The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] That Jesus, son of Pandira, Jeshu ben Pandira, has nothing to do—whether by kinship or otherwise—with the person or individual of whom we speak as the Jesus of the Gospel of Matthew, or the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke, or of any other Gospel; that this man, a century before our era, that is, before the Christ event took place, and was subsequently hung on a tree—must not be confused with all that we refer to when we speak of the Gospels; this must be strictly maintained. I only wish to note explicitly: To point to the personality of Jeshu ben Pandira, to say something about the fact that he existed, this does not initially require any occult knowledge, nor any clairvoyant ability; rather, one can piece this together, if one wishes, from the Hebrew and Talmudic documents. The confusion with the actual Jesus has, after all, always occurred at various times, and it first took place as early as the 2nd century CE. So while we have expressly emphasized that this Jesus, son of Pandira, has nothing to do in this regard with the Jesus of the Gospels, we must nevertheless note a historical connection between these two personalities—one that can now only be established through spiritual scientific research. However, we will only be able to grasp the depth of this connection if we briefly revisit the topic of human evolution and its leaders.

[ 2 ] When we look up to those beings, those individualities who are the great guides of human evolution, we ultimately come to a group of high individualities who are often referred to—because, so to speak, the theory regarding these individualities has been most thoroughly established in the East—as the Bodhisattvas. There are quite a number of such Bodhisattvas. Their task is to be great teachers of humanity, allowing that which, according to the spiritual worlds and through the mystery schools, is to flow into humanity from epoch to epoch—whatever is appropriate for the human maturity of a given era. And one can say: These Bodhisattvas take turns in successive ages; one of the Bodhisattvas always acts as the successor to the other. For our times, we are primarily interested in those two Bodhisattvas whom we have often had to mention when speaking of human evolution: that Bodhisattva who, as the son of King Suddhodana, became the Buddha, and the one who became his successor in the office of Bodhisattva, and who, since the office of Bodhisattva lasts so long, still holds it today and—in accordance with Eastern wisdom and clairvoyant research, it may be said—will continue to do so for the next two thousand five hundred years. Then this Bodhisattva will undergo the same ascent that his predecessor underwent when he was elevated to the status of Buddha. The currently reigning Bodhisattva will then be elevated to the status of Maitreya Buddha.

[ 3 ] In the guidance of human evolution, which we refer to as guidance by teachers, we have the Bodhisattvas who succeed one another. And we must regard this line of Bodhisattvas as the great teachers of human evolution and must not confuse them with that which is the source of this teaching, from which the Bodhisattvas in turn receive what they are to impart to human evolution as successive teachings. We must, as it were, imagine a college of Bodhisattvas, and at the center of this college we must conceive of the living source of the Bodhisattvas’ teachings. And this living source is none other than the one whom we, in our common parlance, designate with the term “Christ.” Thus, from Christ all Bodhisattvas receive that which they are to give to humanity in the course of the development of time.

[ 4 ] Now, a Bodhisattva must devote himself primarily to the teaching as long as he remains a Bodhisattva; for we have seen that once a Bodhisattva is elevated to Buddhahood, he does not descend again to be incarnated in a physical body. Again, in accordance with all Eastern philosophy, it can be said that the Gautama Buddha, who at that time, as the son of King Suddhodana, underwent his last incarnation in a physical body, has since that time experienced only incarnations that extend down to the etheric body. And we have emphasized in the lectures on the Gospel of Luke what the next task of this Bodhisattva, who had become the Buddha, was. We have seen: When the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke was born—the so-called Nathanic Jesus, who is different from the Jesus of the Gospel of Matthew—the Buddha’s being, which at that time was incarnated down to the etheric body, so to speak, entered into the astral body of this Nathanic Jesus, whom the Gospel of Luke first describes to us. Therefore, one can say: Since his incarnation as Gautama Buddha, this being was no longer there to teach, but from then on this Buddha was there for living activity. He had become a real force that works from the spiritual world into our physical world. It is something quite different to work through teaching and to work through living force, through the force of growth. Until the moment a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, he is a teacher; from that moment on, he is a living force that intervenes in an organizing, life-giving way in some relationship. Thus the Buddha intervened in the organization of the Nathanic Jesus, as Luke describes, and thus he behaved in accordance with his new dignity.

