The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. Preparing to Understand the Christ Event: The Mission of the Ancient Hebrew People

[ 1 ] In our last reflection, which built upon the Gospel of Matthew, we discussed the mission of the ancient Hebrew people and the emergence of Christ Jesus from among them. For, in connection with the Gospels, our reflection is intended to gradually clarify for us how the various spiritual currents have converged, so that they may then work together within the great Christian spiritual current to ensure the further development of the Earth. Now, in a brief meditation, we could only sketch out very roughly what part in the overall development of humanity fell to the ancient Hebrew people. But one cannot understand the Gospel of Matthew without at least touching upon a few other members of this people. To understand this clearly, we must once again bring to mind exactly what the mission of that people actually consists of. You have seen that it differs from the missions of the other pre-Christian peoples. These are still linked to what one might call the results of humanity’s ancient clairvoyance. We find such results among all peoples of antiquity; one could call them an ancient wisdom.

[ 2 ] If we were to characterize this in general terms, we could say that in ancient Atlantis, people generally still had insight into the spiritual world. Even though only the initiates could have the higher experiences, everyone still had at least some concept of the spiritual world, because in certain intermediate states, people of the Atlantean era could still glimpse into a spiritual realm. However, this ability was to be replaced by the one that is now humanity’s primary faculty: intellectual activity, the comprehension of the external world through the physical senses—in short, life in the physical external world. Slowly and gradually, this developed over the course of the pre-Christian era, so that we can say that among the ancient Indian people, there was essentially still a substantial remnant of the old clairvoyance. What the holy Rishis had taught was also a legacy from ancient times, was ancient wisdom. Even in the second cultural epoch of the post-Atlantean era, the Persian one, what the disciples and followers of Zarathustra knew was based on the legacies of ancient clairvoyance. Similarly, Chaldean astronomy is also permeated by ancient wisdom, as is what the ancient Egyptians possessed. Such a science, which takes into account the post-Atlantean capacities of human beings, would have remained entirely incomprehensible to both the Egyptians and the Chaldeans. Science, which expresses itself in concepts and ideas of a physical nature, did not yet exist at that time. Such thinking, as we have it, did not exist.

[ 3 ] It is by no means unnecessary to clarify the difference between a true seer of our time and, say, an ancient Chaldean or ancient Egyptian seer. For anyone today who attains the gift of seership—truly based on the natural conditions of our time—the situation is as follows: They receive what are called revelations from the spiritual world—what might be called their inspirations, experiences, and encounters from the spiritual world—in such a way that they must penetrate these inspirations from their ordinary earthly thinking with what they can gain through logical, rational thinking here in the physical world. The seer’s experiences of the present day cannot be fully understood unless they are met by a soul that has first properly trained itself in logical and rational thinking. These modern inspirations and revelations remain incomprehensible; they demand that the soul approach them with logical thinking. Anyone who possesses them today without the will to think logically, without the will to engage in the self-sacrificing, rational training of their earthly powers, can only arrive at what is called visionary clairvoyance—a form of clairvoyance that cannot be fully understood, one that remains incomprehensible and is therefore also misleading. Only a soul that possesses the truly intense will to learn in a rational manner can properly respond to the present-day inspirations of clairvoyance. Therefore, in a spiritual movement such as ours, the greatest emphasis must be placed not on training clairvoyance in a one-sided manner and proclaiming the revelations of the spiritual world in a one-sided manner, but rather on ensuring that the soul contributes something to the inspirations and revelations. Equally logical work must truly be done if the development of clairvoyance is desired. In our time, the two cannot be separated.

[ 4 ] For the Egyptian or Chaldean seer, it was quite different. Along with his intuitions, which took a completely different path, he also received the laws of logic. Therefore, he had no need for a special logic. Once he had undergone spiritual training, the fully formed laws were already given to him in his intuitions. Today’s human organism is no longer suited for this. It has evolved beyond that, for humanity is moving forward.

