The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday I pointed out to you how the story of Jesus’ birth gradually won over the hearts and souls of people, and how the Christmas play, as we were able to experience it, essentially developed only gradually into this noble and beautiful form—and at the same time with all the festive spirit with which it had become imbued during the periods when it flourished—and how, in essence, one can say of the earliest forms of this Christmas play: People certainly tried, starting from a completely secular mindset, to participate in what the people had seen for centuries in a way they did not understand. The Christ Child only gradually won over people’s hearts. And this winning over of humanity’s hearts proceeded quite slowly. When we see in the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries that what the priests had initially performed little by little was gradually extended to include the participation of the people, this participation—as I hinted to you yesterday—was not yet of the noble form that these Christmas plays later took, of which we have just seen two examples.

[ 2 ] But I was trying to point out to you that these two plays are quite different in their origins, and that this is clearly evident. The first play has a simple, folk-like quality, just as is evident from this play: The main point here is to create a mental image of how the child—in whom the great world spirit was later embodied and who acted within earthly existence—how this child entered the world, how he was received, on the one hand, by the innkeepers, the two innkeepers, and, on the other hand, by the shepherds. And fundamentally, what emerges most clearly from this Christmas play—the first one we saw yesterday—is just how different the reception was from the innkeepers on the one hand and the shepherds on the other. This is what makes a particularly strong impression on us.

[ 3 ] The other Christmas play is quite different. There we are immediately led to understand that wise men—who, at that time, were also wise kings for the peoples in question—were magicians who read the stars to discern the significant destiny that lay ahead for humanity. Thus, we see ancient occult wisdom woven into the plot of the play. And as the story unfolds, we see how the being who, in accordance with this occult wisdom—this knowledge gleaned from the stars—enters into earthly events is confronted by the one at whose side we clearly see evil, the backward-looking principle, the diabolical, the Ahrimanic-Luciferic principle—Herod. We see how the Christ principle and the Luciferic-Ahrimanic principle are set against one another. But we also see how, in the course of events, that which is revealed from the spiritual spheres asserts itself. Just as the angels appear from the spiritual spheres, proclaiming divine guidance, and direct and guide the course of events, so that what Herod wills does not come to pass, but something else does. Human beings’ will is permeated by what comes from the spiritual worlds. Thus, we have a play that, in terms of the forces it contains, points us far beyond mere earthly events.

[ 4 ] When we consider how these two plays stand in contrast to one another—one steeped in primitive folk beliefs, the other steeped in a wisdom that truly points us back to a primordial wisdom of Earth’s evolution—we are led to let all manner of thoughts arise within us regarding what has happened over the course of time and what is connected to the full significance of the Mystery of Golgotha for the development of the Earth. Let us consider, after all, that at the time—in the broader sense of the word—when the Mystery of Golgotha took place, a deep, deep wisdom regarding spiritual matters existed in certain circles. What existed of this profound wisdom is called Gnosis. In the outer world, in the course of Europe’s spiritual culture, one can say quite plainly that this Gnosis—this deeply spiritual science of the mysteries of the spiritual world—had vanished from the outer world within European culture; that in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th centuries, people within spiritual life had really only a very faint inkling of what was contained in this science. Those who knew something—I mean those who knew what one could so easily know if one was a Christian priest or a Christian scholar—actually knew of this Gnosis because there were opponents of this Gnosis in the first centuries of Christianity, and these opponents fought against Gnosis. Just imagine if, somehow, it were to happen today that all the books we count as part of our literature, and all the cycles, were to be eradicated, burned, so that nothing of them remained, and only what the opponents had written were left—and in a few centuries someone were to get their hands on these books by the opponents that remained, and he would have to form a mental image from them of what was written in our books: That is how it was with Gnosticism! |

