LECTURE VI
AN examination of the descent of Jesus, as
given in the Gospel of Luke, shows how the view of the writer
of this Gospel is confirmed by the statements made in the
last lecture. There it was shown that in the same sense in
which an Entity of Divine Force was to permeate the physical
and etheric bodies of the Solomon Jesus, so an Entity of
Divine Force was also to permeate the astral body and ego of
the personality known as the Nathan Jesus of the Luke Gospel.
In this Gospel we are clearly told that this Entity of Divine
Force is to fulfil itself through the line of heredity
streaming in a direct line down through all the generations,
from an early stage of human existence before man entered
into a physical earthly incarnation. In the Gospel of Luke we
find the descent of Jesus is traced back to Adam, and to God.
This means that in order to find this divine principle within
the astral body and ego of the Nathan Jesus we must go back
to man as he was before his descent into physical
incarnation; when he still dwelt in the bosom of the Spirit,
and may be described as a spiritual being, and as still
appertaining to Divinity. All anthroposophical investigation
points to the Lemurian Age as that in which man was still in
a spiritual sphere, when he had not yet incorporated in the
elements of earthly existence. To this period, when
man's divine nature was as yet unaffected by Luciferic
influences, the Gospel of Luke traces back the lineage of the
Jesus of whom it tells.
Those
Mysteries which sought to guide their pupils to the
initiation already described as ‘the understanding of
the mighty secrets of cosmic space,’ leading man to
what was super-earthly or rather beyond what man has become
through earthly influences, sought to teach man to perceive
the world without using the instruments he has acquired since
he came under the influence of Lucifer. When a man has freed
himself from perception through his physical and etheric
bodies, from all that can approach him by earthly means, how
does he behold the universe with his clairvoyant perception?
This was the great question for the pupils of the Mysteries.
Man was naturally in this state before his entrance into
earthly incarnation, before he became the ‘earthly
Adam,’ using this term in the sense of the Bible and
the Gospel of Luke.
There are two
ways by which man can reach that which makes him a divine
spiritual being; one is the high initiation of the great
Mysteries, the other is not realizable at any optional earth
period, but was present at an elementary stage of human
existence before the descent of divine man into what the
Bible calls ‘earthly humanity’ in the Lemurian
Age, for Adam means ‘earth man;’ he who is no
longer divine, but has clothed himself in the earthly
element.
It may be a
matter for surprise that in Luke only seventy-seven
generations or stages of existence are mentioned; and still
more so that in the Gospel of Matthew only forty-two
generations from Abraham to Christ are mentioned. Now it can
be calculated that with the number of years usually reckoned
to a generation, the forty-two could not extend over the
period from Christ to Abraham, but it must be remembered that
in earlier times, and noticeably in the patriarchal period
before Solomon and David, the number of years reckoned to a
generation was longer than in subsequent periods. In
attempting to fix historical dates for any three generations
like those of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the modern reckoning
will not suffice; at least two hundred and fifteen years must
be allowed for the three generations. This fact is
corroborated by occult investigation. The generations were
longest in the times from Adam to Abraham, subsequently they
were also long, for great age is always ascribed to the
patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at the time when they
begat their heirs. If we are right to-day in reckoning
thirty-three years to a generation, the writer of the Gospel
of Matthew was correct in reckoning seventy-five to eighty
years and even longer to a generation in ancient times. But
it is important to note that in the Gospel of Matthew each
generation back to Abraham refers to an individual, whereas
the names given by Luke to the generations previous to
Abraham do not refer to individuals. Here we must recall
something that however true, is not easily believed by the
materialistic conceptions of to-day.
What is now
called memory, or connecting consciousness, does not extend
for normal people beyond the early years of childhood. A
person can trace his life back to the point where memory
ceases; some can remember more of their early childhood than
others. Memory to-day is confined to the single personal life
— indeed not even the whole of this, for it does not
reach back to birth. Considering the very different qualities
of soul and of consciousness prevalent in those ancient times
with which we are dealing, when a certain state of
clairvoyance was normal, it need not seem surprising that
memory also was very different from what it is to-day.
Going back to
the times before Abraham, and even farther, during Atlantean
times, man remembered not only the events of his personal
life, but also experiences before birth — he remembered
the experiences of his father, grandfather, and previous
ancestors. Memory was something that endured in the blood
through a long sequence of generations; it was only later
that it became restricted to certain periods or to a single
life.
