The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Fifth Gospel II

[ 1 ] Through occult study conducted in the proper manner, it is possible in our time to experience, so to speak, what might be called the Fifth Gospel. If you turn your attention to some of what has been said over the years regarding the Mystery of Golgotha, you will have encountered, among the various things said to explain the four Gospels, certain accounts of the life of Christ Jesus that are not found in the Gospels themselves. Of the facts cited in this regard, I mention only the story of the two Jesus boys. But there are many other things as well that can be found today in the purely spiritual records and that are important for our time—so important for our time that it seems desirable for souls prepared for this to become acquainted with them little by little. For the time being, however, what is told from these sources must remain within our circle. But it may nevertheless be understood as something destined to pour itself into the souls of our present age in such a way that one receives an even more vivid picture of the work of Christ Jesus than has been possible until now.

[ 2 ] If you take what I presented as an introduction in the first lecture, you will have gained the impression that in our time a much more conscious grasp of the figure of Christ Jesus is necessary than was the case in earlier times. If, for example, it were to be objected that presenting something new about the life of Christ Jesus would run counter to Christian development, one need only recall the conclusion of the Gospel of John, where it is explicitly stated that the Gospels record only a portion of the things that have taken place, and that the world could not contain the books that would be necessary if everything that happened were to be recorded. From such things one can draw the courage and strength to actually present new insights into the life of Christ Jesus when it is necessary in a given age. And from such things one can know that it is nothing but narrow-mindedness when objections are raised against such a presentation.

[ 3 ] Now I would like to remind you of what I have often mentioned here in this very place: that at the beginning of our era, two Jesus children were born. We already know this, and we also know that one of the two Jesus children was born in such a way that the I, the spiritual being of Zarathustra, was embodied in him, that this Jesus child then lived with this spiritual being of Zarathustra until about the age of twelve, up to that point described in the Gospel of Luke when the parents took Jesus to Jerusalem, then lost him, and he was found among the scribes, to whom he had expounded the teachings—in a manner that astonished both them and the parents—which they themselves were called upon to expound. I have pointed out that this scene, as described in the Gospel of Luke, in truth indicates that the I of Zarathustra, which had thus lived for about twelve years in the one Jesus-boy, passed over into the other, now likewise twelve-year-old Jesus-boy, who until then had been of a completely different spiritual nature; so that we now have that boy Jesus, who descends from the Nathanic line of the House of David, and who did not have the Zarathustra-I within him until the age of twelve, but who has it within him from now on.

[ 4 ] It is now possible, using the methods I have often spoken of—which can be described as reading the Akashic Records—to gain further insights into the life of the young Jesus, who is now endowed with the Zarathustra ego. In doing so, one can distinguish three distinct periods in the life of this Jesus. The first period extends roughly from the age of twelve to eighteen, the second from eighteen to twenty-four, and the third from about the age of twenty-four to the point marked by John’s baptism in the Jordan, that is, until around the age of thirty.

[ 5 ] Let us consider that this boy Jesus, who at the age of twelve now possessed the Zarathustra-I within him, presented himself before the scribes of the Israelite people as an individual who possessed a fundamental knowledge of the essence of Jewish teaching, of the essence of ancient Hebrew jurisprudence, and that he was able to speak about it in an appropriate manner. Thus, this ancient Hebrew world lived in the soul of that boy Jesus. Everything that had come down to him in the form of knowledge about the relationship of the Hebrew people to their God—what is usually understood as the revelation of the God of the Hebrew people to Moses—lived within him. If we speak in broad strokes, we can therefore say: A rich treasure of the sacred teachings of what existed among the Hebrew people lived within Jesus; and with this treasure, with this knowledge, he lived, carrying on his father’s trade in Nazareth, devoted to what he knew in this way, processing it in his soul.

