The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. Preparing to Understand the Christ Event: The Mission of the Ancient Hebrew People

[ 1 ] As a contribution that built upon the Gospel of Matthew, we last had something to say in our reflection on the mission of the ancient Hebrew people and on the emergence of Christ Jesus from among them. For, building upon the Gospels, our reflection is meant to gradually shed light on how the various spiritual currents converged, so that they might then, united in the great Christian spiritual current, work together for the further development of the Earth. Now, in a brief meditation, we could only sketch out very roughly what role the ancient Hebrew people played in the overall development of humanity. But one cannot understand the Gospel of Matthew without at least touching briefly on certain other aspects of this people. To understand this fully, we must once again bring to mind very precisely what the mission of that people actually consists of. You have seen that it differs from the missions of the other pre-Christian peoples. These are still linked to what one might call the results of humanity’s ancient clairvoyance. We find such results among all peoples of antiquity; one could call them an ancient wisdom.

[ 2 ] If we were to characterize this in general terms, we could say that in ancient Atlantis, people generally still had insight into the spiritual world. Even though only the initiated could have higher experiences, everyone still had at least some concept of the spiritual world, because in certain intermediate states, people of the Atlantean era could still look into a spiritual realm. This ability, however, was to be replaced by the one that is today humanity’s primary faculty: intellectual activity, the comprehension of the external world through the physical senses—in short, life in the physical external world. This developed slowly and gradually over the course of the pre-Christian era, so that we can say that among the ancient Indian people, a substantial remnant of the old clairvoyance was essentially still present. What the holy Rishis had taught was also a legacy from ancient times—it was ancient wisdom. Even in the second cultural epoch of the post-Atlantean era—the Persian one—what the disciples and followers of Zarathustra knew was based on the legacies of ancient clairvoyance. Similarly, Chaldean astronomy is imbued with ancient wisdom, as is what the ancient Egyptians possessed. Such a science, which takes into account humanity’s post-Atlantean abilities, would have remained entirely incomprehensible to both the Egyptians and the Chaldeans. Science, which expresses itself in concepts and ideas of a physical nature, did not yet exist at that time. Such thinking, as we know it, did not exist.

[ 3 ] It is by no means unnecessary to clarify the difference between a true seer of our time and, say, an ancient Chaldean or ancient Egyptian seer. For anyone today who attains the state of a seer—truly, based on the natural conditions of our time—the situation is as follows: He receives what are called revelations from the spiritual world—what might be termed his intuitions, experiences, and perceptions from the spiritual world—in such a way that he must penetrate these intuitions from his ordinary earthly thinking with what he can gain through logical, rational thinking here in the physical world. The experiences of the seer in our time cannot be fully understood unless they are met by a soul that has first properly trained itself in logical and rational thinking. These modern inspirations and revelations remain incomprehensible; they demand that the soul approach them with logical thinking. Anyone who possesses them today without the will to think logically, without the will to engage in the self-sacrificing, rational development of their earthly powers, can only arrive at what is called visionary clairvoyance—a form of clairvoyance that cannot be fully understood, one that remains incomprehensible and is therefore also misleading. Only a soul that possesses a truly intense will to learn in a rational manner can properly respond to the modern inspirations of clairvoyance. Therefore, in a spiritual movement such as ours, the utmost importance must be placed not on developing clairvoyance in a one-sided manner or proclaiming the revelations of the spiritual world in a one-sided way, but rather on ensuring that the soul contributes something in response to the inspirations and revelations. Logical work must truly be carried out as well if the development of clairvoyance is to be achieved. In our time, the two cannot be separated.

[ 4 ] For the Egyptian or Chaldean seer, it was quite different. Along with his intuitions—which took a completely different path—he also received the laws of logic. Therefore, he had no need for a special logic. Once he had undergone spiritual training, the fully formed laws were already given to him in his intuitions. Today’s human organism is no longer suited for this. It has evolved beyond that stage, for humanity is moving forward.

