The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] In our considerations of the Gospel of John, we must never lose sight of the fundamental point we made yesterday, namely, that we are dealing with the original author of the Gospel of John, who was the favorite disciple of Christ Jesus himself. Someone might now ask: Yes, quite apart from the occult knowledge, is there perhaps any external testimony that the author of the Gospel of John can be said to have come to the higher kind of knowledge about the Christ through the resurrection, through the initiation that is depicted in the so-called miracle of Lazarus? If you read the Gospel of John carefully, you will notice something. You will notice that nowhere in the Gospel of John, and also nowhere before that chapter which deals with the resurrection of Lazarus, is there any mention of the disciple “whom the Lord loved” (13, 23) is not mentioned; that is, the actual author of the Gospel of John wants to say: What comes before does not yet come from the knowledge that I have gained through initiation; in this you must still disregard me for the time being. Only later does he mention the disciple “whom the Lord loved”. Thus the Gospel of John falls into two important parts: the first part, where the disciple whom the Lord loved is not yet mentioned because he had not yet been initiated; and only after the resurrection of Lazarus is this disciple mentioned. Nowhere in the document itself will you find a contradiction to what was stated in the last lectures. Of course, a person who only looks at the Gospel superficially will easily overlook it and not pay attention to it. And today, when everything is being popularized and all kinds of wisdom is reaching people, we have to experience the peculiar spectacle that there is often really quite a lot of doubt among this wisdom.

[ 2 ] Who would not consider it a blessing that such cheap literature as the “Reclamsche Universal-Bibliothek” brings all kinds of knowledge to the people? Now among the latest booklets, one has appeared about 'The Genesis of the Bible'. The author calls himself on the title page a Doctor of Theology, so he is a theologian. He believes that the author of the Gospel of John is actually referred to throughout all the chapters of the Gospel of John, from the 35th verse in the first chapter. When I came across this booklet, I really couldn't believe my eyes and said to myself: There must be something very strange here that goes against all previous occult views - that the favorite disciple is not mentioned before the resurrection of Lazarus. But a theologian should know! Well, in order not to judge too quickly, take the Gospel of John in your hand and see what it says: “On the morrow John stood again, and two of his disciples” (1:35). John the Baptist is mentioned, and two of his disciples are spoken of. The most favorable thing that can be assumed for this theologian is that his consciousness is filled with an old exoteric tradition that says that one of the two disciples is John. This tradition is based on Matthew 4:21. But one should not explain the Gospel of John by means of the other gospels. So a theologian has managed to introduce a directly harmful book into popular literature; and when one knows how much is further absorbed by what is introduced to the people in this way through such cheap literature, then one can measure the damage that arises from it. This should only be an interim remark, so that a certain protective wall can be erected against all sorts of objections that could be raised against what is being said here.

[ 3 ] Now let us consider that what precedes the resurrection of Lazarus is indeed the announcement of very powerful things, but that the author has reserved the very deepest things for the chapters following the resurrection of Lazarus. Nevertheless, he wanted to point out everywhere that the content of his gospel is something that only those who have been initiated to a certain degree know about. Therefore, he indicates in various places that the things that are communicated in the first chapters have to do with a kind of initiation to a certain degree. There are initiations of different degrees. In a certain form of Oriental initiation, for example, seven degrees of initiation are distinguished, and these seven degrees of initiation are given all kinds of symbolic names. The first degree was the degree of the “Raven”, the second that of the “Occult”, the third that of the “Warrior”, the fourth that of the “Lion”. The fifth degree is now designated by the name of the people among the various peoples who still felt a kind of blood relationship as the expression of their group soul; thus, for example, among the Persians, an initiate in the fifth degree is only called a “Persian” in the occult sense. If we realize what these names mean, the justification of these designations will soon appear to us.

[ 4 ] A first-degree initiate is one who forms the link between the occult and the outer life, who is sent back and forth. In the first stage, the human being must still devote himself completely to the outer life, but he must carry what he has discovered into the places of initiation. Ravens are spoken of where words have to convey something from the outside in. Do you remember the ravens of Elijah or of Wotan, even the ravens in the saga of Barbarossa, where they were to find out whether it was time to emerge. The initiate of the second degree was already fully immersed in the occult life. One who had reached the third degree was allowed to advocate for the occult; the degree of the “champion” does not mean a person who fights, but one who is allowed to advocate for the occult teachings, for what the occult life is able to give. The one who is a “lion” is one who realizes the occult life within himself, so that he may not only advocate for the occult with words, but also with deeds, that is, with a kind of magical action. The sixth degree is the degree of the “solar hero,” and the seventh degree is the degree of the “father.” For us, the fifth degree is relevant.

