The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. The Gospel of John

[ 1 ] The Gospel of John is contested by contemporary Christian theology. It is said that the Synoptic Gospels, the first three Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, give a consistent picture of Jesus. The differences are considered insignificant. It is said that the Synoptic Gospels provide a consistent picture of Jesus. The Gospel of John, on the other hand, deviates greatly from this, speaking about the founder of Christianity in a completely different tone and seemingly in a completely different way. It is therefore considered less credible. It is said that the synoptic gospels wanted to recount the life of Christ, but that the writer of the Gospel of John lived later and expressed what he felt in a kind of hymn. Theology sees the Gospel of John as a work of devotional poetry. The days are gone when the theologian Bunsen said: If the Gospel of John does not contain historical truth, then Christianity cannot be upheld at all. — Spiritual science has the task of reopening the meaning of the Gospel of John to people today.

[ 2 ] There is another reason why today's theologians prefer the Synoptic Gospels to the Gospel of John. If one summarizes the content of these three Gospels after removing the miracles, they present the image of a sublime human being, but one who is merely a highly developed human being. According to the Gospel of John, however, Jesus was something more than just a highly developed human being: he was a universal being incarnated in an earthly body. The Synoptic Gospels tell of Jesus of Nazareth, while the Gospel of John deals with the Christ.

[ 3 ] The introduction to the Gospel of John speaks of a comprehensive world principle, the Logos, which was embodied in Jesus of Nazareth: “In the beginning was the Logos.” People today do not want to know anything about a highly spiritual being who descends to earth. They only believe in highly developed human beings; they do not believe that a god ever lived on earth. This is why, in recent centuries, people have lost their connection to the Gospel of John. This lecture will deal with this relationship between people and the Gospel of John.

[ 4 ] If you read the Gospel of John as you would read any other book, in order to learn from what it contains, you are reading it completely wrong. The Gospel of John is not a book as we understand a book today. It is a book of life.

[ 5 ] It should be noted in advance that in all deeply religious documents, every word is chosen with deep intention. An example can be explained by the question: According to the Gospel of John, what is the name of Jesus' mother? Everyone will answer: Mary. — But this cannot be proven from the Gospel of John. The mother of Jesus is first mentioned in the Gospel of John in the story of the wedding at Cana, but without a name: “And on the third day there was a wedding at Cana, and the mother of Jesus was there.” Later, she is mentioned again among the three women at the cross: “But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.” So here it is not the mother of Jesus who is named, but her sister “Mary.” Since it is unlikely that both sisters were named Mary, we must assume that the mother of Jesus had a different name.

[ 6 ] Another example: The writer of the Gospel of John, or the one who is otherwise always referred to as John, is here always called only “the disciple whom the Lord loved”: “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son.’” This is of profound significance for understanding the questions that confront us in the Gospel of John when we interpret it in a spiritual sense.

[ 7 ] Until a few centuries ago, the Gospel of John was regarded as a book of meditation that had to be experienced inwardly by those who wanted to have an inner vision of Jesus. It was for the priest who wanted to see the mysteries of Christianity. Hundreds and hundreds have actually done this, and hundreds and hundreds have reaped the fruits of it. Anyone who wanted to penetrate the Christian mysteries had to mature their soul solely through the Gospel of John. But they had to know that the first sentences had magical power. The student had to let them live in their soul for a quarter of an hour or half an hour every morning, but without speculating about them, simply to absorb their power. That was meditation. To those who lived with the first sentences of the Gospel of John for months or years, these sentences revealed a special power: their spiritual eyes were opened. These sentences are living forces capable of awakening dormant abilities. In this way, the student experienced all the images of the Gospel of John in astral visions. The first words can bring about this experience. This power was greater in the past than it is today. People have changed more than is commonly believed.

[ 8 ] In the 13th century, when there was no printing press, people did not read. Reading has changed people greatly. Even the most pious people today cannot comprehend the richness of the feelings of the people of that time. Today we must give different meditations to those who want to progress.

