The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth Lecture

[ 1 ] From everything we have already heard in the lectures of this series, it has become clear to us that the essence of the Christ event consists in the following. That human development which we have described as the soul’s ascent to the realms of the spirit—which in pre-Christian times could be attained only within the mysteries, and specifically only by the ego being, in a certain sense, attuned downward to the extent that it was developed within normal human consciousness—that human development was to receive such an impulse that it —which, admittedly, still belongs for the most part to the future of humanity—can be attained by human beings in such a way that, upon entering this spiritual world, they can fully retain that sense of self which, in our times, normally pertains to them only on the outer physical-sensory plane. This progress in human evolution, which was brought about by the Christ event, is at the same time the greatest progress that has ever been made and will ever be made in the development of the Earth and in human evolution. This means that everything that is yet to come in the development of the Earth in relation to such a fact is a manifestation, an outworking of the great impulse that was given with the Christ event.

[ 2 ] Now let us ask ourselves: What actually had to happen there? In a certain sense, what was part of the mysteries of the ancient mysteries had to be repeated—repeated in detail. For example, one of the mysteries of the ancient mysteries—and this still applies to them in a certain way today—was that when a person descends into their own physical and etheric bodies, they experience in the astral body the temptations we spoke of yesterday. And in the Greek mysteries, the human being had to experience once again all the difficulties and dangers that confront us when we pour out, when we expand into the macrocosm. We have described this in more detail as well. These events, which a person experiences there in one or another phase of initiation, were exemplarily experienced by Christ Jesus as a unique impulse from a great, transcendent Individuality, so that the impetus might be given for human beings to gradually undergo such a development, starting from initiation, in future evolution. Let us therefore first consider what took place in the Mysteries.

[ 3 ] To describe it, we might say: Although everything accomplished by the human soul was accomplished in such a way that the ego was subdued, placed more in a kind of semi-dreamlike state, the inner, soul-like aspect of the human being nevertheless experienced certain realities that can be described as follows. The human being went through this because egoism awakens; he wants to be independent of the external world. But—as we showed yesterday—because every human being is dependent on the external world, since they cannot conjure up food, and because they are dependent on what arises from their physical body, they are exposed to the illusion that they regard what arises merely from the physical body as the world and its inner glory. Every student, every initiate in the Mysteries, went through this, only in a different state than that which Christ Jesus went through at the highest level. So if someone describes what can be experienced there, solely in accordance with the facts for the student of the ancient Mysteries, and then applies that description to the life of Christ Jesus, the description of the facts is, in a certain sense, similar. For what has happened is that what took place in the darkness of the Mysteries has stepped out onto the stage of world history and become a unique historical event.

[ 4 ] Let us now assume the following scenario—which is, after all, what always happened in antiquity, particularly in the centuries leading up to the coming of Christ—: Some painter or writer had heard that certain procedures were carried out when someone was to be initiated, and he had painted or described them. Thus, such a painting or such a description might resemble what the Gospels describe to us regarding the Christ event. We can thus imagine how, in some ancient mysteries, the initiate, after undergoing certain preparations, was then bound with his physical body to a kind of cross with outstretched hands in order to become free in his soul. He remained in this state for a time in order to elevate his soul, so that he could undergo what we have described. All of this, then, may have been depicted in paintings or described in writing. Then someone today might come across it and say: What was experienced in the mysteries was written down by this author from an ancient tradition, or painted by an artist. And he might then say that the Gospels merely record and convey what already existed earlier!

[ 5 ] This can be found in numerous cases. I have demonstrated the full extent to which this applies in my book *Christianity as a Mystical Fact*, in which I have described how everything that constitutes the mystery of the ancient mysteries is revived in the Gospels, and how the Gospels are, in essence, nothing other than repetitions of the ancient descriptions of initiation into the mysteries. And why was it possible to simply describe the ancient mystery process by recounting what happened with Christ Jesus? One could do so because everything that took place in the ancient mysteries—everything that occurred as an inner soul process—was seen to unfold as a historical fact; for the Christ Jesus event, elevated to the level of the I-being, reproduced what had been the symbolic or even real-symbolic acts of the ancient initiation. We must keep this fact in mind. Precisely those who stand firmly on the ground that the Christ event is a historical one—that what were formerly mystery processes, only for different human conditions, took place as a historical fact—may note the similarity between the Christ biography in the Gospels and the processes in the mysteries.

