The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Third Lecture

Distinguished guests, my dear Theosophical friends!

[ 1 ] During yesterday’s lecture, we saw how complex the events in Palestine appear from the perspective of spiritual scientific research. We have seen that clairvoyant consciousness has shown us two infant Jesus figures, one belonging to the Solomonic line of the House of David and the other to the Nathanic line of the House of David, and that in the purely physical body of the child of the Solomonic line, the individuality we know by the name of Zoroaster or Zarathustra reincarnated.

[ 2 ] Today we will focus on the other of the two children, the one from the Nathanic or priestly line. This child’s etheric body was of a unique purity. To understand this, we must go far back in the evolution of humanity. Never has a being been born with a similar etheric body. We must go back to the beginning of human development on Earth, to the so-called Lemurian Age.

[ 3 ] We know, of course, that humanity has evolved only gradually and slowly into what it is today. Jesus lived in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. It was only during this cultural period that the “I” came into full possession of its powers.

[ 4 ] This period marked the descent of the personality onto Earth. Prior to this period was the Chaldean-Egyptian Age, the third post-Atlantean age; before that was the Proto-Persian Age, the second post-Atlantean age; and before that was the first post-Atlantean age, the ancient Indian Age, whose culture originated directly from the Atlantean era. Prior to this period was the event we refer to as the great Atlantean catastrophe, when our ancestors—that is, our own souls, who were incarnated on the Atlantean continent, Atlantis—were swept away from the Earth.

[ 5 ] The continent inhabited by these ancestors of ours was located between what is now Europe, Africa, and America. The Atlanteans saw spiritual beings as mist-like auras surrounding all creatures. They also saw all that is soul-spiritual, flowing in and out through human beings. Just as our finger, if it were conscious, would see the blood pulsing within it and feel itself to be a limb of the organism, so the Atlantean felt himself to be a part of his surroundings; he knew that, cut off from his surroundings, he would wither away. On the other hand, he could not distinguish himself from his surroundings; he felt himself poured out into the entire outer world.

[ 6 ] Massive natural upheavals, which completely altered the world map, brought the Atlantean cultural period—during which people had lived together in sharply distinct groups and races—to a permanent end. The same individualities that were active in Atlantis continued their development—albeit under entirely different conditions—in other parts of our Earth, where their first steps were guided by the great Rishis.

[ 7 ] But we must go back even further if we want to understand the circumstances that [gap in the transcript].

[ 8 ] Before the Atlantean catastrophe, humanity—that is, we, our souls—lived in bodies of a completely different nature on the Lemurian continent, which lay roughly between present-day South Asia, Africa, and Australia. Going even further back, we will see beings with forms that would seem utterly fantastical to modern humans. What does this mean? Indeed, during this Lemurian era, vast areas of the Earth were abandoned by human souls. Before this time, human souls had inhabited this Earth in entirely different forms; but now they set out in great numbers for entirely different regions of the world [incarnating on other planets]; only a very few humans remained behind, who had to endure the most difficult and desolate period of our Earth’s development. It was the time when the first seed emerged of what we call self-consciousness.

[ 9 ] In this world, beings came to the fore whom we refer to as Luciferic entities. At that time, human beings possessed clairvoyant abilities. These Luciferic beings approached the astral bodies of human beings and permeated the astral bodies of those who were on Earth. Since that time, the Luciferic element has been present in the human soul. Human beings owe their freedom to this Luciferic element. What would have become of human beings if these Luciferic beings had not come? Through them, human beings gradually developed a sense of self; and human beings would never have been able to develop within themselves—from their own nature—what is called the inner impulse toward freedom. Human beings had to acquire the capacity for evil; in other words, they had to be faced with the choice between good and evil.

