The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Bible and Wisdom

[ 1 ] Yesterday we attempted to bring to mind the meaning through which what we call theosophy seeks to draw closer to the religious texts. Today we will attempt, at least through a few examples, to delve more deeply into the religious text that is surely still closest to contemporary civilized humanity: the Bible. The easiest way to approach the Bible from the standpoint of what is called spiritual science is to begin with the New Testament, specifically the Gospels. Since we discussed yesterday how we should understand so-called “criticism”—the critical spirit—and how we can approach the composition of the various individual parts of the New Testament and the collection of writings in the Old Testament from the standpoint of spiritual science, today we want to focus more on the positive, taking what was said yesterday as a given, and shed light—without any preconceptions—on the spiritual scientific perspective regarding this matter.

[ 2 ] You know that when a person, driven by the needs of a heart that believes in Christ, turns to the four Gospels, he may initially encounter peculiar contradictions arising from the four Gospels—those of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Anyone who approaches these books today with faith—no matter how deep that faith may be—still has no true understanding of the relationship that believers had with the Bible in ancient, far more religious times, or of what the word “Bible,” or rather the expression “the Word of God,” actually meant to the believers of old. We need only recall the word “inspiration,” and remember that for centuries, the faithful held fast to the belief that those who wrote down the religious texts were inspired, that they wrote under the direct influence of the divine Spirit Himself, and just as truly as they believed that only truth could emanate from this divine Spirit, so every word contained in the Bible appeared to them as sacred. To them, the Bible was the expression of the mighty mysteries of the world that pressed themselves upon the human soul. How could a person who imagined that the ancient men of God were individuals standing directly under the inspiration of the divine Spirit have believed that they wrote—or indeed could have written—anything that was subject to criticism? There could not have been in the hearts of these believers an unquestioning attachment to every single word.

[ 3 ] It is difficult for people today to put themselves in that frame of mind. They read the first Gospel and the third Gospel. They are presented with two genealogies of Jesus of Nazareth—one in the Gospel according to Matthew, the other in the Gospel according to Luke. They follow the names and find that they do not match, that as early as the third generation from Joseph onward a different name appears, that where Matthew lists Solomon, Luke lists Nathan, and so on—that a whole series of names differ between the genealogies—and they ask themselves: How is it possible that what has served as a source of truth for people throughout the centuries could contain such contradictions?—Essentially, we see in a single consideration of this kind the seed of all the doubts that have arisen among people—and among critics—regarding the unified structure of Scripture and, ultimately, its inspiration. Based on such considerations, which have been carried out in a complex manner down to the finest detail, they have dissected the books of the New Testament, have determined what is more or less authentic, and have found that the first Gospel differs from the fourth—from which it necessarily followed that the fourth Gospel must be something entirely different from a historical document. How could one, even with an open mind, simply dismiss these contradictions? It is only natural that modern people, when they see something like this, must apply a critical analysis.

[ 4 ] But now we ask ourselves: How is it possible that, over the course of centuries and millennia, people—who were certainly not exactly stupid—have held these books in their hands and yet failed to arrive at a critical assessment or to recognize these contradictions? With regard to the average believer, one might perhaps argue that, until very recently, the Bible was in the hands of only a few; before the invention of the printing press, believers hardly ever had access to it. – One might say that the vast majority of believers need not be led astray by what their leaders were unable to present to them. But are we to imagine that those who did have access to the Bible would not have recognized what modern scholarship now reveals?

[ 5 ] Some historians object: It was only gradually, through the authority of the Church, that the prestige of these books became established; only little by little did what is called the awe-inspiring nature of this biblical history take shape. The content of the Bible cannot even stand up to a proper historical examination. If we go back to the earliest centuries of history and examine the facts, we come to the conclusion that the Council of Nicaea determined which are the true Gospels and that it was decreed by an act of authority: “These are the Holy Scriptures.”

[ 6 ] This cannot stand up to an unbiased historical examination. We are introduced to figures who lived in the early days of Christianity. We then find in their writings—for example, in the year 160 CE—that a so-called “Gospel harmony” was created, that is, a compilation of the various Gospels intended to present a unified picture. This was done even more frequently later on, and if we carefully examine the Gospels from the second century, we can see that what we now know as the content of the New Testament was also incorporated into them. We can go even further back, to] the early Church Fathers, and when we examine them critically, we see how they speak of the Bible with immense reverence—a reverence that suggests they believed the Bible was inspired by a higher spiritual power. We can go back to Origen and then observe how he speaks of the biblical books in the same manner and with the same reverence. And if we take individual words]—even those conveyed by Matthew, of whom it is not without reason said that he was a disciple of the Apostle John—we find that something speaks from his soul that we can align, in the same sense, with what later became the attitude of believers, even the most learned among them, toward the Gospel.

