Note 482 — Chapter V · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE ESSENES

There is no evidence of a belief in the pre-existence of the soul in Persian religion until the rise of the worship of Mithras in the Ist century B.C. See Chap. XII, infra. Marshall (Hastings’ Dict. of Bible, s.v. Pre-existence) would find proof of the doctrine among the Jews in the Book of Wisdom and Philo. Both are much later than Orphism.