[ 10 ] But a counterbalance also had to be created; otherwise, human beings would not be able to maintain their connection to the good. So that the Luciferic element would not become too strong, a counterbalance was created: from the few humans who remained on the devastated Earth, a portion of the etheric body was drawn out of their physical bodies and immersed in the spiritual world. This portion remained there throughout the Lemurian and Atlantean ages. The descendants of the Lemurian people thus lacked a part of their etheric body, which remained preserved in the spiritual world. This part of the human etheric body—which no human had possessed until the events in Palestine, and which had thus remained untouched by any Luciferic influence—became the etheric body of the Nathanic infant Jesus; and so this child possessed a sum of forces that had never before existed in the etheric body of a human being. The religious texts, which are truly based on clairvoyant insight and which are always correct in relation to human physical research, speak of this when we understand them correctly.

[ 11 ] The story of the Fall describes the effect of Luciferic forces on humankind. The astral body had deteriorated due to Luciferic influence. The serpent in Paradise is a symbol of the Luciferic influence, through which human beings gained the ability to distinguish between good and evil based on their own judgment. Jehovah’s words to humanity—that they were not to eat from the Tree of Life—suggest that a part of the etheric body remained behind until it was absorbed into the Nathanic Jesus-child. In this boy were united the purest sensitivity of heart and the greatest powers of love as never before in a human being; the pure qualities of the soul that humanity possessed before the Fall—that is, before the Luciferic influence—were present in him to the fullest extent.

[ 12 ] There is one more point to be made, namely regarding the astral body of the Nathanic infant Jesus. Within it lay a significant power over which nothing less than the Buddha’s Nirmanakaya exerted its influence. After completing his incarnation as the Buddha, the Buddha no longer required a physical incarnation but was able to incarnate in an etheric body alone. As such a being, the Buddha descended—drawn by the pure etheric body to which the Buddha had elevated himself—and united with the astral body of the Nathanic infant Jesus. Anyone who could have observed the process at that moment with clairvoyant eyes would have seen the Buddha’s Nirmanakaya hovering in the child’s aura. This is alluded to in the Gospel of Luke in the account of the shepherds’ vision. Due to special circumstances, the shepherds had become clairvoyant. They beheld a host of angels—that is, the Nirmanakaya of the Buddha, the etheric bodies of the Buddha. Thus, a wondrous etheric body, one that had never before been used by a human being, was at work within this Nathanic Jesus child. Likewise, the Gautama Buddha was at work within this Nathanic Jesus child, and through him the Buddha channeled the contribution he was now to make as the Buddha after 600 years of development.

[ 13 ] The evangelist Luke beautifully describes to us a harmonious blending of Eastern legend and religious scripture. This transition of the Buddha into the spiritual body of the Nathanite boy Jesus—which Luke beheld with clairvoyant eyes—is confirmed by the legend. The legend tells: When the son of King Suddhodana was born, the old seer Asita saw a host of angels descending from heaven. At this sight, he began to weep. When asked why he was weeping—whether some misfortune had befallen him—he replied: “No, I must weep because my eyes will no longer behold my Bodhisattva.” Through his clairvoyant insight, he had recognized his master in the newborn prince and wept because he was too old to see him grow into the Buddha.

[ 14 ] When the Nathanite child Jesus was born, Asita was there as well. The Simeon of the Gospel of Luke is none other than the reborn Asita of the Indian legend. He now stood once more before his Buddha; he saw the Buddha’s Nirmanakaya floating in the child’s aura. Therefore, he added to his statement and said: “Now, O God, let your servant depart in peace, for now he has seen his Lord.” Thus, the Oriental legend is woven into the religious record through the grand images that have become actual events in the physical world.

[ 15 ] Now we must turn our attention briefly to the other Infant Jesus, in whose physical body the “I” of Zarathustra was enclosed—that Zarathustra who was once a contemporary of the Buddha and, as Zaratas-Nazaratos, the teacher of Pythagoras during the Babylonian Captivity.

