Did Jesus Christ Went To Britain?

Even though it is often referred to his “lost years”, did Jesus Christ traveled to Britain during when he was 12 to 30 years of age?

By: Ringo Bones

Though the evidence may be only hagiographical, but certain non-canonical accounts of early Christianity purportedly claimed that Jesus Christ indeed traveled to Britain during the time when he was between the ages of 12 to 30, which was often referred to as “the lost years of Jesus Christ”. But is this mere hagiography or this historicism can be proven with contemporary archaeology.

When what is now the State of Israel was under Roman occupation a little over 2,000 years ago, Nazareth is not a mere backwater town, guilds of various trades traveled there to sell their goods and services and some of them were purportedly to come as far away as the then Roman Empire occupied Britain. Although Jesus was probably already a practicing carpenter by the time when he was 12 years old, he probably supplemented his income by delving into the most traded items of the time – namely metals trading.

Jesus’ great uncle at the time – which canonical texts cite to as Joseph of Arimathea was a well-known bronze trader and was probably has contact with tin traders from Cornwall, England. Although the historicism of this anecdote is somewhat flimsy, legend has it that Jesus Christ indeed travelled to Cornwall and even Glastonbury to “haggle” with the tin traders there in order to get a good price for tin. And by the way, 2,000 years ago, Cornwall and Glastonbury are well-known tin mining towns.

The historicism behind Jesus Christ visiting Britain was first written down by William of Malmesbury – a well-known 12^th Century English historian and used to head the Glastonbury Abbey. William of Malmesbury even wrote down that Jesus Christ learned esoteric healing arts from the Druids of Glastonbury at the time.

Is there any actual evidence that Jesus Christ went to Britain? Well, many mainstram historians cite William of Malmesbury’s account as just a means of gaining donations for the local abbey and thus often dismissed a mere hagiographical whimsy. Hagiographical whimsy or not, the legend that Jesus Christ may have visited Britain during his “lost years” was probably the historicism used by King Henry VIII to established his “self-styled” Church of England in 1534.