The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] If you recall how we concluded our discussion yesterday, you might be able to summarize the outcome of that discussion in the following words: From the events in Palestine, from the Mystery of Golgotha onward to the dawn of that epoch—which has been sufficiently characterized and at whose threshold we stand, so to speak, in our own age—the Christ event was such that human beings could, exoterically, arrive at a kind of experience of the Christ impulse through various paths—an experience prior to actual initiation. We have said that one of these exoteric paths is that through the Gospels, through the New Testament. For we can indeed gather from all that has been said that the content of the Gospels, when we take it into our souls in the appropriate way and allow it to work upon us, actually brings forth an inner experience for each individual. And this inner experience can indeed be described as the Christ experience. We then said that the other path for the exotericist was to respond to what the esotericist—who is, in a certain sense, an initiate—could proclaim from the spiritual worlds, so that even those still standing at the threshold of initiation could come to the Christ event, not through the traditional Gospel, but through the ongoing revelations from the spiritual worlds. Then yesterday we mentioned the third path, that of inner spiritual deepening, and pointed out that this path must begin in our soul with the realization of how a person, when they perceive only the divine spark within themselves, can be driven to pride and arrogance, and how, on the other hand, if they do not become aware of their connection with God, can thereby be driven to despair. And we then saw how, in fact, the wavering between despair on the one hand, and pride and arrogance on the other, since the events in Palestine, has been aimed at allowing the Christ event to be born within us. It has also been pointed out how all this will change for human development over the next three millennia, beginning with our era. And we have pointed to the significant event that is a successor to the Mystery of Golgotha, but which will be visible only in the supersensible worlds. We have also pointed out, however, that human capacities will be elevated, and that beginning with our era, a sufficiently large number of people will grow up to behold the Christ, so that what has hitherto rightly existed in the world as faith will be superseded by what may be called the beholding of the Christ.

[ 2 ] It will now be our task, in the course of these lectures, to further describe how the ordinary form of the Christ experience—as an emotional experience—properly opens the way to what can be called Christian initiation. In the coming ‘days,’ we will speak more specifically about the form of Christian initiation, just as we will also have the task of characterizing the nature of the Christ event in greater detail. Thus, a picture of Christian initiation—as well as of the Christ event from the baptism of John to the fulfillment of the Mystery of Golgotha—is to come before our souls in these days.

[ 3 ] If you consider the summary of our reflections so far, a question may arise—and it is entirely justified: What, then, is the actual relationship between external Christianity—that is, Christian development as it manifests itself in world history—and the Christ event itself? To anyone living in the present with a clear consciousness—who has not undergone any particular mystical experiences or perhaps completed the initial stages of esotericism—it must surely seem strange that a very specific kind of spiritual experience in every human being should be so dependent on a historical fact, on the events in Palestine, on Golgotha, and that something was previously impossible for the human soul which is said to have become possible afterwards through these events, namely the inner experience of Christ.

[ 4 ] The leaders of the early Christians, as well as the early Christians themselves, were very clearly aware of this fact, and in preparation for the coming days, it would be quite helpful if we were to touch briefly today on what was going on in the minds of the early Christians.

[ 5 ] It would be very easy to believe—and indeed this view later became more and more of a kind of orthodox, very one-sided perspective—that people in pre-Christian times were radically different from those in post-Christian times. That this view is one-sided can already be seen from the words of Augustine: “What is now called the Christian religion already existed among the ancients and was not absent in the beginnings of the human race; and when Christ appeared in the flesh, the true religion, which had already existed, received the name of Christian.” People were thus well aware in Augustine’s time that there is not such a radical difference between pre-Christian and post-Christian times as Orthodoxy and Zealotism assume. Justin the Martyr also makes a quite remarkable statement in his writings. Justin, who is indeed recognized by the Church as a martyr and Church Father, reflects on the relationship of Socrates and Heraclitus to Christ. Justin truly still perceives, in a certain purity, in Christ what we described yesterday regarding the relationship of Christ to Jesus of Nazareth, and he also elaborates his idea of the Christ-essence accordingly. He says, in the spirit of his time, what we can still repeat today in the same words: Christ or the Logos was incarnated in the man Jesus of Nazareth. Now he asks himself: Was the Logos not present in the outstanding personalities of pre-Christian times? Was humanity in pre-Christian times entirely alien to the Logos? Justin the Martyr answers this question with “No.” That is by no means the case, he says; Socrates and Heraclitus were also human beings in whom the Logos lived. Only they did not possess it fully; and through the Christ event, it has become possible for human beings to experience the Logos fully within themselves, in its original, perfected form.