[ 16 ] We are thus familiar with the “I” of this Solomonic infant Jesus, but we must now turn our attention to that physical body. This body originated from the ancient Hebrew people; within this body, it had to be possible to develop the organs that Zarathustra needed at precisely that time—that is to say, they had to be built up through heredity from generation to generation within a specially chosen people. This was the mission of the ancient Hebrew people.

[ 17 ] [In order for the “I” to emerge, the old form of clairvoyance had to be abandoned. In place of the old consciousness, which consisted of dark dream images, the brain-based power of thought now had to be developed. In the year 3101 B.C., the old clairvoyance began to fade ... Kali Yuga]

[ 18 ] Here we return to a field where we must turn to spiritual scientific research in order to gain reliable insights. This research teaches us that the Hebrew people can be traced back to a progenitor who was chosen through a special selection process: Abraham. He was entrusted with a very special mission. We can best understand this if we realize that the further back we go in Earth’s evolution, the more other spiritual powers were present in human beings. Before Abraham, people still possessed a dull, dreamlike, clairvoyant consciousness. Those ancient clairvoyant abilities had to be sacrificed. Now, from the entire mass of the ancient peoples, the one individual was chosen whose physical constitution was best suited—not to serve as an instrument for the old clairvoyance, but for intellectual combination—capable of directing only the eyes and ears toward the external world in order to develop reason or intellect. This individual was Abraham.

[ 19 ] All the ancient qualities of dreamlike clairvoyance were beyond his reach. Mathematical calculation was his tool. Thus he was able to become the forefather of a people who were attuned to combinatorial thinking—to rational, intellectual thought—but to whom all forms of clairvoyance were foreign. While all other people sought to grasp the spiritual world by closing their physical eyes and allowing inspiration to flow into them, Abraham looked outward, saw everything, and sought to grasp the spiritual by combining external phenomena. This required a particularly well-developed brain.

[ 20 ] Abraham received everything from the outside, and because this ability—which became a physical trait—was passed down from generation to generation. Thus, the defining characteristic of the ancient Hebrew people is,

[ 21 ] to take nothing from within, but everything from without. The consciousness of the people is also to be imparted from without. Everything [is to] be received from the outside, even one’s own national identity. The sacrifice of Isaac is a symbol of this, in that Abraham is prompted to sacrifice Isaac and then receives him back as a gift from God. What was sacrificed in this? Indeed, the entire people, its own mission. Israel received its own national identity as a gift from the outside.

[ 22 ] What is significant is what is conveyed to us in Jehovah’s promise to Abraham regarding Abraham’s descendants, namely, that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky: “As numerous as the stars in the heavens” is a mistranslation; that is, according to numerical ratios corresponding to the numerical ratios of the stars in the heavens. The order of his descendants was to correspond to the actual order of the stars in the heavens. A fundamental number in all matters of clairvoyance is twelve. They were to be arranged according to the twelve constellations of the zodiac; hence the twelve tribes, which thus correspond to the number of stars in the heavens and have a spiritual connection with them. Here, that which is otherwise spiritual and soul-related was to find expression in the physical descendants. We now see the mission of the ancient Hebrew people gradually developing physically in such a way that, in the end, the body for Zarathustra could emerge.

[ 23 ] However, something like what had happened to Abraham could not be resolved immediately. A remnant of the old clairvoyance remained; Joseph’s dreams point to this. Therefore, he had to be excluded from the ancient Hebrew people. At first, this people had developed without Joseph, who had been sent to Egypt; then it had limited itself entirely to external influences. Now the ancient Hebrew people had to receive from Egypt—from the outside—what other peoples received from within. Moses gave the Hebrews Egyptian wisdom as something external. Thus: This people had to receive clairvoyant wisdom from the outside. In this way, it was to develop under constant external influences until, ultimately, as its ripest fruit, it could produce the physical body for the reincarnating Zarathustra.

