The Gospel of Matthew. Lecture 2 of 12.
Rudolf Steiner, September 2, 1910:
In the opening lines of the Gospel of
Matthew emphasis is laid on the descent of the physical nature of the Jesus of
this Gospel from Abraham. The fact of most importance to the spiritual scientist
is that by inheritance throughout thrice fourteen generations this individual
bore within him an extract of the whole race of Abraham. He is the same
individual who is spoken of as Zoroaster or Zarathustra.
In the last
lecture we described the external conditions in which Zarathustra worked.
Something must now be said of the opinions and ideas that obtained in his
immediate circle.
In that district
where in very far-off ages Zarathustra worked, conceptions and ideas flourished
that, in their broad outlines, were of profound importance. It needs but a few
extracts from what since earliest times has been regarded as the teaching of the
first Zarathustra to show how deeply these affected the thought of the whole
post-Atlantean period. Even external history relates how the teaching of
Zarathustra proceeded from two principles, which we describe as the principle of
Ormuzd, the beneficent being of light, and Ahriman, the dark being of evil. At
the same time historical descriptions of this religious system trace the origin
of these two principles back to a single common principle: Zeruane Akarene. It is
customary to translate Zeruane Akarene as ‘Uncreated Time.’ It may, therefore,
be said that the teaching of Zarathustra leads back to an original principle, in
which we have to recognize quiescent Time, Time flowing on in its universal
course. The very meaning of the word shows us that it is unnecessary to question
further as to the origin of this Time, this revolution of Time.
True, the
external abstract thinking of man will hardly ever refrain from inquiring again
and again after the cause of this cause, forever driving his conceptions back,
forever seeking the primal cause. But the spiritual scientist realizes through
deep meditation that questionings about the beginnings of things must cease
somewhere. To continue them beyond a certain point is merely to play with
thinking, as is shown clearly in Occult
Science. It is stated there that when wheel tracks are seen on a road it
may well be asked whence they came. The answer will probably be that they were
caused by the wheels of a carriage. A query as to the reason for the wheels on
the carriage may produce the information that they were needed to enable it to
travel along the road. A further inquiry as to the cause of this may bring the
reply that someone wished to travel along the road. Ultimately we arrive at the
resolve of the man which led him to travel along the road. Here it is advisable
to stop, for further inquiries would inevitably lead to losing one's way in a
maze of questions.
It is the same
as regards great universal questions: a halt must be made somewhere — made at
what lies at the fountain of the teaching of Zarathustra: at Time, calm,
onflowing Time. Then, according to Zarathustra, there proceeded from Time,
Ormuzd, the principle of Light, and Ahriman, the evil principle of Darkness. The
profound meaning underlying this Iranian or old Persian idea is that the
wickedness in the world, all that in its physical form is described as darkness,
was not originally wicked, dark, and evil. In the same way the wolf was
originally good, but when left to itself it degenerated so that Ahrimanic forces
could be active in it. To the Iranians or Persians evil came to pass through
something that at one time — a time suited to it — was good, retaining its form
on into a later age with which it was out of harmony. To them, all that was
black and evil arose through a form which was good in one age, continuing on
into a later age, instead of adapting itself to change. Through the clashing of
such forms of being with the more advanced ones of a later time, the struggle
between good and evil arose. Evil is therefore not absolute evil, but misplaced
good, something that was good in an earlier time. There, where earlier
conditions did not as yet come into collision with later conditions, enduring
Time rolled on, Time that was undifferentiated, not yet separated into
individual moments.
Such is the very
important point of view expressed in Zarathustrianism; and this should be
recognized as the fundamental principle of the teaching of Zarathustra among the
earliest post-Atlantean peoples, and must be associated with the facts given in
the first lecture. The people influenced by him had, above all, insight into the
necessity for the birth of this duality from out the uniform stream of Time, and
for the coming of opposition, which opposition would only be overcome in the
course of time. We see the necessity that the new should arise and the old
remain behind; that in the balance between the old and the new the goal of the
universe, and especially the goal of the Earth, will gradually be attained. It
is this point of view that lies at the root of all that higher development which
has sprung from Zarathustrianism.
