The Gospel of Matthew. Lecture 4 of 12.
Rudolf Steiner, September 4, 1910:
We have shown that the Hebrew people
had received from Abraham a physical organ, enabling them to acquire, through
sense knowledge, not merely an inkling but, as far as was possible, a real
knowledge of divine spiritual things. Knowledge of the divinely spiritual there
is and has been at all times and in all places. But this, what might be called
eternal knowledge of the divine, was reached through initiation into the
Mysteries, or at least on the path to initiation.
A distinction must be made between
that knowledge of the spiritual worlds acquired by special training or
initiation, and that which is normal for any age, and arises as its special
mission for human evolution.
In this way the
astral clairvoyance prevalent throughout the Atlantean period was normal for
that age, but for the age in which the Hebrews flourished an external, exoteric
knowledge of the spiritual world was normal, and was gained with the aid of a
special physical organ. As already indicated, the people of Abraham arrived at
this knowledge in such a way that their innermost being seemed to be dissolved
within divine existence. Inner knowledge, or the comprehension of divinity in
man's innermost being, became possible through this special physical organ.
But this
comprehension of the divine did not make it immediately possible for men to say:
‘I descend into my own inner being; I strive to comprehend as deeply as I can my
own inner nature; there I find the drop of divine spiritual existence giving me
an understanding of what permeates the external world.’ This first became
spiritually possible through the entrance of Christ into human evolution. The
possibility of experiencing the divine was first given to the Hebrew people
through their Folk-spirit, in which each felt himself not as a single individual
but as a member of the whole people; he then felt he belonged through his blood
to the whole line of generations, he felt the Divine or Jehovah-consciousness
lived in his Folk-consciousness.
In the terms of
Occult Science it would be inaccurate to describe the God Jehovah by saying ‘He
is the God of Abraham;’ but we must say ‘He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Jacob — the Being Who passes from generation to generation, and Who
reveals Himself through individual men in the consciousness of the race.’ The
Christian perception shows a great advance over this. What the ancient Hebrew
perception attained only through meditating on the Folk-spirit, by sinking
within the Spirit flowing through the generations, the Chistian recognizes in each
single individual. Thus Abraham might have said; ‘In that I am chosen to be the
founder of a people whose descendants will spread over the Earth, a God will
live in the blood flowing through the generations Whom we hold to be the most
supreme, and Who reveals Himself to us in the consciousness of our people.’ This
was the consciousness normal for that time.
This special
form of knowledge was different from the higher knowledge of the Spirit that had
been preserved in the Mysteries throughout all ages. In Atlantis, astral-etheric
clairvoyance could perceive the divine-spiritual background of existence. By
developing their inner life men could there attain knowledge through the
Mysteries or Oracles. Even during the period when the Hebrew type of
consciousness was normal, men who trained in certain sanctuaries could rise to
the perception of the divine. But this was done when outside the body,
not within it, as was the way of the people of Abraham. A man could rise
to the perception of the eternal divine Spirit by enhancing the eternal in
himself. Thus it is easily realized that one thing was necessary to Abraham. He
had learnt, in a way peculiar to himself, and by means of a physical organ, to
know the divinely spiritual, and in this way he had learnt to recognize the God
Who guides the universe. If he were to enter with vivid comprehension into the
whole course of evolution, it was of the greatest importance that he should
recognize in the God Who revealed Himself in the Folk-consciousness of the
people the same God Who had been recognized in the Mysteries of all ages as
the Creative Deity. Abraham had to be quite certain of the identity of
his God with the God of the Mysteries. Certainty of this was brought home
to him through a very special revelation.
To understand
this certainty one fact of human evolution must be kept in mind. In my book Occult
Science reference is made to the ancient Atlantean Initiates, the
‘Priests of the Oracles’ — what they were called is of little consequence — and
I said there that the Sun-Initiate was the head of all the Atlantean Oracles,
and must be distinguished from the initiates of the lesser Oracles, those of
Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, etc. He was the great leader of those people who carried
culture from the West to the East, from Atlantis to Central Asia, and founded
post-Atlantean civilizations. This great Initiate, for such he was, withdrew
into the secret sanctuaries of Central Asia. It was he who made it possible for
those mighty sages, the Holy Rishis, to become the teachers of their race and it
was this great and mysterious Initiate who imparted initiation to Zarathustra.
