January 25, 2001

4:08 AM

Strangest Story Ever Told - The Weird Legend of Jesus in Japan
Little known religious fact #2: Jesus didn't die up on his cross at Golgotha. That was actually his brother. Christ himself fled across Siberia and, after a brief detour through Alaska, landed in Japan, where he got married and raised a family.
Warning: some wacky religious notions will be mentioned in this article.
posted by lagado (15 comments total)

I could swear that I saw this story on here yesterday, kinda. I am certain that I saw it by following links from Metafilter to other sites and then poking around some on those sites, but now I cannot find it at all. Does abcnews.com read metafilter for stories?
posted by donkeymon at 7:03 AM on January 25, 2001

Warning: some wacky religious notions will be mentioned in this article.

Redundancy alert.
posted by rushmc at 7:41 AM on January 25, 2001

Not all articles are religious.
posted by sonofsamiam at 7:49 AM on January 25, 2001

you probably saw it on rebecca blood's page.
posted by centrs at 8:14 AM on January 25, 2001

Nope, he saw it here.

Where the *hell* is DoublePostGuy when you need him?
posted by baylink at 8:19 AM on January 25, 2001

If anyone is interested, there are some pictures of the site and the scroll that is mentioned in the articlehere. Ther eis even a Quicktime VR of the site.

"Jesus loves Oreo Pie. We know this."
posted by donkeymon at 8:26 AM on January 25, 2001

I think there's a similar legend in Sri Lanka--and then of course there's the whole Mormon thing. Of course, what with underwater pyramids and the devil showing up in Japan, it's no wonder Jesus went there too. (Both LagadoLinks, btw)


posted by rodii at 9:54 AM on January 25, 2001

Eric von-Daniken went to Pakistan and found the tomb of Jesus in a remote place in the Indus Valley. He wrote about that in one of his books, the name of which escapes me right now.
posted by tamim at 11:50 AM on January 25, 2001

I could swear that I saw this story on here yesterday, kinda.

Dunno, sorry if you did. I did search before posting and didn't see it. Maybe it got disappeared.

posted by lagado at 3:42 PM on January 25, 2001

The only place I recall seeing this story yesterday was at rebecca's pocket. Can anybody find the previous MetaFilter thread (if it exists)?
posted by jjg at 3:56 PM on January 25, 2001

I know I followed a link to the article from FARK.com on the 23rd, and I don't think MeFi had a post prior to this one. Hope that helps solve the deja-vu.
posted by atreyu at 4:42 PM on January 25, 2001

It was on Plastic yesterday.
posted by snarkout at 7:57 PM on January 25, 2001

As I remember it, it wasn't on MetaFilter at all, directly. I followed a link to a story from this site, and on the site for that story saw another link to the story about jesus in japan. It wasn't plastic or rebeccablood. I looked in my history but I guess I keep it too small because of people snooping, because it wasn't in there anymore. I tried following links and looking for it but couldn't find it. It's hard to say whether it moved or if I didn't look hard enough or if I am just an idiot, but I don't guess it matters. Sorry everybody.
posted by donkeymon at 9:17 PM on January 25, 2001

I remember it being a canoe.ca link almost a month ago

I could have sworn that it originated from here...doesn't seem to be in the database.

*The case of the missing link*
posted by mkn at 12:55 AM on January 26, 2001

The idea that Jesus did not die on the cross was a widely-spread idea in early Christian Gnostic circles (around IInd AD).

Usually, Simon of Cyrenia is said to have died in his place.

Another interesting fact is that Jesus is commonly called the "Buddha of Nazareth" in Japan... See how you get nice religion mixes?
posted by Tara at 7:00 AM on January 26, 2001