In the
distant past a name had a quite other significance
than what it has to-day. Names in ancient times require a
special study — what philologists say of them is
incorrect. In former days names were not associated with
things and people externally as they are now. A name at that
time was something vital, something connected in a living way
with the nature of the being or thing named; it was an
expression in sound of the inner character of the being. It
had to echo in sound the nature of that being. Modern
learning is ignorant of this wisdom. The
Kritic der Sprache,
by Fritz Mauthner, reviews at great length all
the modern learning in regard to speech, but omits what
throughout the ages has been the essence of speech. Such a
book could not have been written in olden times. A name did
not then merely signify an individual with his personal life,
but it included all that memory could link together, so that
a name was used as long as memory endured.
‘Noah,’ for instance, was not a name for one man,
it signified what one man remembered of his own life —
then of his pre-earthly life, then of the life of his father,
grandfather, etc. So long as the threads of memory endured
one name was used for a succession of persons.
‘Adam,’ ‘Seth,’ or
‘Enoch’ are names which comprise as many persons
as were united through the retention of retrospective
recollection. When we are told in ancient times that a
certain person was called ‘Enoch,’ it means that
in a person, who was the son of someone otherwise designate,
a new thread of memory had arisen, which does not go back to
previous personalities. This new thread of memory then is not
cut off at death, but is carried on, after the death of the
first Enoch, from father to son down through the generations
until a new memory arises and with it another name. As long
as the thread of memory endured, the same name was used. In a
family line several persons had but one name; as for example
with the name ‘Adam.’ It is in this sense that
names are used in the Gospel of Luke. For Luke wishes to
explain that the being of power of divine spiritual
existence, he who descended into the ego and astral body of
the Nathan Jesus, must be traced back to the time of
man's first descent into earthly incarnation.
Thus in Luke
we have at first the names of separate individuals, but when
we go back beyond Abraham, we arrive at a time when memory
lasted longer and one name signifies that which, like an ego,
united several personalities. This will help to make it clear
how the seventy-seven names could really be spread over very
long periods — even so far back as to the time when the
being whom we describe as the divinely spiritual essence of
humanity first incarnated in a physical human body.
The other
point in this Gospel is that anyone, who, having passed
through the seventy-seven stages of purification in the
Mysteries has purged his soul of earthly taint, attains a
condition only possible for man to-day when he can live in
his astral body and ego free of his body. He can then expand
into that from which the Earth itself has come forth —
into our whole cosmic system. This does come to pass. Then he
has reached the being of power who entered into the astral
body and ego of the Nathan Jesus. In the Nathan Jesus it is
sought to exemplify what man receives, not through his
earthly but through his heavenly conditions.
Thus the
Gospel of Luke describes the divine spiritual being who had
permeated and impregnated the astral body and ego of the
Jesus of whom it speaks. In the Jesus of the Gospel of
Matthew we have described to us that divine spiritual being
of power, who, on one side, had called into existence the
inner organ of Jehovah-consciousness in Abraham, and, on the
other side, had worked on the physical and etheric bodies,
holding together in them a line of inheritance through
forty-two generations.
To return to
the mission of Jesus ben Pandira, it was he who made known
— to a few at least — that forty-two generations
after Abraham the Hebrews would have advanced sufficiently to
make the incarnation of the individuality of Zarathustra
possible in the Solomon branch of the House of David. Such
teaching was naturally associated at that time with events in
the Mysteries. It was not confined to the Schools of the
Essenes, but only among them were pupils to be found who had
actually passed through the forty-two stages of development,
and who were able to perceive clairvoyantly the nature of the
being who was to descend through forty-two stages. For
knowledge of this being had to be given to the world. It was
the mission of the Essenes to see that among a few at least
there should be an understanding of what the Christ would
be.
Now let us
briefly recall the events connected with the particular
course of that human being known as Zarathustra or Zoroaster.
Under this name he had given out in early days in the East
the mighty teaching that had fitted him for the incarnation
described in the Gospel of Matthew. It was he who had
inaugurated the Hermetic Civilization in Egypt, and to this
end had given up his astral body to Hermes; he also had
founded the Mosaic Civilization through the sacrifice of his
etheric body, which had been preserved for Moses. Zarathustra
himself incarnated later in other astral and etheric bodies.
