REINCARNATION
μετεμψύχωσις - metempsychosis
εμπψχωύν - empsykhoun
παλιγγενεσία - palingenesia
גלגול הנשמות - gilgul neshamot
पुनर्जन्मन् - punarjanman
MIDDLE EASTERN BELIEFS:
Bardaisan of Mesopotamia: see Gnostics below.
Egyptian writings: Hermetica, Egyptian-Greek wisdom texts from the 2nd century AD, are mostly presented as dialogues in which a teacher, generally identified as Hermes Trismegistus ("thrice-greatest Hermes"), enlightens a disciple. The texts form the basis of Hermeticism. They discuss the divine, the cosmos, mind, and nature. Some touch upon alchemy, astrology, and related concepts. In the Hermetica, a Graeco-Egyptian series of writings on cosmology and spirituality attributed to Hermes Trismegistus/Thoth, the doctrine of reincarnation is central [1] [28].
Gnostics: Some early Christian Gnostic sects professed reincarnation. The Sethians and followers of Valentinus believed in it.[100] The followers of Bardaisan of Mesopotamia, a sect of the 2nd century deemed heretical by the Catholic Church, drew upon Chaldean astrology, to which Bardaisan's son Harmonius, educated in Athens, added Greek ideas including a sort of metempsychosis. Another such teacher was Basilides (132–? CE/AD), known to us through the criticisms of Irenaeus and the work of Clement of Alexandria (see also Neoplatonism and Gnosticism and Buddhism and Gnosticism). In the third Christian century Manichaeism spread both east and west from Babylonia, then within the Sassanid Empire, where its founder Mani lived about 216–276. Manichaean monasteries existed in Rome in 312 AD. Noting Mani's early travels to the Kushan Empireand other Buddhist influences in Manichaeism, Richard Foltz attributes Mani's teaching of reincarnation to Buddhist influence. However the inter-relation of Manicheanism, Orphism, Gnosticism and neo-Platonism is far from clear [1].
Neoplatonism, Manicheanism: see Gnostics above.
Sethians and followers of Valentinus: see Gnostics above.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation
2. https://www.britannica.com/topic/reincarnation
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah
4. H. Y. Ginsburgh, "Tav: Impression - The Seal of Creation," [Online]. Available: www.inner.org/hebleter/tav.htm.
5. http://iisis.net
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgul
7. http://www.yeshshem.com/kabbalah-basic-class-11-reincarnation.htm
8. http://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380823/jewish/Reincarnation-and-Resurrection-43.htm
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11Q13
10. https://www.near-death.com/reincarnation/history/judaism.html
11. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-adam-jacobs/reincarnation-in-judaism_b_811379.html
12. Sefer HaGilgulim, "The Book of Reincarnations," by Chaim Vital