The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] We have allowed two significant documents of humanity to pass before our souls in this cycle—at least in very brief outlines, as was possible given the limited number of lecture days—and we have seen what impulses must have flowed into human development so that these two significant documents of humanity, the sublime Gita and the Epistles of Paul, could come into being. What will still be important for our understanding is to point out a fundamental difference between the entire spirit of the Gita and the spirit of the Epistles of Paul.

[ 2 ] As we have already said: In the Gita, we encounter the teachings that Krishna is able to impart to his disciple Arjuna. Such teachings are given to an individual and must be given to an individual; for, just as they appear to us in the Gita, they are, at their core, intimate teachings. However, the fact that these teachings are accessible to everyone today because they are found in the Gita seems to contradict this. Of course, they were not accessible to everyone at the time the Gita was written. Back then, they did not reach everyone’s ears, for they were transmitted orally. Even in those ancient times, teachers were careful to assess the maturity of the students to whom they imparted appropriate teachings. Such maturity was always taken into account.

[ 3 ] In our time, this is no longer possible with regard to all those teachings and instructions that have already, in one way or another, come to public light. We live in an age in which spiritual life is, in a certain sense, already public. Not that there is no longer any secret science in our time, but this secret science cannot be secret simply because it is not printed or disseminated. There is, after all, plenty of secret science in our time. For example, Fichte’s Science of Knowledge, even though anyone can have it in print, is a true secret teaching. Hegel’s philosophy, too, is a secret teaching, for it is known to very few, and it even contains many means within itself to remain a secret teaching. And this is the case with many things in our present day. Fichte’s Science of Knowledge or Hegel’s philosophy have a very simple means of remaining a secret doctrine, because they are written in such a way that most people do not understand them and fall asleep when they read the first few pages. As a result, the subject itself remains a secret doctrine. And so it is with many things in our time that many people believe they know. They do not know them; as a result, these things simply remain a secret doctrine. And fundamentally, even things like those found in the Gita remain a secret doctrine, even if they can become known to the widest circles through print. For one person who picks up the Gita today sees in it great and powerful revelations about the evolution of one’s own inner self, while another sees in it only an interesting piece of poetry, and all the concepts and feelings expressed in the Gita are transformed for him into mere trivialities. For one must not believe that someone has truly internalized what lies in the Gita simply because they can express, using the words of the Gita, what is contained within it—even if that meaning may be entirely foreign to them. Thus, the subject matter itself, by virtue of its loftiness, serves in many respects as a safeguard against becoming commonplace.

[ 4 ] But the fact remains that the teachings, which are presented in poetic form in the Gita, are teachings that the individual must put into practice and experience for himself if he wishes to rise through them in his soul and finally experience the encounter with the Lord of Yoga, with Krishna. So, it is an individual matter, something the great teacher addresses to the individual. — It is different when we consider the content of Paul’s epistles from this perspective. There we see that everything is a matter for the community, everything is a matter that is fundamentally addressed to a majority. For when we look at the innermost nerve of the essence of the Krishna teaching, we must say: What one experiences through the teachings of Krishna is experienced for oneself in the strict seclusion of the individual soul, and one can only encounter Krishna as a solitary soul-wanderer when one finds the way back to the primordial revelations and primordial experiences of humanity. What Krishna can give must be given to each individual.

[ 5 ] This was not the case with the revelation given to the world through the Christ Impulse. The Christ Impulse was conceived from the very beginning as an impulse directed toward all of humanity, and the Mystery of Golgotha was not accomplished as an act that applies only to the individual soul; rather, if we consider all of humanity from the beginning to the end of Earth’s evolution, what happened on Golgotha happened for all people. It is a matter of common concern to the greatest degree. Therefore, the style of the Pauline Epistles, even setting aside all that has already been characterized, must be quite different from the style of the sublime Gita.

[ 6 ] Let us vividly imagine the relationship between Krishna and Arjuna. As the Lord of Yoga, he gives Arjuna clear instructions, so to speak, on how he can gradually ascend within his soul in order to behold Krishna. In contrast, let us consider a particularly striking passage in the Epistles of Paul, where a congregation turns to Paul and asks whether this or that is true, whether it can be regarded as a correct view in light of what Paul has taught. And there, in the instruction Paul gives, we find a passage that can certainly be compared in its grandeur—even stylistically and artistically—to what we find in the sublime Gita. But at the same time we find a completely different tone; we find everything spoken from a very different kind of spiritual sensibility. This is where Paul writes to the Corinthians about how the various human gifts present in a group of people must work together.

[ 7 ] Krishna tells Arjuna: You must be this way or that way, do this or that, and then you will ascend step by step in your spiritual life. — Paul says to his Corinthians: One of you has this gift, another that, a third this one, and when these work together harmoniously, just as the members of a human body work together, then this also results in a spiritual whole that can be completely permeated by Christ. — Thus, through the matter itself, Paul addresses people who work together, that is, a majority. And on a significant occasion, he addresses a majority, namely where the gifts of so-called speaking in tongues come into play.

