Although the word " reincarnation " doesn't exist as such in the Bible, the concept, however, certainly exists in the texts of the Old Testament, and even more clearly in those of the New Testament. Below, are transcribed some of the paragraphs relating to reincarnation, with a small analysis on what these texts really mean.
Even when, at this moment, Christian religions do not accept the notion of reincarnation of the spirit, this was widely accepted by the contemporary followers of Jesus and the Apostles; it was at the Concile of Constantinople in the year 553 AC when the definition of reincarnation as heresy was inducted as the results of a tract against it by Emperor Justinian, declaring as anathema this concept. For a better understanding of the background of the position of modern Christianism regarding reincarnation, please read "The Controversy"
We have separated the biblical texts and their analysis in two parts; the first one concerns the First Time, the time of the Law and the Prophets comprehended in the Old (the First) Testament. The second covers from the arrival of John the Baptist, the forerunner, to Jesus' teachings and the writings of the New (Second) Testament.
We decided to quote the verses and paragraphs both of the OT and the NT as written in the Commonly Known as the Authorized (King James) Version simply because it is the most used by English speaking persons.
The concept of reincarnation in the Bible
Genesis 28:12 Jacob's Ladder. In the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, that covers the time of the patriarches, comes the concept of reincarnation, of the continued come and go of the spirits (angels of God) between the spiritual realm and earth. Jacob, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, had a dream in which is delivered to man this revelation. Some believe that this passage refers simply to the divine privilege of sending messengers to communicate with man, but if this was so, the order would be the other way around: first they would descend and then they would ascend. When specifiyng that the spirits first ascend and then they descend again, it implies something much deeper; the death (to ascend) and the reincarnation (to descend). The clue is in the phrase "set up on the earth" which means that the ladder is based on earth, the body. Messengers such as the angel Gabriel that appeared before Mary (Luke 1:26) never took body, they manifested only through spiritual visions.
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder
set up on the earth,
and the top of it reached to heaven;
and behold the angels of God
ascending and descending on it.
Genesis 28:12
The Book of Job The wisdom and prophetic books of the Bible are written in an allegorical language, with the abundant use of metaphors ( metaphor=use of a word with a sense different to its own and that identifies two different objects that keep a relationship of likeness ). Thus, in the Book of Job we see the allegory of the cut (dead) tree that is renewed, metaphor that the biblical writer uses to question himself if the same won't happen to man. Please take note that when he mentions "boughs like a plant", the allegory is much nearer to the reincarnation concept (a new body) than to resurrection as many understand it (the same body). In addition to this and for a better understanding of the phrase "till my change come", please see the reference to the same concept in Psalm 102.
For there is hope of a tree,
if it be cut down,
that it will sprout again,
and that the tender branch
thereof will not cease.
Though the root thereof wax old in earth
in the earth, and the stock thereof
die in the ground;
yet through the scent of water
it will bud, and bring forth
boughs like a plant.
Job 14:7-9
If a man die, shall he live again?
all the days of my appointed time
will I wait, till my change come.
Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee;
thou wilt have a desire to the work
of thine hands.
Job 14:14,15
The Book of Psalms This book assumed to be written by David, king from Israel, contains certain passages that refer to life after death and to the hope that this is defeated. The texts, as explained above, are taken from the Commonly Known as the Authorized (King James) Version but the reader must be aware that the word "Sheol" which first was translated into the Greek "hades" and then to "hell", was in many verses translated into English as "grave", changing therefore the true meaning of the author's original idea. The numeration of the psalms corresponds to the biblical version of King James; the Catholic Bibles differ in its numbering although the texts are similar.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One
to see corruption.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life:
in thy presence is fulness of joy;
at thy right hand there are pleasures
for evermore.
Psalm 16:10,11
Of course, some would say that the first verse of above refers only to JesusChrist's resurrection from the dead. After all it is quoted as this in Acts 13:35; but if this would to be true, why then the reference to "hell" (sheol)?
What profit there is there in my "blood" (death in the original text)
when I go down to the pit?
Shall the dust praise thee?
Shall it declare thy truth?
Psalm 30:9
...upon those that hope in their mercy,
to deliver their souls from death...
Psalm 33:18s,19s
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the "grave" (sheol),
for he shall receive me
Psalm 49:15
But in the following passage, the king-prophet goes beyond the hope in a life after death. When referring to a renewal of the spirit, it agrees with Job 14:7-9 and with Job 14:14,15 and clearly speaks of the reincarnation of the spirit.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Psalm 51:10,12
Later on, the psalmist asks God if He will be able to give life again.