The initiation given to Zarathustra differed, however, from that imparted to the
Rishis, for their missions were different. The initiation given to the Rishis
enabled them, after the further development of their inner being, to declare as
from themselves, the mighty secrets of existence. They became the great guides
and leaders of the pre-Vedic Indian culture. Though developed by artificial
means, the initiation of the Rishis was yet to them something which strongly
resembled the old Atlantean clairvoyance. Each of the seven Rishis received his
training separately, each had his own appointed region, and each his separate
mission, just as each Oracle had its own sphere of influence. Yet, when any one
of the seven gave forth knowledge of the primal wisdom of the world, he spoke
with the voice of the whole collegium. The great Sun-initiate, who
brought the ancient Atlantean wisdom from the West to the East, bestowed it upon
the Rishis in a special manner so as to enable them to develop post-Atlantean
civilization. He gave the ancient Atlantean wisdom to Zarathustra in a different
form, so that he could speak as I have already indicated.
The Rishis
declared ‘To reach divinity men must regard everything around them, all that is
presented to their senses, as maya, as illusion; they must turn away from the
outer world and direct their glance inwards; then a quite different world will
appear from that which is before them.’
Thus the ancient
Indian Rishis taught that by turning away from the deceptive world of illusion
and developing their inner life, men could rise to divine spiritual spheres.
Zarathustra taught otherwise. Instead of turning away from external
manifestations and regarding them as maya, he said: ‘This maya or illusion is the
revelation, the true garment, of Divine Existence; our duty is not to turn from
it but to investigate it and to see in the physical light of the Sun an external
garment within which Ahura Mazdao lives and moves.’
Thus in a
certain sense the standpoint of Zarathustra was the opposite to that of the
Rishis. The most significant fact of post-Indian culture was that what man
gained through his spiritual and mental activities had to be impressed upon the
outer world. It has already been shown how Zarathustra passed on his best
possessions to Moses and Hermes. In order that the wisdom of Moses might be
fruitful and bear seed in the right way, this seed had to be implanted in the
race that had Abraham for its progenitor. Abraham was the first who acquired the
organ through which the Jehovah consciousness could be evolved, but he had to
realize that the God who spoke in him through his physical powers of
comprehension spoke with the same voice as the eternal all-pervading God of the
Mysteries; only that He revealed Himself to Abraham in a more restricted manner,
that is, in a way Abraham was able to understand.
For such a
mighty Being as the great Atlantean Sun-initiate it is not immediately possible
to speak in comprehensible words to those living in some age who have a special
mission. A Being so exalted — one who in his own individuality leads an eternal
existence, and of whom it has been rightly said (indicating his eternal nature)
— that he was without name or age, without father or mother — such a great guide
of human existence could only reveal himself to those whom he sought, by
assuming a form that could bring him in contact with them. Therefore in order to
give Abraham the appropriate illumination, the individual who had been the
teacher of the Rishis and of Zarathustra assumed a form in which he was clothed
in the etheric body of a forefather of Abraham — this was the etheric sheath of
Shem, the son of Noah — a forefather of Abraham. In the same way as the etheric
garment of Zarathustra had been preserved for Moses, this etheric body of Shem
had persisted, and was used by the great Sun-initiate so that he might make
himself known to Abraham. The meeting of Abraham with the great Initiate of the
Sun-Mysteries is described in the Old Testament. It is the meeting of Abraham
with the King, the Priest, of the Most High God, Melchisedek or Malekzadik. This
meeting of Abraham with the great Sun-initiate is of the greatest, the most
universal importance. Lest his presence might overwhelm Abraham this great Being
only showed himself in the etheric body of Shem, the ancestor of the Semitic
race. Most significantly something is here hinted at in the Bible which is,
unfortunately, seldom understood; it refers to whence that something came which
Melchisedek was in a position to impart to Abraham.
