The Gospel of Matthew. Lecture 9 of 12.
Rudolf Steiner, September 9, 1910.
From what has already been given out
in these lectures we are led to the conviction that the following are the
essential facts of the Christ event. The stage of human development described as
raising the soul to spiritual realms was only attainable in pre-Christian days
within the Mysteries, and then only through a certain dimming of the ego. Human
development, however, was destined to receive so powerful an impulse that those
who could rise to it would be able to retain full ego-consciousness on entering
the world of spirit. This condition belongs for the most part to the future, for
ego-consciousness at the present day is normal only on the physical planes.
The advance in
human evolution imparted by the Christ event is the greatest that has yet been
made, or ever will be made, in human or earthly evolution. Whatever may arise in
the future in consequence of this event will be but a further development of
this mighty impulse. Therefore we ask ourselves: What then actually had to come
to pass through the event of Christ?
In a certain way
there must be a repetition; a repetition in detail, of what belonged to the
secrets of the ancient Mysteries. It was characteristic of those Mysteries, as
it is to some extent of those of today, that he who penetrated within his own
physical and etheric bodies experienced the temptations of the astral body as
described in the last lecture. In the Greek Mysteries, on the other hand, man
had to confront the difficulties and dangers that always approach those who try
to pour themselves forth into the macrocosm. This also has been described. Both
these types of initiation were experienced as a single impulse of a great
outstanding individuality of the Christ as a pattern for mankind. Through this
an impetus was given by which men would gradually in future be able to pass
through such a development as came to them in initiation.
Let us therefore
consider first what was accomplished in the Mysteries. All that the human soul
then passed through was experienced with the ego-consciousness reduced to
something half dreamlike, and in this condition the inner soul nature gained
certain experiences. Such a man experienced the awakening of egoism, the desire
to be independent of the external world; but, as explained in the last lecture,
so long as man is unable to create food magically, unable to dispense with what
is acquired through his physical organism, he is dependent on the outer world.
Therefore he is exposed to the illusion that all he perceives by means of his
physical nature applies only to the world and to the splendor thereof. Every
pupil, every would-be initiate, went through this experience, though not in the
same way as the Christ, Who experienced it on the highest level. Therefore a
description of these facts, which are only experienced by a pupil of the
Mysteries, would be in a certain way similar to a description of the life of
Christ Jesus. What then took place outwardly, once and for all time, on the
plane of the world's history, had been confined hitherto to the darkness of the
Mysteries.
Let us consider
the following case, one that was frequent in the centuries immediately preceding
Christ. Let us suppose that an artist or a writer had learnt that this or that
procedure was followed during initiation, and that he had painted or written of
it. Such a picture or writing might well resemble what is related by the
evangelists of the Christ event; and one can understand how in many ancient
Mysteries after due preparation the candidate's physical form was bound with
outstretched hands in the form of a cross, so that his soul nature might be
liberated. He remained thus for a certain time, so as to draw forth his soul
nature, and that he might undergo the experiences already related. These things
might have been represented in paintings or described in writing. They might
then be discovered by someone today, who might deduce from them that the
painter had painted a scene of the Mysteries, or the writer had recorded an old
tradition. He might then go on to say that the facts of the Gospels are merely
records of the rites of an initiation of former days.
This is
frequently stated — and to how great an extent is shown in my book Christianity as Mystical Fact, in which I explain how
all the secrets of the ancient Mysteries appear again in the Gospels, how in
fact the Gospels are but repetitions of ancient accounts of initiation as
carried out in the Mysteries. Why in telling of the life of Christ does the
evangelist simply describe facts of the ancient Mysteries? The evangelist
describes the scenes of the ancient Mysteries because he saw these inner
processes of the soul carried out as historic facts; because all the events of
the life of Christ Jesus were a repetition, exalted to the level of an
Ego-Being, of the symbolic or even actual-symbolic acts of ancient
initiation.
This fact needs
emphasis: Those who take their stand on the ground of the historical truth of
the Christ event may rightly point out the resemblance between the Gospel
biographies of Christ Jesus and the occurrences of the Mysteries. To express it
more exactly, those who were destined to behold the Christ event in Palestine
beheld the fulfillment of the Essene prophecy; the Baptism in Jordan, the
Temptation, the Crucifixion, and all that followed. They could say therefore: We
have represented to us here the life of a Being in a human body. What are the
essential points in the life of this Being? Strange to relate, we find, enacted
here in external historic life, certain events that are the very same as those
which occurred to the initiate in the ancient Mysteries. We need only refer to
the canon of a Mystery to discover a model for those events which are here
described as historical facts.