[ 6 ] From such a passage by a figure widely recognized as a Church Father, we learn, first of all, that the early Christians were familiar with what has always existed, as Augustine says, and which was introduced into the development of the Earth only in a higher form through the Mystery of Golgotha. The other is an answer from the early Christian centuries to the question we ourselves had to raise today. Even people who were still close to the events of Golgotha, such as Justin the Martyr, who also knew much more about the nature of those people who were only a few centuries removed from them—such as Heraclitus and Socrates—such people thought at that time: even though an outstanding person like Socrates lived, he—despite having experienced the Logos within himself—was nevertheless unable to experience it fully within himself, not completely in its most intense form. And that is important. This is, so to speak, a testimony from earlier times to how people felt that, even if we set aside the event of Golgotha, there lies something between the pre-Christian and post-Christian centuries that distinguishes pre-Christian people from post-Christian ones. And it is also, in a sense—other things could provide us with numerous proofs of this—possible to demonstrate historically, in the consciousness of earlier centuries, that people said to themselves: Human nature has simply changed; it has taken on a different character. It was simply the case that if one lived in the third century A.D. and looked back at the people of the third century B.C., one could say to oneself: “No matter how deeply they were able to penetrate the mysteries of existence in their own way—what can take place in people of the post-Christian era could not take place in them!” So what John the Baptist said: Change your view of the world, your conception of the world, for times have changed!, and what esoteric science confirms was also strongly and intensely present in the first centuries after Christ. We must grasp this very clearly: if one wishes to understand human development, one must abandon the entirely false notion that human beings have always been as they are today. For apart from the fact that one could not attribute any meaning to this in relation to reincarnation, one must nevertheless conclude from all that has been handed down to us and from what esoteric science reveals that the people of earlier times truly possessed what today exists only in the subconscious, namely a certain clairvoyance; that they subsequently descended from this height of clairvoyance, and that the lowest point in this downward development—where they developed the forces that obscured the ancient clairvoyant powers—lies in the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place.

[ 7 ] In the material realm, people believe that an extremely small amount of a substance can affect a large volume of liquid. For example, if you add a drop of a certain substance to a particular liquid, it spreads throughout the substance of that liquid and colors the entire liquid. Everyone can understand this in the material realm. However, it is impossible to understand spiritual life if one fails to grasp in the spiritual realm what is so easily understood in the material realm. Our Earth is not merely the material body that our eyes see, but our Earth also has a spiritual envelope. Just as we ourselves have an etheric body and an astral body, so too does our Earth have such higher bodies. And just as a small amount of substance expands in a liquid, so did that which radiated spiritually from the event on Golgotha expand into the spiritual atmosphere of the Earth, permeate it, and has been within it ever since. So since that time, something has been imparted to our Earth that it did not have before. And since souls do not merely live everywhere surrounded by the material, but since souls are like drops living in the sea of the earthly spiritual, human beings have been embedded since that time in the spiritual atmosphere of our Earth, which is permeated by the Christ impulse. This was not the case before the Mystery of Golgotha; and this is the great difference between pre-Christian and post-Christian life. If one cannot imagine that such a thing takes place in spiritual life, then one is not yet ready to truly grasp Christianity as a mystical fact, the full significance of which can only be recognized and acknowledged in the spiritual world.

[ 8 ] Anyone who looks back at the, in a certain sense, rather unedifying disputes regarding the nature and personality of Jesus of Nazareth and the nature and individuality of Christ will nevertheless be able to sense throughout the profane Gnostic and mystical views of the early Christian centuries how the best among those who at that time worked to spread Christianity actually stood in timid reverence before this mystical fact of Christianity. And especially in the case of the early Christian teachers, even if their words and phrases are sometimes quite abstract, one can clearly perceive how they stand in timid reverence before all that Christianity has actually accomplished for the development of the world. How they, in a certain way, say to themselves again and again: Actually, the weak human intellect, the weak human powers of feeling and perception, are not sufficient to truly express the immense significance and depth of what happened with the Mystery of Golgotha. — This inability to truly express the highest truths that one must touch upon—that is what runs like a magical breath through the early Christian teachings. And that is what can become a valuable lesson for oneself through reading such writings, even in our time. One can learn there to cultivate a certain modesty with regard to the highest truths, and one then comes to say to oneself, if one possesses the necessary humility and modesty in our time toward what is, after all, more recognizable at the threshold of a new Christian epoch than it was in the first Christian centuries: Certainly, it will be possible to recognize more, but no one who dares to speak today about the mysteries of Christianity should remain unaware of the fact that what we are able to say today about the deepest truths of human development will already be incomplete in a relatively short time. And because we wish to gradually move on to a deeper characterization of Christianity, it is necessary to emphasize even today how a person must conduct themselves inwardly toward the spiritual world if they wish to absorb or even disseminate the truths that have been flowing to us since the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

