The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The Wisdom of the Ancient Texts and the Gospels. The Christ Event

[ 1 ] When we look back on the development of humanity—as far back as history allows us to go—we encounter something very peculiar. We can examine what we encounter there through a wide variety of phenomena. Above all—and we will see today how, fundamentally, what is about to be said applies to every human heart, to every human soul—we can examine this human development through the various documents, traditions, and writings that have been preserved for us. When we look back at the mental images that the various peoples of antiquity formed regarding the origin of the world, the relationship of humanity to the world, and the sources of morality and goodness, we find that these mental images are recorded in sagas, myths, and legends. We find such sagas, myths, and legends in forms that range from more or less beautiful, magnificent, and powerful to less significant among the most diverse peoples of the world. People today are so inclined to treat these myths, sagas, and legends as works of fiction and to say: “These were invented by peoples in their infancy because they did not yet have access to the sources of modern science.” — They formed all sorts of mental images about how the world came into being—in the sense of the Greeks through their gods, in the sense of the ancient Germanic peoples through their gods, and, for my part, in the sense of the American peoples, whose legends have only recently come to us and which correspond to what is found among other peoples. When we hear how Quetzalcoatl and Vitzliputzli play a role among the Central American peoples—similar to, though more primitive than, other powerfully developed figures found among other peoples—we see that legends and myths are found among all such peoples. And as has already been mentioned, modern people are easily inclined to say: These are works of fiction, fantastical creations of the human mind, which sought in this way to explain how the various entities of the world and the various natural phenomena came into being.

[ 2 ] Among the various documents, we now find a monumental one that a large number of you have recently examined with me—a monumental document: Genesis, the beginning of the Old Testament. And indeed, we saw in Munich what infinite depths lie within this Genesis. For some of you, the spiritual insight has already shed light on the various Gospels, the last of the texts of this kind. We find these preserved, originating from the various periods in which our previous incarnations took place—those we experienced in earlier earthly lives. Those advancing in spiritual insight must learn to understand that they were present in the times when people spoke, let us say, of Zeus, Hera, Cronus, and other gods—speaking of natural phenomena in a different way than today, precisely in the form found in myths, legends, and fairy tales. We must keep all of this in mind. And we must ask ourselves: What is actually the case with our souls, which have absorbed such things that now—for most people, in a sense without their knowing what was imprinted within them back then—resurface in their souls?

[ 3 ] Well, I will simply describe to you what happens with these documents to someone who initially begins by accepting them as legends, myths, and works of fiction, but who then delves into the Spiritual Science and uses them as a tool to understand these documents more and more deeply.

[ 4 ] Take the Old Testament, for example, which most people today might read as a rather beautiful collection of various images about the creation of the world; he gradually comes to realize: These things, which are presented there in such a remarkable way, contain infinite wisdom. — And he comes to realize more and more that the individual words, phrases, and sentences contain insights—when understood correctly—to which spiritual research now leads us all on its own. There is perhaps no more effective means of increasing our appreciation of such texts than to delve a little into Spiritual Science. For the most subtle discoveries one can make in the field of Spiritual Science—the most profound insights uncovered with great effort through spiritual scientific research—are subsequently found in some biblical passage, say, in Genesis.

[ 5 ] Now, however, a certain difference becomes apparent between the Old Testament and all other legends, myths, and ancient texts. This must be noted. Take the legends of the Greeks, the ancient Germanic peoples, even what is contained in the Vedas of the Indians and in the Persian texts—take everything of this kind. Compared to the Old Testament, there is a tremendous difference. To the impartial observer, this difference presents itself in such a way that in all other texts, the mysteries of natural phenomena—the mysteries of everything related to natural phenomena, including human beings— insofar as he has a kind of natural existence, insofar as the forces of nature impel him in one direction or another; whereas in the Old Testament, the sole and exclusive premise is that human beings are conceived from the very beginning as moral and spiritual beings, not merely as natural beings. And everything that is recounted there proceeds from the premise that human beings are placed within the course of development as moral and spiritual beings. What modern science says in this regard rests on very shaky ground. It all crumbles to nothing when one truly views things in accordance with the spirit. Thus a fundamental difference emerges, so that one can say: All other evidence presented to us in the world reveals that human beings received powerful revelations from some source—powerful revelations expressed in the legendary form found in myths, which arose from a foundation of deep wisdom but do not pertain to the moral and spiritual mysteries of the human being. This, then, is clear under all circumstances.