[ 5 ] One of the most important early Christian writers was Irenaeus, a disciple of Bishop Polycarp of Asia Minor, who was himself a disciple of the apostles. Irenaeus, however, wrote as an opponent of Gnosticism. Over the centuries, the only way to learn what the Gnostics taught was by examining what Irenaeus cited—what he recorded in his book in order to refute it. Thus, everything we had to accept from this ancient wisdom was shaped by the fact that it had been handed down to us solely through the lens of an opponent. You can see from this that, in fact, the entire development of the West was geared toward eradicating—truly eradicating—something that had emerged from ancient times. Outwardly, you can simply see from this fact how new the beginning was for Western culture, a beginning marked by the Mystery of Golgotha; how, in essence, everything began anew everywhere. Truly, I would say that just as a buried city lies hidden beneath the earth, so too was the ancient literature buried beneath what was now emerging anew from the early Church Fathers—through Ambrose, Augustine, Scotus Erigena, and so on. A new beginning! And just as a new city rises from seemingly new ground, so the new arose—a new city, but on ground in which the old city has sunk, without anyone having any inkling of what it looked like. This is truly how the course of European culture unfolded. Hence it is also evident that in our time, if there is to be a return to spiritual depth, it is necessary for this spiritual depth to be attained from the original power of human beings, for people themselves to rediscover what they have not received as a legacy from the outside—at least within the course of European spiritual development. And—I cannot speak of this today, because it would lead too far afield—there can be no question whatsoever that the retrieval of Oriental documents could serve as a substitute for what has disappeared from Western spiritual life in the form of external documents, for the simple reason that the Oriental documents are in fact something much, much primitive than what had come into being within the world that extended across Asia Minor, North Africa, Southern Europe, and even, in part, Central Europe. That which intellectual cognition had developed into there had been thoroughly eradicated in the first centuries of Christian development; it was preserved for posterity only through the polemical writings of its opponents.

[ 6 ] Now, in these writings that have been expunged, we do not find merely the knowledge—the spiritual knowledge—that related to the spiritual worlds, apart from Christ; rather, what has also been lost in these writings is the application of the entire ancient, comprehensive spiritual wisdom to the mystery of Christ Jesus. These Gnostics—if we wish to call them Gnostics—sought in their own way to understand the course of Earth’s evolution and the nature of the Christ as a being. At that time, the time had not yet come to understand the matter in the way we now understand it again, by drawing truths from the original spiritual worlds that need not be written down, because they are immediately present in a living way in the spiritual world. It was not possible to draw forth the knowledge of the nature of Christ Jesus in this way. That has only become possible in our time. But in the older tradition, certain things were known about Christ through a body of knowledge that has, in fact, been lost. Only in very recent times have a few sparse remnants been found: the Pistis Sophia text, then the text on the “Mystery of Jeû,” which now exist as if to draw people’s attention—even in an outward way—to the fact that the knowledge of Christ, which we now strive for in our own way, is not as foolish as the opponents of our movement would have us believe. The Book of Jeû—little of it has survived, written in Coptic—but what little has been preserved serves as a hint: Look at what is contained in the Gospels—that is not the only thing that filled people’s thoughts in the first centuries of Christian development. This Book of Jeû contains accounts of how Christ, after the Resurrection and having passed through the Mystery of Golgotha, spoke to those who were able to understand him at that time—those who had become his disciples. What is remarkable is that this book *Jeû*—I mean the small fragment that survives of it—speaks about the Christ and what he is in a way that is quite different even from the Gospel of John. What is remarkable is that a certain word recurs again and again in this book, clearly indicating that our attention is to be drawn to something. And I would like to explain what it is that we are to be made aware of in the following way. Suppose someone at that time had wanted to make clear why Christ Jesus actually entered into the development of the Earth; he would have spoken as follows, saying to those who could understand: “Behold, a time is now coming when human beings will move toward the development of the consciousness-soul.” A time is coming when human beings will have to comprehend the world through their external, physical organs—through the organs that are essentially anchored in the physical body. The time is past when human beings received revelations through a primitive form of clairvoyance. The time is past when people knew things not merely by using their physical body and its tools, but by being able to use their etheric body independently of the physical body to gain insights. People will now have to use only their physical body as a tool. But in the future, it will also be possible to know something of what until now has been known only through the etheric body. In the outer world, there will be only knowledge bound to the physical body, which is subject to death. But knowledge of the spiritual world cannot be attained through the tools bound to the physical body. A helper must come who stirs within human beings that which only the etheric body can know. One must come who does not stir the dead aspect of the physical body, but who stirs the living aspect within the human being—the etheric-living aspect—who is with the living, who is with that which, in the human being on Earth, is not earthly. There must be one who tears from this sluggish, dead physical body that intellect which can comprehend the spiritual world—that intellect which is within the human being and is connected to heaven—that intellect which cannot be crucified by the world because it belongs to heaven, which itself crucifies the world, that is to say: which overcomes the world.