[ 6 ] To describe it precisely, one could also say it this way: Those who were called to perceive it perceived the Christ event in Palestine; they perceived the fulfillment of the Essene prophecy, the baptism of John in the Jordan, the temptation, then what followed—the crucifixion, and so on. They could say to themselves: Now we have a life before us, the life of a being in a human body. If we survey this life in its most important, most essential points—the ones that really matter—what are these points? Strangely enough, we find certain points that unfold in external historical life, and these are the very same points that play out in the mysteries for those seeking initiation. So we need only take the canon of a mystery, and in this canon we would have the model of a process that we may describe here as a historical fact!

[ 7 ] That is precisely the great mystery: what was once buried in the darkness of the temple took place there, and only its results were carried out into the world; for those who shared in spiritual insight, it unfolded on the grand stage of world history with the Christ event. However, one must be clear that in the time when the evangelists wrote, biographies were not composed as they are today—when one writes a biography of Goethe, Schiller, or Lessing, where one delves into every nook and cranny, gathers every little scrap of paper, only to then summarize as the most important part of a biography what is actually the most insignificant. While one gets bogged down in this collection of notes and fails to grasp the most essential points that matter, the evangelists contented themselves with describing the essential aspects of the life of Christ Jesus. And this essential point is that the life of Christ, within the grand scheme of world history, was a repetition of the Initiation. Should we be surprised that the fact is such that something could occur in our time that truly astounds an immense number of people? And this very thing that astounds people will become even more strikingly apparent to us when we draw attention to the following.

[ 8 ] We have myths and legends from ancient times. What are they? Anyone familiar with myths and legends, anyone who knows what they are, will find in many of them the retelling of events that the ancient clairvoyant consciousness saw in the spiritual worlds, clothed in sensory events; or they will encounter other myths and legends that are essentially nothing other than the reenactments of the mystery rituals. Thus, for example, the Prometheus myth is in part a rendering of actions in the Mysteries, and so are many other myths as well. For instance, we repeatedly find that depiction where Zeus appears to us, beside him a lesser deity who—as one could certainly express it in the Greek sense—is destined to tempt Zeus. “Pan tempting Zeus.” Zeus on a hill, Pan beside him, and Pan tempting Zeus—you will find this depicted in the most varied ways. Why were such depictions given? Because they were meant to express the process of man’s descent into the inner world, where he encounters his own lower nature, the egoistic Pan-nature, as he descends into the physical and etheric bodies. - And so the entire ancient world is full of depictions of such processes that took place when the initiates passed through the path into the spiritual world, and which are artistically rendered in myths and symbols.

[ 9 ] Today—and this is what baffles many people who are unable or unwilling to learn the facts—there are many frivolous people who make the grand discovery that something like a painting exists: “Pan beside Zeus on a mountain, tempting Zeus,” and then they say: From this we can clearly see—the scene of Christ’s temptation has therefore already existed. So the evangelists did nothing other than take up an old pictorial representation, and the Gospels are composed of these old representations! — But if they are composed of them, then such people conclude that they do not tell anything special at all, but are merely compiled from myths in order to speak of a fictional Christ Jesus. And there has been a major movement in Germany where people spoke lightly about the question of whether Christ Jesus ever lived. And time and again, with a downright grotesque ignorance of the facts—yet with profound erudition—all the various legends and myths are enumerated, which are supposed to show that here or there the scenes already existed that we encounter again in the Gospels. It is of no use in our time to teach people anything about the true facts, even though these established facts are well known to those who are familiar with these matters. Yet this is how spiritual movements develop in our time. They truly develop in a grotesque manner!

[ 10 ] I really would not speak of this in isolated instances if one were not repeatedly forced to take a stand against objections—which seem to spring from quite profound scholarship here and there—to the propositions and facts presented by spiritual science.