[ 6 ] Now, however, a major difference emerges when one compares the New Testament with all other documents of this kind. There is a completely different spirit at work here than in all other documents, including the Old Testament. How might one grasp this difference when approaching the matter from an anthroposophical perspective? This difference will become clear to us once we bring another phenomenon to mind.

[ 7 ] Let us imagine a person who has never heard of Spiritual Science, but who is entirely a product of the scientific or other so-called rational education of the present day—someone who therefore has no opportunity to interpret the ancient documents through the lens of Spiritual Science. We can form a mental image of this person—perhaps not at all educated, or perhaps highly educated; the difference does not matter much—as being far removed from Spiritual Science, and we assume that he then approaches these ancient texts—the Greek, Persian, Indian, Germanic texts, and so on—with everything that modern thinking can offer him. If he truly feels not even a hint of what spiritual research is, a peculiar phenomenon occurs. Depending on whether he is more or less inclined to be poetic or sober, a difference will certainly arise; but on the whole, we may say, a certain phenomenon becomes apparent. Such a person can never truly understand the ancient texts today; he cannot penetrate the manner in which wisdom is conveyed there. We witness the most grotesque examples in this field. One need only point to the very latest attempts to explain such ancient texts. Just now, in fact, there is another little book that is interesting precisely because of its ridiculousness, in which a comprehensive attempt is made to explain all myths right up to the Gospels, starting with the earliest texts of the most primitive peoples. It is a little book that is extraordinarily interesting precisely because of its grotesque nature—indeed, because of its grotesquely foolish way of understanding things. The booklet is called Orpheus. It is by Salomon Reinach, who is famous in France as a scholar in this field. Among scholars, he is a telling example of a man who has not sensed even a hint of the path by which one can penetrate such matters. A specific method is applied to everything, and everything is simply dismissed. All things are merely symbolic. There are no real entities behind Hermes, Orpheus, and others. These figures are merely symbols and allegories. It is not at all proper to repeat among decent people what is presented as an interpretation of these symbols; the language used there is such that one would not wish to repeat it. In this way, any reality that lives within the myths can be disproved, and thus the reality of Demeter and Persephone is dismissed by decree, disproved. All these names are said to exist merely as symbols. This is done according to a method by which one could easily demonstrate to children that, even if eighty years had passed, a man named Salomon Reinach never lived in France at the beginning of the 20th century, but rather that contemporary culture has summarized under the name Salomon Reinach what is contained in his book. — That could be proven wonderfully. Nevertheless, such things cause an extraordinary stir today. And using the same method, evidence is now being presented in Germany as well that Jesus never lived, which has also caused quite a stir in recent times.