[ 5 ] If one examines this difference closely, it becomes fully understandable what it means that remnants of ancient clairvoyance were still present in pre-Christian times, with the sole exception of the ancient Hebrew people, who were the first to be chosen to develop such a human organism—one predisposed to perceive the external physical world in terms of measurement, number, and so on, and thus gradually to rise from the physical world to the knowledge of the spiritual, which coalesced in the image of Yahweh or Jehovah. This was the essence of the matter: that in Abraham, a human being had been chosen whose brain was structured in such a way that he could become the progenitor of an entire people, who in turn passed these qualities down from him. Not only were the inspirations arising from within to be received, but they were also to be regarded as a gift coming from without. Everything that descended from Abraham did not initially come from within, but rather, like a revelation, came from outside. This provides an extraordinarily important factor in distinguishing the entire character of that people from the other peoples of antiquity; it differs radically from the other peoples.

[ 6 ] You can imagine that the ancient skills and heirlooms could not have been lost all at once, but that remnants of them remained among this people as well. This is hinted at in the story of Joseph, who still had much in common with other peoples. This enabled him to serve as the link between the ancient Hebrew people and the Egyptian people, who were still fully immersed in the spiritual current of the pre-Christian peoples. Only gradually were the new abilities able to develop.

[ 7 ] Why was a particular people prepared in this specific way? Why did a people have to be chosen to be set apart from the entire rest of pre-Christian spiritual life, and why was it to be endowed with very special abilities? This had to happen so that people could be prepared for the great moment that occurred precisely when Jesus Christ came to Earth. It was the moment when all ancient clairvoyance and blood kinship had lost their significance, and something new dawned for humanity: namely, the full use of the “I.” Through the radical mixing of bloodlines, what had been of great significance in ancient times was lost; in its place, however, came the full use of the human “I.” Thus, the true human kingdom—or the kingdom of heaven—was born alongside the other kingdoms.

[ 8 ] Generally speaking, when something new comes into being, people are by no means inclined to truly recognize it. People do not readily recognize events that take place in the spiritual realm. They do, however, readily speak of some future prophets who are supposed to come. This was common in both pre-Christian and post-Christian times. In the 12th and 13th centuries, there was a veritable obsession with prophecy. In various places, people appeared, proclaiming that Christ would return in the near future and pointing out the places where he would appear. Such phenomena also occurred sporadically in other eras. It was said that this or that person would be the incarnation of a new Christ. Of course, no words need be wasted on such prophecies, for even if they had come true, they would have clearly revealed their own shortcomings. For such prophecies have a constant flaw: they speak prophetically of what is to appear, but they fail to prepare people so that they may recognize what is to come, and to bring their minds into a state in which they could truly understand what is appearing.

[ 9 ] The people to whom such things were proclaimed must have fared like that high school teacher Hebbel describes in his diary entries: the teacher beats a student because he could not understand Plato. Hebbel wittily adds that this student is the reincarnated Plato. This is indeed what happens to people who are always talking about a returning Christ. They would find themselves so unprepared for the message that even if he were to appear, they would not be ready for it. Such people would mistake the Christ for something entirely different from the Christ.

[ 10 ] But precautions must now be taken. And this is what one must know in order to understand the Gospel of Matthew, so that there may at least be some people who can understand the Christ event—which, if we are to characterize it from this perspective, consists in knowing that the Christ was the one who brought to humanity the possibility of now receiving not merely physical impressions, but of receiving the Spirit from without. Individual people were to be prepared for this. Thus, in fact, throughout ancient Hebrew history, individual people were, in a certain sense, prepared to gain an understanding of the Christ event. These people—there were only a few of them among the ancient Hebrew people—must be examined more closely if one is to understand how the preparations for the coming Christ were made, and how the people, with the qualities they had inherited from Abraham, were enabled to understand prophetically the human “I” brought by the Savior. Those individuals who were prepared to know and recognize clairvoyantly what Christ actually signifies are called Nazirites. They were able to perceive clairvoyantly what was being prepared within the ancient Hebrew people so that Christ could be born of and understood by this people. These Nazirites were bound by strict rules regarding their way of life—rules dictated by their inner constitution as a result of their clairvoyant development—rules which, because they belonged to a completely different era, differ quite significantly from the rules by which one attains spiritual insights today, even though the latter still bear a certain resemblance to the former. Many things that were important in the Nazirite tradition are today merely secondary considerations, while many things that are secondary today would have been primary back then. Therefore, no one should believe that what once led to becoming a clairvoyant connoisseur of Christ would lead to the same level of important and comprehensive knowledge as understood by a person today.

