The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Gospel of St. John III

[ 1 ] The reflections we have made individually on the Gospel of John have led us deeply, very deeply, into the essence of the Christian worldview and have also taught us what profound mystical power lies in a genuine understanding of the Christian text. We have seen that the Gospel of John should not merely be read as an external history, as a news report or a message, but that it should be read as a living text, so that every sentence, when we take it in with living awareness, transforms something within us.

[ 2 ] We have examined the seven stages of spiritual ascent in this life of John. Today, a brief addendum will show us just how deeply such matters must be taken. I would like to show you, through specific examples, that what I have attempted to distill as such a profound meaning from the Gospel of John is by no means something trivial, but rather that it is only through the means of the so-called Esoteric Doctrine—through the means of occultism—that we can begin to understand certain things that would otherwise remain obscure and incomprehensible. First of all, I would like to remind you of something I have mentioned many times before, namely, what the seven stages of initiation were precisely during the period in which Christianity came into being.

[ 3 ] We learned about Christian initiation last time. But not only has Christianity made inner initiation possible; ever since human beings, as we understand them, have existed on Earth, there has been the possibility of becoming an initiate and ascending to higher levels of human existence. Through Christianity, all these things have been internalized even more deeply. Human beings can achieve much—very much—ever since Christianity has given us texts, such as the Gospel of John, which one need only allow to take effect within oneself, to let come alive within oneself, in order to ascend to certain heights. Such texts, however, as Christianity has placed into people’s hands, did not actually exist before the emergence of Christianity. Back then, one had to be initiated into secret temples or places of worship, and the lowest levels of initiation varied among different peoples. But you can imagine that one eventually transcends all national particularities. The higher levels were therefore the same among all peoples, including those of antiquity.

[ 4 ] I would like to list once again the seven stages of initiation as they existed in the Persian Mithraic initiation. This was a form of initiation that was practiced throughout the Near East, extending beyond Greece and Rome, even as far as the Danube region. It continued to be practiced long after the time when Christianity emerged. For a long time, one could pass through these seven stages, even in the mystery cults and temples of Egypt, which were often built into the rock. They were accessible to no one except those who, as purified disciples and initiates, had become acquainted with them after rigorous testing. First came the degree of the “Raven.” As a raven, the initiate carried the knowledge that can be gained from the sensory external world into the spiritual life. The concept of the raven has been preserved in myths and legends. There are the ravens of Wotan, the ravens of Elijah, and even in the German legend of Barbarossa, the ravens serve as mediators between the emperor, enchanted within the mountain, and the outside world. In the Mithraic Mysteries, therefore, the term “raven” was a designation for a degree of initiation.

[ 5 ] The second degree was that of the “Occult.” This was the name given to those who had already been entrusted with some important, essential occult secrets.

[ 6 ] The third degree was that of the “Warrior.” These were initiates in whom the higher self is already sensed to such a degree that sayings of the kind found in the second section of Light on the Path—“Step aside in the coming battle, and however you may fight, do not be the warrior”—become understandable to them. Only an initiate of the third degree can understand these sayings. This is not to say that everyone cannot acquire a certain understanding. Everyone has a higher Self, and if a person is able to deny his lower self and place what he is as a lower self in the service of the higher Self, then he can, in a certain sense, say: “However you may fight, you are not the fighter.”—But only when a person has attained a certain level of development does he know exactly what this sentence means. Then even interests that are otherwise referred to as higher interests fall away. They become mere lower interests and mere servants of the fighter.

[ 7 ] The fourth degree is attained when complete inner harmony and peace, balance, and strength have been achieved. This stage of initiation is called the “Lion” degree. Such an initiate has realized the occult life within himself to such an extent that he may advocate for the occult not only with words but also with deeds.

[ 8 ] Meanwhile, the consciousness of a person passing through these four stages extends farther and farther. It identifies with ever larger and larger groups of people. All these terms still have a secret meaning. Take the term “the occult.” The human being, as he usually stands before us—what is he really? He is what is within him. As a raven, as one initiated to the first degree, he seeks to overcome what is only within him; then his interests expand. What the people in his immediate surroundings are, what they feel, what they want—this simultaneously becomes his own feeling and will. These terms were coined in times when there were still human communities that were regarded as clans, as extended families. What did people say, for example, about a clan, about a common family? People said that they were the members of a family of souls tracing back to a common pair of ancestors. Thus, such a clan was regarded as the members of a hidden self, as the members of a family of souls.