[ 8 ] If we now ask ourselves: What is the real reason that today one cannot penetrate to the heart of things without Spiritual Science—and it is a fact that one cannot do so without it—what is the real reason? — If one wants to understand this reason, one must look a little deeper into human evolution. One must look back for a while into this human evolution. Then it becomes clear that one must say to oneself: The ancients certainly did not possess the kinds of sciences that people have today—the kinds of sciences taught even in the most elementary schools about the sun and other things. Such sciences, which are grasped through the intellect and reason—this is something humanity has only recently come to attain. And our souls, when they were born in earlier incarnations, certainly could not have absorbed such sciences, for they did not exist; they were not incorporated into the culture. But the further back we go in human development, the more we find—whether we now seek the reasons for this, which we have often explained to many of you, here or there—that people possessed a wisdom in a form entirely different from today’s: a wisdom concerning spiritual matters that people today are unable to express in its scientific form. But wisdom ruled the souls; it lived within the souls. It was simply there. Above all, the initiated leaders of humanity possessed this wisdom, and it can be historically demonstrated—if one has an anthroposophical spirit—that a primordial revelation, a primordial wisdom, was poured out over the entire human race on Earth, manifesting itself in various ways here and there according to the different stages of development. If someone views history with a truly anthroposophical spirit, they will find this primordial revelation. But something else is still necessary for this. The ordinary scientific human spirit of today must, if it wishes to penetrate all these documents to their true meaning, certainly undergo a preparation—I am simply stating a fact here—a preparation that enables it to penetrate the spirit of those ancient writings. This preparation consists of studying the texts that can be studied directly today. These are the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles. Through what is described there, one can directly approach the primordial revelation in the ancient texts and understand it. This is a remarkable fact. But if a spiritual researcher, influenced by the prejudices of our time, were to feel a certain aversion to approaching these Gospels—he might say, after all: “This is just one religion among many”—then it would become apparent that he would still be unable to make sense of the other documents. Everywhere, an incomprehensible remnant would remain for him. But if he approaches—even if only in spirit—any aspect of the events in Palestine and allows himself to be inspired by them, as it were, then a ray of enlightenment can indeed shine from the Gospels onto the matters in the other ancient documents. This is a fact, and it can be experienced firsthand. And then one probably admits to oneself that these Gospels and the Epistles of Paul are actually necessary for a proper journey back to earlier times. One cannot ignore them or disregard them. If one can truly read the spiritual records—the Akashic Records—there is no need to approach the written Gospels at all; yet one must go through the events in Palestine. Otherwise, certain things regarding what preceded them will always remain unclear. So I did not wish to point specifically to the written word, but rather to the events as they actually unfolded before us in the course of human development. This is a very, very important fact.

[ 9 ] I would like to shed a little light on this fact from another perspective. Let us keep in mind what I have said: One cannot bypass the Christ event if one wishes to understand what is given as a primordial revelation to humanity; otherwise, one will stumble somewhere along the way. If I am to describe how the matter actually stands, I must say the following: Let us suppose that a modern spiritual researcher is investigating the past and has no sense—and this sense is of the utmost importance—for the Christ event; if he passes over the Christ event and approaches the other, earlier events in human evolution, then he will find everywhere—truly everywhere—that he becomes uncertain. But let us suppose we had such a spiritual researcher who was born and lived before Christ Jesus, who had already made great strides in clairvoyance and was highly developed in other respects as well—someone who, in a certain sense, would have been mature enough even before the time of Christ to survey the entire past in such a way that he could have already passed through the Christ event back then, because he was ahead of his time. Let us suppose he had lived five or six centuries before Christ, had been as mature as a spiritual researcher today, able to go back beyond Christ and reach the earlier events; then we can quite literally ask ourselves: What would such a spiritual researcher have to be like in order not to fall prey to the Luciferic or Ahrimanic forces? — Let us suppose that such a person would actually need to go beyond the Christ event, but that this Christ event had not yet taken place during his lifetime. It would then turn out for such a person that he would either content himself lightheartedly with what presents itself to him, with what he can see—he would then say all sorts of things that are not quite right—or he would reach the point where he says to himself: Now something is missing for me; I cannot find something when I look back; I cannot find something I need on my path. — And furthermore, he would admit to himself: “Here I become uncertain. I must seek something I need, but it is not yet here on Earth; it cannot be found in the Earth’s evolution.”

[ 10 ] I have, so to speak, based on theory, painted a picture of a figure from the 5th or 6th century B.C. who would have been mature enough to recognize Jesus Christ in retrospect. But because Christ was not yet on Earth, he could not be found by this figure as an earthly reality. For me, this theory recently became a very real reality. It happened when I was able to visit our branch in Palermo this year. As I sailed toward Palermo on the ship, one thing suddenly became clear to me: Some mystery will be solved for you—a mystery that can only be easily solved through the immediate impression you receive here in this place. —And it was indeed solved very soon. The personality I have just spoken of to you in theoretical terms immediately met me in the very atmosphere of Sicily—I would say in the entire astral body of Sicily. It was there, very much alive. This personality, which often appears enigmatic, lives on, so to speak, in the very atmosphere of Sicily. It is that of Empedocles. This ancient Greek philosopher lived in Sicily in the 5th century B.C. He was, as even the most casual historian knows, deeply versed in a wide variety of subjects and accomplished great feats precisely in Sicily.

