The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The Wisdom of the Ancient Texts and the Gospels. The Christ Event

[ 1 ] When we look back on the development of humanity—as far back as history allows us to go—we encounter something very peculiar. We can examine what we encounter there through a wide variety of phenomena. Above all—and we shall see today how, fundamentally, what is about to be said applies to every human heart, to every human soul—we can examine this human development through the various documents, traditions, and writings that have been preserved for us. If we go back to the ideas that the various peoples of antiquity formed about the origin of the world, about the relationship of humanity to the world, and about the sources of morality and goodness, we find that these ideas are recorded in sagas, myths, and legends. We find such sagas, myths, and legends in forms that are more or less beautiful, magnificent, powerful, or even less significant among the most diverse peoples of the world. People today are so inclined to treat these myths, sagas, and legends as fiction and to say: Peoples invented these in their childhood, because they did not yet have the sources of modern science. — They formed all sorts of ideas about how the world came into being: in the sense of the Greeks through their gods, in the sense of the ancient Germanic peoples through their gods, and, for my part, in the sense of the American peoples, whose legends have only recently come to us and which correspond to what is found among other peoples. When we hear how Quetzalcoatl and Vitzliputzli play a role among the Central American peoples—similar to, though more primitive than, other powerfully developed figures found among other peoples—we see that legends and myths are found among all such peoples. And as has already been mentioned, modern man is easily inclined to say: These are fictions, fantastical creations of the human mind, which sought in this way to explain how the various entities of the world and the various natural phenomena came into being.

[ 2 ] Among the various documents, we now find a monumental one that a large number of you have recently examined with me: a monumental document, Genesis, the beginning of the Old Testament. And we saw in Munich just what infinite depths lie within this Genesis. For some of you, the various Gospels—the last of the documents of this kind—have already been discussed from the perspective of spiritual knowledge. We find these preserved, originating from the various eras in which our previous incarnations took place, which we experienced in earlier earthly lives. Those advancing in spiritual knowledge must learn to understand that they were present in the times when people spoke, let us say, of Zeus and Hera and Cronus and other gods, and spoke of natural phenomena in a different way than today—precisely in the form found in myths, legends, and fairy tales. We must keep all this in mind. And we must ask ourselves: What is actually the situation with our souls, which have absorbed such things, which now—for most people, in a sense without their knowing what was deposited within them back then—are emerging again in their souls?

[ 3 ] Well, I would like to explain to you quite simply what happens to these documents for someone who initially begins by accepting them as legends, myths, and fiction, but who then delves into spiritual science and uses it as a tool to understand these documents more and more deeply.

[ 4 ] Take the Old Testament, for example, which most people today might read as a rather beautiful collection of various images about the creation of the world; he finds himself gradually coming to the realization that these things, which are presented there in such a strange way, contain infinite wisdom. — And he comes to realize more and more that the individual words, phrases, and sentences contain things—if one understands them correctly—to which spiritual research leads us again today entirely on its own. There is perhaps no more effective means of increasing our appreciation of such documents than to delve a little into spiritual science. For the most subtle discoveries one can make in the field of spiritual science, the most profound things that are rediscovered with great effort through spiritual scientific research, are subsequently found in some biblical passage, say, in Genesis.

[ 5 ] However, there is a certain difference between the Old Testament and all other legends, myths, and ancient texts. This must be noted. Take the legends of the Greeks, the ancient Germanic peoples, even what is contained in the Vedas of the Indians, what is contained in the Persian texts—take everything of this kind. Compared to the Old Testament, there is a tremendous difference. To the impartial observer, this difference presents itself in such a way that in all other documents, the mysteries of natural phenomena—the mysteries of everything related to natural phenomena, including human beings— insofar as he has a kind of natural existence, insofar as the forces of nature compel man in this or that direction; whereas in the Old Testament, the sole and exclusive premise is that man is conceived from the very beginning as a moral and spiritual being, not as a mere natural being. And everything that is told there proceeds from the premise that human beings are placed within the course of development as moral-spiritual beings. What modern science says in this regard rests on very shaky ground. It all crumbles to nothing when one truly views things in accordance with the spirit. A fundamental difference thus emerges, so that one can say: Through all the other records that are otherwise brought to us from the world, it becomes clear that human beings had powerful revelations from some source, powerful revelations that were expressed in this legendary form, as found in myths, which arose from a foundation of deep wisdom, but which do not pertain to the moral-spiritual mysteries of the human being. This, then, is clear under all circumstances.