[ 9 ] Everyone who had been initiated into the second degree of the occult had elevated his “I” to the level of the “I” of his community, so that he made the community’s interests his own. The occult essence of a human community was able to live within him. Thus, such a human community—whose “I” the individual initiate had made his own—became his dwelling place. The warrior fought for the greater community. In ancient Palestine, one who had risen to the level of embracing an entire tribe—the consciousness of an entire tribe, the “I” of an entire tribe—within himself was called a “lion.” The lion of the tribe of Judah is an expression for one who had reached such a stage of initiation that he had embraced the “I” of the entire tribe.

[ 10 ] The fifth-degree initiate had transcended his personality to such an extent that he could absorb the soul of the people into himself. The spirit of the people lived within him. In Persia, such an initiate was called a “Persian”; in Greece, such an initiate would have been called a “Greek,” had that been the custom. What, then, does this degree signify? Everything individual has faded away for him, and his consciousness has become one with the whole. This is a higher consciousness.

[ 11 ] That is not the case today. Today, amid the fragmentation of all communities, we are moving toward entirely different stages of initiation. But it was still significant when Christianity first emerged, when there was talk of souls initiated into the fifth degree. You can see this for yourself in the Gospel of John. I ask you to read the Gospel of John, Chapter 1, Verse 45:

[ 12 ] “Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the Law and the Prophets—Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see!’ Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said to him, ‘Behold, a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.’

[ 13 ] Here, Nathanael is described as an initiate of the fifth degree. He has thus come to know that which constitutes the life force for us humans: the Tree of Life. One has already been partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One partakes of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge when one is even capable of saying “I” to oneself. But when the higher, spiritual aspect within a person awakens, it may come to pass that God wishes to protect that person. Jehovah’s concern was that, after eating from the Tree of Knowledge, human beings would not also eat from the Tree of Life, for which they were not yet ready. The initiate of the fifth degree, however, learns that which renders this concern insignificant and which elevates one above all death and all transience: this is the spiritual element.

[ 14 ] How can this spiritual element take root in human beings? For anyone who delves deeper into theosophy, this spiritual element is something that permeates the entire world. For those who are able to see into the higher worlds, everything that is initially a state of inner development also manifests itself on the higher planes—first on the astral plane—as an image. Once a person has attained the fifth degree of initiation, they always see an image on the astral plane that they had not seen before—namely, the image of a tree, the image of a branching white tree. This image on the astral plane—which you may take as a symbol for the fifth degree of initiation—is called the Tree of Life. It is said of the one who has attained it that he sat beneath the Tree of Life. Just as the Buddha sat beneath the Bodhi tree and Nathanael beneath the fig tree, so too are these expressions for the images on the astral plane. What can be seen there are reflections of inner things—things that are now also physically internal. This Bodhi tree is nothing other than the astral reflection of the human nervous system. The person who, through initiation, is able to turn their gaze inward sees their inner life reflected in the astral outer world, right down to the physical level. You can see what is meant here in this chapter of the Gospel of John: Nathanael is to be addressed as an expert. The point is to indicate: we understand one another. “Jesus said to him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’ ” This means: We are brothers of the fifth degree of initiation. It is a scene of recognition among the initiated. “Nathanael said to him, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.’ ” You see, the recognition has taken place. Jesus replies immediately that he will prove himself to be not only initiated into the fifth degree, but also something else. He says: “You believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree; you will see even greater things than that!”

[ 15 ] I would also like to draw your attention to the conversation with Nicodemus, which you can find in the third chapter. There, the significant words are spoken: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” What does it mean to be born again and to see the Kingdom of God? — It means to have awakened one’s higher self; that is, to be born in such a way that the eternal core of one’s being has awakened. What does it mean to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? It means not merely seeing the reflection of Devachan here, as it appears through the physical eyes, but seeing this kingdom directly. This is possible only for one who is not merely born into this physical world, but who is born a second time.

