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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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The Gospel of St. John
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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The Gospel of St. John
The establishment of harmony in the inner forces of man through the Christ-impulse. The connection between the ancient Mysteries and the Gospels.
Schmidt Number: S-2040
On-line since: 10th September, 2002
The foregoing lectures of this course will have made it sufficiently
clear to you that, in accordance with spiritual scientific research,
the Christ-event must be regarded as the most momentous of all events
in the whole evolution of mankind, an event which provided an entirely
new departure to the whole evolution of our earth. We found that,
through the Mystery of Golgotha, through the events enacted in
Palestine and everything connected therewith, before and afterwards,
an entirely new element entered into human evolution; indeed, this
evolution would have been essentially different had the Christ-event
not taken place. To understand the Mystery of Golgotha, we must now
pay some attention to the more intimate details of Christian evolution
itself. Of course it is impossible, even in fourteen lectures, to
exhaust a subject that embraces a whole world: we find this indicated
by the writer of the Gospel of St. John himself. He says that much
more might be written, but the world could not produce books enough to
contain all that might be said. You will therefore not expect that
everything connected with the Christ-event and its narration, both in
the Gospel of St. John and in the other Gospels akin to it, can be
stated in fourteen lectures.
Yesterday and the day before we saw how, through the entry of the
Christ-Spirit, the Christ-Individuality, into the threefold sheath of
Jesus of Nazareth and His sojourn therein, it was possible gradually
to effect what is described to us in the Gospel of St. John, up to and
including the chapter on the raising of Lazarus. We saw how it was
necessary for Christ to develop, little by little, the physical,
etheric, and astral bodies which had been offered up to Him by the
great initiate Jesus of Nazareth. But to understand what was actually
wrought by Christ in the threefold sheath of Jesus of Nazareth we must
first call up before us the nature of the connection between the
different principles of man's being. So far we have only roughly
indicated that in waking condition man appears to clairvoyant
consciousness as a being composed of physical body, etheric or life
body, astral body, and Ego; all these principles interpenetrating and
forming one whole. We have also seen that at night the physical and
etheric bodies remain in bed while the astral body and the Ego are
raised out of them. Now in order to arrive at a more detailed
description of the Mystery of Golgotha, the question must today be
asked: What exactly is the manner of this interpenetration of the four
members of man's being in waking consciousness? In other words, in
what manner do the Ego and the astral body actually enter the etheric
and physical bodies when man awakes in the morning?
In the morning, when the astral body and the Ego descend from the
spiritual world into the physical and etheric bodies, the process is
such that, in all essentials (please note the word), the astral body
penetrates the etheric, and the Ego penetrates the physical body. I
said ‘in all essentials’ because of course all the principles
interpenetrate in the human being; so that we can also say that the
Ego is in the etheric body and so on. But an indirect interpenetration
is now meant, one in all essentials.
We may now ask: What really happened at the Baptism by John? We said
that at the Baptism by John, the Ego of Jesus of Nazareth issued from
his physical, etheric, and astral bodies, leaving behind the threefold
vehicle for the Christ. Jesus of Nazareth's Ego had left his physical
body; in its stead Christ entered and took up His abode in the
threefold sheath (again in all essentials) and principally in the
physical body. It is true that we are now on the verge of a profound
mystery. When we come to consider what actually took place at the
Baptism by John, we must admit that it touches upon all the great
circumstances of human life of which we have spoken in the last days.
I have told you that everything of a general nature in man, all that
produces similarity within a certain group, is found in the female
element of heredity. The principle which (externally considered) tends
to make one face resemble another within a group, is handed down by
woman from generation to generation. On the other hand the male
element, acting from generation to generation, is responsible for
everything which distinguishes one man from another, for all that
makes him an individual being here upon Earth and establishes his Ego
upon a personal footing. Great thinkers who are in touch with the
spiritual world have always had a true feeling for this; but the
pronouncements of great men who stood in relation to the spiritual
world cannot be known and valued aright unless we penetrate to the
depths of these cosmic truths.
Man says to himself: Within me there lives an etheric body and in this
etheric body an astral body. The astral body is the bearer of ideas,
thoughts, sensations, and feelings; it lives in the etheric body. Now
we have seen that the etheric body is the principle which acts
immediately and in the fullest measure upon the physical body; it
contains the forces which lend form to the physical body. We see
therefore that the etheric body, being permeated by the astral body,
contains everything that fashions man to be ‘man’, imprinting upon him
a definite form from within, that is, from his spiritual parts. The
element which produces resemblance among men comes from the forces at
work within man; it is not merely external and therefore does not
depend on the physical but on the etheric and astral bodies. For these
are the inner principles. A man gifted with insight into such matters
will therefore feel that the force permeating his etheric and astral
bodies comes to him from the maternal element; while the force which
gives his physical body the definite form imprinted upon it by the Ego
(by the Ego in the physical body) must be regarded as a paternal
inheritance.
