The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. The Gospel of John

[ 1 ] Contemporary Christian theology challenges the Gospel of John. It is said that the Synoptic Gospels—the first three Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke—present a consistent picture of Jesus. The differences are considered insignificant. It is said that the Synoptic Gospels allow one to form a consistent picture of Jesus. The Gospel of John, on the other hand, deviates significantly from this by speaking of the founder of Christianity in a completely different tone and, it seems, in a completely different manner. It is therefore considered less credible. The Synoptic Gospels, it is said, sought to recount the life of Christ, whereas the author of the Gospel of John lived later and expressed what he felt in a kind of hymn. Theology regards the Gospel of John as devotional literature. Gone are the days when the theologian Bunsen said: “If the Gospel of John does not contain historical truth, then Christianity is untenable altogether.” — The task of spiritual science is to reveal the significance of the Gospel of John anew to people today.

[ 2 ] There is another reason why contemporary theologians prefer the Synoptic Gospels to the Gospel of John. If one summarizes the content of these three Gospels after setting aside the miracles, they paint the picture of a sublime human being—but one who is, after all, merely a highly evolved human being. According to the Gospel of John, however, Jesus was something other than just a highly evolved human being: He was a universal being incarnated in an earthly body. The Synoptic Gospels tell of Jesus of Nazareth; the Gospel of John speaks of the Christ.

[ 3 ] The prologue to the Gospel of John speaks of a comprehensive cosmic principle, the Logos, which was embodied in Jesus of Nazareth: “In the beginning was the Logos.” People today want nothing to do with a highly spiritual being who descends to Earth. They believe only in highly evolved human beings; they do not believe that a God ever lived on Earth. This is why, in recent centuries, people have lost their connection to the Gospel of John. This lecture will address this relationship between humanity and the Gospel of John.

[ 4 ] If you read the Gospel of John the way you read any other book—to learn from what is written in it—then you are reading it completely wrong. The Gospel of John is not a book in the sense that we understand the term today. It is a book of life.

[ 5 ] It should be noted from the outset that in all deeply religious texts, every word is chosen with deep meaning. Let us illustrate this with the following question: According to the Gospel of John, what is the name of Jesus’ mother? — Everyone will answer: Mary. — But this cannot be proven from the Gospel of John. The mother of Jesus is first mentioned in the Gospel of John in the account of the wedding at Cana, but without a name: “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana, and the mother of Jesus was there.” Later, she is mentioned again among the three women at the cross: “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” Here, then, it is not the mother of Jesus who is named, but her sister “Mary.” Since it is unlikely that both sisters were named Mary, one must assume that the mother of Jesus had a different name.

[ 6 ] Another example: The author of the Gospel of John—or the one who is otherwise always referred to as John—is here consistently called only “the disciple whom the Lord loved”: “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, this is your son.’ This is of profound significance for understanding the questions that arise in the Gospel of John when we interpret it in a spiritual sense.

[ 7 ] Until just a few centuries ago, the Gospel of John was regarded as a book of meditation that anyone wishing to gain an inner vision of Jesus had to experience inwardly. It was intended for the priest who wished to behold the mysteries of Christianity. Hundreds upon hundreds truly practiced this, and hundreds upon hundreds reaped the benefits. Anyone who wished to penetrate the Christian mysteries was to prepare his soul solely through the Gospel of John. But he had to know that the opening sentences possessed magical power. The student had to let them live in his soul for a quarter of an hour or half an hour every morning, not to speculate about them, but purely to draw strength from them. That was meditation. To those who lived with the opening sentences of the Gospel of John in this way for months or even years, these sentences revealed a special power: their spiritual eyes were opened. These sentences are living forces capable of awakening dormant abilities. Thus, the student experienced all the images of the Gospel of John in astral visions. The first words can bring about this experience. This power was greater in the past than it is today. People have changed more than is commonly believed.

[ 8 ] In the 13th century, when the art of printing did not yet exist, people did not read. Reading has changed people profoundly. Even the most devout person today cannot begin to imagine the richness of the emotions people felt back then. Today, we must offer different forms of meditation to those who wish to progress.

[ 9 ] The Gospel of John would also need to be translated correctly so that it could once again be to people today what it was to people in the past:

“In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

This was with God in the beginning.

