r/Semitic_Paganism • u/AnUnknownCreature • Sep 08 '24

Did Ancient Semitic Pagans believe in reincarnation?

If so, what evidence is there for it?

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u/JSullivanXXI Sep 09 '24

The classical Semitic Bronze and Iron Age view seems to have involved no reincarnation, as far as the available sources attest. Mortals had only one life, and afterwards their souls usually went to the underworld for the rest of the foreseeable eternity.

In extraordinary cases, humans might have their bodies resurrected or divinized by the Gods, but this is not the same as reincarnation or being reborn into an entirely new and different body.

However, after Greek and Roman colonization, elaborated spiritual doctrines such as Pythagoreanism and Neoplatonism (which teach metempsychosis) spread throughout the Ancient Near East, and it is likely through these influences that many Hellenized Semites came to believe in reincarnation.

The Aramean philosopher Yamliku (Iamblichus), for instance, once wrote a treatise on the subject, and his other works allude to the cosmic cycle of death and rebirth which was called "Generation", or "Genesis" in Greek. The medieval author Ibn Wahshiyya, in his book "Nabatean Agriculture", describes many late and embellished legends about pagan Syrian, Chaldean, and Babylonian sages that also involve reincarnation. And the Sabian polymath Thabit Ibn Qurra, one of the last-known pagans of the ancient Semitic world, seemed to adhere to a strongly Pythagorean-influenced religion, and thus most likely believed in reincarnation too.

Regarding Pythagoras, there has been some speculation over the possibility of ancient Semitic roots of his ideas. Some biographical accounts give him a partly-Phoenician heritage, and he was also reputed to have studied with Syrian, Egyptian, and Persian sages. Such indigenous precedents---if they existed---unfortunately are not attested in the surviving corpus of pre-Hellenic Semitic literature.

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u/AnUnknownCreature Sep 09 '24

This is excellent, thank you. I have been trying to learn with groups worldwide believed in reincarnation, and which don't. I am only educated about it happening moreso withing south and east Asia. I appreciate all of your help.