[ 7 ] One forms a mental image of the situation in which, in earlier times, when people were not yet able to see Christ in his true essence as he passed through the Mystery of Golgotha, they felt connected to the spiritual world through their etheric bodies by means of primitive clairvoyance. Just as the physical body became harder and harder and, precisely because of this, became an instrument; just as someone had to come—namely, the Christ—to draw the living out of the inert instrument of the physical body. One must create a mental image of this.

[ 8 ] And now let us consider this book, *Jeû*: How Christ, after having passed through the Mystery of Golgotha, speaks to those who have learned to hold fast to him, to hold fast to the wisdom contained in his words: “I have loved you and desired to give you life.” We hear it in the phrase: “and desired to give you life”—he desired to lift this sluggish physical body out of its sluggishness and to give what only the etheric body can give.

[ 9 ] “Jesus the Living One is the knowledge of the truth.” The Living One—that is, the one who has passed through the Mystery of Golgotha—speaks by presenting himself as the representative of the Living One.

[ 10 ] The text then continues: “This is the book of the knowledge of the invisible God through the hidden mysteries”—that is, those mysteries hidden within human beings—“which show the way to the chosen essence of humanity, leading in silence to the life of the Father of the Worlds, in the coming of the Redeemer, the Savior of souls, who will receive within himself the Word of Life, which is higher than all life, in the knowledge of Jesus, the Living One, who came forth through the Father from the Aeon of Light into the totality of the Pleroma,” that is, other aeons, all spiritual beings, “in the teaching—besides which there is no other—that Jesus, the Living One, taught his apostles, saying: ‘This is the teaching in which all knowledge rests.’”

[ 11 ] This, then, is the mental image we must have of the Risen One—who passed through the Mystery of Golgotha—speaking to the disciples who have learned to belong to him.

[ 12 ] “Jesus, the Living One, spoke to his apostles, saying: ‘Blessed is he who has crucified the world and has not allowed the world to crucify him,’”—that is, he who can grasp within the human being that which is not overcome by matter, by external physical matter.

[ 13 ] “The apostles replied with one voice, saying, ‘Lord, teach us this way of crucifying the world, so that it may not crucify us, and we might not perish and lose our lives.’”

[ 14 ] Jesus, the Living One, answered and said, “The one who has crucified the world is the one who has found my word and fulfilled it according to the will of the one who sent me.”

[ 15 ] And the apostles replied, saying, “Speak to us, Lord, that we may hear you.” We have followed you with all our hearts; we have left father and mother, vineyards and fields, possessions, and the glory of the earthly king, and have followed you so that you may teach us the life of your Father, who sent you.’»

[ 16 ] And in response to this request from the apostles, Christ Jesus, the Living One, replied with what he had to say to them: “Christ, the Living One, answered and said: ‘The life of my Father is this: that you receive from the human realm of that understanding a soul that is not earthly.’”

[ 17 ] So the Living One wants those who are his disciples to come to understand that there is within man an understanding of spiritual things that can break free from the physical body—an understanding that is not earthly. If they awaken this within themselves, then they will truly understand his word.

