The Rudolf Steiner Archive

7. The Prophet Elijah in the Light of Spiritual Science

[ 1 ] Like one of the brightest stars in the sky of humanity’s spiritual development, the prophet Elijah shines down upon us from early antiquity. The character traits, the accounts of this figure’s deeds, and the full extent of his greatness—as described in the biblical record—are deeply, deeply imprinted on human hearts and minds. Yet this significant figure appears difficult to grasp from the perspective of external history. For spiritual science, from whose perspective today’s consideration of the prophet Elijah is to be conducted, this very figure serves as a sign that the development of humanity is based not only on deeds and ideas that are outwardly perceptible and can be recorded in external history—as the most important causes and impulses of events—but also on the moving forces and impulses of the utmost importance, of the very highest order. To bring this fact—which sheds light on history—before our spiritual eye, we need only recall that the founding of Christianity, too, is due for the greatest part to an inner soul process that manifests outwardly as the event at Damascus for the Apostle Paul. One may argue as much as one likes regarding the external fact: it cannot be denied that the founding of Christianity is intimately connected with what took place at that time in the soul and spirit of the Apostle Paul, and which was conveyed in the fiery words and the self-sacrificing, momentous deeds of this founder of Christianity. But in many other places as well, we can demonstrate that human events and historical developments ultimately lead not to the ordinary deeds of history, but to the human soul, to the human heart.

[ 2 ] We will be examining such an example today. Given the brevity and sketchy nature of this lecture—which deals with a topic about which so much could be said—it must, however, be left to the souls of the listeners to further elaborate on this topic and determine to what extent the ideas presented today, in connection with the personality of the Prophet Elijah and his time, can serve to substantiate, explanatory, or illuminating the matters presented today—which are linked to the personality of the prophet Elijah and his time—may be for the development of human history. What this lecture will address, however, is not intended merely as an account of the personality and significance of the Prophet Elijah, but also as a kind of example of how such matters can be viewed through spiritual science, and how spiritual science, with its own methods, is able to shed light on what has been communicated to us in a different way regarding the historical development of humanity. To achieve the goal outlined above, we shall proceed in a very special way today. Namely, what needs to be said about the personality and significance of the prophet Elijah will first be presented on the basis of spiritual science research itself, relying as little as possible on the Bible—and referring to the Bible only where names or characterizations make such a reference seem appropriate. We shall therefore make the bold attempt to first recount what actually happened, and then point out how these events are reflected in the biblical record. What happened is to be presented on the basis of research of the kind made possible by spiritual science, the framework within which the narrative has already been developed in this lecture series and in the lectures of previous years. For those in the audience—and there are a great many of them here today—who, through many years of engagement with the spiritual sciences, are thoroughly familiar with the power and the persuasive strength of the spiritual-scientific method, what is said can be presented from the outset as a certain result of research, even if it can only be outlined briefly—if only because a detailed, evidence-based discussion would take many hours. However, I ask those members of the audience who do not—or cannot—stand on such ground to accept what is said about the true history as a hypothesis that is, in fact, subject to examination. And I am quite confident that if this examination is conducted properly and without prejudice, it will confirm what is about to be said. What, then, does spiritual science have to say about the personality and significance of the prophet Elijah and his time?

[ 3 ] We must transport ourselves back to that period of ancient Hebrew history in which the glorious era of Solomon’s reign had come to an end, and the Palestinian kingdom had to endure manifold hardships—one need only recall the Philistine threat and similar trials. We must transport ourselves to that time when what had once been a unified kingdom had already split into the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel. We must place ourselves in that time—and now comes an opportunity, one of many to come, where we can refer to biblical names, but only for the sake of context and clarity—in which King Ahab reigned in Samaria, who was the son of Omri and one of the successors of Jeroboam. A kind of alliance or brotherhood had been formed between King Ahab—or rather, his father—and the kings of Tyre and Sidon, and this alliance was intended to be reinforced by Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel, the daughter of the royal house of Tyre and Sidon. These names are familiar from the Bible, and to avoid confusion, I will refer to them as they appear in the Bible. We must transport ourselves to a time in which, for people who had retained the appropriate aptitudes, the ancient gift of clairvoyance had by no means disappeared—a spiritual faculty that was indeed characteristic of humanity in primeval times. Queen Jezebel was endowed not merely with this clairvoyance, but with a very special clairvoyant power, which, however, she was by no means willing to use solely for good and noble purposes. We must see her as a kind of clairvoyant, whereas King Ahab was a man who, in certain exceptional states, possessed the ability to bring into consciousness what can emerge from the hidden powers of the soul—a phenomenon that occurred to a much greater extent in earlier times than it does today. King Ahab did not possess this ability to any great degree, but only occasionally experienced premonitions and visions when he was confronted with some particular question of destiny.

