I see there's one of those 'The Universe is Really Big' videos doing the rounds on

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

You may have a point here. Though 'east' could refer to somewhere a little closer, like Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia's more S than East compared to Palestine, isn't it? And what was the religion of pre-Islamic Iraq?

I suppose they could be Persian Zoroastrianism, and there are some similarities with Vedism as it stems from the Proto-Indo-Iranian tradition, but there are just too many similarities with Buddhism.

Once you look only at the words of Jeez himself (not any letters or whatever) and you imagine a hippy Buddhist trying to explain the religion in words of one syllable to a bunch of Classical era Jews, it sort of makes sense.

Eg turn the other cheek, not eye for an eye. Because we should do unto others etc.