Reincarnation in Abrahamic Religions

I have been thinking lately on the topic of reincarnation, rebirth, return of humans, animals and angels/devas, after passing away from and to earth (and higher planes for devas) and quite a lot came up in google search including many entries here on Sutta Central. Would be interested if anyone else here have studied reincarnation in Early Christianity, Early Judaism (gilgul in Kabbalah), Shia Islam and Sufism. Incidentally Egyptian god Osiris was the ruler of the dead and resurrection/rebirth in Egypt, while Yama was the lord of death and justice in Vedic Hinduism. Yama was subsequently adopted by Buddhists, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean and Japanese mythology as the king of hell.

Reincarnation in Early Christianity

Through many a birth in samsara have I wandered in vain, seeking in the builder of this house (of life). Repeated birth is indeed suffering!
O house-builder, you are seen! You will not build this house again. For your rafters are broken and your ridgepole shattered. My mind has reached the Unconditioned; I have attained the destruction of craving - Dhammapada 11:153-154

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Yamaraj, Lord of Death, as one of the Dispensers of the Law is seen to be a personification of Vishnu or Krsna, or God, in the Vedas. He is considered the Angel of Death also, by many, in Christian Mythology.

I don’t know who Osiris is directly though, I don’t (personally) study Greek or Roman, or Egyptian philosophy or religion because nearly no one practices that stuff anymore, and outside of religious practice I don’t believe it’s very easy to find reputable sources on the topics of devotion to a religion. For example, the best person to learn about Buddhism from is a Buddhist.

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Here’s a lyrics to a Alewite (Shia/Mystic Islam Offshoot) song:

Haydar Haydar

I roamed for fourteen thousand years in Wheel-of-Time (Saᚁsara)
Found the name of Truth in my madness,
I drank His wine, lost myself in ecstasy,
In the gathering of the Forty, I fell to the trial of the gallows.
In the gathering of the Forty, I fell to the trial of the gallows.
In the gathering of the Forty—Haydar, Haydar!
Haydar, Haydar,
Haydar, Haydar,
Haydar, Haydar,
O Friend, I fell to the trial of the gallows.
I mingled my essence with the Saved Group,
Came and went beyond the human form many times
I became a nightingale, sang in the gardens of Paradise,
Once, for a rose, I fell to sorrow’s snare.
Once, for a rose, I fell to sorrow’s snare.
Once, for a rose—Haydar, Haydar!
Haydar, Haydar,
Haydar, Haydar,
Haydar, Haydar,
O Friend, I fell to sorrow’s snare.

A few things to note:

Haydar meaning Lion, an epithet of Ali, the enlightened son-in-law of Mohammed, the holy figure of Shia Islam.

Gathering of the Forty refers to enlightened mendicants.

Trial of the gallows is how a Sufi mendicant proves his worth to a group of enlightened masters.

There’s quite a bit of Indian influences in Tasawwuf literature / culture. Reincarnation is quite a common theme. There’s even a paper on it in Turkish: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/891584

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Not ancient

I read a book about a few of the cases from Dr. Ian Stephenson’s files. There was one in Lebanon and a number of cases outside of the Buddhist world.

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The only God in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Early Islam is closely connected with the God Ba’al Wikipedia and El Wikipedia

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I remember reading that some of the ancient Greek philosophers had breath meditation and believed in transmigration of souls after death. Might be an interesting lead to follow up on.

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@Nava
Is there anything in particular you would like to discuss? Is this thread aimed at comparing aspects of rebirth in buddhism and reincarnation in other religions/philosophical systems/cultures?
I think it’s an interesting topic but I wouldn’t know where to start.

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Yes. There is metempsychosis, e.g. But I’m waiting for the op to respond because I think narrowing down the topic a bit might be useful.

Where did you get that from? :rofl:

Yamaraj and His servants, Yamaduttas, are responsible for taking people to their next life, in depictions, in Hinduism. As well as prepare punishments for them after they have died if they lived bad lives.

In Christianity, the Angel of Death is associated with things like the Passover–directly attributed to the Lord, as in Hinduism Yamaraj is a form of God. Also the Angel of Death has to do with what goes on in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone, which is a place of eternal punishment and destruction associated with the Angel of Death’s Domain, as well as that of Yamaraj’s.

Also, a great rendition of this breath:

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Here is an article that might be interesting to you, in it the author shows some Bible quotes which would suggest reincarnation belief in Bible: Reincarnation - Multiple Bible Proofs - Biblical NON-Orthodoxy

For example he starts with the similarities of Elijah and John the Baptist:

Elijah the prophet – “He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist.” (2 Kings 1:8)

John the Baptist – “John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist.” (Matthew 3:4)

“For all the prophets and the law have prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who was to come.” (Matthew 11:13-14)

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Hi Nava, like @thistle notes, it’s such a wide-open topic that it could go in several directions. Regardless, it will stimulate lots of discussion because, inevitably, this will become a discussion about rebirth: Yes there is/No there’s not :sweat_smile:.