[ 4 ] During this time, word spread in all sorts of ways throughout those regions that there was a great and significant spirit. This was the spirit who, in the biblical account, bears the name Elijah. Very few people—those who lived, so to speak, out in the world—actually knew either where to find this figure named Elijah or just how powerfully he was influencing his contemporaries. One might characterize the situation as follows: in the broadest circles, the name of this figure and any mention of him were spoken of with a certain sense of awe, so that people knew there was something significant in and behind this spirit. But how this was actually working in the world, and where one was to look for it—that was not really known; people had no real inkling of it. Only a few individuals—who might be called the initiated disciples of this spirit—knew the true nature of the matter and were also able to identify, within the physical world and in outward reality, the man who was the bearer of this spirit. King Ahab did not know this. But he felt a very special fear, a kind of particular shudder, whenever this figure was mentioned. For people associated—and indeed had to associate—very specific concepts with this figure. King Ahab of Samaria was the one who, particularly through his alliance with Tyre and Sidon, had introduced into the ancient Palestinian kingdom a certain kind of religion that adhered to external ceremony, external forms, and what manifested itself in external symbols—in other words, a kind of paganism. Those who belonged to such a form of paganism now had to accept what they knew about the individuality of the prophet Elijah with a very special sense of awe. For from the various things they heard there, one could conclude: Certainly, what can be called the religion of Yahweh still exists from the ancient times of the ancient Hebrew people; there is a belief in a God, in a spiritual being of the world who reigns supernaturally and who, through his supernatural powers, intervenes in human existence and human history. - But one also knew that the time had come when, among the best of the ancient Hebrew people, an ever more significant and profound understanding of the essence of Yahweh was to take hold. It was known that although the religion of Moses already contained in its embryonic form everything that can be described as the religion of Yahweh, it had been understood in the way that a people still more or less in the stage of childhood or youth could understand it. The religion of Yahweh—the gaze toward a supernatural God who can be characterized by nothing other than the statement: He bears no resemblance to anything other than that invisible, transcendent reality which a person perceives when he looks into his own soul. That transcendent reality was there, but it had been conceived in such a way that people tried, so to speak, to visualize how the God of Yahweh acted through the outward manifestations of human life. People had become accustomed to saying: Yahweh acts by rewarding people and showing them kindness when fertility and abundance are evident in the external natural world, and when life otherwise flows easily.—But people had also become accustomed to saying that the God Yahweh would burn with wrath or turn away from humanity when there were the hardships of war, famines, or the like.

[ 5 ] The time we are now speaking of is also such a time of distress, namely a time of famine. And quite a few had turned away from Yahweh at heart because they could no longer believe in his work, since they saw how he treated the people while a terrible famine was raging. If we can speak of progress in the concept of Yahweh, we must characterize this progress in the following way: a concept of God was to emerge that, while still the old concept of Yahweh, was imbued with a higher understanding on the part of humanity—so imbued that people said to themselves: Whatever may occur in the external world, however blissfully a person may live, and however hardship and misery may befall him, these external things in no way prove the goodness or wrath of Yahweh, but rather, one possesses the correct conception, the true devotion to the concept of Yahweh, which does not waver even in the greatest distress and misery when one looks up to the invisible God; one who, through the forces alone that reign within one’s soul—and through no external observations or external confirmations—receives the certainty: He is!

[ 6 ] This turning point was to take place at that time. If such turning points are to occur in the course of history, there must always be individuals in whose souls such a process first takes place—individuals into whom, as it were, that which is to emerge as a new impulse, a new force in history, can work. If the term is not misunderstood, one can say: It was through the destiny of the people that the individuality designated by the name of the prophet Elijah was chosen to first grasp the idea of Yahweh in this way within his own soul. - For this to happen, it was necessary that very special forces rise up in the soul of this personality from the hidden depths and recesses—forces that had not previously existed among human beings, not even among the teachers of humanity. A kind of mystical initiation of the highest order, through which the knowledge of such a God could enter, had to take place within the being of Elijah. Therefore, in order to demonstrate this penetration of the concept of Yahweh in the manner described, it is of immense importance to look into the soul of the man in whom the Spirit was first incarnated—the man who, through his initiation and his permeation with the hidden powers of the soul, as was necessary for the first, pioneering Spirit.

