Book Title: Unknown Life of Jesus Christ New Edition 2009 Publication Author(s): Nicholas Notovitch, Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai Publisher: World Jain ConfederationPage 58
________________ Translator's Introduction descriptions of different parts of his route, which have since perished, but they furnished materials to Strabo, Pliny and Arrian. Arrian gives a minute account of the sea-born trade of India. Megasthenes, on the other hand, has left a life-like picture of the Indian people. THE CARAVAN ROUTES —the manuscript discovered by M. Notovitch gives us a clear account of Jesus from 12 to 26. It says that he went to India with a caravan of merchants. Are there any grounds to suppose that he did so? We know as a fact that the earliest trade between the East and the West was carried on by caravans, and long after the searoutes by the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf began to be used, the land trade continued to be more important than the sea-borne. The earliest of these caravan routes were those between Egypt, Arabia and Assyria, and these are referred to in the Bible. In Gen. 11 11-12, we are told of the land of Havilah, that there was gold there, and b'dellium and the onyx stone. Havilah is in Arabia Felix, to the north of Ophir, and the passage simply indicates the route through which the b’dellium or musk of India was received in Egypt in the time of Moses. The passage, Psalms xiv. 8 : “All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made the glad," is generally supposed to allude to the tablets and alabasters or scent-bottles in which perfumes were kept in ancient times. But it may also be translated “Out of the ivory palaces of the Minaeans,” people of Arabia Felix, who, like their neighbors, the Sabaeans and the Gerrhaeans on the Persian Gulf were the chief carriers of the Indian trade, and renowned in all ancient times for their fabulous opulence and luxury. In Gen. Xxxvii. 25, we read that the sons of Israel sat down in Dothan to eat bread, "and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels, bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down toPage Navigation
1 ... 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184