[ 11 ] What I have described here is the true state of affairs. And the descriptions that come from the Mysteries must be reflected in the Gospels, since they apply the mystery of initiation to a completely different individuality and seek precisely to show: What formerly took place in the Mysteries through a dimming of consciousness has taken place here as something special, because an ego-being was to undergo these procedures—which were formerly undergone in the Mysteries—without any dimming of the ego-consciousness! - So one should not be surprised when it is said: There is hardly anything in the Gospels that was not already there before. It was simply there in such a way that, with regard to all that preceded it, one could have said: Yes, the human being had to ascend into the realms of heaven; it is not the case that what is called the realms of heaven had already descended to the ego. But this is the essential novelty: that what could previously be experienced only by subduing the ego in other regions can now be experienced while maintaining the ego upright in Malchuth, in the Kingdom.

[ 12 ] That is why Christ Jesus, after experiencing what is described in the Gospel of Matthew as temptation, becomes the preacher of the “Kingdom.” What did he essentially have to say there? He had to say: What was formerly achieved by the human being subduing his ego and filling himself with other beings will now be achieved while maintaining this ego! So this is precisely the essential point he emphasizes: What was formerly achieved in a different way will now be achieved through the full upholding of the ego. Therefore, not only were the events that are initiation events to be repeated in the life of Christ, but also in the “Sermon on the Kingdom,” the essential point will be that it is emphasized: Everything that was promised to those who formerly entered the Mysteries or accepted the teachings of the Mysteries now belongs to those who experience the I-being within themselves and experience it as it was exemplified for us by the Christ.

[ 13 ] So everything must return to us, even with regard to doctrine. But we must not be surprised that it is precisely in contrast to the old teachings that the emphasis is placed on this: What could not be attained through the “I” in the past can now be attained within the “I”! Let us suppose that Christ wanted to draw the attention of those to whom he wished to point out this great truth to the fact that, in the past, people—based on what had come down to them from the teachings of the Mysteries—always looked up to the realm of the heavens and said: From there—but not by entering into our ego—can come that which makes us blessed. Then it would have been necessary for Christ to retain what was previously said about the divine Father-source of existence, for that was indeed attainable through an upward-living with a subdued ego, and to have changed only the nuances that mattered. For example, he would have had to say: Whereas it was once said that you must look up to the realms where the divine Father-source of existence is, and you must wait for it to shine down from the realms of heaven, now one will be able to say: Not only does he shine down upon you, but what is willed up there must penetrate into the deepest self-nature of man and be willed there as well.

[ 14 ] Let us assume that all the individual phrases of the Lord’s Prayer had existed before, and that only this one change was needed: In the past, people looked up to the ancient divine Father Spirit in such a way that everything that is there remains preserved and looks down upon your earthly kingdom. But now—Christ would have had to say—this kingdom must come down to the earth itself, where the ego is; and the will that is done above must also be done on earth. —What will be the consequence of such a fact? The consequence will be that the deeper observer, who has a sense for the subtle nuances that matter, will not be at all surprised that the phrases of the Lord’s Prayer might also have existed in ancient times. The superficial person, however, will not notice these subtle nuances; for they do not matter to him. The meaning of Christianity does not matter to him, for he does not understand it! And if he finds these phrases in ancient times, he will say: There you have it, the evangelists write about the Lord’s Prayer. But that was already there before! — Since he does not notice the nuances that matter, he will say: The Lord’s Prayer was already there before! — But now notice the enormous difference between a true understanding of Scripture and a superficial view. What matters is that the one who notices the new nuances applies them to the old. The superficial person, however, who does not notice these nuances, will merely state that the Lord’s Prayer was already there before.