[ 5 ] Man, especially in ancient times, stood within his community and therefore, when he felt his ego, he also felt more as a member of a group soul. But anyone who was an initiate of the fifth degree had made a certain sacrifice, had stripped away his personality to such an extent that he incorporated the essence of the people into his personality. Just as the other person felt his soul in the soul of the people, so he had taken in the soul of the people, because everything that was personality was of no concern to him, only the general spirit of the people. That is why such an initiate was given the name of the people in question. Now we know that in the Gospel of John we are told that among the first disciples of Christ Jesus is Nathanael. He is presented to the Christ. He is not so highly initiated that he is able to see through the Christ. The Christ is, of course, the spirit of all-embracing knowledge, who cannot be seen through by a Nathanael, an initiate in the fifth degree. But the Christ sees through Nathanael. This is shown by two facts. How does he himself describe him?

“This is a true Israelite!” (1, 47)

[ 6 ] There you have the designation according to the name of the people. Just as among the Persians an initiate of the fifth degree was called a “Persian,” so among the Israelites such a person was called an “Israelite.” That is why Christ calls Nathanael an “Israelite.” And then He says to him:

“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you!” (1, 48)

[ 7 ] This is a symbolic term for an initiate, just like Buddha sitting under the bodhi tree. The fig tree is a symbol of the Egyptian-Chaldean initiation. He wants to tell him: Oh, I know very well that you are an initiate in a certain sense and can see through certain things, because I saw you. And now Nathaniel recognizes him:

“Nathaniel answered and said unto him, ‘Master, thou art the Son of God, and the King of Israel’.” (1:49)

[ 8 ] The word “king” in this context means: You are higher than I, because otherwise you could not say, “As you were sitting under the fig tree, I saw you.” And the Christ answers:

“You believe me because I have told you that I saw you under the fig tree; you will see greater things than that.” (1:50)

[ 9 ] We will have to discuss the words “verily, verily” later. Then he says:

“I tell you the truth, you will see the angels of heaven descending on the Son of Man and rising up again!” (1:51)

[ 10 ] Those who are able to recognize Christ will see even greater things than they have already seen. What is this significant word again?

[ 11 ] To explain it, let us remember what man actually is. We have said that man is different by day and by night. During the day, the four members of man: physical body, etheric body, astral body and I, are in a firm connection with each other. They act on each other. We may say that when a person is awake during the day, his physical body and etheric body are in a certain way permeated and nourished by his astral-spiritual and his ego-spiritual. But we have also shown how something else must be active in the etheric-physical and physical-physical bodies for the human being to be able to exist at all in his present phase of development. For we have reflected on the fact that every night man withdraws that which itself supplies his physical body and his etheric body, namely his astral body and I, and thus leaves his physical body and etheric body to their own fate throughout the night. Every night you all leave your physical body and your ether body unfaithfully. From this you will recognize that spiritual science points out with a certain right that divine spiritual powers and forces flow through this physical body, this ether body, during the night, so that your physical body and ether body are, so to speak, connected to the divine spiritual powers and beings. We have also pointed out that, in ancient times, when the astral body and the I were outside the physical body and etheric body in the times we called the Jahve or Jehovah times, Jehovah worked by inspiration. But the true light, the fullness of the Godhead or the Elohim, the Pleroma, is what always radiates through the physical body and the etheric body; only the human being cannot recognize it because, after all, he has not yet received the necessary impulse from the Christ principle before the appearance of this principle on earth. The principles that are to find expression in the physical body reside in the higher spiritual realm, in Devachan. The spiritual beings and powers that have an effect on the physical body are at home in the higher celestial spheres, in the higher Devachan; and the powers that have an effect on the etheric body are at home in the lower celestial spheres. Thus we can say: Entities from the highest regions of Devachan are constantly acting on this physical body, and entities from the lower regions of Devachan are constantly acting on the etheric body. A person can only recognize them when he absorbs the impulses of Christ within himself: Learn to truly recognize the Son of Man, then you will recognize how the spiritual forces in man ascend and descend from the heavenly spheres. This will become known to you through the impulse that the Christ gives to the earth!