[ 5 ] From the 6th century BCE to the present day, the Bodhisattva who became the Buddha at that time has been succeeded in the line of great teachers by his successor, the one who will later become the Maitreya Buddha. Therefore, we must seek the teaching that humanity has needed since the time when Gautama Buddha, the son of King Suddhodana, was active, in those places where that Bodhisattva, who is his successor, exerts his inspiration—where he, so to speak, instills in his disciples and students that which they are to communicate to the world. - I already pointed out yesterday how everything that was united, for example, in the ‘Therapist and Essene communities’ was destined to be an instrument for this Bodhisattva, and that among the most significant, the most exalted, and the purest personalities within the Essene communities was Jesus, son of Pandira. Thus we must, as it were, see the teaching content of that Bodhisattva shining into the human race on Earth through the Essenes.

[ 6 ] The actual Essene communities—as you can see from their external history—disappeared relatively soon after the Christ event had taken place on Earth. Therefore, it will not seem all that incredible when I say that, in essence, the communities of the Therapists and Essenes were essentially established to bring down from the spiritual regions, from the spheres of the Bodhisattvas, that which was needed to comprehend the great, significant event of the Christ-appearance. The most important teachings that came to humanity to help understand the Christ event originated from the Therapeutae and Essene communities. Thus, in a sense, Jesus, the son of Pandira, was destined to be inspired by the Bodhisattva—who would become the Maitreya Buddha and who worked within the Essene communities—to formulate such teachings that could make the Mystery of Palestine, the Mystery of the Christ, comprehensible. More precise details about the Therapeuts and Essenes, however, can only be explored through spiritual scientific research. External history knows very little about them. And we shall, so to speak, without hesitation—since we are in an anthroposophical circle that understands how to accept such things—draw from the mysteries of the Therapeuts and Essenes what is necessary to arrive at a deeper understanding of the Gospel of Matthew and also of the other Gospels. And we wish to describe these mysteries in the way that the spiritual scientist must think about the Therapeuts and Essenes.

[ 7 ] The essential point regarding these communities—which flourished a century before the Christ event in order to prepare for it through teaching—was the manner in which initiation was conferred upon those who were members of the Therapeuts and Essenes. They underwent an initiation designed specifically to evoke an understanding—an understanding through clairvoyant insight—of the significance of Hebraism and Abrahamism for the Christ event. This was, in fact, a mystery of the Therapeutae and Essene communities. Their adherents were initiated to gain a clearer clairvoyant insight into precisely this connection. Such an Essene was thus first to learn to grasp the full significance of what had happened through Abraham for the Hebrew people, so that he might appreciate that Abraham is truly to be seen as a kind of progenitor of the Hebrew people. That the predisposition of which I have spoken to you in the last few hours was laid within him—that predisposition which then had to be filtered, as it were, through many generations and flow down through the blood—this an Essene was to perceive through his own insight.

[ 8 ] To understand how something important for the entire evolution of humanity can come about through a personality such as Abraham, you must take a very close look at one sentence, one important truth: that whenever a personality is chosen to be a special instrument for the evolution of humanity, the direct intervention of a divine-spiritual being is necessary in such a personality.

[ 9 ] Those of you who attended the Munich performance of *The Rosicrucian Mystery* or have read it will know that one of the most important dramatic plot twists is based on the following: The Hierophant points out to Maria that she can fulfill her mission only if such an influence from a higher being has indeed taken place; and this actually brings about in her what might be called a separation of the higher members from the lower, so that the latter can then be possessed by a subordinate spirit. - Everything found in *The Rosicrucian Mystery*, if you allow it to work upon your soul and do not take it lightly, can draw your attention to great mysteries of human evolution. Since Abraham was destined to play such an important role in human evolution, it was necessary for him that what humanity had previously perceived in the Atlantean era—namely, the Spirit that interweaves and permeates the outer world—should penetrate into the innermost core of his being. This occurred for the first time in Abraham, and with it it became possible for the first time that a transformation of spiritual perception could take place. However, for this to happen, the influence of a divine-spiritual being was necessary. A divine-spiritual being, as it were, planted within Abraham’s constitution the seed for all the constitutions that were to descend from him through the generations.

