Are there passages supporting the idea of reincarnation in the Bible.
I read that once the Church believed in reincarnation but then got rid of the idea.
John 9:1-2 can be interpreted as pro-reincarnation, although not everyone does. There was an IMHO thread on this a couple months ago (since I registered). IIRC, handy was the OP. Search for that.
John 9:1-2 (NIV translation):
Huh?! What the heck does that have to do with reincarnation?
tracer as the man had been blind from birth and the disciples thought that he could be being punished for former sins, these sins must have been from a previous life. As ultrafilter pointed out only some people intrepret it that way.
Yeah, what he said.
There is NOTHING in the Bible that suggests reincarnation is real. However, there are several passages in the Bible which indicate that many people in Biblical times DID believe in it.
Good example? Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do the people say I am?” The disciples replied, “Some say you are Elijah, or John the Baptist, or one of the prophets.” That is, even though nothing in Jewish scripture supports belief in reincarnation, some Jews clearly believed that Jesus was himself the reincarnation of some Old Testament hero.
astorian is 100% correct. While people in the Bible may have believed in reincarnation, not everything that is described in the Bible is prescribed. Lord, how many cults have come from doing only what is described instead of doing what is prescribed.
Straight from the Big Man himself. (I do not understand the reference format).
John 3:3 John 3 John 3:2-4 Jesus said, `I tell you the truth. No person can see God’s kingdom if he is not born again.’
John 3:7 John 3 John 3:6-8 You must not be surprised when I say, “You must be born again.”
Put any spin you want on it but I think He is talking reincarnation here.
I’m pretty sure you’d have to go back to the original Greek to back that up. I’m also pretty sure that you’d be disappointed.
The explanation I have heard for this passage (and I do not have a cite, but someone else might) is that there was a belief or theory at the time that in the womb a good and evil influence battled for control of the soul. When the evil influence was winning it would do things like kick the mother and sin. So the sin that they were referring to was sin in the womb, not sin from a previous life as we generally speak of re-incaration today.
I think you might be referring to the Fifth Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople (then anyway) 533 AD. I had heard something of the same thing, reincarnation becoming anathema. I found a few sites I’ll post, one covering verses in the Bible that may refer to reincarnation:
http://www.comparativereligion.com/reincarnation3.html
and this one refers to the council, comeplete with minutes:
I’ve also heard this, although I can’t provide a cite either.
You won’t find anything in the Bible (OT) about reincarnation. The concept was the subject of much dispute among medieval Jewish philosophers and theologians.
I think we are argueing past each other. The question was not does the Bible conclusively demonstrate a Jewish/Christian belief in reincarnation. There are passages that can be interpreted to support the idea. There are people who do interpret these passages this way. So the answer to berdollos’s original question: Are there passages supporting the idea of reincarnation in the Bible? is yes there are. However an addendum needs to be added stating, “but most Jews/Christians do not subscribe to this intrpretation.” The fact of the matter is that Christianity is an extremely varied religion. Almost anything and everything has been believed by some group or other at some time or other. Reincarnation included. I would have to check my sources on Medieval sects but I do know of at least one who believed that you would repeat life until you became a Perfect (a position of authority in the sect) and died in good grace as a Perfect. The original source for their beliefs was not Biblical but they sure used the Bible to justify the belief. And if that is not reincarnation I don’t know what is.
As far as Catholicism is concerned cichlidiot has provided a good source. Before this I’m not sure anything could be defined as part of The Church. There were simply too many competing ideas.
the closest thing to reincarnation i recall is resurrection, though the two are not one in the same, of course.
though the bible may not explicitly include the concept of reincarnation, it does, through its concept of an afterlife taking place in either heaven or hell, offer something very similar, i.e., assured positive and negative reinforcement for good and bad deeds done in the here and now, which in turn assures a “final,” inescapable meting out of justice and proper punishment or reward. this concept is, of course, something that human beings dig and understandably takes many forms in the facinating kaleidoscope that is human theism.
luke 11:14:
(Jesus, talking about John the baptist:)
“and if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come”
seems to be fairly clearly talking about reincarnation…
The verse I know of always quoted by Christianity to say there is no reincarnation is Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment”.
However, there seems to be a form of reincarnation described in Judaism. Short explanations can be found here and another here.
So to my understanding, mainstream Christianity does not believe in reincarnation while Judaism does allow for it’s existence.
I’d be obliged if I could be enlightened on this:
I had understood that the Conference at Nicaea in 4th century BC or thereabouts was the point at which reincarnation and the Apocrypha were scrubbed from the Bible, and the concept of the Holy Trinity developed.
Is this right?
Or it could really be the same Elijah.
I asked this exact question just a few months back.