[ 6 ] Now, however, a significant difference emerges when one compares the New Testament with all other documents of this kind. There is a completely different spirit at work here than in all other documents, including the Old Testament. How might one grasp this difference when approaching the matter from an anthroposophical perspective? This difference will become clear to us once we bring another phenomenon to mind.

[ 7 ] Let us imagine a person who has never heard of spiritual science, but who is entirely a product of the scientific or other so-called rational education of the present day, and who therefore has no opportunity to interpret the ancient documents through the lens of spiritual science. We can imagine him—perhaps not at all educated, or perhaps highly educated; the difference does not matter much—we picture him as being far removed from spiritual science, and we assume that he then approaches these ancient documents—the Greek, Persian, Indian, Germanic documents, and so on—he approaches them with everything that modern thinking can offer him. If he now truly feels not even a hint of what spiritual research is, a peculiar phenomenon arises. Depending on whether he is more or less inclined to be poetic or sober, a difference will certainly arise, but on the whole, we may say, a phenomenon becomes apparent. Such a person can never truly understand the ancient documents today; he cannot penetrate the manner in which wisdom is conveyed there. We are witnessing the most grotesque examples in this field. One need only point to the very latest attempts to explain such ancient documents. There is, in fact, a little book out today that is interesting precisely because of its ridiculousness, in which a comprehensive attempt is made to explain all myths up to the Gospels, starting from the earliest documents of the most primitive peoples. It is a little book that is extraordinarily interesting precisely because of its grotesque manner—indeed, its grotesquely foolish manner—of grasping things. The book is called *Orpheus*. It is by Salomon Reinach, who is famous in France as a researcher in this field. He is, particularly among scholars, a telling example of a man who has not sensed even a hint of the path by which one can penetrate such matters. A certain method is applied to everything, and everything is dismissed as unimportant. All things are merely symbolic. There are no real entities behind Hermes, Orpheus, and others. These figures are merely symbols and allegories. It is not at all proper to repeat among decent people what is given as an interpretation of these symbols; the language used there is such that one would not wish to repeat it. In this way, everything that lives as reality in the myths can be disproved, and thus the reality of Demeter and Persephone is dismissed, disproved. All these names are said to be there merely as symbols. This is done according to a method by which one could easily demonstrate to children that, even if eighty years had passed, a man named Salomon Reinach never lived in France at the beginning of the 20th century, but rather that contemporary culture has summarized under the name Salomon Reinach what is contained in his book. — That could be wonderfully proven. Nevertheless, such things cause an extraordinary stir today. And using the same method, evidence is now being presented in Germany that Jesus never lived, which has likewise caused a great stir in recent times.