[ 5 ] If one examines this difference closely, it becomes fully understandable what it means that remnants of ancient clairvoyance still existed in pre-Christian times, with the sole exception of the ancient Hebrew people, who were the first to be chosen to develop such a human organism, one that was predisposed to perceive the external physical world in terms of and so on, and thus gradually to ascend from the physical world to the knowledge of the spiritual, which coalesced in the image of Yahweh or Jehovah. This was the essential point: that in Abraham a human being had been chosen whose brain was structured in such a way that he could become the progenitor of an entire people, who in turn passed these qualities on from him. Not only were the inspirations rising from within to be received, but they were to be regarded as a gift coming from without. Everything that originated with Abraham was initially received not from within, but rather, like a revelation, from without. This provides something extraordinarily important for distinguishing the entire character of that people from the other peoples of antiquity; it differs radically from the other peoples.

[ 6 ] You can imagine that the ancient skills and heirlooms could not have been lost all at once, but that remnants of them remained even among this people. This is hinted at in the case of Joseph, who still had much in common with the other peoples. This enabled him to serve as the connecting link between the ancient Hebrew and Egyptian peoples, who were still fully immersed in the spiritual current of the pre-Christian peoples. Only gradually could the new abilities develop.

[ 7 ] Why was a particular people prepared in this way? Why did a people have to be chosen to be set apart from the entire pre-Christian spiritual life, and why were they to be given very special abilities? This had to happen so that people could be prepared for the great moment that occurred precisely when Jesus Christ came to Earth. It was the moment when all ancient clairvoyance and blood kinship had lost their significance and something new dawned for humanity, namely the full use of the ego. Through radical intermingling of bloodlines, what had been of great importance in ancient times was lost, but in its place came the full use of the human ego. Thus the true human kingdom, or the kingdom of heaven, was born alongside the other kingdoms.

[ 8 ] Generally speaking, when something new comes into being, people are not at all inclined to truly recognize it. People do not readily recognize the events that take place in the spiritual realm. They do, however, readily speak of some future prophets who are supposed to come. This was common in both pre-Christian and post-Christian times. In the 12th and 13th centuries, there was a veritable craze for prophecy. In various places, people appeared, proclaiming that Christ would return in the near future and pointing out the places where he would appear. Such phenomena also occurred sporadically in other eras. It was said that this or that person would be the incarnation of a new Christ. Of course, no words need be wasted on such prophecies, for even if they had come true, they would have clearly revealed their own shortcomings. Such prophecies, in fact, have a constant flaw: they speak prophetically of what is to appear, but they fail to prepare people so that they may recognize what is to come, and to bring their minds into such a state that they might truly understand what is appearing.

[ 9 ] The people to whom such things were proclaimed must have fared like that high school teacher whom Hebbel describes in his diary entries: the teacher beats a student because he could not understand Plato. Hebbel wittily adds that this student is the reincarnated Plato. This is indeed what happens to people who are always talking about a returning Christ. They would find themselves so unprepared for the content that even if it were to appear, they would not recognize it. Such people would mistake the Christ for something entirely different from the Christ.

[ 10 ] But precautions must now be taken. And this is what one must know in order to understand the Gospel of Matthew, so that there may at least be some people who can understand the Christ event, which, if we wish to characterize it from this perspective, consists in knowing that Christ was the one who brought humanity the ability to receive not merely physical impressions, but to receive the Spirit from without. Individual people were to be prepared for this. Thus, in fact, throughout the entire Hebrew antiquity, individual people were, in a certain sense, prepared to gain an understanding of the Christ event. These people—there were only a few of them among the ancient Hebrew people—must be examined more closely if one wishes to understand how the preparations for the coming Christ were made, how the people, with their characteristics inherited from Abraham, were enabled to understand prophetically the human ego brought by the Savior. Those individuals who were prepared to know and recognize clairvoyantly what Christ actually signifies are called Nazirites. They were able to perceive clairvoyantly what was being prepared within the ancient Hebrew people so that Christ might be born and understood from among them. These Nazirites were bound by strict rules regarding their way of life, which, in terms of their inner constitution, was determined by their clairvoyant development—rules which, because they belonged to a completely different era, differ quite significantly from the rules by which one attains spiritual knowledge today, though these still bear a certain resemblance to those of the past. Many things are important in the Nazirite tradition that are merely secondary conditions today, while many things are secondary that would be primary today. Therefore, no one should believe that what formerly led to becoming a clairvoyant knower of Christ would lead to the same important and extensive knowledge in the sense of a modern person.