[ 9 ] The Gospel of John would also have to be translated correctly so that it could be to people today what it was to people in the past:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

This was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through it, and without it nothing was made that has been made. In it was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but a witness to the light.

For the true light, which enlightens all men, was coming into the world.

It was in the world, and the world came into being through it, but the world did not recognize it.

It came into individual human beings (it came into the I-human beings); but the individual human beings (the I-human beings) did not accept it.

[ 10 ] At the time of the Lemurian race, the human soul entered its first human embodiment. Before that, it rested in the bosom of God; human beings were not yet ego beings.

[ 11 ] Inner vision. — What happens when a person gains insight into the spiritual world? Everyday people live between waking and sleeping, interrupted at most by dreams. Human beings consist of a physical body, an etheric body or life body, an astral body, and the ego. These four members are together when we are awake. The physical body is a sum of physical apparatus, the eye a camera obscura, the ear a stringed instrument. These apparatus are permeated by the etheric body, which animates them and transmits sensations to the astral body, the bearer of pleasure and pain, of instinct, desire, and passion, and also to the ego. During sleep, the physical and etheric bodies lie in bed, while the astral body with the ego is lifted out. The etheric body remains with the physical body and animates it; the life functions are not interrupted during sleep. Colors, sounds, pleasure, and pain, however, are plunged into deep darkness; the human being is not aware of them.

[ 12 ] There are as many worlds as the human being has organs to perceive them. Without eyes, there is no light. If the human being had an organ for electricity, he would perceive it just as he now perceives light.

[ 13 ] During sleep, humans live in the astral or devachanic world, but they do not perceive anything there. Only when they develop higher organs through persistent work does a change occur in humans: it begins to become light around them. During sleep, they perceive a space around them filled with objects. Like a person born blind who undergoes surgery, astral and spiritual sensory organs develop, and they see the spiritual world; sleep no longer renders them unconscious. Later, the spiritual world around them begins to resound. They hear the music of the spheres described by Pythagoras, which people today consider to be a figurative expression. Goethe understood this correctly. In the prologue to “Faust” he says:

The sun sounds in the old way
In brotherly spheres, singing in competition,
And it completes its prescribed journey
With a thunderous roar.

[ 14 ] This cannot be considered a mere phrase, but must be taken literally: one hears the sun resound when one hears spiritual music. In the second part of Faust, Goethe says in the same vein:

Resounding to spiritual ears
The new day is already born.

[ 15 ] The spiritual world thus first appears to humans in sleep, but what they experience in sleep must also be carried over into everyday life. What they first discover in sleep must also be found again in waking life among physical objects. This takes place in the further training of the student.

[ 16 ] After the effect of the first sentences of the Gospel of John had taken hold, with its images appearing before his soul, he was supported in the development of certain feelings. After a few other exercises, the teacher asked the student to develop the following feeling over a long period of time: If the plant growing out of the ground were to look at the stone from which it grows, it would have to say to it: You stone belong to a lower realm than I, but without you I could not exist. — It would have to bow down humbly to it and thank it for making its life possible. Likewise, the animal would have to bow down humbly before the plant and thank it for giving it the air it breathes. Likewise, every higher class of human beings must bow down to the lower class and thank it. Every higher human being owes its existence to the lower. You must fix this feeling firmly in your soul, for hours, every day, for weeks or months.

[ 17 ] When the student did this, a mental image finally appeared before his eyes, which appeared in the same way for everyone: He saw twelve lower people sitting around him, whose feet he washed. Then the teacher said to him: Now you understand inwardly the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, the washing of the feet. Alongside this mental image, an external symptom also appeared, again the same for everyone. The student felt as if water were washing around his feet.

[ 18 ] He then had to develop a second feeling over weeks and months: When all kinds of pain and all the hardships of existence penetrate me, I want to develop the strength to always resist them. Once he had developed this feeling within himself, another vision appeared: he saw himself being scourged. This vision also occurred in the same way for everyone. The external symptom was a stinging and itching sensation all over the body for a long time.