[ 12 ] Yesterday already pointed to what follows now. It is the wedding at Cana of Galilee, which is often also called “the first of the miracles”, but it would be better to say “the first of the signs” that Christ Jesus performs (2:1-11). In order to understand the significance of this, we have to summarize much of what we have heard in the last lectures.

[ 13 ] First of all, there is talk of a wedding here. But why a wedding in Galilee? We will understand why it is a wedding in Galilee when we recall the whole mission of Christ once more. His mission consists of bringing the full power of the I, the inner independence, into the soul. The individual ego should feel itself in complete independence and seclusion, in complete standing-in-oneself, and through love, given as a free gift, human being should be brought together with human being. So love should come into the earthly mission through the Christ principle, which is more and more exalted above the material and more and more ascending into the spiritual. Love started out in its lowest form, bound to sensuality. In the original times of mankind, people loved each other through the bonds of blood, and it was considered extremely important that love have this material basis of blood relationship. The Christ had come to spiritualize this love, to, on the one hand, tear love away from the bonds in which it is entangled through blood relationship, and, on the other hand, to give the strength, the impulse to spiritual love. In the Old Testament believers we see expressed in the fullest sense that which we can call the belonging to the group soul as the foundation of the individual ego in the collective ego. We have seen that the saying, “I and my Father Abraham are one,” means something for the Old Testament believer; it means feeling secure in the knowledge that the blood that had already coagulated in the veins of Father Abraham rolled down to him, the believer. He felt secure in a whole; and only those who had emerged from such a kind of human reproduction, which was maintained by this blood relationship, were considered to belong together. In the very beginning of the development of mankind on earth, marriage was only practiced within very narrow circles, in families of the same bloodline. The “local marriage” was what was adhered to in the beginning of human development. The narrow circles of blood became wider and wider. People married outside their own tribe, but not yet into another nation. The people of the Old Testament held fast to the maintenance of the blood relationship between nations. He is a “Jew” who is a Jew according to blood.

[ 14 ] Christ Jesus does not address this principle; he addresses those who break through this principle of mere blood relationship, and he shows the important thing he has to show, therefore not first within Judea, but outside in Galilee. Galilee was the area where peoples from all kinds of tribes and nations were mixed. The “Galilean” means the “mulatto”. To the Galileans goes the Christ Jesus, to those who are most mixed. And from what underlies such reproduction of humanity, brought about by mixture, there should arise what is no longer bound to the material basis of love. That is why what he has to say is said at a wedding. Why at a wedding? Because a wedding can be used to indicate the reproduction of humanity. And what he wants to show is not shown where people only marry within narrower limits, where they only marry within blood ties, but where they marry independently of blood ties. That is why it is said at a wedding, and specifically at a wedding in Galilee. And if we want to understand what is being shown here, then we must again take a look at the whole development of humanity.

[ 15 ] It has often been emphasized that for the occultist there is no such thing as something external, something merely material. For him, everything material is an expression of something soul-spiritual. And just as your face is the expression of a soul-spiritual reality, so the light of the sun is the expression of a soul-spiritual light. Everything that appears to be merely material is at the same time the expression of deeper spiritual processes. Occultism does not deny the material; to it even the coarsest material is the expression of a soul-spiritual. Thus, the spiritual processes of development in the world are always paralleled by material facts.

[ 16 ] When we look back in spirit to the development of mankind when humanity was still on the old continent between Europe and America, on the old Atlantis, and how different generations finally led us to the later post-Atlantic period, we can visualize the whole process of human development from the fourth to the fifth race, if we look at it from the racial point of view, in such a way that, during the post-Atlantean period, the individual ego of the human personality should gradually develop and mature out of humanity, which in Atlantis was still completely immersed in the group soul. What the Christ brought spiritually through his mighty spiritual impulse had to be slowly prepared by other impulses as well. What Yahweh did was to place the group soul ego in the astral body and thus prepare it for slow maturation to receive the fully independent “I am”. But this I AM could only be grasped by the human being if his physical body also became a suitable tool to house this I AM. You can easily imagine that the astral body, however capable it may be of receiving an ego, is not able to receive an “I am” if the physical body is not a suitable tool for truly grasping the “I am” in waking consciousness. The physical body must always be the appropriate tool for what is developing here on earth. Thus, when the astral body had matured, the physical body had to be prepared to become a tool for the “I am”. And that is what happened in human evolution.