[ 8 ] If we now ask ourselves: What is the real reason that today one cannot penetrate to the heart of things without spiritual science—and it is a fact that one cannot do so without it—what is the real reason? — If one wants to understand this reason, one must look a little deeper into the development of humanity. One must look back a while into this human development. Then it becomes clear that one must say to oneself: The ancients certainly did not possess the kind of sciences that people have today—the kind of sciences taught in the most elementary schools about the sun and other things. Such sciences, which are grasped by the intellect, by reason. — That is something humanity has only recently attained. And our souls, when they were born in earlier incarnations, certainly could not have absorbed such sciences, for they did not exist; they were not incorporated into the culture. But the further back we go in evolution, the more we find—whether we now seek the reasons for this, which we have often explained to many of you, here or there—that people possessed a wisdom in a form quite different from today’s, a wisdom concerning spiritual matters that people today are unable to express in its scientific form. But wisdom ruled the souls, lived in the souls. It was simply there. Above all, the initiated leaders of humanity possessed this wisdom, and it can be historically demonstrated—if one has an anthroposophical spirit—that a primal revelation, a primal wisdom, was poured out over the entire human race on Earth, which manifested itself in various ways here and there according to the different stages of development. If one views history with a truly anthroposophical spirit, one finds this primordial revelation. Only one thing is still necessary for this. The ordinary scientific human spirit of today must, if it wishes to penetrate all these documents in their true sense, certainly undergo a preparation—I am simply stating a fact here—a preparation that enables it to penetrate the spirit of those ancient writings. This preparation consists of studying the documents that can be studied directly today. These are the Gospels; these are the Pauline Epistles. Through what is described there, one can directly approach the primordial revelation in the ancient documents and understand it. This is a remarkable fact. But if a spiritual researcher, influenced by the prejudices of our time, were to feel a certain aversion to approaching these Gospels—he might say, “This is just one religion among many”—then it would become clear that he cannot make sense of the other ancient documents either. Everywhere, an incomprehensible residue would remain for him. But if he approaches, even if only in spirit, any aspect of the events in Palestine, allowing himself to be inspired by them, as it were, then a ray of enlightenment can indeed emanate from the Gospels onto the matters in the other documents. This is a fact, and one can experience it firsthand. And then one admits to oneself that these Gospels and the Pauline Epistles are actually necessary for a proper return to earlier times. One cannot ignore them, cannot disregard them. One need not, if one can truly read the spiritual records, the Akashic Records, approach the written Gospels at all—but one must go through the events in Palestine. Otherwise, certain things regarding what preceded them will always remain unclear. So I did not wish to point specifically to the written word, but rather to the events as they have presented themselves to us in reality within the course of human development. This is a very, very important fact.

[ 9 ] I would like to shed a little light on this fact from another perspective. Let us note what I have said: One cannot bypass the Christ event if one wishes to understand what is given as a primordial revelation to humanity; otherwise, one stumbles somewhere along the way. If I am to describe how the matter actually stands, I must say the following: Let us suppose that a modern spiritual researcher is investigating the past, and he has no sense—and the sense is of great importance—for the Christ event; he passes by the Christ event and approaches the other, earlier events of human development, then he will find everywhere, truly everywhere, that he becomes uncertain. But let us suppose we had such a spiritual researcher who was born and lived before Christ Jesus and who had already come very far in terms of clairvoyance and was also highly developed in other respects, who in a certain sense would already have been mature enough before the time of Christ to survey the entire past in such a way that he could have passed through the Christ event even then, because he was ahead of his time. Let us suppose he had lived five or six centuries before Christ, had been as mature as a spiritual researcher today, able to go back through the Christ and reach the earlier events; then we can quite literally ask ourselves: What would such a spiritual researcher have to be like in order not to fall prey to the Luciferic or Ahrimanic forces? — Let us suppose that such a person would actually need to go beyond the Christ event, but that this Christ event had not yet taken place when he lived. It would then turn out for such a person that he would either content himself lightheartedly with what presents itself to him, with what he can see—he would then say all sorts of things that are not quite right—or else he would reach the point where he says to himself: Now something is missing for me; I cannot find something by looking back; I cannot find something I need on my path. — And furthermore, he would admit to himself: Here I become uncertain. I must seek something I need, but it is not yet here on Earth; it cannot be found in the Earth’s development.