The impression
made by the influence of Zarathustra on subsequent ages was strong and deep. It
was possible through the fact that having reached the highest summit of
initiation attainable at that time, he had also trained two pupils. These pupils
I have spoken of before. To one he taught everything connected with the mystery
of Space as it is spread around us, and therewith the mystery of all things
contemporaneous. To the other he imparted the mystery of the flight of Time, the
mystery of development and of evolution. I have also already indicated that at a
definite point of time of such a discipleship as existed between these two great
disciples and Zarathustra something quite special enters: the teacher can
sacrifice part of his own being to his disciples. And Zarathustra, as he was in
his Zarathustra-age, gave up to his pupils something of his own being: he
sacrificed his own etheric and astral bodies. His individuality, his own inmost
being, he retained for future incarnations; but his remarkable astral ‘garment,’
in which he had lived as Zarathustra in the earliest post-Atlantean periods,
which had attained such a degree of perfection and was so permeated by his
whole being that instead of dispersing like that of an ordinary man, it remained
intact — he gave this to another. The depth and power of the individuality of
this great initiate made this possible, and this is why the astral body of
Zarathustra persisted. Similarly his etheric body remained also intact.
According to
occult investigation, one of these pupils, the one who had received knowledge
concerning the mystery of Space, of all that fills space contemporaneously,
reincarnated as that personality known to history as Thoth or Hermes of the
Egyptians. Hermes had not only to establish in himself what he had received from
Zarathustra in an earlier incarnation, but he had to establish it more firmly;
this he was able to do in the Holy Mysteries, because he had received into
himself the astral sheath of the great initiate. Permeated by the teaching of
Zarathustra, and filled by his astral nature, the individuality of this pupil
was born again as Hermes, the inaugurator of the civilization of Egypt. We have,
therefore, a direct member or principle of the being of Zarathustra in the
Egyptian Hermes. With this principle, and with what he had brought with him of
the teaching of Zarathustra, Hermes was able to give the impulse for all that
was best and of greatest moment in Egyptian civilization. Naturally, a suitable
race was necessary in order that the work of the messenger of Zarathustra might
be effective. A race promising a fruitful soil for the development of this work
could only be found among those Atlantean wanderers who had taken the more
southern way and had settled in East Africa and had retained much of their old
clairvoyance. The essential soul nature of this race was quick to receive the
wisdom of Hermes, and in this way Egyptian civilization arose. It was a very
special type of civilization. You must try to realize how all that is included
in the mysteries of contemporaneous things, of that which exists side by side in
space, was contained in the wisdom of Hermes — all this had been entrusted to
him as a precious gift from Zarathustra, so that in his own being Hermes
possessed the most important teachings that Zarathustra had to impart.
It has often
been stated that the most characteristic teaching of Zarathustra referred to the
external sunlight and the external physical light-body of the Sun as the outer
sheath of an exalted spiritual being. What was confided to Hermes was the
mystery of that which as being underlies all Nature, all space, and everything
contemporaneous, yet which advances ever in time from epoch to epoch, and
reveals itself in certain epochs. Hermes knew what comes from the Sun, and what
through the Sun continues to develop. This knowledge he implanted in the souls
of the Egyptians, who retained a memory of the Atlantean Sun Mysteries and
were, therefore, specially adapted to receive his teachings. All this, within
the advancing line of evolution, was in the soul of Hermes, as well as in all
those souls ripe to absorb his wisdom.
The mission of
the second of Zarathustra's pupils was very different. Upon him had been
bestowed the secrets of the passing of Time. He had to experience within himself
the conflict between the old and the new, how in evolution something was active
as opposition, as polarity. As already stated, this pupil had also received part
of the being of Zarathustra; on reincarnating he could therefore receive the
sacrifice of Zarathustra.
Thus, while the
individuality of Zarathustra remained intact, his sheaths were separated from
him, they endured and were not dispersed, for they were held together by such a
mighty individual. This second pupil — to whom was imparted the wisdom
concerning Time in contradistinction to that concerning Space — received at a
specific moment of his reincarnated existence the etheric body of Zarathustra,
which had been sacrificed in the same way as his astral body. This reborn pupil
was none other than Moses. Moses received in quite early childhood the fully
preserved etheric body of Zarathustra.