[ 16 ] Take what I have used before as a comparison, but which is more than just a comparison. Take it literally to a certain extent. To be born means: to transition from the embryonic state to the state in which one perceives the external world through the senses. Anyone who did not go through the embryonic state could never be ready to be born. Anyone who knows this state also knows that ordinary life is an embryonic state for the higher life. This leads us deep into the meaning of ordinary life. Those who turn their gaze toward the spiritual world could very easily become convinced that such a spiritual world exists and that human beings are citizens of this spiritual world; they might disregard this physical world and believe that human beings cannot leave this world quickly enough—that they should end their lives in order to enter the spiritual world as soon as possible. That is not the correct understanding. It is just as nonsensical as if one did not want to let the human embryo mature, but instead wanted to take it out at two months so that it could live here. In exactly the same way, one must mature and become ready for the higher life. This is the person who has developed their higher self. Here in this physical world is the place of training. The one who has developed the “I” here is ready to enter the realms of heaven—that is, to be reborn. Human beings must pass through birth and death again and again until they have attained their full measure of maturity, so that they may then gain entry into the spiritual realm itself, at which point they will no longer need physical organs. Therefore, we must realize that everything our eyes, ears, and other senses accomplish here are achievements for the higher life.

[ 17 ] Certainly, we have spoken time and again about how human beings must develop higher senses, how they must develop the chakras—or sacred wheels—that enable them to enter the spiritual world and perceive it. But how do they attain these sacred wheels? Through their work here on the physical plane. This is the place of preparation for that. What we do here prepares us with the organs necessary for a higher world. Just as a human being is prepared within the mother’s body, so too is that which must enable us to see and act in the higher worlds prepared within the body of the great Mother of the Worlds—and that is where we are when we lead our physical lives—within the body of the great Mother. It is therefore entirely justified to speak of a higher world and to regard it as superior to our lower world. But we must take this expression only in a technical sense. All worlds are, in essence, equal manifestations of the highest principle. We must not regard any world in such a way as to despise it. In this way, we come to relate correctly to both the lower and the higher worlds. This forms the prerequisite for the third chapter of the Gospel of John.

[ 18 ] We must be clear that Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus about a true rebirth, and that above all he wants to remind him that, from this perspective, ordinary life must be reborn as a higher life and must be viewed as such. Anyone who reads this chapter more intently and examines it more closely will see that this is precisely what it is about.

[ 19 ] Certain circles object most strongly to Theosophy because it teaches reincarnation—the gradual maturation of the human being toward rebirth through repeated earthly lives. It is said that Christianity knows nothing of this doctrine of rebirth. First of all, there is clear evidence in the Gospel of John that Jesus, when speaking intimately with his disciples, taught reincarnation. Indeed, the ninth chapter—the healing of a man born blind on the Sabbath—makes sense only if one takes the doctrine of reincarnation as a basis. One must bear in mind that he spoke in the language that was customary at the time. In Greece back then, it was not customary to speak of anything other than the power that permeates the very core of the human being and propels them forward from within. The power that shapes and develops human beings: that was God for the Greeks, and indeed for all peoples of that era. In those times, people were not yet familiar with a merely external God, a God in the hereafter. That is why, above all else, what lives within the human being was referred to as the God within man. So when one speaks of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, what is meant is the higher self. You can only understand the Old Testament if you know that God is to be understood in this way. Jesus, too, when speaking intimately to his disciples, speaks of the God who lives within human beings: “His disciples asked him, ‘Teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’—Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”

[ 20 ] These three sentences speak clearly enough. Neither he—that is, the physical part—nor his parents have sinned; therefore, the Jewish law stating that God punishes the sins of the fathers down to the nth generation does not apply. But the works of God in man are to become visible—that is, the Self within man, which passes through all incarnations. The words Jesus spoke to his disciples in this manner are as clear as can be. You are, of course, familiar with the orthodox interpretation. Just think for a moment: if someone were to assume what is implied here—that God’s glory should be revealed through a blind man. — That would imply that arrangements had been made for someone to become blind so that Jesus could heal him, so that God’s glory might be revealed. Is that compatible with a profound understanding of Christianity? No. For that would degrade Christianity in a moral sense. Interpreted theosophically, this image has a great, beautiful, and glorious meaning.