That in fact is
the great secret, that what was formerly hidden within the obscurity of the
temple, and only reached the world in its results, was now enacted on the great
stage of universal history as the Christ event, and could be seen by those who
had attained spiritual vision. It should be realized that in the days when the
evangelists wrote, biographies such as we have today were unknown — biographies
for instance of Goethe, Schiller, or Lessing giving in detail every minute scrap
of information, in which the most unimportant details are amassed and presented
as of the greatest moment. With the attention fixed on this mass of detail,
concentration on facts of essential importance is impossible. The evangelists
were content to relate the essential facts of the life of Christ Jesus, and the
fact of supremest importance is that in the great plan of world history the
life of Christ is a repetition of initiation. Can we wonder that this truth
which has come to light in our time should be so disconcerting to many people —
so really overwhelming. These things which are so disconcerting will strike you
even more vividly when you consider what follows.
Myths and sagas
come to us from the past. What are they? Anyone who understands them, and knows
what they are, will find in them descriptions of what ancient clairvoyance had
seen in the spiritual world clothed in happenings of the world of the senses, or
he will find other myths that are in essence nothing but descriptions of the
Mysteries. The myth of Prometheus, for instance, like many another, is partly a
reproduction of deeds enacted in the Mysteries. We often find the scene
described when Zeus appears and near him some lower god who — according to the
Greek account — tempts him. Zeus, standing on an eminence, is ‘tempted by Pan.’
This is one form; there are many others. Why does this image occur so
frequently? Because it expresses the descent of man into his inner being, the
descent into the physical and etheric body, bringing with it the encounter with
his lower nature, his egotistical Pan-nature.
The ancient
world is full of such accounts of experiences during initiation, which are in
this way given artistic form in myths and symbols. Many people who take a
superficial view make the grand discovery that certain knowledge is here
presented in the form of symbols. And this upsets people who do not know, or
wish to know, the facts. They read of Pan tempting Zeus, and say: ‘It is easy to
see from this that the scene of the temptation of Christ had taken place before.
The evangelists have only repeated some ancient allegorical tale, and the
Gospels are compiled out of such ancient tales.’ It is but a step from this to
the conclusion that the Gospels contain nothing of special import, that they are
only pieced together from myths and that Christ Jesus is fictitious. A great
movement arose in Germany which took the form of frivolous discussions as to
whether Christ Jesus had ever really lived. With a grotesque lack of knowledge,
but with profound learning, the various myths and legends which bore some
resemblance to scenes in the Gospel were discussed again and again. It is of
little avail today to impart anything concerning the true facts, although they
are well known to those who have knowledge. This is how spiritual movements
develop in our time; truly the way in which they develop is very grotesque
There would be
no need to interpolate these remarks were it not that one is constantly obliged
to make a stand against misrepresentations that are made from one side or
another, with apparently great learnedness, against the statements of spiritual
science.
The true facts
are given in these lectures. We have to see in the Gospels a recapitulation of
events that took place in the Mysteries, though in them the secrets of
initiation refer to a very different Individuality, and they really wish to say
to us: ‘Behold, what formerly was accomplished in the Mysteries through
suppression of the consciousness has now been accomplished in a marvellous and
outstanding manner by an Ego-Being in full ego-consciousness!’ We need
not therefore wonder at the statement that the Gospels hardly contain anything
that did not exist before. What we have to realize is that what was told
formerly, related to the ascent of man to the Kingdom of Heaven; never before
had what men call the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ come down into the ego. What was
essentially new was this: What formerly had taken place in a state of suppressed
consciousness and in supersensible realms could now take place in full
consciousness in Malchut, ‘The Kingdom.’ This is why, after Christ Jesus had
experienced what is described in the Gospel of Matthew as the Temptation, He
became the preacher of ‘The Kingdom.’ What was the essence of his preaching? He
said: What formerly was attained through the darkening of the human ego, and
through man receiving other beings into himself, can now be achieved with
complete retention of the ego-consciousness! This fact is stressed again and
again. Hence the necessity for a repetition of scenes from the Mysteries in the
life of Christ Jesus. Hence also the necessity of the ‘Sermon concerning the
Kingdom,’ in which Christ declared: Everything promised to those who passed
through the Mysteries or accepted their teaching can now come to those who
experience in themselves the ego-being and follow the path first traversed for
humanity by Christ.
