Editing Barlaam and Josaphat (section)

== History ==
[[File:Battistero di parma, portale sud 03 leggenda di barlaam.JPG|thumb|Depiction of a parable from Barlaam and Josaphat at the [[Baptistery of Parma]], Italy]]
The story of '''Barlaam and Josaphat''' or '''Joasaph''' is a [[Christianity|Christianized]] and later version of the story of [[Siddhartha Gautama]], who became the [[buddhahood|Buddha]].<ref name="CatholicEncyclopedia">{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Barlaam and Josaphat}}</ref> The tale derives from a second to fourth century [[Sanskrit]] [[Mahayana]] [[Buddhist]] text, via a [[Manichaean]] version,<ref>{{cite journal|first=Joseph|last=Wilson|date=2009|title=The Life of the Saint and the Animal: Asian Religious Influence in the Medieval Christian West|journal=The Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture|volume=3|issue=2|pages=169–194|doi=10.1558/jsrnc.v3i2.169|url=https://journals.equinoxpub.com/JSRNC/article/view/5782|access-date=30 July 2020}}</ref> then the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] ''Kitāb Bilawhar wa-Būd̠āsaf'' (Book of Bilawhar and Budhasaf), current in [[Baghdad]] in the eighth century, from where it entered into Middle Eastern Christian circles before appearing in European versions.

The first Christianized adaptation was the [[Georgian language|Georgian]] epic ''Balavariani'' dating back to the 10th century. A Georgian monk, [[Euthymius of Athos]], translated the story into [[Greek language|Greek]], some time before he died in an accident while visiting [[Constantinople]] in 1028.<ref name=oca>[https://oca.org/saints/lives/2014/05/13/103846-st-euthymius-of-athos-the-translator "St. Euthymius of Athos the translator", Orthodox Church in America]</ref> There the Greek adaptation was translated into [[Latin language|Latin]] in 1048 and soon became well known in Western Europe as ''Barlaam and Josaphat''.<ref>William Cantwell Smith, "Towards a World Theology" (1981)</ref> The Greek legend of "Barlaam and Ioasaph" is sometimes attributed to the 8th century [[John of Damascus]], but [[Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare|F. C. Conybeare]] argued it was transcribed by Euthymius in the 11th century.<ref>F.C. Conybeare, "The Barlaam and Josaphat Legend in the Ancient Georgian and Armenian Literatures" (Gorgias Press)</ref>

The story of Barlaam and Josaphat was popular in the [[Middle Ages]], appearing in such works as the ''[[Golden Legend]]'', and a scene there involving three caskets eventually appeared, via [[William Caxton|Caxton]]'s English translation of a Latin version, in [[Shakespeare]]'s "[[The Merchant of Venice]]".<ref>Sangharakshita, "From Genesis to the Diamond Sutra – A Western Buddhist's Encounters with Christianity" (Windhorse Publications, 2005), p.165</ref> The poet [[Chardri]] produced an [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman]] version, ''La vie de seint Josaphaz'', in the 13th century. The story of Josaphat and Barlaam also occupies a great part of book xv of the [[Speculum historiale|Speculum Historiale]] (Mirror of History) by the 13th century French encyclopedist [[Vincent of Beauvais]].

One of the [[Marco Polo]] manuscripts notes the remarkable similarity between the tale of "Sakyamuni Burkham" (the name that Polo uses for [[the Buddha]]) and St. Josaphat, apparently unaware of the origins of the Josaphat story.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Penguin| isbn = 978-0-14-044057-7| last1 = Polo| first1 = Marco| translator-last = Latham| translator-first = R. E.| title = The travels of Marco Polo| location = Harmondsworth| series = Penguin classics| date = 1958|page=257}}</ref>

Two [[Middle High German]] versions were produced: one, the "Laubacher ''Barlaam''", by Bishop [[Otto II of Freising]] and another, ''Barlaam und Josaphat'', a [[Chivalric romance|romance]] in verse, by [[Rudolf von Ems]]. The latter was described as "perhaps the flower of religious literary creativity in the German Middle Ages" by [[Heinrich Heine]].<ref>''Die Blüte der heiligen Dichtkunst im deutschen Mittelalter ist vielleicht »Barlaam und Josaphat«...''  See Heinrich Heine, [http://www.heinrich-heine.net/schule/schuled1.htm Die romantische Schule (Erstes Buch)]  at heinrich-heine.net. {{in lang|de}}.</ref>

In the 16th century, the story of Josaphat was re-told as a defence of monastic life during the [[Reformation|Protestant Reformation]] and of [[free will]] against [[Protestant]] doctrines regarding [[predestination]].<ref name="Cañizares">{{cite journal |last1=Cañizares Ferriz |first1=Patricia |title=La ''Historia de los dos soldados de Cristo, Barlaan y Josafat'' (Madrid 1608). |trans-title=Story of the two soldiers of Christ, Barlaan and Josafat |translator-first=Juan |translator-last=De Arce Solorzeno |journal=Cuadernos de Filología Clásica. Estudios Latinos |date=1 January 2000 |volume=19 |page=260 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/38829954.pdf |access-date=21 February 2021 |language=es |issn=1988-2343 |quote=y que ya en el s. XVI se convirtiera en un arma defensora de la validez de la vida monástica y del libre albedrío frente a la doctrina luterana.
|trans-quote=and that, already in the 16th century, it would become a weapon defending the validity of monastic life and free will against Lutheran doctrine.}}</ref>