Did Jesus Spend 40 Days in the Desert?

[SalixIncendium]

I stumbled upon a blog this afternoon that questioned the story in Matthew 4:1-11 that states Jesus spent 40 day in the desert.

The story suggest that rather than spend 40 days in the desert, Jesus crossed into India, where he learned the teachings of the Buddha, and crossed back to Israel. Upon sharing what he learned, he found rejection, and rather than continuing to attempt to share these teachings, instead shared the the teachings he had learned through methods the people would understand.

Thoughts? Rants? Comments about my fashion sense?

 

[74x12]

I stumbled upon a blog this afternoon that questioned the story in Matthew 4:1-11 that states Jesus spent 40 day in the desert.

The story suggest that rather than spend 40 days in the desert, Jesus crossed into India, where he learned the teachings of the Buddha, and crossed back to Israel. Upon sharing what he learned, he found rejection, and rather than continuing to attempt to share these teachings, instead shared the the teachings he had learned through methods the people would understand.

Thoughts? Rants? Comments about my fashion sense?

Yes He did spend 40 days in the wilderness. The idea He went to India is bogus as He fulfills all the prophecies of the suffering Messiah and Son of God. His ideas are all based off the Torah and the prophets of Israel. There is not one spiritual concept that Jesus came up with that is not somewhere in the Tanakh if you look hard enough and closely enough. However He was a Master of the things of God and new the Tanakh better than anyone else.

Satan tempted Him there with all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Satan is a liar and not loyal to his followers. He may help them but only to use them and then throw them away like so much trash when he's done.

 

[sun rise]

The story suggest that rather than spend 40 days in the desert, Jesus crossed into India, where he learned the teachings of the Buddha, and crossed back to Israel. Upon sharing what he learned, he found rejection, and rather than continuing to attempt to share these teachings, instead shared the the teachings he had learned through methods the people would understand.

He could have done both. The Bible is silent about what he did between his childhood and the beginning of his ministry.

There are also legends in India that Jesus is buried in the mountains there.

 

[The Anointed]

Yes He did spend 40 days in the wilderness. The idea He went to India is bogus as He fulfills all the prophecies of the suffering Messiah and Son of God. His ideas are all based off the Torah and the prophets of Israel. There is not one spiritual concept that Jesus came up with that is not somewhere in the Tanakh if you look hard enough and closely enough. However He was a Master of the things of God and new the Tanakh better than anyone else.

Satan tempted Him there with all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Satan is a liar and not loyal to his followers. He may help them but only to use them and then throw them away like so much trash when he's done.

Luke 4: 13; "When the devil finished tempting Jesus in every way, he left him for a while."

For how long did the devil leave him?

 

[Subduction Zone]

I stumbled upon a blog this afternoon that questioned the story in Matthew 4:1-11 that states Jesus spent 40 day in the desert.

The story suggest that rather than spend 40 days in the desert, Jesus crossed into India, where he learned the teachings of the Buddha, and crossed back to Israel. Upon sharing what he learned, he found rejection, and rather than continuing to attempt to share these teachings, instead shared the the teachings he had learned through methods the people would understand.

Thoughts? Rants? Comments about my fashion sense?

I have heard the explanation that the number forty often meant an unspecified long time. In the Noah's Ark Story it rained for forty days and forth nights. Moses spent forty years in the wilderness. It was a polite way of exaggerating.

 

[74x12]

Luke 4: 13; "When the devil finished tempting Jesus in every way, he left him for a while."

For how long did the devil leave him?

Satan only returned to enter Judas' heart and initiate Jesus' final temptation I suppose.

 

[The Anointed]

Satan only returned to enter Judas' heart and initiate Jesus' final temptation I suppose.

And in so doing, Judas fulfilled the plan of God as revealed in Acts 2:23; where it is written; "In accordance with his own plan God had already decided that Jesus would be handed over to you, etc."

If you had the ability to mentally regress along the unbroken genetic thread of life that binds you to the very beginning and to mentally merge with the mind of Judas, would you attempt to stop him from fulfilling the plan of God, or, if you felt the resolve of Judas beginning to weaken, would you encourage him, and therefore be an accessory to his act of betrayal, which was in accordance to the plan of God?

But that was not an answer to the question that was put to you.

 

[74x12]

If you had the ability to mentally regress along the unbroken genetic thread of life that binds you to the very beginning and to mentally merge with the mind of Judas, would you attempt to stop him from fulfilling the plan of God, or, if you felt the resolve of Judas beginning to weaken, would you encourage him, and therefore be an accessory to his act of betrayal, which was in accordance to the plan of God?

I would have to encourage him not to do it. Because for him it was a sin even if it was the will of God overall. Of course Judas himself did not mean to fulfill the will of God. If Judas had not done it then it would no doubt have happened some other way. And some other "son of perdition" would have risen up in his stead.

But that was not an answer to the question that was put to you.

I don't know the exact amount of time. I suppose someone could figure out roughly the length of days from when Jesus was tempted to the time of His final temptation.

 

[BSM1]

I stumbled upon a blog this afternoon that questioned the story in Matthew 4:1-11 that states Jesus spent 40 day in the desert.

The story suggest that rather than spend 40 days in the desert, Jesus crossed into India, where he learned the teachings of the Buddha, and crossed back to Israel. Upon sharing what he learned, he found rejection, and rather than continuing to attempt to share these teachings, instead shared the the teachings he had learned through methods the people would understand.

Thoughts? Rants? Comments about my fashion sense?

Do yourself a favor, read the story of Jesus' life as it is presented in The Urantia Book. This book contends that Jesus spent a great deal of time traveling with an Indian merchant and his son around the Mediterranean seaports of the area. This is where he learned of Buddhism and the eastern religions. Of course, any theory is just speculation but the book does seem to fill a few holes.