[ 10 ] So an Essene of that time asked himself: What was it that actually shaped the Hebrew people, enabling them to become the bearers of the Christ Mission? was first brought about in the predisposition by that mysterious being whom one can only find by ascending through the entire succession of generations back to Abraham, where it slipped, as it were, into the inner organization of Abraham, in order then to work through the blood as a kind of national spirit within the Hebrew people. If one wishes, therefore, to understand this, so to speak, ultimate mystery of human evolution, one must ascend to this spirit that implanted that predisposition and seek it out where it had not yet slipped into the inner organization of Abraham. That is why the Essene said: If a person wishes to ascend to this truly inspiring or inaugurating spirit of the Hebrew people and to recognize it in its purity, they must, as an Essene or therapist, undergo a certain development through which they purify themselves of everything that has come to the human soul from the physical world since the Abrahamic event. For the Essene said to himself: The spiritual being that man carries within himself, and all the spiritual beings that contribute to the becoming of humanity, can be seen in their purity only in the spiritual world; as they dwell within us, they are defiled by the forces of the physical-sensual world.

[ 11 ] Now, according to the Essenes’ view—and this is, of course, absolutely correct in a certain realm of knowledge—every person living at that time carried within themselves all the defilements that had entered the human soul in previous times, defilements that clouded the clear view of the spiritual being who had laid that characteristic disposition within Abraham. Every Essene soul therefore had to purify itself of what had entered that predisposition and what, so to speak, clouded the view of that being dwelling in the blood of these generations; only then could it be truly seen. All spiritual purifications, all the Essene exercises, were designed to free the soul from the influences and inherited traits passed down through the generations, which could cloud the view of the spiritual being that inspired Abraham; for man does not merely possess his innermost spiritual-soul being within himself, but he has clouded and defiled it within himself through inherited characteristics.

[ 12 ] Now, there is a spiritual law that the Essenes were able to fulfill primarily through their research and clairvoyant insight: that the influence of heredity only truly ceases when one ascends through forty-two generations in the ancestral line. Only then has one cast everything out of one’s soul, when one ascends these forty-two stages. That is to say, one inherits something from the father and the mother, something from the grandfather and grandmother, and so on. But the further one ascends in the ancestral line, the less one has within oneself of the impurities of the inner being that have arisen through heredity, and one has nothing left when one ascends through forty-two generations. There the influence of heredity is lost. Therefore, the purifications of the Essenes were designed to work out from within, through inner exercises and careful training, everything that had entered the soul as impurities over the course of forty-two generations. That is why every Essene had to undergo severe inner exercises, severe mystical paths; which led him through forty-two stages to purify his soul. In fact, there were exactly forty-two clearly defined stages that he had to undergo within himself; then he knew himself to be free from all influences of the sensory world, from everything that had arisen through heredity as a defilement of his inner being.

[ 13 ] Thus the Essene ascended forty-two steps until he felt his innermost being, the central core of his essence, to be akin to the Divine-Spiritual. Therefore, he said to himself: I ascend to the God who matters to me by passing through these forty-two steps. The Essene had a clear understanding of how to ascend to a divine being not yet immersed in matter. He knew the path upward. He knew this from his own experience. Among all those living on Earth at that time, the Therapeuts and Essenes were the only ones who knew the truth regarding an event such as the Abraham event. They knew it insofar as it pertains to inheritance through the generations. They knew: If one wishes to ascend to a being that has entered the line of inheritance, and if one wishes to arrive at the place where it has not yet descended into matter, then one must ascend through forty-two stages, corresponding to the forty-two generations; then one will find it. But the Essenes knew something else as well. They knew: Just as a human being must ascend through forty-two steps, which correspond to the forty-two generations, in order to reach this divine being, so must this divine being, if it wishes to descend into human blood, descend through forty-two steps—that is, take the reverse path. If man needs forty-two steps to ascend to God, then God needs forty-two steps to descend, to become a human among humans.

[ 14 ] This is what the Essenes taught. And this is what Jeshu ben Pandira taught above all else among the Essenes, under the influence of the Bodhisattva who inspired him. Therefore, it was an Essene teaching that the being who had inspired Abraham to incorporate the divine seed into his own organization required forty-two generations to descend to full humanity.

[ 15 ] Now that we know this, we also know the source from which the writer of the Gospel of Matthew drew the insight that led him to focus specifically on these forty-two generations. And it was Jesus, the son of Pandira, who drew the Essenes’ attention to one thing above all else. He lived in a century before it was possible for the forty-two generations to exist; for they were only possible after a century had passed. He drew the Essenes’ attention to the fact that they could only go through the path of the forty-two stages to a certain extent—up to the point where they could connect with historical events—and from there onward could only continue through it by grace from above; but that the time would come when this would be a natural event, when a human being would be born who would have within himself the capacity to ascend so far with his own blood that the divine power he needs may descend to him, enabling him to bring the entire spirit of the Hebrew people—the spirit of Yahweh—to manifestation in the blood of the Hebrew people. Therefore, Jeshu ben Pandira taught: If Zarathustra, the Bringer of Ahura Mazdao, is to incarnate in a human body, this is possible only if that human body is so prepared that the divine-spiritual being filling it has descended through forty-two generations.