Our religious
documents — which are really founded on occultism — contain all this, though in a
veiled form. In them we find suggestions of the secrets revealed through occult
investigation. As Moses was the reincarnated pupil of Zarathustra and had
received his etheric body, something quite unusual had to take place in him.
This is recorded in the Scriptures. Before he could receive the ordinary
impressions from his surroundings like another human being, before he could
descend with his individuality so as to receive impressions from the external
world, there had to percolate into his being that which he was to receive as a
marvellous inheritance from Zarathustra. This fact is expressed in the symbolic
legend which relates that Moses was placed in a casket and lowered to the river.
This should be accepted as indicating a remarkable initiation.
Initiation
consists in a man being withdrawn from the world for a certain time, during
which he slowly absorbs what has been given to him. While thus withdrawn, Moses
was able to be united at the right moment with the etheric body of Zarathustra
that had been preserved for this purpose. The wonderful wisdom concerning Time,
the gift of Zarathustra in an earlier period, was then able to blossom within
him; he gave this wisdom to his people in a series of pictures fitted to their
understanding. Hence from Moses we have those mighty pictures of Genesis, those
imaginations dealing with the wisdom of Time, of the ages as they succeed one
another, received from Zarathustra This was a reborn knowledge — a reborn
wisdom — received by him, and was firmly established in his inner nature since
he had received the etheric sheath of Zarathustra himself.
An initiate is
not only needed as inaugurator of a new civilization for the advancement of the
human race, but he must have a suitable medium in which to work, a race fitted
to receive the germ of this new civilization. To understand the folk-soul, the
folk-germ in which what had been received by Moses from Zarathustra was to be
planted, it would be well to consider more exactly the peculiar wisdom of
Moses.
In a former
incarnation, Moses as Zarathustra's pupil had received the wisdom concerning
Time, and that secret which we referred to as the ‘opposition between the
earlier and the later’ that arises in every age. If the wisdom of Moses was to
enter human evolution it had to be established as a polarity to that other
wisdom, already in existence, the wisdom of Hermes. And this took place.
Hermes had
received direct Sun-wisdom from Zarathustra: that is to say, through his
astral body he had gained knowledge of the being dwelling mysteriously within
the outer physical sheath of light — the body of the Sun. With Moses it was
otherwise. Moses, whose wisdom was connected with the denser etheric body,
received the Sun-wisdom less directly. His was not that wisdom which looks up to
the Sun asking: “Does not everything come forth from the being of the Sun?”; but
he was the recipient of a contrasting knowledge, the wisdom that understood
earthly things, things that had become dense and fixed, and appeared old, though
not degenerate — Earth-wisdom in contrast to direct Sun-wisdom. Earth-wisdom was
indirect Sun-wisdom. It derived its life from the Sun, yet was of the Earth.
Moses declared the mystery of the Earth's origin, of the formation of the solid
Earth after the withdrawal of the Sun, and told how man evolved on it. This is
revealed to our inward, not our outward, vision; and now we see how and why the
teaching of Hermes presents such a vivid contrast to that of Moses.
There are
certain people today who consider all such problems on the principle that in
the night all cows are grey. They can only see resemblances, and are enchanted
when, for instance, some likeness between the Hermetic and Mosaic teachings is
discovered; here they find a trinity, there a trinity, there a quaternary, and
here a quaternary. This leads nowhere. It is like someone training a botanist by
pointing out the likeness between a rose and a carnation, but omitting the
differences. Through spiritual science we learn in what way both beings and
forms of knowledge differ. The wisdom of Moses was quite different from that of
Hermes, even though both proceeded from Zarathustra. As unity divides and
manifests itself in various ways, so Zarathustra imparted to his two pupils
revelations of a very different kind.
