IV
WHEN
I set myself to the task of speaking to you to-day on the
contents of the Fifth Gospel, the concluding words of St.
John's Gospel afford me a certain consolation. As you know,
this concluding passage is to the effect that the events which
took place around Christ Jesus are not by any means all
recorded in the Gospels, for if in those days attempts had been
made to record them all, the world itself could not have
produced books in sufficient numbers. On one point, therefore,
there can be no doubt, namely, that as well as what has
actually been recorded, many other things may have
happened. In order to make myself intelligible when I am
speaking, as I wish to speak in these particular lectures,
about the contents of the Fifth Gospel, I will begin to-day
with narratives of the life of Jesus of Nazareth approximately
from that time in his life of which indications have been given
on other occasions, when brief portions of the Fifth
Gospel have been communicated. [See e.g.
“Gospel of St. John,”
“Gospel of St. Mark,”
“Gospel of St. Matthew,”
“Gospel of St. Luke,”
and
“From Jesus to Christ.”
Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.]
I
want to speak to-day of certain happenings in the life of Jesus
of Nazareth from about his twelfth year onwards. As you know,
this was the year when the Zarathustra-Ego which had incarnated
in one of the two Jesus children born at that time, had passed
over, through a mystical act, into the other Jesus child
— the child who is described at the beginning of
St. Luke's Gospel. Our narrative begins, then, from that year
in the life of Jesus of Nazareth when the Jesus of St. Luke's
Gospel had received the Ego of Zarathustra. In the Gospel, this
moment in the life of Jesus of Nazareth is indicated in the
story that on a journey to Jerusalem for the feast, the Jesus
child of St. Luke's Gospel was lost and when he was found he
was sitting among the learned doctors and scribes, amazing them
by his lofty answers. We, however, know why it was possible for
him to give these astounding answers. It was because everything
that welled up as it were from the Spirit into the
Zarathustra-Ego like remembrances hidden in the soul,
worked in such a way that Jesus of Nazareth was able at that
time to give those astounding answers. We know too that after
the death of the mother in the one family and of the father in
the other, the two families amalgamated into one and that the
Jesus child, endowed now with the Zarathustra-Ego, grew up in
this family.
As
the Fifth Gospel reveals, it was a truly remarkable
development that took place during the following years.
Those in the immediate environment of the young Jesus of
Nazareth held him in highest repute because of the astounding
answers he had given in the temple. They saw in him the future
doctor of the law, one who would attain outstanding eminence
among the learned scribes. Those around Jesus of Nazareth
entertained the highest hopes of him. They began to drink in
his every word. But in spite of this he became more and more
silent — so silent, indeed, that he often caused great
displeasure to those around him. Between the twelfth and
eighteenth years of his life, however, a mighty struggle was
going on within him. It was as though deep-lying treasures of
wisdom were springing to life in his soul, as though the
radiant sun of Zarathustrian wisdom had flashed up within him
in the form of Hebrew learning. At first the boy listened with
the greatest discernment and concentration and gave astounding
answers to everything said by the many learned doctors and
scribes who came to the house. To begin with, in the house at
Nazareth too, he astonished the learned doctors who came there
and who regarded him as a wonder-child. Then, however, he
became more and more silent, merely listening to what others
were saying without himself speaking a word. But while this was
going on, great and sublime thoughts, ethical truths, and above
all powerful moral impulses came to life in his soul during
those years. What he heard from the learned scribes assembled
in the house made a certain impression upon him —
but one that caused him bitter sorrow, because he felt —
mark well, even in those early years — that much
uncertainty, much that tended to error was contained in what
they said about the ancient traditions and the writings
compiled in the Old Testament. Heaviness oppressed his
soul when he heard that in ancient times the Spirit had
descended upon the Prophets, that the word of God Himself had
inspired those ancient Prophets and that now the inspiration
had departed from a later generation. But to one thing he
always listened with deep attention, because he divined that
one day it would happen so to him. The learned doctors and
scribes said many a time: “That sublime and mighty Spirit
who once descended, for example, upon Elias, speaks no
longer; but what still speaks” ... and many of the
scribes still believed it to be an inspiration from spiritual
heights ... “what still speaks is a feebler voice, yet a
voice which many regard as issuing from the Spirit of Jahve
himself.”