[ 9 ] It is therefore necessary that, even if one does not speak much about the concept of grace, one should nevertheless put it into practice to a great extent. And every occultist today is aware that this concept of grace must be an integral part of their inner spiritual practice to a very special degree. What is meant by this?

[ 10 ] What is meant by this is that today, quite independently of the Gospels and any tradition, one can investigate the deepest truths, insofar as they are connected with Christianity. But that everything connected with a certain thirst for knowledge, with an addiction to arriving as quickly as possible at a certain set of concepts—that all of this, even if not leading to complete error, will certainly lead to a distortion of the truth. So anyone who were to say to themselves: Since I am, after all, occultistically prepared, I must seek to understand, for example, how the letters of Paul or the Gospel of Matthew are to be interpreted in their content—anyone who were to undertake this and believe they could complete it at some point in time would certainly be mistaken. One can indeed penetrate these documents on a human level, but everything that can be known cannot be known today. For there is a golden rule especially for the occult researcher: to have patience and wait, not until we seek to grasp the truths through ourselves, but until they come to us. Thus, many will be able to approach the Epistles of Paul and will feel ready to recognize this or that, because it falls into view in the spiritual world through their open eye; but if they were to want to grasp another passage, perhaps right next to it, at the very same moment, they would not be able to do so. It is necessary in the present time to suppress this desire for knowledge. Rather, one should say to oneself: Grace has brought me a certain number of truths, and I will wait patiently until further truths flow to me. Today, a certain passive attitude toward the truths is truly more necessary than perhaps twenty years ago. But this is necessary because our spiritual senses must first fully mature in order to allow the truths to enter us in their proper form. This is a practical lesson regarding the exploration of the spiritual worlds, especially in their relation to the Christ event. It is fundamentally wrong for people to believe they can grasp what is meant to flow to them in a certain passive way. For we must be aware that we can only be what we are meant to be to the extent that we are deemed worthy by the spiritual powers to be this or that. And everything we can do in the way of meditation, contemplation, and so on, is essentially there only to open our eyes, not to grasp the truths that must come to us, which we must not chase after.

[ 11 ] In a certain sense, our time is ripe for those who, through passivity in their soul development in the sense described, cultivate a spirit of devotion—and one cannot enter the spiritual worlds with any other spirit—to grasp what was said earlier, that which stands at the forefront of our remarks today: that something flowed forth from the event on Golgotha like a spiritual, drop-like substance. Souls today are ready to grasp this. And we would not have many of the things that recent times have brought about if souls had not sought to mature in this way. I need only draw attention to one thing here: If Richard Wagner’s soul had not matured in a certain passive way, if he had not in a certain way sensed the Mystery of Golgotha, the outflow of that which dripped down into the spiritual atmosphere of humanity on Earth, we would not have been able to have “Parsifal” from him. One can read this in Richard Wagner where he speaks of the significance of the blood of Christ. And one can find many such spirits in our time who show us how that which hovers in the atmosphere is grasped by the souls into which it penetrates.

[ 12 ] And spiritual science exists for the very reason that, in fact, many souls—more than they themselves realize—have the opportunity today to receive from the spiritual world the kinds of influences that have been described; but such souls need guidance in this through an understanding of the spiritual world. And fundamentally, no one with an immature heart finds their way into spiritual science; no one who does not have a more or less sincere longing to recognize something of what has just been described. It may well be that some are driven into the spiritual science movement by curiosity or the like. But those who are drawn in with a sincere heart feel the longing to open their souls to what is being prepared, beginning in our time, for the future epoch of human development. People need spiritual science today because souls are becoming different from what they were just a short time ago. Just as souls underwent a great transformation in the time of the Golgotha event, so will they undergo another great transformation in our millennium and in those to come. And the emergence of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science is connected to the fact that souls, even if they are not clearly conscious of it, nevertheless have a vague sense that something of this nature is taking place in our time. For this reason, what has been initiated specifically on the basis of anthroposophical development has become necessary: a certain examination of the foundations of the Gospels. And if you can convince yourselves through an inner, honest feeling that there is something true about the Christ event, as it was presented yesterday, then you will find it understandable what has happened in the examination of the Gospels: You will then understand that with our anthroposophical interpretation of the Gospels, something has been done that is very different from all other interpretations of the Gospels as they have been practiced over the past centuries up to the present. For if anyone picks up the published lecture series or recalls the lectures that build upon the Gospels, they will see that throughout, we have returned to true meanings that can no longer be brought to light if one relies solely on today’s Gospel text.