When we are
steeped in the influences streaming from the wisdom of Hermes we become aware
of all that fills the world with light, of the origin of the world, and how this
was affected by the light; but we do not learn from him how, in all development,
the earlier influences the later, how this brings about strife between past and
present, and the opposition of Light to Darkness. Earthly wisdom, the wisdom
concerning the development of the Earth and of man after the separation from the
Sun, is nowhere to be found in the teaching of Hermes. But it was the special
mission of Moses to make the development of the Earth, after its separation from
the Sun, comprehensible to man. Hermes brought us Sun-wisdom; Moses
Earth-wisdom. Moses, with his Zarathustrian inheritance, taught of the dawn of
earthly existence and of the earthly evolution of man. He starts from the things
of Earth, but these earthly things, though separated from the Sun, still
contained, if weakened, something of the nature of the Sun. Therefore the
Earth-wisdom of Moses had to encounter the Sun-wisdom of Hermes in concrete
existence. These two streams of wisdom had to meet. This is shown most
wonderfully in the initiation of Moses in Egypt, where he came in contact with
the Hermes-wisdom. In the birth of Moses in Egypt, in the sojourning of his
people there, in the conflict between them and the Egyptians, who were the
people of Hermes, is seen the reflection in external life of the clashing of the
Earth-wisdom with the Sun-wisdom. Both had originated with Zarathustra, and
though they followed entirely different courses of evolution, they had to work
together and to coincide.
There is a
certain kind of knowledge, one closely connected with the profound secrets of
human and earthly existence, which in accordance with the methods of the
Mysteries is always expressed in a special way. This was referred to in Munich
in the lectures on the Biblical Secrets of Creation. There it was shown how
unusually difficult it is to speak in ordinary language of such mighty truths,
truths comprising not only the deepest mysteries of man but of the universe. We
are often hampered by words, for they have their precise meaning determined by
long usage; and when endeavoring to express the mighty facts revealed inwardly
to the soul, we often find ourselves in conflict with the feeble instrument of
speech, which is really in a certain respect so extraordinarily inadequate.
The greatest
triviality of the newer culture in general that has been uttered in the course
of the nineteenth century is that every truth can be expressed simply, and that
the mode of expression is the criterion of whether someone possesses this truth
or not. Such a statement only shows that those who use it are not in possession
of absolute truth, but only of those truths which, in the course of centuries,
have been communicated in words, the form of which they only alter a little. For
such people words suffice: they are quite unaware of the great struggle which
must sometimes be carried on with words. This struggle becomes apparent whenever
the soul strives to express what is grand and exalted. I spoke in Munich of how
in the Rosicrucian Mystery Drama, The Portal of Initiation,
at the end of the scene in the room provided for meditation, there was for me a
very great difficulty with language. What the hierophant had to say to the pupil
could only be expressed in a most restricted way through the feeble instrument
of speech.
Within the Holy
Mysteries, however, the most profound secrets had to be expressed. There the
inadequacy of speech to call up the images of reality was felt most strongly.
Hence the age-long effort in the Mysteries to find other means to express the
inner experiences of the soul. These feeble means of expression — words — have
for centuries been reserved for external intercourse, but the pictures and
images seen when men turned their gaze toward the heavenly spaces have proved
far more suitable. The constellations, the rising of a star at a certain time,
the occultation of a certain star by another at a definite time — such pictures
were used to express experiences within the human soul.
Let us suppose
that someone desired to say that a great event was to take place at a certain
time, because at that particular moment a human soul would be sufficiently ripe
to receive a great experience and to pass this on to his people; or that some
nation, or a large part of mankind, having reached a certain high stage of
ripeness, a certain individuality could appear among them, coming perhaps from a
quite other direction. In such a case the climax of development of the
individual would coincide with the highest point of development of the
folk-soul. No words are sufficiently exalted to convey the full meaning of such
an event. Therefore it was expressed in this wise: The coincidence of the climax
of power of an individual with the climax of power of a folk-soul is as when
the Sun is in the constellation of Leo and thence sends us its light. The
constellation of the Lion is here chosen to represent, in a pictorial way,
something that had to be expressed as taking place with utmost power in human
evolution. What could be seen thus outwardly in cosmic space was used as a means
of expressing something taking place in humanity. Certain expressions found in
human history have arisen in this way; they are taken from the movements of the
heavenly bodies, and are the method used to denote spiritual facts.
