re christianity and repeated lives in article may athos rutgers edu u athmail cause way qub ac uk writes single angle brackets jesus is talking with the apostles and they ask him why the pharisees say that before the messiah can come elijah must first come jesus replies that elijah has come but they did not recognize him it then says that the apostles perceived that he was referi ng to john the baptist this seems to me to clearly imply reincarnation this was a popular belief in the judaism of jesus time that elijah would return again as he had been taken in to heaven in a chariot and did not actually die however jesus was referring to john the baptist not in the sense that elijah was reincarnated as john remember elijah didn t die but that john was a similar prophet to elijah there is no question of similarity in jesus indication about john the passage in matthew is very direct where luke reports the angel gabriel prophesying that john will go before christ in the power and spirit of elias in matthew jesus himself says of john and if you care to accept it he himself is elijah who was to come it is interesting that jesus prepended the words if you care to accept it as if to say that the implications of this truth namely of rein carnation i will not force on you but for those who can accept it here it is a jewish poster to other newsgroups on jewish esotericism and other topics has outlined the esoteric cabbalistic jewish teaching of of reincarnation and karma a teaching that is little known among jews today but which is apparently widespread enough in israel that hannah hurnard hinds feet on high places was told about it by a rabbi she was trying to convert back in the s as a missionary in palestine thus there may well have been a small number of jews who knew about this whereas the large number of people did not the statement of jesus about john the greatest human personality in the new testament is guarded but nevertheless quite direct again the subject of reincarnation one way or another is not a subject of the new testament nor is the fate in general of the human being between death and the last judgement but there are occasional indications that point to it as for the popular belief that elijah would come again it was more than a popular belief as jesus confirms it in more than one place and he never corrected those who were expecting elijah for example those who thought that jesus himself be he gerry palo compuserve com