[ 21 ] It was always like this when Jesus spoke intimately with his disciples. This is revealed above all in a scene we call the Transfiguration. However, this scene is not found in the Gospel of John. You’ll find this Transfiguration scene in Matthew, chapter 17, and in Mark, chapter 9; it is not found in John. The only passage in John that might refer to it is in chapter 12, verse 28: “Father, glorify your name! Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ And further, in verse 31: ‘Now is the judgment of the world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he would die. Then the crowd replied to him, “We have heard in the Law that the Messiah will remain forever; how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for only a little while longer. “Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overtake you. Whoever walks in darkness does not know where he is going. Believe in the light while you have it, so that you may become children of the light.”

[ 22 ] You’ll find the Transfiguration scene in all the Gospels, but not in John’s. This will lead us deeper into this scene. Let’s make the meaning of the Transfiguration scene perfectly clear to ourselves. What happens there? Jesus goes up the mountain with three disciples—Peter, James, and John—that is, into the inner sanctuary, where one is initiated into the higher worlds, where, in occult language, one speaks. When it is said, “The Master went up the mountain with his disciples,” it means he went to the place where he explained the parable to them. The disciples were transported into a higher state of consciousness. There they see what is not transitory but eternal. Moses and Elijah appear, and Jesus himself among them. What does this mean? In esoteric science, the word “Elijah” means the same as EL—the Goal, the Way. Moses is the esoteric word for truth. Thus, when Elijah, Moses, and Jesus in the center appear, you have there the primordial Christian truth: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Jesus himself says—and this is a primordial Christian mystical truth—“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

[ 23 ] Underlying all this is the fact that the eternal is set before their eyes in contrast to the temporal, that the disciples are given a glimpse into a world that lies beyond this one. Afterward, they said to the Master: “Surely all this was supposed to happen only after Elijah had returned.” - So they spoke to him as if it were self-evident that reincarnation exists, just as the doctrine of reincarnation is discussed in various passages of the Gospel. John asks: “Are you Elijah, who has risen again?” - Then the Master says to him: “Elijah has returned.” - John the Baptist is Elijah. —- “People just did not recognize him.” — “But tell no one until I return.” — Thus, in this intimate conversation between the Master and his disciple, they expressed the universal, wise, and religious truth of reincarnation. At the same time, it was presented as a kind of testament: “Tell no one until I return.” —- This return points to a much later time, to the time when all people will recognize the Christ through their higher understanding. When that is the case, he will appear to them again.

[ 24 ] This era is being prepared precisely through the Theosophical worldview. Christ will reappear in the world. For that time, however, the doctrine of reincarnation and karma should be reserved as a popular teaching. For now, however, people should know nothing of the doctrine of reincarnation and karma; this should prompt them to regard life between birth and death as something particularly valuable and important. People must go through all stages of life experience. Until the time of Christ, it was common to speak of reincarnation. Life between birth and death was merely a temporary episode. Now, however, people should learn to regard this life here on Earth as something important. A radical formulation of this teaching was the doctrine of eternal punishment and eternal reward. This is a very radical interpretation. What mattered was that every human individuality—every human-god—should pass through an incarnation in which they know nothing of reincarnation and karma, an incarnation in which they recognize life between birth and death as eminently important.

[ 25 ] If you go through the Theosophical books, you will find that the time between two incarnations is fifteen to eighteen centuries. That is roughly the time between the birth of Jesus and our own time. Those who lived at that time are now reappearing. They can therefore now take up the new teaching once more. Hence, the theosophical worldview was prepared on Mount Tabor by Christ Jesus. When we look at world history from a broad perspective, we must not believe that it is a matter of right and wrong that we can criticize. It is not a matter of absolute truth and absolute falsehood, but rather of what is beneficial to humanity. If I were sitting here with a group of boys, no older than ten, and were teaching them mathematics, what I taught would be true—and yet it would be folly. I must give people what serves them well for a particular stage of development. It is therefore not right for us, as later generations, to apply a standard and say that Christianity taught falsehoods. No, in order to conquer the physical plane, one had to prioritize this life. Certainly, the Chaldean priests brought great spiritual truths into existence. They brought down an immense body of knowledge about the spiritual world, but they lived with the most primitive tools, without any knowledge of the forces of nature in everyday life. The physical plane had to be conquered first. To do this, the entire emotional world had to be attuned to it. Christianity had to prepare humanity to conquer the physical world. This was determined by the laws of nature; this is the Testament of Mount Tabor. Thus, what underlies this Testament brings about something marvelous.