Wilt thou not revive us again:
that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Psalm 85:6
The use of the notion of the human body as clothing of the spirit is clearly found in the following metaphor:
...yea, all of them shall wax old
like a garment;
As a vesture shalt thou change them,
and they shall be changed;
Psalm 102:26
In the following verse, the reference to the spiritual valley in darkness is very clear and here it would be necessary to compare it with 1 Peter 3:18-20, where the same idea is stated, although David speaks in this verse of reincarnation in the past.
Such as sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
being abound in affliction and iron;
He brougth them out of darkness
and the shadow of death,
and brake their bands in sunder
Psalm 107:10,14
The Book of Ecclesiastes In the following allegory that it is found through diverse verses of the Book of Ecclesiastes, also called The Preacher and whose writing is attributed to King Solomon, son of David, by the use of the figure of the flow of the rivers to the sea back and forth to describe the incessant come and go of human life, it's a clear reference to the continuous reincarnation and disembody of the spirits. He even refers to the veil that causes us not to remember previous lives. And once again, he refers to reincarnation calling it restoration in the original text (requireth in KJV).
All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full;
unto the place from whence the rivers come,
thither they return again.
The thing that hath been it is that which shall be;
and that which is done is that which shall be done;
and there is no new thing under the sun.
Is any thing whereof it may be said;
See, this is new?
It hath been already of old time,
which was before us.
There is no remembrance of former things;
neither shall there be any remembrance
of things that are to come with those
that should come after.
Ecclesiastes 1:7,9,10,11
That which hath been is now:
and that which is to be hath already been;
and God requireth that which is past.
Ecclesiastes 3:15
The Book of Isaiah This book, which for some scholars is in reality the work of two or maybe three different writers writing in different times, contains very deep concepts about life, death ...and reincarnation. The first reference speaks about death being avoidable.
He will swallow up death in victory;
and the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces;
and the rebuke of his people
shall be taken away from all of the earth;
for the Lord hath spoken it.
Isaiah 25:8
Thy dead shall live
(together with) my dead body shall they arise
Awake and sing,
ye that dwell in dust;
for thy dew is as the dew of herbs,
and the earth shall cast out the dead.
Isaiah 26:19
The verse that follows states that, undoubtedly, death and hell are not divine creation but human instead; the interesting thing is that it denies the relentlessness and inexorability of death.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled,
and your agreement with "hell" (sheol) shall not stand;
when the overflowing scourge shall pass through,
then ye shall be trodden down by it.
Isaiah 28:18
Then, the biblical writer clarifies that "resurrection " will be through birth, concept that Jesus affirms in John 3.
Shall I bring to the birth
and not cause to bring forth?
saith the Lord;
shall I cause to bring forth
and shut the womb?
saith thy God.
And when ye see this,
your heart shall rejoice,
and your bones shall flourish
like an herb.
Isaiah 66:9,14
Jeremiah's Book This book which some believe written by Baruc the scribe and others by Jeremiah himself -of whom the book is about- contains the basic concept, the fundamental reason of the law of spiritual reincarnation: the improvement toward perfection of the spirit. Through the use of the metaphor of the potter's vessel that represents human life, we are told that these will be as many as they are necessary to achieve their objective: to contain the spirit in its journey to perfection.
The word which came to Jeremiah
from the Lord, saying:
Arise and go down to the potter's house,
and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Then I went down to the potter's house,
and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
And the vessel that he made of clay
was marred in the hand of the potter;
so he made it again another vessel,
as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
O house of israel,
cannot I do with you as the potter? saith the Lord.
Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand,
so are ye in mine hand,
O house of Israel.
Jeremiah 18:1,6
And the following verse is overwhelming for those that doubt of the divine power, able to endow the spirit with multiple vestures.
Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh:
is there any thing too hard for me?
Jeremiah 32:27
The Book of Lamentations In this continuation of the previous ideas, the biblical writer destroys the notion of eternal damnation, obstacle, according to some starting from Jerome, to make reincarnation feasible.
For the Lord will not cast off for ever;
Lamentations 3:31
And the same as in Ecclesiastes, the idea of the renewal seems to be continuos and recurrent.
Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord;
and we shall be turned;
renew our days as old.