[ 11 ] If one first turns one’s attention to him intellectually, this figure presents a curious picture. By looking back on Empedocles’s development, tracing his activities as a statesman, an architect, and a philosopher—how he traveled about, how he had his enthusiastic students, how he initiated them into the various mysteries of the world—if one traces him in this way mentally, rather than through the lens of external history, then one discovers that this was a figure who knew an infinite amount of what people today possess in the way of scientific knowledge. This figure possessed a thoroughly modern mind, a modern aura. Empedocles had, in fact, advanced so far that he inquired into the origin of the world. And he would truly have been advanced enough that, in seeking how everything came to be, he would have had to find the Christ through retrospect. But the Christ had not yet come; he could not yet be found on Earth at that time—he was still absent from the Earth. Amid these experiences, Empedocles became wavering, and it was precisely this that gave rise to a peculiar longing within him; and this longing transformed within him—in a manner entirely different from that of the trivial minds of our time—into a passion for viewing the world materialistically. Lucifer approached him. One need only create a vivid mental image of how this came about. He was a modern mind, yet initiated into the most diverse mysteries, and highly clairvoyant. Because of his modern way of thinking, he was inclined to view the world materialistically, and there is indeed such a materialistic system of his in which he depicts the world much as today’s materialistic chemist does—by mixing and separating the elements. The only difference is that he distinguishes only the four elements. Depending on how they mix, he thought, the most diverse entities are formed. This view sparked in him a powerful passion to discover what lies behind these material elements—what is in the air, what is in the water.

[ 12 ] When one looks back today through the Akashic Records and gazes into air, water, fire, and earth, one finds the Christ present there in an ethereal form. Empedocles could not find him. He felt an immense urge to find something in air, water, fire, and earth, to get to the bottom of what lies within them. And one sees this personality seized by this powerful urge to penetrate into the very essence of the material elements. And this ultimately leads him to actually make a kind of sacrifice. For it is not merely a legend: he threw himself into Mount Etna to unite with the elements. The Luciferic power—the urge to master the elements—drove him to this physical union with them. Empedocles’ death lives on in the spiritual atmosphere of Sicily. This is a great mystery of this remarkable land.

[ 13 ] And now let us imagine this soul of Empedocles, which has cast off its body in this way by having it burned. It is reborn at a later time, when Christ has already come. There, a completely different situation presents itself for this soul. Previously, it had, as it were, sacrificed itself to the elements; then it arises anew, but as it now looks back, it beholds Christ. And all elemental knowledge arises anew. What this soul knew arises in a completely new form. The personality of Empedocles was indeed reborn later. I am simply not permitted at this moment to say under what name. But if one compares the later reincarnation of Empedocles—which took place further north—if one compares this figure, as he lived later at the turn from the Middle Ages to modern times, with that of Empedocles who plunged into the Atma, then one can vividly picture the immense impulse that arose from the fact that the Christ event on Earth occurred in between.