When it is
stated, for example, that the Sun is in the sign of Leo, or that through some
event in the heavens, such as an eclipse of the Sun by a certain constellation,
a fact in human evolution is symbolically expressed, it may very well happen
that people reverse this and suppose, in a trivial way, that all the events
relating to mankind's history were myths clothed in the motions of the stars,
whereas the truth is that incidents in the life of humanity were expressed by
means of images taken from the constellations.
This connection
with the cosmos ought to fill us with certain feelings of reverence toward all
we are told concerning the great events of human evolution, when we find these
expressed in images taken from cosmic existence. But there is, nevertheless, an
intimate connection between the existence of the whole cosmos and the life of
man: this is, that events taking place on Earth are a reflection of cosmic
events. Thus the meeting of the Sun-wisdom of Hermes with the Earth-wisdom of
Moses in Egypt is, in a certain way, a reflection of cosmic activities. Picture
to yourselves that certain forces streaming from the Sun to the Earth meet
others streaming from the Earth into cosmic space. It is not a matter of
indifference where these two forces meet; but according as the meeting be near
or far, the result of the outgoing and incoming forces is different.
Now, the contact
of the wisdom of Hermes with that of Moses was pictured in the Mysteries of
ancient Egypt as representing something that, according also to spiritual
science, had previously taken place in the cosmos. We know that early in
evolution the Sun separated from the Earth, leaving the Moon for a period within
the Earth. Later a part of this globe separated from the Earth, and remained as
the present Moon. Thus the Earth sent a portion of itself, as Moon, into
universal space, toward the Sun. We may think of the remarkable occurrence of
the meeting of the Earth-wisdom of Moses with the Sun-wisdom of Hermes as
comparable with this streaming forth of the Earth-forces toward the Sun. One
might say: The wisdom of Moses, in its further course, after separating from the
Sun-wisdom of Zarathustra, developed as the wisdom of the Earth and of men in
such a way that it drew again toward the sun, absorbing and filling itself with
direct solar wisdom. The Earth was destined to receive direct Sun-wisdom only to
a certain extent, then to develop further alone and independently. The wisdom of
Moses, therefore, only remained in Egypt until it had absorbed sufficient for
its needs. Then came the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, in order
that the Sun-wisdom taken up by the Earth-wisdom might be assimilated and
brought to greater self-dependence.
The wisdom of
Moses was twofold. One part was developed under the sheltering wing of the
Hermes-wisdom which it continually absorbed from every side; then, after the
exodus from Egypt, it separated from this development, continued further within
itself, and later passed through three stages. Toward what should this wisdom
evolve? What is its task? Its ultimate task was to find its way back from the
Earth to the Sun. It had become earthly wisdom. Moses was born, with all he
inherited from Zarathustra, as a wise man of Earth. He was to find the way back,
and he sought it in three stages, the first being that in which he absorbed the
wisdom of Hermes. These stages are again best expressed in the images drawn from
cosmic events. When what takes place upon the Earth streams back in space from
the Earth toward the Sun, it first encounters what is of the nature of Mercury
(in ordinary astronomy; the Mercury of astronomy is the Venus of Occult Science),
then that of Venus, and ultimately that which is of the nature of the Sun. The
soul of Moses had to develop his Zarathustrian inheritance in inner experiences
in such a way that he might return and find once more what appertained to the
Sun. In order to do this he had to attain a certain degree of development. The
wisdom Moses had implanted in western culture had to develop according to the
way he gave it to his people. The wisdom he had gained from Hermes, and which
came to him like the direct rays of the sun, he had to develop anew, and reflect
it back again in a changed form, after he had absorbed some part of it.