[ 7 ] Of course, anyone who contemplates such things must be able to free themselves—indeed], to free themselves completely from certain prejudices. Just as later generations have related to what is called Christianity, so too did those who lived as scholars in the first centuries not relate to it in that way; and if today someone, from some orthodox standpoint, approaches another who does not interpret the Bible exactly as he does, and tells him that he is an unbeliever, that he must not call himself a Christian, that he is violating the true word of the Bible—then we may well remind such a person of those ancient believers, whom even those who interpret the Bible arbitrarily dare not doubt. I would like to draw upon a statement by the Church Father Augustine. It goes as follows: “What is called the Christian religion today is ancient. It is the ancient, true religion, and what is the ancient, true religion is now called the Christian religion.”

[ 8 ] Consider such a statement and then compare it to what a theosophical interpreter of the Bible, in particular, very often experiences. Isn’t it often downright tragic how hostile reactions are provoked, how the theosophist encounters bitter opposition from acquaintances, friends, and relatives when they say to him: “Here you go again with your theosophical phrases—where does that leave the Bible?” Such a statement is based on a profound ignorance of the true Bible, and moreover, it reflects a great pretension—the claim to be infallible in one’s interpretation of the Bible. If only such believers would be perfectly clear about what it means to take such a stance against the Theosophical interpretation of the Bible. It means nothing other than: “What I find in the Bible is absolutely correct.”

[ 9 ] It is not, therefore, that the Theosophical viewpoint takes a less positive stance toward the Bible, but rather that it seeks to draw out the true meaning and the true facts from the Bible itself. For the theosophical worldview, what matters in relation to religious texts is correct understanding. Therefore, anyone who, out of convenience, clings to some other form of certainty—one that just happens to be the one to which they have become accustomed—should not, in fact, oppose the theosophical viewpoint. For often there is something hostile in the souls of those who, while paying lip service to a genuine explanation of the Bible, say: “You deny the Bible; you are making yourselves and your families unhappy.”—Often, too, there is nothing behind this but the thought: “I do not want to learn; I know what I know.”

[ 10 ] If we compare such a statement with the Sermon on the Mount and understand it correctly, then—even if we call ourselves Christians—we will no longer be permitted to take such a stance. Let us quote here only the first sentence of the Sermon on the Mount. As those who visit here frequently know, this has been done many times before. Accurately rendered into German, it reads: “Blessed are those who are beggars in spirit, for they will find within themselves the kingdoms of heaven.” (Mt 5:3) There is no more beautiful way to express what is called the theosophical attitude than the Sermon on the Mount does with these words.

[ 11 ] What does “theosophical mindset” mean? It means nothing other than bringing to fruition that which lies within us—the deepest core of our own being, the spiritual nature that lives within us. Just as that which constitutes our body is derived from the substances of the surrounding world, so that which exists within us is derived from the Spirit that lives around us and has lived at all times. And just as it is true that our body is but a drop in the ocean of material reality, so it is true that our soul, our spirit, is but a drop in the ocean of the all-encompassing world spirit. But just as the drop taken from the ocean is, in substance, the same as the water of the entire ocean, so too is that which lives in the deepest soul of man substantially one with the essence of the Divine. Because God lives within man, man can recognize God; because man is spiritual, man can, if he so desires, enter the spiritual world around him.

[ 12 ] But there is a second requirement if a person truly wishes to penetrate these spiritual worlds, and this second requirement is summed up in a simple phrase: Never stand still! One must not merely believe in a process of development; one must live that development. What does “living a process of development” mean other than carrying within oneself the awareness that human beings have developed from an imperfect state to their present one, and that they can continue to develop into the future at any time? Let us not think, at first, of how a person’s outward form changes in the course of this development, but rather of how the human soul can ascend from one stage to the next; that there is an upward progression of this soul, and that it is possible to become more perfect day by day. Today we learn something; our soul forces are capable of understanding this or that; our will is capable of doing this or that. If we remain fixed on what we perceive today, on what our will is capable of doing today, then we do not develop. But if we carry within us the awareness that, in addition to the powers that have already developed within us, other powers also lie dormant—dormant just as the plant seed, which has developed into a plant, which in turn carries other plant seeds within it—then we will recognize more and more each day that we can draw forth from our soul the spiritual eyes and ears, a higher unfolding of the will, and see that things can get better with each passing day. We must not understand this in a trivial sense, but rather in the sense that this development in the spiritual-soul direction has universal significance.

[ 13 ] When we see animal forms in the material world physically evolving into a noble human form, this does not justify the assumption that humans evolved from animals. Even natural science has established that, with regard to the physical form of humans, there is a greater similarity between the least developed humans and the most highly developed apes than between the lower apes and the highest species of apes. From this relationship, natural science derives the kinship between humans and apes. In 1859, the great naturalist Huxley uttered this statement as if it were a grave heresy. Much of what you read in Haeckel’s writings was penned under the immediate emotional impression of this statement. Those who believe in spiritual evolution say to themselves: “Well then, granted that, in terms of external form and physicality, humans are closer to the highest apes than the latter are to the lowest members of their own species; but it is equally true that those who have attained a certain level of spiritual development are farther removed from those at the lower stages of humanity than the lowest human is from the most highly developed animal.”

