Reincarnation in the Bible

An Accepted Idea

Is there anything in the Bible to support the idea of reincarnation?

In his book Case For Reincarnation the Rev. Leslie Weatherhead PhD, a former minister at City Temple, London, says there is and in the following quotation backs up his stated opinion:

"Some have felt that a belief in reincarnation is not compatible with Christian orthodoxy. If this could be substantiated, it would be a formidable indictment, but, in my opinion it cannot! Christ himself never taught directly the idea of reincarnation though it was taught by the Essenes, a prominent sect of his day. Further, Josephus makes reference to it as if it were a com­mon Jewish belief. He wrote in De Bello Judaico (2): They say that all the souls of good men are only removed into other bod­ies'. Christ seems to me to have referred to it as though it were part of the accepted ideas of His day. He never repudiated or denied it, or taught that it was false."

Quotations from the Bible

Three quotations from the Bible illustrate the point made above.

In Matthew 16:13, 14 we read "When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, 'Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" And they said, 'Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias: and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets.'"

Quite evidently the men of that time saw nothing extraordinary in the concept that Jesus should be a reincarnation of someone who had pre­deceased him.

And in Matthew 17:12,13 Jesus in answering the disciples, says: "But I say to you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.' Then the disciples understood that he spoke unto them of John the Baptist."

This appears to be a specific reference to John the Baptist being a reincarnation of Elias.
Again in John 9: 2, we read "And his disciples asked him, saying 'Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind'".

Clearly the concept of reincarnation was in the disciples' minds in asking this question, for if the blindness was the outcome of sin, as they presumed, that sin must obviously have occurred prior to the birth, which produced the blindness.