Now we are told
that Hermes, who was later called ‘Mercury,’ brought to his people science and
art, that is, external knowledge and art, in a form suitable to them. But it was
in a different and almost opposite way that the wisdom of Moses attained to the
Hermes-Mercury standpoint. Moses had himself to develop the wisdom of Hermes
further. This is shown in the progress of the Hebrew people up to the age and
reign of David. David, who is presented to us as the royal singer of Psalms and
holy prophet, who as a man of God worked both as warrior and harpist, is the
Hermes, or Mercury, of the Hebrew people. That stream of the Hebrew folk had now
so far evolved that it had developed an independent form of Hermetic or Mercury
wisdom. At the time of David the wisdom received from Hermes had reached the
Mercury sphere, or Mercury stage, on its return journey. It then continued to
the region of Venus. This came to pass for the Hebrews when the Moses-wisdom, or
rather that version of it which had endured as his wisdom for hundreds of years,
had to unite with an entirely different element, with a stream issuing from
another direction.
Just as that
which streams back in space from the Earth toward the Sun encounters Venus, so
the wisdom of Moses encountered an Asiatic wisdom that came from another
direction during the Babylonian Captivity. The Moses-wisdom came in touch with
the weakened form of another wisdom in the Mysteries of Babylon and Chaldea.
Like a wanderer who, having acquired knowledge of the Earth, leaves it for the
Mercury sphere, and thence passes on to Venus desirous of experiencing the
sunlight as it is felt there, so the Moses-wisdom, having received the direct
Sun-wisdom from the holy teachings of Zarathustra, passed over in a weakened
form to the mystery schools of Chaldea and Babylon. The wisdom of Moses
experienced this weakening during the Babylonian captivity, where it united with
all that had penetrated into the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates. Here
something else happened.
In the
sanctuaries which the wise men among the Hebrews were obliged to frequent during
their captivity, the wisdom of Moses was directly impregnated with the qualities
of the Sun-wisdom. For at this time Zarathustra was himself incarnated and
taught in the mystery schools of the Tigris and Euphrates, and was known to the
learned among the Hebrews. He who had relinquished part of his wisdom so that he
might receive it back again was himself teaching at this time. He had
frequently reincarnated, and in this incarnation, in which he was known as
Zarathos or Nazarathos, he taught the captive Jews in Babylon.
Thus in the
course of its further progress the wisdom of Moses came in touch with what
Zarathustra had himself become after he had withdrawn from the more distant
Mystery sanctuaries and had entered those of Asia Minor. Here he became the
teacher of the initiate Chaldean disciples, as well as teacher of the Hebrews.
They now received a fructification of their Mosaic wisdom by a stream they were
now fitter to encounter, because what had once been given to their ancestor
Moses by Zarathustra came to them now directly from himself, in his incarnation
as Zarathos or Nazarathos. This was the destiny through which Mosaic wisdom
passed. Originally it sprang from Zarathustra, but was then transplanted into an
alien land. It was as if a Sun-being with bandaged eyes had been brought down to
Earth, and now, on its backward journey, had to seek all it had lost. Such a
wanderer was Moses, the pupil of Zarathustra. His destiny had placed him within
Egyptian civilization, so that all the wisdom given him at one time by
Zarathustra might be quickened and illuminated in his inner being. He was cut
off, as it were, from the Sun on the fields of Earth, where unaware of the
source of his illumination he moved unconsciously toward what once was Sun. In
Egypt he was attracted toward the wisdom of Hermes, which brought to him direct
Zarathustra-wisdom, not an indirect reflection like his own. After absorbing
sufficiently of this, the wisdom of Moses continued its development in a more
direct way. Having founded a Hermetic wisdom at the time of David, and a
science and art of its own, it turned again toward the Sun, from which it had
originally come forth, though in a way that had at first to appear veiled.
In the ancient
Babylonian schools of learning where, among others, Zarathustra taught
Pythagoras, his teaching was restricted by the type of physical body of the
period. If Zarathustra was to give full expression to his Sun-nature through a
form suited to those times, as he was able to do in that earlier incarnation
when he had passed it on to Moses and Hermes, he would require a bodily
instrument fitted to the new age. Restricted by a body such as could be produced
in ancient Babylonia, he was only able to convey such wisdom as he passed on to
Pythagoras, to the learned Hebrews, and wise men of Chaldea and Babylon, who in
the sixth century before Christ were ready and able to hear it. In respect of
this teaching it was exactly as if the sunlight were first taken up by Venus and
prevented from shining directly on the Earth; as if his teaching could not shine
with its original splendor but only in a weakened form. Before the Sun-wisdom
of Zarathustra could shine forth once more in its pristine power, a body suited
to him must first be provided, and in a very special way. This will now be
described.