[ 18 ] “‘This essence of all souls, which becomes understandable through what I tell you in the course of my words. And that you may perfect it and stand before the Archon,’”—before the being of this Aeon, this age—“‘and his persecutions,’”—the Ahrimanic-Luciferic being—“‘and his persecutions, which have no end, so that you may be saved from them. But you, my disciples, hasten to take my word carefully to heart, so that you may recognize it, so that the Archon of this Aeon›”—that is, Ahriman-Lucifer—“‹ may not contend with you, because he cannot find any of his commands in me›”—who thus finds his commands outside of the One who has passed through the Mystery of Golgotha—“‹so that you yourselves, O my apostles, may fulfill my word concerning me, and I myself may set you free, and you may become holy through freedom that is without blemish. Just as the Spirit of the Holy Spirit is holy, so too will you become holy through the freedom of the Spiritual, the Holy Spirit.’

[ 19 ] All the apostles answered with one voice—Matthew and John, Philip and Bartholomew and James—saying: “O Jesus, you who are the Living One, whose goodness is spread over those who have found your wisdom and your form in enlightenment; O Light, which in the light that has enlightened our hearts, as we receive the light of life; O true Logos, through whom, by gnosis, we have come to the true knowledge of that which is taught by the Living One.”

[ 20 ] Jesus, the Living One, answered and said: “‘Blessed is the person who has recognized this and brought heaven down to earth,’ that is, who has become aware that there is something within him that is not connected to this earthly body, but rather to the beings of the heavens, and who brings down into earthly life that which within him is connected to heaven—that which is above.”

[ 21 ] «« “Blessed is the person who has recognized this and brought heaven down, upheld the earth, and sent it to heaven”—who has united that which is earthly within him with that which is heavenly within him, so that when he passes through the gate of death, he may, with the fruits of the earthly, lead the earth back to heaven through the heavenly.

[ 22 ] “The apostles replied, saying: ‘Jesus, you who are alive, explain to us how one brings heaven down. For we have followed you so that you might teach us the true light.’

[ 23 ] And Jesus, the Living One, answered and said: “The Word that exists in heaven”—that is, he means that which one can possess as wisdom, as knowledge, independent of the physical nature of human beings. “‘The Word that exists in heaven before the earth came into being—that earth which is called the world. But you, if you recognize my Word, will bring heaven down, and the Word will dwell within you. Heaven is the invisible Word of the Father. But if you recognize this, you will bring heaven down. I will show you what it is like to send the earth to heaven, so that you may recognize it; to send the earth to heaven is: the listener to the Word of Knowledge, who has ceased to be merely the mind of an earthly human being, but has become a heavenly human being,” that is, one who has torn his understanding within himself away from the outer physical body, who has ceased to be an earthly human being and has become a heavenly human being. His mind has ceased to be earthly; it has become heavenly.

[ 24 ] “‘That is why you will be saved from the Archon of this Aeon,’ from the Ahrimanic-Luciferic being, ‘.’”

[ 25 ] You are seeing a fragment that has survived, that has been rediscovered, and that could draw people’s attention to the infinitely profound knowledge that was once associated with the mystery of Golgotha in the early Christian centuries. Contemporary theologians generally get quite upset whenever anyone tries to draw attention to these or other similar writings. They do admit, of course, that these writings exist. Outwardly, historically, they treat them and publish editions of them. But these “modern theologians” are convinced that these writings have, to a certain extent, been justly forgotten, because they contain nothing but all sorts of fantastical flights of fancy with which the rational person of today should no longer concern themselves; that this is no longer appropriate for an enlightened mind. But in a certain sense, these are indications that what we are now drawing from the wellspring, from the source of the spiritual worlds, does indeed connect to something that was already present in the Earth’s evolution—something that simply had to flow underground for a time, just as certain waters in the Alps flow underground after having been above ground for a while; then they disappear into the depths and reappear later. Thus, spiritual knowledge has flowed on through the centuries as if in subterranean worlds and is now to emerge once more. So that those who cannot believe at all in such origins of the outflow of spiritual sources into earthly existence may also receive an outward indication, history has preserved a few fragments, a few fragments of a rich ancient literature that was once widespread, that was vast and mighty, and that is actually known only through the counter-writings—for example, those of Irenaeus and similar figures who sought only to refute it.

