The Rudolf Steiner Archive

32. The Bible and Wisdom II

[ 1 ] Yesterday we attempted to explore the relationship between what is called “wisdom” in the spiritual-scientific sense—that is, immediate, direct knowledge of the spiritual worlds—and that religious text which is the most important for our culture: the Bible. Today, let us take a look at a few specific facts that can illustrate this relationship to us, that can show us how, by understanding this relationship in this way, we can indeed arrive at a new understanding of this religious text. You will realize that, with such a vast subject, it is impossible to even briefly touch upon everything that might be considered. It will therefore be best if we try to single out specific points to see how certain things recounted in this biblical text can be understood through immediate, direct insight into the higher worlds, and how what we can grasp in this immediate, direct way can then be found again in this religious text,

[ 2 ] I would like to begin with a very specific fact—one that has already been touched upon here in another context. I would like to show you how spiritual science introduces us to a certain law governing human development. Today, even the more materialistically oriented natural sciences have begun to sense this law. Spiritual science has known this law for a very, very long time and views life from the perspective of this law. If we were to characterize this law in a single phrase, we would say: This law expresses the development of humanity’s spiritual life. You know that the concept of evolution had a truly fascinating effect on the natural sciences of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century; you know that the natural sciences were entirely oriented toward this perspective, and that through this, the evolution of the simplest living beings all the way up to the most complex has become understandable.

[ 3 ] The humanities have always embraced this concept of development, only in a much more comprehensive and universal way than the natural sciences of the nineteenth century.

[ 4 ] Spiritual science says: Everything is in a state of development. Everything evolves from simple, very simple forms in the distant past to forms that are so complex and intricate that human beings today are still far from being able to comprehend them. Thus, spiritual science speaks above all of the development of human consciousness itself, and it is important that we trace the development of this human consciousness through its various stages. For this will shed light on certain passages in the biblical texts. What the vast majority of humanity today calls “consciousness” is, for spiritual science, a state of consciousness that has developed from other forms of consciousness. We refer to this present-day state of human consciousness as what is known as waking daytime consciousness, or object consciousness. Why? If we wish to characterize this consciousness that a person possesses today—from the morning when they wake up until the evening when they fall asleep—we must say: This consciousness acquires its knowledge in the following way: First, it gains its perceptions of objects through the external senses—of the objects in space and time around us—and our intellect, which is limited to the sensory world, processes the perceptions that a person receives through the external senses; and through such perceptions and such processing of the perceptions in our intellectual consciousness, we build up the treasures of our knowledge, which are stored in memory and which guide and accompany us through life.

[ 5 ] However, there are other forms of consciousness besides this one; this state of consciousness is one that humanity has not always possessed in the past, and we must look back to recognize the development of this state of consciousness, to times in the distant, distant past, to times that lie far, far behind our own.

[ 6 ] In the past, people had a different form of consciousness—a different state of consciousness. The way we perceive and think today has evolved from other forms of consciousness, and the state of consciousness that once existed in humanity—but which has been superseded by today’s state of consciousness—is referred to as pictorial consciousness, or the imaginative consciousness of antiquity.

[ 7 ] That higher imaginative consciousness I spoke of yesterday is not what is meant here. If, rather, we wish to understand how this earlier pictorial consciousness relates to the consciousness that the initiate—who has undergone inner spiritual development—already possesses today, and which all of humanity will one day possess at a future stage; if we wish to recognize the relationship between these two stages of imaginative consciousness, these two phases of our consciousness’s development, then we must say: The state of consciousness we are about to discuss precedes our own and is a twilight-like, more dreamlike form of clairvoyance. In that distant past, people possessed a dreamlike clairvoyance, and it was from this that today’s object-oriented consciousness first emerged; and a future state of consciousness lies before our souls—one that the initiate already possesses today and that all of humanity will one day possess in the distant future—in which human beings will possess both today’s object-oriented consciousness and clairvoyance, both in bright, luminous clarity. Early humans, our ancient ancestors, possessed a consciousness that could not yet reason in the same way that our present-day consciousness can. Instead, they possessed a kind of dim, dreamlike clairvoyance; for they could—either continuously or in states that were specifically induced—gain even deeper insight into the spiritual and soul aspects of their surroundings. They could receive images of what existed spiritually and psychically in their surroundings. Today’s object consciousness sees spiritual beings only when they are physically embodied.