[ 14 ] If we follow the thread of evolution] into the higher realms, we see it continuing into spiritual realms, and in the spirit we see Theosophy as something as real as material evolution is to the physical eye. And just as it is true that those who know Theosophy—and Theosophy has existed in all ages; even Paul speaks of it—; and also that the ancient Indian Atma Vidya is the same thing, though it] has been called by various names at different times. Modern natural science, which affirms what I have been trying to suggest, recognizes a progression from the lower animal forms up to human beings.

[ 15 ] In contrast, Theosophy has always maintained: We also acknowledge such a development; we are firmly grounded in such a development; we acknowledge that there is a tremendous difference between the perfect form of the human being and a lower animal that lives in the ocean mud and is barely visible to the eye armed with a microscope. How many intermediate stages must the human being often pass through as he advances from the imperfect to the perfect!

[ 16 ] The theosophist regards the development of the soul and the spirit as equally real and genuine. He sees equally great differences between the individuals who have become initiates in Theosophy—those who, to a higher degree, have brought the qualities inherent in every human soul to a state of divine vision—and those people who have barely developed the first stirrings of soul activity. The difference in development from the most imperfect of the lowest soul levels to the fully initiated is greater than that between the smallest living being and the most perfect human body. Anyone who knows that there are initiates who can look deeply into the development of things knows that there is such a thing as development.

[ 17 ] Anyone who knows this also knows that their state of mind cannot be anything other than saying to themselves: I look up to the divine ideals, the seeds of which I carry within my soul; I know that in the future something will have developed that today still slumbers within me, its potential only faintly evident. But I also know that I must apply all my strength to reach these heights. One who views the spiritual world in this way then sees himself as a beggar in spirit. And he is “blessed”—that is, he then feels blessed. And in the theosophical sense, we have such a wonderful phrase in the Sermon on the Mount, which reads: “Blessed are those who beg for the Spirit, for they will find within themselves the kingdoms of heaven.” (Mt 5:3)—No one familiar with the language of ancient times would imagine that those who speak of heaven meant a heaven in the unknown afterlife. Those who know will understand that in ancient times, heaven was sought above the stars. “Above the stars stood the heavens; they are also the breath of the moon,” and so on. Imagine that wherever you are, there is also heaven. Where we are now, there is heaven; there is the spiritual world. Just as a blind person, when operated on, sees the space that he could previously only feel with his hands filled with colors, so too does the one whose spiritual sense is opened see a new world around him. He sees whatever is around him in a new form—the form in which he must see if he is to evolve toward a higher humanity. He need not believe that heaven is somewhere else, in another place, or at another time. The words of Jesus Christ apply to him: “The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)

[ 18 ] The Kingdom of Heaven is where we are; it permeates all physical things. Just as water permeates ice, so too does that which has condensed from the divine Spirit—as the physical, material world—float, as it were, in the ocean of the divine Spirit. Everything physical is condensed, transformed spirit. Behind everything physical lies the spiritual. Here we are already led to what, from the perspective of spiritual science or theosophy, is the relationship of the human being to evolution. Just as in the animal world there are both perfect and imperfect beings, so too, in relation to the spiritual, there exist the most diverse individualities: some advanced, others lagging behind; some looking into realms where modern science still shines its light, others looking into the deepest recesses of human knowledge—from the “savage” to the human being developed to divinity, who is capable of perceiving the spiritual all around them in the outer world.

[ 19 ] All these intermediate stages not only believed in, but actually knew those who were Theosophists. And when they spoke of initiates, they were referring to those who know more than the people around them. They have always spoken of such initiates, and now let us clarify in what sense they spoke of those initiated into the spiritual worlds.

[ 20 ] As has often been discussed here, when we go back to ancient times, we find that even everyday consciousness was different from what it is today—that a more clairvoyant consciousness existed. It is not called “clairvoyant” because it is any clearer than ordinary consciousness, but because it sees, as it were, right through objects into the soul; yet it is a dull, twilight-like consciousness, remnants of which have been preserved in human beings’ nocturnal dream consciousness. From this, humanity’s present-day] bright, daylight consciousness has developed. When we look back to those ancient times, when the vast majority of people lived in this clairvoyant consciousness, we find that even then there were already initiates. How, then, did those ancient initiates differ from those around them who were still in a more twilight-like state of consciousness? They differed in that they already knew something of the consciousness that humanity was to attain and possesses today; in that they were able to foresee something of the future and to look into the world in the way that all of humanity has come to do in later times. It was the kind of perception that relied on the eyes and ears of the body—on those organs with which human beings make sensory observations and grasp things intellectually. Just as this is generally the case with people today, so too was it the case with individual initiates of ancient times. That is precisely why they were initiates. The initiate anticipates something of the future. Likewise, the initiate of our day carries within himself something of the elevated clairvoyance, of the elevated vision that humanity will possess in the future. He knows something to say about what present-day humanity will possess in the future.