[ 10 ] I have, so to speak, based on theory, painted a picture of a figure from the 5th or 6th century B.C. who would have been mature enough to find Jesus Christ even in retrospect. But because Christ was not yet on Earth, he could not be found as an earthly reality. For me, this theory recently became a very real reality. It happened when I was able to visit our branch in Palermo this year. As I sailed toward Palermo on the ship, it suddenly became clear to me: Some mystery will be solved for you, one that can only be easily solved through the immediate impression you receive here in this place. — And that was indeed solved very soon. The personality I have just spoken of to you in theoretical terms immediately met me in the very atmosphere of Sicily—I would say in the entire astral body of Sicily. It was there, quite alive. This personality, which often appears enigmatic, lives on, so to speak, in the very atmosphere of Sicily. It is that of Empedocles. This ancient Greek philosopher lived in Sicily in the 5th century B.C. He was, as even the most casual historian knows, deeply versed in a wide variety of subjects and accomplished great feats in Sicily in particular.

[ 11 ] If one first turns one’s attention to him intellectually, this figure presents a curious picture. By looking back at Empedocles’ development, by tracing his life—what he accomplished as a statesman, an architect, and a philosopher; how he traveled about; how he had his enthusiastic students; how he initiated them into the various mysteries of the world—if one traces him in this way, not through the lens of external history, then one discovers that this was a personality who knew infinitely more of what modern people possess in terms of scientific knowledge. This personality had a thoroughly modern spirit, a modern aura. Empedocles had indeed reached the point where he asked about the origin of the world. And he would truly have been ready to find Christ, by looking back, as the answer to how everything came to be. But Christ had not yet been there; he could not yet be found on Earth at that time; he was still missing from the Earth. Amid these experiences, Empedocles became wavering, and this very thing fostered a peculiar longing within him, and this longing transformed in him—in a manner quite different from that of the trivial minds of today—into a passion for viewing the world materialistically. Lucifer approached him. One need only vividly imagine how this came about. He was a modern mind, yet initiated into the most diverse mysteries, highly clairvoyant. Through his modern thinking, he was inclined to view the world materialistically, and there is indeed such a materialistic system of his in which he depicts the world much as today’s materialistic chemist does by mixing and separating the elements. Only he distinguishes merely the four elements. Depending on how they mix, he thought, the most diverse entities are formed. This view generated in him a powerful passion to discover what lies behind these material elements, what is in the air, what is in the water.

[ 12 ] When we look back through the Akashic Records today and gaze into air, water, fire, and earth, we find Christ present there in an ethereal form. Empedocles could not find him. He felt an overwhelming urge to discover something within air, water, fire, and earth, to uncover what lies within them. And one sees this personality seized by this powerful urge to penetrate into the very essence of the material elements. And this ultimately leads him to actually make a kind of sacrifice. For it is no mere legend: he threw himself into Mount Etna to unite with the elements. The Luciferic power, the urge to master the elements, drove him to this physical union with the elements. This death of Empedocles lives on in the spiritual atmosphere of Sicily. That is a great mystery of this remarkable land.

[ 13 ] And now let us imagine this soul of Empedocles, which has shed its body in this way by having it burned. It is reborn at a later time, when Christ has already been here. A completely different situation now presents itself for this soul. Previously, it had, as it were, sacrificed itself to the elements; then it arises anew, but as it now looks back, it beholds Christ. And all elemental knowledge arises anew. What this soul knew arises in a completely new form. The personality of Empedocles was indeed reborn later. I am simply not permitted at this moment to say under what name. But if one compares the later reincarnation of Empedocles, which took place further north, if one compares this figure, as he later lives from the turn of the Middle Ages to modern times, with that of Empedocles who plunged into the Atma, then the giant impulse that arose from the fact that the Christ event on Earth occurred in between comes vividly to mind.

