Theory Of Faces

1. Past Lives:

There is a possibility that friends and family who knew each other in past lives, somehow recognize each other in the current/subsequent life. e.g. Jesus and his disciples.

[John 21:4] But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.

[John 21:7] Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.

2. Past Time:

There is another possibility that individuals who knew each other previously, but where separated from each other by time and/or space, somehow recognize each other when united again in time and/or space. e.g. Joseph and his brothers.

[Genesis 42:7] And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.

[Genesis 42:8] And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.