[ 17 ] We can follow the processes by which the physical body was prepared to become a vehicle for the self-conscious human being, the “I am”. Even the Bible hints at this: that the one who becomes the progenitor in a certain respect in the post-Atlantean time, that Noah is the first wine drinker, the first to experience the effect of alcohol. Here we come to a chapter that may really be shocking for some. What emerges as a special cult in the post-Atlantean period is the Dionysian service. You all know how the cult of Dionysus is associated with wine. This strange substance is only introduced to humanity in the post-Atlantean period, and it has an effect on humanity. You know that every substance has some kind of effect on people, and alcohol has a very specific effect on the human organism. It had a mission in the course of human development; it had — as strange as it seems — the task of preparing the human body, so to speak, in such a way that it was cut off from the connection with the divine, so that the personal “I am” could emerge. The effect of alcohol is to cut man off from the connection with the spiritual world in which man used to be. This effect of alcohol still exists today. Alcohol has not been in humanity for nothing. In a future humanity, it will be possible to say in the fullest sense of the word that alcohol had the task of pulling man down so far into matter that he became selfish, and that alcohol led him to claim the ego for himself and no longer to place it at the service of the whole people. So the opposite service that the group soul of humanity has done is what alcohol has done. He has taken away from people the ability to feel at one with a whole in higher worlds. Hence the cult of Dionysus, which cultivates living together in a kind of external intoxication. A merging into a whole, without seeing this whole. The development in the post-Atlantic period has been linked to the cult of Dionysus because this cult was a symbol for the function and mission of alcohol. Now that humanity is once again striving to find its way back, when the ego has developed to such an extent that the human being can reconnect with the divine-spiritual powers, now the time has come when, initially even from the unconscious, a certain reaction against alcohol is occurring. This reaction occurs because many people today already feel that something that once had a special meaning is not forever justified.

[ 18 ] What has now been said about the task of alcohol in a particular time need not be understood as a speech in favor of alcohol; rather, it was said to make it clear that alcohol's mission is fulfilled and that different things are appropriate for different times. But it also emerged in the same epoch, when humanity had been drawn down the deepest into selfishness by alcohol, the strongest power that can give man the greatest impulse to find union with the spiritual whole again. On the one hand, man had to descend to the lowest level in order to become independent; on the other hand, however, the strong power had to come from outside that could give the impulse again to find the way back to the Whole.

[ 19 ] The Christ had to hint at this in the first sign of his mission. He had to indicate, first, that the “I” should become independent, and then that He was addressing those who had already detached themselves from blood relationships. He had to address such a wedding, where the bodies were under the influence of alcohol; for wine is drunk at this wedding. And the Christ Jesus shows how he sees his mission in relation to the different periods on earth. How often it is expressed quite strangely what the transformation of water into wine means here. Even from the pulpit one can hear that by this nothing else is meant than that the stale water of the Old Testament should be replaced by the strong wine of the New Testament. It was probably wine lovers who have always loved this kind of interpretation. Because these symbols are not that simple. It must be emphasized that the Christ says: My mission is such that it points to the farthest future; and it is to be brought to people as independent human beings, the connection with the Godhead, the love for the Godhead as a free gift of the independent self. This love should bind man to the deity in freedom, just as an inner compulsive impulse of the group soul had previously incorporated him into that deity.

[ 20 ] Let us now grasp in the sense of an atmosphere what humanity experienced. Above all, let us grasp the thoughts that people had at the time. It was said: Man was once connected to the group soul and felt his connection to the deity. Then he evolved downwards. This was regarded as becoming entangled in the material, as a degeneration, as a kind of apostasy from the divine, and the question was asked: Where did what man has now originally come from? What had he fallen away from? The further we go back in the evolution of the earth, the more we find that solid substances increasingly change into liquids under the influence of warmer conditions. But we know that when the earth was still a liquid planet, man was already present. But in those days man was also less detached from the deity than later. To the same extent that the earth solidified, man also materialized. When the earth was liquid, man was already contained in the water; but he could only live on an earth that had already deposited solid matter. That is why the solidification of man was felt in such a way that it was said: Man is born out of the earth, which was still water, but at that time he was still completely connected to the divine. Everything that brought him into matter defiled him. Those who were to remember this ancient connection with the divine were baptized with baptism in water. This was to be the symbol of this: become aware of your ancient connection with the divine, and that you are defiled, have descended to your present state! Thus the Baptist also baptized, in order to make men aware of their connection with the Godhead. And so all baptism was meant in ancient times. It is a radical expression, but one that brings home to us what is meant.