[ 11 ] The first thing required of a Nazirite was complete abstinence from all alcoholic beverages. It was also strictly forbidden to consume anything prepared with vinegar. For those who took the rules very strictly, it was also necessary to avoid everything derived from the grapevine, because one could say that in the grapevine the plant-forming principle had advanced beyond a certain point—namely, the point determined by the fact that the forces of the sun act solely upon the plant. In the grapevine, however, it is not merely the forces of the sun that act, but something that develops internally; this matures even under the annually weakening solar power that prevails in the autumn. Therefore, anything associated with the grapevine provided only a drink for those who did not wish to become clairvoyant in the higher sense, who merely worshipped the god Dionysus and, as it were, allowed their abilities to rise from the earth.

[ 12 ] Furthermore, for the duration of his preparation for the Nazirite vow, the Nazirite was bound not to come into contact with anything that can die and possesses an astral body; in short, the Nazirite was to avoid coming into contact with anything of an animal nature. He had to be a vegetarian in the strictest sense of the word; therefore, in certain regions, the strictest Nazirites chose carob as their sole food. This carob was a particularly common food item for those who aspired to the Nazirite vow. They also fed on the honey of wild bees—not domesticated bees—and other honey-gathering insects. John the Baptist later adopted this way of life as his own, nourishing himself on carob and wild honey. The Gospels state that he ate locusts and wild honey; however, this must be regarded as a translation error, for he could hardly have caught locusts in the desert. I have already drawn your attention to similar errors in the past.

[ 13 ] For the Nazirites, it was of paramount importance, as part of their preparation for clairvoyance, not to have their hair cut while they were undergoing this training. This is closely linked to the entire development of humanity. One must be able to grasp the connection between hair growth and the overall development of humanity. Everything that exists in the human being as essence can only be understood if one seeks to grasp it from the spirit. As strange as it may sound to us: in our hair we can see a remnant of certain radiations through which solar power was previously carried into the human being. In the past, this was a living force that carried the power of the sun into human beings. That is why you find this expressed in a certain way where people still had an awareness of deeper things: in ancient lion sculptures, one often sees clearly that the sculptor did not simply want to copy a modern lion with its more or less poodle-like mane. The artist who still upheld the good tradition of ancient insights depicted the lion in such a way that one had the impression the hair was, as it were, inserted into the body from the outside, much like sunbeams penetrating and becoming, as it were, solidified within the hair. Thus, people could tell themselves that in ancient times it was perhaps still possible to absorb forces into oneself by letting the hair stand free, especially when the hair is fresh and healthy. But even in ancient Hebrew times, among the Nazirites, this was seen as little more than a symbol.

[ 14 ] The fact that humanity allowed what lies spiritually behind the sun to flow into itself truly constituted, in a certain sense, the progress of humanity. The progression from the ancient clairvoyant gifts rising within the human being to the ability to combine and think about the external world necessitated that the human being appear less and less as a hairy creature. One must imagine the people of the Atlantean and early post-Atlantean periods as having abundant hair growth, a sign that they were still strongly illuminated by the light of the spirit. The choice was made, as the Bible tells us, between the hairless Jacob and the hairy Esau. In the latter we see a human being who descended from Abraham and carried within himself the last remnants of an ancient phase of human development, which found expression in his hair growth. The human being who possessed such qualities that he developed outward into the world was represented by Jacob. He possessed the gifts of cleverness with all their dark sides; Esau is pushed aside by him. Thus, in Esau, a scion is again cast aside from the main line. The Edomites descend from Esau, in whom ancient human legacies were still perpetuated.