[ 13 ] Put simply, this means nothing other than: From the existing translations of the Gospels, people can no longer arrive at what the Gospels actually intend to point to; for, in a certain sense, as they exist today, they are no longer entirely useful. What, then, has been done to explain the Christ event, and what must be done?

[ 14 ] Those who approach an understanding of the Christ event through spiritual science must realize that these Gospels were written by people who were spiritually able to look upon the Christ event with the spiritual eye; who, therefore, did not wish to write an external biography, but who drew upon the ancient initiation writings—these connections are described in greater detail in my work *Christianity as a Mystical Fact*—and pointed out how what had taken place in the depths of the Mysteries occurred in the Christ event on the plane of history through the divine course of human development. What thus took place on a small scale within the Mysteries with the one to be initiated, with the initiate, that is what took place with that Being we call Christ, without what was necessary for human beings as preparation for it, and without the secrecy of the Mysteries, on the grand stage of world history. What had previously been discernible only to the eyes of the mystery students in the innermost sanctuary of the mysteries has now unfolded before everyone’s eyes.

[ 15 ] This, too, is something that the early Christian teachers viewed with a sense of awe and reverence. When they then turned their attention to what the Gospels were meant to be, oh, then a sense of unworthiness arose in the true, authentic Christian teachers as they sought to grasp the true essence and meaning of the Gospels.

[ 16 ] But this same fact has also brought about something else, which is connected with the necessity today of interpreting the Gospels in the manner practiced within anthroposophically oriented spiritual science. If you have followed the explanations of the Gospels as they have been presented here, you will have noticed that what the traditional Gospel books provide has not been taken as a starting point. For what the traditional Gospel books provide is initially presented as something thoroughly unreliable. Instead, by reading the Akashic Records, we draw upon the spiritual writings as they are presented by those who were themselves able to read spiritually. And only when a specific passage is referred to is the traditional text considered in the relevant explanation, as it appears in the books; and now it is examined whether and to what extent it corresponds to the form that can be reconstructed from the Akashic Records. Thus the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke must be reconstructed from the Akashic Records. And only by measuring the tradition against the original forms can we see that this or that must be read in such and such a way; and any tradition that can rely only on the letter must go astray and fall into error. In the future, the Gospels must not only be explained, but first restored to their true, original form. When someone then turns their gaze to what has been restored, they can no longer say: this may or may not be true—for once the correspondence is demonstrated, it becomes clear how reading the Akashic Records can once again guarantee us the correct text of the Gospels. And then the Gospels will once again serve as proof that what is stated there to the letter is correct. This has already been demonstrated in numerous places. An example of this:

[ 17 ] Let us suppose that, at the trial of Christ Jesus, a question was put to him—for example, whether he was a king sent by God, or whatever—and he replied to the questioner: “You say so!” Now, anyone who thinks honestly and does not wish to explain the Gospels according to the modern scholarly method will have to admit: in truth, one cannot attach any real meaning to this answer of Christ Jesus, “You say so!”—neither an emotional meaning nor an intellectual one. For if we approach the matter from the emotional side, we must ask: why does he speak so vaguely that one cannot at all discern what he means by it? “You say it!” If he means to say, “That is correct,” it makes no sense at all; for the questioner’s words are not intended to make a statement, but to pose a question. So how can that be a meaningful answer? And if one approaches the matter from the intellectual side—how can one imagine that the one who is to be presented here as possessing comprehensive wisdom would choose such a formulation for his answers? But if these words are presented as they appear in the Akashic Records, they take on a completely different meaning. For the Akashic Records do not say “You say it,” but rather: “Only you may give this as an answer!” That is to say, if we understand it correctly: To your question, I must give an answer that no human being may ever give regarding themselves, but which only the one standing opposite them can give as an answer. Whether it is true or not, I cannot speak to that; the recognition of this truth does not lie with me, but with you. You must say it; only then would it have any meaning at all!