I’ve done lots of study over the past ~35 years on the history of Christianity. (By its nature that requires some study on the history of Judaism.)

From what I can tell, there was never an early Christian version of “reincarnation” per se. It wouldn’t have made sense. Palestine circa 30 CE was a mixture of Greco/Roman and Judaic thought.

One can say broadly that neither tradition would have entertained a view that divine or celestial realms of existence and human ones were wholly bifurcated or separate. There was thought to be movement from one to the other, and vice versa; only the most important or acclaimed mortals and celestial beings could trace the process specifically. Sacrificial acts were executed to appease divine beings and obtain the associated benefits for the community at large.

The history of early Christianity, beginning with Paul of Tarsus and into the first few centuries, debated how (1) Jesus of Nazareth moved between the two realms and (2) how those “reborn in him” took on his nature.

It was not really about a destination after death – everyday people assumed they would “move on” to something else. What if there’s nothing else was not really a way of thinking in Palestine circa 30 CE. Neither was the concept of a renewed or repeated death based on ritual practice or kamma.

Later Christianity embraced the vision of a hellish realm as key to its theology. While this realm of existence was common to just about all axial age cosmologies, it took on special importance here. As western thought moved into the so-called Enlightenment, it became imperative for Christian theologians to rationalize an argument that every person’s soul (undefined) was destined for an eternity in hell without the solvent of “believing” in the reconfigured savior.

Naturally, this was neatly systematized into a “rebirth in heaven” battle cry for the individual “soul” who might be saved by the time of death.

That’s my understanding, anyway.

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This might be of interest……

I have followed Bart Ehrman for several years.

I suspect his answer is No. But if someone watches it perhaps they can let us know.

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“Gnostic” Early Christians like Valentinus, Basilides, and Carpocrates all held metempsychosis/reincarnation views.

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Yes, but these particular gnostics were decidedly outliers. The whole premise of early Christianity falls apart — particularly during the hardening of the theology during Enlightenment — if something akin to reincarnation is entertained.

I feel rebirth is central to Buddhism and can’t fathom my practice apart from the aspect of kamma and DO. Still, I don’t see how it would be entertained in early Christianity without completely dismantling it — it ceases to make sense.

I doubt you would ever find reliable sources as to their actual beliefs, because in the Abrahamic context, teachings about reincarnation are esoteric - which has plausible deniability as its best protection. You would know more about their teachings by those who attack them, or by someone who was exposed to their teachings and then decided to depart back to the mainstream - not the most reliable source.

Also these teachings can be found in minority groups, such as Druz and Alawi sects in Islam. The utility of reincarnation is that being born in these communities is a sign that you have reached enough spiritual maturity in order to be exposed to the higher teachings. For the Druz, the suitable age for such exposure is the age of 40, whereas for the alawis, it is reaching puberty.

When departure from the mainstream is the goal, a guru becomes necessary. You might be interested in Isma’ilism and the story of Hasan al Sabah as one of their famous leaders:

I think if you start arguing/thinking about whether “Christians” believe or believed in reincarnation, the first and most important focal point would come to whether Christ did… and for the person of Christ, I think He did. Jesus Christ who came in the Flesh, was a Teacher akin to the Buddha, with very similar wisdom. He taught with appropriate and similar Skillful Means, except directly preaching God Consciousness as opposed to full extinguishment like the Buddha. He promised a Heaven, similar to Nibbana, but the Path was a little different.

Yet all the while, returning to the topic, of reincarnation, I think that if anyone respects the figure of Christ for who He is, and was, then it’s understood that He believed in reincarnation, and since Christians follow Him, then there is some merit there.

Similar to how the Buddha was saying His Teachings were but a handful of leaves amidst a big giant forest, but those were the leaves needed for extinguishment. In the Same way, we could ask, did Buddha know about the things in the rest of the entire forest? I believe He did.

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There is nothing similar between Jesus and the Buddha, including the path.

A famous early theologian — Origen of Alexandria — is often cited as someone who proposed metempsychosis. The reason being his universalist theology, which considers salvation to be a cosmic plan from God for his creation, rather than a few being saved and the majority being ruined. The idea, as it’s commonly told, is that people will continue to cycle until eventually (inevitably), they are saved.

I don’t think this is antithetical to early Christianity. If you believe in a loving God who wants to save his people, but who nevertheless must accept that themselves, it would make sense that they be given more than one short life.

I’m not a scholar of early Christianity though, so Origen may have had more nuanced or different ideas. Found this link through a quick internet search.

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