Thus everything
had to be a repetition, even as regards the teaching. It need not surprise us
that special emphasis is laid on the difference between the old teaching and the
new, that stress was laid on the fact that the ego could now achieve in itself
what had hitherto been quite impossible for it.
Suppose that
Christ had wished to refer specially to this great truth. He would have shown
how formerly, in accordance with the teaching of the Mysteries, human beings had
ever looked up to the Kingdom of Heaven, and had felt that from heavenly realms
something came down to them which blessed them, but did not enter their ego: the
Father-Source of Existence had only been attainable with a suppressed ego. Had
it been necessary for Christ to retain this former teaching concerning the
Divine Paternal Source of existence, and only change the nuance upon which the
teaching depended, He must have expressed it thus: ‘If formerly men said, you
must raise your eyes to the realms where the Father dwelleth, the divine Source
of all existence, and wait until His Light streams down upon you, now it is
possible to say: The Father not only sends down His Light to you, but that which
is willed on high must enter the very depths of man's ego-nature, and be willed
there also.’
Let us suppose
that each separate phrase of the Lord's Prayer had existed previously, only that
something in them had to be changed. Christ would have said: ‘In former times
man looked up to the ancient divine Father Spirit, feeling that everything there
endures, and looks down on your earthly kingdom.’
But now this
Heavenly Kingdom was to come down to Earth where the ego dwells, and the Will
that is done in Heaven was also to be done on Earth. What would be the result of
this? The result would be that those who had a deeper vision and could perceive
the finer degrees of difference would not be surprised at the fact that the
Lord's Prayer had existed earlier. The superficial observer does not notice
these finer shades of difference, nor can he understand the true meaning of
Christianity. If he came upon these phrases in ancient times he would have said:
‘There it is: the evangelists write about the Lord's Prayer, but it existed
already before their time!’
You can now
realize the difference between a true and a superficial understanding of what is
written. It is important that those who note the new shades of meaning should
apply them to the old. The others, not seeing the difference, merely assert that
the Lord's Prayer existed before.
Such facts
require attention and have to be spoken of here, because Anthroposophists should
be enabled to meet to some extent the dilettante learning of today — a learning
which passes through countless hundreds of periodicals, until finally it is
accepted as ‘science.’ One individual has actually compared every possible
ancient record, searching each source in the Talmud literature, in an endeavor
to find some resemblance to the words of the Lord's Prayer. But what these
learned people have accumulated is nowhere found in its entirety outside the
Gospels. Scattered phrases resembling those of the Lord's Prayer they have
discovered here and there. To reduce this method to absurdity it might as well
be said that the first sentence of Goethe's ‘Faust’ was constructed in the
following way: In the seventeenth century there was a student who failed in his
examination, and who afterwards remarked to his father: 'With what an infinity of
trouble I have studied law!' And another failing in medicine might have said
‘With what infinity of trouble have I studied medicine!’ And that from these two
remarks Goethe had composed the opening sentences of Faust! This is paradoxical!
But in principle and methods it is exactly what we meet in critics of the
Gospels.
You will find
this in the following patched-up sentences. I take them from
Die-Evangelien-Mythen, John M. Robertson, Jena, Diedrichs, 1910. It is
supposed to represent the Lord's Prayer:
‘Our Father Who art in Heaven; O Lord our God, blessed be Thy Name, and may the memory of Thee be glorified in Heaven above as on Earth below. Let Thy Kingdom rule over us now and ever more. Holy men of old have said: Let all men be forgiven whatever they may have done to me. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from the wicked. For Thine is the Heavenly Kingdom; and Thou shalt reign in splendor for ever and ever.’
These sentences
were collected and put together in the manner I have just described, and are
called the ‘Lord's Prayer.’ But the subtle shades of meaning necessary to give
the unique significance of the Christ event are lacking. In none of these
phrases do we find it stated that the Kingdom of Heaven is to come down. The
sentence runs: ‘Let Thy Kingdom rule over us now and ever more,’ not ‘Let Thy
Kingdom come to us.’ This is the essential point, which entirely escapes
superficial observers, and although these sentences are gathered not from one
but from many libraries, nowhere do we find the words ‘Thy will be done on Earth
as it is in Heaven,’ for these imply its taking hold of the ego.