[ 14 ] What occurs in the case of any individual, however, takes place for every soul, including all of your souls. Even if all these souls did not feel the powerful urge that Empedocles felt, they nevertheless looked back on the past with a certain unease as the time of the Christ event drew near, because they could not find their bearings, because the time was drawing ever closer when the ancient knowledge would fade away. If we go back to earlier times, we find that those who preserved the tradition of ancient knowledge stepped forward before the people; that they told—let us imagine this in our minds—powerful tales, such as are preserved, as far as I am concerned, in Greek mythology, as they were communicated to the ancient Greeks. But this was merely an occasion for the ancient Greeks, when they were, let us say, in a particular state—which occurred to a greater extent then than it does now—to sense the truth of these myths, and for these myths to give them the impulse to look into the spiritual world. But this predisposition was lost among human beings. It came to pass that this inner power to look up into the spiritual world was lost precisely to the extent that intellectual science advanced. You can calculate it, you can read in any small handbook just how far back our views go—views that today, I would say, even children absorb, if not with their mother’s milk, then certainly with their school milk. They go back a few centuries before the beginning of the Christian era. There is a massive break there. If people go further back and want to understand the ancient documents, they can no longer do so; to them, they appear only as fiction, as legends, as myths. This is something that really ought to be examined more closely. There will be more and more people who, without having inherited any predisposition to understand ancient documents, will not understand them. People will come to the view that behind everything that is considered science lies a vast field of error, because most educated people believe that we now know for certain how the Earth moves, and that what was said about it in the past was nothing but nonsense. So this is already the case; regarding the Earth’s motion, one goes back only as far as the Copernican view. That is a somewhat late example. But even with geometry, one goes back only as far as Euclid. Before that time, modern man sees utter darkness in this field. Thus modern man does not find the wisdom, the primordial revelation; he finds no way to penetrate it.

[ 15 ] If one truly accepts this as a fact, then—and this can become apparent even to the simplest mind through a healthy intuition—then something that emerges from the highest anthroposophical studies can crystallize into a fundamental conviction. One must surely come to say to oneself: This is not the true form in which I perceive the world. — If that were the true form, then one would actually have no need to investigate. Then no research would be necessary at all; the world would simply have to present itself as it is; but modern research does not accept it that way either. There would be no Copernican revolution if one were to accept what the senses present at face value. Even external science contradicts sensory experience. If one goes further, one will see that one cannot stop at what the senses provide, at what external experience of the physical world provides. This must be corrected under all circumstances by human beings, and by external science as well. One may not usually admit this to oneself, but it is nevertheless true. As soon as one understands oneself—even merely as an ordinary thinker with what one learns today—one must say to oneself: Everything boils down to seeing through the illusion of the senses; otherwise there would be no science, there would be no thinking. — But if that is the case, then there is actually something that allows us to understand quite easily what the world is gradually evolving toward. If we consider the matter a little in the light of anthroposophy, this will be confirmed. So when one says to oneself: There was a primal wisdom; human beings were such that they were given a primal wisdom, which they saw only in images, but such a primal wisdom did exist; only, as humanity developed further, understanding of it was increasingly lost, and people understood this primal wisdom less and less—then it is also quite clear: the less they understood it as science, as intellect, and reason developed.

[ 16 ] Now we can ask: What, then, will have come to pass at a certain point in time? — Let us imagine the situation; let us imagine a pre-Christian person who lived under certain conditions. He will have looked out at the world, will have seen all manner of things, but beyond that, there was within this person’s soul the capacity to look beyond those things. This capacity was still there. So for him it was a fact that behind every flower there is an etheric body. That was a fact for him. But this ability was gradually lost. It was lost because reason and intellect, as they prevail today, banish this ability. It cannot be reconciled with the other ability; these are two opposing forces. It is a fact—and this is a shared experience of all true spiritual researchers—that intellect, thinking in the ordinary sense, has a scorching, burning effect on what is the initiated perception of things. So that even in history, to the extent that intellect and reason in the ordinary sense have taken hold, the science of the ancient spiritual vision has been lost, and with it the understanding of the ancient tradition. A number of centuries had to pass, then; the person I have described to you had to be replaced by another, and that person might have said to himself: It would, of course, be a grave prejudice to believe that truth is as the world presents itself to the senses. Human reason must be brought to bear everywhere. — Faith in human reason was decisive. It must first dissect things as they are; it must set to work on sensory phenomena and grasp them logically.