[ 8 ] I can best illustrate what clairvoyance used to be like with an example. One person approaches another; the second harbors feelings of antipathy in his soul toward the person approaching. People today can only guess at what is going on in another’s soul based on external sensory perceptions; but in that twilight clairvoyance possessed by people of ancient times, an image—floating freely in color and form—appeared before the clairvoyant’s gaze, revealing to them what the other person felt toward them—an image that was as real as the green color that covers the plants outside today. What was the innermost disposition of a being took on color and form, floating in space, for the spiritual eye, just as certain etheric vibrations express themselves today through color and form for the physical eye.

[ 9 ] There were times in the distant past when this clairvoyance had developed to a certain degree. Today, however, as we look back at history, we see only a time when the last remnants of this—so to speak—somnambulistic clairvoyance were still present among human beings. These remnants existed in times that lie not much more than thousands of years in the past. We find such a twilight-like clairvoyance in every people at their very origins, and it is from this twilight-like clairvoyance that the myths, legends, and fairy tales that arose among the peoples in earlier times were born. These myths and legends did not arise from that abstract concept we call the childlike, creative folk imagination, but rather from the remnants of this former clairvoyance—as a reflection of what an original, twilight-like clairvoyance originally perceived among all, all the peoples from whom today’s human beings are descended. This twilight clairvoyance, however, is linked to other conditions in human development; and if we wish to characterize this development—which took place during the transition to our present object consciousness—we must point to an external event that occurred in our physical world and that serves as an expression of this transformation of that consciousness into our present one. This found expression in what we might call the transition from endogamy to exogamy. In ancient times, among the most diverse peoples, there was an era in which what we today call consanguineous marriage was the norm—a matter of course. People lived in small tribes and married within these small tribes, and it was considered immoral and wrong to marry outside one’s tribe; thus, in those times, kindred blood mingled with kindred blood, and the times in which this close-kin marriage prevailed were also those in which the last remnants of a dim form of clairvoyance were still present.

[ 10 ] It is an immensely important moment in the development of all peoples: the transition [from] endogamy to exogamy. One could point out how this is expressed in a wide variety of myths and legends, and how the entire cycle of the Siegfried saga is connected to that transition from endogamy to exogamy, but that would take us too far afield today. What is important for us is the effect of foreign blood on foreign blood, which is that the original clairvoyance is extinguished; and this consciousness that we know today—characterized by calculating, combinatorial, logical thinking—this achievement arose from that mixing of foreign blood with foreign blood!

[ 11 ] Thus, throughout all of ancient history, we can observe how a different form of social life is linked to a different state of consciousness, and vice versa. It has also been pointed out that even today, under certain circumstances, the last vestiges of this clairvoyance remain; I have also already referred here to that conversation between Rosegger and Anzengruber. I would like to take this up again: Rosegger, the charming and significant portrayer of what he sees around him in peasant life and elsewhere, is a portrayer based on external sensory observation. Compare him with Anzengruber, and you will see that Anzengruber is able to present figures from folk life with marvelous plasticity, so that they stand on their own two feet with wonderful truth and naturalness. Yet Anzengruber has never sensually seen what he depicts in this way; he has never lived among the peasants. Now Rosegger said to Anzengruber: “You know, it seems to me that if you were to go out into the peasant world and observe what happens there, you would be able to depict them even better.” Anzengruber, however, replied: “No, then I probably wouldn’t be able to depict them at all anymore.” You see, I have never actually seen farmers, but my ancestors were farmers—all my ancestors were farmers—and so that peasant spirit still lives and stirs in my blood; and that is why I describe what my fathers saw, what my ancestors saw—it flows down to me through my blood—and those are my depictions of this peasant life.