[ 19 ] He then had to develop a third feeling: Enduring the hardships of existence is not enough. The best you have can be showered with ridicule and scorn. Nevertheless, remain upright. — Once the disciple had developed this feeling, a third vision occurred: he saw himself with the crown of thorns. As an external symptom, he felt severe headaches.

[ 20 ] Then he had to develop yet another feeling: all people say to the body they carry: I. Your body must not be more important to you than any other object. You must perceive your body as something foreign. — Once the student had gone through this, the vision of the crucifixion occurred, accompanied externally by the appearance of the bloodstains of Christ on his hands and feet and on his right breast — not on his left breast, as is usually said. During periods of meditation, these symptoms recurred more frequently.

[ 21 ] Then the teacher said to the student: Now you can experience mystical death. This can only be described in approximate terms. The student experiences what it is like when all existence is wiped out for a moment, all things are no longer there, are hidden behind a veil. Then the veil tears apart from top to bottom, and the student sees into the spiritual world. Before that, there is another moment. Before mystical death, the student has visions of all the evil that can exist in the world; he must descend into hell before he experiences mystical death.

[ 22 ] This is followed by the sixth stage, where the student begins to no longer perceive his body as something belonging to him. He expands his consciousness to encompass the whole earth. Once he has developed this, it is called the burial. — The seventh stage can no longer be described in earthly words. It is the resurrection and ascension; this state is higher than any human being can imagine.

[ 23 ] These seven stages are described in the Gospel of John. Those who went through them all recognized Jesus as he lived on earth. The Gospel of John is the way to recognize Christ Jesus. That is why it was given to those who wanted to become wise as a book of development, not just as a book of edification. Every part of it can be experienced.

[ 24 ] Details: The fact that this truth was revealed to humanity marks a stage in human development that cannot be compared to any other stage. Through Jesus, the following was brought into the world: Man was already fourfold in his first incarnation, but he continued to develop. Let us consider an undeveloped human being: his astral body has remained as he received it. Let us compare it with the astral body of an average European human being, or that of an idealist such as Schiller, or a highly developed human being such as Francis of Assisi. The average European human being no longer follows all his instincts. He rejects some of them and replaces them with other feelings, moral imperatives. The ego has worked on the astral body. His astral body consists of two parts: the unpurified part, which is still as he received it, and the purified part. In Schiller, the purified part is already very large compared to the unpurified part. And the astral body of Francis of Assisi consists only of the purified part. This purified part of the astral body is called the spirit self or manas. The human being then has five elements of being.

[ 25 ] In the same way, the human being can work into the etheric body. Religious and artistic feelings work on the etheric body and create the life spirit, Buddhi, from it. If human beings can gain control of their physical body, what they have spiritualized from it is the Atma. In external development, this process proceeds very slowly. In Greece, Buddhi was called “Chrestos,” and today this is only in its infancy in most people.

[ 26 ] The greatest power our time has received for developing Buddhi has come through Christ. He made it possible for the sixth principle, Buddhi, to be developed in all of humanity. He spiritualized humanity. The seventh principle is that of the Father. Manas is developed through the Holy Spirit, the sixth principle is developed through Christ, and when this is developed on a large scale in an entire race, what was hidden within it as a power emerges, namely the sixth principle. Then all people belonging to this race will have reached the sixth stage of initiation: the burial.

[ 27 ] A cheerful or sad face suggests a cheerful or mournful soul; the exterior reveals the interior; everything is an expression of the soul. If one thinks of the earth as the body of a spiritual being, then when human beings have physically ascended into the earth, the souls of human beings have ascended into the soul of the earth. These could be in the earth as the human soul is in the human body.

[ 28 ] Man takes his nourishment from the body of the earth and tramples it underfoot. “He who eats my bread tramples me underfoot,” says Jesus. In older writings, so-called key words often appear, very specific terms for specific things. For example, when a master goes with his disciples into the innermost sanctuary, he “goes up the mountain.” The Sermon on the Mount is a sermon given to the disciples alone: “But when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain with his disciples.”