Even regarded
from the external scientific point of view, we have here clearly demonstrated
the difference between an apparent investigation and one that is truly
conscientious and takes every fact into consideration. And this true
investigation exists if people will only take the trouble to pursue it.
These sentences
from J. M. Robertson's book have been deliberately selected, for it is a kind of
modern gospel recently translated from English into German to make it available
to wider circles. For until now a certain person [Note 1] who has given numerous lectures on the subject of whether
Jesus really lived would have had to read it in English. This book gained
popularity, and hence the translation.
It has
accordingly been possible for a professor of a German academy to travel widely
giving lectures on the question ‘Did Jesus live?’ Basing his teaching on the
facts just given, he answered the question thus: ‘There is no documentary
evidence forcing us to accept the fact that such a person as Jesus has ever
lived;’ and among many very excellent works, he referred his hearers to J. M.
Robertson's book. But for the protection of Anthroposophists I can say: Even
from this book, from these historical investigations of the New Testament
records, you can learn many things, and there is something further, something
very characteristic that I should like to tell you.
This book
informs us that not only in phrases drawn from the Talmud is there a model of
the Lord's Prayer, but that traces of it may be discovered in chronicles
reaching back for thousands of years. To substantiate the fact of the Lord's
Prayer being a collection of phrases already existing, and that no Christ was
needed to give it out first to the people, an allusion is made to the discovery
of a prayer written on little tablets in the Chaldean tongue, a prayer addressed
to the old Babylonian god Merodach. Some of the sentences quoted there are as
follows, and should be carefully noted: ‘May the fullness of the world come down
into thy midst (or city); may thy precepts be fulfilled in all the ages to come.
... May the evil Spirit dwell far from thee.’ [Note
2]
And the savant
upon whom these sentences made such an impression added: ‘Here we have
prayer-norms which are in line with the Lord's Prayer and perhaps go back 4000
years before Christ.’
Look carefully,
and see if you can find anywhere any resemblance between the sentences of the
Lord's Prayer and these phrases! Yet these are regarded by this man as
prayer-norms, of which the Lord's Prayer is merely a copy! Such things are
accepted nowadays as true investigations in this domain of knowledge.
A further reason
for presenting these facts to Anthroposophists is that they may be able to calm
and strengthen their consciences when troubled by the constant assertion that
this or that fact has been established by external investigation. They may well
be troubled upon reading in papers or magazines that a tablet has been
discovered in Asia proving the existence of the Lord's Prayer 4,000 years before
Christ. In such a case it is necessary to ask how such a fact can be proved. The
above example reveals the slender foundations on which scientifically based
facts are frequently supposed to have been proved. It is unnecessary for
students of Anthroposophy to trouble about the worthless facts so often brought
forward against it.
But to return to
our main theme; Christ Jesus inaugurated an evolution in human nature, based on
the retention of the full consciousness of the ego. He inaugurated the
initiation of the ego. We can therefore say that the most essential part
of the human being today is the ego; in it all human nature is centered;
everything brought into the world through the Christ event for this ego can
enter also into all the other members of man's being. This will naturally come
to pass in a quite special way, and in accordance with human evolution.
The
possibilities of human development are to be clearly seen from these lectures.
Recognition of the physical world not only through the senses but also through
the understanding, and through the intellect connected with the physical brain,
first began to function generally just a short time before the Christ event. It
superseded a certain kind of clairvoyance. This clairvoyance, which was mentioned
in my lectures on the early Atlantean evolution, was universal at that time,
though later it came slowly and gradually to an end. Down to the Christian era
there were still many who in the intermediate condition between sleeping and
waking were able to gaze into, and participate in, the spiritual world. Such a
‘partaking’ in the spiritual world was not only linked with the fact that the
average man who had a certain degree of clairvoyance could state ‘Behind the
tapestry of the world of the senses there is a spiritual world. I know this, for
I can perceive it’ — this was not all; something else was connected with it. In
long past ages it was comparatively easy for human nature to be aware of the
spiritual world. The nature of man today is different, and it is exceedingly
difficult to pass in the right way through the esoteric training that leads to
clairvoyance. In somnambulism and similar things we see a relic, a last remnant,
of the old-time clairvoyance. These conditions which are irregular today were
normal in ancient times, and could be enhanced by undergoing certain processes.