What could
Melchisedek give to Abraham? He could impart to him the secret of the
Sun-existence, which sprang from the same source as the revelations prophetically
foretold, in the first place, by Zarathustra. Naturally, these could only be
comprehended by Abraham in his own way. Let us picture the facts told by
Zarathustra to his chosen pupils. He spoke to them of Ahura Mazdao who dwelt
spiritually behind the sunlight, and said: ‘Behold, behind the sun is something
not yet united with the earth, but which will one day stream forth into earthly
evolution and descend to earth.’ We must realize that Zarathustra could here
only be prophesying of the Sun Spirit, the Christ, of Whom he said, ‘He will
come in a human body.’ If we accept this, we must also accept the fact that
still deeper revelations of the Sun Mysteries had to be given to those whose
mission it was to prepare for the incarnation of Christ on earth. This took
place when Zarathustra's own instructor came in contact with Abraham, and the
outpouring of power that came from him emanated from the same source as that
which came from Christ. This is indicated symbolically in the Bible, where it
says: ‘When Abraham met Melchisedek, the King of Salem, this priest of the most
high God brought to him bread and the juice of the grape.’ Bread and the juice
of the grape were dispensed on another occasion. In the same way as bread and
wine were to become the expression of the Mystery of Christ in the institution
of the Last Supper for those who believed in Him, this mystery was expressed
here also. The similarity of the two sacrificial acts is described with such
clearness that it shows that Melchisedek drew from the same source as the
Christ.
Thus an indirect
outpouring of that which was destined to come to earth at a later period took
place through Melchisedek. This influence was to have direct results on Abraham,
the great preparer of what took place later. The result of Abraham's meeting
with Melchisedek was that he now had some understanding that the outpouring of
power he felt stirring within him and which he referred to as Jehovah — the
highest to which his thought could rise — had the same origin as the
consciousness of the Initiates — the highest wisdom attainable by man—and that
it emanated from the mighty God Who fills all worlds with life and movement.
This was the new consciousness that dawned in Abraham. He now knew that in the
Hebrew blood, passing down from generation to generation, there actually flowed
something that could only rightly be compared with what clairvoyant vision
beheld when it reached forth to the mystery of existence and understood the
language of the cosmos.
I have already
said that in the Mysteries the secrets of the cosmos were expressed in a
language of the stars, that the teachers there made use of words and images
derived from the constellations. In the movements of the stars, in their
relative positions one to another, they saw pictures by means of which they
sought to express man's spiritual experiences when he raised himself to what was
divinely spiritual.
What did the
Mystery wisdom read in the starry script? It read there the secrets of the
Godhead, of Him Who lives and weaves in and through the world. The disposition
of the stars was a visible expression of this Godhead. Raising his eyes to the
firmament man would say: ‘There God reveals Himself; and the way in which He
makes Himself known is indicated in the order and harmony of the stars.’ Thus
according to this conception, the God of the universe revealed Himself through
the stars. If this God was to manifest in a special way in the mission of the
Hebrew people, He must do so in accordance with the plan set forth in the starry
courses of the heavens. This means that in the blood of the generations, which
was the external instrument for the manifestation of Jehovah, a similar ordering
should obtain as that expressed in the ordering of the stars. In the line of
descent from Abraham, there had to be something which in the course of
generations would be a reflection of the starry script. Accordingly, it was
promised to Abraham, ‘Thy descendants shall be ordered as the stars in Heaven.’
This is the true rendering of the statement usually given as ‘Thy descendants
shall be as numerous as the stars in Heaven,’ which only refers to the number of
the descendants. The statement is not concerned with the numbers but indicates
how the same order should rule in Abraham's descendants as was found in the
grouping of the stars — the language of the gods.
People looked up
to the Zodiac; and in the position of the planets to the Zodiac, constellations
were expressed in which they found a language expressing the deeds of the gods.
The close connection existing in the Zodiac and in the relation of the planets
to the twelve signs of the Zodiac had to be expressed in the descendants of
Abraham. Thus, in the twelve sons of Jacob, and in the twelve tribes of the
Hebrew people, we have the reflection of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. As the
language of the gods finds expression above in the twelve starry signs, so
Jehovah is manifested in the blood flowing through the generations of the twelve
tribes that descended from the twelve sons of Jacob. What was ordered within the
constellations of the Zodiac we designate by the names of the planets as Venus,
Mercury, Moon, Sun, etc., and that which throughout the ages played a special
part in different periods of the life of the Hebrew people we have compared with
the course of the planets through the Zodiac. For instance, we showed how David,
the kingly singer, has to be compared with Hermes or Mercury; and the period of
the Babylonian captivity, that is, the form the manifestation of Jehovah assumed
through the entrance of a new impulse six hundred years before our era, with the
planet Venus.
It had to be
indicated to Abraham, for instance, that the position in the race held by such a
personality as David was on parallel lines with that of Mercury in the Zodiac.
The tribe of Judah corresponding to the constellation Leo, the entrance of David
into that tribe in the course of Jewish history, corresponded in the cosmos to
the occultation of Leo by Mercury.
