v. 9. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
v. 14. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come.
Here we have a distinct declaration: Reincarnation is a fact; John is the rebirth of Elias.[169]
Judging from these texts, one might be tempted to think that reincarnation was confined to the prophets or to people of importance, but Saint John shows us that the Jews, though perhaps ignorant that it was a law of universal application, recognised, at any rate, that it might happen in the case of any man.
Saint John, Chapter 9.
v. 1. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
v. 2. And his disciples asked him, saying: Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
v. 3. Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Here we are dealing with a man blind from birth, and the Jews ask Jesus if he was blind because he sinned; this clearly indicates that they were referring to sins committed in the course of a former existence[170]; the thought is, therefore, quite a natural, straightforward one, referring to something well known to everyone and needing no explanation.