[ 26 ] Those who delve deeper will discover all sorts of things. If we want to understand religious texts that date from times when people did not think in materialistic terms but possessed genuine knowledge of spiritual life, we must realize that the way of thinking was entirely different—that when people spoke of human beings, they spoke in a completely different way.

[ 27 ] Now I must tell you something that is easy for the intellect to grasp but difficult for the soul to comprehend for people today. At the time when the Gospel was written, it was the dawn of Christianity. Back then, people still used names, as I will now describe. Back then, people did not focus on the physical organism. A person of that time always saw through the physical organism to the spiritual, the higher realm. They did not perceive a name to mean what we understand by it today; rather, names were given with deep meaning. Imagine, for example, that someone was named James. James actually means “water.” Water is the esoteric term for the soul, so that when I call someone James, I am saying that the soul element shines through his body. In a meaningful sense, I am thus designating him as one who belongs to water. So when I give this name, James, to an initiate, he is for me the symbol of water (Hebrew: Yam). James is nothing other than the scientific name for an initiate who has mastered, in particular, the power of occult water.

[ 28 ] These were the three disciples, identified by their initiation names, who were taken up to Mount Tabor: James means “water,” Peter means “earth”—the rock (Hebrew = Jabbaschah), and John means “air” (Ruach). John, then, signifies the one who has attained the Higher Self. This leads you deep into the Esoteric Teaching. Transport yourself back to the time when human beings possessed only the lower principles—that is, to the third root race, to Earth’s Lemurian era. At that time, human beings did not yet breathe air but breathed through gills. The lungs developed only later, and with them, pulmonary respiration. This process coincides with the fertilization by the higher self. According to Hermetic principles, air is nothing other than the lower corresponding to the higher—to the higher self. If I call someone “John,” he is one who has awakened the higher self, one who masters the occult powers of air. Jesus is the one who masters the occult forces of fire (Nur). Thus, in these four names you have the representatives of earth, water, air, and fire. These are the names of the four who ascend Mount Tabor.

[ 29 ] Just imagine these four together on the Mount of Transfiguration, and you have, at the same time, the initiates who master the four elements—the lords of the four elements: fire, water, air, and earth. So what happens? It happened at that time that spiritual proof was provided that, through the appearance of Jesus, the entire power of the elements is renewed in such a way that the life pulsing through the elements undergoes a new, significant stage in its development. This is, in occult terms, the Transfiguration. Now, if someone undergoes the Transfiguration in this way—so that he possesses within himself the stages of water, earth, and air and ascends to the forces of fire—then he is one who has been resurrected, one who has undergone the crucifixion. Therefore, this scene in the other Gospels is, in truth, nothing other than a preparation for the actual, deeper initiation scene: the crucifixion itself. In contrast, in John everything appears to be already prepared. The preparatory scene does not appear at all; instead, we see the death on Mount Golgotha. Jam—Nur Ruach—Jabbaschah = INRI—that is the meaning of the words inscribed on the cross.

[ 30 ] This way, you can delve deeper and deeper, and you will never stop learning from the religious scriptures. Sometimes, when you hear something like this, it sounds like a forced explanation. But every step you take deeper into it will prove to you that it is not something forced. It is precisely with the trivial explanations that you will see an attempt to forcefully dismiss the “depth.” But the depth lies within these scriptures. Anyone who knows anything can always say to themselves: There is probably much more in there; I still have a lot to learn. — That is the reverence we can show toward the religious scriptures.

[ 31 ] This reverence is the best, for it then becomes the strength we draw from the depths. I can only point to one important sentence. It is found in the Gospel of John, chapter 19, verse 33: “But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs … For this,” it says in verse 36, “happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘You shall not break any of his legs.’” You know that this echoes a passage from Moses. There, too, when properly understood, it has a profound meaning. I would like to briefly explain this passage, which is rich in symbolism.