[ 8 ] What is this speaking in tongues that we find in Paul’s epistles? This speaking in tongues is nothing other than a remnant of ancient spiritual gifts that reappear in our time in a renewed form, yet with full human consciousness. For when we speak of inspiration in our methods of initiation, it is the case that a person who attains inspiration in our time unites clear consciousness with this inspiration, just as he links clear consciousness with his everyday intellectual activity and sensory perception. This was, of course, different in ancient times. There the person in question spoke as an instrument of higher spiritual beings who made use of his organs to express higher truths through his tongue. There the individual could say things that he himself did not understand at all. Manifestations from the spiritual world came about that the instrument did not need to understand immediately, and this had occurred precisely in Corinth. A situation had arisen in which a number of people possessed the gift of speaking in tongues. Through it, they could proclaim this or that from the spiritual worlds.

[ 9 ] The thing about such a gift is that, when a person possesses it, whatever they are able to reveal through it is, under all circumstances, a revelation from the spiritual world. But it is still entirely possible that one person will say one thing and another will say something else, for the spiritual realms are manifold. One may be inspired by this realm, another by a different one, and it may be that the revelations then do not agree at all. Agreement can only be found when one can enter the relevant worlds with full consciousness. That is why Paul gives this admonition: There are people who can speak in tongues; there are others who can interpret the speaking in tongues. They should work together like the right and the left hand, and one should not merely listen to those who speak in tongues, but also to those who may not have this gift, yet who can interpret and discern what the individual is able to bring down from this or that spiritual realm. — Thus Paul again calls for a communal endeavor that comes about through the cooperation of people.

[ 10 ] And building directly on this topic of speaking in tongues, Paul presents that discussion which, as I said, is so remarkable in a certain respect that, in its power, it can certainly be compared—in a different respect than was discussed yesterday—to the teachings of the Gita. He says:

[ 11 ] “As for the enthusiastic brothers, I do not want to leave you in the dark. You know from your time as pagans that there were mute idols to which you were driven by blind impulse. Therefore I tell you: Just as no one who speaks by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ so no one can call him Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

[ 12 ] Now there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all people. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Thus, to one is given the word of prophecy, to another the message of knowledge; again, there are those who live by faith, while others have the gift of healing, others have the gifts of prophecy, others have the gift of discerning people’s characters, others speak in tongues, and still others interpret tongues. But in all these things it is one Spirit who works and distributes to each one individually as he wills.

[ 13 ] For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by the Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit, just as the body is not made up of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would still belong to it. If the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not the eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would still belong to it. If the whole body were only eyes, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were only hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as He saw fit. If there were only one member, where would the body be? But as it is, though there are many members, there is one body. The eye must not say to the hand, “I have no need of you!” Nor the head to the feet, “I have no need of you!” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less of are treated with special honor.

[ 14 ] God has put the body together and given importance to the parts that seem least important, so that there may be no division in the body, but that all the parts may work together in harmony and care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; and if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. But you”—so says Paul to his Corinthians—“are the body of Christ, and individually you are all members of it. And God has appointed some in the church to be apostles, others to be prophets. He has appointed some as teachers, others as those who perform miracles, others as those who provide various kinds of help, others to manage the church’s affairs, and still others as those who speak in tongues. Are all to be apostles? Are all to be prophets? Are all to be teachers, all to be healers, all to speak in tongues? Or are all to interpret tongues? Therefore, it is good for the various gifts of grace to work together, but the more, the better.”

[ 15 ] And then Paul speaks of the power that can be at work in the individual, but also in the church, and that brings together all the individual members of the church, just as the body’s power brings together the individual members of the body. Krishna does not speak more beautifully to a single person than Paul has spoken to humanity in its various members. Then he speaks of the power of Christ, which unites the various members, just as the body unites its individual members. And the power that can live in the individual—like the life force in every member—yet lives again in the whole of an entire congregation, Paul characterizes with powerful words:

[ 16 ] “But I will show you a way that is even higher than all the rest:

[ 17 ] If I could speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but did not have love, I would be a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

[ 18 ] And even if I could prophesy and reveal all mysteries and impart all the knowledge in the world, and even if I had all faith—enough to move mountains—but lacked love, it would all be nothing.

[ 19 ] And even if I gave away all my spiritual gifts, and even if I gave my own body to be burned, but lacked love, it would all be in vain.

[ 20 ] Love never fails. Love is kind; love does not envy; love does not boast; love is not arrogant; love does not act unbecomingly; love does not seek its own; love is not provoked; love does not take into account a wrong suffered; love does not rejoice in unrighteousness; love rejoices only in the truth.

[ 21 ] Love covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

[ 22 ] Love, if it exists, can never be lost. What is prophesied comes to an end when it is fulfilled; what is spoken in tongues ceases when it can no longer speak to human hearts; what is known ceases when the object of knowledge is exhausted.