In every detail
— in the descent, in the conferring of the kingly or priestly dignities, in the
struggles and victories of one or other of the tribes, in the whole history of
the Hebrew people we can see what corresponds to the occultation of the several
constellations in outer space. This lies in the significant words: ‘Thy
descendants shall be ordered in accordance with the harmony of the stars in
Heaven!’ We must not only see in documents that are founded on occultism the
trivialities usually seen there, but we must recognize their profound depth.
When studied in
this way we see that order did in fact exist in the sequence of the generations
as related in the Gospel of Matthew; and that the Evangelist shows us the unique
composition of the blood of that body which the individuality of Zarathustra
assumed in order that he might be the means by which the manifestation of Christ
on earth could be brought to pass.
Let us therefore
ask: What was attained in the course of the forty-two generations from Abraham
to Joseph? What was attained was, that in the last of the generations a blending
of the blood in accordance with the laws of the stars — as taught in the Holy
Mysteries — had been accomplished. In this blending of the blood necessary to
the Zarathustra individuality for the accomplishment of his great work, there
was an inner order and harmony that corresponded to one of the most beautiful
and significant arrangements of the stellar system. The blending of blood,
prepared throughout many generations for the reincarnating Zarathustra, was
therefore a reflection of the whole cosmos.
All this is to
be found in that great original Scripture, which, if I may venture to say so,
lies before us in weakened form in the Gospel of Matthew. It is based on the
profound mystery of the development of a people as the reflection of a cosmic
development. This was felt by those who first knew something of the mighty
Mystery of Christ. To them it already seemed that in the blood of the Jesus of
Nazareth of Whom this Gospel tells, they could perceive a reflection of the
Spirit that rules the whole cosmos. They gave expression to this Mystery in the
words: In the blood which is to be the abode of the ego of Jesus of Nazareth
lives the Spirit of the whole cosmos. Therefore, if this physical body is to be
born, it must be an image of the Spirit of the whole cosmos, the Spirit ruling
the whole world.
This was the
original form of expression. It declared the power inherent in the blended blood
of Zarathustra — of Jesus of Nazareth — to be the power of the Spirit of our
whole universe — even that Spirit who, after the separation of the sun from the
earth, brooded over and permeated the development of that which had separated
itself out in the course of worldly evolution.
From the
lectures given in Munich, referred to above, it was shown that the words of
Genesis, ‘B'raschit bara Elohim eth haschamajim v'eth h'areths,’ must not be
translated lightly according to modern methods which have lost touch with the
ancient meaning. If their true meaning is sought, it must be given as follows:
‘In everything that came over from the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions, the
thought of the Elohim brooded in cosmic activity — in all that manifested
outwardly, as in all that stirred inwardly. Darkness reigned over all this. But
permeating it and brooding over it, filling it with warmth, as a hen broods over
its eggs, was the Creative Spirit of the Elohim, Ruach.’
The Spirit that
brooded there was the same, in every respect, as the Spirit that created the
harmonious order which finds expression in the starry constellations. The
original Initiates of the Christian Mysteries recognized in the blending of the
blood of Jesus of Nazareth an image of the work accomplished by the Ruach-Elohim
throughout the universe. Therefore they said of the blood which was thus
prepared for this Great Event that it was ‘created by the Spirit of the
Universe,’ the Spirit who is described in the opening chapter of Genesis as
‘Ruach’ in that most important passage beginning — ‘B'raschit bara Elohim
...’
This holy
meaning, a meaning far beyond the usual trivial rendering, lies at the root of
what is called ‘the Conception out of the Holy Spirit of the Universe.’ It lies
at the root of the saying: ‘She who gave birth to this Being was filled with the
power of the Spirit of the Universe!’ We need but sense the full greatness of
such Mystery to know that the fact presents something infinitely higher than the
exoteric idea of the ‘immaculate conception.’
References to
two things in the Bible will suffice to deflect the mind from the usual trivial
explanation of the immaculate conception and lead it to the recognition of the
true point of view. One is, why should the writer of the Gospel of Matthew give
the whole line of descent from Abraham to Joseph if he wished in any way to show
that the birth of Jesus of Nazareth was unconcerned with the sequence of the
generations? He is very careful to tell how the blood of Abraham passed down to
Joseph. What sense would there be in saying that this blood had no connection
with the blood of Jesus of Nazareth? The other fact that must be taken into
consideration is that ‘Ruach-Elohim,’ who in the Bible is called the ‘Holy
Spirit’ or ‘Holy Ghost,’ is of the feminine gender in the Hebrew language.
