From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ucbcad:tektronix!tekmdp!dadla!dadla-b!hutch
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: John The Baptist revisited
Article-I.D.: dadla-b.394
Posted: Wed Mar 23 17:12:27 1983
Received: Tue Mar 29 02:38:05 1983

Hmm, having dug around in the news files I find an article I never
saw, from Mark Terribile, asking me to clarify my assertion that
John the Baptist was Elijah reincarnated.

Well, in fact this is a touchy point.  The Jewish tradition of the time
was that the Messiah would be preceded by a returned Elijah, for the
specific indicator, turn in your Bible to the book of Malachi (the last
one before the NT) and read chapter 4 especially verse 5.

Then, turn to (at least) the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 11,
verse 11 thru 14.  Kind of blatant.  Also, the transfiguration occurred
after John the Baptist was beheaded at the command of Herod.


Now, as to whether this was what can be called a literal reincarnation,
well, the question remains slightly open, although the evidence implies
that Elijah was reborn as John the Baptist.

The reason I say this was a special case, is that the Pharisaic tradition
of the time held that reincarnation might be possible, but that it was
not likely to occur, and the concept of transmigration (reincarnation
as a nonhuman) was totally rejected.

Steve Hutchison
... tektronix!tekmdp!dadla!hutch