[ 15 ] In the Bible, all these things are indeed expressed very beautifully. A renewed awareness of what spiritual life is should arise in people, and it should arise in a new way in the Nazirite through his wearing of long hair during his period of preparation. In ancient times, the relationship between hair and the light of the spirit was even expressed by the fact that light and hair are represented by the same word, with the exception of a minor distinction. In general, the ancient Hebrew language points to the deepest mysteries of humanity. It must be regarded as something like a mighty linguistic revelation of wisdom. That was the significance of the fact that the Nazirites let their hair grow long. Today, however, this no longer needs to be regarded as the main point.

[ 16 ] During the preparatory period, the Nazirite was to be led to a very specific clairvoyant experience, which was intended to give him an idea of how close humanity already was to the time of Christ’s coming. The one who was the last great Nazarite at the time of Christ is called John the Baptist. He had not only experienced the culmination of the Nazarite path himself, but had also enabled all those whom he wished to transform into human beings to experience it. This culmination, however, is nothing other than the baptism of John. We must simply learn to understand it properly in terms of its developmental significance. What, then, is this baptism, and to what did it lead? It consisted, first of all, in the person being immersed in water, whereby their etheric body became somewhat detached from the physical body at the head, whereas otherwise the person has the etheric body firmly connected to the physical body. You know, of course, that when a person is drowning, as a result of the loosening of their etheric body, they suddenly see the entire tableau of their life before them. So, during the baptism of John, the person also saw the tableau of their life; they saw the peculiarities of their entire life, which would otherwise have remained forgotten. But they also saw what humanity actually was in that particular age. The physical body is developed out of the etheric body as its formative principle. However, this aspect of the human being that forms the physical body could only be observed when it was loosened from the physical body. This occurred during the baptism of John.

[ 17 ] If a person had experienced this baptism three thousand years before our era, he would have realized that the finest spiritual gift that can be given to a human being must come as an ancient heirloom, for what was bestowed from the spiritual worlds in ancient times was, in fact, still an heirloom. This existed as an image in the etheric body and shaped the physical body. Especially for those who had developed beyond ordinary humanity, this baptism would have revealed that all their knowledge was based on ancient inspiration. This was described as the beholding of the etheric soul nature in the form of a serpent. Those who had experienced this were called the children of the serpent, because they had seen through how the Luciferic beings had descended into human beings. What shaped the physical body was a creature of the serpent.

[ 18 ] But now, at a baptism of John—not three thousand years before John the Baptist, but in his own time—something quite different came to light: namely, that among those who were baptized there were already some who, by their very nature, showed that the evolution of humanity had advanced, that the “I,” which is nourished by the outer world, possessed that great power. A picture quite different from what had previously been seen at the baptism of John also emerged: human beings no longer saw the creative forces of the etheric body in the image of the serpent, but in the image of the lamb. This etheric body was no longer permeated from within by what came from the Luciferic forces, but was entirely devoted to the spiritual world, which shines into the human soul through the phenomena of the external world. This vision of the Lamb was the experience at the baptism of John that was had by those who could truly understand what the baptism of John meant at that time. But these were also the ones who could say to themselves that the human being had become a completely different, a new being. The few who experienced this at the baptism of John could say: A great, momentous event has taken place; the human being has become a different being; the I has now gained dominion on earth! — The people whom John baptized had been prepared to understand the signs of the times, to understand that such a great event had come.

[ 19 ] This was always the task of the Nazirites. Through baptism, they were led to a state where they always knew how near the coming of the Christ was. They recognized this in the nature of the etheric body as it relaxed during baptism. John the Baptist was to show that the time had now come when the I could take root in human nature. In this way, he was the fulfiller of the ancient times. He was permitted to gather a community around him to whom he could show that the Christ principle could now enter into humanity through the turning toward the I. John the Baptist developed the Nazirite tradition in the highest sense, so that it transformed from a prophecy into its fulfillment. He formed a community around him that could understand the approaching Christ event. Only in this way can the words spoken by the Baptist be understood. Precisely such words must be taken with infinite depth, and it is truly no longer fitting for a person who wishes to engage with such matters today to see in John the Baptist nothing other than a ranting, fanatical man who merely rails against the Pharisees, calls them a brood of vipers, and cries out to them: “ Do not boast that you have Abraham as your father; God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones.” John the Baptist would truly have been a strange grumbler if he had not also rejoiced that even Pharisees and Sadducees came to him to be baptized. Yet does he immediately berate them upon their arrival? What is the point of that?