[ 17 ] Such a person might have said: The advantage that humans have over the other creatures of the earth is that they possess reason, that they can grasp cause and effect as they lie behind sensory phenomena. They can deduce them; and because they possess reason, they can communicate with one another through language. — For one could soon see that language is a daughter of reason. And such a person might say: The highest good is, of course, reason. — And if we wanted to picture him clearly, we would have to imagine a person who says: “So, man, trust only your reason; analyze everything with your reason, and then you will arrive at the truth.” — Let’s assume such a person had appeared. I described to you one such person as he might theoretically appear to you, but such a person has very certainly existed. A characteristic figure of this kind is Cicero, who lived shortly before Christ. You need only examine him, and you will see that he thinks exactly this way, namely: Reason can comprehend everything. It is not true that the world is as it presents itself to the senses; but reason can comprehend everything. — And precisely among these people who appeared shortly before Christ, there is an invincible faith in reason. They call reason God himself, who reigns in all things. This is what Cicero does.

[ 18 ] But let’s suppose that someone were to uncover the secrets of all this. Let’s suppose that someone were to observe the whole thing with an open mind, watching as it all gradually unfolds. How would he describe the entire process? Let’s suppose that a century before Christ, a deeply perceptive person were to observe the whole thing. How would the whole story appear to him? Well, he would say: Here we see two currents within humanity. One is in decline: the old clairvoyant power. In its place, reason steps forward. It eradicates and destroys in human beings the ability to look into the spiritual world. Deep darkness will spread in relation to the spiritual world. Those who believe in the authority of reason do indeed think that through their reason they can get to the bottom of things. These people completely forget what this reason is that they speak of. This reason is, after all, bound solely to the brain; it can make use of no other instrument than the brain; it therefore belongs to the physical world and must consequently share the characteristics of the physical world. — Such a person would therefore say: Go ahead and insist on your reason and claim that with it you can comprehend what lies behind things, for things are not true in and of themselves; but remember that this very reason belongs to these things. You are physical beings among others; your reason belongs to the physical world. And if you believe that reason is precisely what allows you to get to the bottom of everything else, you are pulling the rug out from under your own feet.

[ 19 ] That is how such a person would have spoken. And they would have gone on to say: Certainly, people tend to rely more and more on reason, to insist more and more on the intellect. But in doing so, they build a wall between themselves and the spiritual world, for they use an instrument that is not at all applicable to the spiritual world, that is confined to the physical world. And yet humanity is developing precisely in the direction of cultivating this instrument. — And perhaps this personality, had she known the course of events precisely, would also have said: If people are to return to the spiritual world at all, then the possibility must arise that they will not merely wish to make use of their reason—this tool that functions only in the physical world—but that an impulse will arise enabling them to ascend once more, an impulse that drives reason itself upward into the spiritual worlds. But this can only happen if something within the human being dies—that which grounds in him the firm belief in the sole dominion of reason. That must die.

[ 20 ] We must therefore imagine human beings descending further and further into the material world, with their brains becoming increasingly developed. If human beings were to become so completely dependent on their reason, they would be unable to escape from it. For then their physical body would lead them to believe: “Away with everything that our earthly intellect cannot grasp.” — But this is the physical body, which, by developing in a subtle way, numbs the human being so that he cannot realize that he is thereby remaining in the physical world. If you imagine this, you will see that the human being is actually caught as if in a noose. He cannot free himself from it on his own. Human development to date has brought people to the point where they cannot escape from within themselves, where they face the danger of being gradually and completely overwhelmed by physical corporeality. What can possibly help humanity in this situation? If, at a time when reason has reached this stage, when the possibility arises that reason might be transformed so that what blinds it can die out within it, then this must indeed die out. But there must be an impulse through which, once and for all, that which could overwhelm humanity in its mere faith in reason is overcome. Do you feel the power of this impulse? Do you feel that this was the meaning of human development? Physicality had developed to such an extent that it would have overwhelmed humanity, and humanity would have come to believe that it must remain within the physical world and yet could not get beyond Maya—without realizing at all that, through reason itself, it is already within Maya—had it not been for something that snatches it out as soon as it is taken in, and which can counteract the descent into the physical, which actually works its way into the etheric body, so that the latter has the ability to kill what leads to such error. Otherwise, humanity would have remained in the snare of its overwhelming physicality.