[ 15 ] These facts must be experienced as individual episodes and must be mentioned here at least once, because anthroposophists should be enabled to confront, to some extent, what today presents itself as amateurish scholarship, yet which is disseminated through hundreds and hundreds of newspaper channels and is then accepted by people as “science.” - I would like to say one thing regarding the Lord’s Prayer: A man actually took it upon himself to gather sentences from all manner of ancient traditions and from all manner of passages in the Talmud that result in something similar to the Lord’s Prayer. Mind you: it is not as though what the scholar in question compiled could be found anywhere in this compilation outside the Gospels; rather, it is the individual sentences that are found here and there. If one were to take this to the extreme, one could also say: The first sentences of Goethe’s “Faust” were also compiled by Goethe in just this way! And one might now perhaps be able to prove: There was a student in the 17th century who had failed his exam, and who then said to his father afterward: “I have now, alas, studied law thoroughly with great effort!”—And another, who had failed in medicine, said in a similar vein: “I have now, alas, studied medicine thoroughly with great effort!” - And from this, Goethe would then have composed the first lines of *Faust*. That is paradoxical! But in principle and method, it is exactly the same thing that confronts us in Gospel criticism.

[ 16 ] Pieced together like this, you will find the following sentences, which, as described above, are supposed to form the Lord's Prayer:

[ 17 ] “Our Father, who art in heaven, have mercy on us; O Lord our God, hallowed be thy name, and let thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May your kingdom reign over us now and forever. The holy men of old said: Forgive all people and pardon them for whatever they have done to me. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom of heaven, and you shall reign in glory forever and ever.”

[ 18 ] These are sentences put together in the manner I have just described—that is, the Lord’s Prayer is complete; the only thing missing is the nuance that matters, and which had to be included if the great significance of the Christ event was to be emphasized. And this nuance consists in the fact that no sentence states that the Kingdom should come down. It is said: “Let your Kingdom reign over us now and forever,” but not: “Let your Kingdom come to us!” That is the essential point. But the superficial person does not notice it. And even though these sentences have been gathered together, not from one but from many libraries, what is essential in the Lord’s Prayer could not be found: “Thy will be done in heaven, so also on earth.” That is to say, it touches upon the self. Here, if you take it purely from an external, scientific perspective, you have the difference between superficial research and truly conscientious research that takes all details into account. And this truly conscientious research is there, if one is only willing to engage with it.

[ 19 ] I have read these passages to you from a book—deliberately from a printed book—John M. Robertson, *The Gospel Myths* —because it is a book that has now been translated into German as a kind of modern gospel, so that it may be accessible to all; for the man who has given so many lectures on the question of whether Jesus lived had to read it in English. It quickly became famous and has now been translated into German as well, so that people no longer need to read it in English. — It has become possible for a professor at a German university to travel around, giving lectures everywhere on the question: “Did Jesus live?” and, based on the facts I have just outlined, to give the answer: From none of the documents is there any reason to assume that what is stated in the records is true, that a personality such as Jesus ever lived. Among the most outstanding books that must be cited in this context is also this book by Robertson. But let this be said for the anthroposophists’ own protection: From this book, from this historical research on the New Testament documents, you will also be able to learn many other things. I would like to share one particularly characteristic point from it.

[ 20 ] The aim is to demonstrate that not only can precursors to the Lord’s Prayer be identified in the Talmudic passages, so to speak, but that one can go back thousands of years and find precursors to the Lord’s Prayer everywhere in the most ancient records. Thus, on the very next page it is shown—since the point is that the Lord’s Prayer is supposed to be a compilation of something that already existed earlier, and that it did not require Christ to first recite it to the people— it is shown that there is a prayer in the Chaldean language, discovered on small tablets, in which the ancient Babylonian god Merodach is invoked; and several passages from it are now cited. And now I ask you to listen very carefully. The passage reads:

[ 21 ] «(Note.) In the Journal of the Royal Artistic Society, October 1891, Mr. T.G. Pinches published for the first time the translation of a small tablet found at Sippara in 1882, in which, ‘Invocation of Merodach’ the following lines also appear: ‘May the abundance of the world descend upon your midst (your city); may your command be fulfilled in all the future ... May the evil spirit dwell outside you.’”

[ 22 ] And the scholar, on whom this passage made such a deep impression, adds:

[ 23 ] “So here we have prayer norms that are in line with the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ and may date back to 4000 B.C.”