[ 20 ] If one understands things from within, it soon becomes clear that there is more to this than mere fanatical ranting; in fact, there is profound significance and deep meaning behind it. However, this meaning can only be understood by examining a particular characteristic of the ancient Hebrew people. From what has been said, you can already infer that Abraham was chosen as a man who was so constituted that, at the right moment in time, Jesus could be born from his descendants. For this to happen, however, what was initially only a potential in Abraham had to be developed. We must be clear that for this potential to unfold, it was necessary that certain things be cast out. We have already seen how Joseph was cast out. But even earlier, certain things had been cast out, for example, Esau, the progenitor of the Edomites, because an old legacy remained within him. For only that which was predisposed in the designated direction was to be preserved. This is wonderfully expressed in the fact that Abraham had two sons: Isaac, the son of Sarah, on the one hand, and Ishmael. The ancient Hebrew people are descended from Isaac. But there were other qualities in Abraham as well. If these were to be passed down through the generations, the right outcome would not be achieved. Therefore, that other aspect had to be radically cast out into a different line of descent, that of Ishmael, the son of the Egyptian maidservant Hagar. Thus, two lines of descent stem from Abraham: one through Isaac and the other through the cast-out Ishmael, who carries the blood of an Egyptian woman and had to take upon himself the traits unsuitable for the mission of the Hebrew people.

[ 21 ] But now something quite extraordinary is happening. The Hebrew people were meant to pass on the true legacy through their lineage, and that which constitutes ancient heritage and wisdom had to be transmitted to them from outside. The ancient Hebrews had to go to Egypt to absorb what they could there. Moses was able to give this to the people because he was an Egyptian initiate. Of course, he could not have given it to them if he had possessed it only in its Egyptian form. It would be wrong to imagine that ancient Egyptian wisdom was simply grafted onto what flowed down from Abraham. That would not have been compatible with the culture of the Hebrew people; it would have resulted in a cultural monstrosity. Moses added something entirely different to his Egyptian initiation. Therefore, he could not simply give to the Israelites what he had received from the Egyptian initiation. He gave them something only after he had received the revelation at Sinai—that is, only after leaving Egypt.

[ 22 ] What, then, is the revelation at Sinai? What did Moses receive there, and what did he give to the people? He gave them something that could be grafted onto the stock of this people, because it was related to them in a very specific way. The descendants of Ishmael had once migrated and settled in the regions that were now being traversed by Moses and his people. Those characteristics that had passed through Hagar to the Ishmaelites—who were still related to Abraham but had also preserved many ancient heirlooms—Moses found there among the Ishmaelites, who had a kind of inner circle. From the revelations of this branch, he derived the means to make the revelation from Sinai comprehensible to the Israelites. Hence an ancient legend of the Hebrew people goes: A scion of Abraham in Ishmael was cast out into Araba. That is, into the desert. What grew within this tribe was likewise contained in the teachings of Moses. On Sinai, the ancient Hebrew people received back through Moses as a teaching what they had cast out from their own blood; they received this back from outside.

[ 23 ] Here we see once again the wonderful mission of the Hebrew people: that everything was to be given to them in such a way that they would later receive it back as a gift. Abraham received the entire Hebrew people in Isaac as a gift from outside; in turn, Moses and his people receive back from the descendants of Ishmael what they had cast out. It was to develop, in isolation, only this organization of its own and to receive back, as a gift from its God, what it had cast out. Thus Jacob later reconciled with Esau, whereby the Hebrew people in turn received back what they had once cast out in Esau.