‘From my father I have my stature and life's most earnest conduct;
From my mother a happy nature and delight in telling fables,’
says Goethe. You see, this is an interpretation of what I have said.
‘From my father I have stature’, that is, what is worked out by the
Ego; from the mother, ideas and the gift of telling fables; these are
inherent in the etheric and astral bodies. The utterances of great
minds are far from being understood when people imagine they have done
so with the help of trivial human conceptions. But we must now apply
the truths which we have thus illustrated to the events connected with
Christ. From this standpoint, the question must now be raised: What
would have become of the human race had Christ not appeared upon the
Earth?
Had the Christ-event not taken place, the course of human evolution
would have continued as it began with the post-Atlantean period. We
have seen that in remote antiquity human civilization was grounded
upon that love which was inseparable from the ties of ancestry and
blood relationship. All who were related by blood loved each other
accordingly. And we saw how in the course of human progress this bond
of blood became sundered to an ever-increasing extent. Now proceed
from those remote times of human evolution to the period in which
Christ appeared.
Whereas in most ancient times marriage was always contracted within
the tribe, we find consanguineous marriage becoming increasingly rare
in the days of Roman supremacy — the days in which the
Christ-event took place. The intermingling of the most diverse
peoples, caused by the military expeditions of the Romans, led to the
extensive substitution of marriage between strangers for the
consanguineous tie. The ties of blood were necessarily sundered to an
increasing extent in the course of human evolution, because man was
destined to establish himself upon his own Ego.
Let us assume that Christ had not come to pour fresh power into men
and to replace the old ties of blood by a new, spiritual love. What
would have happened then? Love, the power which draws human beings
together, would have gradually disappeared from the earth; the
principle which unites men in love would have perished. Without Christ
the human race would have reached the pass of seeing love die out
among men, and men would have been driven into and isolated in their
own individuality. That deep truths underlie this statement is of
course not apparent when things are considered only in the light of
external science. If the blood of human beings of the present day and
of some millennia before the appearance of Christ were to be compared
(not by chemical methods but by the means available to spiritual
investigation), it would be found that the blood had changed and had
assumed a character rendering it less and less fit to be the vehicle
of love. In what light therefore must the future have appeared to an
initiate of ancient times, who could see deep down into the process of
human evolution and could foretell what would come to pass if
evolution continued unchanged in the same direction as of old, without
the intervention of the Christ-event? What images must be have used to
bring home to the people what would come to pass in the future unless
psychic love, Christ-love, replaced in equal measure the love
conditioned by blood relationship? He would have said: ‘If men become
increasingly isolated from one another, each becoming hardened within
his own Ego; if the dividing line separating soul from soul becomes
increasingly sharp, so that souls become less and less able to
understand each other; then mankind will to an increasing extent fall
a prey to discord and dissension, and the strife of all against all
upon the earth will usurp the place of love.’ And this would indeed
have ensued had the evolution of human blood pursued its course
without the coming of Christ. All men would irretrievably become
victims of the strife of all against all, the strife which indeed will
come, but only for those who have not become penetrated by the
Christ-principle in the right way. Such was the end threatening
earthly evolution in the vision of a prophetic seer; a vision which
filled his soul with dread, for he saw that when one soul no longer
understands its fellows, then soul will rage against soul.
I have told you in the course of these lectures that human beings
cannot be drawn together by the Christ-principle but by degrees, and I
gave you an example showing how the opinions of two noble thinkers are
so mutually opposed that while each of them, Tolstoi and Solovioff,
believes he is proclaiming the true Christ, the one regards the other
as Antichrist; for in fact Solovioff looks upon Tolstoi as Antichrist.
The strife of opinions between soul and soul would by degrees come to
expression in the external world — that is, man would rise up
against his fellowman. This is inseparable from the evolution of
blood. Do not raise the objection here that, in spite of the
Christ-event, we still see discord and strife, and that we are far
removed from any realization of Christian love. As I have already
said, we are only at the beginning of Christian evolution. The great
impulse was given for Christ to come and live in the souls of men and
unite them spiritually, as earthly evolution proceeds. All the strife
and discord which we still see, and which will lead to still greater
excesses, is there because humanity has only to the very smallest
extent become penetrated by the true Christ-principle. The condition
handed down from former ages still holds sway in the human race. This
can be overcome only slowly and by degrees, inasmuch as we see the
Christ-principle flowing slowly and by degrees into mankind.