[ 12 ] There you have the last remnants of what once existed to a much greater degree throughout all of humanity. If you consider this carefully, you will have to say: Anzengruber’s way of being was such that a dark force of consciousness flowed down through the blood from his ancestors to himself, and that force played itself out within him. Imagine this state of consciousness heightened—heightened to such an extent that the son can truly remember what the father experienced, indeed, what the grandfather experienced—and you will have characterized, in a certain sense, that twilight state of clairvoyance that once belonged to all our ancestors. There stirs within the blood a much higher, a true memory of what the ancestors had experienced, and just as it is true that modern humans, with their object-oriented consciousness, can retain only what they themselves have experienced since childhood, it is just as true—even if it seems unbelievable and grotesque to today’s materialistic way of thinking—that there was a time when a twilight state of clairvoyance existed, such that subsequent generations remembered what their father, grandfather, ancestors, and forefathers had experienced. It was not merely a vague feeling, born of consanguineous marriage, that stirred in their blood; it was a genuine memory of it. Now let us consider: What was the consequence of such a radically different state of consciousness? The consequence was a system of naming entirely different from that which prevails among humanity today. Today, people call their “I” that which holds together the experiences of their person since their youth. It was different back then. Imagine those people who had a clear memory even of what their ancestors had experienced; they also referred to as “I” what had been experienced by their ancestors generations back. So, to put it radically, someone would recount his grandfather’s experiences as those of his own “I.” Thus he said: My “I” does not end with my birth; it extends back through the generations. And that is why, in those distant times—of which, admittedly, no reports or documents exist—people gave what was remembered there a unified name; and so we must first learn to understand the meaning of that naming for those ancient times. Back then, names were not reserved solely for individual persons; a name was given to the context of all the experiences in which one was present, as recalled in one’s memory. And when we realize that there were names that designated many generations spanning centuries, then we understand an important chapter in which the patriarchs lived through the centuries.

[ 13 ] Adam is not the kind of human being who lives today as an individual on our physical Earth. Adam was that which lived on through the generations and found expression in the collective memory. He did not represent a tribe or a race, but rather that which passed through the generations as a collective consciousness-memory in the ancient, dim clairvoyance.

[ 14 ] Thus it becomes clear that we need only understand the naming conventions of ancient times; then it will become clear to us what the biblical texts tell us about this chapter of the creation story. In those ancient times of dim clairvoyance, people did not place much value on their own personal experiences; to them, these were merely a small part of that vast circle of experience to which they felt they belonged. They spoke of what their consciousness encompassed as a unified entity. And just as, when you speak with another person today, that person appears to you as something real, while the succession of generations as a whole seems more or less abstract, so too was the individual person insignificant to those people of old; what mattered to them was what held their consciousness—extending beyond generations—together. Thus, the names of the patriarchs are not names for individual personalities, but rather designations for a sum of entities. In this way, something in the Bible becomes clear to us—something we recognize in its true sense when we approach it equipped with higher spiritual-scientific insights. This is the way in which one who possesses such insight can view the Bible. He first comes to understand how things were in ancient times, and then, if he is now able to understand correctly, he finds that the Bible’s account is simply the same thing—it seeks to convey the same message. Back then, those who wrote down these documents simply described what was a fact of their consciousness.

[ 15 ] Another example: In spiritual science, we trace human development far, far back—much farther than to the point we have just discussed. Since I have spoken here on several occasions about the concept of evolution, I hope I will not be misunderstood today. Spiritual science traces human beings back—far, far back—and as it traces them back through long, long periods of time, it always arrives at human beings in whom, outwardly, physicality—the physical body—is the expression of the soul living within the human physical body. But then, as we go further and further back, we arrive at a point in human evolution where this is no longer the case—where we can see, so to speak, how the paths of physical development and soul-spiritual development begin to diverge further and further as we look back. The human spirit and soul are rooted in the spiritual world, and when I use the expression “descending from the spiritual world,” those who have already delved deeper into theosophy know that this expression is, of course, only figurative—an expression for something spiritual in a language suited only to the outer material realm. We come to periods in human development where we see how the human soul and spirit are still united with other beings of a spiritual-soul nature. The human soul and spirit were born out of spiritual beings. There is a point in our earthly evolution when the human soul and spirit first entered this physical body, but we must not believe that this physical body—having received the soul and spirit—has not itself undergone a long, long evolution.