 

[Jumi]

The story suggest that rather than spend 40 days in the desert, Jesus crossed into India, where he learned the teachings of the Buddha, and crossed back to Israel. Upon sharing what he learned, he found rejection, and rather than continuing to attempt to share these teachings, instead shared the the teachings he had learned through methods the people would understand.

Sounds unreasonable. 40 days time isn't enough to reach India from the Roman Empire of that time.

But learning about Buddhism wouldn't have been impossible either. The silk road existed. Parts of Persia were Buddhist when Israel was part of it and it hadn't been that long ago that it changed hands that all traces and ideas of it would have disappeared.

 

[The Anointed]

I would have to encourage him not to do it. Because for him it was a sin even if it was the will of God overall. Of course Judas himself did not mean to fulfill the will of God. If Judas had not done it then it would no doubt have happened some other way. And some other "son of perdition" would have risen up in his stead.

I don't know the exact amount of time. I suppose someone could figure out roughly the length of days from when Jesus was tempted to the time of His final temptation.

74x12 wrote...… I would have to encourage him not to do it. Because for him it was a sin even if it was the will of God overall. Of course Judas himself did not mean to fulfill the will of God. If Judas had not done it then it would no doubt have happened some other way. And some other "son of perdition" would have risen up in his stead.

The Anointed...… Correct! In the same manner, even though Hitler fulfilled the plan of God, the intention of Hitler was not the same as the intention of the lord, which was to chastise his son Israel. But you are wrong in supposing that some other "son of perdition" would have risen up in his stead.

For just as Benjamin, the 12th tribe of Israel was lost when every man woman and child of that tribe was destroyed by their brother tribes, See Judges 20: 48; GNB, “The Israelites turned back against the rest of the Benjaminites and killed them all - men, women, and children, and animals as well. They burned every town in the area.” So too the 12th disciple chosen by Jesus was destined to be lost.

The only survivors of that civil war, were the 600 Danites, who could not remove the original inhabitants of the coastal land that was allocated to them and were forced to live in the hill country of their brother tribe Benjamin.

But you have still not explained when the devil returned to Jesus to tempt him again?

 

[sayak83]

I stumbled upon a blog this afternoon that questioned the story in Matthew 4:1-11 that states Jesus spent 40 day in the desert.

The story suggest that rather than spend 40 days in the desert, Jesus crossed into India, where he learned the teachings of the Buddha, and crossed back to Israel. Upon sharing what he learned, he found rejection, and rather than continuing to attempt to share these teachings, instead shared the the teachings he had learned through methods the people would understand.

Thoughts? Rants? Comments about my fashion sense?

Ridiculous fantasy.
Next?

 

[Kirran]

Ridiculous fantasy.
Next?

Reckon Jesus went to India at all sayak?

Some Ramakrishna swami says they found his tomb up in the Himalayas somewhere.

I dunno.

 

[Jumi]

Some Ramakrishna swami says they found his tomb up in the Himalayas somewhere.

You mean Roza Bal in Kashmir? There's also one claimed in Aomori, Japan.

 

[sayak83]

Reckon Jesus went to India at all sayak?

Some Ramakrishna swami says they found his tomb up in the Himalayas somewhere.

I dunno.

No. I am quite certain that he did not go to India. His teachings, as much as can be gleaned, are squarely within the Jewish prophetic traditions that flourished in his day. Jesus said nothing that has already not been said in one form or the other by Isiah and other prophets.

 

[Dawnofhope]

I stumbled upon a blog this afternoon that questioned the story in Matthew 4:1-11 that states Jesus spent 40 day in the desert.

The story suggest that rather than spend 40 days in the desert, Jesus crossed into India, where he learned the teachings of the Buddha, and crossed back to Israel. Upon sharing what he learned, he found rejection, and rather than continuing to attempt to share these teachings, instead shared the the teachings he had learned through methods the people would understand.

Thoughts? Rants? Comments about my fashion sense?

The number forty is associated with a time of testing. As mentioned by another we have the Israelites spending 40 years in the desert after fleeing Egypt. Early in genesis we have rain for forty days and nights in association with Noah's Ark.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christ...mber-forty-40-mean-or-represent-in-the-bible/

The association would not have been lost on the author of the gospel of Matthew who refers to the Hebrew bible more than any other gospel writer.

http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Matthew-OTQuotations.htm

I am not aware of any compelling evidence that He crossed to India at any time. Why would He? Although both Krishna and Buddha may have been Manifestations of God, so too was Moses and for that matter Christ Himself. He didn't need to go India to be One with God (John 10:30).

 

[Augustus]

The number forty is associated with a time of testing. As mentioned by another we have the Israelites spending 40 years in the desert after fleeing Egypt. Early in genesis we have rain for forty days and nights in association with Noah's Ark.

Not 100% certain, but wasn't Moses 40 when he left Egypt and spoke to God aged 80 too?

In the Islamic tradition, Muhammad was 40 when he started to receive revelations which mirrors this.

 

[Kirran]

Not 100% certain, but wasn't Moses 40 when he left Egypt and spoke to God aged 80 too?

In the Islamic tradition, Muhammad was 40 when he started to receive revelations which mirrors this.

In 'No god but God' Reza Aslan says that 40 was associated with reaching full maturity as a man, and so it's more just 'when he'd reached his full maturity' than 'when he'd lived 40 years since his birth'.

 

[jonathan180iq]

Without evidence, everything is just wild conjecture.

 

[Augustus]

In 'No god but God' Reza Aslan says that 40 was associated with reaching full maturity as a man, and so it's more just 'when he'd reached his full maturity' than 'when he'd lived 40 years since his birth'.

Apparently 40 was also the highest number ever counted to on Sesame Street

God is indeed great!