The following comes from:
S. Kent Brown, "Souls,
Preexistence of," in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David
Noel Freedman, 6 vols. (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 6:161
SOULS,
PREEXISTENCE OF. A doctrine which teaches that the souls of humans and
even animals had a prior existence before being born into mortal bodies. In its
appearance among Jewish and early Christian writings, this teaching commonly
exhibited influences from Platonic thought. But it also has biblical ties. A
notable example consists of these words of the Lord to Jeremiah: “Before I
formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:5). A second excerpt which
recalls this notion is found in the series of questions put to Job by the Lord
about the formation of the earth: “On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its
cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy?” (Job 38:6–7). Antecedent influences on this excerpt are
difficult to trace, although the Psalms speak of celestial hosts who sing
praises to the King of Heaven, echoing Ugaritic poetry (cf. Pss. 19:2; 29:2;
148:2–3).
In the NT, the
idea appears in the story of Jesus healing the man born blind. At its outset,
“his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he
was born blind?’ ” (John 9:2). The concept of a premortal life, in which
an individual is able to make choices, lies at the base of the question,
indicating that at least the evangelist and his audience shared this view. One
must not rule out the possibility that Jesus’ disciples also believed the
doctrine.
It is conceivable
that this concept formed an aspect of Paul’s belief, its origins likely lying
in his Jewish background. Referring to his turning away from persecuting
followers of Jesus, Paul speaks of God as “he who had set me apart before I was
born” (Gal 1:15). Another passage, which consists of a thanksgiving to God,
reads as follows: “even as he [God] chose us in him before the foundation of
the world” (Eph 1:4). Aside from the issue of the Greek vocabulary used here,
the verse seems to affirm that in the beginning a celestial plan had been
formulated to select persons to fulfill God’s purposes; a second dimension may
be that God’s selection was carried out among persons during a preexistent
state.
Jewish sources
also reveal the idea of a preexistence. The Wisdom of Solomon, dating to the
1st century b.c.e. and exhibiting
Platonic influence, has Solomon say the following in a prayer: “As a child I
was by nature well endowed, and a good soul fell to my lot; or rather, being
good, I entered an undefiled body” (8:19–20). 2 Enoch, whose origin is likely Jewish, states that “all souls are
prepared for eternity, before the composition of the earth” (23:5), and later
hints at Adam’s preexistence (chap. 32). In a passage that may be laced with
Greek influences, Josephus records that the Essenes, who denigrated the body,
believed that “the soul is immortal and imperishable. Emanating from the finest
ether, these souls become entangled, as it were, in the prison house of the
body, to which they are dragged down by a sort of natural spell” (JW 2.8.11). Later rabbinic writers, as
well as Philo of Alexandria, also held to this teaching.
Among early
Christian writers, the most notable proponent of the doctrine of the
preexistence of souls was Origen. For him, the eternal goodness of God required
that, since he now dispenses gifts to his creatures, he must always have done
so. “It is absurd and impious to suppose that these powers of God have been at
any time in abeyance for a single moment … We therefore can imagine no moment
whatever when that power was not engaged in acts of well-doing. Whence it
follows that there always existed objects for this well-doing, namely, God’s
works or creatures” (Princ. 1.4.3).
The justice of God, which operates even in the station of life which one
inherits, demands that “all rational creatures [be] of one nature, and it is
only on this ground that the justice of God in all his dealings with them can
be defended, namely, when each contains within himself the reasons why he has
been placed in this or in that rank of life” (3.5.4). Thus Origen’s concept
affirmed a premortal period in which individual souls were able to make
choices. His views were condemned officially in a.d.
553 in the opening Anathema of the Second Council of Constantinople.
Texts recovered
in the Nag Hammadi library, of both Jewish and Christian origin, illustrate
that the belief in a preexistence was shared by some gnostics. According to the
Gos. Eg. in Codex III, Adam was known
as a premortal great one who associated with the “holy men of the great light,”
“men of the Father” (50:12–14). In a related vein, the heavenly Seth was said
to have proposed the gathering of a council of premortal souls, then spelled
out a plan “to the whole multitude of the multitudinous assembly” which was
received with rejoicing by “the whole house of the Father of Truth.”
Consequently, Seth was sent “to reveal the glory [of the Father] to [his]
kindred and [his] fellow spirits” (Treat.
Seth, 50.1–24). In addition to notable personalities, there is evidence
that the souls of others enjoyed a preexistent life. In Saying 4 of the Gos. Thom., the following is attributed
to the risen Jesus: “The man who is old in days will not hesitate to ask a
child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live.” The sense is
that a child who has not yet been circumcised on the eighth day has retained an
impression of the “place of life,” which allows the old man to inquire. Both
the Ap. Jas. and the Tri. Trac. hint at the notion of a
premortal life for at least the souls of the elect. See also IDB 3:869–70; ERE 10:235–41.
Bibliography
Winston, D. 1978.
Preexistence in Hellenic, Judaic and Mormon Sources. Pp. 13–35 in Reflections on Mormonism, ed. T. G.
Madsen. Provo, UT.
S. Kent Brown