This point we
will consider later. For the moment let it only awaken within us a feeling for
the grandeur of the idea which lies at the very root of this Mystery.
The Event taking
place at the beginning of our era, and only known to the wise men who were
initiated into the secrets of the Universe, found expression first in the
Aramaic language, in an ancient document upon which the Gospel of Matthew was
based. It can be proved, not only by occult means but by philological
investigation, that this document, which is the foundation of the Gospel of
Matthew, existed as early as the year 71 A.D. The true
origin of this Gospel is given in my book Christianity as Mystical Fact. Here, however, as we
are concerned with Occult Science and not Philology, reference need only be made to
one thing in the literature of the Talmud, which is fully confirmed by Jewish
erudition. In this literature it is stated that Rabbi Gamaliel II was involved
in a lawsuit with his sister about a legacy from his father, who died fighting
against the Romans in the year 70 A.D. We are told that
Rabbi Gamaliel II appeared before a judge who was a Jewish Christian. Such
individuals existed in the courts ofjustice established for the Jews by the
Romans. In this case a strange thing happened. Rabbi Gamaliel contested with his
sister his father's inheritance; he declared before the judge, who knew
something of Christianity, that according to Jewish law, the son only and not
the daughter could inherit, and therefore he was the sole inheritor. The judge,
stating that in the circle in which he practised the Torah was set aside, said
that since Gamaliel sought justice and judgment from him he could not give it
merely according to Jewish law, but according to the law set up in its stead.
The Rabbi's only way now was to bribe the judge. He did so, and the following
day the judge made a citation that was in reality a plagiarism from the original
Aramaic script of the Matthew Gospel. He said, ‘Christ did not come into the
world to break the law of Moses, but to fulfill it.’ He thought to stifle the
pangs of conscience for deflecting the law in Gamaliel's favor by saying that
he judged nevertheless according to the Christian doctrine.
From this we
know that in the year 71 there existed a Christian document containing words
found today in the Gospel of Matthew. This is, therefore, an external proof of
the existence of the Aramaic document, or part of it, from which the Gospel is
derived.
The results of
occult investigation have still to be given, but the above has been mentioned to
show that when seeking the aid of external science it is not wise to consider
every other kind of literary evidence and yet ignore the Talmud literature, as
is often done — for the latter is of great importance for what one can know of
these things exoterically. Thus there is good external justification for placing
the Gospel of Matthew comparatively early, and regarding its compilers as men
not far removed in time from the events of Palestine. It is even externally
certain that it would have been impossible at that time to deny that Jesus
Christ had lived and to say: He of whom we speak did not live at the beginning
of our era. Half-a-century had not yet elapsed, so that men were still able to
speak to eye-witnesses who would not state what could not be proved.
Exoterically these things are of importance, and we only mention them in
confirmation of the esoteric view.
We have seen
how, through cosmic mysteries, a body had been prepared in the course of human
evolution, as it were, from the filtrated blood of the Hebrew people and how
into this body, in which the great initiate Zarathustra incarnated, the order of
the Universe itself had entered. It is of this Zarathustra individuality and
none other that Matthew speaks.
It must not be
imagined that what we have described out of the profoundest Mysteries of earthly
evolution was perceived as clearly by everyone. Even to contemporaries this was
deeply veiled, and was only comprehended by a few Initiates. Hence the deep
silence is comprehensible concerning all that could then be disclosed about the
greatest event in human evolution. If the historians of today turn to their
records and find these records silent, it should not occasion surprise; such
silence is entirely natural.