[ 24 ] Try, if you can, to find any similarity between the Lord’s Prayer and these sentences! Nevertheless, this man regards these sentences as standards for prayer, which the Lord’s Prayer simply follows. Yet today, these ideas are considered genuine scholarship in this field.

[ 25 ] There is another reason why this can be said among anthroposophists. For anthroposophists must also be able to clear their consciences; and their consciences might feel troubled if they have to hear time and again that external research has established this or that, or if they read in newspapers or journals: A small tablet has now been found in Asia, and from the inscription on this tablet it has emerged that the Lord’s Prayer already existed four thousand years before Christ. When something like this is established, it would surely be necessary to ask on what basis it has been established? I wanted to show what these things are based on today when it is said that they are “scientifically established.” Such things are everywhere, and it is useful for anthroposophists to pay attention to the rotten core of what lies behind what is so often held against anthroposophy. — But let us continue.

[ 26 ] What matters is that Christ Jesus inaugurated a human evolution founded on the ego, on the preservation of the ego. He established and inaugurated the initiation of the I. Then we will be able to say that this I is the essence, the center of the entire human being, that everything that constitutes human nature today converges, as it were, in the I, and that everything that has come into the world for this I through the Christ event can also take hold of all the other parts, all the other members of human nature. But this, of course, will have to take place in a very special way and in accordance with the evolution of humanity.

[ 27 ] What we are capable of developing is made particularly clear in these lectures. Human perception of the physical-sensory environment—not only through the senses, but also through the intellect, which is linked to the brain—has only been fully present since the time shortly before the Christ event. In earlier times, there was always a certain kind of clairvoyance associated with what human beings perceive through the intellect linked to the brain; that is to say, people possessed a degree of clairvoyance. You know full well from my lectures on the early stages of Atlantean development that this was indeed the case. But what was still fully present in the early days of post-Atlantean development as the general prevalence of a certain degree of clairvoyance gradually began to wane. Right up until the time of the Christ event, there were still many people who could look into the spiritual world in the intermediate states between waking and sleeping, who could participate in the spiritual world in special intermediate states. Such participation in the spiritual world, however, was not merely linked for humanity at large to the fact that such a person, who was clairvoyant to a lesser degree, could say to themselves: I know that behind everything physical and sensory there is a spiritual realm, for I can see it. No. There was something else connected with it. The nature of people in ancient times was such that they could still easily be made to participate in the spiritual world. Today it is relatively very difficult to undergo an esoteric development in the true sense, so that a person can attain clairvoyance. As a last remnant, as a legacy from ancient times, clairvoyance occurs today as somnambulism and so on. However, these states cannot be regarded as something regular today. In ancient times, however, they were normal and could be elevated by undergoing certain processes with human nature. When human nature was elevated to the point of living within the spiritual world, other things were connected with this.

[ 28 ] Today, when people no longer base their judgments on what is historically established, it is the case that what is believed determines what is considered historical. But however much it may be doubted today, it was nevertheless the case—even well into the time of Christ—that healing processes, for example, could be carried out by making people clairvoyant. In today’s world, where people have descended deeper into the physical plane, this is no longer possible. Back then, however, the soul was still easily accessible, so that through certain procedures it could be made clairvoyant and immerse itself in the spiritual world. And since the spiritual world is a healing element and sends healing forces down into the physical world, this provided a means of initiating healing. So let us assume that someone was ill; one would undertake such processes that he looked into the spiritual world. And when the currents of the spiritual world then flowed down, they were healing currents that flowed down into his being. Such processes were usually the healings. What is described today as “temple healing” is quite amateurish. Everything is in a state of development, and since those ancient times, souls have progressed from clairvoyance to a state of no longer being clairvoyant. In the past, however, a person’s clairvoyant state could be heightened to such an extent that healing forces flowed in from the spiritual realm into the physical world, so that a person could be healed from the spirit for certain illnesses. Therefore, we need not be surprised when the Evangelists tell us that, through the Christ event, the time has now come when not only those who possess the old clairvoyance can grow into the spiritual world, but also those who, by virtue of the evolution of humanity, have lost the old clairvoyance.