[ 11 ] The first thing required of the Nazirite was complete abstinence from all alcoholic beverages. It was also strictly forbidden to consume anything prepared with vinegar. For those who observed the regulations very strictly, it was also necessary to avoid everything derived from the grapevine, because one could say that in the grapevine the plant-forming principle had advanced beyond a certain point—namely, the point determined by the fact that the solar forces act solely upon the plant. In the grapevine, however, it is not merely the forces of the sun that are at work, but also something that develops internally—something that matures even under the sun’s annual weakening of its power, which prevails in the fall. Therefore, anything related to the grapevine provided only a drink for those who did not wish to become clairvoyant in the higher sense, who merely worshipped the god Dionysus and, as it were, allowed their abilities to rise up from the earth.

[ 12 ] Furthermore, for as long as his preparation for the Nazirite vow lasted, the Nazirite was bound not to come into contact with anything that can die and possesses an astral body; in short, the Nazirite was to avoid coming into contact with anything of an animal nature. He had to be a vegetarian in the strictest sense of the word; therefore, in certain regions, the most devout Nazirites chose carob as their sole source of food. Carob was a particularly common food item for those who aspired to the Nazirite vow. They also subsisted on honey from wild bees—not domesticated bees—and other honey-gathering insects. John the Baptist later adopted this way of life as his own, sustaining himself on carob and wild honey. The Gospels state that he ate locusts and wild honey; however, this should be regarded as a translation error, for he could hardly have caught locusts in the desert. I have already drawn your attention to similar errors in the past.

[ 13 ] For the Nazirites, it was of paramount importance, as part of their preparation for clairvoyance, not to have their hair cut while they were undergoing this training. This is intimately connected with the entire evolution of humanity. One must be able to grasp the connection between hair growth and the overall evolution of humanity. Everything that exists in the human being as essence can only be understood if one seeks to grasp it from a spiritual perspective. As strange as it may sound to us: in our hair we can see a remnant of certain radiations through which solar energy was previously carried into human beings. In the past, this was a living force that carried the power of the sun into human beings. That is why you still find this expressed in a certain way in places where people still had an awareness of deeper things: in ancient sculptures of lions, one can often clearly see that the sculptor did not simply want to copy a modern lion with its more or less poodle-like mane. Those who still upheld the noble tradition rooted in ancient insights depicted the lion in such a way that one had the impression the hair was, as it were, inserted into the body from the outside—much like sunbeams penetrating it and becoming, as it were, solidified within the hair. Thus, people could tell themselves that in ancient times it may well have been possible to absorb powers into oneself by letting the hair grow, especially when the hair was fresh and healthy. But even in ancient Hebrew times, among the Nazirites, this was seen as little more than a symbol.

[ 14 ] The fact that humanity allowed what lies spiritually behind the sun to flow into itself truly constituted, in a certain sense, the progress of humanity. The progression from the ancient clairvoyant gifts that arose within human beings to the ability to reason and think about the external world necessitated that they increasingly cease to appear as hairy beings. One must imagine the people of the Atlantean and early post-Atlantean periods as having abundant hair, a sign that they were still strongly illuminated by the light of the spirit. As the Bible recounts, the choice was made between the hairless Jacob and the hairy Esau. In the latter, we see a person who was descended from Abraham and who carried within himself the last remnants of an ancient stage of human development, which found expression in his hair. The human being who possessed such qualities that he developed outward into the world was represented by Jacob. He possessed the gifts of cleverness with all their dark sides; Esau is pushed aside by him. Thus, in Esau, a descendant is in turn cast aside from the main line. The Edomites descend from Esau, in whom ancient human legacies were still perpetuated.