The incarnation in the sixth century
B.C.
is of special interest, when, as Zarathos or Nazarathos, he had
instructed the sages and Magi of Chaldea, and had come in touch
with the wisest of the Hebrew pupils of the Mysteries, during
the Babylonian Captivity. During the following six centuries,
this teaching had permeated the traditions, ceremonies, and
culture of the Chaldean Mystery Schools. The name of their
great master, Zarathustra, in the form of Zarathos or
Nazarathos, had been honoured in the highest degree by
generations of pupils in the Mystery Schools of Babylon,
Chaldea, and Assyria. They looked forward with longing to the
next appearance of their great teacher and leader, for they
knew the secret of his reincarnation, and expected it to
occur at the end of six hundred years. As the time approached
when the blood suitable for this incarnation should be ready,
three messengers or wise men, went forth from the East. They
knew that the honoured name of Zarathustra would guide them,
as a star, to the place of his reincarnation. It was the
Being of the great Teacher himself which as a least there
should be an understanding of what the Christ would be.
Now let us
briefly recall the events connected with the particular
course of that human being known as Zarathustra or Zoroaster.
Under this name he had given out in early days in the East
the mighty teaching that had fitted him for the incarnation
described in the Gospel of Matthew. It was he who had
inaugurated the Hermetic Civilization in Egypt, and to this
end had given up his astral body to Hermes; he also had
founded the Mosaic Civilization through the sacrifice of his
etheric body, which had been preserved for Moses. Zarathustra
himself incarnated later in other astral and etheric bodies.
The incarnation in the sixth century B.c. is of special
interest, when, as Zarathos or Nazarathos, he had instructed
the sages and Magi of Chaldea, and had come in touch with the
wisest of the Hebrew pupils of the Mysteries, during the
Babylonian Captivity. During the following six centuries,
this teaching had permeated the traditions, ceremonies, and
culture of the Chaldean Mystery Schools. The name of their
great master, Zarathustra, in the form of Zarathos or
Nazarathos, had been honoured in the highest degree by
generations of pupils in the Mystery Schools of Babylon,
Chaldea, and Assyria. They looked forward with longing to the
next appearance of their great teacher and leader, for they
knew the secret of his reincarnation, and expected it to
occur at the end of six hundred years. As the time approached
when the blood suitable for this incarnation should be ready,
three messengers or wise men, went forth from the East. They
knew that the honoured name of Zarathustra would guide them,
as a star, to the place of his reincarnation. It was the
Being of the great Teacher himself which as a
‘star’ guided the three Magi to the birthplace of
Jesus, as is told in the Gospel of Matthew.
Even external
philology confirms the fact that the word ‘star’
was used in olden times to describe the human individuality.
It is not only through the revelations of spiritual science,
which speaks more clearly than other sources of knowledge,
that we learn that the Magi followed the ‘Golden
Star,’ Zoroaster, to the place where he was to
reincarnate, but by the customary use of the word
‘star’ for the higher human individuality it is
clearly revealed that in the star which the wise men followed
we have to understand Zarathustra himself.
Six hundred
years before our era the Magi of the East were closely
associated with the individual who incarnated as the Jesus of
the Gospel of Matthew. He himself led the Magi. They followed
in his track.
The secret of
the coming incarnation of Zarathustra was known in the
Chaldean Mysteries; but the secret concerning the blood of
the Hebrew people which when the time was ripe was to be
prepared for the new bodily-nature of Zarathustra, was
taught by those who in the Essene initiation had passed
through forty-two stages of development.
There were
therefore two sources from which this knowledge came. From
the side of Zarathustra, teaching was given by the
Chaldean Initiates; they knew of the individuality
who was to incarnate in the Jewish race from the external
side, that of the body and the preparation of the blood,
teaching came from initiates among the Essenes. This
teaching was given out for more than a hundred years in the
School of the Essenes, the teaching of the coming of the
Jesus of the Gospel of Matthew, who in his fulness would
satisfy all the needs of which I have spoken, and still
others which we will now try to explain.