Such would have been the prophetic vision of one who, in pre-Christian
times, could behold clairvoyantly the course of human evolution. He
might have said: ‘Last remnants of the old seership have descended
upon man. In bygone days men could behold the spiritual world in dim,
shadowy clairvoyance. This faculty disappeared little by little. But
the possibility still exists, like a heritage of those olden times, to
behold that world of spirit in abnormal, dreamy states of
consciousness. There it is still possible to see something of what
underlies the outer surface of things.’ All old legends, fables, and
myths (which truly contain deeper wisdom than modern science) tell us
in what large measure the faculty of experiencing exceptional
conditions once prevailed. It may be called a dream; but it was a
dream in which future events announced themselves, though not to the
extent of enabling man, by this wisdom, to guard against the strife of
all against all. The old seer emphasized it in the sharpest
conceivable way. He said: ‘We have inherited the ancient wisdom,
beheld in Atlantean times in abnormal conditions; even now individual
men can behold it when they experience abnormal states of
consciousness. This wisdom announces what will come to pass in the
immediate future.’ But men could derive no security from their
experience in dreams; it was deceptive and will become more and more
deceptive. Thus taught the teacher of pre-Christian times and
instructed the people.
Having therefore realized the intensity and power of the
Christ-impulse, we must now not fail to recognize a great truth.
Without the Christ-impulse, and through the isolation, separation, and
mutual antagonism prevailing among men, something resembling a
struggle for existence would ensue, such as is falsely applied to the
human race by those who forcibly propagate materialistic Darwinian
theories — a struggle for existence which, however much it may
prevail in the animal world, should nowise do so in the human world.
Putting it grotesquely, we might say: ‘At the end of the world,
humanity on earth will present the spectacle depicted by certain
Darwinian materialists inasmuch as they borrow their facts from the
world of the animals!’ But this Darwinian theory is false today, when
applied to the human race. Applied to the animal kingdom it is right,
because in that kingdom there is no impulse able to turn strife into
love. Christ as a spiritual power in humanity will refute all
Darwinism by His Deed. Nevertheless we must first realize that human
beings cannot avert from themselves the war of opinions, feelings, and
actions in the outer world of sense, unless they combat in themselves
and settle inwardly the antagonism which would otherwise flow into the
outer world. Whoever first combats what is to be combated in himself,
and establishes harmony between the different principles of his
nature, will not combat another's opinion in another's soul. He will
confront the outer world, not in a polemical spirit but in a spirit of
love. The point is that the combat is diverted from the outside world
to man's inner being. The forces governing human nature must combat
each other inwardly. Of two antagonistic opinions we must say: This is
the one opinion, it is possible to hold it; this is the other opinion,
it is also possible to hold it. But if I hold only the one opinion to
be justifiable and admit only what corresponds with my own wishes,
while combating the other opinion, I become involved in strife on the
physical plane. To insist upon one's own opinions exclusively, to hold
one's own action to be alone justifiable, means being an egoist.
Suppose I am willing to entertain another's opinion and endeavour to
establish harmony within myself; my attitude towards my fellow-man
would be quite different, for I would then begin to understand him. We
might even describe the progress of human evolution as the diversion
of the strife in the outside world to the work of harmonizing the
inner forces of man. Through Christ man was to find the possibility of
establishing harmony within himself, of harmonizing the antagonistic
forces in his own inner being. Christ gives man the power first to
conclude the strife in his own inner being. Without Christ this could
never be done. In pre-Christian times one form of outer strife was
rightly considered to be the most terrible — namely, the strife
of a child against his father and mother. It was known in those days
what course things would take without the Christ-impulse, and
parricide was looked upon as the most terrible and abhorrent of
crimes. The wise men of old, who foresaw that Christ would come,
clearly showed this to be true. They also knew the fate in store for
the world unless the struggle were first fought out in the inner being
of man.