[ 29 ] One might say: Let us look back to ancient times. In those days, people were able to glimpse into the spiritual world. The riches of the spiritual world were revealed to them through the clairvoyance of old. Now, however, those who, with the progress of development, can no longer look into the spiritual world have become spiritually impoverished, beggars for the spirit. But because Christ brought the mystery into the world—that the forces of the heavenly realms can flow into the I (including the I of the physical-sensory plane)—even those who have lost the old clairvoyance and with it the riches of the spiritual world can experience the Spirit within themselves and become blessed and filled with joy. - Hence the great words could be spoken: Blessed are, from now on, no longer merely those who are rich in spirit through the old clairvoyance, but also those who are poor or beggars in spirit; for, once the way has been opened to them through Christ, that which we may call the realms of heaven flows into their I.

[ 30 ] In ancient times, therefore, the human physical organism was such that it allowed the soul to partially step out of the body even in a normal state, so that through this stepping out of the physical body, a person became clairvoyant and a being of the spirit. The densification of the physical body—which, however, cannot be proven anatomically—meant that human beings could no longer become lords in the realms of heaven. If one were to describe the condition today, one would have to say: Human beings have become paupers, beggars for the spirit; yet within themselves, through what Christ brought down, they can experience the realms of heaven. This is what one could describe in relation to the processes of the physical body.

[ 31 ] If one were to describe what has taken place in an appropriate manner with regard to the ego-human, one would have to show, for each aspect of human nature, how it could find its own inner fulfillment in a new way. In the sentence: “Blessed are those who beg for spirit; for they will find within themselves the realms of heaven!” the new truth for the physical body is expressed. For the etheric body, one could express it thus: In the etheric body lies the principle of suffering. A living being can suffer solely through damage to its etheric body, provided it still possesses an astral body; but the seat of suffering must be sought in the etheric body. You will be able to glean this from the various lectures. — If one were to express, in terms of the new truth, what used to flow forth from the spiritual world regarding healing—that which pertains to the etheric body—one would have to say: Those who suffer can now be comforted not only by stepping out of themselves and connecting with the spiritual world, but when they now enter into a new connection with the world, they can be comforted within themselves, because a new power has been brought into the etheric body through Christ. Expressed in terms of the etheric body, the new truth must therefore be as follows: Those who suffer can no longer be comforted merely by immersing themselves in a spiritual world and allowing the currents of the spiritual world to flow toward them in a clairvoyant state; but when they now, by turning toward Christ, fill themselves with the new truth, they experience within themselves the consolation for all suffering.

[ 32 ] What, then, must be said regarding the astral body? In the past, when human beings sought to subdue the emotions, passions, and selfishness of their astral bodies, they looked up to the higher regions and sought strength from the realms of heaven; there, procedures were performed upon them that killed the harmful instincts of their astral body. But now the time had come when, through the deed of Christ, human beings were to receive within their own I the power to restrain and tame the passions and emotions of their astral body. Therefore, the new truth regarding the astral body now had to be: Blessed are the meek through themselves, through the power of the I; for they shall inherit the earth! Profound is this third saying of the Beatitudes. Let us examine it in light of what we have gained from spiritual science. The astral body of the human being was incorporated into the human being during the old Lunar existence. The beings that have gained influence over humanity—namely the Luciferic beings—have also established themselves particularly within the astral body. Consequently, humanity cannot attain its highest earthly goal from the very beginning. The Luciferic beings, as we know, remained behind on the lunar stage and prevented humanity from developing further on Earth in the proper way. But now that Christ had descended to Earth, and the ego could be imbued with the Christ-force, human beings could truly fulfill the principle of the Earth by finding within themselves the power to restrain the astral body and drive out the Luciferic influences. Therefore, it could now be said: Whoever restrains their astral body, whoever becomes strong so that they cannot fall into anger without their ego being present, whoever is “equanimous” and strong within to restrain the astral body—such a person will truly attain the principle of Earth’s evolution. — Thus, in the third sentence of the Beatitudes, you have a formulation that can be understood through spiritual science.