[ 15 ] All of these things are indeed beautifully expressed in the Bible. A renewed awareness of what spiritual life is should arise in human beings, and it should arise in a new way in the Nazirite through his wearing long hair during his period of preparation. In ancient times, the relationship between hair and the light of the Spirit was even expressed by the fact that light and hair—with the exception of a minor distinction—are denoted by the same word. In general, the ancient Hebrew language points to the deepest mysteries of humanity. It must be regarded as something like a mighty linguistic revelation of wisdom. That was the significance of the Nazirites letting their hair grow long. Today, however, this no longer needs to be regarded as the main point.

[ 16 ] During the preparatory period, the Nazirite was to be led to a very specific clairvoyant experience, which was intended to give him an idea of how close humanity already was to the time of Christ’s coming. The one who was the last great Nazarite at the time of Christ is called John the Baptist. He had not only experienced the culmination of the Nazarite path himself, but had also enabled all those whom he wished to transform into human beings to experience it as well. This culmination, however, is nothing other than the baptism of John. We must simply learn to understand it properly in terms of its developmental significance. What, then, is this baptism, and to what did it lead? It consisted, first of all, in the person being immersed in water, whereby the etheric body at the head became somewhat detached from the physical body, whereas normally the etheric body is firmly connected to the physical body. You know, after all, that when a person is drowning, as a result of the loosening of their etheric body, they suddenly see the entire tableau of their life before them. In the same way, during the baptism of John, the person also saw the panorama of their life; they saw the distinctive features of their entire life, which would otherwise have been forgotten. But they also saw what a human being actually was in that particular age. The physical body is developed out of the etheric body, which serves as its formative principle. However, this aspect of the human being that forms the physical body could only be observed when it was separated from the physical body. This occurred during the baptism of John.

[ 17 ] If a person had experienced this baptism three thousand years before our era, he would have realized that the finest spiritual gift that can be given to a human being must come as an ancient heirloom, for what was given from the spiritual worlds in ancient times was, in fact, still an heirloom. This existed as an image in the etheric body and shaped the physical body. Especially for those who had developed beyond normal humanity, this baptism would have revealed that all their knowledge was based on ancient inspiration. This was described as the vision of the etheric nature of the soul in the form of a serpent. Those who had experienced this were called the children of the serpent, because they had seen through how the Luciferic beings had descended into human beings. What shaped the physical body was a creature of the serpent.

[ 18 ] But now, at a baptism of John—not three thousand years before John the Baptist, but in his own time—something quite different became apparent: namely, that among those who were baptized there were already some who, by their very nature, showed that the evolution of humanity had advanced, that the “I,” which is nourished by the external world, possessed that great power. A picture also emerged that was quite different from what had been seen earlier in John’s baptism: human beings no longer saw the creative forces of the etheric body in the image of the serpent, but in the image of the lamb. This etheric body was no longer permeated from within by what came from the Luciferic forces, but was entirely devoted to the spiritual world, which shines into the human soul through the phenomena of the external world. This vision of the lamb was the experience of the baptism of John that was had by those who could truly understand what the baptism of John meant at that time. But it was also these people who could say to themselves that human beings had become something entirely different, a new being. The few who experienced this at the baptism by John could say: A great, momentous event has taken place; human beings have become different; the “I” has now gained dominion on earth! — The people whom John baptized had been prepared to understand the signs of the times, to understand that such a great event had come.

[ 19 ] This has always been the task of the Nazirites. Through baptism, they were led to always know how near the coming of the Christ is. They recognized this by the nature of the etheric body as it loosened during baptism. John the Baptist was to show that the time had now come when the “I” could take root in human nature. In this way, he was the fulfiller of the ancient era. He was permitted to gather a community around him, to whom he could demonstrate that the Christ principle could now enter into humanity through the turning toward the “I.” John the Baptist lived out the Nazirite vow in the highest sense, so that it evolved from a prophecy into its fulfillment. He gathered a community around him that could understand the approaching Christ event. Only in this way can the words spoken by the Baptist be understood. It is precisely such words that must be taken with infinite depth, and it is truly no longer fitting for a person who wishes to engage with such matters today to see in John the Baptist nothing more than a ranting, fanatical man who merely rails against the Pharisees, calling them a brood of vipers and shouting at them: “ Do not pride yourselves on having Abraham as your father; God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones.” John the Baptist would truly have been a strange, hot-headed man if he had not also rejoiced that even the Pharisees and Sadducees came to him to be baptized. Yet, does he immediately berate them upon their arrival? What would be the point of that?