[ 6 ] Now, research into the Akashic Records shows us how what he knew in this way became a source of various spiritual doubts and spiritual pain for him, as he felt, in the deepest sense, feeling ever more deeply and amidst severe inner soul struggles how, in times long past during a very different stage of human development, a magnificent proclamation, a magnificent revelation, had flowed down from the spiritual worlds into the souls of those who, endowed with entirely different soul powers at that time, were able to receive such a teaching. It was particularly evident to the soul of that Jesus that there were once people with entirely different soul powers who could look up to the revealing spiritual powers and understood what was revealed there in a completely different way than the later generation to which he himself now belonged, which derived had fewer soul powers directed upward to process what had once been transmitted downward. Often the moment came for him when he said to himself: All this was once proclaimed; one can still know it today; but one can no longer grasp it as fully as those who received it back then did. — And the more of this was revealed to him inwardly, the more of it he took into his soul—as he did now, standing before the Jewish scribes and expounding their own knowledge of the law to them—the more he sensed the inability of the souls of his time to find their way into what was the ancient Hebrew revelation. Therefore, the people, the souls of his time, the character traits of these souls of his time, appeared to him as the descendants of people who had once received great revelations but who could no longer reach up to that revelation. What might once have drawn into these souls with bright radiance and the greatest warmth—he could often tell himself—had now faded; it seemed barren in many respects, whereas the souls had once felt it in the deepest sense. This was how he felt toward much of what was now emerging more and more in his soul through inspiration.

[ 7 ] Such was the life of his soul from the age of twelve to eighteen: it delved ever deeper and deeper into Jewish doctrine, yet found ever less satisfaction in it; indeed, it caused him ever greater pain and suffering. It fills the soul with the deepest tragic feeling when one considers how Jesus of Nazareth had to suffer under what had become of an ancient holy teaching in a later generation of humanity. And often he said to himself, as he sat there quietly dreaming and pondering: The teaching once flowed down, the revelation was once given to humanity; but now there are no longer people who are able to grasp it!” — This characterizes, in a sketchy way, the mood of Jesus of Nazareth’s soul. This was at work in the contemplation of his soul during those moments that remained to him within the time he spent as a craftsman, as a carpenter or as a joiner in Nazareth.

[ 8 ] Then came the period from the age of eighteen to twenty-four, during which he traveled around both nearby and somewhat more distant regions. In the course of these travels, as he worked in his trade in a wide variety of places, he visited not only locations within Palestine but also those outside of it. During these years, when the human soul, so freshly attuned to its surroundings, absorbs so much, he came to know many people and many ways of thinking, and learned how people lived with what had remained to them as an ancient, sacred teaching—that is, with what they were able to understand of it. And it is understandable from the outset that on a mind that had gone through what I just described for six years—all the inner joys, sufferings, and disappointments weighing on the soul—everything must have made a very different impression than on the minds of other people. Every soul was a riddle for him that he had to solve; but every soul was also something that told him it was waiting for something that was bound to come.

[ 9 ] Among the various regions he visited were some that were still steeped in the paganism of the time. One scene that shines through from the mental picture of his travels within and outside Palestine during the years from his eighteenth to his twenty-fourth made a particularly deep impression. There we see him arriving at a pagan place of worship, a place of worship such as those erected to the pagan gods under this or that name in Asia, Africa, and Europe. It was one of those places of worship whose ceremonies recalled the manner in which they were also practiced in the Mysteries, but there they were practiced with understanding, whereas in these pagan places of worship they had often degenerated into a kind of external ritual. But this was such a place of worship to which Jesus of Nazareth came, one that had been abandoned by its priests, where the worship was no longer performed. This was in a region where people lived in need and misery, in sickness and hardship; their place of worship had been abandoned by the priests. But when Jesus of Nazareth came to this place of worship, the people gathered around him—people who were afflicted in many ways by illness, misery, and need, but who were particularly tormented by the thought: This is the place where we once gathered, where the priests offered sacrifices with us and showed us the power of the gods; now we stand before the abandoned place of worship.

[ 10 ] A peculiar trait in Jesus’ soul strikes the spiritual observer. Even during his other journeys, one could notice that Jesus was welcomed everywhere in a very special way. The fundamental mood of his soul radiated something that had a gentle and beneficial effect on the people among whom he found himself. He traveled from place to place, working here and there in this or that carpenter’s workshop, and then sat together with the people with whom he conversed. Every word he spoke was received in a special way, for it was spoken in a very special way; it was imbued with the gentleness and goodwill of the heart. It was not so much the what, but the how that poured something like a magical breath into people’s souls. Warm relationships with the wandering man formed everywhere. People did not regard him as just another person; they saw something special shining from his eyes, felt something special speaking from his heart.

