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Do Job 1:21 and Ecc. 5:15 teach reincarnation?
Job 1:21 and Ecc. 5:15
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(Job. 1:21) - "And
he said, 'Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall
return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord,'" (NASB)
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(Ecc. 5:15) - "As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came.
He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand."
Does Job. 1:21
teach reincarnation? No, it does not. Job says that when he died he
would return to his mother's womb. But, this cannot be reincarnation
for two reasons. First of all, the Bible teaches us that "it
is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment," (Heb.
9:27). This soundly refutes reincarnation.
Therefore, Job. 1:21
cannot be referring to reincarnation.
Second, if we take Job. 1:21
literally, then does it mean that Job will be reincarnated into his
own mother's womb? If so, we have a
problem. Since Job was old enough to have seven sons and three
daughters (Job
1:2) it is probable that he was advanced in years and
his mother, if she were still alive, would be well passed child
bearing years.
Likewise with Ecclesiates 5:15. The
context is dealing with evil under the sun and failing having a way to
support children due to bad investments. This is when the writer
says "As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came.
He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his
hand." The writer is not speaking about reincarnation
but about coming into the world with nothing, and returning to the
earth with nothing.
If we begin
with Adam, we see that he was literally taken from the earth. God said to
Adam after Adam's fall, "By the sweat of your face you shall
eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were
taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return," (Gen.
3:19). From the very beginning of creation, by the words of God
Himself, the idea that the earth is the place where Adam came from is
taught. This could naturally be considered a type of womb.
It follows then, that when we look at Job, we can see that the "mother's womb" that is spoken of is in reference to the
earth.
This idea is found elsewhere in
scripture. Consider Psalm 139:15
which says, "My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was
made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the
earth." Clearly, the earth is seen in this Psalm as a
type of womb.
We can see that there are other verses
that speak of returning to the earth naked:
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Psalm
49:17, "For
when he dies he will carry nothing away; His glory will not
descend after him."
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1 Tim.
6:7, "For
we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything
out of it either."
Therefore, thematically, Job. 1:21
and Ecc. 5:15, are speaking of returning to the earth which is
poetically called the "the universal mother." (Jamieson,
Robert; Fausset, A.R.; and Brown, David, Commentary Critical and
Explanatory on the Whole Bible, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research
Systems, Inc.) 1998.
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Bible Difficulties - Job to Song of Solomon
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