When human nature was exalted to participation in the life of the spiritual
world something else was associated with it. Today there is so little regard
for that in which true history consists that people pick and choose what they
will, or will not, believe. But in face of modern scepticism it is
nevertheless true that in the time of Christ certain acts of healing were
performed by rendering people clairvoyant. In our time human beings are so
deeply sunk within the physical plane that this is no longer possible; but in
that earlier period the soul was still very impressionable, and certain
processes were all that were necessary to bring about clairvoyance and an
entrance into the spiritual world. The spiritual world, being a health-giving
element, sends down health-giving forces into the physical world, so that it was
possible to effect cures through it. The person who was ill was put through
certain processes which led him to perceive the spiritual world. Then the
spiritual stream, flowing down into his whole being, brought health. This was the
usual method of healing. What is described today as ‘Temple healing’ is
dilettante in comparison.
Everything is in
a state of evolution, and, since the time of which we have been speaking, souls
have progressed from clairvoyance to non-clairvoyance. Formerly through
enhancement of the clairvoyant condition men could be cured of certain illnesses
by the spirit streaming from the spiritual into the physical world. We need not,
therefore, be surprised at the statements of the evangelists that the Christ
event meant that the spiritual world could now be attained not only by those who
possessed the old clairvoyance but also by those who had lost it.
Men could say:
‘Looking back into olden times we see men endowed with vision of the spiritual
world; but now, through the advance of evolution, they have become poor in the
spirit, beggars for the spirit. But Christ has brought this great Mystery into
the world, that into the ego — even into the ego of the physical plane — the
forces of the Heavenly Kingdoms can enter; thus those who have lost the old
clairvoyance and with it the riches of the spiritual realms can yet receive the
spirit within themselves and be blessed!’ Hence the wonderful declaration:
Henceforth not only those are blessed who are rich in the spirit through the old
clairvoyance, but those also who are poor or beggars for the spirit — for when
Christ has opened the way, into their ego will flow what may be described as the
Kingdoms of the Heavens!
In ancient times
the physical organism was of such a nature that a partial withdrawal of the soul
could be brought about even in normal conditions, and through this withdrawal
men became clairvoyant, that is, rich in spirit. With the gradual densification
of the human body, which however is quite imperceptible anatomically, is
associated poverty as regards the Kingdoms of the Heavens. Man had become a
‘beggar for spirit;’ but through the event of Christ it is now possible for him
to experience the Kingdoms of the Heavens within himself. This is a
possibility that can be rightly associated with the physical body.
If we were now
to describe what takes place through the ego-man, we should have to show how
each principle of human nature can be blessed in itself in a new way. The
sentence ‘Blessed are the beggars for the spirit, for within themselves they
will find the Kingdoms of the Heavens!’ is the new truth as regards the physical
body.
The blessedness
of the etheric body is expressed differently. The etheric body contains the
principle of suffering, as you can find in many of the lectures. A living being,
although it has an astral body, can only suffer through injury to the etheric
body. If the healing which formerly poured into the etheric body from the
spiritual world were to be described according to the new teaching it would be
said: Sufferers can now find comfort not only by passing out of themselves and
being united with the spiritual world as in earlier days, but they can find
comfort within themselves by entering into a new relationship with the spiritual
world, for Christ has brought a new power to the etheric body. Hence the new
truth concerning the etheric body declares: ‘Sufferers can now be blessed not
only through entering the spiritual world clairvoyantly and allowing the
outpourings of the spirit to come to them in this state, but they can be blessed
when lifting themselves up to Christ they fill themselves with the new truth,
and find in themselves the solace for every sorrow.’
And what of the
astral body? When men of an earlier day endeavored to suppress their emotions
and passions and the egoism of their astral nature, they sought power from the
Kingdom of Heaven: they submitted themselves to processes by which the harmful
instincts of the astral body were destroyed. But the time had now come when
through the act of Christ man had received power into the ego itself by which he
could bridle and tame the passions and emotions of his astral body. So the new
truth concerning the astral body must read as follows: ‘Blessed are those who
have become meek through the power of their own ego, for they will inherit the
kingdom of Earth!’ Profound indeed is the thought contained in this third
Beatitude. Let us examine it in the light of occult science.
