Talmudists interpret this verse this way: Because Adam sinned it was necessary for him to reincarnate to make good the evil committed in his first existence; so he comes as David, and later is to come as Messiah.

(2)  The Bible mentions David reincarnating for the people:

In the traditions of the Talmudists, the soul of Adam reincarnated in David, and that on account of the sin of David against Uriah it will have to come again in the expected Messiah.

Out of the three letters ADM (the name of the first man) the Talmudists always made the names Adam, David and Messiah.

Identical Title:  "Son of God"

As previously mentioned, the Bible gives the distinct title of "Son of God" to only three personalities in the entire Bible: Adam, Melchizedek, and Jesus.

(1)  God declares the "sons of God" to be divine:

(2)  Jesus declares himself the "Son of God":

Identical Birth Order:  First Born

Adam ("ben elohim") is translated as "Son of God". This means Adam is first born to God.

Identical Rule:  Ruler of God's Creation

Identical Parent:  Father of the Human Race

Identical Essence:  Human-Divine Unity

(1)  Adam "the first man" and Jesus "the second man."

Identical Pattern:  Image and Copy

The Greek translation of the word "pattern" is "tupos" which is defined as: An impression made by a stamp, an exact image, an exact model, a copy, a type, an example. In context, the phrase "who is a pattern of the coming one" ("ejstin tuvpo tou' mevllonto hos estin tupos tou mellontos") refers to Adam as a copy of Christ.

Identical Positions:  "First and Last"

The Bible refers to Jesus as "the First of God's creation" (human-divine being) and "the Last of God's creation" (human-divine being).

The Son of God's "first incarnation" was as Adam. The Son of God's "last incarnation" was as Jesus.

Identical Mortality:  Immortal from the Beginning

Identical Origins:  "Beginning and End"

Identical Title:  Logos

(1)  Adam is the "Logos".

(2)  Jesus is the "Logos".

Identical Nature:  Image of God

Identical Sacrificial Result:  First and Last Sacrifice

(1)  The first sacrifice was for physical needs:

(2)  The last sacrifice was for spiritual needs:

Identical Association:  Tree of Life

(1)  In the beginning, Adam with the Tree of Life:

(2)  Adam's transgression banished people from the Tree of Life:

(3)  Jesus' action restored people to the Tree of Life:

Identical in Near-Death Experiences:  "Being of Light"

(1)  Adam appears to people after death:

(2)  The Messiah appears to people after death:

(3)  Jesus appears to people after death:

Identical Karma:  Required to Pay for Original Sin

The connection between Jesus and Adam is fundamental to Christian doctrine. Their connection is the foundation that holds together the entire Christian system of election, redemption, atonement, justification, regeneration and sanctification. The idea of Jesus "paying the penalty" for the transgressions of others makes no sense without his connection to Adam's mission of bringing in higher knowledge and its consequences. Without Adam as a previous incarnation as Jesus, the gospel message is absurd.

Adam brought divine knowledge of good and evil into the world which resulted in both positive and negative consequences. Jesus came to reverse the negative consequences brought on by Adam by paying his karmic debt. This becomes apparent when we read how the Bible draws parallels between Adam and Christ:

(1)  The obedience of Jesus reversed the disobedience of Adam:

These verses describe the work of Adam being undone by the work of Jesus. This is an excellent example of how divine justice is meted out in the Bible and in Eastern religions. The only person who can satisfy divine justice by reversing the work of Adam would have to be Adam himself or an incarnation of Adam. Because Paul states that Jesus was the only one who can satisfy divine justice by paying the karmic debt of Adam indicates that it is possible that Adam was indeed an incarnation of Jesus.

(2)  After Satan caused Adam and Eve to sin, God passed judgment upon them. In doing so, God reveals a remarkable prophecy:  Redemption will come through Eve - through the birth of a son.

This Bible verse is so remarkable that I want to break it down to analyze it because it not only supports the idea that Jesus was the reincarnation of Adam, but that the Virgin Mary was the reincarnation of Eve. In passing judgment, God stated that he will do the following:

Let's examine each one separately:

(1)  Put enmity between Satan and Eve.