[ 20 ] If one understands things from within, it soon becomes clear that there is more to this than mere fanatical ranting; in fact, there is great significance and a deep meaning behind it. However, this meaning can only be understood by examining a particular characteristic of the ancient Hebrew people. From what has been said, you can already infer that Abraham was chosen as a person who was so constituted that, at the right moment in time, Jesus could be born from his descendants. For this to happen, however, what was initially only a potential in Abraham had to be developed. We must be clear that, for this potential to unfold, it was necessary for certain things to be cast aside. We have already seen how Joseph was cast aside. But even earlier, many things had been cast aside—for example, Esau, the progenitor of the Edomites—because an ancient legacy had remained within him. For only that which was predisposed in the specified direction was to be preserved. This is wonderfully expressed in the fact that Abraham had two sons: Isaac, the son of Sarah, on the one hand, and Ishmael. The ancient Hebrew people are descended from Isaac. But Abraham possessed other traits as well. If these were to be passed down through the generations, the right outcome would not be achieved. Therefore, that other aspect had to be radically cast out into a different line of descent—that of Ishmael, the son of the Egyptian maidservant Hagar. Thus, two lines of descent stem from Abraham: one through Isaac and the other through the cast-out Ishmael, who carried the blood of an Egyptian woman and had to take on the traits unsuitable for the mission of the Hebrew people.

[ 21 ] But now something very special happens. The Hebrew people were meant to pass on the right things through their lineage, and what constitutes ancient heritage and ancient wisdom must be conveyed to them from outside. The ancient Hebrews had to go to Egypt to absorb what they could there. Moses was able to give this to the people because he was an Egyptian initiate. Of course, he would not have been able to do so if he had possessed it only in its Egyptian form. It would be wrong to imagine that ancient Egyptian wisdom was simply grafted onto what flowed down from Abraham. That would not have been compatible with the culture of the Hebrew people; it would have resulted in a cultural monstrosity. Moses added something entirely different to his Egyptian initiation. Therefore, he could not simply pass on to the Israelites what he had received from the Egyptian initiation. He did not give them anything until he had received the revelation at Sinai—that is, only after leaving Egypt.

[ 22 ] What, then, is the Revelation at Sinai? What did Moses receive there, and what did he give to the people? He gave them something that could well be grafted onto the stock of this people, because it was related to them in a very specific way. The descendants of Ishmael had once emigrated and settled in the regions that Moses and his people were now traversing. Those characteristics that had passed down through Hagar to the Ishmaelites—who, though still related to Abraham, had preserved many ancient traditions—Moses found there among the Ishmaelites, who had a sort of initiated order. From the revelations of this branch, he derived the means to make the revelation from Sinai comprehensible to the Israelites. Hence, an ancient legend of the Hebrew people states: “A scion of Abraham in Ishmael was cast out into Araba.” That is, into the desert. What arose within this tribe was likewise contained in the teachings of Moses. On Mount Sinai, the ancient Hebrew people received back through Moses, as a teaching, that which they had cast out from their own blood; they received it back from outside.

[ 23 ] Here we see once again the wondrous mission of the Hebrew people: that everything was to be given to them in such a way that they would later receive it back as a gift. As a gift from outside, Abraham received the entire Hebrew people in Isaac; in turn, Moses and his people received back from the descendants of Ishmael what they had cast out. They were to develop, in isolation, only this organization of their own and receive back as a gift from their God what they had cast out. Thus, Jacob later reconciled with Esau, through which the Hebrew people once again received back what they had once cast out in Esau.