Lamentations 5:21
The Book of Ezekiel This prophetic book which has been object of detailed studies and analysis for many reasons, contains in detail those elements that are necessary for the reincarnation of the spirit. It is important to point that, until Aristotle, the ancient believed that mental functions take place in the heart; the knowledge that these are carried out in the brain is relatively modern. Because of it, whenever the prophet refers to the heart, what he is really refering to is to the mind. Thus, we see that when man is given a new life, not only comes with it a renewed spirit but also a new mind. This will be of capital importance when studying the passage of Elijah's reincarnation in John the Baptist that comes described in the New Testament.
And I will give them one heart,
and I will put a new spirit within you;
and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh,
and I will give them an heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 11:19
Cast away from you all your transgressions,
whereby ye have transgressed:
and make you a new heart and a new spirit:
for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Ezekiel 18:31
And once again, we are told that death of man it is not a divine creation.
For I have no pleasure in the death
of him that dieth, saith the Lord God;
wherefore turn yourselves and live ye.
Ezekiel 18:32
Next, it comes the passage of the valley of the dry bones, the one that has been taken by Christian theologians in its most literal sense. The clue is in the expression "they were very dry", which is repeatead in "dry bones" in order to not leave doubt of what was wanted to mean with it: the dust of the ground, as understood in Genesis 2:7 and 3:19. When the prophet, following the orders of God, speaks to the dry bones, he is in fact telling them that from there it will sprout flesh again in order to be finally endowed with spirit; the ancient ignored what we know now as "the chain of the life", modern expression that describes the cycle of recovery of the organic matter to give new material life. Nothing is wasted and everything, finally, returns to life; the matter to the matter, and the spirit to reincarnate in new bodies.
The hand of the Lord was upon me
and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord,
and set me down in the midst
of the valley which was full of bones,
And caused me to pass by them round about:
and, behold, there were very many in the open valley;
and, lo, they were very dry.
And he said unto me,
Son of man, can these bones live?
And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.
Again he said unto me,
Prophesy upon these bones,
and say unto them,
O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones;
Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you,
and ye shall live:
And I will lay sinews upon you,
and will bring up flesh upon you,
and cover you with skin,
and put breath in you, and ye shall live;
and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
So I prophesied as I was commanded:
and as I prophesied, there was a noise,
and behold a shaking,
and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
And when I beheld, lo,
the sinews and the flesh came up upon them,
and the skin covered them above:
but there was no breath in them.
Then said he unto me,
Prophesy unto the wind,
prophesy, son of man,
and say to the wind,
thus saith the Lord God;
Come from the four winds,
O breath, and breathe upon these slain,
that they may live.
So I prophesied as he commanded me,
and the breath came into them, and they lived,
and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
Then he said unto me, Son of man,
these bones are the whole house of Israel:
behold, they say, Our bones are dried,
and our hope is lost:
we are cut off for our parts.
Therefore prophesy and say unto them,
Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people,
I will open your graves,
and cause you to come up out of your graves,
and bring you into the land of Israel.
And ye shall know that I am the Lord,
when I have opened your graves, O my people,
and brought you up out of your graves,
And shall put my spirit in you,
and ye shall live,
and I shall place you in your own land:
then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it,
and performed it, saith the Lord.
Ezekiel 37:1,14
The Book of Daniel This book, uncomplete in the non Catholic versions - the Catholic canon includes Daniel's Book II - contains the prophecy of Daniel's return at the end of times.
But go thou thy way till the end (be);
for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot
at the end of the days.
Daniel 12:13
The Book of Hosea In Hosea it comes, again, the concept of God as enemy of death and more important, of hell and therefore, of eternal damnation. This is taken later by Paul.
I will ransom them from the power of the "grave" (sheol):
I will redeem them from death:
O death, I will be thy plagues;
O "grave" (seol), I will be thy destruction:
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
Hosea 13:14
The Book of Amos In this prophecy, it is found the overwhelming statement that the confused spirits -those of below, in the Seol, the Hebrew " hell " - as well as the spirits of the obedient ones -those that ascended to the spiritual valley - all are subjected to the law of the reincarnation of the spirit.
Though they dig into "hell" (seol),
thence mine hand take them;
though they climpb up to heaven,
thence will I bring them down
Amos 9:2
The Book of Jonah Once again we find in this book the concept of the return to life. Notice how the symbolic meaning of "forever", when refuted in its literal form in the following line, tears down many interpretations that base the belief on an eternal punishment in incorrect readings of the biblical texts.
And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction
unto the Lord, and he heard me;
out of the belly of "hell" (seol) cried I,
and thou heardest my voice.
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains;
the earth with her bars was about me for ever;
yet, hast thou brought up my life from corruption,
O Lord.
Jonah 2:2,6
John the Baptist: Elijah Reincarnated.