[ 7 ] Such individuals stand alone in their initial experience of what they perceive as a significant leap forward within their own souls. But they gather disciples around them. What might be called the great religious or prophetic schools within Palestine—or the initiation or mystery centers among other peoples—belong to such schools. Thus, the prophet Elijah—if we wish to use that name—was likewise surrounded by a few disciples who looked up to him from below, yet in a certain sense at least knew what was at stake, even if they could not look very deeply into his soul. The other people, however, did not know where the one in whom such things were taking place was to be found. One simply had to say to oneself: He is there; something is happening. — What we might call, in our language—if the term is not misused—a kind of rumor began to spread. The rumor spread that the prophet was there, but no one knew where. For such prophets, such significant spirits, possessed a very specific power. What I am saying here may seem somewhat grotesque if one looks only at our own time, but for those who are familiar with the peculiarities of bygone eras, it need not be grotesque at all. These personalities possessed a very special power—a power with a profound and decisive effect that manifests itself here and there, not merely in feelings of awe, but also in positive influences that they instill, so to speak, into people’s souls, thereby exerting an influence such that one does not actually know where the outer personality lies. The outer personality of such spirits is sometimes quite unremarkable. The students know this. Somewhere—perhaps in a highly unremarkable outward position—the outer personality appears.

[ 8 ] And lo and behold: at that time, the outward personality who embodied the spirit just described—without Ahab, the king of Samaria, having the slightest inkling of it—was in fact his neighbor. He was right there in his immediate vicinity. But King Ahab knew nothing of it. He searched everywhere for the person he could describe in the way that has just been characterized—everywhere except in the humble owner of a small estate that was in his immediate vicinity. For the king gave no thought to where this person was at certain times, or why he was sometimes absent. Jezebel knew, but at first she did not share her secret with Ahab. She kept it to herself for reasons we will come to understand later. Now, the individual who is actually the outer, physical vehicle of Elijah is also named in the Bible. There he is called Naboth, so that, according to spiritual scientific research, we must in truth regard the biblical Naboth as the physical vehicle of Elijah’s spiritual individuality.

[ 9 ] During that time of famine, when many were indeed starving, hardship also befell Naboth in a certain way. In such times—when it is not only hunger that takes effect, though that was certainly the case back then, but when infinite compassion for the hungry and the afflicted also takes effect—conditions are particularly favorable for those hidden soul forces to enter into a person who has been prepared for this through his fate or his karma, enabling him to rise to such a mission as has been indicated. Let us now clarify what goes on in such a soul—that is, what went on in Naboth’s soul.

[ 10 ] What is taking place are, at first, purely inner processes; it is a significant process of self-education or self-development of the soul toward higher spiritual realms. What the soul experiences inwardly—the acquisition of powers through which it looks into the spiritual worlds in order to bring back from them what is to be implanted as impulses for human development—is extraordinarily difficult to describe and extremely hard to put into words, because even to the one who experiences such things, come to consciousness in such a way—especially not in those ancient times—that they could have expressed it in precise, sharply defined terms. One undergoes a clairvoyant development of the soul in various stages. For a being such as Naboth, this is naturally preceded by the most definite inner experience: The power that is now to enter humanity must shine forth within me. I am to be a vessel for it.” — But then comes the other experience: “I must now do everything in my power to make myself worthy of this force, so that the force can speak through me in the right way, so that I may acquire the appropriate qualities that give me the abilities to experience what I must experience, so that I can communicate the force to my fellow human beings in the right way.”