[ 16 ] We have thus pointed out how the source of the doctrine of generations, with which the Gospel of Matthew begins, originated in the Essene communities. If we wish to fully understand these facts, however, we must point to something even deeper at the heart of the matter.

[ 17 ] Everything connected with human evolution and human development approaches us, so to speak, from two sides—simply because human beings are dual beings. When we encounter the human being in their waking consciousness, the four members of their being are connected with one another, and we cannot immediately discern how they are a dual being. But at night, when we have the whole human being before us, we clearly see this human being divided into two parts: into that which remains in the physical world as the physical body and the etheric body, and into that which emerges from the physical body and the etheric body as the astral body and the I. The human being is, as it were, composed of these two parts. As long as we speak of what makes the human being belong to the physical world, we can really only speak of the physical body and the etheric body. Everything that constitutes human activities, everything that pertains to affairs in the physical world, concerns only the physical and etheric bodies, although during waking hours the other members are involved in them. During waking hours, the human being acts from the ego and the astral body into the other two members; during sleep, he leaves them to their own devices. In truth, however, the moment a person falls asleep, forces and beings begin to act from outer space, from the cosmos, and to permeate what the person has left behind, so that we are in fact dealing with a continuous influence from the cosmos upon the human physical and etheric bodies. But what remains of us in bed, and what constitutes the outer aspect of our being—namely, the physical body and the etheric body—is actually determined within forty-two generations; it is inherited there. So if we begin with the first generation and take everything that belongs to the physical being there, and proceed through forty-two generations, we find after forty-two generations nothing more of what were the most essential predispositions in the first link. Thus, in six times seven generations, what actually constitutes the essence and power of a human being’s physical and etheric bodies before us is determined. Everything we can find in these two bodies in terms of inherited characteristics, we must seek in the ancestors, but only within the span of forty-two generations. If we go further back, we find nothing of it; everything belonging to an earlier generation has vanished. Thus, when we consider the outer aspect of a human being, we find the force permeating it bound to forty-two generations.

[ 18 ] Human development over time is thus based on a numerical ratio. Let us examine this numerical ratio more closely; it is important that we take a close look at it. Let us consider it as it truly deserves to be considered, especially if we wish to understand the genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew.

[ 19 ] Everything pertaining to the physical body is bound to forty-two generations, for the reason that everything bound to temporal development—that is, everything pertaining to time—is bound to the number seven. Therefore, the development beyond the physically inherited characteristics among the Essenes was also bound to the number seven. An Essene would say to himself: You must pass through six times seven, that is, forty-two stages; then you ascend to the next seven stages, which thus constitute the completion of the number seven, resulting in seven times seven = forty-nine stages. However, what lies beyond the forty-two steps can no longer be counted among the forces and beings active in the physical and etheric bodies. Although the entire evolution of the physical and etheric bodies is truly completed according to the law of the number seven, after seven times seven generations; a complete transformation has already been achieved for the last seven generations; nothing remains there of the first generations. What is therefore relevant to us must be sought within six times seven. But when the number seven is fulfilled, we are faced with something that must already be recognized as something new. In that realm one enters after the forty-two generations, one is no longer dealing with a human but with a superhuman existence. We thus distinguish between six times seven generations, which are thoroughly bound to the earth, and what lies beyond that—the seven times seven—which already leads beyond the earth; that is the fruit for the spiritual world. After the six times seven, the fruit blossoms, which then emerges for the spiritual world at the seven times seven.

[ 20 ] That is why those from whom the Gospel of Matthew originated said, as it were: The physical corporeality of which Zarathustra made use had to be so mature that, after the forty-two generations, it already stood at the beginning of spiritualization, of deification, already at the beginning of that point where it was bound to succumb to deificatio. - Thus it already falls into the beginning of the forty-third generation, but does not enter it; instead, it now allows itself to be permeated by another being, by that being who, as the spirit of Zarathustra, incarnates on earth as Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, through the fulfillment of the mystery of the numbers, everything had come to pass that could provide the Zarathustra soul, in Jesus of Nazareth, with the most fitting body and the most fitting blood. Everything pertaining to the physical body and the etheric body had thereby been prepared for the evolution of humanity.