In spite of numerous attempts by the great established Christian religions and the various sects that deny the evidence concerning the reincarnation of Elijah the prophet as John the Baptist, the evidence is of such magnitude that it cannot be hidden or easily ignored.
The Book of Malachi This book, the last in the canon of the Old Testament, is extremely important because it contains the prophecy of Elijah's return that will be fulfilled, as we shall see shortly, with the reincarnation of the greatest prophet of Israel as John the Baptist. Notice that the words of the last paragraph are also mentioned in Matthew 3 and in Luke 1:17 as well, when the angel announces to Zacharias that his son John (the Baptist) would embody the spirit of Elijah the prophet.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet,
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children
and the heart of the children to the fathers...
xMalachi 4:5,6
Next by transcribing the descriptions in the 2nd Book of Kings and that of Mathew's Gospel and comparing the personalities of Elijah the Tishbite and John the Baptist respectively we have:
And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair
and a leathern girdle about his loins
and his meat was locust
and wild honey.
Matthew 3:4
And they answered him, He was an hairy man
and girt with a girdle of leather
around his loins-
And he said, it is Elijah the Tishbite
II Kings 1:8
Simple coincidence? Let's see. When the messenger of God appears before Zacharias to announce that his wife shall bear a son who will be the embodiment of a prophet, he announces with total clarity that the spirit that will be manifest in that prophet to be born is no one less than Elijah, and he even quotes Malachi.
And he shall go before him
in the spirit and power of Elias
to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children
and the desobedient to the wisdom of the just;
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Luke 1:17
The reader should be aware that in the former verse, the word in the original Greek text that translates as "with" was changed in the King James Translation to "into", obscuring the meaning of the whole paragraph, apparently to make it fit in accordance to Jerome's opinion regarding reincarnation.
Let's mention now the verse (the only one) wrongfully quoted by western religions that cannot accept the law of reincarnation because, naturally, they would see a diminishing of their moral and material power over the consciences of men. The curious thing is that, while denying that John the Baptist was in fact the reincarnation of Elijah's spirit, they end up also denying the assertions of the Divine Teacher Himself, as will be clearly seen later on.
And they asked him, What then? Are thou Elias?
And he saith, I am not.
Are thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
Then said they unto him, Who are thou?
that we may give an answer to them that sent us.
What sayest thou of thyself?
He said, I am the voice of one
crying in the wilderness.
Make straight the way of the Lord,
as said the prophet Esaias.
John 1:21,23
And certainly, when the priests and Levites ask John the Baptist if he is Elijah, he answers that indeed, he is not: he is John, son of Zacharias and Elizabeth.
But what would happen if the question was formulated properly? "Do you have within you Elijah's spirit?" The answer, of course, would had been different, confirming what was announced by the angel to Zacharias.
And still, there is the other explanation: that the knowledge of past lives was concealed even to John as stated in Ecclesiastes 1:7,9, but Jesus, the Son of Man and the Christ, certainly knew all things occult pertaining to men.
Had Elijah's spirit not reincarnated in the life and body of John the Baptist, the prophecies of Malachi 4 and Luke 1 would never have been fulfilled and the Messiah, with Elijah yet to come, could not possibly have arrived! Therefore Christian theologians are inadvertently agreeing with the orthodox Jewish theologians who are still to this day denying that Jesus was the Messiah and continue to await the return of Elijah.
This is so wrong! That the prophecies were truly fulfilled is evident when John himself clarifies the prophecy by confirming to be that voice crying in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord. If John the Baptist had not within himself the spirit of Elijah the prophet, why then did Jesus of Nazareth, the long awaited Messiah of Israel, whom we recognize as the Christ, make this affirmation in such a concise and definite manner?
And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.
Matthew 11:14
But I say unto you, That Elias is come already
and they knew him not,
but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.
Matthew 17:12
But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come,
and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed,
as it is written of him.
Mark 9:13
It is here that theologians are silent. They are caught in the dilemma due to their incorrect interpretation by imputing that either John the Baptist or the very Christ Himself was lying!
The fact that among the Jews contemporary to Jesus there already existed the notion and accepted knowledge of the law of reincarnation of the spirit, is demonstrated in the following verse, completely unnecessary if the contrary had been true:
Others said, That it is Elias
and others said, That it is a prophet,
or as one of the prophets.
Mark 6:15
By assuming the possibility that Jesus could be one of the prophets of Israel from ancient times, they implicitly acknowledged the possibility of reincarnation.