[ 14 ] What occurs in this way with any individual, however, takes place for every soul—including all of your souls. Even if not all of these souls felt the powerful urge that Empedocles felt, they nevertheless looked back on the past with a certain unease as the time of the Christ event drew near, because they could not make sense of things, and because the time when the ancient knowledge was fading away was drawing ever closer. If we go back to earlier times, we find that those who preserved the tradition of ancient knowledge stepped forward before the people; that they told—let us imagine this in our minds—powerful tales, such as have been preserved, as far as I am concerned, in Greek mythology, as they were passed down to the ancient Greeks. But this was merely an occasion for the ancient Greeks—when they were, let us say, in a particular state of mind—which occurred to a greater extent back then than it does now—to sense the truth of these myths, and for these myths to give them the impetus to look into the spiritual world. But this predisposition was lost among human beings. It came to pass that this inner power to look up into the spiritual world was lost precisely to the extent that intellectual science advanced. You can calculate it for yourselves; you can look it up in any small handbook to see how far back our views—which today, I might say, even children absorb, if not with their mother’s milk, then at least with their school milk—actually go. They go back a few centuries before the beginning of the Christian era. There is a massive break there. If people try to go further back in time and understand the ancient documents, they can no longer do so; to them, these documents appear merely as fiction, as legends, as myths. This is something that really deserves closer scrutiny. There will be more and more people who, lacking any inherited aptitude for understanding ancient documents, will be unable to understand them. People will come to the conclusion that behind everything that is considered science lies a vast field of error, because most educated people believe that we now know for certain how the Earth moves, and that what was said about it in the past was nothing but nonsense. So this is already the case; when it comes to the Earth’s motion, one goes back only as far as the Copernican view. That is a somewhat late example. But even with geometry, one goes back only as far as Euclid. Before that time, modern man sees utter darkness in this field. Thus, modern man does not find wisdom, does not find primordial revelation; he finds no way to penetrate it.

[ 15 ] If one truly accepts this as a fact, then—and this can become apparent even to the simplest mind through a healthy intuition—then something that emerges from the very highest anthroposophical studies can crystallize into a fundamental conviction. One must surely come to say to oneself: This is not the true form in which I perceive the world. — If that were the true form, then one would not actually need to conduct research at all. Then no research would be necessary at all; the world would simply have to present itself as it is; but modern research does not accept it that way either. There would be no Copernican revolution if one were to accept what the senses present at face value. Even external science contradicts sensory experience. If one goes further, one will see that one cannot stop at what the senses provide, at what external experience of the physical world provides. This must be corrected under all circumstances—by human beings, and also by external science. One may not usually admit this to oneself, but it is nevertheless true. As soon as one understands oneself—even merely as an ordinary thinker with what one learns today—one must say to oneself: Everything boils down to seeing through the illusion of the senses; otherwise, there would be no science, there would be no thinking. — But if that is the case, then there is actually something that makes it quite easy for us to understand the direction toward which the world is gradually evolving. If we consider the matter a little in the light of anthroposophy, this will be confirmed. So if one says to oneself: There was a primordial wisdom; human beings were such that they were given a primordial wisdom, which they perceived only in images, but such a primordial wisdom did exist; only, as humanity evolved, understanding of it was increasingly lost, and people understood this primordial wisdom less and less—then it is also quite clear: the more they lost this understanding, the more science, the intellect, and reason developed.

[ 16 ] Now we can ask: What, then, will have come to pass at a certain point in time? — Let us imagine the situation; let us imagine a pre-Christian person who lived under certain conditions. He would have looked out into the world, would have seen all manner of things, but in addition, within this person’s soul lay the capacity to look beyond these things. This capacity was still there. So for him, it was a fact that behind every flower there is an etheric body. That was a fact for him. But this ability was gradually lost. It was lost because reason and intellect, as they prevail today, banish this ability. It cannot be reconciled with the other ability; they are two opposing forces. It is simply the case—and this is a shared experience of all genuine spiritual researchers—that intellect, or thinking in the ordinary sense, has a scorching, burning effect on what is known as the initiated contemplation of things. Thus, even in history, to the extent that intellect and reason in the ordinary sense have taken hold, the science of the ancient spiritual vision has been lost, and with it the understanding of the ancient tradition. A number of centuries therefore had to pass; the person I have described to you had to be replaced by another, who might have said to himself: It would, of course, be a grave prejudice to believe that truth is as the world presents itself to the senses. Human reason must be applied everywhere. — Faith in human reason was the guiding principle. It must first analyze things as they are; it must set to work on sensory phenomena and grasp them logically.