The
“Bath-Kol” was the name given to that mysterious
voice of inspiration — a voice feebler and less
significant than that of the Spirit who had inspired the
ancient Prophets. Nevertheless this voice represented something
similar. Many of those around Jesus spoke in this way of the
Bath-Kol and much concerning it is related in later Jewish
writings. I now interpolate into this narration of the contents
of the Fifth Gospel something that does not actually belong to
this Gospel, merely for the purpose of explaining the nature of
the Bath-Kol. At a somewhat later date, controversy broke out
between two Rabbinic schools. The famous Rabbi Eliezer
ben Hyrcanus upheld a certain doctrine and maintained in
support of it that he was able to work miracles (this is
related in the Talmud). He made a carob-tree rise out of the
soil and take root again a hundred ells away; he made a stream
flow backwards; and thirdly he called upon a voice from heaven
to proclaim the truth of his doctrine. But nevertheless those
in the opposing school of the Rabbi Joshua did not believe in
it. And Rabbi Joshua retorted: “Even if Rabbi Eliezer
does make carob-trees transplant themselves from one spot to
another, even if he does make a stream flow backwards, even if
he does call upon the Bath-Kol ... it stands written that the
eternal laws of existence must be established through the mouth
and in the heart of man; and if Rabbi Eliezer would convince
us, let him not call upon the Bath-Kol but upon what the human
heart can comprehend.” I narrate this story because
it indicates that soon after the dawn of Christianity, respect
for the Bath-Kol had greatly diminished in certain Rabbinic
schools, although in a way it continued to be a voice of
inspiration among the Rabbis and the Scribes.
As
the boy Jesus listened to and pondered all these things, he
himself became aware of the inspiration of the Bath-Kol.
The remarkable thing was that because he bore within him the
Zarathustra-Ego, Jesus of Nazareth was able very rapidly to
absorb all the knowledge possessed by the others around him.
Not only had he been able in his twelfth year to give
astounding answers to the learned doctors, but he now heard the
Bath-Kol within his own breast. But this very inspiration
through the Bath-Kol gave rise to bitter, inward struggles in
Jesus of Nazareth during his sixteenth and seventeenth years.
For the Bath-Kol revealed to him — and he was convinced
that he discerned it with all certainty — that in times
to come the voice of the same Spirit who had inspired the
ancient Hebrew teachers would speak no longer in the stream of
events recorded in Old Testament history. And one day —
it was a truly terrible experience in the soul of Jesus of
Nazareth — he believed that the Bath-Kol made known to
him the following: “I no longer reach to those heights
where the Spirit can reveal to me the truth about the continued
progress of the Jewish people!” It was a deeply moving
and terrible moment for Jesus of Nazareth when the Bath-Kol
seemed to be declaring to him that it could no longer continue
the ancient revelations, that it was no longer capable of
perpetuating the old Hebraic wisdom. Jesus of Nazareth felt as
though all the ground were swept from under his feet, and many
a day he said to himself: All the forces of soul which I
believed had been bestowed upon me, only lead to the
realisation that in the evolution of the Jewish people there is
no longer the capacity to scale the heights of the Divine
revelations.
Let
us try for a moment to enter into the soul of the young Jesus
of Nazareth at the time when these experiences were thronging
in upon him. It was in his sixteenth, seventeenth and
eighteenth years, when, partly for reasons connected with his
handicraft and partly owing to other circumstances, he
made many journeys about the country. On these journeys he came
to know many regions in Palestine and places outside. Now in
those times — and to clairvoyant sight this is clearly
perceptible in the Akasha Chronicle — a certain Asiatic
cult was very widespread in Western Asia and the regions round
about, even in certain parts of Europe. It was a mixture of
several different rites but in the main it represented the
Mithras cult. Temples dedicated to the worship of Mithras were
to be found in many widely scattered regions. The rites often
contained elements of the Attis cult, but were in essentials a
form of Mithraic worship. Temples and centres dedicated to the
worship of Mithras and of Attis were numerous and widespread.
It was a form of ancient heathen religion but comprised many
practices and ceremonies common to Mithras- or Attis-worship.