[ 23 ] For all knowledge is fragmentary; all prophecy is fragmentary.

[ 24 ] But when perfection comes, piecemeal solutions will be a thing of the past.

[ 25 ] When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I felt like a child, I thought like a child. When I became a man, the world of childhood was over.

[ 26 ] Now we see in a mirror only a dim reflection, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I am fully known.

[ 27 ] Now, faith remains, hope remains in safety, love remains. But love is the greatest of these; therefore, love is first.

[ 28 ] For even if you have all spiritual gifts, whoever has the gift of prophecy must also pursue love.

[ 29 ] For even if someone speaks in tongues, he does not speak to people but to the gods. No one understands him, because he speaks mysteries of the Spirit.»

[ 30 ] We see how Paul understands the nature of speaking in tongues. He says: The one who speaks in tongues is transported into spiritual realms; he speaks among the gods.

[ 31 ] “Whoever prophesies speaks to people for their edification, exhortation, and comfort; whoever speaks in tongues, in a sense, satisfies himself; but whoever prophesies edifies the church.

[ 32 ] Even if you all speak in tongues, it is far more important that you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless the one speaking in tongues is able to interpret what he says so that the congregation may understand it.

[ 33 ] Suppose, my brothers, that I come to you speaking in tongues; what good am I to you if I do not tell you what my tongues mean—as prophecy, as teaching, as revelation!

[ 34 ] My speech is like a flute or a harp when their notes cannot be clearly distinguished. How then can one distinguish between the playing of the harp and the flute if they produce indistinguishable sounds? And if the trumpet sounds an indistinct note, who will prepare for battle?

[ 35 ] “That is how it is with you: if you cannot accompany your speaking in tongues with clear speech, it is all just empty talk.”

[ 36 ] All of this shows us that the various spiritual gifts must be distributed among the members of the congregation and that the members of the congregation must work together as individuals. This, however, brings us to the point where Paul’s revelation, due to the stage of human development at which it occurs, must fundamentally differ from Krishna’s revelation.

[ 37 ] The Krishna Revelation is addressed to the individual, but ultimately to every human being who has matured enough to follow the soul’s path upward, as prescribed by the Lord of Yoga. There we are increasingly directed back to the primordial ages of humanity, to which one also wishes to return in spirit, in accordance with the teachings of Krishna. In those days, people were less individualized; one could assume that the same teachings and instructions were suitable for everyone.

[ 38 ] Paul stood in opposition to a view of humanity in which individuals were differentiated—and indeed had to be differentiated—each with their own special ability, their own special gift. It was no longer possible to assume that the same thing could be instilled into every single soul; instead, one had to point to that which reigns invisibly over all. This, which is not present in any human being as an individual, but which can be present in every individual, is the Christ impulse. The Christ impulse is, in turn, something like a new group soul of humanity, but one that is consciously sought by this humanity.

[ 39 ] To illustrate this, let us imagine what a group of Krishna disciples looks like in the spiritual world, and what a group of people looks like who have been touched by the Christ impulse in their innermost being. Each of the Krishna disciples has kindled within themselves the same impulse that the Lord of Yoga has bestowed upon them. In spiritual life, one resembles the other. Both have been given the same instruction. Those who have been touched by the Christ impulse are disembodied in the spiritual world; each with their own particular individuality, with their differentiated spiritual powers. Therefore, even in the spiritual world, one may be entrusted with this task, another with that. And the leader, the one who pours into the soul of each one, however individual each may be, is the Christ, who is simultaneously in the soul of each and hovers above all. Thus we still have a differentiated community even when the souls are disembodied, whereas the souls of the Krishna disciples form a unified whole once they have received the instructions from the Lord of Yoga. But this is the meaning of human development: that souls become ever more differentiated.

[ 40 ] That is why Krishna must speak in a different way. Essentially—just as he communicates in the Gita—he speaks to the disciple. Paul must speak differently. Paul actually speaks to every human being, and then it is a matter of individual development whether the individual, by virtue of his maturity at this or that stage of incarnation, remains at the exoteric level or whether he can enter into the esoteric and rise to an esoteric Christianity. In Christianity, one can go further and further, reaching the most esoteric heights; but one starts from a different point than that from which one starts in the teachings of Krishna. In the teachings of Krishna, one starts from the point where one stands as a human being and elevates the soul as an individual, as a single person. In Christianity, one assumes that one first gains a relationship—before even embarking on a further path—to the Christ impulse, that this precedes everything else.

[ 41 ] Only those who follow Krishna’s instructions can embark on the spiritual path toward Krishna; anyone can embark on the spiritual path toward Christ, for Christ has brought the Mystery to all who are human and can have a relationship with the Mystery. But this is something external, accomplished on the physical plane. The first step is therefore one that takes place on the physical plane. That is the essential point.