[ 21 ] Now, however, a human being—and thus also the one who was to become the vessel for the Christ-being—possesses not only a physical body and an etheric body, but also an astral body and an I. Therefore, it was not enough to do everything necessary for the proper preparation of the physical body and the etheric body; everything also had to be done for the proper preparation of the astral body and the I. For such a great event, this could not initially be accomplished in a single personality, but had to be accomplished in two personalities. The physical body and the etheric body were prepared in the personality of whom the Gospel of Matthew first tells. And the astral body and the I were prepared in the personality whom we know from the Gospel of Luke as the Nathanic Jesus. This is a different personality for the early years. While the Jesus of the Gospel of Matthew received the corresponding physical and etheric bodies, the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke was to receive the corresponding astral body and the corresponding I-bearer. How could the latter have happened?

[ 22 ] We saw that the forces of the forty-two generations had to be prepared in a very specific way so that the members necessary for the Jesus of the Gospel of Matthew could come into being. But the astral body and the I also had to be prepared so that they could later come together in the appropriate manner. We will speak later about how they were able to come together. — So, for the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke, corresponding preparations also had to be made. Let us consider the nature of the state of sleep. It is a fable, I said, stemming from the data of lower clairvoyance, that the entire astral and I-being of the human being is contained in the cloud of mist that hovers near the physical body and the etheric body of the sleeping person. For it is indeed the case that when a human being, in the state of sleep, steps out of the physical body and the etheric body, is in truth poured out, expanded into the entire cosmos, into that which belongs to our cosmos. That is indeed the mystery of our sleep: that we draw from the world of the stars—hence we speak of the astral body, which is poured out over the world of the stars—the purest forces from the entire cosmos, which we then bring with us upon waking, when we must once again submerge into the physical and etheric bodies. There we emerge from sleep, strengthened and invigorated by everything we can absorb from the entire cosmos.

[ 23 ] If a person today—as was also the case in the time of Christ Jesus—becomes clairvoyant in the higher sense, what must then happen to them? In today’s normal state, a person loses consciousness when they step out of their physical and etheric bodies with their astral body and their I. But the clairvoyant consciousness must be enabled to see, with the physical and etheric bodies set aside, using only the instruments of the astral body and the I. Then the clairvoyant consciousness becomes part of the world of the stars and perceives what is within it; it not only looks into it, but ascends into the world of the stars. Just as the Essene consciousness ascends through the sequence of time based on the number seven, so must the human being pass through the stages that enable him to perceive the cosmos clairvoyantly.

[ 24 ] I have already hinted on several occasions at the dangers involved in development in one direction as well as in the other. Essentially, for the Essenes, it was a descent into the physical and etheric bodies in order to find God through the passage through the forty-two generations. It was as if a person, upon waking, did not see the world around them, but instead plunged into the physical and etheric bodies to observe their forces—that is, to perceive their outer self from within. When waking up, a person does not consciously descend into the physical and etheric bodies. They are spared this because, at the moment of waking, their consciousness is directed toward their surroundings and does not focus on the forces of the physical and etheric bodies. This was the essential point with the Essenes: that they learned to perceive all the forces stemming from the forty-two generations; that they learned to look beyond what the gaze finds in the outer world, and to immerse themselves in their own physical and etheric bodies, where they saw what lived in the sense of the mystery of six times seven, of forty-two generations.

[ 25 ] In a similar way, a person must rise within themselves if they wish to ascend into the cosmos, if they wish to discover the mysteries that underlie the entire cosmos. This is more powerful. When a person descends into their own inner self, they are only exposed to the danger of being overwhelmed by all the forces within themselves—by desires, passions, and everything that lies at the bottom of the soul—things to which a person usually pays no attention, of which they have no inkling, for they are usually prevented by their external upbringing from getting to know these forces. They have no opportunity at all to be seized by them, for their gaze is immediately diverted by the emergence of the external world upon waking. So while there is a danger in descending into one’s own inner self—that one might, so to speak, be seized by the basest instincts and most selfish forces of one’s own nature—there is another danger when one experiences spreading out over the entire cosmos. And this danger cannot be characterized more precisely than by saying: For those who experience this moment—where they do not fall asleep into unconsciousness, but fall asleep so consciously that they have, in their astral body and their ego, an instrument for perceiving the spiritual world—the danger that overcomes them is something like a tremendous glare, as if a person were facing the sun’s rays. They are dazzled by the immense magnitude and, above all, by the overwhelming confusion of impressions.