The fact, for example, that the Church of St. Peter in Rome
stands over the site of one of these earlier places of worship
shows that this cult had spread far and wide. Although to many
Catholics it may sound sacrilegious, the truth obliges one to
say that in its outward form the ceremonial practised in
the Church of St. Peter in Rome and everything deriving from
it, is by no means without resemblance to the ancient Attis
cult on the site of which St. Peter's stands. And the cult
centred in the Church of St. Peter is in many respects a
continuation of the Mithras cult. When in his sixteenth,
seventeenth and eighteenth years, Jesus of Nazareth began to
journey about the country, he came to know these centres of
heathen rites. Later on too, he discovered still more about
them. In this way he learnt to understand the souls of the
heathen peoples by actual, physical observation — if one
may put it so. At that time, as the result of the mighty act
whereby the Zarathustra-Ego had passed over into his soul,
Jesus of Nazareth possessed, as it were by a process of
natural development, a power of clairvoyance such as
others could achieve only by intense effort and struggle.
Therefore in witnessing these cults he experienced many
things that remained hidden from others — many terrible
things. Fabulous as it may seem, I have to testify that when
the priest was enacting the rites of the cult at many a heathen
altar and Jesus of Nazareth witnessed the whole act of worship,
he saw that numbers of demonic beings were attracted to the
spot. He discovered that many idols worshipped by the
people were, in reality, images not of the good spiritual
Beings of the higher Hierarchies but of demonic powers. He also
perceived that many a time these demonic powers passed over
into the believers participating in these rites. For reasons
easy to understand, these things have not found their way into
the other Gospels. And indeed it is only now, within our
spiritual Movement, that such things can be disclosed, because
it is only in our time that the human soul is ripe enough to
understand the deep and overwhelming experiences which came to
Jesus of Nazareth while he was still a young man.
These journeyings continued on through his twentieth,
twenty-second, twenty-fourth years. It was always with feelings
of bitter sorrow that he witnessed the power wielded by the
demons — by the demons issuing as it were from Lucifer
and Ahriman — that he witnessed how the heathen peoples
had in many respects actually come to the point of taking the
demons for gods, even of having in their idols the images of
wild, demonic powers which, attracted by these images and
rites, entered into the people while they prayed, and obsessed
them. Many bitter experiences fell to the lot of Jesus of
Nazareth. And these experiences led up to a certain
culmination.
Round about the age of twenty-four, a new and heavy experience
was added to that caused by the disillusionment in connection
with the Bath-Kol. In narrating this experience of Jesus of
Nazareth, I have to say that I am not yet in a position to
indicate precisely at which place in his journeyings this
came to pass. It was possible for me to decipher the scene with
a high degree of certainty but I cannot to-day indicate the
exact place. It seems to me that the event took place on a
journey outside Palestine. But although I cannot say this with
certainty, I must relate the scene. In the twenty-fourth year
of his life, Jesus of Nazareth came to a place where, in a
heathen cult, a certain Deity was worshipped. But the people
round about were in a state of dire misery, afflicted with all
kinds of terrible illnesses of soul and body. The priests had
long ago forsaken this place of worship. And Jesus heard the
people crying: The priests have forsaken us, the blessings of
the sacrificial offering do not descend upon us and we are
leprous and diseased because the priests have forsaken us.
— Jesus of Nazareth grieved for the people and an
infinite love for them flamed in his soul. The people around
must have remarked something of this infinite love
welling up within him; a deep impression must have been made
upon the sorrowing people, who had been forsaken by their
priests and, as they believed, also by their god. And now, as
if at one stroke, there arose in the hearts of the majority of
the people something that made them say as they recognised the
expression of infinite love in the countenance of Jesus: Thou
art the new priest who has been sent to us! And they pressed
him towards the altar of the sacrifice, they placed him at the
altar. And there he stood — at the heathen altar. The
people besought him to offer the sacrifice, in order that the
blessing of the god might come upon them. While this was
happening, while the people were lifting him to the altar, he
fell down as if dead. His soul was as if transported away and
the people around who believed that their god had returned to
them, witnessed the terrible spectacle that the one whom they
had held to be the new priest sent from heaven, had fallen down
as if dead. But the soul of Jesus was aware of being
transported into spiritual realms, into the sphere of
sun-existence. And now, as if resounding from the spheres of
the sun, this soul heard words such as it had often heard
through the Bath-Kol. But now the Bath-Kol was utterly
transformed; moreover the voice came to Jesus of Nazareth from
quite a different direction. And that of which he now
became aware can — if one translates it into our
language — be rendered in words which I was able to
communicate for the first time when just recently we were
laying the Foundation Stone of our building in Dornach. Certain
occult duties exist! And obeying one such occult duty, I then
communicated what came to Jesus of Nazareth through the now
transformed voice of the Bath-Kol on the occasion of
which I have been speaking. Jesus of Nazareth heard the
words:
AUM, Amen!