A pupil of
the Essene Mystery Schools, who, after long training, had
completed the forty-two stages of initiation, was able to
perceive the mysteries of the physical and etheric body. The
individual who was to be born, who was to incarnate in this
special blood, came from on high, already possessing
faculties which were only attained by the Essene after the
long and difficult trials of his training. Concerning such a
being, one must say, ‘From the beginning he had powers
capable of bringing the seed that was in him to
fruition.’ ‘They were born with him,’ the
Essenes said. That which was fostered among them by means of
exercises and purification of the soul was in fact the
continuation of a kind of occult training that had existed
among the Jews from the earliest days. There had always been
those among them who were called Nazarenes. Even before the
time of the Therapeutæ and Essenes certain individuals
had used special methods for the development of their soul
and body, methods still necessary to-day in certain
connections when anyone wishes to hasten his soul
development. The Nazarenes were especially careful to abstain
entirely from meat and wine. This made a certain facility
possible — for it is a fact that the consumption of
meat can be a hindrance in the path when striving for
spiritual development. Without implying any propaganda on
behalf of vegetarianism, it is a fact that abstention from
meat makes everything easier, for in that case the soul
increases in strength and in power of endurance, and is
stronger to overcome the oppositions and hindrances arising
from the physical and etheric bodies. Capacities for
endurance increase by abstaining from flesh though it is not
such abstinence alone, but above all by strengthening his
soul. It is merely the physical body that is changed by this
abstinence; but when certain qualities are absent which
should from the soul's side be present, there is no
particular object in avoiding meat. All this was included in
the teaching of the Nazarenes and was practised by the
Essenes in a much stricter form; in particular they
cultivated the strictest abstinence from meat. By this, and
the strict training I have referred to, a man was able to
enhance his memory comparatively quickly; he learnt to extend
it over the period of forty-two generations, and he thus
acquired the power to read the secrets of the Akashic-Record.
He was then given a special name. He was called a
‘bud,’ a bud on the tree of the race, a bud that
had endured throughout many generations. Such a man was not
in any way isolated from the tree of humanity, but was
conscious of his connection with the rest of mankind. He
differed from those who severed themselves from the tree, and
whose memory had shrunk within a single personality. The
special name given to such a man, among the sect of the
Essenes, signified ‘a living branch,’ not a
severed branch. All such men felt themselves consciously in
the line of descent, a part of the tree of the human race.
The Essene who had accomplished this and who had completed
the forty-two stages of initiation was described as a
‘Netzer.’
Among the
class of Netzer there was a special and faithful pupil of
Jesus ben Pandira. Among his pupils were five whom he had
himself trained; each of these had taken up a special branch
of the great general teaching of Jesus ben Pandira, which he
then developed further.
The names of
these pupils were Mathai, Nakai, Netzer (because he belonged
especially to the Netzer class), Boni, and Thona. Occult
research reveals the fact that subsequent to the death of
Jesus ben Pandira, the teaching concerning the preparation of
the blood of the race for the advent of the Jesus of the
Gospel of Matthew was particularly the work of Mathai. The
teaching concerning the qualities of the inner nature of the
soul which was associated with the ancient Nazarene teaching
and also with the later Netzerism, was cultivated and spread
by Netzer. This pupil was in particular chosen to be the
founder of a little colony. Many such colonies existed in
Palestine, in each of which some special branch of the Essene
teaching was cultivated, and Netzer's teaching was
fostered more especially in a little colony, which led a
secret existence in a little place named in the Bible,
Nazareth or Netzereth.
In this
little colony dwelt those who cultivated in fairly strict
secrecy the ancient Nazarene teaching. And here, after the
events shortly to be dealt with — the flight into Egypt
and the return — nothing was more natural than that the
Jesus of the Matthew Gospel should be nurtured in the
atmosphere of Netzerism. This is referred to in the words of
the Gospel when after the return from Egypt Jesus was taken
to Nazareth ‘that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophets He shall become a Nazarene.’
Translators,
unaware of the real meaning of this phrase, have dealt with
it in various ways. In reality it signifies the existence at
Nazareth of a colony of Essenes among whom the early years of
Jesus were to be passed.
All the facts
described in the first part of the Gospel of Matthew lead
back to the mysteries taught by Jesus ben Pandira, which
subsequently were spread abroad by his pupil Mathai, and
indeed the first mysteries of this Gospel point to Mathai. In
all that springs from this side which is so characteristic of
the Gospel of Matthew we find teaching concerning the
preparation for the physical and etheric bodies of the Jesus
of the Gospel of Matthew, though naturally during the
forty-two generations there were also influences affecting
the astral body.
When it is
stated that the first fourteen generations are especially
concerned with the physical body, the second fourteen with
the etheric, and the third period of fourteen, that following
the Babylonian Captivity with the astral body, it must be
remembered that a physical and etheric body carefully
prepared in this way, could only be used by that mighty
individuality Zarathustra.
