Did Jesus Visit England?

"The suggestion has been laughed off as a wildly improbable myth."

It is a wildly improbable myth, closely connected to distinctly British mythology such as Arthurian legend and British-Israelism.

The article cites William Blake's poem "Jerusalem" favourably, but fails to note that it is mocking the idea that a young Jesus ever visited England.

The early practice of Christianity in the British Isles is due to the former presence of the Romans. Saint Patrick, for example, was a Roman born into a Christian family in England toward the end of Roman rule.

By the time Augustine of Canterbury arrived, Christianity in the east of England had largely been displaced by the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons. The king of Kent, Æthelbert, was married to a Christian woman, which is why he was tolerant of the mission and likely instrumental in his own conversion not long afterward. Augustine knew there were British Christians. Gregory the Great had instructed him to bring the insular church back under the authority of Rome.
 
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Ransom said:
"The suggestion has been laughed off as a wildly improbable myth."

It is a wildly improbable myth, closely connected to distinctly British mythology such as Arthurian legend and British-Israelism.

The article cites William Blake's poem "Jerusalem" favourably, but fails to note that it is mocking the idea that a young Jesus ever visited England.

The early practice of Christianity in the British Isles is due to the former presence of the Romans. Saint Patrick, for example, was a Roman born into a Christian family in England toward the end of Roman rule.

By the time Augustine of Canterbury arrived, Christianity in the east of England had largely been displaced by the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons. The king of Kent, Æthelbert, was married to a Christian woman, which is why he was tolerant of the mission and likely instrumental in his own conversion not long afterward. Augustine knew there were British Christians. Gregory the Great had instructed him to bring the insular church back under the authority of Rome.
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but sir hubert parry did manage to create a beautiful song when he put blakes poem to music.... :confused:

;).... but seriously... i agree.... once someone studies a little about william blake and takes the poem apart they realize it most likely wasn;t written in favor of the myth but actually mocking it..... william blake was not the kind of person who would have believed in something like that in the first place... or even supported the combination of christianity and patriotism that the poem turned into song appeared to inspire.... .... and i say that as someone who actually loves that song...:sneaky:

interestingliterature.com

A Short Analysis of William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’

Dr Oliver Tearle’s reading of Blake’s classic poem ‘Jerusalem’ is one of the most famous hymns around, a sort of alternative national anthem for England. Yet the poem on which Hubert Parry ba…
interestingliterature.com interestingliterature.com
 
Huk said:
Did Jesus visit Cornwall? Folklore says he sailed here with his uncle
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...tml?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton
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i;m only about halfway through studying the books we have on the arthurian legends.... but like ransom said - this theory of Jesus visiting england prior to beginning His ministry seems to be part of that arthurian myth... which also says that arthur himself was born at cornwall.... ... ..the legend of arthur was supposedly built on a real person named artorius that very little is known about.... whether he was pagan or christian is not even known.... .
 
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TBH, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard that Jesus would have traveled across the ocean. I don’t think it ever even crossed my mind it could have been a possibility, but I guess it’s not impossible.
 
Huk said:
TBH, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard that Jesus would have traveled across the ocean. I don’t think it ever even crossed my mind it could have been a possibility, but I guess it’s not impossible.
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definitely not impossible.... and as the Son of God there is no doubt Jesus knew all about england anyway - whether or not He actually went there with His uncle joseph of arimathea... .....another part of that arthurian legend has joseph of arimathea taking the holy grail to england after Christ was crucified - where it was hidden for safe keeping... ... ..which.. if true.. would mean it;s not really in a cave behind petra being guarded by a 900 year old templar knight.... :confused: .... ..bummer.... both stories are kinda cool.... :sneaky:
 
Huk said:
TBH, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard that Jesus would have traveled across the ocean. I don’t think it ever even crossed my mind it could have been a possibility, but I guess it’s not impossible.
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Haven't you heard that Jesus came to the "New World" and preached to two of the "Lost Tribes" which was recorded on a set of "Golden Plates" that were later deciphered with help of the urim and thummim?
 
Baptist Renegade said:
Haven't you heard that Jesus came to the "New World" and preached to two of the "Lost Tribes" which was recorded on a set of "Golden Plates" that were later deciphered with help of the urim and thummim?
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I actually took a Mormonism class as an elective in college, so I had heard that, but never paid it attention since I also don’t believe in “holy underwear.” 🫣
 
aleshanee said:
william blake was not the kind of person who would have believed in something like that in the first place... or even supported the combination of christianity and patriotism that the poem turned into song appeared to inspire...
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I like the song and poem as well.