[ 33 ] How, then, will human beings come to elevate and spiritualize the other aspects of their being through the Christ-nature dwelling within them? By allowing the soul, in a serious and dignified sense, to be taken hold of by the power of the I, just as the physical body is. If we ascend to the level of the feeling soul, we can say: If a human being wishes to gradually experience the Christ within, they must become such that they feel, in what constitutes their feeling soul, a longing similar to the one they otherwise unconsciously feel in their body—the longing we call hunger and thirst. He must be able to thirst for the soul just as the body hungers and thirsts for food and drink. What a human being can achieve in this way through the indwelling of the Christ-force is what, in the old sense, was called—in the broadest sense—a thirst for righteousness. And when he fills his feeling soul with the Christ-force, he can attain the ability to find within himself the means to satisfy his thirst for righteousness.

[ 34 ] The fifth of the Beatitudes is particularly remarkable. And that is to be expected. It must offer us something quite special: it must refer to the human intellectual soul or emotional soul. Now, anyone who has studied what is said in my book *Outline of Esoteric Science* or in my *Theosophy*, and what has also been discussed for years in a wide variety of lectures, knows that the three members of the human soul—the soul of feeling, the soul of reason or the emotional soul, and the soul of consciousness—are held together by the I. Everyone knows that in the soul of feeling the I is still present in a dormant state, but in the soul of reason or the emotional soul it springs forth, and that through this the human being first becomes fully human. While he is governed by divine-spiritual powers in the lower members, even in the soul of feeling, he becomes an independent being in the soul of reason. There the ego shines forth. One must therefore, in a sense, speak differently of the intellectual or emotional soul—once it has attained the Christ power—than of the lower members. In the lower members, the human being enters into a relationship with certain divine beings who work into the subordinate members—the physical body, etheric body, astral body, and also the feeling soul; and whatever the human being develops there as virtues and so on is also taken up again by these divine beings. But what develops in the intellectual or emotional soul, when it develops the Christ-quality, must above all be a human quality. When the human being begins to discover the intellectual soul for themselves, they thereby become less and less dependent on the divine-spiritual forces of their surroundings. Here, then, we have something that relates to the human being himself. Therefore, when a person takes in the Christ-force, he can develop in the intellectual soul those virtues that flow from like to like—virtues that are not implored from heaven as a reward, but which now return to a being of the same nature as the human being himself. We must therefore, so to speak, sense that something flows out from the virtues of the intellectual soul, that something of the same kind flows back to us. — Curious: The fifth beatitude truly shows us this quality. It differs from all the others in that it says—and even if the translations are not particularly good, they could not conceal this fact—: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!” What flows out flows back again—as it must, when taken in the sense of spiritual science.

[ 35 ] In contrast, with the next sentence, which refers to the conscious soul, we come to something in the human being where the ego is already fully developed and where the human being ascends again in a new way. We know that it was precisely in the time when Christ appeared that the intellectual or emotional soul came to expression. Now we are in the time when the conscious soul is to come to expression and when the human being ascends once more into the spiritual world. While the human being first becomes conscious of himself, consciously illuminating himself in the intellectual or emotional soul, he fully develops his “I” in the conscious soul, which now ascends once more into the spiritual world. The human being who takes in the Christ force within himself will, by pouring his I into the soul of consciousness and experiencing it there in its purity, reach his God in this way. By experiencing the Christ in his I and raising him up to the soul of consciousness, he will come to his God there. — Now it has been said that the expression of the I in the physical body is the blood, which has its center in the heart. Therefore, the sixth sentence should be appropriately expressed to state that the I can partake of God through the quality it imparts to the blood and the heart. What is the sentence? “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!” This is not, admittedly, a particularly good translation; but it suffices for our purposes. — Thus spiritual science sheds light on the entire structure of these wondrous sayings, which Christ Jesus proclaimed to his inner circle of disciples after he had passed the temptation.