[ 21 ] The Christ Jesus was to baptize with something else. He was not to point men to the past, but to the future through the evolution of spirituality within them. Through the “holy,” through the unclouded spirit, man's spiritual nature was to become coherent with the Godhead. Baptism with water was a baptism of remembrance. But baptism with the “Holy Spirit” is a prophetic baptism that points to the future. The connection that was completely lost, which baptism by water was supposed to recall, has also been lost in what was expressed in the symbol of the wine, the sacrificial wine. Dionysus is the dismembered god who has moved into the individual souls, so that the individual parts no longer knew about each other. Through what has been brought to humanity through alcohol - the symbol for Dionysus - man has been thrown into many pieces, scattered, into matter. But a great principle is retained at the wedding of Cana. This is the pedagogical principle of evolution. There are absolute truths, but they cannot be handed down to humanity at any time without further ado. Every time must have its special tasks, its special truths.

[ 22 ] Why are we allowed to talk about reincarnation and so on today? Why are we allowed to sit together in such a gathering and cultivate spiritual science? We are allowed to do so because all the souls that are in you today have been incarnated on earth in so many bodies so many times. Many of the souls that are in you today have once lived within the Germanic countries, where the Druid priests have stepped under them and brought what is spiritual wisdom in the form of myths and legends to the soul. And because the soul took it in then in that form, it is now able to take it in in a different form, in an anthroposophical form. Then in the image, today in the form of anthroposophy. But the truth could not have been presented in today's form then. You must not believe that the old Druid priest could have proclaimed the truth in this form, as it is done today. But Anthroposophy is the form that is suitable for today's or the immediate future of people. In later incarnations, the truth will be proclaimed and worked for in completely different forms, and what is called Anthroposophy today will be told as a memory, as legends and fairy tales are told today. The Anthroposophist must not be so foolish as to say: In ancient times there was only foolishness and childish views, and “only we have come so gloriously far today”. — That is what those who claim to be monists do, for example. But we work in spiritual science to prepare the next epoch. For if our epoch were not there, the next would not come either. But no one should use the present to excuse the future either. A lot of nonsense is also done with the doctrine of reincarnation. I have met people who have said that they do not need to be decent people in their present incarnation, that they still have time for that later. But if you don't start today, the consequence of that will happen in the next incarnation.

[ 23 ] Thus we must realize that there is no absolute in the forms of truth, but that each time that is recognized which corresponds to a certain epoch of humanity. The highest impulse had to descend, so to speak, to the level of the habits of life of that time. For He had to clothe the highest truth in words and actions that were appropriate to the understanding of the time. Thus, through a kind of Dionysus or wine sacrifice, the Christ had to express how humanity should rise to divinity. One must not ask, “Why does Christ turn water into wine?” One must consider the time. Through a kind of Dionysian sacrifice, Christ had to prepare what was to come. Christ goes to the Galileans, who are a motley crew from all nations, not bound by blood ties, and does the first sign of his mission there; and he adapts himself so much to their way of life that he changes water into wine for them.

[ 24 ] Let us note what the Christ is actually trying to say: I will also lead those people to a spiritual connection who have descended to the level of materiality symbolized by drinking wine. And he does not want to be there only for those who can rise through the symbol of baptism. It is very significant that we are expressly informed that there are six pitchers of water here (2, 6). We shall come back to the number again. “Purification” is what is effected by baptism. In the times from which the Gospel originates, when the fact of baptism was expressed, one spoke of “baptism” as a purification. But the actual word “baptism” was never spoken; instead, they said “to baptize”; and the effect of baptism was called “cleansing.” You will never find the corresponding word, AurriSewv, in the Gospel of John in any form other than as a verb. But when it is used as a noun, it always expresses the cleansing effect, so that man should remember his state of purification, his connection with the Godhead. Thus, even in the symbolic jugs for the purification sacrifice, Christ Jesus makes the sign by which he points to his mission, in accordance with the era.