(2)  Put enmity between Satan's offspring (i.e., evil humans) and "Eve's offspring" (i.e., the Messiah)

(3)  The Messiah will crush Satan's head.

(4)  But Satan will strike the Messiah's heel.

Identical Burial Place:  Golgotha

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

The Eve / Virgin Mary Connection

Genesis 3:13-15 is the first Messianic prophecy mentioned in the Bible and is a reference to an offspring of Eve who will be the Messiah and who will pay for the transgressions of Adam and Eve. What is interesting is that this verse refers to the Messiah as the "offspring" of Eve. While it is true that every human being can be considered to be an "offspring" of Eve, this verse makes better sense when interpreted to mean an offspring born directly from Eve's own womb. This means Eve would have had to reincarnate in order to give birth to the Messiah. The woman who gave birth to Jesus was, of course, the Virgin Mary. Traditionally, the Catholic Church has believed that Mary was not only a virgin when she bore Jesus, but that she herself was born without sin. Thus, a mystical tradition has existed concerning Mary which lasts even to this day.

But what makes this Eve/Mary connection important is how it best explains, in a logical manner, the cosmic reasons for Jesus' sacrifice and death, and how it satisfied divine justice. The ancient concept of divine justice can be summed up beautifully in the Bible as "an eye for an eye." This concept of divine justice was not limited to just the early Hebrews because it is a concept that is practically universal. The more ancient religions of the East referred to the concept of "an eye for an eye" as "karma." It demands that transgressors pay for their own transgressions. No one else can pay for your own transgressions but you. Thus, because it was Adam and Eve who transgressed, it would have to be Adam and Eve themselves who paid. God's judgment upon them was that Eve would have to bear a son who would suffer as a consequence for their transgression. The only real and logical way this could be done would be through reincarnation. Eve would have to reincarnate to bear a son - the reincarnation of Adam. His tremendous suffering at the cross (and the suffering it would cause herself) would satisfy divine justice and pay for the transgression committed in Eden.

When we consider the orthodox view (i.e., that Jesus and Mary were not the reincarnations of Adam and Eve) it makes much less sense when we talk about the so-called substitutionary sacrificial nature of Christ's death. The big question is this: How can divine justice be satisfied when an innocent person suffers and pays for the transgressions of someone else? Without reincarnation, it makes complete nonsense. It only makes sense if the innocent person was a reincarnation of the guilty person paying for their transgressions.

Edgar Cayce's Revelation of Jesus

Edgar Cayce revealed the many incarnations of Jesus to be: Adam, Enoch, Melchizedek, Joseph (the prince of Egypt), Joshua, Jeshua (the scribe chiefly responsible for forming the Hebrew Bible according to Cayce) and finally Jesus. Many other characters from the Old Testament were also incarnations of Jesus, to the extent that the entire Christian Bible becomes part of the story of his long struggle to attain Christhood.

What is interesting in the above verse from the Zohar is that Adam appears to the dying person at death. This was the belief held by Kabbalistic Jews. Assuming that the concept held by many early Christians that Adam was a previous incarnation of Jesus, this agrees with many near-death accounts where people are met by Jesus after death.

The belief in many incarnations of Jesus is not a new belief. The early Christian group known as the Ebionites taught that the Holy Spirit had first incarnated as Adam and later reincarnated as Jesus. Other Jewish Christian groups such as the Elkasaites and Nazarites also held this belief. The Samaritans believed that Adam had reincarnated as Seth, then Noah, Abraham, and even Moses. The Clementine Homilies, an early Christian document, also taught many incarnations of Jesus.

Cayce affirmed that Adam was the first human being who, through evolution, attained the unity of the human and divine.

The Cayce material, however, goes on to speak of the singular appropriateness of Adam finally emerging as Jesus, the man, to become the savior of the world, the Christ. It must also be noted that sin did not begin with Adam according to Cayce, but it had its origins in spiritual realms before even the creation of the Earth. We can therefore assume that this was Adam's redemptive intent all along - to be savior of the world.