Let us look into our own inner selves. We have seen that the maternal
element dominates where the etheric and astral bodies interpenetrate,
while the paternal element comes to expression where the Ego is
present in the physical body. That is to say: the mother, the female
element, reigns in all that we have in common with our species, in
everything which pertains to our life of thought and knowledge; while
the father, the male element, predominates in all that arises from the
union of the Ego with the physical body, in the inwardly
differentiated form, in that which makes man an Ego. What then must
the ancient sages, who viewed life in this way, have expected above
all things of human beings? They required that man should come to a
clear understanding of the relation of the physical body and Ego to
the etheric and astral bodies — of the paternal to the maternal
element. Inasmuch as man has an etheric and an astral body, the
maternal element is in him; beside the external mother, so to speak,
on the physical plane, he bears within him the maternal element, the
mother; and beside the father on the physical plane, he has within him
the paternal element, the father. To bring into harmonious
relationship the father and mother in him was a great ideal. If this
were not achieved, the disharmony between the paternal and maternal
elements would be reproduced outside, on the physical plane, with
disastrous results. The old sage therefore taught: ‘It is the duty of
man to establish harmony within himself between the paternal and
maternal elements. The failure to do so cannot but show itself in the
outer world as the most appalling crimes.’
How did the old sages present to humanity the truth which we have just
expressed in anthroposophical language? They said: ‘From bygone ages
we have inherited an ancient wisdom; in abnormal conditions this
wisdom is still accessible to man; but the possibility of attaining
this condition grow ever fainter; and even the old initiation cannot
carry humanity beyond a certain point in its evolution.’ Let us once
more consider what took place at an old initiation as described in the
last few days.
In an initiation of this nature the etheric and astral bodies were
withdrawn from the complex of physical, etheric, astral bodies and
Ego. The Ego remained behind. It was for this reason that the
candidate was without self-consciousness during the three and a half
days of the initiation. His self-consciousness was extinguished, and
another consciousness was infused into him from the higher spiritual
worlds by the Priest-initiator, who placed his own Ego at the disposal
of the candidate and acted as his guide in every sense. What actually
happened then was expressed in a formula which will sound strange to
you. They said: When a candidate was initiated in the old way, the
maternal element went forth and the paternal element remained behind;
that is to say, he killed the paternal element in him and united
himself with the maternal element; in other words, he killed his
father and wedded his mother. When therefore the initiate of old lay
in the lethargic condition for three and a half days, he had ‘united
himself with his mother and killed his father.’ He became fatherless.
This was necessary, for he had to renounce his individuality and live
in a higher spiritual world. He became one with his folk. In the
folk-element was precisely the maternal element. He was one with the
whole organism of his people; he became as Nathanael, and we have seen
that this grade was always called by the name of the people in
question — among the Jews an ‘Israelite’, among the Persians a
‘Persian’. There can be no other wisdom in the world save that which
flows into it from the Mysteries. In accordance with the old wisdom
people were taught what they could attain by uniting themselves with
the mother and killing the father in them. But this inherited wisdom
could not bring man beyond a certain point in evolution. Something
different and entirely new was needed to take its place. If no other
wisdom were ever accessible to humanity save this ancient wisdom
attained in the way described, then, as we have already said, the
human race would be driven into the strife of all against all. Opinion
would rise up against opinion, feeling against feeling, will against
will, and the terrible picture of the future would be realized in all
its horror, when man unites himself with his mother and kills his
father. The old initiates who, though possessing initiation,
nevertheless looked for the coming of Christ, depicted this future
state in mighty images, the traces of which you will find preserved in
the myths and legends. We need but recall the name of Oedipus and we
are in touch with a myth in which the sages of old gave expression to
what they had to say on the subject. That old myth, represented so
powerfully by the Greek tragedians, runs as follows:
There was once a king of Thebes, Laios by name. Jocasta was his wife.
For a long time they were childless. At last Laios asked the oracle at
Delphi if he could not have a son. The oracle answered: If thou
wouldst have a son, he will be one who will put thee to death. And in
a state of intoxication, that is, in a state of diminished
consciousness, Laios begot a son. Oedipus was born. Laios, knowing
that this was the son who should put him to death, resolved to expose
him, and in order to ensure his perishing, caused his feet to be
pierced; he was then left to die by exposure. A shepherd found the
child and had compassion on it; he brought it to Corinth and there
Oedipus was brought up in the royal palace. When he was grown older he
heard of the oracle foretelling that he should kill his father and wed
his mother. Its fulfilment could not be averted. He was compelled to
leave the palace because he was considered to be the king's son. On
his way he chanced to meet his real father and slew him unbeknown. He
came to Thebes and here solved the riddle put by the Sphinx, so that
this terrible monster, which had brought death to so many, was force
to kill itself. Thus he was at first a benefactor to his country. He
was raised to the dignity of king and the hand of the queen was
bestowed upon him — the hand of his mother! Without knowing it he
had slain his father and wedded his mother. He now reigned as king.