[ 17 ] Such a person might have said: The advantage that humans have over the other creatures of the earth is that they possess reason, that they can comprehend cause and effect as they lie behind sensory phenomena. They can deduce them; and because they possess reason, they can communicate with one another through language. — For one could soon see that language is a daughter of reason. And such a person might say: “Reason is, of course, the highest good.” — And if we wanted to picture him clearly, we would have to imagine a person who says: “So, man, trust only your reason; analyze everything with your reason, and then you will arrive at the truth.” — Let’s suppose such a person had actually existed. I’ve described to you one such person as he might theoretically appear, but such a person did indeed exist in very real terms. A characteristic figure of this kind is Cicero, who lived shortly before Christ. You need only examine him, and you will see that he thinks exactly this way, namely: Reason can comprehend everything. It is not true that the world is as it presents itself to the senses; but reason can comprehend everything. — And it is precisely among these people, who appeared shortly before Christ, that there is an unshakable faith in reason. They call reason God Himself, who reigns in all things. This is what Cicero does.

[ 18 ] But let’s suppose, for a moment, that someone were to uncover the secrets of all this. Let’s suppose someone were to observe the whole thing with an open mind, watching as it all gradually unfolds. How would that person then describe the entire process? Let’s suppose that, a century before Christ, a person of profound insight were to observe the whole thing. How would the whole story appear to him? Well, he would say: Here we see two currents within humanity. One is in decline: the old clairvoyant power. In its place, reason is emerging. It is eradicating and destroying within human beings the ability to glimpse into the spiritual world. Deep darkness will spread in relation to the spiritual world. Those who believe in the authority of reason do indeed think that through their reason they can get to the heart of things. These people completely forget what this reason is that they speak of. This reason is, after all, bound solely to the brain; it can make use of no other instrument than the brain; it therefore belongs to the physical world and must consequently share the characteristics of the physical world. — Such a person would therefore say: Go ahead and insist on your reason and claim that with it you can comprehend what lies behind things, for things are not true in and of themselves; but remember that this very reason belongs to these things. You are physical beings among others; your reason belongs to the physical world. And if you believe that reason is precisely what enables you to get to the bottom of everything else, you are pulling the very ground out from under your own feet.

[ 19 ] That is how such a person would have spoken. And she would have gone on to say: Certainly, people tend to rely more and more on reason, to insist more and more on the intellect; but in doing so, they are building a wall between themselves and the spiritual world, for they are using an instrument that is not at all applicable to the spiritual world—one that is confined to the physical world. And yet, humanity is developing precisely in the direction of refining this instrument. — And perhaps this person, had she known the course of events in detail, would also have said: If human beings are ever to return to the spiritual world at all, then the possibility must arise that they will not merely wish to make use of their reason—this tool that functions only in the physical world—but that an impulse will arise enabling them to ascend once more, an impulse that drives reason itself upward into the spiritual worlds. But this can only happen if something within the human being dies—something that forms the basis of their firm belief in the sole dominion of reason. That must die.

[ 20 ] We must therefore imagine human beings descending further and further into the material world, with their brains becoming increasingly developed. If human beings were to become so completely dependent on their reason, they would be unable to break free from it. For then their physical body would lead them to believe: “Away with everything that our earthly intellect cannot grasp.” — But this is the physical body, which, by developing in a subtle way, numbs human beings so that they cannot realize that they are thereby remaining in the physical world. If you picture this, you will see that human beings are actually caught as if in a noose. They cannot free themselves from it on their own. Humanity’s development to date has led people to a point where they cannot escape from within themselves at all, where they face the danger of being gradually and completely overwhelmed by physical corporeality. What, then, can help human beings at all? If, at a time when reason has reached this stage—when the possibility arises that reason might be transformed so that what blinds it can die out within it—then this must indeed die out. But there must be an impulse through which, once and for all, that which could overwhelm human beings in their mere faith in reason is overcome. Do you feel the power of this impulse? Do you sense that this was the meaning of human development? Physicality had developed to such an extent that it would have overwhelmed humanity, and humanity would have come to believe that it must remain within the physical world and yet could not penetrate beyond maya—without even considering that, through reason itself, it is already within maya—had it not been for something that tears it out of maya as soon as it is taken in, and which can counteract the descent into the physical, a force that truly penetrates into the etheric body, so that the latter has the ability to destroy what leads to such error. Otherwise, human beings would have remained caught in the snare of their physical nature, which overwhelms them.