[ 42 ] Once one grasps the world-historical significance of the Christ impulse, there is truly no need to start from this or that Christian creed; rather, especially in our time, one can even start from a standpoint that is entirely hostile to Christ or indifferent to Him. But if one delves into what our age can truly offer in terms of spiritual life, if one recognizes the contradictions and follies of materialism, then one may be led to Christ most authentically in our time precisely by not starting from a particular creed from the outset. Therefore, when it is said outside our circles that we proceed here from a particular confession of Christ, this must be regarded as a particularly malicious slander, for it is not a matter of proceeding from any particular confession, but rather of proceeding from the conditions of spiritual life itself, and that everyone—whether Muslim or Buddhist, Jew, or Hindu, or whether he is a Christian, can understand the Christ impulse in its full significance for the development of humanity. This, however, is at the same time something we see permeating Paul’s entire view and presentation in the deepest sense, and in this respect Paul is indeed the leading figure in the first proclamation of the Christ impulse in the world.

[ 43 ] Having described how Sankhya philosophy deals with the transformation of forms—that is, with what pertains to Prakriti—we may say that Paul, in everything underlying his profound letters, is indeed speaking of Purusha, of the spiritual. Regarding becoming, regarding the destiny of the soul as it unfolds in manifold ways throughout the entire course of human development, we find in Paul very definite and profound insights.

[ 44 ] There is a fundamental difference between what Eastern thought was still capable of achieving and what we encounter so wonderfully clearly right from the start with Paul. We already pointed out yesterday that, for Krishna, everything hinges on the human being finding the way out of the cycle of reincarnation. But Prakriti remains outside, as something foreign to the soul. All striving within this Eastern development, even within Eastern initiation, is directed toward becoming free from material existence, from that which spreads out there as nature. For that which spreads out there as nature is, in the sense of Vedic philosophy, Maya. Maya is everything that is out there; becoming free from Maya is yoga. We have, after all, described how the Gita specifically demands that man become free from all that he does, performs, wills, and thinks—from what he takes pleasure in and enjoys—and that he, as a soul, triumph over that which is external. The work that a person performs should, as it were, fall away from him, and he should thus, resting in himself, find satisfaction within himself. Thus, fundamentally, everyone who wishes to develop in the spirit of Krishna’s teachings envisions one day becoming something like a Paramahamsa—that is, a highly initiated being who leaves all material existence behind, who triumphs over everything he himself has done as his own acts within this sensory world; who lives in a purely spiritual existence, who has overcome the sensory to such an extent that there is no longer any thirst for reincarnation within him, that he has nothing more to do with all that has taken root in this sensory existence as his own work.

[ 45 ] Thus, it is the breaking free from this Maya, the triumph over this Maya, that confronts us everywhere. But this is not the case with Paul. With Paul, it is such that something in the deeper recesses of his soul, were he to encounter this Eastern teaching, would give rise to the following words: Yes, you want to evolve out of everything that surrounds you out there, everything you have ever done out there. Do you want to leave all that behind? Is not all of that God’s work? Is not everything from which you wish to rise above a divine creation of the Spirit? Are you not despising God’s work when you despise that? Does not God’s revelation, God’s Spirit, live in all of this? Did you not first seek to represent God in your own work, in love and faith and devotion, and do you now wish to triumph over what is God’s work?

[ 46 ] It would be good if we were to engrave these words—which Paul did not actually utter but which reigned in the depths of his soul—deep within our own souls, for they express a vital aspect of what we now recognize as Western revelation. Even in the Pauline sense, we certainly speak of the Maya that surrounds us. We do indeed say: Maya surrounds us everywhere! But we ask: Is there not spiritual revelation in this Maya? Is this not all divine-spiritual work? Is it not sacrilege not to understand that there is divine-spiritual work everywhere? Now another question arises: Why is this Maya? Why do we perceive Maya all around us? — The West does not stop at the question of whether everything is Maya; it asks after the why of Maya. This yields an answer that leads us right into the soul, into Purusha: Because the soul once succumbed to the power of Lucifer, it sees everything through the veil of Maya; as a soul, it spreads the veil of Maya over everything. — Is objectivity to blame for the fact that we perceive Maya? No. Objectivity would appear to us as souls in its truth if we had not succumbed to the power of Lucifer. It appears to us merely as Maya because we are unable to look into the depths of what is unfolding there. This stems from the fact that the soul has succumbed to the power of Lucifer; this is not the fault of the gods, it is the fault of one’s own soul. You, soul, have made the world into Maya by succumbing to Lucifer.

[ 47 ] There is a direct line from the most profound spiritual-scientific interpretation of this formula all the way down to Goethe’s words: “The senses do not deceive, but judgment does.” And no matter how much the philistines and the zealots may fight against Goethe, against Goethe’s Christianity, he was still entitled to say that he was one of the most Christian of men, because in the depths of his being he thought Christianly, even down to this very formula: “The senses do not deceive, but judgment deceives.” The soul is to blame for the fact that what it sees appears not in truth but as Maya. Thus, that which in Orientalism simply stands there as an act of the gods themselves is diverted into the depths of the human soul, where the great struggle with Lucifer takes place.