[ 21 ] And now let us set aside the idea of a person who might have spoken in this way at the time of the coming of Christ Jesus. Now let us see how a person of today might view the matter—any one of us. He might say to himself: If I look impartially at how humanity has developed, at how reason—this instrument belonging to Maya—has grown ever stronger, then I must surely be in error if I simply surrender to the course of world development. This course is such that, unless I take up the impulse that the part of me which leads me to this may die out, I am bound to remain trapped within reason. What must have happened there? I must be able to look back to a time when this impulse entered. I must find something that points to an event in the historical development of humanity, working toward the point where the ongoing course of development in the materialistic sense has been turned upside down. If I were to look within myself today and find nothing of the sort, what else would I find there? There I would see reason extending further and further back to a point at the beginning of our calendar where it first begins to take effect. But beyond that? There it grows dark, there it grows black; there I need something entirely different. — But then it becomes lighter, for there everyone must encounter the Christ. Everyone must, if they wish to believe at all in the possibility that they are progressing, that in subsequent incarnations there can be something within them that drives them upward, that does not allow them to be overwhelmed by Maya; everyone must encounter the Christ when looking back. That can give them the ascent.

[ 22 ] Let us suppose that the Gospels did not exist; then one could say: We did not need them as anthroposophists; we did not need the Gospels; we only needed to observe the course of human development with an open mind and ask ourselves: What would become of every human being if they could not look back on an event in which the entire meaning of earlier development was turned on its head? — Then we must encounter Christ when we go back in development. The anthroposophist must be able to find him, and the initiated knower finds him under all circumstances.

[ 23 ] That is a mystery of Christianity. The texts—one can certainly dispute them; they are, after all, not historical documents. All those clever people, Jensen and others, who dismiss the Gospels in a pedantically scholarly manner, viewing them as mere legends, have a certain justification for their position because they rely solely on external reason. But the moment we become anthroposophists, we can say: We do not need the Gospels at all; we need only the facts that spiritual science itself provides us, and as we trace back through human evolution, we find the living Christ, just as Paul found him through the event at Damascus. This is what we can also attain if we seek Christ in the anthroposophical sense. For after all, Paul was in a situation similar to that of a modern anthroposophist who does not wish to accept the Gospels. The Gospels did not yet exist in his time, but he was able to go to Jerusalem. What he heard there—what is later described in the Gospels—did not convince him; otherwise, he would not have left Jerusalem. So today’s person, too, does not need to be convinced by what is written there. He need only be able, through anthroposophy, to experience something like what Paul experienced. Then it is a Damascus experience; then he has the proof of Christ entirely without any documents, just as was the case with Paul.

[ 24 ] It is only natural that this points to something profound in human development, to something extraordinarily profound in human development. In a certain sense, what existed for the reborn Empedocles in the 15th and 16th centuries—who looked back to earlier times and then saw what he had not been able to see before—exists for everyone, even for the simplest person. Earlier, he had become so uncertain that he threw himself into Mount Etna. In the 15th and 16th centuries, he looked back, and what had been inexplicable to him at the time was now explained by the Christ principle. And through this, he became one of the most remarkable figures of later times.

[ 25 ] This is simply how things appear to every person without documents as they look back. Later, all people will look back on past incarnations and will be able to distinguish clearly: these are incarnations that took place before Christ, and these are incarnations that took place after Christ. And what the simple soul instinctively feels today when reading the Gospels will then emerge as knowledge. This is what distinguishes the Gospels from other documents: they are the next documents that must be understood. This is a great, beautiful, and powerful point of passage: the Gospels. When we pass through them, light dawns, whereas otherwise darkness spreads.

