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The Unknown Life of Jesus: The Original Text of Nicolas Notovich's 1887 Discovery

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A controversial manuscript since its first publication in 1890, The Unknown Life of Jesus is the original text of Nicolas Notovitch's efforts to learn of the years of Jesus' life unaccounted for in the Bible - when he was between the ages of 13 and 29. During Notovitch's travels through India, he learned of ancient manuscripts allegedly documenting Jesus' visit to Buddhist monasteries. Notovitch eventually persuaded a monk to read from these documents, and as an interpreter translated, Notovitch transcribed. The resulting text resembles the Gnostic Gospels, and offer remarkable insights - they portray Jesus as angering the priests of Brahma due to his teachings that all humans are equal regardless of caste, and as one who claimed that within each person resides "a part of the spirit of the Most High". Originally disdained as a hoax by scholars and theologians, The Unknown Life of Jesus has since acquired some credibility as corroborating information surfaced. The Unknown Life of Jesus features explanatory notes and extensive information about Notovitch's journey as well as the original text itself, and is especially recommended for theological and spiritual studies shelves.

Notovich recounts his journey to Ladakh near the Tibetan and Indian borders, where he viewed manuscripts that described the travels of Issa (Jesus) in India during the "missing" or undetailed years of his life. Evidently, Jesus studied Buddhist wisdom and also preached there also. The teachings that Notovich relates concerning Jesus ring true in terms of their profundity. His account of the trial and the crucifixion of Jesus are quite interesting also. In this version, an exact about face from the accepted version in the gospels, the Jewish priests respected Jesus and wanted him acquitted. Pontius Pilate wanted Jesus put to death, because he feared a political insurrection from the Jews led by Jesus, since Jesus was a descendant of King David. The Jewish priests, on the other hand, viewed Jesus as a great teacher and prophet. They washed their hands of the situation when Pilate decided to condemn Jesus to death. This, to me, makes more sense. A lot of anti-semitism has arisen from the official gospel versions. It makes more sense that a powerful and fearful government official would condemn Jesus to death, not the leaders of his own religion. Jesus, was after all, a Jewish reformer and did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. I like this book. Buy it and read it with an open mind and open heart.

This book is interesting since it presents the possibility that the lost years of Jesus were spent in India, where he studied Eastern religions and acquired the ability to perform miracles, which he brought back with him on his return to Jerusalem. This is a nice idea, and I really,really want to believe it, however this book and the "Life of Saint Issa" manuscript presents no evidence of this. Instead of documenting his supposed time spent in India, it is actually just an alternate retelling of the New Testament in a brief 28 pages. It mentions his birth and early life, leaving his family and traveling to India at age 13, studying the Vedas and Buddhism, preaching to the commoners and thus angering the Brahmans who want him killed. Eventually he returns to Israel at age 29 where he is put on trial and in this version it is Pilate who wants him killed and the Jews who want to spare him. He's then crucified but does not return from the dead as in the Bible.

My question is this: if this supposedly documents Jesus' time spent in India, how could the authors of this manuscript have possibly known the details of his birth and death? Shouldn't it focus exclusively on his time spent in India, since that's the only thing the original authors of the manuscript could have known about?

Also, of the 122 pages of the book, only 28 are the "Life of Saint Issa", the rest is describing how Notovich came across it. In the 28 pages, there is surprisingly little detail of Jesus' time in India (maybe a few pages), and the rest is spent describing what had already been said in the Bible about Jesus' early life and death.

I obtained this book because Paramahansa Yogananda refers to it in Cp. 5 of his newly published commentary on the Gospels, "The Second Coming of Christ." Yogananda gives accurate details of Notovitch's work and motive, including reference to the life of disciple Thomas who also went to India as had Jesus.

Other writers have gone to India (Nicholas Roerich, Thomas Merton, etc) and have spoken of Notovich's discovery of evidence of Jesus presence in India.

That Yogananda comes from India and endorses Notovich's experience is awesome. The book itself is a tremendous successful effort to understand the motive behind Jesus' movements in India.