[ 32 ] If you survey our entire world, you will realize that human beings, as they are now incarnated in the flesh, have no power over life itself—nor over that which stands above life. What they control is the lifeless force, the inorganic force. Human beings cannot make a plant grow, nor can they make it grow faster. They would first have to acquire the occult powers to do so. They are certainly incapable of exercising dominion over that which is even higher than the life force. What human beings are capable of mastering is the lifeless world outside themselves. There they exercise their dominion—in the work of daily life, in the materials that nature provides. They create works of art, images of the Most High, but they cannot breathe life into them. He can only imitate life. He can only awaken a sense of life in the inanimate, even in the highest Christian works of art. This is indeed the case because human beings have enveloped their astral and etheric forces with a solid, dense physical body. As a result, they have come to have this relationship with the external environment: they are masters only over the inanimate. Human beings must make use of their own physical instruments, and these have dominion only over the inanimate. The higher forces, which are not bound to the physical, would have to awaken; then human beings would once again become masters of life. Human beings can become masters of the physical forces, but not of life itself.

[ 33 ] This is related to the fact that the human body was once soft and supple, but has now become firmer and firmer. If you trace back through human evolution, you will see that human beings have become quite different. The skeletal system did not yet exist in the Lemurian era. It only developed later. Thus, the skeletal system is the last element to have emerged in the human organism. It will remain part of the human being until he has once again become spiritualized, until he has once again awakened his inner powers and learned the lesson he must undergo in his body, which has become densified to the point of developing a skeletal system. Christ Jesus, in his cosmic mission, is the Spirit embodied in such a body to show humanity once more the path out of this world and into a higher world. He is the guide, the sage, leading into such a higher world. In this context, that which is to find its way into this higher world is symbolized by the solid structure—the human skeletal framework. When human beings were still different, not yet having developed a solid skeletal system, they did not need a Messiah. But it is precisely for this epoch that they need the Messiah, the Redeemer.

[ 34 ] It is thus clear that the powers in Jesus that are connected to the higher world are not relevant to the present human race. The terminology is as follows: the skeletal framework is called the “outer body,” water is the “etheric body,” blood is the “astral body,” and then there is the “spirit.” That is why you read in John: “There are three that bear witness: blood, water, and Spirit.” — That is why blood and water can flow out of the body of Christ. These are not relevant to the present human cycle. In contrast, what must hold the whole together—what must bring humanity up to the throne of the Eternal One, where the lesson must be learned—is to be preserved intact. This is the skeletal framework, the symbol of the inanimate in nature. Through the skeletal system, this has now brought Christ into connection with the present cycle of humanity. It is that which must be held together until the time when humanity has reached the higher stages. We could trace this further back to the corresponding passage in the Books of Moses. But that can be done another time.

[ 35 ] Today I wanted to offer an addition, a subsequent insight, that will show you that the Gospel of John can never be fully explored; that will show you how it contains power and life. As we take it into ourselves, it gives us strength and life. In this way, it becomes the primary text for all those who wish to delve ever deeper into theosophical Christianity. If, therefore, theosophy is to have an impact on Christianity, it will first and foremost have to draw upon the Gospel of John. However—and you must be clear about this—if I were to explain the Gospel of John in its entirety, I would have to spend an entire winter speaking to you about it. I would have to go through it line by line, and only then would you see how profound are the words attributed to John—that is, to the one whose very name suggests that he is a herald of the Higher Self. He is the representative of the air, who masters the higher forces and wrote his Gospel of John from the perspectives of the Higher Self.

[ 36 ] It would be futile and in vain to attempt to fathom or criticize the Gospel of John using the powers of the lower human intellect. In our time, the intellect celebrates great triumphs, but the Gospel of John was not written for the intellect. Only those who have overcome the lower intellect and can then guide it toward the heights of spiritual powers, such as John possessed, can truly understand the Gospel of John. It would not be right for Theosophy to undertake an intellectual critique of the Gospel of John, but rather to immerse itself completely in its depths in order to understand it for itself. Then we will see that a new spirit of Christianity—not merely the spirit of the past, but of a future Christianity—can emerge for us from the Gospel of John, and we will sense something of the profound truths of one of the most beautiful and significant Christian sayings, which is meant to reveal to us, from the mouth of the Creator of Christianity Himself, that Christianity is not something that belonged to the past, but that the same power still lives, for—it is true what Christ said: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”