[ 24 ] One must read the Bible very carefully in order to properly appreciate the significance of the words within it. Such themes run as a characteristic thread through the entire history of the Hebrew people. Something connected to the lawgiving of Moses descends from the descendants of Hagar, while the bloodline that represents Moses’s true Israelite qualities descends from Sarah. In Hebrew, Hagar is also called Sinai, which means “the stone mountain,” the great stone. One could also say that from the great stone, which was an outward manifestation of Hagar, Moses received his revelation of the law. What this Jewish people had as legislation did not stem from the best qualities of Abraham; it descended from Hagar, from Sinai. Thus, those who are followers of mere legislation, as it originated from Sinai—the Pharisees and Sadducees—are in danger of stagnating in their development. They are the ones who, at the baptism of John, do not want to see the Lamb, but the serpent.

[ 25 ] Thus, what would otherwise be merely John the Baptist’s scolding is transformed into a beautiful admonition to the Pharisees and Sadducees when he calls out to them: “You who are followers of the serpent, take care that you truly see what is right in baptism.” —Namely, not the serpent, but the Lamb. He further told them that they need not pride themselves on having Abraham as their father, for this was merely an empty phrase to them; they swore by what came from Mount Sinai, but that had ceased to have any meaning. But now something will emerge from the world as a newborn Self, and I will show you this Self, said the Baptist: I will show you how that which has truly been carried down through the generations will grow out of Judaism, and which will no longer swear by the single Stone of Sinai, but by what is all around us. God’s children can appear through the spiritual being perceived behind the sensory. From these stones, God’s Word can raise up children to Abraham! You do not understand that saying at all: “We have Abraham as our father.”

[ 26 ] It is only in light of what has been said here that this word takes on its full meaning. Such knowledge does not need to be drawn solely from the Akashic Records; it is already found in the Bible. Compare what the Apostle Paul says about this in his Epistle to the Galatians. Here, what has just been stated is also confirmed by the Apostle Paul. He, too, says that Hagar is the same word as Sinai, and that what was given there on Sinai is a testament that those who, through the cultivation of Abraham’s inherent qualities across the generations, are to understand what came into the world through Christ, must transcend.

[ 27 ] This also draws attention to a word that must be understood in the future. It is such a pity that, in an age when intelligence seems to have reached such heights, so little thought has been given to such things—for example, to the phrase: “Repent!” In terms of its meaning, it could be translated roughly as: “Bring about a change of heart within yourselves.” In various places it is said that John baptized for repentance, that is, for a change of heart, with water. When the baptized emerged from the water, they were to change their hearts, no longer looking back to the old traditions, but looking forward to what the liberated self, which was given in Christ Jesus, possessed. The mind was to be directed away from the old gods and toward the new spiritual beings or gods. In this way, a change of heart was the goal of John’s baptism. John therefore baptized with water in order to awaken in some people the power to recognize that the Kingdom of Heaven had drawn near, and so that they might understand who Christ Jesus was.

[ 28 ] This adds further insight to what we have come to know as the mission of the ancient Hebrew people. All of this will gradually lead to a better understanding of Christ as well. This mission comes together in a truly wonderful way. We have seen how what was inherent in Abraham continued to develop within the people over the generations. To achieve this, certain things had to be cast aside, and the appropriate abilities had to be further developed through blood and heredity. Such abilities could only be acquired from outside. But that for which this people was predisposed and chosen from the time of Abraham was concentrated in one being, in Jesus.

[ 29 ] The Jews needed something to hold onto as a teaching; it always had to come to them from outside, and indeed it came from that which they themselves had rejected. What had passed on to Ishmael was not to remain in the bloodline, but was to exist only in knowledge. Therefore, the Hebrew people received it again in the law given by Moses on Mount Sinai. This had fulfilled its purpose when the time came when what had come from the stone was no longer needed, but when they had what was to come to them from the entire world of humanity. Thus, the time was slowly prepared when the sons of God—that is, human beings—could emerge from the stones, when behind all stones, indeed behind the entire earth, the spiritual world opened up.

[ 30 ] All of these are merely fragments that help us understand the mission of the Hebrew people. Only by fully understanding this mission can we also understand the great figure of Christ Jesus as presented to us in the Gospel of Matthew.