[ 11 ] And so it was, as if within the people standing around their altar in hardship, misery, and need, watching as a stranger had arrived, as if the thought lived in every soul: A priest has come to us, who now intends to perform the sacrifice at the altar once more! - That was the mood that surrounded him, brought about by the impression his arrival made. It was as if he had appeared to the pagans as a priest who would once again perform their sacrifice.

[ 12 ] And lo and behold, as he stood there before the assembly, at a certain moment he felt as if he had been transported, as if he had been brought into a special state of mind—and he saw something horrific! He saw, at the altar and among the crowd that was gathering around him in ever-greater numbers, what might be called demons, and he realized what these demons signified. He realized how the pagan sacrifices had gradually given way to something that magically drew such demons. And so, when Jesus had come to the altar, not only had the people gathered there, but also the demons who had assembled at the altar during the earlier sacrificial rites. For he recognized this: that although such pagan sacrificial rites had their origin in what could be performed as acts of sacrifice to the true gods—insofar as they were recognizable in pagan times—at the ancient pagan sites and in proper places of worship, these sacrifices had gradually fallen into decay. The mysteries had degenerated, and instead of the sacrifices flowing to the gods, these sacrifices and the thoughts living within the priests drew demons to them—Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces—which he now saw around him once more, after he had been transported into a different state of consciousness. And when those gathered around him saw how he had been transported into this other state of consciousness and had therefore fallen, they took flight. But the demons remained.

[ 13 ] Even more profoundly than the decline of the ancient Hebrew teachings, the decline of the pagan mysteries had come to dominate the soul of Jesus of Nazareth. From the age of twelve to eighteen, he had experienced within himself how that which had once been given to humanity—so that it warmed and enlightened souls—could no longer take effect, thus leading to a certain spiritual desolation. Now he saw how the beneficial effects of the ancient gods had been replaced by demonic forces of a Luciferic and Ahrimanic nature. He saw the decline of paganism in what he had spiritually perceived around him. Imagine these soul experiences, this way of experiencing what had become of the influence of the ancient gods and humanity’s relationship with them; imagine the feeling that arises in this way: Humanity must thirst for something new, for it becomes miserable in its souls if nothing new comes!

[ 14 ] And Jesus of Nazareth, at that time, after the demons had, so to speak, observed him and then followed the fleeing people, had a kind of vision—a vision we will speak of later—in which the course of human development seemed to resound toward him in a special way, as if from the spiritual heights. He had a vision of what I will share in a future lecture—something akin to a kind of macrocosmic Lord’s Prayer. He sensed what had once been proclaimed to humanity in the pure Word, as the pure Logos.

[ 15 ] When Jesus of Nazareth returned home from this journey, it was around the time—as spiritual research suggests—when the father of Jesus of Nazareth had died. In the years that followed—from the age of twenty-four until the time marked by the baptism of John in the Jordan—Jesus of Nazareth became acquainted with what might be called the Essene teachings and the Essene community. The Essenes were a community that had established its headquarters in a valley in Palestine. The central headquarters was situated in a secluded location. But the Essenes had branches everywhere; there was also something like a branch in Nazareth. The Essenes had set themselves the task of cultivating a special life, a special spiritual life, which was, however, to be in harmony with external life, through which the soul could develop upward to a higher level of experience, through which it could enter into a kind of communion with the spiritual world. To a certain degree, one ascended to what the Essene community sought to offer its members, its fellow believers, as the highest good: a kind of union with the higher world.