[ 26 ] It is indeed true. Because Christianity is still in the early stages of its development, modern people sometimes find themselves at a loss when it comes to understanding things of the past. But when they turn to an event in the life of Christ, they are inspired, and everything becomes clear. And what the spiritual researcher discovers, the ordinary person can also experience. They can undergo a reflection in their own soul of what I have just explained. They may feel quite weighed down by human weaknesses and faults, but they must of course tell themselves: What I am today, I have become through all the generations. — For if he were to deny that, he might as well claim that he was his own father and his own mother. It is therefore something that leads back to the rest of humanity, and a person may feel quite weighed down by the various faults, illnesses, and weaknesses they possess. But there is always the possibility of rising above them, even for the simplest mind. I am not saying this in the orthodox sense. What is available to the spiritual researcher is also available to the simplest mind. If one feels quite weak, takes up the Gospels and reads them, strength will flow from the Gospels, because from them flows the power of the Word, which enters the etheric body. The Gospels are words of power. This is something that does not merely speak to the intellect, but penetrates into deeper soul forces; it does not rely solely on this intellect situated in Maya, but rather reaches into deeper powers and can, so to speak, comfort the intellect from above. This is the great power of the Gospels, which is available to every single human being, and this is what is so powerful about these texts; this is what distinguishes them from all others. One can deny this fact, but then one will end up denying the very possibility of human progress.

[ 27 ] Here, attention is drawn to a fact that is not immediately easy to understand. You can also grasp what was necessary to prepare that person whom I initially placed hypothetically before your soul—the one who, about a century before our era, predicted that someone would have to come who would provide the impetus that brings about the turning point.

[ 28 ] “That must have been a significant figure. She was also sufficiently prepared. For a long time, those in the circles of the initiated had been striving to create the conditions whereby at least some might, so to speak, comprehend the approaching age, comprehend what is being prepared: what, on the one hand, leads humanity into a snare, and what, on the other hand, leads humanity upward again through the appearance of the Christ. This was taught prophetically. And the one who, a little more than a century before our era, was chosen to teach this prophetically in circles capable of understanding it, was an initiate of the Essene community, which was close to the very circles into which Christ entered, and who proclaimed: he would come who leads humanity upward once more. The one who taught this within the Essene community was a very significant individual. External history actually knows little of him, but he has been handed down in legend, at least by certain writers, so that he is not merely a mythological figure or mentioned solely within spiritual science. He lived a hundred years before Christ and also had records made by one of his five or six disciples. One of the disciples of this figure, who pointed toward Christ and foretold him, knew what was at stake. This figure had a disciple named Mathai, who recorded the mysteries concerning Christ. But the figure in question was Jeshu ben Pandira. Because he taught such things, he also had to endure the corresponding martyrdom. He was stoned in his region and, after the stoning—dead—was hung up. This Jeshu ben Pandira—not to be confused with Jesus of Nazareth—who was the great forerunner of the Christ, had what he knew recorded, and this document then came into the hands of the one who incorporated it, along with its mysteries, into the Gospel we call the Gospel according to Matthew. This is an important, an exceptionally important fact to grasp: first, the necessity of the Christ impulse; then, from a spiritual-historical perspective, how Jeshu ben Pandira in a certain sense even prefigures—by first being stoned and then, as it were, crucified afterward—what then unfolds as the Christ Mystery of Golgotha. Christ was not stoned, but crucified. And in this death the miraculous occurs: that at that time, in the moment when the blood flowed from the wounds, that which then passes into the Earth’s atmosphere brings about—for those who, in their etheric bodies, look back upon this event, pass through it, and gaze, as it were, into the tomb of Christ—that as they pass through this point, enter into a luminous past. In contrast, without this event, darkness will spread over all that lay before.

[ 29 ] Think about what has been said today. My task was to hint at this for you. It is such a vast subject that only hints could be given. But I have presented these hints in such a way that, when you examine what you know and hold in your hearts, you will realize how much of what I have had to say to you today is confirmed by life and by your own inner being.