At first glance you might be wondering, is this even true? Did Jesus even go to India? And what could this book could this possibly tell me regarding new information? The answer is, Mindblowingly ALOT.
Now, if you don't believe that he was in India, and this was a fake, you have to take in consideration on how deep the message in these writing are, before writing them off as a forgery. The story presented here is incredible and I'll explain bit on what this book covers.
Jesus (Buddha Issa) travels to Persia, opens their eyes about Zoroasterism (spelling?) and told them how God influenced their teachings, and then tackled the Egyptian religion saying that don't worship the sun, because God made it and the entire universe, then if adding salt to the wound, The priests in the city gang up on Jesus in the middle of the night and carry him outside the city limits and dump him there so that he'll be eaten by wild animals in the land, but Jesus just shakes it off and nothing bothers him the entire night.
And when he finally reaches Israel, oh boy! We get a boatload of new goodies here! Interpretations and thoughts never raised before are presented. After being taken over by the Roman Empire, the Jews are pretty much living day-by-day, depression everywhere, things not very prosperous, and pretty much everyone is out for themselves. Then Jesus shows up and starts talking like it's a pep rally. Talking about God has heard their plea's and he will help but, here's what you've got to do in the meantime, help out the sick, help out the poor, because in the end, we will need to become a whole if we're to get out of this mess we're in. A kind of no one is left behind campaign. No wonder the guy is so revered and remembered. Rallying the troops for war and being pretty successful at it too in a highly spiritual way of course. Pretty much a Marc Anthony for Jews. This could explain why the Romans were later trying to back him in the corner with asking him about paying taxes, and trying any reason they could for crucifying him.
Now at this point I'm only half way through this book and already I've got hours of new material to bring to the table to researchers looking for goodies outside the bible already.
So make sure to add this to your Nag Hammadi Scriptures, Talmud of Jmmanuel (the gospel of judas), and the Jesus Sutra's Collection. With those 4 books, you'll have a wonderful view of the hidden Jesus. It just goes to show that Jesus and Siddhartha (the Buddha Dharma) really taught the exact same message. Don't believe me, well the Buddhists made Buddha's out of both of them.

In the process of gathering my own information about Jesus in Kashmir, I became familiar with Notovich. This edition is quite a delight and the compilers are to be commended. I would have prefered to read straight through an updated version without all Notovich's misspellings and misprounciations..

Key points the reader must keep in mind is that the Hemis Monastary was built long after the time of Christ even though Buddhism flourished in Kashmir long before Christ. The Hemis Gompa was built in the 17th century and copies of all important manuscripts were then added to Hemis at later dates.
Thus the scrolls that Notovich saw were copies of copies of ancient copies, and we cannot be sure what originals these were based on.. The burning question becomes "where are the original scrolls about Jesus in Kashmir? In what Buddhist monastary did his story first begin?"

We may never know. When Islam arrived in the area, Moguls destroyed every trace of Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu history they came across. Vast libraries that rivaled the great Alexandria Library were burned to the ground. They must have contained additional information about Jesus in Kashmir. Then came the famous archaeologist Ariel Stien who plundered much of the area and sent the plunder to museums in London. Perhaps we can find more about Jesus in some dusty forgotten back storeroom of the London Museum. Then came the Chinese Cultural Revolution. They believed Buddhists were backward and superstitious and so they destroyed every book and scroll and idol and mandala they could lay their hands on during their invasion of Tibet.

And so it is little wonder that people have had such a hard time verifying the truth of Notovich's claims....It is my understanding that many have followed in his footsteps and sought out confirmation of the scrolls. Indeed, their content has been verified by monks in Leh and Hemis!

Notovich's descriptions of life in the Punjab and traveling the hill country to Murree and Srinagar, and the rough mountain passes to and Ledakh are wonderful. I have traveled those same roads and can understand what he experienced, what has changed, and what has remained the same.

This book is a little gem for all who are searching for the real life of Jesus. It provides one more key to the puzzle. I recommend it to all.

I read this book after reading Haigins' The Rozabal Line, Holger Kersten's Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion. In that book, several references to Nicolas Notovitch prompted me to read this. Actually most of his material has been presented much better by Kersten. However, one needs to keep in mind that Kersten would never have had any material for his book if it weren't for Notovich. Notovich was the first Western explorer to reach Hemis and view the ancient scrolls that spoke of Issa, a young boy from Judea who came to India to study. The Buddhists considered him to be a "Bodhisattva" or an incarnation of Buddha. Notovich then describes the manuscripts and explains why Issa and Jesus are one and the same. My advice, if you want to learn more about the "Jesus in India" theory, you are better off reading Kersten, or "Jesus in Kashmir, The Lost Tomb. Notovich did a remarkable job of bringing this issue to light, but did a rather boring job of writing it up.

I love books that look at the possibililties of Jesus' lost years. This book does not disappoint!

Now we have another point of view for Christhood and The Ten commandments from Buddhism.

I think this is going to be a good book, I always wanted to know where Jesus was between 12 years of age to 32 years of age, It doesn't really say in the Bible, But I wondered if he traveled the world or did he help his dad carpenter WHAT?? This man seems to have found clues as to where he was. I have not finished the book but I'm going to.

Thanks Wyodonna