[ 48 ] Thus, when viewed correctly, Orientalism is, in a certain sense, materialistic precisely because it fails to recognize the spiritual nature of Maya and seeks to escape the material realm. A spiritual teaching, even if it exists only in its embryonic form and can therefore be so misunderstood as it is in our age of Tamas, is what pulses through the Epistles of Paul and what will visibly spread across the entire earth in the future. This must be understood in relation to the peculiar nature of Maya; only then can one grasp in its depths what is at stake in the progress of human development. Then one understands what Paul means when he speaks of the first Adam, who succumbed to Lucifer in his soul and who was therefore entangled more and more in matter—which means nothing other than: entangled in a false experience of matter. Matter out there, as God’s creation, is good. What is happening there is good. What the soul experienced in it over the course of human development became worse and worse, because the soul had succumbed to the power of Lucifer at the beginning. And that is why Paul calls Christ the second Adam, because he entered the world untempted by Lucifer and can therefore be that guide and friend of human souls who gradually leads them away from Lucifer—that is, into a right relationship with him.

[ 49 ] Paul could not convey to humanity in his time everything he knew as an initiate. But anyone who allows his letters to take effect upon them will realize that they speak more in their depths than what they express outwardly. This is because Paul had to speak to a congregation and had to take the congregation’s understanding into account. Therefore, some things in his letters appear to be outright contradictions. But anyone who can penetrate to the depths will indeed find the impulses of the Christ-being everywhere in Paul.

[ 50 ] Let us recall here how we ourselves have described the coming into being of the Mystery of Golgotha. Over time, we have come to realize that the reason there are two different accounts of Christ Jesus’ youth in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke is that we are in fact dealing with two Jesus boys. And we have recognized that outwardly, in the flesh, to speak in the sense of Paul—that is, according to physical descent—the two Jesus-children do indeed descend from the house of David, that one comes from the line of Nathan and the other from the line of Solomon, and that thus two Jesus-children are born at approximately the same time. In one of the Jesus-children, the one in the Gospel of Matthew, we find Zarathustra incarnated once again, and we have emphasized how the other Jesus-child, as described in the Gospel of Luke, does not actually contain such a human ego as is present above all in a human being, as is the case with the other Jesus-child, in whom lives an ego as highly developed as the Zarathustra-ego. In the Luke Jesus-child, what actually lives there is that part of the human being which has not entered into the human development of the Earth.

[ 51 ] It is somewhat difficult to form a clear picture of this point. But just try to imagine for a moment how, so to speak, the soul that was embodied in Adam—that is, in the one who can be called Adam in the sense of my “Esoteric Science”—how this soul succumbs to the temptation of Lucifer, which is symbolically depicted in the Bible through the Fall in Paradise. Imagine that. Then imagine, in addition to that human soul that incarnated in Adam’s body, a human nature, a human being, remains behind—one that did not incarnate at that time, that did not enter a physical body, but remained in a soul-like state. You need only imagine that, before a physical human being came into being within the course of human evolution, we are dealing with a soul that then divided into two. One part, one descendant of the common soul, incarnates in Adam, and through this the soul enters into incarnation, succumbs to Lucifer, and so on. For the other soul—the sister soul, as it were—the wise world government foresees that it would not be good for it to incarnate as well. It is retained in the soul world; thus, it does not live through human incarnations but is held back. Only the initiates of the Mysteries commune with it. This soul, therefore, does not take in the experience of the “I” during this evolution prior to the Mystery of Golgotha, because this is only experienced through incarnation in the human body. Yet this soul possesses all the wisdom that could be experienced during the Saturn, Sun, and Moon eras; this soul possesses all the love of which a human soul is capable. This soul thus remains, as it were, innocent of all the guilt that humanity can bring upon itself in the course of the incarnations of human development. This soul is therefore one whom one could not encounter outwardly as a human being, but who could only be perceived by the ancient clairvoyants. It was indeed perceived by them. It moved, so to speak, within the mysteries. And so we have such a soul—one might say—within and yet above the development of humanity, which at first could only be perceived spiritually: a pre-human, a true superhuman.

[ 52 ] It was this soul that, instead of an “I,” incarnated in the boy Jesus of the Gospel of Luke. You will recall the Basel lectures. This was already described there. So we are dealing with a soul that is merely ego-like, which, quite naturally, acts like an ego when it enters the body of Jesus; but everything it represents is nevertheless different from an ordinary ego. I have already emphasized that the boy of the Gospel of Luke was able to speak in a language his mother could understand as soon as he was born; and other similar things manifested themselves in him. We know, then, that the Matthew Jesus-child, in whom the Zarathustra-I lived, grew up to the age of twelve; and this Luke Jesus-child also grew up, possessing no particular human knowledge or learning, but carrying within himself divine wisdom and a divine capacity for sacrifice.

