon was established before Constantine was even born and the questions about the canon that remained during Constantine’s lifetime were not resolved until after his death.
Greetings Spencer Alexander McDaniel,
Forgive me for I do not have the educational background as you have, I actually never finished my 11th year of High School, I left because I hated school in every measure, it was never a positive experience, with the exception of my 6th grade class VP Mr. Peter’s in Whittier,Calif. He was a kind and gentle man, and because of these characteristic’s it was the only time I felt safe and secure that I would not be picked upon. It was the only time in my schooling history that I did my best, but it was not enough for me to endure the painful experiences in the years that followed.
I digress, truly I can and do admire and respect the amount of research you have done with the subject at hand, however your premise is faulty only due to the misunderstanding that the RCC, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Egyptian Orthodox and any other Orthodoxy has any relation to true Christianity……they do not and never have done so. Constantine the Great, however played a pivotal role in helping to establish the present day belief that these form’s of organized religious groups represent true “Christianity”. As you stated he was emperor of Rome, but then apparently became a “christian” through a vision he thought came from God, (it was not from God that I know) then he overtook many varying pagan temples and established the “Catholic” religion. Now this is all from my memory from my research years ago.
Now the “halo’s” that are depicted in the pictures you have shown, runs amok in these pagan religious organizations today symbolizing their so-called “Divinity”.
Actually the “Mother Mary w/ child” symbol represented within these cult’s, stems from a goddess that was prayed to during the Roman empire era, a goddess for fertility, as I recently discovered a few days ago while watching a documentary on the destruction of Pompeii in 79AD, in which they found these idols within the sewage system of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Forgive me, what I am trying to say, is that what you are calling “Christian” is not and never has represented true Christianity, so the premise that “Buddha Became a Beloved Christian Saint” is incorrect, this Buddha became a beloved “saint” within the same pagan institutions Buddha came from, the author of all lies and deception. These so-called “gods” came from the unregenerate and darkened minds of fallen men, who were and are sinner’s guided by their lusts to worship something other than the only One and True God as found with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I look forward to your thoughts upon this…..thank you for the opportunity in allowing me to express my knowledge regarding this topic!
Spencer,
Would you please consider doing a post on the Goddess Tara. Preferably with information not available or easily accessed by Google. I had been aware of the Hindu/Buddhist Goddess and the “Hill of Tara” in Ireland. Did not expect to find her in North America in 1025 AD and sporadically mentioned for the next 600 plus years. She has even been censored from the Cabot map. I can provide a link to the evidence of this censorship if need be.
Please keep in mind, I’m dealing with brand new information not everyone is aware of.
Thank you for your time!