[ 18 ] Now you might say: That may or may not be true. — Certainly, if one were to judge abstractly, one would be right. But if one looks at the whole scene and asks oneself: Can I understand what is written there better if I take the account from the Akashic Records?, then everyone will realize that this is the only way to understand this scene at all. And one will then also be able to conclude that it was only the last scribe or translator of this passage who no longer understood the matter, because it is difficult, and therefore wrote down an inaccuracy. And anyone who knows how many things in the world are written down inaccurately will then no longer be surprised that we are dealing here with an inaccurate rendering. How, then, could we not be justified, at the dawn of a new epoch of humanity, in tracing the Gospels back to their original form, as verifiable in the Akashic Records?

[ 19 ] How the whole matter actually stood becomes clear—and this can even be historically verified from external evidence—when we examine the Gospel of Matthew*) in this regard. We need only reflect on history. You can read the best accounts of the origins of the Gospel of Matthew in the third volume of H. P. Blavatsky’s *The Secret Doctrine*, which one must simply know how to judge and evaluate correctly.

[ 20 ] There is a certain Church Father named Jerome who wrote toward the end of the second half of the fourth century. From what he writes, we learn something that can certainly be confirmed by esoteric research: that the Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Hebrew, and that this Church Father actually received the Gospel of Matthew in such a way that, in the manuscript he was still able to see, we might say today, in its edition, the original language of this Gospel with the Hebrew letters still accessible, but not in the language that was customary as Hebrew at that time. So, for example, just as if we were to write a poem by Schiller using Greek letters, what was presented to this Church Father, Jerome, would have been written in a language in which the Gospel of Matthew was originally composed—not with the letter forms of that language, but with other letters. However, this Church Father Jerome had been given the task by his bishop to translate what he had before him as the Gospel of Matthew for his Christians. In this translation, he behaved in a most peculiar manner. First, he believed it would be dangerous to translate this Gospel of Matthew as it was; for it contained things that those who had hitherto possessed it as their Holy Scripture wished to conceal from the profane world. And furthermore, he believed that if he were to translate this Gospel in that manner, it would cause destruction rather than edification. So what did the Church Father Jerome do? He omitted the passages that, according to his own and the Church’s view at that time, could have a destructive effect, and replaced them with others. But we glean even more from his writings, and this is what is most troubling about the whole affair: namely, that Jerome knew that only those initiated into certain secret matters could understand the Gospel of Matthew—and he also admitted that he was not among them. This means, then, that he admitted to not understanding the Gospel of Matthew! Yet he translated it nonetheless. Thus, the Gospel of Matthew is presented to us today in the form prepared by a man who did not understand it, but who then became so accustomed to this form that he subsequently declared everything said about the Gospel of Matthew to be heresy if it did not agree with his own interpretation! These are all absolutely true facts.

[ 21 ] Now, what interests us first and foremost—and what we must emphasize—is the following: Why, in fact, did those who adhered primarily to the Gospel of Matthew in the very earliest days of Christianity share this Gospel of Matthew only with people who were initiated into the secret meaning of certain things?

[ 22 ] Understanding why this happened is only possible if one has gained some insight, through the study of the spiritual sciences, into the nature of initiation in general. These matters have, of course, been discussed before in one context or another, and it has been said in particular that initiation—that is, when a person attains clairvoyant powers through it—leads the individual to grasp certain fundamental truths about the world. These fundamental truths about the world are such that they initially appear absurd to ordinary consciousness. As for what a person can perceive in everyday life, the situation is such that, when confronted with the highest truths, this ordinary consciousness can only say: That is paradoxical! But not only that. If the highest truths—that is, those truths accessible to the initiate—were to become known to the individual human being unprepared, either by his guessing them, which would even be possible in a certain case, or if they were communicated to him in an imperfect state, then they would, even if they were the most elementary truths, become extremely dangerous for the unprepared. Even if one were to present the purest, the highest truths about the world, it would have a destructive effect on him and his surroundings. And whoever is in possession of the highest truths today therefore also knows that it cannot be the way, for example, to call someone to him and impart to him the highest secrets of the world. What the highest truths truly are cannot be communicated in such a way that a mouth speaks it and an ear hears it; rather, the way in which the highest truths could be communicated is that the person who wishes to be a student is slowly and gradually prepared, and that this preparation takes place in such a way that the final conclusion—the communication of the secrets—cannot occur from mouth to ear, but rather that at a certain point, through the preparation, the student arrives at a state where the secret—the mystery—arises before him. So that it need not be spoken by a mouth, nor heard by an ear. It must be born in the soul through what has taken place between teacher and student. And there can be no means of wringing the final aspects of the mysteries from an initiate; for no one can be compelled—by any means of the physical plane—to reveal anything of the higher mysteries with his mouth. Such are the higher mysteries. And it would also be the case that if someone were to receive, in an immature state, what must be born from the soul as higher mysteries, communicated through the mouth of another, it would be disastrous for the other as well; for the communicator would be placed entirely under the power of the listener for the remainder of his incarnation. But this is something that can never happen if the teacher merely prepares the way, and the student allows the truths to be born from the soul.