[ 53 ] And so the boy Luke-Jesus grew up, showing no particular aptitude for what can be learned in the conventional human sense. We know further that the body of the Matthew Jesus-boy was abandoned by the Zarathustra-I, and in the twelfth year of the Luke Jesus-boy, the Zarathustra-I took possession of the body of the Luke Jesus-boy. This is the moment indicated by the account in the Gospel of Luke of the twelve-year-old Jesus, where he is described as teaching before the wise men of the temple after his parents had lost him.

[ 54 ] We also know that this Luke-Jesus boy now carries the Zarathustra-I within him until he reaches the age of thirty, that the Zarathustra-I then leaves the body of Luke-Jesus, and that Christ takes possession of all that which is now merely a physical shell, Christ, who is a superhuman being of the higher hierarchies and who could dwell in a human body only under such circumstances that a body was offered to him which, let us say, was first permeated up to the twelfth year of life by the pre-human forces of wisdom, by the pre-human divine forces of love, and was then permeated and flowed through by all that had been acquired through the Zarathustra-I in many incarnations through initiations. Perhaps nothing gives one the proper respect, the proper reverence—in short, the proper feeling toward the Christ Being—as much as trying to understand what kind of physicality was necessary for this Christ-I to enter humanity at all.

[ 55 ] Some have found in this description of the Christ-Essence, drawn from the sacred mysteries of modern times, that this Christ-Essence thereby appears, so to speak, less intimate and human than the Christ Jesus whom many have venerated in the way he has often been imagined: familiar, close to humanity, embodied in an ordinary human body, in which there was no such thing as a Zarathustra-like ego. Our teaching has been criticized on the grounds that the Christ Jesus was composed of forces drawn from all regions of the world. Such accusations stem solely from the complacency of human cognition, of human feeling, which does not wish to rise to the true heights of perception and feeling. The greatest must also be grasped in such a way that our soul exerts itself to the utmost to attain that inner intensity of feeling and perception which is necessary to bring the greatest, the highest, somewhat closer to our soul. Thus, the first sensation is only heightened when we view it in such a light.

[ 56 ] There is one more thing we know. We know how to interpret the words of the Gospel: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” We know that this message of peace and love resounds when the Luke-Jesus child appears, because the Buddha intermingles with the astral body of the Luke-Jesus child; the Buddha was already, at that time, a being who had undergone his final incarnation as Gautama Buddha and had ascended to full spirituality; so that in the astral body of the Luke-Jesus child, the Buddha revealed himself as he had progressed up to the appearance of the Mystery of Golgotha on Earth.

[ 57 ] Thus we have presented the essence of Christ Jesus as it can, so to speak, only now be revealed to humanity based on the foundations of esoteric science. Paul, though an initiate, had to speak in terms that were easier to grasp for the people of his time; he could not have assumed that humanity was already capable of understanding such concepts as we can bring to people’s hearts today. But what constituted his inspiration was, after all, brought about by his initiation through grace. Because he had not attained this through a proper training in the ancient mysteries, but through grace on the road to Damascus, where the risen Christ had appeared to him, that is why I call this initiation an initiation brought about by grace. But he had encountered this Damascus appearance in such a way that through it he knew: Yes, what rose in the Mystery of Golgotha has been living, connected to the earthly sphere, ever since the Mystery of Golgotha. He recognized the risen Christ. From then on, he proclaimed him. Why was he able to see him exactly as he did?

[ 58 ] One must consider the nature of such a vision, such a manifestation, as was the one on the road to Damascus; for it was, after all, a vision, a manifestation of a very special kind. Only those who never truly wish to learn anything about occult realities can simply lump all visions together and refuse to distinguish between something like Paul’s vision and many other visions that occurred to later saints. This is what the author of the “Message of Peace” does, for example, as he belongs to those who simply never wish to learn anything about occult realities.

[ 59 ] What was it, exactly, that enabled Paul to perceive Christ in the way he appeared to him on the road to Damascus? Why did this contain for Paul the certainty: This is the risen Christ? This question leads us back to another question: What was necessary so that the entire Christ-essence could fully descend into Jesus of Nazareth at that event, which is indicated to us as the baptism of John in the Jordan? — Well, we have just said what was necessary to prepare that physicality into which the Christ-essence was to descend. But what was necessary for the Risen One to appear so intimately in the soul as he appeared to Paul? What, so to speak, was that radiance in which Christ appeared to Paul before Damascus? What was that? Where did it come from?