All things came into being through it, and without it nothing that has come into being came into being. In it was life, and the life was the light of humanity. And the light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that through him all might believe.

He was not the light, but a witness to the light.

For the true light, which enlightens every person, was to come into the world.

It was in the world, and the world was made through it, but the world did not recognize it.

It came into individual human beings (it came even to the “I”-human beings); but the individual human beings (the “I”-human beings) did not receive it.»

[ 10 ] During the time of the Lemurian race, the human soul entered its first human incarnation. Before that, it rested in the bosom of God; human beings were not yet self-aware beings.

[ 11 ] Inner Vision. — What happens, then, when a person gains insight into the spiritual world? The average person lives between wakefulness and sleep, interrupted at most by dreams. A person consists of the physical body, the etheric body or life body, the astral body, and the ego. These four components are united during wakefulness. The physical body is a collection of physical apparatus; the eye is a camera obscura, the ear a stringed instrument. These apparatus are permeated by the etheric body, which animates them and transmits sensations to the astral body—the bearer of pleasure and pain, of instinct, desire, and passion—and further on to the ego. During sleep, the physical and etheric bodies lie in bed, while the astral body, together with the “I,” is lifted out. The etheric body remains with the physical body and animates it; vital functions are not interrupted during sleep. Colors, sounds, pleasure, and pain, however, are as if plunged into deep darkness; the person is not aware of them.

[ 12 ] There are as many worlds as there are organs with which humans can perceive them. Without eyes, there is no light. If humans had an organ for electricity, they would perceive it just as they now perceive light, for example.

[ 13 ] During sleep, a person now lives in the astral world—or the Devachanic world—but feels nothing there. Only when he develops higher faculties through persistent work does a change occur within him: it begins to grow light around him. In his sleep, he senses a space around himself, filled with objects. It happens to him as it does to a person born blind who undergoes surgery: astral and spiritual sense organs develop, he sees the spiritual world, and sleep no longer renders him unconscious. Later, the spiritual world begins to resound around him. He hears the music of the spheres spoken of by the Pythagoreans, which modern people regard as a figurative expression. Goethe understood it correctly. In the prologue to Faust, he says:

The sun resounds in the ancient way
In the spheres of the brothers, a contest of song,
And its prescribed journey
It completes with a thunderous roar.

[ 14 ] This cannot be taken as a figure of speech; rather, it must be taken literally: one hears the sun resound when one listens to spiritual music. In the second part of Faust, Goethe says something similar:

With a sound that resonates in the ears of the spirit
A new day is already dawning.

[ 15 ] The spiritual world first appears to human beings in sleep, but they must also be able to carry what they experience in sleep over into everyday life. What they first discover in sleep, they must also be able to find again among physical objects while awake. This takes place as the student’s training progresses.

[ 16 ] Once the first sentences of the Gospel of John had taken effect—as their imagery came to life in his soul—he was guided in cultivating certain feelings. After several other exercises, the teacher asked the student to cultivate the following feeling over a long period of time: If the plant growing out of the ground were to look at the stone from which it grows, it would have to say to it: “You, stone, belong to a lower realm than I do, but without you I could not exist.” — It would have to bow down humbly toward it and thank it for making its life possible. Likewise, the animal would have to bow down humbly before the plant and thank it for providing the air it breathes. Likewise, every higher class of people must bow down to the lower class and thank it. Every person of higher standing owes their existence to those of lower standing. You must firmly establish this feeling deep within your soul—for hours on end, every day, for weeks or months.

[ 17 ] When the student carried this out, a spiritual image eventually appeared before his eyes, one that appeared in the same way to everyone: He saw twelve lowly people sitting around him, whose feet he was washing. Then the teacher said to him: “Now you understand inwardly the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, the washing of the feet.” Along with this mental image, an external sensation also occurred—again, the same for everyone. The student felt as if water were washing around his feet.

[ 18 ] He then spent weeks and months developing a second feeling: When all manner of pain and all the hardships of life assail me, I want to develop the strength to always stand up to them. — Once he had developed this feeling within himself, another vision appeared: he saw himself being flogged. This vision, too, occurred in the same way for everyone. The outward symptom was a stinging and itching sensation all over the body that lasted for a long time.