Christ is thus seen as the last Adam, the "one man" who by his obedience undoes the results of the disobedience of the first (Rom. 5:12-21). Jesus recapitulated the stages of Adam's fall, but in reverse order and quality. It is understandable how shocking this statement of Cayce's is to most fundamental Christians, that Jesus whom they have always believed to be sinless had been not only guilty of sin, but the very person who has been traditionally regarded as the author of sin on the human level. However, Cayce in no way states that Jesus as the Christ was guilty of any sin of any kind. At that stage of his personal and cosmic development his obedience was flawless, his relationship with God perfect. In Cayce's words:

Cayce also affirmed that Jesus would reincarnate again in the year 1998.

Edgar Cayce's Revelation of the Virgin Mary

According to Cayce, not only was Jesus and Adam the same soul in different incarnations, but the Virgin Mary and Eve were also the same soul in different incarnations. Cayce also revealed that Adam and Eve (and therefore Jesus and Mary) were "twin souls". When Cayce used this term in the readings, he was not referring to "soul mates" which is a different concept. Basically, a soul mate is a soul - or a group of souls - who have shared so many lifetimes that they resonate to the same pitch or vibration, so to speak. Soul mates understand each other like no one else can. This acquired understanding gives soul mates the ability to help each other in ways that would be difficult without the deep bonding that has occurred through the multitude of incarnations together.

Twin souls, on the other hand, are two souls who share a common purpose or higher ideal. They do not necessarily have to be married or have had previous marriage incarnations. While the "soul mate" relationship is largely built in the physical realm, the "twin soul" relationship evolves more from a commonality in the spirit realms - at the idea or ideal level. It is in this sense that the Adam/Eve and Jesus/Mary relationship is considered by Cayce to be a "twin soul" relationship.

The Cayce readings state that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were affiliated with an Essene community based on Mount Carmel. It was a continuation of the "school of the prophets" begun by Elijah, Elisha, Samuel, and ultimately Melchizedek. Although the Essenes are not mentioned in the Bible, what Cayce's generation would have known about them came only from the writings of Josephus, Philo, and Pliny the Elder. Because the Dead Sea Scrolls were not discovered until 1947, Cayce could not have been influenced by them because he died in 1945. But much of what Cayce revealed about the Essenes was later verified by the Dead Sea Scrolls.

According to the Cayce material, the Essenes were a religious community consisting of both Jews and Gentiles, men and women, whose purpose was to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. The word "Essene," according to Cayce, means "expectancy." Josephus wrote that the Essenes were known for fortune-telling. Cayce described them spending their time recording experiences of "the supernatural or out of the ordinary experiences; whether in dreams, visions, voices, or what not" (1472-1). Cayce revealed the Essenes as students of astrology, numerology, and reincarnation.

The Dead Sea Scrolls describe the Essenes as an authoritarian, highly regimented community which controlled every aspect of its members' lives. The Manual of Discipline specifies that members were to turn over all money and property to the community after a year's probation. Qumran was located at about a four-hour walk from Jericho, most likely from a desire to be separated from the world. Their theology stressed a good versus evil dualism. Their writings describe a conflict between a "Teacher of Righteousness" and the "Wicked Priest" which some scholars believe refers to the struggle among early Christians between James and Paul. The Essenes anticipated a final war between the "sons of light" and the "sons of darkness." The scholars agree that there are many interesting similarities between Jesus and the Qumran community. Other similarities can be found in the life and ministry of John the Baptist.

Cayce revealed that, due to her great virtue, Mary was chosen by the Essenes at around the age of thirteen for intensive spiritual training in preparation for the conception of the Messiah. Mary's election as mother of the Messiah occurred during a special ceremony in the temple at Mount Carmel, in which an angel lead her by the hand to the altar. Remarkably, this agrees with early Christian writings discovered in Egypt after Cayce's death:

More about the Cayce revelations concerning the Essenes can be found at the Jesus Story website.