[ 16 ] The Essenes had thus developed something intended, in a sense, to nurture the human soul in such a way as to make it once again capable of grasping what could no longer be grasped through the natural course of human development: the ancient connection with the divine-spiritual world. The Essenes sought to achieve this through strict rules that also applied to their outward way of life. They sought to achieve it by, so to speak, strictly withdrawing from contact with everything that constituted the outer world. An Essene had no personal possessions. The Essenes had come together from all corners of the world at that time. But anyone who wanted to become an Essene had to surrender whatever possessions he had to the Essene community; only the Essene community had possessions, property. So if someone owned something in a certain place and wanted to become an Essene, he would hand over the house and any land belonging to it to the Essene community. As a result, the community had properties in a wide variety of places. It was a peculiar principle in the Essene community, one that today would certainly cause offense according to our views, but which was precisely necessary for everything the Essenes sought to achieve. They cultivated the life of the soul by devoting themselves to a pure life, a life of devotion to wisdom, but also a charitable life lived in love. Thus they were also the ones who, wherever they went—and they did indeed travel throughout the world to fulfill their mission—performed acts of charity. Part of their teaching was the healing of the sick. They performed healing works everywhere in the manner of the time. But they also did much in the way of material charity. And there was that principle in force which cannot be imitated in our present social order, nor indeed should it be: an Essene could support anyone he deemed to be in need, but not a family member.

[ 17 ] The Essene ideal was to perfect the soul in order to restore its connection with the spiritual world. This goal of the Essenes was designed to prevent the temptations of Ahriman and Lucifer from reaching the Essene’s soul. We could therefore also characterize the Essene ideal by saying: The Essene sought to keep everything that might be called Luciferic and Ahrimanic temptations at a distance. He sought to live in such a way that what constitutes the Ahrimanic pull down into sensuality, into the external world, into materialistic life, could not approach him at all. But they also sought to lead a life of bodily purity so that the Luciferic temptations and enticements rising from the soul could not afflict that soul. They thus sought to lead a life such that neither Lucifer nor Ahriman could reach the Essene soul.

[ 18 ] Because of the very way in which Jesus of Nazareth had developed, he came into a relationship with the Essenes that would not have been possible for any other person, and during the years I am referring to here, it would not have been possible at all had he not become an Essene himself. Jesus of Nazareth was even permitted to enter the most sacred and secluded chambers at the Essene headquarters—to the extent that this was at all possible within the strict rules of the Essene order—and to engage in conversations with the Essenes that they otherwise reserved only for themselves. In doing so, he was able to become initiated into the deepest rules of the Essene order. Thus he came to know how the individual Essene felt, strove, and lived, and above all he learned to perceive—and this is something of what matters—what constituted the utmost possibility for a soul of his time to approach, through perfection, the ancient sacred revelation once more. He came to know all of this.

[ 19 ] One day, as he was leaving the Essene assembly, he had a significant experience. As he walked out toward the gate of the Essenes’ secluded dwelling, he saw two figures on either side of the gate as if fleeing, and he sensed that they were Lucifer and Ahriman. And this repeated itself to him often as a similar vision. The Essenes were, after all, an order with a very large number of members. They had their settlements everywhere in the manner I have described. Therefore, they were also respected in a certain way as such, even though they led their social life in a completely different manner than other people of that time. The cities they visited provided them with special gates; for the Essene was not permitted—this was part of his rules—to pass through any gate on which an image was affixed. If he wished to enter a city and came upon a gate where an image was affixed, he had to turn back and enter the city at another point where no image was affixed. This played a certain role in the entire system of the Essene doctrine of perfection, for it was so that nothing of a legendary, mythical, or religious nature was permitted to be depicted in images. Through this, the Essene sought to flee the Luciferic aspect of the impulses of imagery. Thus, on his wanderings, Jesus of Nazareth came to know the image-less Essene gates. And time and again, at these image-less Essene gates, it became clear to him how Lucifer and Ahriman had set themselves up there as invisible images, where visible images were frowned upon. These were significant experiences in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 20 ] What did he gain from these significant experiences in connection with the numerous conversations he was able to have with the Essenes, who had attained a high level of perfection? He came to realize something that had an immensely oppressive, deeply, deeply oppressive effect on his soul, causing him infinite torment and pain. For he realized that he had to admit to himself: Yes, there is a strictly self-contained community; there are people who strive to establish a connection in the present with the spiritual powers, with the divine-spiritual world. So even in the present day there is still something among human beings that seeks to reestablish this connection. But at what cost? At the cost that this community of Essenes leads a life that other human beings could not lead. For if all human beings had led the life of the Essenes, then the life of the Essenes would not have been possible. And now a connection dawned on him that weighed heavily upon his soul: Where, he asked himself, do Lucifer and Ahriman flee when they flee from the gates of the Essenes? They flee to where the souls of other people are! Humanity had thus reached a point where a community must separate itself if it wishes to find a connection with the divine-spiritual world. And because it separates itself—separates itself in such a way that it can develop its entire social cohesion only by excluding other human beings—it condemns other human beings to sink all the more deeply into that from which it, this Essene community, fled. Because the Essene community rose, the others had to fall all the more! Because the Essene led a life in which Lucifer and Ahriman were not allowed to come into contact with him, Ahriman and Lucifer were able to approach the other people through temptation and enticement.