[ 21 ] Thus the ancients, who understood something of these things], also looked up to the initiates. They said to themselves: Just as he views things, so will people view them in the future. Let us look at him; he is the living ideal; he is the one who, through his form, reveals to us what we will become. — In this sense, he was a prophet to them, and if he stood even higher, a Messiah; and so they said to themselves: The course of history will be such that it will lead the great multitude of people to what he has attained. They called such a person a “firstborn.” But the one who was to be initiated in this way had to pass through various stages. Throughout the various stages, up to the highest levels of initiation, there are the most diverse degrees of knowledge and will. One can progress through many stages. Just as a plant passes through various stages in its development—from root to leaf, flower, and fruit—so does the human being advance from insight to insight until he himself becomes an initiate. This progress occurs through training, and this training can be acquired. Anyone who denies that such training exists—through which one can attain a higher mode of perception, the opening of the eyes and ears of the spirit—simply does not know; they have not yet received any knowledge of such training. This is the task of Theosophy: to tell humanity that such training for upward development exists. In my journal Lucifer – Gnosis, you can read that the principle of initiation and spiritual culture is now being discussed in a much deeper way. There are many reasons for this. But I would like to cite one reason.

[ 22 ] This is precisely what is so tragic, so oppressive, and so soul-wrenching for modern man: that he can no longer believe in the ancient scriptures, that they can no longer be for him the embodiment of the Word of God, because the development of intellect and reason has advanced so far that he no longer needs the old message. But he needs a new message, and this is what Theosophy—or spiritual science—seeks to bring him. We have, as it were, glimpsed the future in a vision, and even today, the one who develops into an initiate sees the future course of human development. But he must develop according to specific methods, and these methods are indeed quite specific. Just as the methods by which one discovers astronomical truths are very specific, so too are the methods by which one advances into higher spirituality. No one should tell themselves that they can ascend into the higher realms on their own. That is like wanting to study mathematics on one’s own and accept nothing on the authority of others. One needs, however, a mentor and guide who shows one the way. There is no other authority in this field. Therefore, it is mere rhetoric when the principle of faithful devotion and confession is applied to Theosophy. It is a misunderstanding to speak of authority and faith in Theosophy.

[ 23 ] Now, throughout the various millennia, there have always been books—actually, not books, but rather an oral tradition, if we go back to ancient times—and these oral traditions encompassed the rules for how one is initiated. If we want to get an idea of what such a] tradition was like, what such regulations were like—which outlined what a person must do when beginning the path of spiritualization, all the way up to the highest levels of initiation—we need only remember that those who served as guides and leaders were not permitted to put anything in writing. Even today, these rules must not be written down, but may only be transmitted orally to those who are worthy of them. There was a canon of initiation. It contained the rules governing the birth of the spiritual human being out of the sensory human being; it laid out the rules that a person must fulfill in order to attain the higher goals. Anyone who devoted themselves to spiritual striving had to be guided from one stage of practice and way of life to the next, higher one. Once you are at the higher stage, the initiate comes and reveals the higher mysteries to you.

[ 24 ] Just one more word about the way such an initiation code was handled. Today, it is no longer as common as it was in ancient times. The initiation processes are also moving forward. In ancient times, the student was brought into a kind of ecstasy. The term had a different meaning back then than it does today; it did not mean being out of one’s mind, but rather becoming aware in higher states of consciousness, and the spiritual guide had led him there. It was prescribed how long one had to be kept in such a state of consciousness; it was three and a half days. Today, consciousness is no longer suppressed in this way. Back then, however, the person in question was in a state of ecstasy and rapture; he was unaware of what was happening around him in the sensory world; in the realm of the sensory world, the initiate was like one who is asleep. He was thus led into a state of consciousness in which the external sensory world faded away. But what he experienced differed considerably from what people today experience when, as they fall asleep, the external sensory objects around them disappear. The external sensory objects disappeared, but the person lived in a world of the spirit; it became light around him. What is called astral light dawned upon him: the light that is a] different light from the physical one, which appears to us as a sea of spiritual substance in which spiritual beings are embedded and from which they develop. And when he ascended even higher, he heard resounding from this world what was called the “harmony of the spheres” in the ancient Pythagorean schools. What the intellect recognizes in concepts as a law of the world, the one who finds himself at such a level perceives as a kind of sound, as spiritual music. The spiritual forces express themselves in harmony and rhythm. However, this is not to be confused with external music. The spiritual world, the world of the heavens, resounds and rings out for the astral light. The initiate was introduced into this world. There he came to know the stages of human divinity, which humanity will only ascend in distant times. All of this became truth for him; he lived through it in three and a half days.