[ 16 ] Two streams of development converge at this point. One stream is that of the physical world: We see how physical entities—at the forefront of which is the physical human body—develop up to a certain level of perfection. Then comes a point in time when this physical human body has become so perfect that it could now receive this spiritual-soul entity, which had developed to such an extent that it could find expression in the physical human body, and from that time onward—from the moment this spirit, this soul, entered the human body, which was then in its imperfect form, up to the human form of today—the soul and spirit themselves have been at work within the human body over long, long periods of time. And through the forces by which they acted, the human body itself was thus developed higher and higher by the soul and spirit within it, up to its present form. The soul and spirit are thus, so to speak, the transformers and further shapers of the human body. From that point onward, we can also characterize the form of the physical human body as it existed at that time—suitable for now receiving the soul-spiritual—without any religious documentation, but solely on the basis of the seer’s developed abilities.

[ 17 ] These two forms of the human body present themselves in such a way that the human body, which is not yet animated by a human soul—that was certainly the case—I know how I offend all those who hold only a materialistic worldview; but that doesn’t matter; if we are to recognize the truth, however, we must address this great difference—we must speak of it. The reasons why materialistic science might find this comical and grotesque are already known to the spiritual researcher himself; he has already come to terms with them—otherwise he would not dare to speak of such things—the human body was shaped quite, quite differently than it is today. But the Earth, too, was shaped quite differently in those ancient times.

[ 18 ] I will speak to you of only one thing in the human body and its transformation at that time. Before that time, it was necessary for the human body to possess an organ that still exists today in a rudimentary form and as a remnant—the swim bladder of fish. Since the physical ancestor of humankind had to move by floating and swimming on the earth at that time, he needed such an organ. The physical ancestor of humankind possessed this organ in ancient times. In the course of human physical development, this organ transformed into the lung. As a result, humankind became capable of inhaling and processing air in the way it does today. This is connected to other processes in the body that are related in some way to this pulmonary respiration. We see the transition from the ancient gill respiration—which is still present today in human embryonic development—to pulmonary respiration, which is the foundation for the production of red blood, which plays such a significant role in human life as it does in the life of nations. This moment of capturing oxygen from the air through the lungs is also the moment when the human being is animated by a human soul. Only then did he become a suitable vessel for what we call a human soul.

[ 19 ] Over long, long periods of time, these changes took place—the transformation of that swim bladder into lungs capable of processing the oxygen from the outside air. Now imagine this expressed in emotional and sensory terms—if, for example, an observer wanted to describe this important moment in evolution, he might have said: “With the inhalation of air, we breathed in the divine soul.” This is indeed how our ancestors felt; they gratefully perceived the breath as the animating force. You see, this is why the legends and myths of all peoples saw in the air the body of the deity who had given human beings their individual consciousness. In the air wafting by, the one who sees—whether through a dim form of clairvoyance or from the developed consciousness of the seer—perceives the body of the animating deity, that deity of which his individual soul is a part. Imagine that everything expressed pictorially in such legends and myths unfolded over long, long periods of time.

[ 20 ] This image of everything I have described to you can also be found in the biblical account: “And God breathed into the man the breath of life, and he became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) We feel a shiver run down our spine at these words when we consider their full significance.

[ 21 ] Yes, why clothe such a powerful fact—one that spans millions of years of evolution—in such an image? Yes, it matters greatly in what form one presents such a fact to the consciousness of a particular stage of development. As expressed now, it would not have been understood by anyone in those times. Back then, it was necessary to speak in images and through the imagination. Everything, everything is in the process of development! You will only understand what that means when I tell you how all of this affects you personally.

[ 22 ] Those who have already delved more deeply into theosophical views know that the human soul is not incarnated just once, but passes through human bodies time and time again, traversing many, many lives; they know: What is your soul today has developed time and time again through life after life; that which within you today is capable of understanding and comprehending this great law of human becoming—that soul would understand nothing, absolutely nothing of it, would have no ability to grasp such concepts, if you had not already, once or more often, listened to others describing this very process of the world’s becoming through images and imaginings. It was this that first enabled this soul to grasp the concept of it in its present incarnation.

