The Rudolf Steiner Archive

42. The Bible and Wisdom

[ 1 ] The Bible has endured through the centuries as a collection of writings with a significance [for the human heart] that surpasses all else. One might say that the arguments used to oppose the Bible actually come from the Bible itself.

[ 2 ] In the time of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, something similar took place with regard to the external natural world as is happening today with regard to the Bible. Back then, the ancient Greek writings of Aristotle and others were considered authoritative. Today, people accept as true what has been studied in chemistry laboratories and elsewhere; it makes logical sense today, and people believe what the researchers say.

[ 3 ] It wasn't like that in the past. What Aristotle, a great and comprehensive mind, wrote and taught was what people learned, not what they saw for themselves, and so on. When the first person dissected a corpse, there was initially opposition from those who swore by Aristotle.

[ 4 ] One such reformer once said that Aristotle wrote something about nerves that wasn’t quite right. An Aristotelian found this unbelievable. They demonstrated it to him using a human body. “Yes, that’s how it is here,” he said, “but if nature isn’t the way Aristotle says it is, then I believe Aristotle.” This belief weighed on humanity like a heavy burden.

[ 5 ] It seemed as if Aristotle’s reputation were declining as people observed nature. But that did not happen. Aristotle’s followers had merely taken his words at face value. People gradually came to understand Aristotle correctly.

[ 6 ] It's much the same with the Bible. [Well into the eighteenth century, it was considered an indisputable fact that it had been written differently from other books.] It was said that those who wrote the Bible were inspired by God and were therefore infallible.

[ 7 ] Contradictions were first found in the Old Testament. It was not a theologian, but a French physician, who discovered that the texts described Yahweh and Elohim differently. There must have been two writers, and the texts were compiled. Eventually, it was concluded that—like other books—the Bible was also written by several authors and should be studied and examined just like other books.

[ 8 ] The same was true of the New Testament. — John was someone who still lived in higher realms; that the spirit must always triumph over life—that is what one read in Paul’s letters. How could the materialistic mind see the Book of Revelation as anything other than a fantasy?

[ 9 ] For believers, the Bible is still a source of stability in life and comfort in death. But can it remain that way when the opinion leaders—the scientists—pick everything apart? In Aristotle’s time, there were believers; then came those who could see, and who gradually came to understand Aristotle correctly. Couldn’t the same be true of the Bible?

[ 10 ] Aristotle observed nature itself, and what he recorded in his books is what he observed; the same is true of Kepler, et cetera. Couldn’t a proper appreciation of the Bible arise precisely from this, if a similar process were to take place in the humanities as it did in the time of Kepler [in the natural sciences]?

[ 11 ] There is a spiritual movement today known as Theosophy. Some may shake their heads or shrug their shoulders; but anyone who seriously examines it will come to recognize the seriousness of this spiritual movement.

[ 12 ] Just as there are researchers of nature, there have always been researchers or explorers of the spiritual worlds, who are called initiates. The natural scientist makes use of the telescope, the microscope, and the human intellect. Great discoveries are made with these tools. — But these instruments are of no use to the spiritual researcher. There is only one thing that matters: the human being himself. One must, however, understand the stage of development. One must realize that within every human soul lie dormant abilities—spiritual eyes and ears—which, when awakened, open up a whole new world, just as would happen to someone born blind who has undergone surgery. A blind person must not say, “There are no colors.” No one may say, “There are no spiritual worlds around us.” Whoever has the patience to develop these inner sense organs within themselves will become a seer, an initiate. The natural scientist must learn to use the telescope and all the other instruments. [Just as the spiritual researcher must learn to use his higher organs.]

[ 13 ] Great mysteries lie before us when we are presented with nothing more than the words “sleep,” “waking,” “life,” and “death.” Just as Haeckel’s books contain Haeckel’s research, so do the books of theosophy contain spiritual facts about spiritual worlds,

[ 14 ] Only a seer could have written, for example, the beginning of the Old Testament, and only a seer can recognize such documents. It is the gift of prophecy that forms the foundation of the Bible.

[ 15 ] The fact that the Gospel of John appears to contain more contradictions than the other three Gospels is because John was a more deeply initiated disciple than the three Synoptic writers.

[ 16 ] When one approaches the Bible from the perspective of the humanities, its value and depth become ever greater. Only wisdom can truly understand the Bible, since it flowed from wisdom.