[ 21 ] This was Jesus of Nazareth’s experience with an esoteric order. What could be learned about Jewish law in his time, he had already experienced in his soul in earlier years. He had likewise experienced in his soul in earlier years what the pagan cults of his time had come to, when the world of demons had appeared before his soul at a moment of great significance. Now he had to learn at what cost the humanity of his time had to seek its approach to the divine-spiritual mysteries of the world. Thus we live in a time—this struck his soul bitterly—in which those who seek connection with the divine-spiritual must do so in close fellowship and at the expense of other people. Thus we live in an age in which there is a cry of longing for such a connection with the divine-spiritual world that can become a reality for all people. This had weighed heavily upon his soul.

[ 22 ] And as this sank into his soul, he once had a spiritual conversation with the soul of the Buddha while he was still a member of the Essene community. The entire way of life of the Essene community bore a strong resemblance to what the Buddha had brought into the world. And Jesus saw himself facing the Buddha and heard the Buddha say of himself: “On the path I have given to humanity, the connection with the divine-spiritual world cannot reach all people; for I have established a teaching which, if it is to be understood and experienced in its higher aspects, necessitates a separation such as is contained within this teaching.” - With utter clarity, with full force, it stood before the soul of Jesus of Nazareth how the Buddha had established a teaching that presupposes that, apart from those who profess the innermost aspects of this teaching, there must also be other people who cannot profess these innermost aspects. For how could the Buddha and his disciples have gone about with the alms bowl in hand, collecting alms, if there had not been such people who could give them alms? He now heard from the Buddha that his teaching was not one that every person in every situation of life could put into practice.

[ 23 ] Jesus of Nazareth had come to know the possibilities for development that existed in his time during the three periods of his life prior to his baptism by John in the Jordan; he had not learned this in the way one learns something, but rather in the way one experiences something when one comes into direct, intimate contact with these things. He had come into the closest possible contact with the ancient Jewish law, as it had dawned upon him in an inspired manner, and he had been able to experience within himself something like an echo of the revelations that had been given to Moses and the prophets. But he had also been able to experience how it was no longer possible for a soul of his time, with the physical constitution of that era, to fully grasp these things. Times had come that were different from those in which the ancient Jewish law had been fully received. And just as the decline of the pagan mysteries had summoned the demonic world, he had likewise experienced this through the closest of contact, through an experience in the supersensible world, in that he had summoned not only the people who had been plunged into distress and misery by the decayed place of worship, but also the demons who had gathered around the sacrificial site in place of the good old pagan forces. And how, despite the demands of the coming age, it was impossible for people to learn anything of the deepest secret knowledge of the Essene Order—this he had experienced during the six years prior to the baptism of John.

[ 24 ] What one gains from studying the Akashic Records in this area is the realization that, through inner spiritual experience, something was endured here that no other soul on Earth could ever have endured. It is precisely this statement I have just made that may not be fully understood in our time. Therefore, I would like to interject something here. For in the course of my further presentations from the Fifth Gospel, I will have to explain how these sufferings escalated to unimaginable proportions in the period between John’s baptism in the Jordan and the Mystery of Golgotha. People today might easily object: But why should such a high soul suffer at all? For our time has, after all, peculiar notions about these things. And when I have to discuss the full depth of the suffering of Jesus and later of Christ, I must draw your attention to certain misunderstandings that arise in this regard.