The astral body
was incorporated into man's being during the Moon evolution, and the Luciferic
beings who had gained influence over him had established themselves especially
in this body. Therefore man from the beginning was unable to reach his highest
earthly goal. These Luciferic beings, as we know, remained behind at the Moon
stage of evolution, and hindered man from progressing in the right way; but
since the descent of Christ to Earth, when it has been possible for the ego to
be impregnated with His power, man has been enabled to fulfill the mission of the
Earth by finding in himself the power to bridle his astral body and drive out
the Luciferic influences. Therefore it can be said: ‘He who can curb his astral
body, who is so strong that he cannot be moved to anger without the consent of
his ego, he who is even-tempered and inwardly strong enough to overcome the
astral body, will fulfill the purpose of earthly evolution.’ So in the third
Beatitude we have a formula which spiritual science has made comprehensible to
us.
How can man
succeed in controlling the remaining members of his being and bless them through
the indwelling Spirit of Christ? He can do this when his soul-nature is
controlled by the ego as truly and worthily as is his physical body. Passing on
to the sentient soul, we can say: As man gradually evolves to a consciousness of
the Christ, he must arrive at experiencing a feeling of longing in his sentient
soul similar to what he previously experienced unwittingly as the physical
longing we call hunger and thirst. He must thirst for the things of the soul, as
the body hungers and thirsts for food and drink. What can be attained through
the indwelling Christ-force is that which is described comprehensively in the
old-fashioned phrase as thirsting after righteousness; and when a man has filled
his sentient soul with the Christ-force he can reach a point where it is
possible for him to satisfy this thirst through the power that is in him.
The fifth
Beatitude is especially noteworthy, as might be expected, for it refers to the
rational, or intellectual soul. Those who have studied my books Occult
Science or Theosophy, or have listened to the lectures on
spiritual science given during many years, are familiar with the idea of the ego
holding together the three principles of the human soul — the sentient soul; the
rational, intellectual, or mind-soul; and the consciousness-soul or spiritual
soul. The ego, though present in the sentient-soul, is as yet in a dulled
condition; it comes to life in the intellectual-soul, and through this, man
first becomes a complete human being. While man's lower principles and even the
sentient-soul are dominated by divine spiritual beings, he becomes an individual
in the rational-soul: in it the ego dawns. Therefore we must speak of the
reception of the Christ-force into the intellectual or rational-soul in a
different way from that used when treating of the lower principles. In the lower
principles — the physical, etheric, and astral sheaths, and also in the
sentient-soul — divine beings are at work, and to them anything in the way of
virtues man has acquired are again taken up. But the qualities evolved in the
rational-soul, when this has developed what it receives from the Christ, must
above all be human attributes. When a man begins to discover this soul within
himself he grows less and less dependent on the divine forces around him. We
have here something that belongs to man himself. When he absorbs the power of
Christ into this soul he can develop virtues which go from like to like, which
are not besought from Heaven as a loan, but go forth from man and return to a
being similar to himself. We must try to feel that something streams forth from
the virtues of the rational soul in such a way that something similar streams to
us again. Wonderful to relate, the fifth Beatitude actually shows us this
distinctive quality.
Even a faulty
translation cannot conceal the fact; it is different from all the others in that
it says: ‘Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.’ What goes forth
returns again — as it must if we accept it in the sense of occult science.
In the sixth
Beatitude, which refers to the spiritual-soul, we arrive at that principle in
man which enables the ego to attain full expression, after which he can make
further ascent, in a new way. You know that at the time of the coming of Christ
the rational soul first came to expression; in our time it is the spiritual-soul
that is destined to find expression — the soul by means of which man will ascend
again to the spiritual world. While human self-consciousness first dawned within
the rational soul, it is in the spiritual-soul that the ego attains full
development and rises once more to the spiritual world. The man who becomes a
receptacle for the Christ-force, because he experiences the Christ in himself,
will, by pouring his ego into the consciousness-soul or spiritual-soul, and
experiencing it in its purity for the first time, be able in this way to find
his God. Now, it has been said that the blood is the expression of the ego in the
physical body, and that its center is in the heart. Therefore this sixth
Beatitude has to express in a practical way how the ego, through the qualities
with which it endows heart and blood, can partake of divinity. How does this
verse run? ‘Blessed are those who are pure in heart for they shall see God.’
Though not a specially good translation it serves our purpose.
This is how
spiritual science pours light on the whole structure of these wonderful
sentences in which Christ gives instruction to His most intimate pupils, after
He had withstood the Temptation in the wilderness.