[ 21 ] And now let us set aside the idea of a person who might have spoken this way at the time of the coming of Christ Jesus. Now let us see how a person living today—any one of us—might view the matter. He might say to himself: If I look impartially at how humanity has developed, at how reason—this instrument belonging to maya—has grown ever stronger, then I must surely be in error if I simply surrender myself to the course of world development. Unless I take up the impulse that the part of me which leads me into such thinking can die off—an impulse directed so that I do not stray from reason—this is the course of things. What must have happened there? I must be able to look back to a time when this impulse first arose. I must find something that points to an event in the historical development of humanity, one that has caused the ongoing course of development in the materialistic sense to be turned upside down. If I were to look within myself today and find nothing of the sort, what else would I have to find there? I would see reason extending farther and farther back to a point at the beginning of our calendar where it first begins to take effect. But beyond that? There it grows dark, there it grows black; there I need something entirely different. — But then it becomes lighter, for there everyone must encounter Christ. Everyone—if they wish to believe at all in the possibility of progress, that in subsequent incarnations there can be something within them that propels them upward, that prevents them from being overwhelmed by maya—must encounter Christ when looking back. That is what can grant them ascent.

[ 22 ] Let us suppose that the Gospels did not exist; then one could say: We, as anthroposophists, did not need them; we did not need the Gospels; we only needed to observe the course of human evolution with an open mind and ask ourselves: What would become of every human being if they could not look back on an event in which the entire meaning of earlier development was turned in the opposite direction? — Then we must encounter the Christ when we look back through human evolution. The anthroposophist must be able to find him, and the initiated knower finds him under all circumstances.

[ 23 ] That is one of the mysteries of Christianity. The texts—one can certainly challenge them; after all, they are not historical documents. All those clever people—Jensen and others—who, in a trivially scholarly manner, dismiss the Gospels as mere legends have a certain justification for their position, because they rely solely on external reason. But the moment we become anthroposophists, we can say: We do not need the Gospels at all; we need only the facts that Spiritual Science itself provides us, and as we trace back through human evolution, we find the living Christ, just as Paul found him through the event at Damascus. This anticipates what we too can experience when we seek Christ in the anthroposophical sense. After all, Paul was in a situation similar to that of a modern anthroposophist who does not wish to accept the Gospels. The Gospels did not yet exist in his time, but he was able to go to Jerusalem. What he heard there—what is later described in the Gospels—did not convince him; otherwise, he would not have left Jerusalem. So there is no need for anything in the Gospels to convince a person today. They need only be able, through anthroposophy, to experience something similar to what Paul experienced. Then it becomes a Damascus experience, and they have proof of Christ entirely without any documents, just as was the case with Paul.

[ 24 ] It is only natural, then, that this points to something profound in human development—something extraordinarily profound in human development. In a certain sense, what existed for the reborn Empedocles in the 15th and 16th centuries—who looked back to earlier times and then saw what he had not been able to see before—is true for everyone, even the simplest of people. Earlier, he had become so uncertain that he threw himself into Mount Etna. In the 15th and 16th centuries, he looked back, and what had been inexplicable to him at the time was now explained by the Christ principle. And through this, he became one of the most remarkable figures of later times.

[ 25 ] This is simply how things appear to every person without documents—as a regression. Later, all people will look back on their past incarnations and will be able to distinguish clearly: these are incarnations that took place before Christ, and these are incarnations that took place after Christ. And what the simple soul instinctively feels today when reading the Gospels will then emerge as knowledge. This is what distinguishes the Gospels from other documents: they are the next set of documents that must be understood. This is a great, beautiful, and powerful turning point: the Gospels. As we pass through them, light dawns, whereas otherwise darkness spreads.