In the first
lecture we told of the three folk-souls of Asia: the Indian in the South, the
Iranian, and the Turanian to the North, and we described the connection of these
with the Atlantean migrations into Asia. Where the northern stream which came
from Atlantis met the southern stream which passed through Africa, an
extraordinary mixture of races occurred. From this admixture a race developed
from which later the Hebrew people sprang.
Something
unusual occurred in the development of these ancestors of the Hebrews. The lower
astral-etheric clairvoyance, which had become so decadent among certain races
because it was the last phase of external perception, had in those people who
developed into the Hebrew race turned inward and manifested as an organizing
force. That which we have described as being externally decadent, as having
remained behind in certain races as a last phase of declining clairvoyance, and
as being permeated somewhat by the Ahrimanic element, had progressed among the
Hebrews in the right direction by becoming an actively organizing force within
the human body. Through this, bodies became more perfect. What among the
Turanians was decadent worked constructively and progressively in the Hebrews.
Within the physical nature of the Hebrews, as propagated from generation to
generation in the close bond of blood relationship, all those forces were active
which had accomplished their mission in developing external sight. These were no
longer required to provide external sight, so could enter on another sphere of
action, thus passing into their right element. That which had given to the
Atlantean the power to gaze spiritually into space and into spiritual realms,
that had run wild in the Turanians, appearing as a last relic of clairvoyance —
all this force worked inwardly in the little Hebrew nation. What in the
Atlantean had been spiritual and divine, worked inwardly in the Hebrew race to
form certain organs. It worked constructively in the body and could therefore
flash forth in the blood of this people as an inward divine
consciousness. With the Hebrew people it was if all the Atlantean had seen
when directing his clairvoyant vision into space was turned inward, as if it
constructed inwardly an organ of consciousness which was the Jahve-consciousness
— the consciousness of God within him. This people felt the God Who filled all
space to be united with their blood, felt they were filled, impregnated, with
Him, and that He lived in the pulsation of their blood.
As in the last
lecture we contrasted the Iranians and the Turanians, we have now considered the
Turanians and the Hebrews, and have seen that what in its further progress and
in its essence had become decadent in the Turanians, pulsated later in the blood
of the Hebrew people. All that the Atlantean had seen, lived on in the
Hebrew as an inward feeling, and could be comprised in a single word:
Jahve or Jehovah. The consciousness of God lived throughout the
generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob concentrated as into a single point,
invisible but inwardly felt. The God Who had revealed Himself to the Atlantean
clairvoyance behind all living things was now the God dwelling in the blood of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and led the generations of their race from destiny to
destiny. The outward had thus become inward; it was experienced, no longer seen;
it was no longer described by different names, but by one single name: ‘I am the
I am!’ It had taken on an entirely different form. Whereas for the Atlantean
this was found where he was not — in the external world — it was now found by
man in the center of his own being: in his ego; he was conscious of it in the
blood that coursed through the generations. The mighty God of the Universe had
now become the God of the Hebrews; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
flowed through the generations as the blood of the race.
It was in this
way that the race was founded whose special inner mission for humanity we shall
consider in the next lecture. We have thus far only been able to indicate the
very earliest stage of the composition of the blood of this people, in which was
concentrated everything that in the age of ancient Atlantis humanity had
allowed to be impressed upon it from without. We shall see later what mysteries
were fulfilled in that which had here its beginning, and shall learn to
recognize the peculiar nature of that people from which Zarathustra could take
his body to become the being we call Jesus of Nazareth.
Notes:Note 1 In a footnote to this lecture the reader is recommended to study these early lectures in conjunction with the author's lectures on St. Luke, in order to understand the events in the life of Christ Jesus.
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