Es
walten die Übel,
Zeugen sich lösender Ichheit,
Von
andern erschuldete Selbstheitschuld,
Erlebet im täglichen Brote,
In
dem nicht waltet der Himmel Wille,
Da
der Mensch sich schied von Eurem Reich
Und
vergass Euren Namen,
Ihr
Vater in den Himmeln.
AUM, Amen!
The
Evils hold sway,
Witness of Egoity becoming free,
Selfhood-Guilt through others incurred,
Experienced in the Daily Bread,
Wherein the Will of the Heavens does not rule,
In
that Man severed himself from Your Kingdom,
And
forgot Your Names,
Ye
Fathers in the Heavens.
In
no other way can I render in the German language what Jesus of
Nazareth heard at that time as the transformed voice of the
Bath-Kol. Verily, in no other way than this! This was what his
soul brought back when he awoke from the state of insensibility
during which he was transported into the spiritual worlds on
the occasion I have described. When Jesus of Nazareth had come
to himself again and turned his eyes towards the crowd of
wretched and miserable people who had brought him to the altar,
they had all fled. And letting his clairvoyant vision widen
into the distance he discerned a host of demonic powers and
beings, all of them connected with the people. That was the
second significant event, the second significant climax in the
various periods of the life of Jesus of Nazareth since his
twelfth year. Truly, my dear friends, the events which most
deeply affected the soul of Jesus of Nazareth in his adult
years cannot be said to have conduced only to inward elation,
inward happiness! It was the lot of this soul before the
Baptism in the Jordan to know human nature in its darkest
depths.
From this journey, Jesus of Nazareth returned to his home,
where the father had remained. The father died about this time
— it was when Jesus of Nazareth was in his twenty-fourth
year, or thereabouts. When Jesus came home his soul was
still under the mighty impression of how demonic powers held
sway in much that was contained in the old heathen religion.
But just as it is the case that certain stages of higher
knowledge can only be attained by plumbing the darkest depths
of life, so too, in a certain sense, did it happen to Jesus of
Nazareth. At a place unknown to me, in about the twenty-fourth
year of his life, he had gazed into infinite depths of the
human soul, he had gazed into souls in whom all the grief of
the humanity of those times was as it were concentrated. He was
also steeped in the wisdom which pierced his soul like red-hot
iron but also imparted a faculty of clairvoyance powerful
enough to gaze into the radiant worlds of the Spirit. And so
this comparatively young soul was able to read the things of
the Spirit with discerning, clear-sighted vision. Jesus of
Nazareth had become one who gazed deeply into the mysteries of
life, more deeply than any man living on the earth hitherto.
Nobody before him had been able to witness to what degree of
intensity human misery can reach. He had seen misery in its
direst, most concentrated form ... had seen how sacred rites
themselves can evoke all manner of demons! In very truth, no
human being on the earth had ever gazed with such deep
penetration at all this wretchedness as had Jesus of Nazareth;
none had been capable of such infinite depth of feeling when
confronted with those who were possessed by demons. Nor
was any other being on the earth as ready as he to face the
question: How, how can an end be made of this misery?
And
so Jesus of Nazareth possessed not only the vision, the
knowledge that is wisdom, but had in a certain sense become an
Initiate through the experiences of life itself. This
came to the knowledge of certain people who in those days had
gathered together in an Order, known very widely as the Order
of the Essenes. The Essenes were people who practised a kind of
secret cult and secret tenets at certain places in Palestine.