Having explained
the greatest event of our evolution from the side of Zarathustra, it is well
that we should now consider another stream of influence preparatory to this
great Event. Very many things took place immediately before and immediately
after the Christ Event in human evolution. Preparation had been made for it a
long time in advance. Just as it was prepared for externally in the sending
forth of Moses and Hermes by Zarathustra, and by the work of Meichisedek on the
outer sheath of Jesus of Nazareth in the Sun-Mysteries, it was prepared for in
another way through what might be called a ‘neighboring stream’ to the main
great current. This ‘neighboring stream’ was slowly prepared in centers of
which external history informs us when dealing with those people described by
Philo as the Therapeutae. The Therapeutae were members of a secret sect who
sought the purification of their souls by inward paths, trying to drive out what
had been debased in them through external intercourse and external knowledge,
and to raise themselves to pure spiritual spheres. An offshoot of this sect,
among whom this neighboring stream of culture was carried still further, were
the Essaers or Essenes. All the people who were united in the sects of the
Therapeutae and Essenes were under a certain common spiritual guidance. They are
briefly described in my book Christianity as Mystical Fact. If you would know
something of this spiritual guidance exoterically, you need only recall the
lectures given last year on the Gospel of St. Luke. The Mystery of Gautama
Buddha, as given exoterically in Oriental literature, was there dealt with, and
we explained that he who seeks to become a ‘Buddha’ must in the course of
evolution first become a ‘Bodhisattva.’ We explained further that the individual
known to history as the ‘Buddha’ had previously been a Bodhisattva. He was a
Bodhisattva until the twenty-ninth year of his physical existence, during which
time he lived as the son of King Sudhodana. It was only in his twenty-ninth
year, through inner soul-development, that he evolved from a Bodhisattva to a
Buddha. There is a long sequence of Bodhisattvas in human evolution, and he who
attained Buddhahood six hundred years before our era is one of these
Bodhisattvas who guided human evolution. An individual who rises from the
dignity of Bodhisattva to that of Buddha does not again incarnate in a physical
body on earth.
It was explained
in the course of the lectures referred to above how Buddha was manifest at the
birth of the Jesus of the Gospel of St. Luke in that he united himself with the
etheric body of him who is known as the Nathan Jesus; and it was shown that this
is a different Jesus from the one spoken of in the first part of the Gospel of
Matthew.
The attainment
of Buddha-hood by the son of King Sudhodana must be regarded as the close of an
ancient evolution. It was in fact the same stream of evolution as is connected
with the Holy Rishis of India. As soon as a Bodhisattva attains Buddha-hood a
successor always appears in his place. This is mentioned in an ancient Indian
legend where it tells that the Bodhisattva, before he came to earth as the son
of King Sudhodana when he was to attain the dignity of Buddha-hood, and while
still in spiritual realms, passed on his Bodhisattva crown to his successor.
Ever since that
time there has been a successor to the Bodhisattva who then attained
Buddha-hood; and the new Bodhisattva, who continued working as such, had a
special task for human evolution. The task appointed to him was to guide
spiritually the movement then making itself felt among the circles of the
Therapeutae and the Essenes. There his influence worked. In the follower of
Gautama Buddha we have to recognize the spiritual guide of the Essenes. During
the reign of King Alexander Jannai (circa 125-77 B.C.),
this Bodhisattva sent a particular individual to lead the Essenes; he was,
therefore, the leader of the Essenes about a century before Christ. He is well
known to occultism and to the external literature of the Talmud. Thus, a century
before our era, before the appearance of Christ on earth, there was an
individuality, who has nothing to do with the Jesus of the Luke-Gospel and
nothing to do with the Jesus of the Matthew-Gospel, who was a guide and leader
in the Essene Community. He is known under the name of Jesus, the son of
Pandira, Jeschua ben Pandira. Jewish literature has fabricated many things
regarding this individual, and these fables have recently been revived. He was a
great and noble personality, and must not be confused, as is done by some
students of the Talmud, with Jesus of Nazareth, the subject of these lectures.
We recognize this Essene forerunner of Christianity in Jesus, son of Pandira,
and we know that he was stoned to death by those who, at that time, saw
blasphemy in the teachings of the Essenes. After being accused of blasphemy and
heresy he was stoned and hanged on a tree, so that this disgrace might be added
to the punishment already inflicted. This is an occult fact, and is also to be
found in the literature of the Talmud.
In this Jeschua
ben Pandira we have to recognize a personality under the protection of the
Bodhisattva who succeeded the Bodhisattva, son of Sudhodana, who later became
Buddha. The matter is absolutely clear; we have to recognize here a kind of
preparation, a neighboring stream to the main stream of Christianity, springing
from the successor of that Buddha. He is the present Bodhisattva who will one
day become the Maitreya Buddha, and who sent his messenger among the Essenes to
bring that to pass which will be described in the succeeding lectures.
Thus we have to
seek the name ‘Jesus’ in the individual of Whom the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
speak; but we have also to seek it a hundred years before our era in the circle
of the Essenes, in that noble personality regarding whom all that the Talmudic
literature relates is calumny; who was accused of blasphemy and heresy, stoned,
and hanged upon a tree.
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