Jesus as a Hybrid Guru

[David Hayward]

The following is an online quote from an unidentified Biblical scholar who upholds orthodox Biblical teaching. Since I don’t even know who he or she is I obviously can’t attest to the validity of his or her research. However, since he or she is upholding your point of view (albeit for a different reason than yours), I tend to believe he or she has done adequate research on the matter. Do you have any sources that attribute this belief to an earlier period and that it was present in Judea at the time of Christ?:

“Many New Agers mistakenly assume that the disciples' question in John 9:1-2 implies a belief in reincarnation: "As Jesus went along, He saw a man born blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, `Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' `Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, `but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.'" Bible commentaries typically contend that the disciples' question reflects a rabbinic belief that a fetus can sin in its mother's womb. But this rabbinic belief stems from around 300 AD--far too late to serve as the background for John 9:1-2. Rather, the disciples' question reflects the belief attested in the Wisdom of Solomon that the soul can acquire a good or bad character prior to birth. Jesus does not dispute this belief, but merely asserts that this particular blind man was not born blind because of his own sins committed in his preexistent state.”

Hi Don and welcome to TWEB.

The moderators at TWEB are rightly concerned about being sued for violation of copyright, and will jump on you if you do not attribute quotes back to their source. Please be warned. I had no trouble putting part of your quotation into Google to find the original, but it is you who should do the work to provide the link, not other TWEBbers, and definitely not the overworked mods.

It is actually quite easy to link a quotation to source: at top left of Internet Explorer (or possibly somewhere else in other browsers) is a box containing something like http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/showthread.php?149122-Jesus-as-a-Hybrid-Guru -- I reckon your source was here, so the address would be http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_world_religions/reincarnation_in_the_bible_and_the_early_church-t15043.0.html;wap2=.

Click once in that box, to highlight the web page address, use Ctrl-c to copy it to clipboard, then go back to your TWEB reply; use click-and-drag to highlight a suitable sentence, eg "The following is an online quote from an unidentified Biblical scholar who upholds orthodox Biblical teaching", click the world+link icon in the top bar of your Quick Reply editing box, then use Ctrl-v to paste the web page address into the dialog box that just appeared, and press Return or Enter to close the box and insert the link codes. It will then appear in your submitted post as "The following is an online quote from an unidentified Biblical scholar who upholds orthodox Biblical teaching."

You can also paste the web address directly into the editing box, and it will auto-link, eg "See http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/we...3.0.html;wap2= for source."

You might also like to look here to learn about citation boxes (which add a 'copyright of' notice) and a number of other useful features.

Hope this helps, and that you escape the wrath of the modfia, now and in the future.

David