[ 25 ] I have mentioned on several occasions, including here, that a book by Maurice Maeterlinck has recently been published, *On Death*, which one should read simply to see how absurd a person like him—who has otherwise written good works in the realm of intellectual life—can be. Among the many absurdities in this book by Maeterlinck is the assertion that a spirit without a body cannot suffer, because only a physical body can suffer. From this, Maeterlinck draws the conclusion that a person who has left their body cannot suffer in the spiritual world. Anyone who thinks this way could also easily conclude that the Christ-being, having entered the body of Jesus of Nazareth, could not have suffered. Nevertheless, next time I will have to describe the deepest suffering of Christ himself in the body of Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 26 ] It is strange, however, how a person of sound mind can believe that a physical body is capable of suffering. After all, only the soul within the physical body can suffer, for the physical body cannot experience pain or suffering. What constitutes pain and suffering resides in the soul-spiritual part of the body, and physical pains are simply those caused by irregularities in the physical organism. Insofar as the physical organism is an organism, these are irregularities. One may have a muscle strain within it and so on; but the physical body, the physical organization, does not suffer, even if the matter is pulled from one place to another. Just as a sack of straw cannot suffer when the straw is tossed about, so too a physical body cannot suffer. But because a spiritual-soul being is contained within the body, the spiritual-soul aspect suffers when something is not as it ought to be. Thus, what suffers is the spiritual-soul aspect; and it is always the spiritual-soul aspect. And the higher the spiritual-soul aspect stands, the more it can suffer, and the higher it stands, the more it can suffer under spiritual-soul impressions.

[ 27 ] I say this so that you may try to form a sense, a feeling, of how the Zarathustra being suffered during those years from the realization that the old revelations had become inadequate for what the human soul needs in modern times. This was, first of all, the infinite suffering—which cannot be compared to any suffering on earth—that confronts us when we consider, in the manner of the Akashic Records, the part of the life of Jesus of Nazareth that is the focus of our attention today.

[ 28 ] At the end of the period I have just described, Jesus of Nazareth had a conversation with his mother. This conversation with his mother was decisive for what he now undertook: the journey to the one with whom he had already entered into a kind of relationship through his connection to the Essene order—a journey he undertook as a visit to John the Baptist. I will speak next time about this conversation with his mother, which is decisive for what follows in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 29 ] Consider—and this is what I would like to say in conclusion today—the messages regarding this Fifth Gospel as something that is being given as best as it can be, because the spiritual forces of our time require that a number of souls know of these things from now on. But also regard what is being given with a certain reverence. For I have already mentioned here how turbulent the outer spiritual life of Germany has become—even among those of sound mind—at the very moment when a publication was first made concerning only the two Jesus boys. Such things, drawn from the spiritual world, stemming directly from spiritual research—such things the public outside our movement simply cannot yet tolerate, cannot bear. And in the most manifold ways, things then confront one that are perceptible as a wild passion, and that seek to ward off something that comes forth like a new proclamation from the spiritual world. It is not necessary that through careless chatter these things be disparaged and ridiculed just as the story of the two Jesus children has been, for these things are to be sacred to us.

[ 30 ] It is actually not at all easy to speak about these things today, precisely because resistance to them is at its greatest. And fundamentally, this is what I have often described: the infinite complacency of human souls in our time, which does not wish to engage with the finer details of spiritual research and therefore does not wish to gain insight into the possibility of coming to understand such things. It is indeed the case today that, on the one hand, the yearning cry for revelations from the spiritual world lies in the hidden depths of the human soul, and that, on the other hand, the conscious part of the human soul in our time becomes most passionately resistant precisely when such manifestations from the spiritual world are spoken of.

[ 31 ] Consider the words I spoke at the conclusion of today’s reflection, and take them as a guide for how we should approach the things we discuss regarding the Fifth Gospel.