But because he had attained his power in such a way, and because this
terrible fate clung to him, he brought unspeakable misery upon his
country, so that he is presented to us in Sophocles' drama as blinded,
as one who had himself destroyed his eyesight!
This is a story the imagery of which went forth from the ancient
sanctuaries of wisdom. Its meaning is that Oedipus was still, to a
certain extent, in touch with the spiritual world in the old way. His
father had enquired of the oracle. These oracles were the last
heritage of ancient seership. But the inherited remnants were
inadequate to establish peace in the outer world. They could not give
humanity the desired harmony between the maternal and paternal
elements. The circumstance that Oedipus solved the riddle of the
Sphinx clearly indicates that he is intended to represent one who has
inherited a certain seership in the old style, and who possessed a
knowledge of human nature in keeping with the remnants of ancient
wisdom. This was powerless to avert that war of human passions
typified by the parricide and the union with the mother. In spite of
his connection with the ancient wisdom, he is unable to see through
the complex of circumstances. The old wisdom no longer confers
seership. Had it sufficed to open the eyes, as formerly, through the
blood tie, the blood would have spoken when Oedipus met his father and
again when he met his mother. The blood was silent! This represents to
us in graphic manner the decay of ancient wisdom.
What then was necessary to come, to enable man finally to establish
harmony and concord between the maternal and paternal elements in
himself — between his own Ego (which contains the paternal
principle) and the maternal principle? The Christ-impulse was to come!
And now let us consider from yet another point of view certain deeper
aspects of the marriage at Cana.
We read: ‘The mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus was called and
His disciples to the wedding.’ Jesus, or rather Christ, was to
represent to humanity the great Pattern of a being who has established
within himself harmony and concord between his Ego and the maternal
principle. At the marriage at Cana in Galilee he indicated the fact
that ‘something passeth from me to thee’. That was a new ‘passing from
me to thee’. It was no longer the old process but signified a renewal
of the whole relationship. Here was once for all the great ideal of
the inner balance and adjustment, without the slaying of the father,
without quitting the physical body, that is to say, the harmony with
the maternal principle was established within the Ego itself. The time
had now come for man to learn to combat the excessive force of egoism
(the Ego-principle) within himself and to bring it into true
relationship with the maternal principle in his etheric and astral
bodies. Thus the marriage at Cana was to represent to us in a
beautiful image the relation of the individual Ego (the paternal
principle) to the maternal principle, in the sense of the inner
harmony and love which obtained in the outer world between Jesus of
Nazareth and His mother. This was to be an image of the inner harmony
established between the Ego and the maternal element within oneself.
This did not exist formerly; the Deed of Christ Jesus first made it
possible. But since it came into the world through that Deed, it
provided the only practical means of repelling all that must have
ensued under the influence of the ancient inherited wisdom — the
slaying of the father and the union with the mother. What does the
Christ-principle combat?
When the ancient sage, contemplating the Christ-Being, compared the
old with the new initiation, he could say: ‘If the union with the
mother in the old style is persevered with, no good can accrue from it
to mankind. But if the union is achieved in the new way as shown in
the marriage at Cana, and the human being unites himself in this way
with his own astral and etheric bodies, blessing and peace and
brotherliness will appear to an ever-increasing extent among men, and
the old principle of killing the father and wedding the mother will be
repelled.’ What then was the hostile element which Christ was to
eliminate? It was not the ancient wisdom; it was unnecessary to combat
this, for it had lost its power and was passing away of itself;
indeed, we see how those who still placed their trust in it, like
Oedipus, were led into disharmony precisely on its account. But the
evil would not cease of itself, if men held aloof from the new wisdom
— that is, from the way in which the Christ-impulse is given, and
obstinately clung to the old principle. The greatest progress was seen
in the fact that the old principle was abandoned and that men
recognized what had come into the world through Christ. Is this, too,
indicated to us? Yes, legends and myths contain the profoundest
wisdom. There is a legend which, though not in the Gospels, is none
the less a Christian legend and a Christian truth. It runs as follows:
There was once a couple who for a long time had no son. It was
revealed to the mother in a dream (note this well) that she would have
a son, that this son would kill his father and wed his mother, and
bring terrible misfortune upon his whole tribe.