[ 29 ] Similarly, “temple” is the expression for the physical body. It is usually called the lower nature. Is it really lower in relation to the astral body? In fact, today the physical body is much more highly developed than the astral body. Later, however, the astral body will be more highly developed than the physical body. Consider the thigh bone, where the greatest possible force is exerted with the least amount of material. Or consider the heart, which is so wisely designed that it can withstand decades of constant attacks from the astral body.

[ 30 ] It was said of initiates that when the astral body loosens and becomes conscious, it has left the temple. In the Gospel of John, Christ speaks of the temple: “Then they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” In this sense, he further speaks of the cleansing of the temple and the breaking down of the temple and rebuilding it in three days.

[ 31 ] How Christ entered the world can be understood as follows. The sixth principle, Buddhi, is born of the fifth when it has reached its full height, from the spirit self or Manas, or as the Greeks of that time called the fifth principle, from Sophia. All Gnostics who professed the meaning of the Gospel of John called the mother of Jesus “Sophia.”

[ 32 ] Through the appearance of Jesus, the sixth principle is brought to earth. The union of the spirit of life with humanity is accomplished. For this to happen, Sophia first had to become fully mature. When the spirit of life unites with humanity, humanity is Sophia. This is told to us in the parable of the wedding at Cana.

[ 33 ] The Lord revealed the Gospel of John through the disciple whom he loved. This name is always given to a master's first and favorite disciple. In the Gospel of John, the expression “the disciple whom the Lord loved” appears for the first time in the eleventh chapter at the raising of Lazarus. At that time, initiation took place in such a way that the disciple spent three days in the temple. Here, not only his astral body but also his etheric body was loosened. So he died, in a sense, and was raised again at the end of the three days. The Lord initiated this disciple whom he loved, and the raising of Lazarus signifies this initiation.

[ 34 ] The disciple who stood at the cross was therefore also Lazarus, and the same initiate is the writer of the Gospel of John. To make everything fit together, the disciple whom the Lord loved is not mentioned until the raising of Lazarus in the eleventh chapter. This view was held in all Gnostic and Rosicrucian schools, and this view will return.

[ 35 ] The Gospel of John is a book full of mysteries, full of powers for humanity.

Questions and Answers

What is the causal body?

[ 36 ] When a person dies today, the etheric body, together with the astral body and the ego, separates from the physical body. For a time, the etheric body remains with the higher principles, and during this initial period after leaving the physical body, the whole of the person's last life appears before their soul as if in a large tableau. This is because the etheric body is not only the bearer of life functions, but also the bearer of memory. During life, however, it is restricted by the physical brain and cannot unfold its function. But as soon as the physical barriers fall away, the entire memory lies spread out before the soul of the human being. This lasts until, after a few days, the etheric body also detaches itself from the astral body and the ego. However, only the etheric-material detaches itself, while this memory image is taken along by the human being. The human being retains this essence of the etheric body, and the sum of these essences from all earthly lives is the causal body.

How is the celebration of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John to be understood, especially the handing of the bread to Judas, the betrayer?

[ 37 ] A very specific process in the ancient initiation consists of the disciple being brought into the temple and, in a “three-day death,” during which his etheric body is also loosened, being led through astral and devachanic experiences. One of these experiences was that every part of the body was transformed into a human form. Twelve limbs were counted, and the student saw twelve forms, and himself as the thirteenth, the soul of the twelve.

[ 38 ] Sensuality has brought about selfishness, which must be overcome. This was taught especially to medieval students. A teacher at that time might have said something like the following to his students: Look at the plant, it holds its fruit organs chastely upward toward the sun. A fruit can only come into being when the flower is kissed by the sun. Man is a reversed plant. The animal stands in the middle between the two. The world soul passes through the plant, the animal, and man. The world soul is crucified on the cross of the earth. Human beings have their substance interwoven with desires. Their flesh is deeper than the flesh of the plant. Later, human beings will become desireless again and present themselves chastely to the spiritual rays of the sun. What is called the Holy Grail, spiritual creation, will come into being.