[ 23 ] Everything that later appears in concepts must first be presented to humanity in imaginations, in images. The wisest among humanity, the leaders of the people, knew all that we describe today. For the majority, however, it had to be conveyed in images, because they possessed a dim form of clairvoyance and could not yet grasp these things in concepts, but only in images; and this was to be presented in the following form: “Then God breathed into the man’s nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)

[ 24 ] Let us now ask ourselves: What, then, does the term Yahweh, Jehovah, signify? Jehovah is the term for that which we understand as the individual, the source of the “I.” At the same time, it has the secondary meaning: “the One who blows,” “the One who blows through the air,” and there you have Yahweh himself—that is, the deity who gave humanity the “I”: “I am the ‘I am’” (Exodus 3:14). And if you go from there to the ancient legends and myths of Central Europe, you will find that there, too, in Wotan—who rides forth in the storm—you have the One Who Blows. Thus, the blowing spirit, the spirit that blows through the air, was always perceived as the bringer of human consciousness.

[ 25 ] This is just one of the concepts we can develop. Going further back into the even more distant past, we would trace the line of development of the spiritual core of humanity all the way up to the Spirit itself. And even in those ancient times, the ancient consciousness looked back to the time when the soul and the spirit were still united with the divine primordial spirit; within this was our spiritual-soul ancestor. What you today call your “I”—your most intimate inner being—was, back then, before it had yet united with your body, present within that divine primordial being. Above all, it was in a state that we must describe as one of genderlessness. Spirit and soul have no gender. They acquire a gender by taking on a body formed according to gender, but your innermost being is not gendered. This soul, too, underwent a process of development—one that every spiritual researcher looks back upon—and he saw man and woman united as one, before the two sexes appeared before us in the outer world. The human spirit—the spirit that was not yet gendered—united both sexes within itself.

[ 26 ] Thus we have the point of incarnation in the sense of the soul and the spirit entering the physical, appropriately prepared body, and an earlier, equally prominent point: the incarnation of the soul—the spiritual human being itself—just as the asexual, spiritual-soul human being emerged from an even earlier spiritual state out of the one primordial spirit.

[ 27 ] Thus we see the Incarnation before us twice: once above in the spiritual world, and once below on the physical plane. This twofold Incarnation for our Earth is reflected back to us in the account found in the biblical text; we truly see it in that twofold Incarnation of biblical history.

[ 28 ] First, the incarnation in the spiritual-soul world: Regarding that time, the biblical chronicler says: “God created humankind in his own image, male and female he created them.” (Gen 1:27) And then this male-female being, which was of a spiritual-soul nature, descended into the physical world, and there we are dealing with the physical body, which now begins to breathe at the same time. Thus we see how a twofold form of the Incarnation has found its way into the Bible. We now recognize that if one were to describe the truth, this dual incarnation would have to be described in this manner.

[ 29 ] Now let us consider another case that comes closer to what touches us even more intimately, what leads us into the New Testament, and acquaints us with the Mystery of Golgotha, with Jesus Christ. You will easily be able to look up to something else that still exists as a shared human quality, one that is not destroyed when consanguineous marriage is destroyed. True, the love that is bound to marriage between relatives can only exist through shared blood, but there is a love that is more comprehensive and higher than that of blood. Thus, there is something shared among humanity—something truly shared—that exists as a common bond of humanity, one that persists even when that bond is severed, a bond that is more comprehensive than the bond of love woven through blood kinship. When that human ancestor looked back to the time of close kinship, it was a generational, a tribal “I” that he designated as “I.” The boundaries of the tribes extended farther and farther; tribes became peoples, and the consciousness of the tribes was obliterated, and a common bond—which was now no longer as strong—enveloped the people, a national consciousness. This was most evident and clear in that national body known as the Hebrew people.