[ 26 ] We must therefore say: Under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, the mystery of Golgotha has taken root in Western culture. And the first was the result of Paul’s powerful message, which flowed from his vision on the road to Damascus: the mystery of death, of passing through the mystery of Golgotha. This was then followed by those far-reaching discussions about the nature of the connection between Christ and Jesus, how the divine and human natures were united, how the three forms of manifestation of the divine—which entered the development of Western Christian culture as the three Persons—relate to one another, and so on. One might say: What constituted human wisdom began to wane. This power of knowledge, too, began to wane. It was an immensely powerful force of wisdom that existed in those people who were able to attain what I have just read to you—a powerful force of wisdom. It waned greatly, greatly. And people much preferred to listen to those who could say: Jesus, the Christ, was there in person on Earth; we know he was there, for I knew Polycarp, and Polycarp knew the disciples of Jesus! — There was a direct, personal tradition. In a certain sense, faith begins to focus solely on what was physically present, on physical development. As spiritual wisdom gradually fades away, belief in the purely physical comes to the fore. One might say: Take Irenaeus, for example—what kind of spirit was he? He was a spirit who said: There were Gnostics; they claim to know something through a mind that can function independently of the physical body. All of this is wrong; all of this is, as they said at the time, heretical—people must not believe in it.” And he refuted it. Such refuters became more and more numerous, spreading farther and farther. And, of course, the power of the Mystery of Golgotha remained—the power of the fact, the power of tradition. Through what had been handed down—what functioned as fact—Christianity now propagated itself. What propagated as “science,” however, actually petered out. And the successor to Irenaeus in our time, in turn, combats everything that stems from a genuine knowledge of the spiritual world. Who is the forerunner, and who is the successor? Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon, who fought the Gnostics; and the Irenaeus of our time, the Bishop of Matter from Jena, is Ernst Haeckel—the successor to Irenaeus. That is the line of development, my dear friends! The rest are merely anachronisms, for the rejection of Ernst Haeckel also stems from the same spirit. In terms of the way of thinking, there is a direct line of continuity from Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon, to Ernst Haeckel. One must simply view these things objectively and historically, not with any sense of critical sympathy or antipathy, but entirely objectively and historically.

[ 27 ] When we create a mental image of this entire course of spiritual development, we begin to sense something that has already been touched upon here from another perspective: namely, that what people were capable of understanding did not actually align with this Christian development. Understanding—spiritual comprehension—is only now beginning to emerge. For people had lost the power to understand something that can only be grasped spiritually, such as the Mystery of Golgotha. What enabled the Mystery of Golgotha to win over humanity was not the intellect, but the fact itself. And this fact actually worked in a very peculiar way.

[ 28 ] Now, in fact, only a very faint echo of this tradition remains. But in the early centuries, whenever the story of Christ’s appearance on earth at Christmas was recounted, the first chapters of the Book of Genesis were read aloud first. The story of Creation—the beginning of the Bible—was directly linked to the mystery of Christmas. Now only one thing remains in connection with this: If you look at the calendar, you’ll see Christmas on December 25 and Adam and Eve on the 24th. The fact that these appear in direct connection on the calendar is the last remnant of what once existed in people’s consciousness: that once Christmas had been fixed for a specific time of year, people associated the story of Creation with the Christmas mystery. But it was not merely that, outwardly, the story of Creation was presented first and then the Christmas mystery; rather, attention was repeatedly drawn to one of the deepest legends, which sought to depict the connection between the world—the beginning of the Earth—and the mystery of Golgotha. Attention was drawn to how, when Adam had been expelled from Paradise, the tree through which he had sinned—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—had also been removed from Paradise; how fruits, the seeds of this tree, were planted on Adam’s grave, and this tree grew from them. And then the wood of this tree, the tree of Paradise, was passed down from generation to generation until the time when Christ appeared on earth. And then, from this wood—the wood that had just grown anew from the grave, which was Adam’s grave—from this wood the cross was fashioned, upon which the Savior hung.