[ 11 ] Such a personality must therefore pass through various stages. When a corresponding stage is reached, certain signs appear, as it were, for one’s own soul—signs that are not merely dreams, but inner experiences, nor are they merely visions, for they are grounded in the reality of one’s own soul’s development. Images appear that serve as signs: “Now you have reached a point in your soul where you can dare to act.” — The images themselves need not have much to do with what the soul is actually going through. They are mere symbols, just as dreams are symbolic. Yet in a certain sense they are typical symbols, just as we have certain dreams under certain circumstances—for example, the dream of a blazing furnace when our heart is pounding. Thus, certain vision-like experiences arise when the soul in question has once again acquired this or that clairvoyant power. In the case of Naboth, the first thing that occurred was that he recognized through such a vision: “It is through you that it is to be proclaimed that one can and must trust in the ancient God Yahweh, even if the outward appearance of historical events, due to the hardship that has befallen us, seems to contradict this. One must wait patiently until times improve again, for it is in accordance with the counsel of the ancient God Yahweh to bring both hardship and, once more, good fortune. But trust must never waver.” It became clear to Naboth that what he was to utter was an unshakable, compelling force within his soul. It stood before him vividly as something more than a mere vision. God Himself stood before his soul, as he could imagine Him in a vision, and spoke to him: “Go to King Ahab and say: One must trust in the God Yahweh until He causes it to rain again”—that is, until better times return. Then this man knew his mission; he knew that he must now devote himself to the further development of the soul’s power, which, when fully developed, could bring about what stood before his spiritual eye, and he resolved, with every sacrifice as far as possible, to be among those most exposed to the hardships of that time, including hunger. He was certainly not starving himself—I emphasize that this is not meant to recommend a starvation regimen for the attainment of spiritual knowledge—in order to ascend to higher worlds; he did not starve himself out of any impulse other than that which drove the others to starve, not merely to share in the fate of others, but to share in it to an even greater degree. His soul, however, was devoted to God in unceasing inner contemplation—the God who had revealed Himself to him in the manner described—and he did not turn his thoughts away from this God. Today, in spiritual science, we would say: His entire meditation consisted in bringing this thought, of his own free will, into the very center of his soul.—That he was acting correctly was shown to him once again through a sign, an inner vision that was more than a mere dreamlike vision, for before him stood, in all its vividness, the image of the God who indeed lived within his soul and said to him: “Be patient, endure everything! The One who sustains humanity and you as well will give you what you need. You must have only unconditional trust in the eternal existence of the soul!” The image appeared as if he—a hermit who depicted the matter in more pictorial reality—were going to the Krith stream, hiding there, quenching his thirst with the stream’s water as long as there was any, and nourishing himself with whatever God sent him, whatever he could still obtain amid the hardship of the times. It seemed to him to be a sign of a special grace from God that the ravens brought him this food. Thus, in this vision, he found confirmation of what he had to experience once again within himself as the most important thing.

[ 12 ] Then he was to experience a higher level with regard to the hidden powers of the soul. Lo and behold, he tried to immerse himself even more deeply—as we would say today—into that meditation from which he had set out, and which we have already described. This meditation, this inner experience, then took on the following character. He said to himself: If you are to be at all worthy of the vision that is shining forth here of a completely new image of God, then you must, in essence, become a completely different person inwardly—even in the deepest powers of your soul—than you have been up to now. You must, in fact, overcome and cast off the soul that lives within you, and you must, drawing from your deeper soul forces, breathe new life into that which you do possess—but which, as your true self, must not remain as it is. — Thus, under the influence of this thought, he worked intensively on his soul, through inner work, on a transformation, on a reshaping of his own “I,” so that it might become worthy to stand before the God who had revealed Himself to him. Once again, a kind of vision arose within him—a vision, yet something that is much more than a mere vision and yet of much less value, for the true value lies in the inner processes of the soul. The vision that arose within him was that his God, who had revealed Himself to him, was sending him to Zarephath, where he would meet a widow who had a son. Now the way in which he is to live appears to him, as it were, personified in the fate of this widow and her son. They have hardly anything left to eat, and so the vision appears before his soul. They intend to use up the last of what they have and then die. But he now says to this widow—as if in a dream, as if in a vision—what he had, in essence, been saying to his own soul day by day, week by week, in his solitary reflections: “Do not worry; calmly prepare from the flour you still have the meal that is to be prepared for you and also for me. Trust in God for all that is to come—the God who can bring both good and bad, in whom one must never lose faith!” And behold, it was revealed to him in a dream, in a vision, that the jar of flour and the jug of oil did not run out, but were continually refilled. His entire state of mind was expressed in the vision as if he had, so to speak, matured into this personality, as if this personality were moving into the widow’s house and dwelling on the upper floor of that house. But the inner reality is that one’s own soul, so to speak, ascends to a higher floor, reaching a higher stage of its development. But now he sees before him, as it were, the death of that woman’s son. This is nothing other than the symbolic reflection of how he has overcome—as it were, killed—what his “I” had been up to that point. The subconscious forces of his soul ask him, “What are you to do now?” He stands there, as it were, at a loss. Then he pulls himself together through the power that has flowed into him thus far and immerses himself further in what has been given to him to immerse himself in. It then becomes apparent that, after the son of this widow has died, the woman reproaches him—that is, his own subconscious mind reproaches him and fills him with anxiety: The old sense of self is now gone—what next?—As depicted in the illustration, he brings the son to himself, boldly delves deeper into his soul, and thereby brings the dead son back to life. This gives him the courage to further enliven the new self from within the old self.

