This post contains excerpts from Bart’s blog of April 8, 2022, titled Did Early Christians Believe in Reincarnation? I include Bart’s comments below in number paragraphs without changing his text. The reason is to separate the examples into unique pieces that show a belief in an after and before life. Bart says:
It is often said today that reincarnation was widespread teaching in early Christianity as well. But There’s Not a Lot of Evidence. In fact, the evidence for it is sparse. That said, later interpreters have detected possible traces of the idea already in the New Testament.
- When Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am,” they tell him that some say he is John the Baptist come back from the dead, or Elijah, or one of the prophets (Mark 8:27-28). This may not mean everyone has had a previous life, but it does show that some people thought Jesus did.
- So too in the Gospel of John, the puzzled Jewish leaders ask John the Baptist: “Are you Elijah?” (John 1:21). He denies it, but it’s interesting that they thought it was possible.
- And even more interesting, if less obvious, later in the same Gospel, Jesus passes by a man who was born blind, and his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this person or his parents, that he should be born blind?” (John 9:2). [3Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but gthat the works of God might be displayed in him.] It’s a revealing question: if the man was born blind because of his own sin, obviously he had to have committed the sin before his birth. Voila. Reincarnation.
Reincarnation According to Origen
Origen was about as far removed from this kind of reasoning as a sentient human could be. He stressed, instead, traditional morality and an ascetic lifestyle. For him, reincarnation was a way of moving up the chain of being, by becoming increasingly sanctified until one could enter back into the heavenly realm to engage in the eternal contemplation of God. Not exactly a rollicking good time by Carpocratian standards, but for Origen and those like him, this was an eternity to long for.