It was a strict, rigorous Order. One who desired to enter it
was required to pass through a year, at the very least, of
strict probation, to show by his conduct during this period, by
his moral principles, by his obedience in worshipping the
supreme Powers of the Spirit, by his sense of justice and of
equality among men, by his disregard of earthly goods and the
like that he was worthy to be initiated. There was a succession
of grades through which he had to pass, leading to that
Essenian life which strove to approach the spiritual world in a
certain separation and aloofness from the rest of
humanity, through strict monastic discipline and rules of
cleanliness, in order that all impurity both in body and in
soul might be purged. These principles were expressed in many
symbolic rules of the Order. The deciphering of the Akasha
Chronicle has shown that the name “Essene” derives
from or at any rate is connected with the Hebrew word
“Essin” or “Assin.” This means
something like a trowel, a little shovel, because the
Essenes always wore as their badge a little shovel — a
symbol that has been preserved in many Orders to this day. And
certain symbolic customs gave expression to their aims: they
were not allowed to carry coins about with them nor to pass
through any gateway that was either painted or had images in
its neighbourhood. As the Essene Order at that time was to a
certain extent recognised by the outside world, unpainted gates
had been erected in Jerusalem so that the Essenes too might
enter the city. If an Essene came to a painted gate he must
always turn back. In the Order itself, ancient lore and ancient
traditions were preserved, and concerning these the members
kept strict silence. They were allowed to teach but only what
they themselves had learned within the Order. Everyone who
entered the Order must give to it all his worldly possessions.
At that time the Essenes numbered from four to five thousand,
and people from all parts of the then known world came to
dedicate themselves to the austere life of the Order. If they
possessed a house far away in Asia Minor or even farther off,
they always presented it to the Essene Order which consequently
became the owner of small properties, houses, gardens, even
extensive fields, widely dispersed over the land. No one was
accepted who did not present all he had to the community.
Everything belonged to all the Essenes in common; no individual
possessed anything for himself. A law that in the
conditions of life to-day seems extraordinarily austere but is
comprehensible none the less, was that an Essene might use the
assets of the Order to help any who were in need, with the
exception of members of his own family.
In
Nazareth there was an Essene settlement which had been one of
these gifts. The Essene Order, therefore, had come within the
purview of Jesus of Nazareth. Tidings reached the centre of the
Order of the profound wisdom that had sunk into the soul of
Jesus of Nazareth in the way that has been described.
Especially among the most eminent Essenes a certain attitude of
soul prevailed. With a kind of prophetic inkling, they said:
From among men living in this world a new soul must arise, one
who will be a Messiah! Therefore they looked around for souls
of outstanding wisdom. And they were deeply moved on being told
of the wisdom that had come to flower in the soul of Jesus of
Nazareth. No wonder, therefore, that without compelling
Jesus of Nazareth to undergo the testings of the lower grades,
the Essenes received him into their community — I will
not say into the Order itself — as a kind of extern, or
outside member, and that even the most learned Essenes spoke
about the secrets without reserve to this wise young man. In
the Essene Order, Jesus of Nazareth heard far, far deeper
teachings concerning the secret lore than he had ever heard
from the scribes and doctors of the law. He also heard many
things that had already flamed up as illumination in his own
soul, from the Bath-Kol. To put it shortly, a lively exchange
of thought took place between Jesus of Nazareth and the
Essenes. And in his intercourse with them from about the
twenty-fifth to the twenty-eighth years of his life and even
beyond, he came to know almost everything that the Essene Order
could impart. For what was not communicated to him
through words revealed itself to him in all manner of
clairvoyant impressions. Great and impressive clairvoyant
impressions came to Jesus of Nazareth, either within the Essene
community itself or very shortly afterwards at his home in
Nazareth where, in a more contemplative life, he yielded
himself to what thronged in upon him from forces of which the
Essenes had no inkling but which were experienced in his
soul.
One
of these experiences, one of these inner impressions must
be brought into particularly strong relief because it can shed
light upon the whole course of mankind's spiritual evolution.
It was a great and significant vision into which Jesus of
Nazareth was as if transported, in which the Buddha appeared to
him as a real presence. It was indeed so: the Buddha appeared
to Jesus of Nazareth as a result of the exchange of thoughts
with the Essenes. And one can truly say that at that time,
converse took place in the Spirit between Jesus and Buddha. It
is possible, and moreover it is necessary to-day, to touch upon
these deep mysteries of the evolution of humanity. In this
discourse with Buddha in the Spirit, Jesus of Nazareth became
aware of words coming from the Buddha, somewhat to this effect:
— If my doctrine, as it actually is, were to be led to
full fruition, then all human beings would have to live the
life of the Essenes. But that cannot be. That was the fallacy
in my doctrine. Even the Essenes can only make progress by
separating themselves from the rest of humanity; their
mode of life would not be possible were it not for the
existence of human souls other than they. If my doctrine were
fulfilled to the uttermost, men would all have to become
Essenes. But that cannot be. — This was a momentous
experience which came to Jesus of Nazareth as a result of his
contact with the Essenes.
