ples, I shall record; for it is from
the temples there, and the priests connected with them, that the name
of Christ has been heard of. Now, there is a temple there to Juno,
surpassing the royal palace, which temple Cyrus, that prince instructed
in all piety, built, and in which he dedicated, in honor of the gods,
golden and silver statues, and adorned them with precious stones. ...
Now about that time (as the records on the plates testify), the king
having entered the temple, with the view of getting an interpretation
of certain dreams, was addressed by the priest Prupupius thus: 'I
congratulate thee, master: Juno has conceived.' 'And the king, smiling,
said to him: 'Has she who is dead conceived?' And he said: 'Yes, she who
was dead has come to life again, and begets life.' And the king said:
'What is this? explain it to me.' And he replied: 'In truth, master, the
time for these things is at hand. For during the whole night the images,
both of gods and goddesses, continued beating the ground, saying to each
other, Come, let us congratulate Juno. And they say to me, Prophet, come
forward, congratulate Juno, for she has been embraced. And I said, How
can she be embraced who no longer exists? To which they reply, She has
come to life again, and is no longer called Juno, but Urama. For the
mighty Sol has embraced her.' "(125)

125) Hyppolytus, vol. ii., p. 196.

There is a tradition which asserts that during the early part of the
second century, St. Thomas went as a missionary to Parthia; that after
he had visited the various countries of the Parthian Empire, tarrying
for a time at Balkh, the capital of Bactria, and the ancient residence
of the Magi, he went to India. Soon after the visit of Thomas to Persia
and India, there appeared in Palestine and the adjacent countries
a gospel of Thomas, in which were set forth various stories closely
resembling the legends found in the Hindoo sacred writings. After
comparing various passages of the Bhagavat Purana with those of the
Infancy, and after furnishing conclusive evidence that the latter must
have been copied from the former, Waite says:

"The conclusion must be, that while for some of the salient points of
the Gospels of the Infancy, the authors were indebted to Zoroaster, and
the legends of Persia, the outline of the story was largely filled up
from the history of Crishna, as sent back to Palestine, by the Apostle
Thomas, from the land of the Brahmins."

Conc