[ 24 ] One must read the Bible very carefully in order to properly appreciate the significance of the words it contains. Such things run as a characteristic thread through the entire history of the Hebrew people. Something related to the legislation of Moses stems from the descendants of Hagar, while the bloodline representing Moses’s true Israelite qualities descends from Sarah. In Hebrew, Hagar is also called Sinai, which means “the stone mountain,” the great rock. One could also say that Moses received his revelation of the law from the great rock, which was an outward manifestation of Hagar. What the Jewish people had as law did not stem from Abraham’s best qualities; it stemmed from Hagar, from Sinai. Thus, those who are adherents of mere law as it originated from Sinai—the Pharisees and Sadducees—are in danger of stagnating in their development. They are the ones who, in John’s baptism, do not want to see the Lamb, but rather the serpent.

[ 25 ] Thus, what would otherwise be merely the Baptist’s scolding is transformed into a beautiful admonition to the Pharisees and Sadducees when he calls out to them: “You who are followers of the serpent, take care that you truly understand the true meaning of baptism.” —Namely, not the serpent, but the Lamb. He further told them that they need not pride themselves on having Abraham as their father, for this was merely an empty phrase to them; they swore by what came from Mount Sinai, but that had ceased to have any meaning. But now something will emerge from the world as a newborn self, and I will show you this self, said the Baptist: I will show you how that which has truly been passed down through the generations will grow out of Judaism—and how it will no longer swear by the single Stone of Sinai, but by what is all around us. God’s children can appear when the spiritual is perceived behind the sensory. From these stones, God’s Word can raise up children for Abraham! You do not understand that saying at all: “We have Abraham as our father.”

[ 26 ] It is only in light of what has been said here that this word takes on its full meaning. Such information does not need to be extracted from the Akashic Records; it is already found in the Bible. Compare what the Apostle Paul says about this in his Epistle to the Galatians. Here, what has just been stated is also confirmed by the Apostle Paul. He, too, says that Hagar is the same word as Sinai, and that what was given there on Sinai is a testament that those who, through the development of Abraham’s inherent qualities across the generations, are to understand what came into the world through Christ must grow beyond.

[ 27 ] This also draws attention to a word that we will need to understand in the future. It is such a pity that, in an age when intelligence seems to have reached such heights, so little thought has been given to such things—for example, to the phrase: “Repent!” In terms of its meaning, it could be translated as: “Bring about a change of heart within yourselves.” It is stated in various places that John baptized for repentance—that is, for a change of heart—with water. When those being baptized emerged from the water, they were to change their hearts, no longer looking back at the old traditions, but looking forward to what the liberated “I,” which was given in Christ Jesus, possessed. Their minds were to be directed away from the old gods and toward the new spiritual beings or gods. In this way, a change of heart was the goal of John’s baptism. John therefore baptized with water in order to awaken in some people the power to recognize that the Kingdom of Heaven had drawn near, and so that they might understand who Christ Jesus was.

[ 28 ] This adds still more to what we have come to know as the mission of the ancient Hebrew people. All of this will lead, little by little, to a better understanding of Christ as well. This mission comes together in a truly wonderful way. We have seen how what was predisposed in Abraham continued to develop within the people through the generations. To achieve this, certain things had to be cast aside, and the appropriate abilities had to be further developed through blood and heredity. Such abilities could only be introduced from the outside. But what this people was predisposed to and chosen for, dating back to Abraham, was concentrated in one being: Jesus.

[ 29 ] The Jews needed something to hold onto as a teaching; it always had to come to them from outside, and indeed it came from what they themselves had rejected. What had passed on to Ishmael was not to remain in the bloodline; it was to exist only in knowledge. Therefore, the Hebrew people received it again in the law given by Moses on Sinai. This law had fulfilled its purpose when the time came when what had come from the stone was no longer needed, but when they had what was to come to all of humanity from the entire world. Thus, the time was slowly prepared when the sons of God—that is, human beings—could emerge from the stones, as the spiritual world opened up behind all stones, indeed behind the entire earth.

[ 30 ] All of these are merely fragments necessary for understanding the mission of the Hebrew people. Only by fully understanding this mission can one also understand the great figure of Christ Jesus as presented to us in the Gospel of Matthew.