[ 25 ] What seems grotesque to people today—countless people have lived and still live in the world who know that this is just as much] a world of reality as the one that the outer ear and the outer eye can perceive. When the person in question was then led back into the sensory world after three and a half days, when he reentered this world enriched with the knowledge of spiritual life, when he was prepared to be a witness to the spiritual world—then there was always just a single spiritual word that all initiates uttered upon reentering the sensory world: “O my God, how gloriously you have made me!” – This was the feeling into which the soul breathed itself out after the initiation, upon reentering the ordinary sensory world. All of this either lived in the minds of those who were to conduct the initiation, or, as writing gradually became more common, some of it was also written down.

[ 26 ] There was, however, a typical description of the life of an initiate. It went something like this: The one who is to be initiated and admitted into the places of initiation must organize his life in such and such a way, and he must undergo the experience that ultimately culminated in the words: “O my God, how wonderfully you have made me.”

[ 27 ] If you can picture in your mind the life that an initiate must go through—just as you can imagine the life of such a person] who wants to conduct experiments in a chemistry lab—then you would get something that resembles a typical picture of a person who is evolving to a higher level. Then you would obtain a typical picture of one who is to be raised. Such books on initiation have existed, or at least they have lived on in the minds of those who have presided over the initiation. If we understand that such books have existed, then we will no longer be surprised to find the most diverse initiates from the most diverse peoples described in similar ways. Therein lies a great secret; therein rests a wondrous mystery. The peoples have always looked up to their initiates, insofar as they knew of them. What they recounted about them was not what today’s biographer, with his prying, tells us about great men. What they recounted was the spiritual life journey that the initiate experienced. Thus we will understand why—when we trace the life courses of Hermes, Buddha, Zarathustra, Moses, and Christ—we arrive at a similar picture of life in these figures. And why? Because they had to live this life if they were to become initiates. Simply put, the picture of the initiate’s life stands before us in the lives of Hermes, Zarathustra, and so on.

[ 28 ] In the external structure of the biographies, we can see the image of the initiate everywhere, and from this we can answer the question: Who were the people who wrote the Gospels? You will find a theosophical answer to this question in my book Christianity as a Mystical Fact. What I can only briefly hint at here is explained in detail there, thereby also pointing to the spiritual credibility of the Gospels. It is explained that what is written in the Gospels is taken from ancient books of initiation. Of course, the books written by initiates on these matters differed in minor details. But in essence, the content always amounted to the same thing.

[ 29 ] Now we must realize that those who wrote the Gospels had nothing other than such ancient initiation texts. If we then look at what is actually written there, we can discern different forms of initiation in the various Gospels. And why do they differ? Because their authors knew initiation from different perspectives. We will understand this when we consider the relationship of the elderly men who composed the Gospels to Christ Jesus. We gain the best understanding when we recall the beautiful words with which the Book of Revelation begins. The One who dictated the writing of John is called: the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega (Rev 1:8; 21:6; 22:13). This refers to nothing other than that which—despite the changing times and forms of the world from one generation to the next, from one race to another, from one planet to another—remains ever-present as a unified, spiritual entity. When we designate this ever-present being as the Divine and recognize that we possess a spark of it within ourselves, we feel a kinship with this Alpha and Omega; indeed, we perceive it as the ultimate ideal toward which the evolving world continually ascends. Thus has it been revealed to us: this Eternal One in all ages, this Unchanging One in all change.

[ 30 ] Now we must recall a usage of language that has completely vanished from our consciousness. I would like to illustrate what this is all about in a few words. Today, the name we give a person is more or less irrelevant. We don’t feel any real connection between a person and their name. The further back in time one goes, the more meaningful and essential the name becomes; people placed] importance on certain rules governing how a person received a name. I need only remind you that it was not very long ago that the custom still existed of looking in the calendar and giving the newborn child the name listed in the calendar for the day of its birth. It was believed that the child felt compelled to be born on the day bearing that name. The person who underwent the initiation I have described received a new name—the initiation name—and this name denoted his inner being, denoted what he signifies in the world, that which the guide recognized in him. This name was linked to his being and expressed that which pertains solely to the inner being.

[ 31 ] Now, remember that the Bible, in the New Testament, contains a wide variety of sayings attributed to Jesus. One can only gain a deeper understanding of these writings by approaching them from the perspective of an initiate and by] having some understanding of the significance of names. For example, when one wished to describe and express spiritually that a person was still at a lower level, one used an expression derived from the qualities of the astral body; if the person was at a higher level, one used expressions derived from the qualities of the etheric body. If one wished to express what was typical, this was done with terms derived from the qualities of the physical body. Thus, the ancient names had a connection to the human being and truly expressed his or her essence. Let us now recall how often words of Jesus appear in a chapter where he describes himself as something specific—you can find such examples particularly in the Gospel of John. In many cases, we can trace them back to a single word, the little word “I.” Think for a moment about what I have already explained several times in these lectures.

