Why The Bible Says “Resurrection” Instead of “Reincarnation” However, the Bible texts say “resurrection,” not “reincarnation”–why is that?
If we carefully look at the verses which speak of “resurrection,” especially in the Gospels, we will find that most of the time the Greek term anastasis (which literally means: “to stand up again”) is used in reference to belief in the immortality of the soul–not of a future state of body. When the Gospels say that the Sadducees did not believe in the “resurrection,”19 it means they did not believe that at the death of the body there was a separation, a “standing up” of an immortal spirit which would depart to another world or another birth. As has been said, the literal meaning is: “stand up again,” that is, to once more in the chain of lives emerge from the last body and continue the quest of the soul for God through successive rebirths. So the very word translated “resurrection” implies reincarnation. “Resurrection” [anastasis] as it is usually employed in the Bible outside the Gospels, however, refers to the breaking of the bonds of sowing and reaping and arising from the spiritual