[ 24 ] As the individual human being develops, the physical body is first born physically. Until the age of seven, when the teeth begin to change, the human being is enclosed in an etheric maternal sheath; this is what we call an etheric birth. At the age of fourteen, the astral sheath is shed: this is the astral birth. At the age of twenty-one, the human “I” is fully born. We see, then:

1. From birth until the teeth are replaced, seven years.
2. From the time the teeth are replaced until the age of fourteen, the etheric body develops.
3. From then on, the astral body develops until the age of twenty-one.

[ 25 ] From the age of twenty-one, the “I” develops after the physical and astral bodies have been shed.

[ 26 ] Likewise, there must have been three epochs in the development of the ancient Hebrew people:

1. From Abraham to the Age of David.
2. From David to the Babylonian Captivity.
3. From the Babylonian Captivity to the birth of the Solomonic infant Jesus. This was so that a self as exalted as the Zarathustra Self might receive a worthy vessel. From generation to generation, the people had to be developed so that the physical vessel would become increasingly suitable. Seven years correspond to seven generations in each epoch. But seven generations were not enough; one generation is always skipped in heredity, for children inherit their predispositions not from their parents but from their grandparents. There had to be 3 × 14 = 42 generations before the physical body was developed in which the Self of Zarathustra had a worthy vessel. The Gospel of Matthew, which describes the events in Palestine from a physical perspective, provides the genealogy of the Solomonic Jesus-child, tracing it back to Abraham—that is, to the point in time when the physical body began to be developed. Luke, who describes the events in Palestine from an astral perspective, provides the genealogy of the Nathanic Jesus child, tracing it back to Abraham and to God. Luke goes back even further than to Abraham, because the etheric body must be traced back even earlier. In the Nathanic child Jesus there was something that did not originate from human beings, but stemmed from the very beginning, before the Luciferic influence. It is therefore good that these accounts differ from one another. In the three wise men from the East we find three disciples of Zaratas-Nazaratos. These Chaldean disciples knew that the star they were following contained the I of Zarathustra. The three disciples followed the star all the way to Bethlehem, and when the star came to rest above the manger in Bethlehem, they understood that Zarathustra had descended there to incarnate.

[ 27 ] Both boys grew up until they were twelve years old. By then, the Solomonic boy had developed the qualities of Zarathustra; he had developed the qualities inherent in his physical body. He had progressed to the point where he was able to make a great sacrifice. The Nathanic boy possessed, in particular, those abilities that originated from the pure etheric body and, on the other hand, from the Buddha’s Nirmanakaya. This Nathanic Jesus boy did not possess an ordinary “I” in the human sense at all. He possessed, above all, the three higher bodies.

[ 28 ] Zarathustra, embodied in the Solomonic infant Jesus, made a great sacrifice in his twelfth year. Such a lofty spirit can leave its body and take on another body. The “I” of the Solomonic infant Jesus—that is, that of Zarathustra—left the body of the Solomonic infant Jesus and entered the body of the Nathanic infant Jesus. This occurred when the Nathanic boy Jesus, at the age of twelve, was permitted to accompany his parents to Jerusalem. His parents lost sight of him, and when they found him again in the temple three days later, they did not recognize his speech: Zarathustra had animated the Nathanic Jesus boy.

[ 29 ] The Solomonic Jesus child died after having lived “automatically” for a time. The mother of the Nathanic Jesus child also died in this way. Shortly after the birth of the Solomonic infant Jesus, his parents moved to Nazareth, where the Solomonic father died not long afterward. The boys grew up side by side in Nazareth. After the Nathanic mother died, the father of the Nathanic child took the Solomonic mother as his wife, and she thus became the stepmother of the Nathanic infant Jesus.

[ 30 ] The Gospels say nothing about Jesus' life from the age of twelve to thirty. By the age of thirty, he had matured enough for the great event.

[ 31 ] We see how complex the origins of Christianity are, and how the most significant spiritual currents of the preceding era flowed into the Nathanite boy Jesus through Zarathustra and Buddha.