[ 26 ] Just as the stages that human beings had to undergo in an Essene manner in order to learn to recognize all that was of inherited characteristics in the physical and etheric bodies must be designated by the numerical mystery of six times seven, so there is also a numerical mystery that represents how human beings come to the knowledge of the cosmic mysteries, the mysteries of the great world. The best way to approach this mystery is again by making use of what is naturally present out there in the cosmos in terms of movements and constellations, in terms of forms of expression in the stars—what is, as it were, inscribed in the stars. - Just as one advances through six times seven steps to the mysteries of the human inner being, so does one ascend through twelve times seven—that is, eighty-four steps—to the spiritual mysteries of the cosmos. Once one has passed through these twelve times seven = eighty-four steps, one reaches the point where the labyrinth of these spiritual world forces is no longer dazzling, where the human being has truly gained the composure to find one’s way in this vast labyrinth, where this labyrinth is seen through. This, too, was taught in a certain sense by the Essenes.

[ 27 ] When a person becomes clairvoyant in the sense described here, they pour themselves out as they fall asleep into something that is expressed in the numerical mystery of twelve times seven. But with what the twelve times seven represents, they are already within the spiritual realm: for when they have completed the eleven times seven, they have already reached the boundary of the mysteries. Just as the seven times seven is already within the spiritual realm, so too is the twelve times seven already within the spiritual realm. If a person wishes to traverse this path, they need eleven times seven steps to arrive in the spiritual realm; that is, the person must pass through eleven times seven steps in the astral body and the I. This is expressed in the star script by taking the number seven from the seven planets, and what one must go through in outer space from the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Just as the seven planets are constellated within the twelve constellations and the constellations cover them, so must the human being, when entering into the cosmos, pass through seven times twelve or seven times eleven stages until they arrive in the spiritual realm.

[ 28 ] So, if you want to get a picture of this, you can imagine the sphere of the spiritual in the twelve constellations of the zodiac, with the human being himself at the center within it. Now the spiritual realm is so vast that, if humanity wishes to reach it, it cannot simply begin to pour out from the center; rather, it must spread out in a spiral, turning, as it were, in seven spiral turns, and each time it completes a spiral turn, it passes through all twelve constellations, so that it must pass through seven times twelve points. Humanity gradually spreads out in a spiral into the cosmos—all of this is, of course, merely a symbol of what humanity experiences—and if, circling in this way, it were to pass through the twelve constellations for the seventh time, it would have reached the Divine-Spiritual. It is then the case that, instead of looking out into the cosmos from his center, man looks in from the spiritual circumference, from the twelve points, and can observe what is in the outer world. One must go through this if one wishes to see what is in the world. It is not enough to take a single viewpoint; one must take twelve viewpoints. Whoever wished to ascend to the Divine-Spiritual had to pass through eleven times seven stages, had to lead the astral body and the ego upward through eleven times seven stages. When he reached the twelve times seven, he was within the Spiritual.

[ 29 ] In this way, the astral body and the ego had to pass through twelve times seven and eleven times seven stages, respectively, if they were to reach the Divine. If the Divine wishes to descend and prepare a human ego, it must likewise descend through eleven times seven stages.

[ 30 ] If, then, the Gospel of Luke intends to describe the spiritual forces that made the astral body and the ego fit to be the ‘bearer of Christ,’ it had to describe how the divine-spiritual force descends through eleven times seven stages. This is indeed what the Gospel of Luke describes to us. Because the Gospel of Luke describes to us that other personality for whom the astral body and the ego were prepared, it does not describe to us, as the Gospel of Matthew does, six times seven generations, but rather eleven times seven successive stages through which—as is explicitly stated in the Gospel of Luke— — what dwelt in the individuality of the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke. If you count the human stages announced in the Gospel of Luke through which the divine power is channeled, you arrive at seventy-seven stages (Luke 3:23–38).

[ 31 ] Since the Gospel of Matthew describes to us the mystery of the power at work in the descent of that divine force which shapes the physical body and the etheric body, the number six times seven must prevail therein. And in the Gospel of Luke, because it describes the descent of the divine power that transforms the astral body and the I, the number eleven times seven must appear. From this we can see from what depths these things are drawn, just as the mysteries of initiation, the sequence of stages in the descent of the divine-spiritual into a human individuality and in the ascent into the cosmos, are indeed set forth in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke.

[ 32 ] Why a genealogy was also compiled for the Gospel of Luke, and why—at a time when only a few people had been taught the mystery of Christ Jesus—it was revealed that there are seventy-seven generations from God and Adam down to the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke, is a topic we will discuss further tomorrow.