[ 36 ] The following sentences refer to the fact that human beings ascend into the higher aspects of their being by developing the spiritual self, the life spirit, and the spiritual human being. Therefore, they only hint at what human beings will experience in the future, and what only a select few can experience now. The next sentence therefore refers to the spiritual self: “Blessed are those who draw down the spiritual self as the first spiritual member; for they shall be called children of God.” The first member of the higher Trinity has already entered into them. They have received God and have become the outward expression of the Godhead. - But what is now particularly emphasized is that only the chosen ones can come to develop the Spirit of Life—those who fully understand what the future holds for the whole of humanity. What the people of the future may call the “full reception of Christ into their inner being,” the Spirit of Life, is available to individual chosen ones. But because they are individual elect, the others cannot understand them, and the consequence is that, as the elect, they are also persecuted. Therefore, with reference to those who are currently persecuted as individual representatives of a future reality, the sentence is uttered: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for in themselves they find the kingdoms of heaven.” - And the last is hinted at only very specifically for the most intimate disciples; it is that which refers to the ninth member of the human being, to the spiritual man: “Blessed are you when people revile and persecute you for my sake.”

[ 37 ] Thus, in these wonderful passages, which refer to the nine members of human nature, it is shown how the “I” takes shape when it becomes a Christ-I, working within the various members of human nature and bringing them to life. In a magnificent, majestic way, the Gospel of Matthew (Matt. 5:3–11), in the passages following the temptation scene, how the Christ-force works upon the ninefold nature of the human being—first in the present, and then how it works in the near future, where those are still called children of God, into whom the spiritual self already shines now, even though such children of God exist only in a few gifted individuals. That is precisely what is so wonderful: the specific language regarding the first members, who are already here, and the fading into the indefinite in the final sentences, which apply to more distant futures.

[ 38 ] But here we have that superficiality again: Just imagine if someone were to investigate whether similar phrases might be found elsewhere and whether the evangelists might have pieced these phrases together from other sources. And imagine that the person in question has no idea what this is all about; for that is precisely what one would have to speak of here: that it was applied to the Christ-permeated “I”-nature! Then, if he fails to notice the wonderful intensification of the essential, he might point to the following. You need only turn a few pages in the book already mentioned, and in a chapter titled “The Beatitudes” you will find a reference to an Enoch who is different from the usual one, and in it nine “Beatitudes” are listed. In particular, the author takes some credit for stating that this document originated in the early Christian era, and he suggests that what we have just characterized as such a profound document might have been copied from the following nine beatitudes of the “Slavic Enoch”:

“1. Blessed is the one who fears the name of the Lord and serves before him continually,” and so on.
“2. Blessed is the one who renders a just judgment, not for the sake of reward, but for the sake of justice, expecting nothing in return; a righteous judgment will be granted to him later.
3. Blessed is the one who clothes the naked and shares his bread with the hungry.
4. Blessed is the one who renders a just verdict for the orphan and the widow and stands by anyone who suffers injustice.
5. Blessed is he who turns away from the erratic path of this vain world and walks the righteous path that leads to eternal life.
6. Blessed is the one who sows the seed of righteousness; he will reap a sevenfold harvest.
7. Blessed is the one in whom there is truth, that he may speak the truth to his neighbor.
8. Blessed is the one who has love on their lips and gentleness in their heart.
9. “Blessed is the one who understands every word of the Lord and praises the Lord God,” and so on.

[ 39 ] These sentences are certainly beautiful. But if you consider them in their overall structure and in terms of what they really amount to—namely, an enumeration of certain sound principles that can be stated at any time, except precisely during a period of upheaval characterized by the introduction of the ego-force—then, if you were to compare them with the “Beatitudes” of the Gospel of Matthew, you are on the same level as those who superficially compare the religions of humanity and, whenever they find something similar, immediately declare a similarity without paying attention to what really matters.

[ 40 ] When one knows what really matters, one realizes for the first time that there is progress in human evolution, that humanity is advancing from stage to stage, and that a person is not born anew in a physical body in a later millennium to experience what they have already experienced, but rather to experience what humanity has ascended to in the meantime. That is the meaning of history. And that is the meaning of human evolution. The Gospel of Matthew speaks of this very meaning of history and human evolution on every one of its pages!