[ 23 ] Once you know this, you also understand why the original Gospel of Matthew could not simply be shared: because people were not ready for what it contained. For if not even Jerome, the Church Father, was ready for it, then the others certainly were not. Those who originally possessed these teachings, the Ebionites, therefore did not simply share these things; because, if received by the immature, these things would have been so distorted that they would have led precisely to what the Church Father Jerome calls: it serves not for edification, but for destruction. Now Jerome recognized this, yet he nevertheless deigned to communicate the Gospel of Matthew to the world in a certain way. This means, then, that this writing was communicated in a certain way after all, and it has had an effect in the world. If we now look around to see how it has worked, we must find much of it understandable from the perspective of occult truths. Who, standing on the ground of occultism, would want to admit in any way that all the persecutions and so on in the Christian world could be connected with the principle of Christ Jesus himself? Who, standing on the ground of occultism, would not have to say to themselves: something must have flowed into the outer development that could not have been in the spirit of Christian development? In short: there must be a tremendous misunderstanding.

[ 24 ] Yesterday we discussed how, from a Christian perspective, one must speak of Apollonius of Tyana, for example; we considered the greatness and significance of Apollonius of Tyana and even called him an adept. And yet, when we leaf through the original Christian literature, we find accusations against Apollonius of Tyana everywhere, as if everything he did, everything he accomplished, had been done solely under the influence of the devil. Here we have something that must be called a distortion, not merely a misunderstanding, of the personality and deeds of Apollonius of Tyana. This is just one example among many. We can only understand this if we realize that the Gospels have been handed down in a way that was bound to lead to misunderstandings, and that we now have the task, on the basis of occultism, of returning to the true meaning of Christianity, whereas the early church made many mistakes; and it will seem understandable to us that Christianity will have to experience its next epoch in a different way than its earlier epochs. On the other hand, it has been said that much of what is spoken here from this place can actually be spoken only because there are people who have participated in our spiritual-scientific development of recent years, or who have the good will to engage with our spiritual-scientific development, who possess the corresponding emotional and spiritual values in their souls to allow what is shared to take effect upon their souls. Because, fundamentally speaking, souls have undergone at least one incarnation—one—of the period of initiation between the Mystery of Golgotha and the present day, it is therefore possible to speak of the Gospels today without fear that harm will be caused thereby.

[ 25 ] Thus we see the peculiar fact that the Gospels had to be communicated, but that Christianity could only be understood in its most imperfect form, and that the Gospels have called for a method of research through which research is no longer able to distinguish between what is historical and what is not, and through which, ultimately, everything can be denied. Then what is to be seen as the original form will have to enter into hearts and souls; and this will have to form a new power so that what now confronts humanity can be received by those who have been able to feel the events from the baptism of John to the event at Golgotha with dignity.

[ 26 ] Thus, an interpretation of the Christ event from an occult perspective is a necessary preparation for souls who are to experience new things in the near future, who are to look upon the world with new abilities. And the ancient form of the Gospels will only attain its full value when one learns to read them through that which gives them their full value in the first place: by means of the Akashic Records. In particular, the full significance of the event of Golgotha can only be fully elucidated through occult research. What may follow from this event for human souls can only be recognized if one is able to grasp the original meaning of this event through occult research. This is what lies ahead for us over the next few days, as far as is possible within a short series of lectures: to shed light on everything the human soul can experience under the influence of the Christ impulse within itself, in order to ascend from there to a realization of what happened in Palestine and on Golgotha in a deeper sense than we have been able to express so far.