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Having looked in some detail at what reincarnation is, we are in a position to further investigate what the Bible has to say about it. A number of the key Biblical passages supporting reincarnation have already been quoted, during the discussion of the concept, but there is more of this evidence to consider. The most well known is a series of passages which establish that John the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah:

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before
me. Then suddenly the LORD you are seeking will come to his
temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will
come," says the LORD Almighty.   (Malachi 3:1)

"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and
dreadful day of the LORD comes."   (Malachi 4:5)

But the angel said to him "do not be afraid, Zechariah; your wife
Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name
John…And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power
of Elijah…to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
        (Luke 1:13,17)

Then three times, that we know of, Jesus assured his disciples that John the Baptist really was Elijah returned:

"But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him
everything they wished, just as it is written about him."
        (Mark 9:13)

"For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if
you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come."
        (Matt 11:13-14)

"But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not
recognize him…" Then the disciples understood that he was
talking to them about John the Baptist.   (Matt 17:12-13)

And it's not as if Elijah just came down from heaven and appeared as a herald for Jesus: his spirit and power manifested in a little baby, born in the normal way - just how reincarnation says souls return. Some Christians say this only shows John the Baptist was a prophet like Elijah, with a similar spirit and power. They are contradicting Jesus, however, who quite clearly, in the above passages, says John the Baptist is Elijah, and is not just like him. This could, of course, be a special case of reincarnation, and by itself it doesn't prove that everybody reincarnates. For what it is worth, though, Jesus' brother James makes a point of Elijah not being a special case, when he says,

Elijah was a man just like us.   (James 5:7)

And, as I have shown, this is not the only evidence for reincarnation in the Bible, and the other passages do not refer to special cases, but are universal in their nature. That it was quite usual to believe in reincarnation in Jesus' day is shown by this passage from John:

As he went along he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples
asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he
was born blind?"   (John 9:1-2)

If the man was being punished for his own sin, and he was born blind, his sin must have been from a previous life - obviously Jesus' disciples were familiar with the idea of reincarnation, and it was quite acceptable to talk about it. In this case, Jesus' disciples assumed a belief in reincarnation, and Jesus did not correct the assumption, even though he went on to shift the focus away from who was to blame for the man's blindness, to how his healing would demonstrate the glory of God.
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