[ 19 ] He then had to develop a third feeling: Enduring the hardships of life is not enough. The best you have can be showered upon you with scorn and derision. Yet stand tall nonetheless. — Once the student had developed this feeling, a third vision appeared: He saw himself wearing the crown of thorns. As an outward symptom, he felt a severe headache.

[ 20 ] Then he had to develop yet another feeling: All people say of the body they carry, “I.” Your body must not be more important to you than any other object. You must perceive your body as something foreign. — Once the student had gone through this, the vision of the crucifixion would occur, outwardly accompanied by the appearance of the stigmata of Christ on the hands, feet, and right breast—not on the left breast, as is commonly said. During periods of meditation, these symptoms would recur more frequently.

[ 21 ] Then the teacher said to the student: “Now you can experience mystical death.” This can only be described in general terms. The student experiences it as if his entire existence were wiped out for a moment; all things are no longer there, but are hidden behind a veil. Then the veil tears apart from top to bottom, and the student sees into the spiritual world. Before that, there is another moment. Before the mystical death, the student has visions of all the evil that can exist in the world; he must descend into hell before he experiences the mystical death.

[ 22 ] This is followed by the sixth station, where the student begins to no longer perceive his body as something that belongs to him at all. He expands his consciousness to encompass the entire Earth. Once he has developed this, it is called the Entombment. — The seventh stage can no longer be described in earthly terms. It is the Resurrection and Ascension; this state is higher than any human being can conceive.

[ 23 ] The Gospel of John describes these seven stages. Whoever went through them all came to know Jesus as he lived on earth. The Gospel of John is the path to knowing Christ Jesus. That is why it was given to those who wished to become wise as a book for personal growth, not merely as a book for edification. One can experience every part of it.

[ 24 ] Details: The fact that this truth was revealed to humanity marks a stage in human development that cannot be compared to any other. Through Jesus, the following was brought into the world: Human beings were already fourfold in their first incarnation, but they continued to develop. Let us consider an undeveloped human being: his astral body has remained as he received it. Let us compare it with the astral body of an average European, or that of an idealist like Schiller, or a highly developed human being like Franz von Assist. The average European no longer follows all his instincts. He rejects some of them and replaces them with other feelings—the moral precepts. The “I” has worked on the astral body. His astral body consists of two parts: the unpurified part, which is still as he received it, and the purified part. In Schiller, the purified part is already very large compared to the unpurified part. And the astral body of Francis of Assisi consists solely of the purified part. This purified part of the astral body is called the spiritual self or Manas. The human being then has five constituent parts.

[ 25 ] Likewise, human beings can work into the etheric body. Religious and artistic feelings act upon the etheric body and create from it the life spirit, Buddhi. If a person can gain control of their physical body, what they have spiritualized within it is the Atma. In external development, this process proceeds very slowly. In Greece, Buddhi was called “Chrestos,” and today, for most people, it is present only in its earliest stages.

[ 26 ] The greatest power our age has received for developing Buddhi has come through Christ. He made possible the development of the sixth principle, Buddhi, throughout all humanity. He spiritualized humanity. The seventh principle is that of the Father. Manas is developed through the Holy Spirit; the sixth principle is developed through Christ; and when this is developed on a large scale within an entire race, what was hidden within it as a power—namely, the sixth principle—is revealed. Then all people belonging to that race will have attained the sixth stage of initiation: the Burial.

[ 27 ] A cheerful or sad face suggests a cheerful or sorrowful soul; the outer appearance reflects the inner self—everything is an expression of the soul. If one imagines the Earth as the body of a spiritual being, then when human beings have physically passed into the Earth, their souls have passed into the soul of the Earth. This soul could be within the Earth just as the human soul is within the human body.

[ 28 ] Human beings draw their nourishment from the body of the earth, and yet they trample it underfoot. “Whoever eats my bread tramples me underfoot,” says Jesus. In older writings, so-called “keywords”—very specific terms for specific things—often appear. For example, when a master enters the innermost sanctuary with his disciples, he “goes up the mountain.” The Sermon on the Mount is a sermon delivered to the disciples alone: “But when Jesus saw the crowd, he went up the mountain with his disciples.”