Now recall
the oft-repeated facts of the development of a single
personality; how the physical body evolves in the first seven
years; the etheric in the next seven, between the change of
teeth and puberty; and the astral only begins its free
development at the age of fourteen. The development of the
physical body and etheric body as these passed down through
the generations from Abraham, was destined to come to an end,
and entered on a new existence when it became the
dwelling-place of Zarathustra. But when he had completed the
development of the etheric body, that which had been prepared
for him no longer sufficed, and he had then to proceed to the
development of the astral body. Mighty and amazing events
brought this to pass, events which if we have no
understanding of them make it impossible for us to grasp the
full meaning of the great Mystery of Jesus Christ.
The
individuality of Zarathustra evolved during boyhood until his
twelfth year, within the physical and etheric body of that
Jesus of whom the Gospel of Matthew speaks — for as
regards this being and on account of the climate, the period,
which in our part of the world occurs about the fourteenth or
fifteenth year, was reached earlier. By his twelfth year he
had attained everything it was possible to attain in the
physical and etheric body fittingly prepared within the line
of Solomon. The individuality of Zarathustra did then
actually forsake the physical and etheric body described in
the Gospel of Matthew and passed over into the Jesus of the
Gospel of Luke. In the cycle of lectures on the Gospel of
Luke the story of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple is
explained. There we learn what it meant when the child Jesus
was suddenly confronted by his parents who could in no way
understand how he had become so changed. This change meant
that the entrance of the individuality of Zarathustra into
his inner being had taken place; until then this
Zarathustra-individuality had developed within the physical
and etheric sheaths of the Solomon Jesus.
Such
things actually come to pass in life, incredible though
they may seem to the untrained and materialistic modern mind.
The passing over of an individuality from one body to another
does occur. Such a transition occurred when the
Zarathustra-individuality, forsaking its original body,
passed over into that of the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke,
whose astral body and ego-bearer had been specially
prepared.
From his
twelfth year Zarathustra continued his development in the
uniquely prepared astral body and ego of the Jesus of the
line of Nathan. This is told in such an imposing way in the
Gospel of Luke — the story of the twelve-year-old Jesus
sitting in the temple among the Scribes, who were astounded
at his words. How was this possible to the Jesus of the
Nathan line? He was able to speak thus because the
individuality of Zarathustra had entered him. Through that
twelve-year-old boy who had been brought to Jerusalem by his
parents, Zarathustra had not till then spoken. Hence the
change in him was so great that his parents failed to
recognize him as he sat among the scribes.
Thus we have
two sets of parents, each named Joseph and Mary.
[Note 1]
And there were two children, each named
Jesus; the one we read of in the Gospel of Matthew is the
Jesus of the Solomon line of the house of David; the other
spoken of in the Gospel of Luke is the Jesus of the Nathan
line, and is the son of quite other parents. The two boys
grew up near to each other until their twelfth year. You can
find this in the Gospels. What is related there is quite
correct, but as long as it was undesirable for people to
experience the truth, or as long as people did not desire the
truth, it was withheld. The Gospels speak the truth we have
but to learn to understand them aright.
The Nathan
Jesus developed with a strongly developed inward nature.
While showing little aptitude for the acquisition of external
wisdom, he possessed depth of soul and capacity for love in
boundless measure, for dwelling in his etheric body was that
force which had come down from a time before man's
descent into earthly incarnation, when as yet he led a divine
existence. Divinity dwelt in him in a boundless capacity for
love. This Jesus of the Nathan line was little fitted for the
acquisition of that which men gain in the course of
incarnation in a physical body, but he was filled with an
infinite warmth of love as regards his soul and inner being.
The inward trend of the boy's nature was so marked that
those who had understanding of such things tell of something
that was brought about through this. What is otherwise only
evoked in man by external means was present in a certain
sense in the child Jesus of the Gospel of Luke from the
beginning. Immediately after his birth he spoke
certain words which were comprehensible to his surroundings.
Thus this Jesus was mighty in all inward matters though
unskilled as regards what is gained by passing through
repeated earthly incarnations.
What wonder
that the parents were greatly amazed when they suddenly
discovered in such a physical nature, a boy filled with great
external wisdom that could only be gained by outward means.
Such a sudden and amazing change was possible because at that
moment the individuality of Zarathustra — the Jesus of
the line of Solomon — passed over into the Jesus of the
line of Nathan. It was Zarathustra who spoke from the boy at
the moment when his parents sought him in the Temple.
