- John P. Lundy, Nineteenth-Century Reverend:
- If we may believe so good an authority as Edward Moor (author of Moor’s “Hindu Pantheon” and “Oriental Fragments”), both the name of Crishna, and the general outline of his history, were long anterior to the birth of our Savior, as very certain things, and probably extended to the time of Homer, nearly nine hundred years before Christ, or more than one hundred years before Isaiah lived and prophesied (John P. Lundy, Monumental Christianity (New York, 1876), p. 151).
- J. B. S. Carwithen, Nineteenth-Century Reverend:
- Both the name of Crishna and the general outline of his story are long anterior to the birth of our Savior; and this we know, not on the presumed antiquity of the Hindoo records alone. Both Arrian and Strabo assert that The god Crishna was anciently worshipped at Mathura, on the river Jumna, where he is worshipped at This day. But the emblems and attributes essential to this deity are also transplanted into the mythology of the west (John P. Lundy, Monumental Christianity (New York, 1876), p. 151-152).
- T. W. Doane, Nineteenth Century:
- In the Sanskrit Dictionary, compiled more than two thousand years ago, we have the whole story of Crishna, the incarnate deity, born of a virgin, and miraculously escaping in his infancy from Kansa, the reigning monarch of the country (T. W. Doane, Bible Myths (New York, 1882), p. 286).
- Monier Williams, Nineteenth-Century Professor:
- …the religious creeds, rites, customs, and habits of thought of the Hindus generally have altered little since the days of Manu [in 1500 B.C.] (Williams, Indian Wisdom, or Examples of the Religious, Philosophical, and Ethical Doctrines of the Hindoos (London, 1875), p. iv.).
- George W. Con, Nineteenth Century Reverend:
- …Practically, the myths of Crishna seems to have been fully developed in the days of Megasthenes [fourth century B.C.], who identifies him with the Greek Hercules (Cox, The Myths of the Aryan Nations (London, 1870), vol. 2, p. 138.).
Crishna and Jesus
- Both were preceded by a “forerunner” born a short time before them (Maurice, Hindostan, vol. 2, p. 316; Luke 1:57.).
- Each was born in a city away from home where his father was on tax business (H. H. Wilson, trans., The Vishnu Purana, A System of Hindoo Mythology and Tradition (London, 1840), book 5, chap. 3; Luke 2:1-7).
- Krishna was born in a cave (Cox, vol. 2,p. 107).
Jesus was born in a stable (Luke 2:7). However, Quintus Tertullian (third century), St Jerome (fourth century), and other Church fathers claimed that Jesus, too, was born in a cave (Godfred Higgins, Anacalypsis: An Enquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions (London, 1836), vol. 2, pp. 98-99).
Frederick W. Farrar, Nineteenth-Century Canon: That the actual place of Jesus’ birth was a cave is a very ancient tradition, and this cave used to be shown as the scene of the event even so early as the time of Justin Martyr (A.D. 150) (Farrar, The Life of Christ (New York, 1876), p. 38). - In infancy, both Krishna and Jesus were sentenced to death by kings who viewed them as pretenders to the throne. Due to this threat:
Krishna’s father was warned by a heavenly voice “to fly with the child to Gacool, across the river Jumna (Mons Dupuis, trans., The Origin of All Religious Worship (New Orleans, 1872), p. 134).
Jesus’ father was warned in a dream, “…rise and take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt…” (Matthew 2:13). - One of these kings then ordered “the massacre in all his states of all the children of the male sex during the night of the birth of Crishna” (J. Swain, Asiatic Researches, vol. 1, London, 1801. p. 259).
The other, Herod, “…sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem, and in all that region, who were two years old or under…” (Matthew 2:16). - One of both Krishna and Jesus’ first “miracles” performed as adults was the curing of a leper (Thomas Maurice, History of Hindostan (London, 1798), vol. 2, p. 319; Matthew 8:2-4).
- Urged by Krishna to make a request, a man replied: ” ‘Above all things, I desire to have my two dead sons restored to life.’ Immediately they were brought to life and came to their father” (Maria L. Child, The Progress of Religious Ideas through Successive Ages (New York, 1855), vol. 1, p. 68).
“While [Jesus] was thus speaking to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying: ‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live….’ But when the crowd had been put aside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose” (Matthew 9:18, 25). - Either a poor cripple or a lame woman came with “a vessel filled with spices, sweet scented oils, sandalwood, saffron, civet, and other perfumes, and made a certain sign on [Krishna’s] forehead, casting the rest upon his head” (Maurice, Hindostan, vol. 2, p. 320).
“Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster box of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head, as he sat at the table” (Matthew 26:6-7). - Both washed the feet of their disciples (Maurice, Indian Antiquities (London, 1794), vol. 3, p. 46; John 13:5).
- Both had a beloved disciple (Charles Wilkes, trans., The Bhagavat Gita, or Dialogues of Crishna and Arjoon, in Eighteen Lectures With Notes (London, 1785), p. 51; John 13:23).
- Krishna said: “Let him, if seeking God by deep abstraction, abandon his possessions and his hopes, betake himself to some secluded spot, and fix his heart and thoughts on God alone” (Williams, Hinduism (London, 1877), p. 211).
Jesus said: “But when you pray, go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6). - Krishna said: “I am the light in the sun and the moon, far, far beyond the darkness. I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance in all that’s radiant, and the light of lights” (Ibid., p. 213).
Jesus said: “I am the light of the world, he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). - Krishna said: “I am the sustainer of the world, its friend and Lord. I am its way and refuge” (Ibid., p. 213).
Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). - Krishna said: “I am the Goodness of the good; I am Beginning, Middle, End, Eternal Time, the Birth, the Death of all” (Ibid., p. 213).
Jesus said: “Fear not, I am the first, and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hell” (Revelations 1:17,18). - Both “descended” to hell (Swain, Vol. 1. P. 237; I Peter 3:9).
- Both “ascended” to heaven before witnesses (Higgins., p. 131; Acts 1:9).
- Both are said to have been God incarnate:
“Crishna is the very Supreme Brahma, though it be a mystery how the Supreme should assume the form of a man” (Wilson, p. 492).
“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion; He manifested in the flesh…” (I Timothy 3:16). - Before death, Krishna was pierced with an arrows (Higgins, vol. 1, p. 144), and Jesus with a spear (John 19:34).
- Both were crucified:
- John P. Lundy, Nineteenth-Century Reverend: “I object to the crucifix because it is an image, and liable to gross abuse, just as the old Hindoo crucifix was an idol” (Lundy, p. 128).
- Thomas Inman, Nineteenth Century Physician: “Crishna, whose history so closely resembles our Lord’s, was also like him in his being crucified” (Inman, Ancient Faiths and Modern (London, 1868), p. 411).
- When Krishna died, it is said that a black circle surrounded the moon, the sun was darkened at noon, the sky rained fire and ashes, and spirits were seen everywhere (Child, vol. 1, p. 71).
When Jesus died, the sun was darkened from the sixth to the ninth hour, graves were opened, and saints rose and entered the city (Matthew 27:45, 51-52). - Both were “resurrected” (Dupuis, p. 240; Matthew 28:6).
- “Krishna will return in the end days as an armed warrior, riding on a winged white horse. He will destroy the wicked then living. The sun and the moon will be darkened, the earth will tremble, and the stars will fall” (Chad ,vol. 1,p.75; Williams, Hinduism, p. 108).
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days [following Jesus’ “return”] the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Matthew 24:29).
