Edmunds, Albert J.

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THE WANDERING JEW.A BUDDHIST PARALLEL.BY ALBERT J. EDMUNDS.IN i8gg, a Japanese scholar, Kumagusu Minakata, then sojourningin London, propounded, in Notes and Queries, a Buddhist ana-logue to the legend of the Wandering Jew. It is found in theChinese version of the Samyuktagama, one of the canonical collec-tions of Buddha's Dialogues. I have not, however, been able tofind it in the Pali Samyutta Nikaya (or Classified Collection) whichis a different sectarian recension of the same or a similar collectionto the Chinese one. On the other hand, the story is in the San-skrit of the Divyavadana, a collection of extracts from the BuddhistCanon, together with later additions, compiled sometime betweenthe second century B. C. and perhaps the sixth century A. D. TheChinese translation of the Classified Collection dates from the fifthcentury A. D., while the Sanskrit or Prakrit original is lost.The story is that Pindola, one of Buddha's disciples, beingchallenged by unbelievers to work a miracle, flew up into the airand brought down an alms-bowl which had been fixed on a pole.Buddha reproved him for this, and forbade his disciples to workmiracles for display. Thus far the story is in the Pali Canon, inthe Book of Discipline, and may be found in English at page 79 ofSacred Books of the East, Vol. XX. But the two later sources addthe statement that Buddha told Pindola :"Na tavat te parinirvatavyam yavad Dharmo nantarhita iti.""Thou shalt not attain Nirvana (i. e., die) until the Dharma(i. e., Buddhist Gospel) disappears."The expression "attain Nirvana" is applied to the death of anArahat, for, like other Asiatics, the Hindus have different verbs"to die," according to the rank of the departed. Buddha there-fore said: "You shall not die while my religion lasts." As the756 THE OPEN COURT.Buddhists believe in a coming Buddha who will be greater thanGotama was, this also means : "You shall not die until the nextBuddha comes to earth."Curiously enough the passage was translated by Burnouf in1844 in his great Introduction to (later) Buddhism. {Introductiona VHistoire du Buddhisfne indien, second edition, 1876, p. 355.) Butscholars appear to have overlooked the parallel to the Christianlegend until the Japanese savant pointed it out.The first appearance in Europe of the legend of the Wander-ing Jew is in the Chronicle of Roger of Wendover, where we readthat the story was told at the monastery of St. Alban's in the year1228, by an Armenian archbishop then visiting England. It ap-pears to have been known already in that country, for the Englishmonks begin by asking their visitor about the mysterious wanderer.The archbishop says that he has himself conversed with him, forhe roams about the Orient, passing his time among bishops.Now we know that Persia and Armenia were buffer-states be-tween India and the hither East, and that Hindu legends, like thatof Barlaam and Joasaph, passed through those lands on their wayto us. Unless we can find a Christian original for the story of theWanderer earlier than the fifth century, when the Chinese Classi-fied Collection was translated, we must give the Buddhist story thepriority, and strongly suspect that, like the Holy Grail, it prob-ably gave rise to the Christian one.Until the vast literature preserved in China has been trans-lated, we shall have few facts to judge from. Fa Hien heard theBuddhist Holy Grail story preached from a Ceylon pulpit in thefifth century, and there was great religious and literary activity inChina and Chinese Turkestan from his time onward. Christianityand Buddhism met; their legends were interchanged and at timesconfused, as in the case of St. Joasaph; until at last a Chineseemperor forbade the intermixture and decreed that the Syrian Mes-siah and the Indian Buddha should be kept distinct.

The Wandering Jew. A Buddhist Parallel.

http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1699&context=ocj

The Wandering Jew. A Buddhist Parallel.

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