[ 39 ] At the Last Supper in the Gospel of John, base selfishness appears as Judas, the traitor. The disciple whom the Lord loved lies at his breast. The purified power rises to the heart, which in the future will become the spiritual organ of creation. This is already evident today in the anatomical structure of the heart. The heart belongs to the involuntary muscles and, as such, should have smooth fibers. But it does not; instead, it is striated like the voluntary muscles. In this way, it already points to the time when it will become a voluntary muscle.

[ 40 ] Upon awakening after the initiation, the words “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!” escaped the disciple's lips, meaning “My God, my God, how have you transfigured me!” This wording can easily be changed in the original text to the other version, which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”

[ 41 ] The house where the Last Supper took place was one of the houses of initiation.

What does the transformation of water into wine at the wedding in Cana mean?

[ 42 ] According to the explanation of today's theologians, it means the transformation of the Old Testament into the New Testament, which is symbolized by the sparkling wine.

[ 43 ] Here in the north, Siegfried was the pre-Christian initiate who stopped short of Christian initiation. This is indicated by Siegfried's vulnerable spot. Siegfried, the invulnerable, was vulnerable in the place where Christ carried the cross.

[ 44 ] One will come who signifies the meaning of the earth. The blood of this being is water. In all mysteries, water was called the blood of Christ.

[ 45 ] In the 8th century BC, the Dionysus cult developed, and with it the prevalence of wine consumption. In Atlantean times, wine was unknown. Today, wine has fulfilled its function. A sign of the decline of wine is the appearance of phylloxera. When there was no wine, all people were aware of the eternal core that passes from life to life. Belief in reincarnation gave comfort to the Egyptian workers, whose efforts in building the pyramids we cannot even imagine today. These were people who did not drink wine. Through the enjoyment of wine, man is cut off from the knowledge of higher principles. This state of affairs had to come about at some point. If man had remained without wine, he would have grown weary of the earth, but that was not to be allowed to happen. In order to bring forth culture, man had to grow fond of the earth, they had to be cut off from their previous incarnations in order to love only the one in which they were currently living. All of humanity had to go through a period in which they knew nothing of their higher principles and previous incarnations. During the first two millennia, Christianity did not publicly teach reincarnation, but only to the initiated, as Christ himself did: “Tell no one until I return,” that is, until the development of the sixth principle has slowly been accomplished. Now the time has come. All of humanity once went through an incarnation in which it was cut off from above.

[ 46 ] In ancient times, there was close marriage, marriage between blood relatives. One consequence of the transition to distant marriage was the extinction of clairvoyance. Today, close marriage would lead to degeneration. At the time of close marriage, people had memories not only of what they themselves had experienced, but also of the lives of their parents. This inherited memory had a name: Adam, Seth, Enoch. In addition to memory, good and evil were also inherited through birth, the original sin.

[ 47 ] If this were to be changed, blood love would have to be replaced by universal love: “Whoever does not forsake father, mother, wife, and children cannot be my disciple.” Jesus also goes to strangers, to the Samaritan woman. “The Jews had no fellowship with the Samaritans.” Christ Jesus came from Galilee, the land where the greatest possible mixing of blood existed.

[ 48 ] If a being from a distant star could observe the Earth, it would see the physical Earth permeated and surrounded by an etheric and astral body. If this being were to observe the development of the earth from Abraham to the present day, it would see a change in colors at the moment when the blood flows from Christ's wounds. An initiation such as that of the Apostle Paul could not have taken place before the appearance of Christ. It was an external initiation made possible by the transformation of the entire astral body of the earth.

Question about the future of Christianity

[ 49 ] Christianity has such infinite depths that its development is completely unpredictable. Christianity is the last religion. It carries within itself all possibilities of development. Theosophy is only a servant of Christianity.

[ 50 ] The difference between Christ and the other great founders of religions lies in the fact that in the other religions people believe in what their founders taught, but in Christianity people believe in what Christ is.

Influence of the etheric body on the healing of the physical body

[ 51 ] Mental illnesses are partly based on the fact that the etheric body does not have the power to act on certain parts of the physical body. If the etheric body is too weak to control a part of the body, that part becomes ill. If the etheric body is strengthened, this helps.