[ 29 ] Similarly, “temple” is the term used for the physical body. It is usually referred to as the lower nature. Is it truly lower in relation to the astral body? In fact, today the physical body is much more highly developed than the astral body. Later, however, the astral body will indeed be more highly developed than the physical body. Consider the thigh bone, where the greatest possible force is generated with the least amount of matter. Or consider the heart, which is so wisely designed that it withstands the constant attacks of the astral body for decades.

[ 30 ] It was said of initiates that when the astral body loosens and becomes conscious, “it has left the temple.” In the Gospel of John, Christ speaks of the temple: “Then they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” In this sense, he also speaks of the cleansing of the temple and of tearing down the temple and rebuilding it in three days.

[ 31 ] The manner in which Christ entered the world can be understood as follows. The sixth principle, Buddhi, is born from the fifth once the latter has reached its full height—from the spiritual self, or Manas, or, as the Greeks of that time called the fifth principle, from Sophia. All Gnostics who adhered to the meaning of the Gospel of John called the mother of Jesus “Sophia.”

[ 32 ] With the coming of Jesus, the sixth principle is brought to the earth. The union of the Spirit of Life with humanity is accomplished. For this to happen, Sophia first had to reach full maturity. When the Spirit of Life unites with humanity, humanity is Sophia. This is told to us in a parable at the wedding at Cana.

[ 33 ] The Lord had the Gospel of John revealed through the disciple whom He loved. This title is always given to a master’s first and favorite disciple. In the Gospel of John, the expression “the disciple whom the Lord loved” appears for the first time in chapter 11, during the raising of Lazarus. In those days, the initiation took place in such a way that the disciple spent three days in the temple. Here, not only his astral body but also his etheric body was loosened. He thus died, so to speak, and was raised again at the end of the three days. The Lord initiated this disciple whom He loved, and the raising of Lazarus signifies this initiation.

[ 34 ] The disciple who stood by the cross was therefore also Lazarus, and that same initiate is the author of the Gospel of John. To ensure that everything fits together, the disciple whom the Lord loved is not mentioned earlier than at the raising of Lazarus in chapter 11. This view was held in all Gnostic and Rosicrucian schools, and this view will also return.

[ 35 ] The Gospel of John is a book full of mysteries and full of power for humanity.

FAQ

What is the causal body?

[ 36 ] When a person dies today, the etheric body, together with the astral body and the “I,” separates from the physical body. For a time, the etheric body remains with the higher principles, and during this initial period after leaving the physical body, the person’s entire last life unfolds before their soul as if in a grand tableau. This is because the etheric body is not only the bearer of life functions but also the bearer of memory. During life, however, it is constrained by the physical brain and cannot fully carry out its function. But as soon as the physical barriers fall, the entire memory lies spread out before the person’s soul. This continues until, after a few days, the etheric body also detaches itself from the astral body and the “I.” However, only the etheric-material aspect dissolves, while this image of memory is taken along by the person. The person retains this essence of the etheric body, and the sum of these essences from all earthly lives constitutes the causal body.

How should the celebration of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John be understood, particularly the offering of bread to Judas, the betrayer?

[ 37 ] A very specific part of the ancient initiation consists of the disciple being brought into the temple and, during a “three-day death”—in which his etheric body is also loosened—being guided through astral and devachanic experiences. One of these experiences was that every part of the body was transformed into a human form. Twelve members were counted, and the initiate saw twelve forms, and himself as the thirteenth—the soul of the twelve.

[ 38 ] Sensuality has given rise to selfishness, which must be overcome. This was taught especially to students in the Middle Ages. A teacher back then might have said something like this to his students: Look at the plant; it holds its reproductive organs chastely upward toward the sun. A fruit can only come into being when the flower is kissed by the sun. Human beings are the reverse of a plant. Animals stand midway between the two. The world soul passes through the plant, the animal, and the human being. The World Soul is crucified on the cross of the Earth. Human beings have their very substance interwoven with desires. Their flesh is lower than that of the plant. Later, human beings will once again become free of desire and turn themselves chaste toward the spiritual rays of the sun. What arises is what is called the Holy Grail—the spiritual bringing forth.