[ 29 ] This legend about the connection between the beginning of the world and the Mystery of Golgotha was repeatedly told in earlier centuries to people who were able to understand such things. They were told, therefore: The tree of Paradise, on which humanity had sinned, was cast out of Paradise, and seeds fell into the soil that covered Adam’s grave. And from these seeds sprang once more the tree on which humanity had sinned in Paradise. And this wood from the tree was passed down from generation to generation and eventually, through various twists and turns, reached the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, and the cross on which Christ was crucified was made from this wood.

[ 30 ] This legend thus also contains the connections between the beginning of the Earth and the Mystery of Golgotha. But these things are so closely intertwined—so intimately connected—that there are certain plays that were performed at Christmas which were not merely Christ plays, but Paradise plays; Paradise plays in which the mystery of Adam and Eve and the Fall was directly presented to the people as Christmas—or rather, the Feast of the Epiphany, the Feast of the Three Kings—approached on January 6.

[ 31 ] Just consider, my dear friends, what profound spiritual realities we are being led to here. We think of the Luciferic-Ahrimanic temptation of humanity—that which humanity had become as a result of the Ahrimanic-Luciferic temptation—and we imagine this represented by the figure of Adam, who succumbed to temptation. If we fully understand this Ahrimanic-Luciferic temptation, we must necessarily conclude that the development of the Earth would have been entirely different had the Luciferic-Ahrimanic temptation not approached humanity—it would have been entirely different. But this Luciferic-Ahrimanic temptation has significance only for earthly life in the physical body. It can therefore only take on significance from the moment we enter earthly life from the spiritual world through birth—or, let us say, through conception. For the life between death and a new birth, the Luciferic-Ahrimanic temptation cannot have this significance, for it has its significance here within earthly life.

[ 32 ] When we see the child entering earthly life, we are correct in saying: You appear, O soul who are here in the flesh; you emerge from a world sphere that is still untouched by the Luciferic-Ahrimanic being. You are only just entering, and as you grow ever more closely united with the physical body, you will become part of the Luciferic-Ahrimanic nature.

[ 33 ] And when we look at the child in this way, we look upon the child with a sense of a spiritual mystery of the universe. Just as a human being enters into the evolution of the Earth, he is already predestined by his previous incarnations to grow together with the physical body. But people should once feel what it means to enter the Earth without being predestined for earthly life. So that this thought might awaken in human beings—the thought of what actually dwells within the human being as a being through which they are connected to the heavenly, to the solar—so that this might awaken in human beings, the Christ Child conquered the spiritual development of humanity. And this Christ Child conquered the spiritual development of humanity exactly as it was able to do so.

[ 34 ] Essentially, there were two currents throughout the entire development of Christianity. We can understand these two currents very well. Christ first entered the world through two bodies: through the Nathanic Jesus and through the Solomonic Jesus. He entered through the Nathanic Jesus, I would say, as through the earthly child. Just look at how I have described this in the cycles and also in *The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and of Humanity*. Through the Nathanic Jesus, Christ entered the Earth in such a way that this Nathanic Jesus was a being preserved from Earth’s development up to that point, like the substance that has existed since the beginning of the Earth. The Solomonic Jesus, however, was a being who had undergone an upward evolution through many, many earthly incarnations. Thus, two paths that were then to converge in the manner I have described.