[ 60 ] If we want to answer this question, we must add a few things to what I just said. I told you: There was, as it were, a sister soul to the Adam soul who entered into the human lineage. This sister soul remained in the spiritual world. It was also this sister soul that was incarnated in the Luke-Jesus child. But at that time, she was not incarnated for the first time as a physical human being in the strict sense of the word; rather, she had already been incarnated once before in a prophetic capacity. In the past, this soul had also been used as a messenger of the sacred mysteries. I have told you: She moved in the Mysteries, was, so to speak, nurtured and cared for in the Mysteries, and was sent out wherever there was something important happening in humanity. But she could only be present as an apparition in the etheric body; therefore, in the strict sense, she could only be perceived as long as the old clairvoyance existed. But that was, of course, present in earlier times. So this ancient sister soul of Adam did not need to incarnate in a physical body in order to be seen. Thus she did indeed appear, sent by the impulses of the Mysteries, repeatedly throughout the course of human development on Earth, whenever important tasks in Earth’s evolution needed to be accomplished. But she did not need to incarnate in ancient times, because clairvoyance existed then.

[ 61 ] She had to incarnate for the first time just as clairvoyance was to be overcome during humanity’s transition from the third to the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, which we discussed yesterday. There she took on, as it were, a substitute incarnation—an incarnation that would allow her to make her presence felt in an age when clairvoyance no longer existed. This sister soul of Adam was incarnated in Krishna, so to speak, the only time she had to appear in order to become physically visible, and then she was incarnated again in the boy Jesus of Luke. So that we now understand why Krishna speaks in such a superhuman way, why he is the best teacher for the human ego, why he represents, so to speak, a transcendence of the ego, why he appears so spiritually sublime: Because he appears as the human being in that sublime moment we brought before our souls a few days ago, as the human being who has not yet plunged into human incarnations.

[ 62 ] Then he appears again, embodied in the boy Jesus of Luke. Hence the perfection that comes about when the most significant worldviews of Asia unite in the twelve-year-old boy Jesus—the Zarathustra-self with the Krishna-spirit. It is not only Zarathustra who now speaks to the teachers in the temple—he speaks as the I—‘he speaks with the means by which Krishna once proclaimed yoga; he speaks of a yoga that has been raised to a higher level; he unites with the Krishna force, with Krishna himself, in order to grow until the age of thirty. And only then do we possess that complete physicality which can be taken into possession by the Christ. Thus do the spiritual currents of humanity flow together. Thus, as the Mystery of Golgotha takes place, we truly have the cooperation of humanity’s most significant leaders, a synthesis of spiritual life.

[ 63 ] When Paul had his vision on the road to Damascus, the one who appeared to him was the Christ. The radiance in which Christ is clothed is Krishna. And because Christ has taken Krishna as his own soul-sheath, through which he then continues to work, everything that was once the content of the sublime Gita is also contained in that which radiates from Christ.

[ 64 ] We find so much, albeit scattered in detail, of the ancient Krishna teaching in the New Testament revelations. This ancient Krishna teaching, however, has become a matter for all humanity because Christ, as such, is not a human ego belonging to humanity, but rather to the higher hierarchies. Thus, Christ also belongs to those times when humanity was not yet separated from what now surrounds it as material existence and what, through its own Luciferic temptation, is veiled in Maya. If we look back at the entire course of development, we find that in those ancient times there was not yet that strict separation between the spiritual and the material, just as the material was still spiritual, and the spiritual—if we may put it that way—was still manifesting itself outwardly. Because the Christ impulse brings to humanity something that entirely excludes such a strict separation as we encounter in Sankhya philosophy between Purusha and Prakriti, Christ becomes the guide of humanity out of himself, but also the creation of God. May we then say that we must absolutely leave Maya behind once we have recognized that Maya appears to us as a given through our own fault? No, for that would be blasphemy against the Spirit in the world; it would mean attributing to matter qualities that we ourselves impose upon it through the veil of Maya. Rather, we must hope that, when we overcome within ourselves that which makes matter into Maya for us, we will be reconciled with the world once more. Does it not resound to us from this world that surrounds us that it is a creation of the Elohim, and that on the last day of creation these Elohim found: “And behold, everything was very good”—?

[ 65 ] That would be the karma that would be fulfilled if there were only one Krishna teaching, for nothing remains in the world without its karma being fulfilled. If there were only one Krishna teaching for all eternity, then the material existence of the environment—the divine revelation of which the Elohim said at the outset of Earth’s development: “And behold, everything was very good”—would be met with human judgment: “It is not good; I must leave it!” — Human judgment would be placed above God’s judgment. This is why we must learn to understand the words that stand as a mystery at the starting point of evolution. This is why we must not place human judgment above God’s judgment. If everything that could be held against us were ever to fall away from us, and the one fault remained that we blaspheme the creation of the Elohim—then earthly karma would have to be fulfilled, and everything would have to come crashing down upon us in the future. Thus, karma would have to be fulfilled.