"And was Jerusalem builded here, / Among these dark Satanic Mills?"

No! No is the correct answer.

Hymn #157 in the hymnal of the mainline church I grew up in is a nice arrangement of this hymn. Reminds me somewhat of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's version:


It's classified under "Ecology" for some reason. I suppose one could interpret the poem as lamenting the loss of the "mountains green" and "pleasant pastures" to the Industrial Revolution.
 
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Huk said:
I actually took a Mormonism class as an elective in college, so I had heard that, but never paid it attention since I also don’t believe in “holy underwear.” 🫣
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if most people understood what mormons actually believe... and how they arrived at those beliefs.. they would not even consider them part of christendom..... which they are not - by the way... .. ...mormonism is a pagan cult started by a scammer who copied all the structure and organizational documentation of the masonic lodge and turned it into his own religion.... all because the local masonic lodge his brother was a member of denied him membership... (which they did due to him already being a well known scammer)

there is an official mantra in mormon teachings that says.... "as man is - God once was - as God is - man may become"..... which sounds closer to something out of an ancient aliens episode than anything from the bible..... and blasphemys like that exist all through mormon writings and teachings.....
 
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aleshanee said:
i;m only about halfway through studying the books we have on the arthurian legends.... but like ransom said - this theory of Jesus visiting england prior to beginning His ministry seems to be part of that arthurian myth...
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The tie-in, I think, is that after Jesus's earthly ministry, Joseph of Arimathea was said to have received the Holy Grail and brought it with him to England. Hence the reason medieval lore began to associate a British king with a quest for a Middle Eastern relic. He didn't have to go far to search.
 
Ransom said:
I like the song and poem as well.

"And was Jerusalem builded here, / Among these dark Satanic Mills?"

No! No is the correct answer.

Hymn #157 in the hymnal of the mainline church I grew up in. Reminds me somewhat of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's version:


It's classified under "Ecology" for some reason. I suppose one could interpret the poem as lamenting the loss of the "mountains green" and "pleasant pastures" to the Industrial Revolution.
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wow.... that is awesome.... . i never heard that before - but i like it.... ...imagine if that had been in the movie chariots of fire... .i could picture it being in there if they ever re-made that movie.... it could get the song relisted under the contemporary christian classification...
 
I asked my pastor if he had heard of this myth before and he said he hadn't. He said it sounded like British-Israelism to him. I said, referring to Ransom's post, that is what it was. I had never heard of
British-Israelism before this morning. Rick said it's described in Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults.
 
Ransom said:
The tie-in, I think, is that after Jesus's earthly ministry, Joseph of Arimathea was said to have received the Holy Grail and brought it with him to England. Hence the reason medieval lore began to associate a British king with a quest for a Middle Eastern relic. He didn't have to go far to search.
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plus it also seemed..(to me at least)... to be an attempt to associate the legend of arthur with christianity ....and to dispell the pagan mythology in the original folklore... ... in the end it has made for some really great movies.... a few of them are on my favorites list... :cool:. .. i am still hoping more will be discovered about the real artorius that the legends are all built on... and see if archaeologists can determine who or what.. if anything... he really was.... ...

it would be kinda sad... but also funny... to find out that artorius was simply the name of a worker/engraver who added his own name to a stone carving ... maybe due to confusion about the warrior/warlords real name?...... .. ...kinda the same way painters in the classic era and sometimes sponsors of religious paintings would get their own faces added to the people in the scene because they didn;t know what the saints and prophets really looked like....
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abcaines said:
British-Israelism before this morning. Rick said it's described in Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults.
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British-Israelism was fashionable in the 19th century. It was also a major plank in Herbert W. Armstrong's theology (the Worldwide Church of God and its many offshoots).

Not surprised many people haven't heard of it these days. It's pretty much been debunked. Though a rather racist version survives in some more backwards areas of the United States, under the name "Christian Identity."
 
Ransom said:
British-Israelism was fashionable in the 19th century. It was also a major plank in Herbert W. Armstrong's theology (the Worldwide Church of God and its many offshoots).

Not surprised many people haven't heard of it these days. It's pretty much been debunked. Though a rather racist version survives in some more backwards areas of the United States, under the name "Christian Identity."
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Right. I was just reading up on it. I am familiar with Herbert W Armstrong's heresies; I never heard the terms British or Anglo-Israelism associated with his teaching. It all makes sense now.
 
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