[ 25 ] Thus, something of the deepest mission of the Christ is expressed to us in the wedding at Cana in Galilee. And there He had to say: My time will come in the future; but now it has not yet arrived. What I have to accomplish here is still partly connected with what must be overcome through My mission. He stands in the present and at the same time points to the future, thus showing how he works not in the absolute sense but in the cultural-educational sense for the time. It is therefore the mother who asks him: “You don't have wine.” But He says: What I have to accomplish now is still connected with the old days, with “me and you”; for my actual time, when the wine will be transformed back into water, has not yet come. How could it even make sense to say, “Woman, what do I have to do with you?” when He then does what the mother said! It only makes sense if we are to be reminded that the present state of humanity has been brought about through blood relationship, and that a sign is given in the sense of the old customs that still require the addition of alcohol to point to the time when the independent ego emerges from the blood ties, that for the time being we which is symbolized in wine, must still be reckoned with, but that a later time will come when it will be “its time”.

[ 26 ] And now, chapter by chapter, we are shown two things in the Gospel of John: firstly, that what is communicated is communicated for those who are able to grasp occult truths in a certain way. Today, spiritual science is presented exoterically, but in those days, spiritual truths could only be understood by those who were truly initiated to a certain extent in one way or another. Who could understand something of the deeper facts of which Christ Jesus had to say? Only he could understand it who was able to perceive outside of the body, who could step out of the body and become conscious in the spiritual world. If Christ Jesus wanted to speak to people who could understand him, they had to be those who had been initiated in a certain way, who were already able to see spiritually in a certain way. When, for example, he speaks of the rebirth of the soul in the chapter about the conversation with Nicodemus, we are shown that he proclaims this truth to someone who sees with spiritual senses. You just have to read:

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
he came to Jesus by night...” (3, 1-2)

[ 27 ] Let us get used to weighing the words carefully! It is hinted to us that Nicodemus comes to Jesus “by night”, that is, outside of his physical body, to receive what Christ Jesus has to communicate to him. “By night” - that is, by making use of his spiritual senses, he comes to Christ Jesus. Just as Nathanael and Christ Jesus, as initiates, communicate with each other through the parable of the fig tree, so here too an ability to communicate is hinted at.

[ 28 ] And the other thing that is shown to us is that the Christ always wants to fulfill a mission that disregards mere blood ties. This is shown to us very clearly by the fact that He goes to the Samaritan woman at the well. He gives her the teaching that He wants to give to those whose I is set apart from the blood community.

"Then He came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, being tired from the journey, was sitting on the well; and it was about the sixth hour.
Then comes a woman from Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
For his disciples had gone into the city to buy food.
Then the Samaritan woman says to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, when I am a Samaritan woman? (For the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans).” (4:5-9)

[ 29 ] It is pointed out that it is something special that the Christ goes to a people whose sense of self has been lifted out of the group soul and uprooted. That is the important thing.

[ 30 ] From the account of the kingly it follows further: Not only does the Christ break down what is united by blood ties in intermarriage, but also what is separated by blood ties into classes. He comes to those whose sense of self is uprooted, so to speak. He heals the son of the royal family, who is actually a stranger to him according to the Jews' understanding. Everywhere you are pointed to the fact that Christ is the missionary of the independent ego that is found in every human individuality. Therefore, he may also say: “When I speak of myself, I do not speak in the higher sense of my ego that sits within me, but when I speak of the ‘I am’, I speak of an entity, of something that everyone finds within themselves. My ego is one with the Father; but the ego in general, which is in every personality, is one with the Father. This is also the deeper meaning of the teaching that the Christ gives to the Samaritan woman at the well. Above all, I would like to remind you of a saying that can open up a deep understanding for you if you understand it correctly: the passage from verses 31 to 34 in chapter 3, which of course must be read in such a way that one is aware that John the Baptist is saying these words:

"He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all and testifies to what he has seen and heard, and no one accepts his testimony.
But whoever accepts it has set his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God does not give the Spirit by measure.