Furthermore, reading the following verse throws even more light on the knowledge that Jesus' disciples already had of reincarnation.
And as Jesus passed by,
he saw a man which was blind from his birth
And his disciples asked him,
Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents,
that he was born blind?
John 9:1,2
What's the point of Jesus' disciples formulating this question if they didn't already know that it is possible to sin before being born, that is to say, in a previous existence? Can someone be "punished" by God at the moment of their birth - before having the chance to sin? This was one of the fundamental arguments of Origen about pre-existence of the spirit prior to its arrival in this world.
The resurrection of the flesh is the reincarnation of the spirit.
One way of denying the law of reincarnation of the spirit, is by concealing the interpretation of numerous passages of the Bible that deal with this notion by making them appear as if they refer to the materialistic concept of the resurrection of the bodies of the dead.
Jesus refutes this materialistic interpretation, and explains that the resurrection of matter is really that of the spirit (the angels in the sky) referring implicitly to the same metaphor as in Jacob's ladder (Gen. 28:12).
Jesus and the reincarnation.
The same day came to him the Sadducees,
which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die,
having no children, his brother shall marry his wife,
and raise up seed unto his brother.
Now there were with us seven brethen:
and the first, when he had married a wife,
deceased, and, having no issue,
left his wife unto his brother;
Likewise the second also, and the third,
unto the seventh.
And last of all the woman died also.
Therefore, in the resurrection
whose wife shall se be of the seven?
for they all had her.
Jesus answered and said unto them,
ye do err, not knowing the scriptures
nor the power of God.
For in the resurrection they neither marry,
nor are given in marriage,
but are as the angels of God in heaven.
Matthew 22:23-30
Here, Jesus is taking on the literal interpretation of Ezekiel's vision, which was the one presented by the Sadducees trying to get Jesus into trouble.
But in the following verse -if there was still doubt - Jesus underrates the rude interpretation of the resurrection of cadavers completely when he affirms: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And here, as given by Jesus the Christ, is the clue to this whole concept: true resurrection is of the spirit (the living) not of the corpse (the dead) as many have believed for so long.
But as touching the resurrection of the dead,
have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying
I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob?
God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living.
Matthew 22:31,32
In the following passage in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus explains the reason why the spirit does not "re-use" a body. Using the metaphor of vestures and vessels of clay represented by cloth and bottles.
No man putheth a piece of new cloth
unto an old garment,
for that which is put in to fill it up
tajeth from the garment,
and the rent is made worse.
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles:
else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out,
and the bottles perish:
but they put new wine into new bottles,
and both are preserved
Matthew 9: 16,17
John 3 In John's Gospel, the Divine Teacher speaks of the resurrection not as the body of a man returning to life -in the flesh - but through birth, the reincarnation of the spirit (represented by the metaphor of the wind) in a new body.
Jesus answered and said unto him,
verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him,
How can a man born when he is old?
can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb, and be born?
John 3:3,4
Of course, there are those who interpret this last verse as referring to repentance, the inner transformation of man, which of course could also be inferred, but when repeating these same words in Matthew 3:7 He proceeds to explain it further in the subsequent verse, extending the concept even more.
The verse transcribed below has been interpreted by Christian theologians improperly, as referring to the material baptism. We should clarify that Christianity, by not accepting the spiritual intent of Jesus' teachings, continues to baptize its children ritually with John's baptism, and not with the subtle and spiritual baptism of the Messiah; after all, it is easier to be literal with the baptism of water; than with the literal application of baptism with fire resulting in severe damage to the unfortunate candidate.
When Jesus answers Nicodemus questions, he tells him not to confuse material things with spiritual things which is exactly what modern theologians do, following Nicodemus' steps. The clue for the correct interpretation is found in a verse in Luke's gospel where John the Baptist (Elijah) analyzes for us the different meanings of water and fire: repentance and spirit, respectively.
Therefore we know that God grants new life to those spirits that, due to their repentance, recognize and see in each new life a new opportunity to change, because for certainty those who will not change cannot enter the Kingdom. And spirits that regret not their errors, remain in the spiritual valley of darkness without reincarnating ( see I Peter 3:18 to 20). ( see I Peter 3:18 to 20).
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:5,6
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance;
but he that cometh after me is mightier than I,
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
Matthew 3:11
Note: Modern scholars agree that the use of the word "ghost" referring to the Holy Spirit, is an obvious mistake. The Hebrew word "rowah" ("rouhka" in Aramaic) translates as spirit. No one knows for certain how the word "ghost" found its way into the Gospels.