[ 30 ] The tendency to expand national consciousness to encompass what binds all of humanity together—the force that brings people closer to one another even beyond the bounds of the nation—did not emerge until the coming of Christ Jesus to Earth. Even today, human beings cannot yet clearly perceive what lives within all people as a common bond, but a future will come—one that still lies far ahead of us—in which this awareness will be so vividly present in a great number of people: the awareness of brotherhood without blood ties. And to prepare this consciousness—to act as a real force in preparation for this brotherhood—that is the mission of Christianity. If, therefore, we refer to the God who was perceived in ancient times as the breath of life and at the same time as the one who bestowed the “I,” — then we must designate that God who lives within that consciousness—which, though not yet so dimly clairvoyant, will develop to the point of feeling and clearly recognizing what is common to all humanity—this consciousness of humanity we must designate, and we do so when we speak in the Christian sense, as the Christ-consciousness. Christ consciousness signifies, as it were, an “I” that embraces all of humanity within a shared consciousness. There is a saying: “Whoever does not forsake wife and child, mother and brother, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26; Matthew 19:29) This must not be understood in a trivial or ascetic sense. It must be understood to mean that Christianity paves the way for an all-encompassing brotherhood of humankind, founded not on blood ties but on the fact that a person calls every human being “brother”—not in the everyday sense, but by attaining a consciousness that is not confined or limited within blood ties, but one that gradually extends in our later life to more and more people, and is ultimately capable of encompassing all of humanity. If, therefore, one refers to Jehovah as the God of the people, one might refer to Christ Jesus as the God of humanity, the God of all mankind, the “Son of Man.” He, the Master, was to prepare the bond of love for all of humanity.

[ 31 ] If one refers to Jehovah as the God of a people, then one must refer to the Christ, who was embodied in Jesus of Nazareth, as the Son of Man, as he called himself. Thus you see the truth of the words, “Before Abraham was, ‘I Am’ was,” or rather, “I am” (John 8:58)—the One who first brought the powers of humanity that encompass all of humanity, and who is capable of bringing about the brotherhood of all humanity.

[ 32 ] How, then, did this great event come about through external, real facts—through actual occurrences? It came about because the Son of Man was incarnated in a human personality for the sake of humanity. Spiritual science points this out to us once again. If we understand it correctly, it points us to what is called prophecy—that which underlies all of this. Only the initiate could and can clearly recognize this, but humanity has been able to have a sense of it, an emotional awareness of it, ever since the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth.

[ 33 ] What does prophecy mean? Do not believe that what a Christian can know since the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth only began at that time. Anyone who is a true Christian and does not wish to remain content with what Christianity, for example, tells its believers today, knows that they are in agreement with what Augustine said. What is called Christianity today is the very religion that was always regarded as the true religion in ancient times. But not all people have been able to comprehend this religion since ancient times; in ancient times, there were always only a few who were chosen to be initiated into the high mysteries. They became the prophets of a certain era, capable of seeing what must happen in the future. Initiation means: bringing to development those higher abilities within the human being that lie dormant in every person!

[ 34 ] And now a law that tells us: That which will descend into the physical world in the future already exists today in the spiritual world, and that which lives today in the spiritual world will one day descend into the physical realms. But because the one who becomes an initiate ascends into the spiritual realms even today, he can already perceive in spirit what will descend into the physical world in the future. He can already see this from above today and say: “This will happen in the future.” Initiation is attained through a specific sequence of stages, following only those methods outlined in spiritual science and also in all the great religions; and such methods of initiation have existed in every age, just as there have always been initiates.

[ 35 ] There is a vast difference in the principle of initiation between those ancient pre-Christian times and post-Christian times. In those pre-Christian times, much, much less was written down about those methods, but they were passed down through tradition in those schools known as the Mystery Schools, and those deemed ready to be admitted to these schools were gradually initiated through rigorous trials into what is called a “mystery”—a concept from which two distinct developments emerged in the future: the school on the one hand and the church on the other—science and religion.

[ 36 ] This gives you a rough idea of those ancient schools of wisdom where initiates were initiated; however, there was a step-by-step progression through degrees that prescribed what the person seeking initiation had to do first, and what he then had to undergo as a second step, all the way up to the highest level of the spiritual worlds.

[ 37 ] You now have an idea of those schools of wisdom in which the beings that underlie our physical world are at work. Thus, there were ancient initiation rites—a canon of initiation in every school of initiation. Those deemed suitable to become students of the sacred mystery teachings were admitted into this school of initiation and passed through the stages that led them upward into the spiritual worlds. Consequently, the life of such a person was strictly prescribed. Imagine this life: Once admitted to the Mysteries, he had to lead a life in which ordinary, everyday experiences no longer held any significance; on the other hand, what he experienced through the methods of initiation held weight and significance for the life of such a person.