[ 31 ] I would like to meet the person who really understands these words according to this translation. What is the contrast: “He who comes from God speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit according to measure!” What is the meaning of these sentences?

[ 32 ] Through countless discourses, Christ wants to say: When I speak of the “I,” I speak of the eternal “I” in man, which is one with the spiritual source of the world. When I speak of this “I,” I speak of something that dwells in the very innermost part of the human soul. If someone listens to me – and now he is only talking about the lower self, which feels nothing of the eternal – he does not accept my testimony, he does not understand me at all. For I cannot speak of something that flows from me to him. Then he would not be independent. Everyone must find the God I proclaim within themselves as their eternal foundation. – Just a few verses back you will find the passage:

“Now John was still baptizing in Enon, near to Salim, because there was much water there; and they came and were baptized.
For John had not yet been put in prison.
Then there arose a question between John's disciples and the Jews about purification” (3, 23-25),

[ 33 ] that is, about the form of baptism. When such a question was raised in this circle, it was always about the connection with the divine and about man's immersion in matter, and how, according to the old idea of God, one was connected to the divine through the group soul. Then came others, saying to John: But Jesus also baptizes! And then John must first make clear to them that what comes into the world through Jesus is something very special. And he makes this clear to them by saying: Jesus does not teach the context symbolized by the old baptism, but he teaches how man is led by the free gift of the self that has become independent; and everyone must discover the “I am,” the God, in himself, only in this way does he come into a position to find the divine within himself. When these words are read in this way, the listener realizes that He Himself, that the “I am” is sent by God. One who is sent by God, who is sent to ignite the “God” in this way, also proclaims the God in the true sense, no longer according to blood relationship.

[ 34 ] And now let us translate this passage into terms of what it really means. We can get the materials for this if we are clear about what the teachings of the ancients were. These were artfully written down in many books. We need only recall the Psalms, where the Divine is proclaimed in beautifully composed speeches in the Old Testament. There one speaks only of the ancient blood connections as the connection with a god. One could learn all this, but one never learned more from all this than that one is connected with this ancient deity. But if one wanted to understand the Christ, all the old laws and all the old contrivances were not needed. What the Christ taught could be grasped to the extent that one comprehended the spiritual self within oneself. Then one could not yet have full knowledge of the Godhead, but one could understand what one heard from the lips of Christ Jesus. Then one had the prerequisite for understanding. Then one did not need all the psalms, all the artfully composed teachings, but one needed only the simplest, and those were babbling expressions. One need only babble in one's words and one will bear witness to the God. One could do that even in the simplest babbling words; it only needed to be individual words that have no “measure” at all. He who merely babbled, who felt in his innermost being that he was sent by God, could understand what the Christ spoke. He who is aware only of the earthly connection with God speaks in the meter of the Psalms, but all his metrical structure leads him to nothing but the old gods. But the one who feels grounded in the spiritual worlds is above all, and he can bear witness to what he has seen and heard in the spiritual worlds. But his testimony is not accepted by those who only accept a testimony in the usual way. If there are those who accept it, then they show by their acceptance that they feel they are sent by God. They do not just believe what the other person is telling them, they understand it, and they themselves seal their words with their understanding. “He who feels the ‘I’ reveals the words of God even in babbling.” That is what it means. For the spirit meant here needs not express itself in any meter, in any syllabic measure; but it can express itself in the simplest babbling manner. Such words are easily taken as a license for a right to unwisdom. But those who reject wisdom because, in their opinion, the highest secrets must be expressed in the simplest form do so - albeit often unconsciously - only out of a certain inclination towards mental laziness. When it is said, “God does not give the Spirit according to measure,” it is meant only that measure does not help the Spirit; but where the Spirit really is, there measure also arises. Not everyone who has measure has the Spirit; but he who has the Spirit certainly comes to measure. Of course, certain things must not be reversed: it is not a sign of having the Spirit if one has measure, although, conversely, having measure is not a sign of the Spirit either. Science is certainly not a sign of wisdom, but ignorance certainly is not either.

[ 35 ] Thus we are shown that the Christ appeals to the I that has become independent in every human soul. Here you have to take “measure” in the sense of “syllable measure”, like artfully constructed language. And the previous sentence literally reads: “He who grasps God in the ‘I am’ bears witness to divine or divine language even in babbling and finds the way to God.”