[ 13 ] And so he matured. His soul matured to the point where it possessed the strength to truly step forth into the outer world and proclaim what needed to be said to that world—above all, to appear before King Ahab in order to secure the victory of the new conception of Yahweh over that which had taken its place due to the weakness of the times, and of which King Ahab was the representative.

[ 14 ] From somewhere—at any rate, Ahab had no idea where the man had come from—this same figure approached King Ahab, who was walking anxiously through his kingdom, surveying the distress. There he encountered this man. And something stirred in Ahab’s soul at the words this man spoke to him—even though he had no idea that it was his neighbor—as if the very thing he had always sensed when people spoke of that spirit, referred to in the Bible by the name of the prophet Elijah, now stood before him with particular intensity. “Are you, by any chance, the man who is causing confusion in Israel?” Ahab asked him. “No,” replied Naboth-Elijah, “but it is you yourself who are bringing misfortune and disaster upon Israel. A decision must be made as to which God our people should now turn to.”

[ 15 ] Things were then arranged in such a way—to go into the details would be going too far today—that a large portion of the people of Israel was gathered on Mount Carmel, where the decision was to be brought about by an outward sign, which was to appear to us as something entirely comprehensible, between the god of Ahab and the god of Elijah. First, arrangements were made for the priests and prophets of Baal—as King Ahab’s god was called—to offer their sacrifice. Now they wanted to wait and see whether, through the sacrificial rite that was being performed there, through the devotional practices of the ecstatic prophets—who, through music and dance, put themselves into very special states—whether through these rituals something would spread to the people as if being communicated to them; in other words, whether, through the divine power that these priests possessed within themselves, something of the power and might of this god would be revealed. The animal was brought to the sacrificial altar. It remained to be seen whether the power capable of gripping the crowd was truly at work within the priests. For Naboth-Elijah said: “The decision must be brought about: I stand here alone—and facing me are four hundred and fifty priests of Baal. Let us see how strong their power is over the people, or how strong my power is.” The sacrifice was performed. Everything possible was done to transfer the power possessed by the priests of Baal to the people, so that they might believe in the god Baal. It went so far that the hands and other parts of these priests’ bodies were cut with a knife so that blood flowed, in order to further intensify what must have seemed terrifying to the priests as they performed amid dancing and music. But lo and behold, nothing happened, for Elijah-Naboth was there with his power. One might say in plain terms: He was there with his influence. — You need not think of anything involving sorcery. And through his influence, he managed to dispel everything that was present there. Then he proceeded with the sacrifice. In other words, the very soul that had endured what we have just described entered into the sacrifice with all its power. The sacrifice took effect! The souls, the minds, were moved. Something similar took place to what I have attempted to describe in my book Mysticism at the Dawn of Modern Spiritual Life, where it is illustrated by Johannes Tauler, who was a preacher but was still undergoing a special training. When he then returned to the pulpit, an effect became evident among his listeners, expressed in the account that we are told: about forty people fell down during his sermon and were dead—that is, they had been struck inwardly by the corresponding power. So it was with Elijah. Now we need think nothing other than that the words found in the Bible are an exaggeration; at least, that is what spiritual scientific research reveals. The priests of Baal—Elijah’s four hundred and fifty opponents—had to surrender as defeated. They were slain in their souls by Elijah-Naboth. Elijah-Naboth had the field. (1 Kings 18:40.) But we can say this as something that now follows naturally.

