Talk:Parallels between Gautama Buddha and Jesus

Criticisms
There should probably be a referenced criticism section added at the bottom of the article. While it might be helpful in interfaith relations that many scholars see similarities between Buddha and Jesus, many of these comparisons tend to ignore important doctrinal differences that exist between Buddhism and Christianity. For instance, many Buddhists identify as atheists because they do not have the same concept of deity as most believers in monotheistic religions. Other important differences include the soteriological importance of Jesus's death, the significance of Trinitarian christology at the council of Nicea, the Church's opposition to the Buddhist notion of reincarnation, etc. ADM (talk) 00:22, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

You are ignorant and those like you will never see, you wrote: "MANY Buddhists identify as atheists" HELLO, HELLO, this is 2000 to 2500 years away from our question, the notion of reincarnation is in the Gospels often translated as regeneration or renewal, furthermore it is Jesus who does not believe in a Judaic god, see John "I tell you the truth Moses has not given you true bread from heaven, rather MY father has" he never mentions the name of the Jewish God —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.38.215.42 (talk) 04:21, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

The so called similarities between Buddha and Jesus seem to be confined to the later infancy gospels, which were written significantly later than the 4 canonical gospels. Note, these later gospels, although popular, were never regarded with the same authority as the 4 gospels (Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John). When confined to the 4 canonical (i.e., "official") gospels, the life of Jesus and Buddha appears quite different. Jesus is protrayed as living an ordinary life of an ordinary Jew until he begins his ministry - Buddha is the son of a prince. Jesus has appoints a core of 12 disciples, and has within that core a group that he invest with greater authority than others - Peter is portrayed in all 4 gospels as the leader of the 12. No such structure and hierachy of discples appointed by Buddha is found in Buddha's life story. Buddha is protrayed as rejecting the traditions and religious practices of his people and time. Jesus is protrayed fullfilling and confirming the religion of his people. Granted it is per Jesus's own unique interpretation of what his people's religion should be, but the canonical gospels do repeatedly state he comes "not to abolish the law, but to fulfill", and he is specifically stated to be the long predicted Jewish Messiah - "Christ", after all, is just the Greek translation of "Messiah". Jesus dies young, executed by the authorities, while Buddha lives to a ripe old age, and dies of natural causes. Buddha is protrayed as abandoning his family, while Jesus mother is protrayed as being with him at the end, and his brother James is specifically shown as having a major role spreading his message after his death. If you are generic enough, you can say Jesus and Buddha were similar - they were both men, they both were born and died, and they had followers after their death. But other than that, they are far different. If their teaching seems at times seem similar, it is because ethics like doing unto others as you would have them do unto you (Golden rule) are universal. The first recorded reference to Buddha in the Roman world is after the canonical gospels were written. BB 4 November 2009.

I am confused right from the start. Is there any evidence from any source that Jesus' birthdate of Decemeber 25 is not completely arbitrary? So what does is mean that Buddha was born on December 25th? This goes beyond any rational understanding.Mea (talk)

There is nobody I have every heard of that believes you can pin down a calendar date 2500 years ago, unless it is a very absolute event such as a comet or eclipse. And then such an event is only relative to our current calendar. We could say, in the case of an absolute event, how many 24 hour periods have elasped since that time. But how could we know about these things, in this situation, covered by the dust of twenty-five centuries?

How about this little tidbit: Buddha left his home on his search at age 29, and Jesus left his home and began his ministry at age 30? More factual, and more to the point of the article, but not mentioned!Mea (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:57, 2 August 2010 (UTC).

Fascinating. I must wonder whether some of the authors of this article are very familiar with either Buddhist OR Christian sources, they do not seem to have read either with much analysis. Interestingly, no one seems to mention the only genuine parallel I know of, the presence of a story of "The Prodigal Son", both in Luke's Gospel and the Lotus Sutra. Well, parallel lines do not intersect, and there are plenty of points of non-intersection in this article. There is already a "Buddhism and Christianity" article. I cannot see any point to this piece in addition. Gnuwhirled (talk) 08:23, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

first of all...no one implied that Jesus and Buddha were the same person, as most of these comments have attempted to argue. The arguement is that Jesus' teachings are easy to compare to those of Buddha, who lived 500 years prior to the birth of Jesus. The notion is that Jesus, while in his absent state for nearly 13 years, could have possibly come in contact with some buddhist philosophy and therefore transmitted that philosophy to the people of Judea. So before you go smashing something, make sure you read...and understand the point you are arguing for, and against. Jesus preached of a love for God and for the ethical love of everyone else...Buddha's message is quite similar. That is the point. Jesus isn't Buddha, and Buddha isn't Jesus...geezus... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.243.137.46 (talk) 04:01, 11 May 2012 (UTC)