[ 66 ] To prevent that from happening, Christ appeared in the world to reconcile us with the world in such a way that we may learn to overcome the forces of temptation from Lucifer, that we may learn to penetrate the veil, that we may see the revelation of God in its true form, that we may find Christ as the Reconciler who introduces us to the true form of God’s revelation, that through him we may learn to understand the ancient word: And behold, it is very good.”—So that we may learn to attribute to ourselves that which we must never attribute to the world, for this we need Christ. And even if all other sins could be taken from us—this sin had to be taken from us through him.

[ 67 ] When this is transformed into a moral feeling, it in turn reveals the Christ impulse from a new perspective. This also shows us why it was necessary for the Christ impulse, like the higher soul, to envelop itself in the Krishna impulse.

[ 68 ] My dear friends, a discussion such as the one intended in this cycle is not meant to be taken merely as a theory, as a collection of concepts and ideas that we absorb, but rather as a kind of New Year’s gift—a gift that is to influence our new year and continue to have an effect from it forth as that which can be sensed through an understanding of the Christ impulse, insofar as it makes the words of the Elohim comprehensible to us—words we must understand as they resound to us at the starting point, at the very beginning of our Earth’s creation. And consider what has been intended as the starting point of our anthroposophical spiritual movement. This spiritual movement is also meant to be anthroposophical for the reason that through it, it is to be recognized more and more how the human being can attain self-knowledge within themselves. Humanity cannot yet attain full self-knowledge; Anthropos cannot yet come to the knowledge of Anthropos, nor can the human being come to the knowledge of the human being, as long as this human being regards what he must discern in his own soul as a matter between himself and external nature.

[ 69 ] The fact that we see the world shrouded in Maya is something the gods have prepared for us; it is a matter of our own soul, a matter of higher self-knowledge; it is a matter that human beings must recognize within themselves in their humanity; it is a matter of anthroposophy, through which we can first come to a sense of what theosophy can be for human beings. It must be a humility of the highest order that a person feels as an impulse when they resolve to join the anthroposophical movement, a humility that says to itself: If I wish to skip over what is a matter of the human soul and immediately take the highest step into the divine, then humility can very easily slip away from me; then pride can very easily take the place of humility; then vanity can easily set in. — May the Anthroposophical Society also be a starting point in this higher moral realm; may it above all avoid what has so easily crept into the Theosophical Movement in the form of pride, vanity, ambition, and a lack of seriousness in accepting what constitutes the highest wisdom; may the Anthroposophical Society avoid this by already considering, at its very starting point, what pertains to Maya as a matter of the human soul itself.

[ 70 ] One should feel that the Anthroposophical Society is meant to be the result of the deepest human humility. For it is from this humility that the utmost seriousness toward the sacred truths into which it is to penetrate will spring forth when we venture into this realm of the supersensible, of the spiritual. Let us therefore accept the name “Anthroposophical Society” with true modesty, with true humility, and say to ourselves: Whatever modesty, vanity, ambition, or insincerity the name “Theosophy” may have engendered, let it be eradicated when—under the sign and motto of humility—we begin to look up humbly to the gods and divine wisdom, while dutifully embracing humanity and human wisdom; when we approach Theosophy with reverence and immerse ourselves dutifully in Anthroposophy. This Anthroposophy will lead us to the Divine and to the gods. And if, through it, we learn to look within ourselves with humility and truth in the highest sense, and if, above all, we learn to look within ourselves to see how we must struggle against all Maya and against all error through strict self-education and self-discipline, then let the word “Anthroposophy” stand above us as if inscribed on a bronze tablet! And let this be a reminder to us that, above all, through it we seek self-knowledge and self-restraint, and that in this way we may undertake the attempt to erect a edifice founded on truth, for truth blossoms only when self-knowledge takes root in the human soul with the utmost seriousness. From what does all vanity stem, from what does all untruthfulness stem? They stem from a lack of self-knowledge. From what alone can truth spring forth, from what alone can genuine devotion to the worlds of the gods and divine wisdom spring forth? They can spring forth only from true self-knowledge, self-education, and self-discipline. May that which is to flow and pulsate through the anthroposophical movement serve this purpose. For this reason, this very lecture series has been placed at the starting point of this anthroposophical movement, intended to provide proof that it is not a narrow-minded endeavor, but that through our movement we can expand our horizons to encompass those vast realms that Eastern thought also embraces. But we embrace it humbly in an anthroposophical way, through self-education, and by taking within ourselves the will for self-education and self-discipline. If, my dear friends, you undertake anthroposophy in this way, then it will lead to a fruitful outcome, it will reach a goal that can be for the good of every individual and every human society.

[ 71 ] With that, the final word has been spoken in this series of lectures; yet perhaps some of you will carry something of it in your hearts into the days ahead, so that it may bear fruit within our anthroposophical movement, for which you, my dear friends, have gathered here in the first place, so to speak. May we always be gathered together in the spirit of anthroposophy in such a way that we can rightly call upon words such as those we have just mentioned at the end—words of humility, words of self-knowledge—which we have just now been able to set before our souls as an ideal at this very moment.