[ 16 ] I have described to you Jezebel’s character and nature. She knew: The one who has been at work here is actually our neighbor. He is right over there. Unless he is mysteriously absent, he is in the immediate vicinity. — But what did Elijah-Naboth know from that moment on? He knew that Jezebel was powerful, that she knew his secret, and that—in other words—his outward, physical life could never again be entirely safe. He had to make provisions in case of his death in the near future. The Bible also tells us that King Ahab returned home and told Jezebel what had happened on Mount Carmel. And she said, “I will do to Elijah what he has done to your four hundred and fifty prophets.” (1 Kings 19:2)—I would like to know who would attempt to explain such a statement, as reported here in the Bible regarding Jezebel, by means other than those of spiritual science, when it appears self-evident through spiritual scientific research. Elijah, however, must now ensure that, if he is to meet his death at the hands of Jezebel’s vengeance, his spirit will, in a certain sense, continue to work within humanity with regard to what he has to say to it. And lo and behold, as he once again turns inward in his soul, asking himself in this intense inner contemplation: “What are you to do now to replace yourself here in the physical world when your death approaches as a result of Jezebel’s vengeance?”—a new revelation came upon him. His gaze is drawn to a very specific individual to whom he, Naboth-Elijah, can, so to speak, pass on what he has to give to humanity. His gaze is directed toward Elisha, toward Elisa. You may now think that Elijah had known Elisha from earlier times, but that is not the point. Elijah’s gaze was directed toward this individual, and the inner illumination told him: Initiate this man into your secret. — And with the same clarity with which the religious texts speak to spiritual science, we are further told that Elijah-Naboth is to accomplish something special, and that what is now to come upon Elisha is the same Spirit that has hitherto reigned over Elijah. He was to seek him out in Damascus. In Damascus, this enlightenment was to come upon Elisha. The enlightenment was to come upon Elisha in the same way as is later indicated to us regarding the Apostle Paul himself. And after Elijah had been able to choose his successor, Jezebel’s vengeance soon fell upon him.

[ 17 ] Jezebel directed her husband Ahab’s thoughts toward their neighbor and said something like this to him: “Look, this neighbor is a devout man in whom the spirit of Elijah lives.” If only you would remove him from your immediate vicinity—for he is a man of great importance, being one of Elijah’s most important followers. - Ahab knew nothing of the secret surrounding Naboth, but he knew that he was a faithful follower of Elijah. So Jezebel persuaded Ahab to use every means of persuasion—or even the power of his kingship—to induce this man to switch sides. It would have been a blow to Elijah’s cause if, by any means, they had succeeded in luring this man over to their side. Jezebel knew, of course, that this was merely a pretense; she merely wanted to use it to prompt her husband to take a significant action. For she did not want this action itself, but rather the one that followed it. Thus, the advice Jezebel gave was a kind of feigned counsel.

[ 18 ] Ahab went to Naboth, and behold, Naboth replied to him: “You will never get what you want now!” — As you know, the Bible presents the story this way: Naboth owns a vineyard next to Ahab’s, and Ahab covets this vineyard, which he wants to acquire by force or persuasion. In the Bible, Naboth says to the king: “Far be it from me, by the Lord, to give you the inheritance of my fathers!” (1 Kings 21:3.) In reality, however, a completely different inheritance is meant—one that he refuses to give up. Upon this, Jezebel instigates her revenge. She needs her feigned counsel because the king must first be crushed by this man’s refusal. This becomes clear when one reads the Bible at this very passage, where it says: “Then Ahab went home, sullen and angry because of the words that Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, saying, ‘I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.’ And he lay down on his bed, turned his face away, and would not eat.” (1 Kings 21:4.)

[ 19 ] One might think that because he could not acquire a vineyard in his neighborhood, he stopped eating. Such things only become clear when one can investigate the true facts behind them. Jezebel now instigates her act of revenge, which consists of organizing a feast to which Naboth is also invited, and at which he is accorded special honors. He cannot avoid them. He is given the opportunity to act. But Jezebel herself is a clairvoyant. He would have easily dealt with the others; he could have measured his strength against them. But she was the one who could destroy him. She incited the murderers—that is, as the Bible recounts, false witnesses who claimed that Naboth was a denier of God and the king. (1 Kings 21.)

[ 20 ] With that, Elijah was dead as an outward, physical being—removed from the world. Ahab, because of everything that had gone before and what had truly stirred deep forces within his soul, was, so to speak, confronted with a kind of fateful question. It was precisely at that moment that, exceptionally for him, a glimmer of insight arose. In this insight, Elijah—before whom he had so often shuddered—appeared to him. And in this vision, Elijah told him how things stood. This is a spiritual experience. He hears, as it were, from the image of Elijah after his death that he had murdered Naboth—the Naboth-Elijah. He need only have sensed the latter, yet he was called a murderer. And in the Bible we find the terrible words spoken—words that he felt had been unleashed upon his soul in this vision—for this is what the image in the vision said to Ahab: “In the very place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs shall also lick up your blood!” (1 Kings 21:19.) And concerning Jezebel it was said: “The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.” (1 Kings 21:23.)

[ 21 ] We know that this was a prophecy that was among those that came true. For when King Ahab later went to war against the Syrians, he was wounded in battle; his blood dripped onto his chariot, and that is how he died. As the chariot was being washed, dogs came and licked up the blood that had flowed from Ahab’s wounds. And when the subsequent turn of events brought Jehu to the throne in the city of Samaria, Jezebel was found standing at the window; she was seized, thrown from the window, and indeed torn to pieces by the dogs outside the city walls. But I will only allude to this now, because there is not enough time to go into it in detail. That is also less important at this point. What follows now is much more important.