Zarathustra
had acquired the highest faculties possible to acquire
through a physical and etheric body. He had to use the
physical instruments prepared in the Solomon line of
inheritance, for in them were great and very highly developed
forces. He took of this physical nature as much as he could
make his own, and blended it with the nature that sprang from
the inner force of the Luke Jesus, which had its origin
before man's entrance into earthly incarnation. These
two natures were now joined in one. Henceforward we have only
one being before us.
Though it may
seem superfluous, we have our attention now directed to
something else; the parents of the Jesus of the Gospel of
Luke did not only note an exceptional change in him, but
there was also an outward change, for why is it expressly
stated that after the child Jesus had been found among the
learned Scribes in the Temple ‘He went down with them
to Nazareth. ... And Jesus increased in outward beauty of
form, in noble habits, and in wisdom.’ Why are these
three attributes mentioned? Because now that the Zarathustra
individuality had entered into him these were the attributes
he could make more particularly his own.
I am quite
aware that these words are usually translated ‘and
Jesus increased in wisdom, age (stature in the English
version), and in favour with God and man.’ Do we
require a Gospel to tell us that a twelve-year-old boy
increased in age? But in Weizeker's translation we
have the words: ‘and Jesus increased in wisdom and
stature, and in favour with God and man.’ This,
however, is not the meaning; the real meaning is, that an
individuality is now in the Nathan Jesus, who is not, as
formerly, only a being of inward feeling unable to express
itself outwardly, but, because it has now assumed a complete
physical body, it has also passed on into external physical
excellence. At the same time those qualities that especially
concerned the etheric body — the habits acquired and
cultivated by means of the etheric body—were not to be
found previously in the Nathan Jesus. In him the seed of a
mighty capacity for love was apparent which could now be
developed further, but this attribute sprang up spontaneously
in him and could not become fixed as habits are. But once the
Zarathustra individuality, which possessed the powers of an
evolved physical and etheric body, was present, it was
possible for external habits to reveal themselves and to
imprint themselves on the etheric body. This was the second
attribute in which the child Jesus increased.
Thirdly,
Jesus increased in wisdom. This is more easily understood.
The Jesus of the Gospel of Luke was not wise; he was to a
high degree a being capable of love. The entrance into him of
the Zarathustra individuality meant an increase in
wisdom.
As was
explained in the lectures on the Gospel of Luke, it may
easily happen that when an individuality has forsaken a
person, and only three members, the physical body, and the
etheric body and astral body are left, this person may
continue to live for a time. That part of the Solomon Jesus,
however, which was left behind soon dwindled away and died.
This means that the Jesus child of the first chapter of the
Gospel of Matthew died comparatively soon after his twelfth
year. At first there were two boys; later the two became
one.
Ancient
records often contain astounding things which we should try
to understand; yet this is only possible through a
comprehension of the real facts to which they refer. The
intimate way in which these two boys were blended into one
may be left for later consideration one reference, however,
may be permitted here.
In the
so-called ‘Egyptian Gospel,’ which even in the
first centuries was regarded as heretical, a noteworthy
sentence occurs, for even in Christian circles no one wanted
to hear the truth, nor wished that it should come to light.
In this document which has endured as a kind of apocryphal
Gospel, we find it said: ‘that salvation would come to
the world when the two had become one and the outer become as
the inner.’
This sentence
expresses exactly the facts I have explained as the result of
occult investigation. Salvation depends on the two becoming
one. The two became one when in his twelfth year the
individuality of Zarathustra passed over into the Nathan
Jesus, and what was inward became external. The soul force of
the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke was most powerfully inward,
but this inward force became outward when the Zarathustra
individuality — whose outward forces had been developed
to a high degree in the physical body and etheric body of the
Solomon Jesus — entered into this inward nature,
permeating it with his highly evolved physical and etheric
nature. Thus a power entered the physical and etheric body of
the Nathan Jesus, and what was external became an expression
of his inwardness — inwardness that was his before the
individuality of the Solomon Jesus passed into him. Thus the
two became one.
We have now
followed Zarathustra from his birth as the Jesus child of the
Gospel of Matthew to his twelfth year when he left his
original body and took on the bodily sheath of the Nathan
Jesus. From this time onwards the physical nature of the
Nathan Jesus was developed by Zarathustra to such a high
degree of perfection that he was able at a certain climax of
his existence to sacrifice his three bodies for acceptance by
Him Whom we call the Christ.
Notes:
Note 1.
Many people were so named at that time; to deduce anything
from the names ‘Joseph’ and ‘Mary,’
as names are understood to-day, is denied by all true
investigation.
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