[ 35 ] But now imagine all of this happening at a time when spiritual wisdom is dying out, when there is no way to comprehend it. This infinite depth arises: there are two boys named Jesus through whom Christ is to enter the world. That infinite depth arises—the very depth that people who understand nothing of the whole matter, despite being officially called to do so, now slander and denounce. That which arises could only have been understood through the very wisdom that has been eradicated. Is it any wonder that this fact has come to pass in a way that can only gradually be understood again through our science? Hence, the initial endeavor was as follows. When even more of the ancient wisdom was still seeping through—seeping through drop by drop—people wanted to place even greater emphasis on the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth, on his entry into the great world events; and so they had set the “Feast of the Epiphany,” which falls on January 6, as the feast of the Lord’s manifestation. This is more closely connected with the Solomonic Jesus, with the Jesus who entered as a king, who came from a royal lineage. This aspect was also understood more through what was known as royal-magical wisdom. In contrast, the other Jesus—the Nathanic Jesus—who in his very essence had nothing of what had happened on earth—was thus properly assigned to this deep winter season, which is now the Christmas festival. People have not understood that these belong together; they have even separated the dates of birth. For in earlier centuries, the feast of Jesus’ birth was certainly also observed on January 6. But the fact that two birth feasts were observed—this is quite understandable to anyone who can speak of two Jesus figures. Even the way in which people thought of Jesus actually exists in two versions. One relates more to the Jesus who entered the world without having previously come into contact with what has given rise to human distinctions on Earth through nations, social classes, and race: the Jesus who can enter, understood through the simplest popular sentiment—the Luke Jesus, the Nathanic Jesus. The other Jesus, the Solomonic Jesus, is better understood through what constitutes heavenly wisdom—a wisdom through which seeps what has remained, drop by drop, of the ancient magical wisdom.

[ 36 ] It is not at all wrong to say to oneself: We first saw the first Jesus play, this simple Jesus play, to which the old remnants of magical wisdom do not apply at all: that is the Nathanite Jesus boy. In the other, the wisdom that people still possessed prevails: that Jesus who entered the world from royal blood—the second play that had an effect on us. People knew nothing of this, but the two Jesus figures had a lasting impact, as people created such fundamentally different plays based on them.

[ 37 ] So I wanted to begin by hinting at how the Paradise Play and the Christmas Play grew together, so that the whole has meaning. We’ll talk more about that tomorrow. Today, however, I’d just like to reiterate the point I made yesterday at the end—and also throughout my reflections—that these Christmas plays are, at the same time, a reminder—even the simplest ones, in a certain sense. And they were indeed a reminder for all those who listened.

[ 38 ] Once again, what we are striving for is to be, in a spiritual sense, a kind of universal Christmas. Christ is to be born anew, at least for human understanding, in a spiritual way. This entire work within Spiritual Science is actually a kind of Christmas celebration, a birth of Christ within human wisdom. The only question is whether many people who are now able to understand will come. Yes, I would say that in earlier centuries, one could hear many a farmer sitting there when a Christmas play like yesterday’s first one was performed. The whole congregation would come in, and there the farmers would sit. Now it was like this: Sometimes one of the farmers would say to another, “Tell me, are you actually an innkeeper or are you a shepherd?” — Then the other would pause to consider whether he was an innkeeper or a shepherd. But I think, in light of what modern scholarship has to say about Christ, one could also ask people: Are you an innkeeper or are you a shepherd? For one hears the innkeepers ranting quite vehemently and saying: “What do you want here at my door? Get out of here—find lodging somewhere else, not with us!”—The others are the shepherds. Among them is also a skeptic, Mops, who refuses to grasp even the pretense, yet allows himself to be led along by Koridan through a certain sense of truth. I do think the question and the answer in the soul—with which some people used to leave after watching the Christmas play, the peasants of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries—might give us pause for thought: “Well, tell me, are you actually an innkeeper, or are you a shepherd?” — Let us hope, my dear friends, that little by little, in our own way, quite a few shepherds will emerge, so that the innkeepers—who are, after all, heard from in great numbers—will gradually be silenced.