[ 22 ] The one whom Elias-Naboth had chosen as his successor now had to mature in his own right. But he matured in a different way. The student, so to speak, has it easier than the first teacher. He had at his disposal the power to which Naboth-Elias had risen, and he had the support of Elias. And just as human individualities, once they have passed through the gate of death, work from the spiritual world with a very special power, so now, after his death, Naboth-Elias worked down upon Elisha with a very special power—much as Christ Jesus himself worked upon his disciples after his death and resurrection. Elias-Naboth had a powerful influence on Elisha. And what Elisha now experienced, he experienced as an inner experience of his soul—but one that was connected to the power that radiated from Elijah and continued to work down upon those who could surrender themselves to him even after his death. Elisha experienced it as though his great teacher Elijah were standing alive before his soul, even after his death, and saying to him: “I will go out with you, away from Gilgal.” I would like to quote the Bible very precisely here; it says: “Now about the time that the Lord caused Elijah to ascend to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah went out from Gilgal with Elisha.” (2 Kings 2:1.) This is not a place. Nor does the Bible mean a place by this. “Gilgal” means nothing other than “turning around.” It refers to a technical term: the turning, the soul’s passage through birth and death, the life of the soul within the physical body, as the soul passes from one physical body to another. This is what was called Gilgal.

[ 23 ] You need not be surprised if spiritual science reveals here that Elisha was indeed with Elijah—that is, together with him in the higher world—not through the powers of his physical nature, but through his higher powers, as a result of what he experienced in his soul through inner contemplation and devotion. And the stages he must go through in his soul’s development are now indicated to him by the spirit of Elijah. But Elijah constantly draws his attention to how difficult the path is that he must traverse. It ascends in stages—to the point where he first feels united with the spirit that flows forth from Elijah. The place names chosen here are not to be taken as geographical locations, but in their literal meaning as states of the soul. For example, Elijah says: “I am now going to Bethel.”—This appears before Elisha as a vision that is more than a vision. And as a warning, the spirit of Elijah says to him: “My dear one, stay here.” —- But that means nothing other than: Consider whether you have the strength to continue with me. — Then something else appears in the vision, also like a warning. All his fellow prophets—that is, his spiritual colleagues—stand beside him and admonish him. Those who know, because they have been initiated into the fact that Elisha can ascend to the higher regions where the spirit of Elijah speaks to him, say to Elisha: “Today you will not be able to follow him. Do you also know that the Lord will take your master from you?” (2 Kings 2:3) But he replies to them, “Be quiet!” To the spirit of Elijah, however, he says, “As surely as the Lord lives and your soul lives, I will not leave you!” Elijah then says, “I must now go to Jericho.” The same thing happens again. And then Elijah asks, “What do you actually want?” Elisha answers—and this is also in the Bible, though one must extract it from the true reading: “I want your spirit to come into my soul as a second spirit!” The Bible incorrectly states: “That I may receive a double portion of your spirit.” (2 Kings 2:9.) But this is roughly the spiritual meaning of what Elisha hears from Elijah: that he may come alive in the depths of his soul, that he may awaken there to full consciousness, and that, with his own soul, he may be placed in such a relationship to the spirit of Elijah that his soul may, of its own accord, proclaim Elijah’s decisions. Then Elijah says: “If, now that I must ascend to higher realms, you can see my spirit ascending to those higher realms, then you have attained what you desire, and then my power will enter into you.” And behold, Elisha saw Elijah ascending “in a whirlwind into heaven”; only the cloak fell back—that is, the spiritual power with which he had to clothe himself. That was the spiritual vision revealed to him, which made him realize that he was to become Elijah’s successor. And then the Bible says: “And when the sons of the prophets who were opposite Jericho saw him, they said, ‘The spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha.’ And they went out to meet him and bowed down before him to the ground.” (2 Kings 2:15.) This indicates that the Word had become so powerful in Elisha that it was imbued with the power which the disciples of the prophets had also experienced in Elijah, and that they recognized that the spirit of Elijah-Naboth truly lived on in Elisha.

