Buddhism and the Bible
by Michoel Drazin, ISBN 965-229-070-X


Here are some quotations from Non-Muslim writers over the past few centuries:


T.W. Rhys Davids, Nineteenth century Professor:
There is every reason to believe that the Pitakas [sacred books containing the legends of Buddha] now extant in Ceylon are substantially identical with the books of the southern canon, as settled at the Council of Patna about the year 250 B.C. As no work would have been received into the Canon which were not then believer to be very old, the Pitakas may be approximately placed in the forth century B.C. and parts of them possibly reach back very nearly, if not quite to the time of Gautama (Buddha) himself.

Samuel Beal, Nineteenth century:
We know that the Fo-pen-hing was translated into Chinese from Sanskrit (the ancient language of Hindstan) so early as the eleventh year of the reign of Wing-ping (Ming-ti) of the Hans Dynasty, ie., 69 or 70 A.D. We may, therefore, safely suppose that the original work was in circulation in India for sometime previous to this date. These points of agreement with the Gospel narrative arouse curiosity and require explanation. If we could prove that they [the legends of Buddha] were unknown in the East for some centuries after Christ, the explanation would be very easy. But all the evidence we have goes to prove the contrary....

Ernest de Bunsen, Nineteenth century:
With the remarkable exception of the death of Jesus on the cross and of the doctrine of atonement by vicarious suffering, which is absolutely excluded by Buddhism, the most ancient of the Buddhisitic records known to us contain statements about the life and doctrines of Gautama Buddha which correspond in a remarkable manner and impossibly by mere chance with the traditions recorded in the Gospels about the life and doctrines of Jesus Christ...

Max Muller, Nineteenth century Professor:
Between the language of Buddha and his disciples, and the language between Christ and his apostles, there are strange coincidences. When some of th e Buddhist legends and parables sound as if taken from the New Testament, though we know that many of them existed before the beginning of the Christian era.

Kenneth Scott Latourette, Twentieth century:
Approximately five centuries older than Christianity, by the time of the birth of Christ, Buddhism had already spread through out much of India and Ceylon and had penetrated into Central Asia and China.

M. LAbbe Huc, Nineteenth century:
The miraculous birth of Buddha, his life and instructions, contain a great number of the moral and dogmatic truths professed in Christianity.

T.W. Doane, Nineteenth century:
...nothing now remains for the honest man to do but acknowledge the truth, which is that the history of Jesus of Nazareth, as related in the books of the New Testament maybe a copy of that of Buddha, with a mixture of mythology borrowed from other nations.