[ 32 ] A distinction is made between four aspects of the human being: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I.” This “I” grows ever larger; it is such that it evolves toward initiation; it is imperfect in the less-developed human being, but mighty and perfect in the initiate. When Christ frequently hints in the Gospel of John that he is identical with “I am,” when he describes himself as the One who is there, who is one with the deepest essence of the human being in the statement “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30)—if you take this into account, you will now be able to understand it in light of this naming, because it encompasses the Eternal—not because he was an ordinary human being and used this “I” to refer to ordinary human beings, but because he was something that transcended the ordinary human being, because he was Christ, the Alpha and the Omega. Thus, those who lived in that time saw in him a divine being who wore a physical body—a being for whom the physical body is just as indifferent and the spiritual just as important as the physical body is of the utmost significance to the physical human being and the spiritual is unimportant. What stood out most in the human being became his name, and if we think this through even further, we will understand something else as well. From there, you will find your way into many a mystery of the Bible. We understand what it means when Moses stood before Jehovah and Jehovah wanted to make him a messenger for the people, and Moses replied: “What shall I tell them—who sent me?”—And then we hear the meaningful words: “Say, ‘I AM’ has sent you.” (Exodus 3:14)—To what essence is Jehovah Himself pointing here? This is, in essence, what lies in the deepest inner core of every human being. When we reach the fourth element of human existence, we see that the “I” is a name we must give ourselves. The Divine must speak for itself—the Divine that begins to speak at a certain point, that lives within the human being as a small, insignificant seed and can develop into infinite greatness. This is what is meant; this is what gave Moses his commission and said: Tell them, “‘I Am Who I Am’ has sent you.” (Exodus 3:14) – That which lies like a divine seed in every human soul, that which is enveloped in the physical, etheric, and astral bodies like a point to which we say “I Am,” that which still grows insignificantly above them and which still lives insignificantly within us—we shall not describe this as the least significant part of our being, but as the most important. It is the essential that lives within the human being and that seeks to send Moses by saying, “I am who I am.”

[ 33 ] So you can see what profound meaning lies in such naming, and whenever reference was made to this “I Am,” reference was simultaneously made to that point in human development which I have already mentioned in these lectures and which is also alluded to in the Bible—namely, the point at which the physical human being is endowed with a soul. I have often discussed how what the physical human being is today evolved from lower stages, and how, by being endowed with a soul that descended from the Divine, he was able to develop further. What descended from the bosom of the Divine sank into the physical body and further developed the physical body. This moment is also alluded to in the Bible. It teaches it in just a few words. Before that moment—which in reality spanned long periods of time—the human body lacked what was needed to bring the “I” to full development, lacked what the physical human being still needs today. In those days, human ancestors did not yet breathe through lungs; it was then that humans developed their lungs from a swim-bladder-like organ. It was only then that they learned to breathe air through their lungs, and it was only from this process onward that the human body became animated. If you condense this process into a single sentence, you have the biblical passage: “And God breathed into the man’s nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) – By learning to breathe as a physical being, human beings became capable of receiving the soul.

[ 34 ] If we return to the meaning of the name “Jehovah,” we find that “Jehovah” means “breath”—that is, the air blowing away. The word “Yahweh” expresses nothing other than the blowing breath with which the I-spirit enters into human beings. Thus, this name depicts how the blowing breath expresses its essence in the statement, “I am who I am,” and how it] pours a part of this essence into human beings. A true cosmic process is presented to us here. Thus, that which is eternal and lives within human nature becomes a true reality for us. Whether we consider people of today or people from thousands of years ago, the “I”-being has existed since time immemorial. Imagine the I-being in its highest revelation, where everything external is insignificant; imagine that a human being recognizes the innermost essence as so great and mighty—then you have the conception that the ancient followers of Christ had of Christ. What existed in the most ancient times only as a spark lived in its highest glory in Jesus of Nazareth. He was—because he was the highest Divine, the highest Initiate—hence the words: “Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58) In physical form, He is that which existed before Abraham, that which existed before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; He is that which stands as the greatest ideal of humanity before those who wish to develop themselves, before those who follow the words of the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for they will find within themselves the kingdoms of heaven.” (Matt. 5:3)

[ 35 ] If we take this word at face value, then you have the image that the followers of Christ had back then. What kind of biography could they possibly provide for this supreme incarnate God? Where was a biography worthy of him? That was the biography given in the initiation canon—the canon that contained the rules according to which the initiate was to be initiated. As you can see, it was like this: If you want to be initiated, then you must go through this and that, step by step, until you reach the final step, which is indicated by the words: “My God, my God, how you have glorified me!”