[ 38 ] One who had reached a certain stage of initiation was called a “Sun Man,” because his life had to proceed in such an orderly manner that he did not stray from his path; just as the sun cannot deviate from its course, so too does the one who has advanced along the path of initiation to become a Sun Hero proceed with equal certainty. He proclaims the truths of the spiritual world from his own experience; he is a guide to humanity.

[ 39 ] Myths and legends contain this and tell us time and again of sun heroes, and when they speak of such people—when their accounts agree even among the most diverse peoples—they describe to us precisely what made him a sun hero. Then such a narrative appears to us as a repetition of the initiation canon, and thus, in those ancient times, a principle emerged regarding the lives of the initiated that is precisely the opposite of the principle followed by today’s biographers. For those who recounted the lives of humanity’s great leaders in ancient times, the very point was to obscure what made them appear as special beings—that which is biographical in the modern sense—and to recount what transformed them into Sun Heroes: what they had to undergo in accordance with the initiation rite, and which they all experienced in the same way. The goal of this initiation was also to develop in those initiates a living vision of the universal human “I,” the unified consciousness—but only the chosen few possessed it.

[ 40 ] Only a few people were able to attain this. Now, in the course of evolution, an event was to occur whereby what in ancient times could be attained individually, within the mysteries, would now become accessible to all of humanity. And this event was precisely the Mystery of Golgotha. How did this come about? We will understand this when we look into the mysteries: Then, after he had personally experienced all those things that one had to undergo before that great, final moment of initiation, the time came when, through the initiating priest-hierophant, he was brought into a state in which he could experience, with the clearest clarity of vision, that which raised him above his tribe and his people and into that which he shares with all of humanity.

[ 41 ] You know from other lectures that the human being consists of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I and its higher members. During sleep, the physical body and the etheric body remain in bed, while the astral body, together with the higher members of the human nature, is outside the body during sleep. Only when the etheric body also separates from the physical body does death occur. This is the spiritual-scientific distinction between sleep and death. But when the initiate had progressed far enough to undergo the final stage of initiation, the hierophant—the initiating priest—would guide him so that, for a brief period of three and a half days, the etheric body could also step out, leaving the physical body in a kind of state of death. The result of this was that one who had been prepared through the necessary stages—so that this could take place—would, during this time, pass through in his own vision all that for which he had been prepared, experiencing the higher worlds in true vision. Then, after three and a half days, the initiate was called back into the ordinary physical world, and now he was one who could proclaim—from his own experience—the mysteries of the higher worlds to those who were willing to listen. The word of the spiritual world flowed from his lips; he had become a witness to the fact that a spiritual world exists, that life in the spirit can conquer death. For he had been in that very world where one gains the conviction that life will always conquer death. And again and again, the one who had thus journeyed through the spiritual worlds in three and a half days—again and again, the initiate returned, whenever he was awakened, with an exclamation that in German would sound something like: “My God, my God, how have You glorified me.”

[ 42 ] In ancient times, anyone who wished to become such a herald of spiritual wisdom based on their own experiences had to enter into the mysteries and undergo these experiences outside of their physical body. This was the only way in ancient pre-Christian times. This is the world-historical moment of Christianity: that in the single event of Golgotha, everything that the initiate experienced during those three and a half days was drawn out into the physical world as a historical fact of physical reality. The mystery of initiation has become physically real in the Mystery of Golgotha. The sequence of stages in initiation could be undergone in the physical world by the one who possessed within his consciousness the sense of the oneness of humanity—the Son of Man; physically, he was able to undergo what, before his appearance, human beings could experience only outside their physical bodies.

[ 43 ] Thus, the mystery of initiation made physical shines forth to us from the event at Golgotha. How, then, would those who sought to describe this mystery portray the specific events of the life of Christ Jesus? They knew that the one who, as the Son of Man, brought the mysteries into the physical world also had to experience here in the physical world these stages of initiation in accordance with the canon of initiation—stages that the initiate had always experienced outside his physical body. Thus, the life of this One—who existed only once in the course of human development—had to be described in such a way that it was naturally a reflection of the ancient canon of initiation.