[ 39 ] At the Last Supper in the Gospel of John, base selfishness appears in the form of Judas, the traitor. The disciple whom the Lord loved is reclining at his breast. The purified power rises up to the heart, which in the future will become an organ of spiritual creation. This is already evident today in the anatomical structure of the heart. The heart belongs to the group of involuntary muscles and, as such, should exhibit smooth fibers. But it does not; rather, it is striated like voluntary muscles. In this way, it already points to the time when it will become a voluntary muscle.

[ 40 ] Upon awakening after the initiation, the words “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!” escaped the disciple’s lips, meaning: “My God, my God, how have you transfigured me!” In the original text, this wording can easily be rephrased to read: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

[ 41 ] The house where the Last Supper took place was one of the dedication houses.

What does the turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana signify?

[ 42 ] According to the explanation of today's theologians, it signifies the transformation of the Old Testament into the New, which is said to represent the bubbling wine.

[ 43 ] Here in the north, Siegfried was the pre-Christian initiate who stopped short of Christian initiation. This is symbolized by Siegfried’s vulnerable spot. Siegfried, the Invulnerable One, was vulnerable at the very spot where Christ carried the cross.

[ 44 ] One will come who embodies the essence of the earth. The blood of this being is water. In all the mysteries, water was called the blood of Christ.

[ 45 ] In the 8th century B.C., the cult of Dionysus developed; with it came the excessive indulgence in wine. During the Atlantic era, wine was unknown. Today, wine has fulfilled its purpose. A sign of wine’s decline is the emergence of the phylloxera. When wine did not yet exist, all people were aware of the eternal core that passes from life to life. The Egyptian laborer—whose toil in building the pyramids we cannot even begin to imagine today—found solace in the belief in reincarnation. These were people who did not drink wine. Through the enjoyment of wine, human beings are cut off from the knowledge of higher principles. This state was bound to occur eventually. Had humanity remained without wine, it would have grown weary of the earth, but that was not to be. In order to bring forth civilization, humanity had to learn to love the earth; it had to be cut off from its earlier incarnations so as to love only the one in which it was currently living. All of humanity had to pass through a period in which it knew nothing of its higher principles or of its previous incarnations. During the first two millennia, Christianity did not publicly teach reincarnation, but only to the initiated, just as Christ did: “Tell no one until I return”—that is, until the development of the sixth principle had gradually been completed. Now the time has come. All of humanity has once passed through an incarnation in which it was cut off from above.

[ 46 ] In ancient times, there was the “close marriage,” or marriage between blood relatives. One consequence of the transition to “distant marriage” was the extinction of clairvoyance. Today, the “close marriage” would lead to degeneration. In the era of consanguineous marriage, people had memories not only of their own experiences but also of their parents’ lives. This inherited memory bore a name: Adam, Seth, Enoch. In addition to memory, both good and evil were inherited through birth—original sin.

[ 47 ] If this were to be changed, love for one’s own kin would have to give way to universal love for humanity: “Whoever does not leave father, mother, wife, and children cannot be my disciple.” Jesus also goes to the strangers, to the Samaritan woman. “The Jews had no association with the Samaritans.” Christ Jesus came from Galilee, the land where the greatest possible intermingling of bloodlines existed.

[ 48 ] If a being from a distant star could observe the Earth, it would see the physical Earth permeated and surrounded by an etheric and astral body. If this being were to observe, for example, the Earth’s development from the time of Abraham to the present day, it would see a change in colors at the very moment the blood flows from Christ’s wounds. - An initiation such as that of the Apostle Paul could not have taken place before the coming of Christ. It was an external initiation made possible by the transformation of the Earth’s entire astral body.

Questioning the Future of Christianity

[ 49 ] Christianity has such infinite depths that its development is entirely incalculable. Christianity is the ultimate religion. It contains within itself all possibilities for development. Theosophy is merely a servant of Christianity.

[ 50 ] The difference between Christ and the other great founders of religions lies in the fact that in other religions people believe in what their founders taught, whereas in Christianity people believe in who Christ is.

The Influence of the Etheric Body on the Healing of the Physical Body

[ 51 ] Mental illnesses are partly due to the fact that the etheric body lacks the power to act upon certain parts of the physical body. If the etheric body is too weak to control a part of the body, that part becomes ill. By strengthening the etheric body, one has provided relief.