[ 36 ] And just as that which lived at a lower level of humanity was portrayed as an event in the outer, physical world on Golgotha, the Initiates said to themselves: If we are to describe his life, we can only take the image that the initiate must undergo. Just as the initiate must proceed from stage to stage, so the God within humanity has proceeded from stage to stage; and thus the Passion narrative is nothing more than the mystery canon applied to the life and death of Jesus Christ. Naturally, they took it from wherever they could obtain it. That is why we find it in the various forms in which it existed among different peoples. That is not what matters; what matters is what lived as consciousness among those who contemplated the Mystery of Golgotha. No one may come and say: Theosophy denies the historical Christ and presents only his typical life. No, the point is not that the historical event is denied. It is not merely the simple man of Nazareth who is to be placed at the center, but the God-man “Christ.”

[ 37 ] It is precisely through this that one gains an understanding of how those who lived in that era still felt. St. Augustine, for example, said that true religion—which later came to be called Christianity—had always existed as the principle of initiation, even before the founder of Christianity walked the earth. If we adopt the perspective I have called the “principle of initiation,” what can I say? When I imagine the ancient mysteries, the path is revealed to me leading up to the development of the “I Am.” When I look at the course of Christ Jesus’ development, it reveals to me in a wondrous way what a candidate for initiation used to be able to experience. There you see what has always been proclaimed as the true religion in ancient times. And now we also understand Augustine when he says: The true religion has always existed, and it is now called the Christian religion. – The words “Blessed are those who believe, even though they have not seen” (John 20:29) mean that what was once experienced only by the initiate on the astral plane has now been revealed on the physical plane as well.

[ 38 ] This leads us to the conclusion that we must have respect and reverence for the books of ancient times. What was the foundation for this? It was what was contained in the canon. Man’s path to divinity is the one that originates from God Himself. Just as a small part of the breathing God can be seen in a single breath, so it is true that a part of God can be seen in the influence of the divine. Because this is presented in the books, hence this reverence; because one sensed that this had received an outward expression in the external books.

[ 39 ] If you look at it this way, you may have less for the mind, but at first a feeling imbued with intellect. In this, you have something that leads into the spirit of ancient times as it relates to religious texts, and if we understand how such religious texts were born out of the principle of initiation, then we will also understand that they cannot appear immediately clear to us in their outward reflection, but that we must immerse ourselves deeper and deeper into them in order to understand these religious texts.

[ 40 ] Those who have torn it apart and criticized it have no idea that one must first learn to read the words that appear in it. Does anyone understand the verse from the Psalms that I quoted earlier: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by his breath the seas were made”? (Ps 33:6) Can anyone understand this who does not know that Yahweh Himself is the very essence of the matter, and can anyone, in turn, understand the combination of the word Yahweh with Elohim if they do not know that there are higher spiritual beings above Yahweh, to whom Yahweh belongs as a generic term? For those who know anything about these matters, it is clear that the word Elohim is a generic term and is used in the same way that one can say, for example, that Hans Müller is a German, but not the other way around—that the German is a Hans Müller. Likewise, one can say: “Yahweh the Elohim,” but not “the Elohim is a Yahweh.” So when we speak of the Elohim, we are referring to the beings who dwell in what is called “sphere harmony,” who live in spiritual light.

[ 41 ] This is the underlying fact when we speak of God breathing life into man and man becoming a living soul. When we delve into these matters in this way, it is not, as some scholars believe, something we imagine, but rather that the theosophical worldview—independent of scientific knowledge—teaches us about the origin of the world; that it teaches what the initiates were able to describe as their own experience; and that it shows us how this is reflected in the religious texts, even though it is often misunderstood. For those who view it this way, what matters is not whether these texts are critically pieced together, but rather what the underlying, unified wisdom is. If four people write a book on mathematics, the less important task is to break the four parts down again and say: “This was written by so-and-so, that by so-and-so.” It is more important to uncover the unified spirit that lives within it.

[ 42 ] If one truly does this with religious texts, one delves deeper and deeper, and then even the first chapters of Genesis will reveal themselves in a tremendous, radiant light. What is expressed there figuratively in grand and powerful words—“In the beginning, the Supreme Spirit created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1)—through the end of the first chapter—is a rendering of what spiritual science can ascertain on its own, apart from the sacred texts, albeit in the manner of speech that was necessary at that time. The development of the Earth and of humankind is also discussed here; and just as the great event of the transformation of the swim bladder into the lung is alluded to in the Bible, so too do the other words of the first chapters of the Bible contain wisdom that we can trace independently.

[ 43 ] From a theosophical perspective, we look forward to a future in which people, guided by a spiritual-scientific worldview and independent of any religious scripture, will once again know what lies at the foundation of the world as the spiritual, where they will understand the nature of world evolution, and where the stages of world evolution—which have often been outlined here—will once again become clear to them. And when someone has come to understand the significance of the Bible, they will find in it an expression of the great, ancient wisdom that can also be found independently of the Bible.

[ 44 ] When Lessing says of the Bible: “And God gave humankind a first elementary book—that was the Old Testament—and God gave humankind a second elementary book—and that was the New Testament,” and means that in the future, humankind will enter the spiritual worlds independently of the elementary books, and that when this third world age arrives, we will then look with even greater reverence upon the development our ancestors underwent on the basis of the elementary books. And these elementary books will once again become sacred to us, because they will appear to us as an expression of the highest spiritual wisdom.