In this legend we have a dream, as with Oedipus there is an oracle
— that is, a remnant of the old inherited clairvoyance. The
events to come were revealed to the mother in the old way. Does this
suffice to give her an insight into the affairs of the would, so as to
prevent the evil which had been foretold? Let us consult the legend,
it tells us further:
Under the influence of this wisdom coming to her through her dream,
the mother brought the child, to which she had given birth, to the
island of Kariot and deserted it there. It was found, however, by the
queen of that country who adopted it and brought it up herself, she
and her husband being childless. After a time a child was born to this
couple. The foundling son felt himself displaced and, being of
passionate temperament, slew the son of the royal couple. Thereupon,
being unable to remain, he fled and reached the court of the Governor
Pilate in whose household he soon rose to the rank of overseer. Here
he became involved in dispute with his neighbour and, not knowing that
his neighbour was his own father, slew him. Thereupon he wedded his
neighbour's wife — his mother. This foundling was Judas of
Kariot. Then, having become aware of his terrible situation, he fled
once more and found compassion in Him alone who had compassion on all
who approached Him; who not only sat at table with publicans and
sinners but who, in spite of His universal insight, received this
great sinner also into His company; for it was His mission to work,
not alone for the good, but for all men, and to lead them away from
sin to salvation. Thus Judas of Kariot came into the environment of
Christ Jesus. And now he brought the curse which had been foretold and
which now necessarily came into effect in the circle round Christ
Jesus; as Schiller says: ‘Therein lies the curse of the evil deed,
that, continuing to generate, it must ever bring forth evil.’ He
betrayed Christ Jesus. Fundamentally the fate which was to be
fulfilled in him had already been fulfilled in the murder of his
father and the union with his mother. But he remained as an
instrument, we may say, the evil instrument which was to be the cause
of good, in order, so to speak, that he should accomplish yet anther
deed beyond the fulfilment.
The Oedipus legend presents us one who, having become aware of the
evil he has wrought, immediately loses the sight of his eyes. But the
other, who has the same fate through his connection with the old
inherited wisdom, does not lose his sight; in fulfilment of fate he is
destined to accomplish the deed which leads to the Mystery of Golgotha
and causes the physical death of Him who is the Light of the World,
and who brings about the light of the world in the healing of the man
born blind. But He dies through one who, like Oedipus, was to
exemplify the gradual extinction of the ancient wisdom in mankind and
its inadequacy henceforth to bring peace, blessing, and love to men.
That these might come, the impulse of Christ and His death on Golgotha
were necessary. That, also, was first to be enacted which appears to
us at the marriage at Cana as the external image of the relation of
Christ Jesus to his mother. And something else was yet necessary which
the writer of the Gospel of St. John describes as follows:
At the foot of the Cross stood the mother; there too stood the
disciple ‘whom the Lord loved’, Lazarus-John, whom He had Himself
initiated and through whom the wisdom of Christianity was to descend
to posterity, through whom the human astral body was to be influenced
in such a way that the Christ-principle could dwell in man. There,
within the astral body of man, the Christ-principle was to live, and
John was to direct its flow into that body. To this end it was
necessary that the Christ-principle should first be united, from the
Cross, with the etheric, maternal principle. Therefore Christ spoke
these words from the Cross: ‘From this hour, behold thy mother, and
behold thy son!’ That is to say, He binds together His wisdom with the
maternal principle.
Thus we see how profound the Gospels are, indeed, how profound all the
circumstances are, which are related to the practice of the Mysteries.
for the old legends bear the same relation to the annunciations and
Gospels of later times, as prophecy to fulfilment. One thing is most
clearly shown us in the Oedipus and Judas legends: There was once a
divine ancient wisdom. But it came to an end. And a new wisdom is
needed. And this new wisdom will lead mankind whither the ancient
wisdom would never have brought it. The Oedipus legend tells us what
must have come to pass without the Christ-impulse. The Judas legend
teaches us what was the antagonism against Christ — the stubborn
clinging to the ancient wisdom. But the wisdom of which the old
legends and myths had said that it was inadequate, is proclaimed to us
in a new light in the ‘new annunciation’ in the Gospel. The Gospel
gives the answer to the wise imagery of the old legends. These had
declared that the future needs of mankind could never be satisfied by
the ancient wisdom. But the Gospel brings us the new wisdom, for it
says: I proclaim to you that which mankind needs, and which could
never have come without the influence of the Christ-principle, without
the Event of Golgotha!
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Last Modified: 02-Nov-2024
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