Reincarnation in the Bible

What does the Bible say about reincarnation? Does the holy tome of Christianity believe in reincarnation? Here's an article about reincarnation in the Bible.A lot of religions and cultures believe in the concept of reincarnation and rebirth. What does reincarnation mean exactly? What does the Bible say about reincarnation? Read on to know more about reincarnation in the Bible.

What is Reincarnation?

Before we go on to discuss the concept of reincarnation, we need to differentiate between two things - the body and the soul. The soul is the living matter while the body is the physical being which houses our soul. The proponents of the concept of reincarnation say that the body is mortal while the soul is immortal. So when any living being dies, it is only the body which dies. The soul merely leaves the body and assumes a different life form. Each culture has its own, slightly different interpretation of reincarnation. Some people believe that a soul which was contained in a human body will always be contained in a human body in its next earthly life. Other cultures believe that one soul goes through a cycle where it lives in the bodies of all the life forms on earth. For example, in Hinduism it is said that the soul moves from one earthly life to another and stays on earth till it attains 'moksha', where its earthly travails end. So, the interpretations of reincarnation differ from one culture to another.

There are also seers who claim that they can look into your past life and tell you what you did then. Then again, there are also a lot of Facebook applications which joke about the same!

Reincarnation in The Bible

A lot of people are unsure about what the Bible says about reincarnation. It does seem that Jesus Christ came back from the dead (Resurrection) to address his followers about the path that they should take. But does that amount to reincarnation per se?

While there are certain verses in the Holy Bible which can be interpreted to be hinting vaguely at reincarnation, such as, John 3:3 - No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again - and there is also the part where John the Baptist is supposed to be the reincarnation of Elijah, the Bible doesn't make any clear reference to reincarnation of a soul. These are simply things which merely hint at the idea of reincarnation, but don't clearly state that reincarnation is advocated in the Bible. The Holy Bible merely says that after a person dies, it is the body which dies, while the soul goes to Heaven for the Last Judgment. The Last Judgment is done in all fairness and depending on the life that the soul has led, it is sent to Heaven, Hell or Purgatory.

What people are perhaps confused about is resurrection. Most people who follow Chrisianity think of resurrection and reincarnation as one and the same, hence a differentiation needs to be established. Reincarnation, as we have discussed at length, is the change in the body which houses the soul after the death of one body. Resurrection on the other hand is a case where the soul unites with the body it contained - the body which just died recently - temporarily for the sake of the Last Judgment. When the Last Judgment is made, both the body and the soul unite for one last time to receive the Judgment. Hence, people think that it is a reincarnation, but actually it is merely a temporary union.

So, this was all about reincarnation and the Bible. There is no clear proof of reincarnation in the Bible, though doubters and protagonists of the reincarnation theory are still finding verses in the Bible that vaguely hint at reincarnation as a real possibility. The verses they are talking about are merely open to interpretation and do not say anything which assertively endorses reincarnation.
By Arjun Kulkarni