[ 45 ] We will now also come to understand how we must shed light on Christianity in the future. He who clings only to the letter does not even understand the letter of the book. A word of Christ: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) Whoever seeks Christ cannot find him on Golgotha. Whoever, by developing his spiritual faculties, comes to see as truth what the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart—who was convinced that he was a true Christian—says: “Do you believe that Christ allows himself to be worshipped only outwardly, like a cow?” What matters is seeing Christ with the highest faculties a human being can possess. Whoever has an eye receptive to Christ will find Christ; they will find within themselves the fulfillment of the word: “I am with you to the end of the world.” One can learn Christianity in reality every day. One can experience the truth of Christianity, the truth of the real, historical Christ.

[ 46 ] One might now say—and many have said this in the early days of Theosophy—that the outer Christ is irrelevant; one must experience the inner Christ. That is just as if one were to say, “The sun lives in my eye—why do I need the outer sun?”] The one who has the eye of Christ will also be able to recognize and find the Christ of Golgotha. The one who has received the eye of Christ also finds the outer, historical Christ, and he then finds him in the Gospels as well; and within Christianity itself lies the seed for his further development. It has always been, and will remain, the most significant, the greatest central teaching of Christianity—one that can all too easily be misunderstood: “Whoever does not forsake wife and children, mother and brothers, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26; Matthew 19:29) This does not mean that one must go into the desert and thereby follow Christ. It expresses something far higher. If you look back: At the turn of the ages, we find blood kinship in the small blood brotherhoods. The highest consciousness lived through the blood. This comes to an end at the moment when the close bond of kinship gives way to a distant one. In ancient times, the blood brotherhood provided a sense of belonging and love; people loved those with whom they were related by blood.

[ 47 ] That is why Christianity cuts so deeply into the development of humanity: because it points to the past, when love was bound to blood ties, and points toward the future, where love will embrace all of humanity, where one person will love another regardless of whether they are blood brothers or not, whether they are close or distant relatives, where this love will be the most all-encompassing love for humanity. Christianity is the instrument for breaking free from the narrow bonds of blood, for redeeming people from mere kinship by blood—from what lies in the blood—and leading them toward what does not lie in the blood, what is not mother, brother, father, sister, or child, but rather expresses in human beings what flows as love from the Spirit and not from the blood. Christianity is the instrument for bringing this about.

[ 48 ] If we understand it this way, then this saying will appear in its true splendor, and when we see it in this true splendor, it is a saying that points not to the outward but to the inner truth of Christianity. If the One who made us Christians tells us that only those who forsake their father, mother, brother, sister, wife, and child can be His disciples, this also tells us that one can find Him by overcoming the merely material—not through asceticism, but by entering into the spiritual as a human being, while] at the same time remaining firmly grounded in reality. If one enters Christianity in this way, then one can truly find the path to spirituality in accordance with the very spirit of Christianity. Thus, the true Christian builds his life on the certainty that he may leave everything behind—even that to which he is temporally bound—and yet he will find Christ.

[ 49 ] This is the truth of the Bible; this is its true wisdom: that everything which could vanish and be forgotten would rise again from the human spirit. And so it must be, if it is true. Whoever cannot move beyond the mere outward form of the scripture cannot be my disciple. This word is implicit in the other. Thus, the theosophical worldview sees itself as the fulfiller of Christianity, so that it may bring about the development of wisdom in the future. They see that they have such a high conception of the core of wisdom that, even if the Testament were to be lost, the truth would remain; that even the Spirit would remain, even if the letter were to perish. That is the truth of Christianity, the truth of love. The word was spoken openly here: Everything that Theosophy teaches is not contrived, abstract wisdom; it is the wisdom of life, and only when it has become fully life—when we express this wisdom through our very being—will the task of Theosophy be fulfilled.

[ 50 ] A passage in which we are shown that the apostle must devour a book brought by an angel—a book that he is not to write down, but must devour—that is, a book that is not merely read but lived; and the theosophical worldview seeks to provide this very book, and Theosophy sees itself as the recipient of this book; this book that flows through our veins, pours into our entire soul, so that we live it out—that we not only know the Spirit but live the Spirit: that is Theosophy. To live the Spirit in its details—not in all manner of fantasies, but by engaging with what Theosophy brings—that is what matters.

[ 51 ] This is what these lectures were meant to convey, time and again, in a wide variety of ways, as the underlying current. If, over the course of this winter, in this cycle that we wish to conclude today—only to begin it again at the appropriate time—there was something from which you could sense that Theosophy is something that transcends all concepts and permeates life itself, then to a certain extent, what these lectures have sought to achieve has been fulfilled. If you can take home with you this awareness that such a thing is possible, if you can sense this transition to wisdom, to love, to life, as it has met us in the world, then the purpose and goal of these lectures have been achieved.