[ 44 ] Now the various forms had been written down, recorded in one way or another, in different forms of ritual, but all traceable to a single mode of development. This mode of initiation, which also represents the life of Christ Jesus, was one that underlay all the mystery schools, and it is only natural that it was applied to this outer, physical life of Christ Jesus, for this is indeed how it unfolded. They describe to us something they have drawn from the ancient initiation canon, as they had received it in the mystery schools. Therefore, we find in the Gospels various forms of the initiation canon—which outwardly appear to differ—that are presented as the biography of Christ Jesus.

[ 45 ] Thus, in the Gospels we see the established canon of initiation, and in Christ Jesus, whom they describe, we see the only Son of Man who manifests in physical life—outside the realm of the mysteries—that which others could only experience within them, in order to make their blessings accessible to all people. The truth that life conquers death—which the initiate had experienced in the higher worlds—was manifested outwardly in the physical world through Christ Jesus, and has now become accessible to all people in the same way.

[ 46 ] Spiritual science knows that the Gospel is history—extraordinary history—and at the same time a symbol. That is precisely the essential point: that here the symbol has become external reality; that what had previously taken place only symbolically in the higher worlds has become external historical truth in the Mystery of Golgotha. Very few are willing to grasp that historical Christianity is so historical, and that it is symbolic as well. Once one understands this, one can penetrate deeply into the spirit and meaning of the New Testament, and then one sees that the spirit and meaning of these documents are so infinitely profound that one can only gradually, step by step, penetrate to their deepest depths. Let us look at a few passages in this light, for example. We recognize the three and a half days in the three and a half days during which, as reported (John 11), Lazarus had already been lying dead when the Lord raised him from the dead, and we recognize in another passage those words—for that is how they should actually be rendered—that Jesus Christ speaks on the cross at the moment when he reaches the final act of his life in the physical body: “My God, my God, how have you glorified me,” for that is how these words should be rendered—and not “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46, cf. Psalm 22:1; Mark 15:34), which is merely an incorrect rendering.

[ 47 ] Thus we see that spiritual science, in turn, comes to know initiation and experiences that life in the Spirit conquers death; that this life, this wisdom, is what ultimately makes the profound meaning of the New Testament understandable as well, and thus the wise deepening of humanity within the Theosophical Movement will once again lead to an appreciation and respect for the biblical texts, both parts of them.

[ 48 ] Precisely because this wisdom will attest to the truth of this Testament, regardless of the Testament itself, it will have such a significant impact when you discover this truth in the Bible.

[ 49 ] Thus, the person who delves into it through theosophical study will rediscover the value of this book, a value that could no longer be appreciated by those who had lost their connection with the spiritual world; and so no other biblical scholarship, criticism, or the like will be able to bridge the gap between scholars and believers except this spiritual science or theosophy, and it will bridge this gap, and it will bring a wisdom that will once again make sense of everything—everything—that is expressed in the Bible’s ancient texts, and it will once again provide humanity with the solution to the great mysteries of existence that the intellect and the heart seek in the Bible. And through this, people will once again recognize in the Bible that it was—and will remain—the very foundation of humanity’s true culture. As a result, the Bible will once again become a book whose full significance and value are recognized anew, and people will no longer be able to approach it with indifference, but rather with shivers of awe toward the great, infinite sources of wisdom that flow from it.

[ 50 ] Thus, whoever is able to penetrate the spiritual world on their own will be filled with ever deeper and deeper reverence for this book, and it will in turn become for them a book of revelation that must be understood ever more deeply, and a book in which the greatest mysteries of humanity and human development find their solution. Thus, the Bible’s value will rise higher and higher through wisdom, and if this movement succeeds in pointing people, on the one hand, toward the direct path to knowledge, this guidance will at the same time be something of immense value for the entire religious life of the broadest segment of humanity.

[ 51 ] The conquest of wisdom will be, at the same time, a reconquest of that document upon which our culture is ultimately based—that is, of what lives on as the spirit of our culture.

[ 51 ] The conquest of wisdom will be, at the same time, a reconquest of that document upon which our culture is ultimately based—that is, of what lives on as the spirit of our culture.