The remaining
Beatitudes refer to a man's raising of himself to the higher principles of his
being; to the spirit-self, life-spirit, and spirit-man. They give but an
indication of what it will be possible to experience in the future, of what is
only possible in our day to a few exceptional individuals. Thus the seventh
Beatitude, referring to the spirit-self, says: ‘Blessed are those who draw down
into themselves the spirit-self, the first of the spiritual principles, for they
will be called the children of God.’ The first of the higher triad has, in this
case, entered into these men. They have received God into themselves; they have
become an outer expression of the Godhead.
In what follows
it is clearly shown that only exceptional beings can attain to what is spoken of
in the eighth Beatitude, those who fully understand what the future is to bring
to the whole of humanity. This, the ‘complete reception of Christ into a man's
inner being,’ is only for a few chosen ones. Because these are exceptional
individuals, they are persecuted, for others are unable to understand them.
Hence, referring to the persecution of these representatives of the future race,
this Beatitude declares: ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness
sake; for in themselves they will find the Kingdom of Heaven.’
The ninth and
last Beatitude has especial reference to the most intimate disciples only. It is
associated with the ninth member of man's being — the spirit-man: ‘Blessed are
ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you for my sake.’
Thus in these
wonderful lines reference is made to the nine principles of human nature, and we
are shown how the ego is constituted when it becomes ‘Christ-filled’ as regards
the different principles of man's being, and blesses them. In the portions
following on the Temptation, the Gospel of Matthew shows in grand and majestic
way how the influence of Christ works in the ninefold human nature in the
present, and then how it will work in the near future, when those in whom the
spirit-self has dawned are already called ‘Children of God,’ even if these
children of God are only to be found in a few blessed examples. Especially
remarkable is the distinct language used concerning the first principles which
are already in being, and the lapse into indeterminate language in the last
sentences where the far future is referred to.
Once more let me
touch on the superficial method of research. Suppose someone were investigating
if sentences could anywhere be found similar to those of the Sermon on the
Mount, or if the evangelists had perhaps compiled these from something else.
Suppose also that this person had no idea of what was referred to in the
Beatitudes: that the important matter there dealt with was the filling of man's
ego-nature with the Christ. If reference to this marvellous enhancement of the
ego-nature had not been noticed, he could indicate the following. One has only
to read a little further in the book already mentioned to find in it a chapter
headed ‘The Beatitudes,’ in which reference is made to ‘Enoch’ (this is not the
usual Enoch), and herein nine ‘Beatitudes’ are cited. The author has this much
in his favor, that he acknowledges that this document belongs to the very
beginning of the Christian era, and he believes that what we have described as
being a document of the very profoundest importance and depth could have been
copied from the following nine Beatitudes of this Slavonic Enoch.
- Blessed is he who fears the name of the Lord, and incessantly serves before his face, etc.
- Blessed is he who does not give a false judgment on account of payment, but in the cause of fairness, not expecting anything in exchange; he will receive a just judgment later.
- Blessed is he who clothes the naked with his raiment, and feeds the hungry with his bread.
- Blessed is he who judges rightly the fatherless and widows and supports all those who are oppressed.
- Blessed is he who turns from the restless path of this vain world, travelling the true way which leads to eternal life.
- Blessed is he who sows good seed: he will reap sevenfold.
- Blessed is he in whom is truth, and speaks truth to his neighbours.
- Blessed is he who has love on his lips, and kindness in his heart.
- Blessed is he who understands each word of the Lord, and extols His name, etc., etc.
These phrases
are certainly beautiful; but consider their whole construction, and the matter
with which they are concerned, namely, the recounting of a few worthy platitudes
suitable to any period other than one of such tremendous upheaval — the age in
which the power of the ego was first being made known. If these lines are
likened by anyone to the Beatitudes of the Gospel of Matthew, he stands at the
external point of those who compare the religions of mankind in an external way,
who, whenever they discover something in any way similar, instantly state an
identity, paying no heed to the essential point.
Only when the
essential point is recognized does one realize that there is progress in human
evolution, and that man advances from stage to stage; that he is not born anew
in a physical body in a later millennium to experience over again what he has
experienced already, but so that he may experience that in which humanity has
progressed meanwhile. That is the meaning of history and of human evolution. Of
history, and of human evolution in this sense the Gospel of Matthew speaks on
every page.
Notes:Note 1. Dr. Arthur Drews.Note 2. In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Oct., 1891, Mr. T. G. Pinches publishes for the first time the translation of a tablet found at Sippara in the year 1882, in which the sentences quoted above appear as an incantation to Merodach.
Source: http://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0123/19100909p01.html
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