in the earth. The readings state that we are spiritual beings undergoing a physical experience, and the Bible portrays the overall development in our consciousness in this dimension. For that reason, the early stories in the Old Testament are not necessarily to be understood as acceptable behavior today. For example, when Lot’s two daughters get their father drunk in order to sleep with him and conceive to insure the continuation of his ancestral line, it is not an endorsement of incest but rather a portrayal of a time in our own consciousness when we believed physical heredity superior to our spiritual source. Rather than being a book that simply had meaning for our ancestors, Cayce stated that the Bible provided important insights even in the present:
For, it tells of God, of your home, of His dealings with His peoples in many environs, in many lands. Read it to be wise. Study it to understand. Live it to know that the Christ walks through same with thee.
262-60
In addition to specific Bible stories, frequently the readings encouraged people to read John 14-17 and Deuteronomy 30, where they could find a personal message, applicable in their daily lives.
Cayce also believed that the Bible had a threefold interpretation. Most stories possessed a physical, a psychological, and a spiritual meaning. The characters in the Bible actually lived as real people. In addition to being real people, many of the characters symbolized a psychological state of consciousness (for example, Abraham symbolizes faith; Job symbolizes patience), and each story contained an archetypal meaning which was just as true and applicable today. For example, the story of Noah and the Flood is an archetype of being overwhelmed by personal experience and being transformed to a higher state of awareness in the process. The story of the Prodigal Son is an archetype of the soul’s journey (we were with God in the beginning, embarked on a journey, and are in the process of returning to Him with a greater degree of awareness); and so on.
In all, the Bible contains approximately 3,000 characters—a number of whom possess the very same name. When an individual received a life reading and was told that he or she had been a biblical character from the past, it is sometimes necessary to isolate to whom Cayce is referring. For example, the Old Testament refers to three individuals with the name Abimelech: one known by Abraham, another who was a brutal ruler and served as one of the judges of Israel, and the third who was the Philistine king of Gath known to David. The individual who was told by Edgar Cayce that he had been Abimelech was told “in Abraham’s day” (699-1), clearly identifying the specific identity.
With the premise that we might somehow glimpse aspects of the continuity of life by reviewing the soul histories of others, this volume presents an overview of those readings that identified the individual as having been a character from the Bible. It does not include case histories for those who were not directly or indirectly referred to in Scripture, nor does it include identities for those who were related to or simply associated with a biblical character; only those individuals who were given biblical identities themselves have been included.
BIBLICAL CHARACTERS MENTIONED
Abatha
Exodus 2:1-10Case 5373
According to the Book of Exodus, while the children of Israel were slaves in the land of Egypt there came a time when Pharaoh feared that the number of Hebrew men and boys had grown too vast. Fearing a possible slave uprising, Pharaoh ordered that all male children born to the Hebrews were to be killed. One Hebrew woman managed to hide her son for three months before deciding to set him adrift on the river in a cask made of bulrushes, in the hopes that he might find safety. The boy’s sister, Miriam, watched the floating cask to see what would happen to him. (See also “Miriam.”) Once adrift, the daughter of Pharaoh spotted the small craft while she was bathing. She sent her maid to fetch the basket and when they saw that the basket contained a child, Pharaoh’s daughter decided to call the child “Moses” because he had been drawn from the river. Although not named specifically in the Bible, Edgar Cayce stated that the young maid who had pulled the baby Moses from the river was called Abatha.
In 1944, a forty-eight-year-old woman seeking vocational advice was told that she possessed the talents of both a confidant and a counselor. Apparently, people were drawn to her and felt at ease telling her their problems. Her reading informed her that she could excel in research, in the gathering of data or statistics, as a teacher or even as a secretary.
Her most notable past lives included a trek in the Old West, where she had acquired her love for nature; living in the Holy Land, where she had been one of the children whom Jesus blessed; and a life in Egypt as a maid to Pharaoh’s daughter:
Before that we find the entity was in the Egyptian land when there were those beginnings of the preparation for the coming of the lawgiver. The entity was among those of the maids to the princess of Egypt, and the individual who waded into the river to bring the little ark or bassinet ashore with the babe in same … The name then was Abatha.
5373-1
Her reading went on to promise her some vocational and relationship changes within a year. Although Edgar Cayce’s secretary, Gladys Davis, asked the woman for an update in 1947, no follow-up reports are on file until 1950 when it was learned that [5373] was operated on for a brain tumor. The woman died within a couple of years of the operation.
Abimelech
Genesis 20, 21, 26Case 699
When Abraham journeyed into Gerar with his wife, Sarah, he was afraid that other men would want to possess her and would slay him in order to have his wife. As a result, he told the people that Sarah was his sister. Upon seeing Sarah, Abimelech, the king, wanted her and decided to take her into his harem. However, God warned the king in a dream that she was already married to Abraham. Fearful of retribution, Abimelech immediately returned Sarah to her rightful husband. The two men eventually exchanged gifts and made a covenant of friendship. Years later, Abimelech would again be faced with an almost identical situation when Isaac, Abraham’s son, tried to pass off his own wife, Rebekah, as his sister. This time, however, Abimelech quickly saw through the ruse.
Immediately after coming in contact with the Cayce work, a thirty-four-year-old physicist reported that he had finally found that for which he had always been seeking. He obtained a physical reading for a friend, procured his own life reading, and was present for a number of readings, including one in which he asked about the possibility of helping to manage the Cayce work.
In his reading, Cayce told [699] that he possessed broad vision and the capacity to acquire position, power, responsibility, and money. However, Cayce also stated that [699] was not likely to follow through on his true potential unless he held to his goals. Quick to act in all things, he also maintained a deep interest in spirituality and the mysteries of life. Because of his experiences in a number of previous lives, he possessed an innate fear regarding what others might say about his activities. In his most recent past life he had served as an assistant to Robert Fulton in the development of a steam engine. Previously, in England, he had served as a captain in the Crusades but had gained a deep respect for the Islamic faith as well as a tolerance for other people. It was in Palestine that he eventually befriended Abraham:
The entity then gained, even through those experiences and associations. Yet from those very activities there were brought those desires on the part of the entity, Abimelech, to bring to the knowledge of those who were as servants—or those whom the entity served in the capacity of the king of that land—that, “He that would be the greatest among all would be the servant of all.” While the entity had