Another experience was that Jesus of Nazareth made the
acquaintance of a man who was still young at that time, of
almost the same age as himself. This man's association
with the Essene Order had come about in quite a different way
but he too was not an Essene in the strict sense of the word.
This man, living as a kind of lay-brother with the Essene
community, was John the Baptist. During the winter, he, like
the Essenes, wore garments of camel's hair. But he had never
been able inwardly and completely to exchange the doctrines of
Judaism for those of the Essenes. As, however, the tenets
practised by the Essenes and their whole mode of life made a
deep impression upon him, he lived the Essene life as a
lay-brother, allowed himself to be stimulated and inspired by
his association with them and gradually grew to be all that the
Gospels narrate of John the Baptist. Many conversations took
place between Jesus of Nazareth and John the Baptist. It
happened one day ... I know what it means to narrate these
things so simply, but nothing can deter me for I know that they
must be told ... it happened one day that while Jesus of
Nazareth was conversing with John the Baptist, he saw the
physical form of John the Baptist disappear and there came to
him the vision of Elias. This was the second overwhelming
experience in the community of the Essenes. But there were
others as well.
For
some time already, Jesus of Nazareth had witnessed a strange
spectacle when he came to places where gates had been made for
the Essenes, that is to say, gates without images or pictures.
Jesus of Nazareth could not pass through such gates without
great inner bitterness and sorrow. He saw these bare gates, but
he perceived spirit-forms around them; at either side of these
gates there always appeared to him the Beings we know in our
theosophical studies under the names of Ahriman and Lucifer.
And gradually the vision, the impression had been
confirmed in his soul that the aversion of the Essenes for
pictures on their gates must have something to do with the
evocation of spiritual beings; that pictures on the gates were,
in reality, images of Lucifer and Ahriman. Jesus of Nazareth
had many times been aware of this.
Anyone who experiences such things will not find it good
to brood upon them unduly; for they are too overwhelming. One
also very soon feels that human thoughts cannot fathom their
depths, that human thoughts are not capable of approaching
them. But the impressions not only engrave themselves
deeply into the soul — they become part of the soul's
very life. One feels bound up as it were with the part of the
soul in which such experiences have been gathered — bound
up with the experiences themselves, and one carries them on
through life.
Thus had Jesus of Nazareth carried on with him through life the
two pictures of Ahriman and Lucifer that he had seen at the
gates of the Essenes. To begin with, the only effect this
produced was to make him realise that a mystery prevailed
between these spiritual Beings and the Essenes. Moreover, since
these experiences had come to Jesus of Nazareth, mutual
understanding with the Essenes was not as easy as it had been
before. For there was something in his soul of which he could
say no word to the Essenes — something seemed lacking as
they conversed together. For always there came in the way what
he had experienced at the Essene gates. One day, after a
memorable conversation on lofty spiritual matters, when
Jesus of Nazareth was passing out through the gate of the main
Essene building, there came before him the figures he
recognised as Lucifer and Ahriman. And he saw Lucifer and
Ahriman fleeing away from the gate of the monastery. And a
question sank into his soul ... not as if he himself were
asking it, but as if it were being driven into his soul with a
mighty, elemental power: Whither are these Beings fleeing,
whither are Lucifer and Ahriman fleeing? For he knew that the
very sanctity of the Essene monastery was responsible for their
flight; but the question: Whither are they fleeing? —
ingrained itself into his very soul, burned like fire in his
soul, and never left him. As he went about during the weeks
following it was with him every hour, nay every minute. Whither
are Lucifer and Ahriman fleeing? This was the question that
burnt like fire in his soul when after that deep conversation
he had gone through the main gate of the Essene building. What
he did under the impress of this question, what he had heard as
the now changed voice of the Bath-Kol when he had fallen as if
dead at the altar of the heathen cult, and the significance of
the happening of which I have just told you — of these
things we will speak further in the lecture to-morrow.
|