[ 24 ] This is what emerges—based on the methods of the spiritual sciences that have already been described in these lectures and will be described further—regarding the true events of that time, and regarding that impulse that flowed from Elijah to Elisha as a renewal and elevation of the ancient faith in Yahweh. It is now a peculiarity that these events—which, after all, were initially understandable only to those initiated into the matter, particularly in those ancient times—were recounted to those who could not understand the matter themselves in a way that they could grasp, and that they affected their souls in the manner of parables and miracle stories, From what is truly wondrous enough in the highest, most spiritual sense, what is recorded in the Bible as the story of Elijah, Elisha, and Naboth then developed. To those who could not comprehend how a greatest impulse for the world’s development of humanity sprang forth from those souls who first had to undergo within themselves much that is hidden from outward view, it was told in parables. For them, the story was presented that is now told to us in the Bible: that Elijah lived during the time of King Ahab, that the God Yahweh appeared to Elijah during the time of famine and said to him: “Go to King Ahab and say, ‘As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—before whom I stand—there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, unless I say so.’” (1 Kings 17:1) Then it goes on to say: God said to Elijah: “Go away from here and turn toward the east, and hide by the brook Cherith, which flows toward the Jordan; and you shall drink from the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.” (1 Kings 17:3–4) This came to pass. And when the water had run dry, the Lord again sent Elijah to Zarephath. And “in the third year,” Elijah was then able to set out, to approach King Ahab—I have already alluded to this while presenting the facts from the perspective of spiritual research—and to confront the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal with a decisive challenge. Then, in a miraculous scene, what actually happened—just as I have told you—is depicted once more. This is followed by the account of how Naboth—who, in truth, is the very bearer of Elijah’s spirit—is to be robbed of his vineyard by Ahab, and how Jezebel then corrupts Naboth. Based on what is written in the Bible at that point, one cannot understand how Jezebel is supposed to have carried this out against Elijah, since she said to Ahab: “I will do to Elijah what he did to your four hundred and fifty priests of Baal.” For, according to the Bible, she only had Naboth killed; but in reality—though no reader of the Bible will be able to deduce this—she had the bearer of Elijah’s spirit killed. For the Bible only states that Elijah ascended into heaven. So she would have corrupted the figure of Elijah in a strange way if she had wanted to do to him what, according to the Bible, he did to the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal. In short, we have images that can only be understood if we shed light on them today with what spiritual research can directly reveal from its sources. As for those among the esteemed audience who—since it is not possible to cite further evidence in a single lecture—might be unable to regard the findings of spiritual scientific research as more than a hypothesis, I am completely at ease, provided they approach their assessment without prejudice, examining the individual passages and comparing what is available today with what science can offer in general. Although one cannot arrive at this conclusion without spiritual research, one can confirm it through external science and also through one’s own reason.

[ 25 ] We must therefore say: When we consider the personality of the prophet Elijah and his time, it becomes evident in the most profound sense that what acts as impulses and causes in human events is by no means limited to what appears externally and what external history takes into account. Rather, the most important processes in human history are those that take place within human souls and, from these human souls, work out into the external world, pass on to other people, and continue to have an effect there. And even if this cannot happen in our own time, in ancient times it was possible for such a personality—about whom people only whispered—to live as a simple, unassuming neighbor without anyone’s knowledge. It is precisely in the most hidden ways that the strongest, most intense forces of human development are at work. Thus it becomes clear to us that in the prophet Elijah we have, to an extraordinary degree, an ascent and a working through of the idea of Yahweh for humanity, so that we can attribute to him an important, epoch-making deed for humanity—if only we view him in the proper light.

[ 26 ] Further examination would reveal that this sheds light on what happened, as well as on the events that followed up to the founding of Christianity. Thus it becomes clear that through such a spiritual contemplation we come closer to what must seem so important to us: the causes and impulses that have been at work in human development, and—because they have been at work—continue to be at work right up to the present day. That is why we cannot understand what is happening around us unless we can understand what took place in the distant past. Yet the most important things are not recounted by external, physical history, which originates in the external world, for a saying applies to history as well—one that can be expressed with only a slight modification in meaning of a phrase by Goethe, that very phrase of Goethe’s regarding the necessity of recognizing the spirit in nature through deepening one’s understanding of the human spirit, through research that can be drawn only from the hidden depths of the soul. And in the example of the prophet Elijah and his time in the spiritual heaven of humanity, the modified Goethean saying is confirmed:

Mysterious in the bright light of the present,
History will not allow its veil to be torn away.
And what it may not reveal to your mind,
You cannot force it from her—not from parchments
Nor from the signs inscribed there
In bronze, in clay, and in stone.