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 The Jesus Sutras
Manichaean-like Texts from China

The 4 Early Sutras

These are the various titles given to the sutras by Martin Palmer in his book The Jesus Sutras: Rediscovering the Lost Religion of Taoist Christianity:

The first he has called The Sutra of the Teachings of the World-Honoured One, translated in 641 CE (Palmer, 2001, 51) and the Chinese name is the Lokajvesta Teaching on Charity, Part 3.

Lokajvesta is a title for the Buddha as World Teacher. The translations of this are the simplest and make errors into the Chinese characters. It probably used as its source a book popular within the Church of the East called Teachings of the Apostles by Tatian (110-180 CE) (103-104), attempting to summarise Jesus in the gospels but drawing on Chinese images and characters when translated.

The second Sutra he calls The Sutra of Cause, Effect and Salvation although its Chinese name is The First Treatise on the Oneness of Heaven.

It is similar to the Indo-Greek Buddhist sutra Milindapanha about cosmology and philosophy (origin 100s to 000s BCE) and involves a Christian-Buddhist engagement of concepts and world views. (See Palmer, 2001, 135-139)

The third Sutra is The Sutra of Origins, translated probably with the first one in 641 CE. It uses distinctly Taoist concepts for missionary purposes.

The fourth Sutra is called The Sutra of Jesus Christ or perhaps The Sutra of Jesus Messiah, as Ye-su Mishisuo is a transliteration of Jesus Messiah.

This is from 645 CE and distinctly Buddhist in the teachings of Jesus. It has a string Tibetan influence too, and odd in terms of not fitting into religious and philosophical traditions, where qi is more passive and simply exists in every body during life (152). It has Jainism and Hinduism in it. Confucian ideas (about loyal harmonious order, 122-125) are there too. (See Palmer, 2001, 150-157)

The 4 Liturgical Sutras

The first is dated 720 CE written by Su Yun, a monk at Da Qin monastery. It is called Da Qin Christian Liturgy of Taking Refuge in the Three, which Martin Palmer calls Taking Refuge in the Trinity (177).

Its use of Jade reflects the Bodhissatva Avalokitesvara (Kuan Yin or Guanyin) or goddess of compassion which itself probably has source concepts in Mary mother of Jesus (179, also 241-245). (See Palmer, 2001, 177-180)

The second Sutra is called Invocation of the Dharma Kings and Sacred Sutras, which Martin Palmer calls Let Us Praise, as it repeats this often. It refers to some Sutras not yet discovered. (See Palmer, 2001, 181-183)

The Sutra of Returning To Your Original Nature is a text for chanting about salvation and comes from 780-790 CE.

It is an explanatory conversation composed by Jingjing featuring the Messiah, his disciple Simon and all characters who have escaped desire. It uses Buddhist and Taoist concepts of salvation. (See Palmer, 2001, 185-189)

The fourth liturgical sutra, also by Jingjing, is called The Christian Liturgy in Praise of the Three Sacred Powers, which Martin Palmer calls  The Supreme.

It was found in the cave at Dunhuang. (See Palmer, 2001, 202)


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