[ 26 ] It is indeed true. Because Christianity is still in the early stages of its development, modern people sometimes find that they run out of avenues of inquiry when it comes to matters of the past. But when they return to an event in the life of Christ, they are inspired, and everything becomes clear. And what the spiritual researcher discovers, the ordinary person can also experience. He can undergo a reflection in his own soul of what I have just explained. He may feel quite weighed down by human weaknesses and faults, but he must, of course, tell himself: What I am today, I have become through all the generations. — For if he were to deny this, he might as well claim that he was his own father and mother. It is, therefore, something that traces back to the rest of humanity, and a person may feel quite weighed down by the various faults, illnesses, and weaknesses they possess. But there is always the possibility of rising above them, even for the simplest of minds. I am not saying this in the orthodox sense. What is available to the spiritual researcher is also available to the simplest mind. If one feels truly weak, takes up the Gospels, and reads them, strength will flow from the Gospels, because from them flows the power of the Word, which enters the etheric body. The Gospels are words of power. This is something that does not merely speak to the intellect, but penetrates into deeper soul forces; it does not rely solely on this intellect situated in maya, but rather reaches into deeper forces and can, so to speak, comfort the intellect from above. This is the great power of the Gospels, which is available to every single human being, and this is what makes these texts so powerful; this is what sets them apart from all others. One can deny this fact, but then one will end up denying the very possibility of human progress.

[ 27 ] This points to a fact that is not readily understood. You can also grasp what was necessary to prepare that person whom I initially placed hypothetically before your soul—someone who, about a century before our era, would have predicted that someone must come to provide the impetus that would bring about the turning point.

[ 28 ] “That must have been a significant figure. She was also sufficiently prepared. For a long time, those in the circles of the initiated had been striving to create the conditions whereby, so to speak, at least some might comprehend the approaching age—to understand what is being prepared: what, on the one hand, leads humanity into a snare, and what, on the other hand, lifts humanity up again through the appearance of the Christ. This was taught prophetically. And the one who, a little more than a century before our era, was chosen to teach this prophetically in circles that could understand it was an initiate of the Essene community, which was close to the very circles into which Christ entered, and who proclaimed: “He will come who will lead humanity upward once more.” The one who taught this within the Essene community was a very significant individual. He is actually little known in conventional history, but he has been handed down in legend, at least by certain writers, so that he is not merely a mythological figure or mentioned solely within the context of Spiritual Science. He lived one hundred years before Christ and had records made by one of his five or six disciples. One of the disciples of this figure—who pointed toward Christ and foretold him—knew what was at stake. This figure had a disciple named Mathai, who recorded the mysteries concerning Christ. That figure, however, was Jeshu ben Pandira. Because he taught such things, he also had to endure the corresponding martyrdom. He was stoned in his region and, after the stoning—dead—was hanged. This Jeshu ben Pandira—who must not be confused with Jesus of Nazareth—who was the great forerunner of the Christ, had what he knew recorded, and this document then fell into the hands of the one who incorporated it, along with its mysteries, into the Gospel we call the Gospel according to Matthew. It is an important—an exceptionally important—fact to recognize: first, the necessity of the Christ impulse; and second, from a perspective of Spiritual Science, how Jeshu ben Pandira in a certain sense even symbolically prefigures—by first being stoned and then, as it were, crucified afterward—what later unfolds as the Christ Mystery of Golgotha. Christ, after all, was not stoned, but crucified. And in this death, the miraculous occurs: at that moment, when the blood flowed from the wounds, that which then passed into the Earth’s atmosphere brings about—for those who, in their etheric bodies, look back upon this event, pass through it, and, as it were, look into the tomb of Christ—that as they pass through this point, enter into a luminous past. Without this event, however, darkness would spread over everything that preceded it.

[ 29 ] Reflect on what has been said today. My task was to hint at this for you. It is such a vast topic that only hints could be given. But I have presented these hints in such a way that, when you examine what you know, what you are familiar with, and what you carry in your hearts, you will come to realize how much what I have had to say to you today is confirmed by life itself and by your own inner being.