Next, the Divine Teacher uses the metaphor of the wind -the Greek word that means spirit as well as wind as written in the original texts- to teach, once again, that the spirit ends up settling in the womb of mothers, and that these are ignorant from where the spirit came.
Marvel not that I said unto thee,
Ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence iit cometh,
and whither it goeth:
so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him,
How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him,
Art thou a master of Israel,
and knowest not these things?
John 3:7-10
Not knowing from where the spirit comes that enlivens each human being at birth is also found in this statement the Master makes to His disciples:
Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
Luke 9:55
Note: In the original text the words "manner of" are not part of the verse, nor so in the Vulgate version. It seems that while translating the text into English, a pious scribe thought that the inclusion of these words would make the sense of the verse clearer, at least to his personal point of view, but we repeat, they are not part of Jesus' words. In modern translations this has been corrected.
Paul and the reincarnation of the spirit.
In his Letters or Epistles, Paul of Tarsus, the apostle to the gentiles, refers to the concept of the renewal of man through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and to the resurrection of the body. This belief is an idea belonging to the doxology of the Pharisees and was introduced to Christianity by Paul, and not by the teachings of Jesus (Paul refers to man's corrupt nature as the "old man" in Romans 6:6). There is an extremely mysterious passage that Paul describes and explains as a mystery-and which he refers to as something different: reincarnation.
In the first Epistle to the Corinthians, after speaking of the resurrection of the flesh in the literal sense, that is to say, the resuscitation of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:12-29), Paul suddenly ventures into unsuspected territory starting from verse 35. He starts by discarding in verse 37 the idea of incarnating in the same previous body ( "that which thou sowest -the cadaver - not the body that shall be (the new body)") but in a different body, according to the will of God.
But some man will say,
How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
And that which thou sowest,
thou sowest not that body that shall be,
but bare grain, it may chance of wheat,
or of some other grain:
But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him,
and to every seed his own body.
1 Corinthians 15: 35-38
And if that wasn't enough, Paul continues and clarifies that, contrary to what some oriental religions believe, the spirit that inhabited previously in a man cannot be embodied in another creature different than human and he exposes the reasons for this, reaffirming what Jesus said regarding this. See the reference to the old garments and bottles.
All flesh is not the same flesh:
but there is one kind of flesh of men,
another flesh of beasts, another of fishes,
and another of birds.
There are also celestial bodies,
and bodies terrestrial:
but the glory of the celestial is one,
and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
1 Corinthians 15: 39,40
Now this I say, brethen,
that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God;
neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
1 Corinthians 15:50
The next transcription is the previous passage of Paul's explanations regarding the resurrection of the flesh understood as the reincarnation of the spirit. Note the difference that Paul puts between those that sleep, those that die and those that are changed (transformed). There are theologians that seek to interpret sleeping as mentioned by Paul as death, but if this is so, why then does Paul state that some won't sleep, including him? (Paul was beheaded circa the year 70 AD)
Behold, I shew you a mystery:
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trump:
for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
1 Corinthians 15: 51, 52
And Paul finishes his explanation by paraphrasing Hosea, who also denied the inexorability of death.
O death, where is the thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?
1 Corinthians 15: 55
Peter the Apostle and the imprisoned spirits.
Peter (Cephas), the apostle that witnessed the transfiguration on Mount Tabor, writes about the imprisoned spirits that were retained after the Flood. This alone raises many questions. Were only the spirits of big sinners those imprisoned? Where or what was that "jail "? And what of the spirits of men that were not that sinful -Jacob, David, Solomon, the prophets, etc. - where were they? We know, for example, of a metaphoric " place " which Jesus calls Abraham's bosom and in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:20-25) you can infer that at least two " places " or situations exist which spirits inhabit, once out of the flesh.
Because Christ also suffered
a single time for our sins,
the fair one for the unjust ones,
to take us to God,
He was put to death in the flesh
but vivified in spirit;
in which also He went and preached
to the imprisoned spirits,
those that had disobeyed in another time,
When God waited patiently in the days of Noah
during the building of the Ark
in which a few, that is, eight persons were saved
through water.
1 Peter 3: 18-20
So here in view of the previous analysis, the great question stands: Won't reincarnation-the return to this world in human form, be the other option proposed by the infinite love of God, to correct previous errors. That is the same option that Paul describes as a mystery and which also the Spirit of Truth came to proclaim to humanity in this Third Era. See The Divine Gift of Reincarnation.
Souce: http://144000.net/newindex/ (The Third Testament)
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