The Gospel of St. Matthew
GA 123
5 September 1910, Bern
Lecture V
It must be strictly remembered that there is no connection of kinship or other such relationship between Jesus, the son of Pandira, Jeschu ben Pandira, and the central figure in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, or any other Gospel. A hundred years before our era, that is to say a hundred years before the coming of Christ, Jeschu ben Pandira was stoned and then hanged on a tree, and he must not be confused with any figure in the Gospels. I want to emphasize, however, that to speak about the personality or existence of Jeschu ben Pandira requires no occult knowledge or clairvoyant faculty, because information about him can be obtained, if so desired, from Hebrew and Talmudist records. Confusion with the real Jesus has constantly occurred, for the first time actually as early as the second century A.D. Although Jesus, the son of Pandira, is not to be identified with Jesus of the Gospels there is a historical connection between the two personalities. This connection can be established to-day only through spiritual-scientific research and to understand it in all its depth we must again speak briefly of the evolution of humanity.
Looking up to those Beings who are the great Leaders of evolution, we come finally to lofty Individualities generally known by the name of Bodhisattvas—because it is in the East that the theory of their existence has been most firmly established. There are a number of Bodhisattvas. Their task as the great Teachers of humanity is to allow wisdom from, the spiritual worlds to flow through the Mystery Schools according to the maturity attained by men in a given epoch. The two Bodhisattvas—to whom reference has often been made when 'we have been speaking of the evolution of humanity—of primary interest for our own times arc the son of King Suddhodana who became Buddha, and he who as Gautama Buddha's successor in the office of Bodhisattva still holds this office to-day and—as Oriental wisdom and clairvoyant investigation agree—will do so for the next 2,500 years. This Bodhisattva will then become Maitreya Buddha, attaining the saint: rank as did his predecessor, Gautama Buddha.
The Bodhisattvas succeed one another in the evolution of humanity as great Teachers and must not be confused with the One who is the very source of their teachings, from whom they receive what it is their mission to impart to the several epochs. We must picture a 'college' of Bodhisattvas and at its centre the living source of the teachings. This living source is none other than He whom we are accustomed to call ‘Christ’. It is from Christ that all the Bodhisattvas receive what they have to impart to men in the course of the ages.
As long as a Bodhisattva holds this office he devotes himself first and foremost to the task of teaching; for, as we have heard, when he attains the rank of Buddhahood he does not again descend to incarnation in a physical body. Once more in agreement with all Oriental philosophy it can be said that Gautama Buddha, who as the son of King Suddhodana passed through his final incarnation in a physical body, has since assumed embodiment only as far as the etheric body. In the lectures on St. Luke's Gospel we heard of the next task of this Bodhisattva after becoming Buddha. When the so-called Nathan Jesus of St. Luke's Gospel was born (he is not the same as the Jesus of St. Matthew's Gospel), the Buddha who was embodied at that time as far as the etheric body, penetrated into the astral body of this child. Hence we can say that since his incarnation as Gautama Buddha the function of that Being was no longer to give teaching but to work as a living power from the spiritual world into the physical world. To work through teaching and to work as a living, growth-promoting power arc entirely different matters. A Bodhisattva is a Teacher until he becomes Buddha; from then onwards he is a power, an organising, life-bestowing power. And the Buddha worked as such in the constitution of the Nathan Jesus.
Since the sixth century B.C., the successor of the Bodhisattva who then became Buddha has taken the latter's place in the series of great Teachers. This is the Bodhisattva who later on will become the Maitreya Buddha. Hence we have to look for teachings needed by mankind since the time of Gautama Buddha wheresoever the Bodhisattva who succeeded him has poured down his inspiration, inculcating into his disciples what it is their mission to communicate to the world.—I said in the lecture yesterday that the activities centred in the communities of the Therapeutae and Essenes were chosen to be an instrument for the work of this Bodhisattva, and that one of the very noblest, purest personalities in the Essene communities was Jesus, the son of Pandira. Thus it was through the Essenes that the teaching of the Bodhisattva sent its radiance into mankind on the Earth.
As hearers of the deeper teachings, the Essene communities disappeared comparatively soon after the Christ Event—this is evident from external history. It will therefore certainly not seem incredible when I say that fundamentally and essentially the communities of the Therapeutae and Essenes were instituted in order that they might be instrumental in bringing down from the spiritual realms, from the spheres of the Bodhisattvas, what was needed to enable men to comprehend the momentous event of the appearance of Christ. The most important teachings given to mankind with the object of promoting understanding of the Christ Event stemmed from the communities of the Therapeutae and the Essenes. Thus Jesus, the son of Pandira, inspired as it were by the Bodhisattva who will become the Maitreya Buddha and whose influence was at work in these communities, was chosen to give teachings whereby the Mystery of Palestine, the Mystery of Christ, could be brought within reach of man's understanding. More detailed information about the Therapeutae and Essenes can be discovered only by means of spiritual-scientific investigation. Very little is known about them in external history. And as we are among anthroposophists, we shall not hesitate to draw from the secrets possessed by the Therapeutae and Essenes what is necessary for a deeper understanding of St. Matthew's Gospel, as well as of the other Gospels. We shall speak of the secrets in a way that tallies with the picture a spiritual scientist must have of these communities which flourished a century before the Christ Event in order to prepare for it through special teachings.
The essential feature in these communities was the Initiation undergone by members of the sects. This Initiation was specially adapted to promote understanding, through clairvoyant vision, of the significance of the part played by the Hebrews and by Abraham in preparation for the coming of Christ. That was the mystery with which the communities of the Therapeutae and Essenes were specially concerned. The very purpose of the Initiation undergone by their disciples was to promote deeper and more exact clairvoyant insight into the connection just mentioned. In the first place, therefore, it was necessary that an Essene should learn to assess the full significance of what had come about for the Hebrew people through Abraham, and so be able to see in him the progenitor of that people. Through his own vision an Essene was to realise that there had been implanted into Abraham the faculty of which I have spoken in the preceding lectures, which had then to be filtered through many generations, flowing down through the blood.
To understand how something of importance for the whole evolution of humanity can be brought about through a personality such as Abraham, you must keep this very significant truth clearly in mind: that always, whenever a personality is chosen to be a special instrument in the great process of evolution, a divine-spiritual Being must have a direct hold in that personality.
(Those of you who were present at the performance in Munich of the Rosicrucian Mystery Play, The Portal of Initiation, or have read it, will know that one of the most important dramatic moments1Scene 3, pp. 1o7-8, in the translation by Adam Bittleston. The whole scene should be read. is when the Hierophant indicates to Maria that she can fulfil her mission only when the influence of higher Beings has actually taken effect in her, when, in her case, this has caused what may be called a separation of the higher members of her nature from the lower, making it possible for the latter to be 'possessed' by an inferior spirit.—Everything in the Mystery Play, if you let it work upon your souls and do not take it superficially, can make you alive to great secrets of the evolution of humanity.)
As such a momentous role in evolution had been assigned to Abraham, it was necessary that the Spirit once perceptible to men in Atlantean times weaving through the external world should penetrate into his inner, organic constitution. Abraham was the first in whom this came to pass and therewith a fundamental change in man's faculty of spiritual perception was made possible. This could be brought about only through the influence of a divine-spiritual Being and such a Being did, in fact, lay into the organic constitution of Abraham the seed for the bodies that were to descend from him in the line of generations.
Thus an Essene would have said: The power that could actually bring the Hebrew people into existence, the power that enabled this people to become the bearers of the mission which prepares for Christ's coming, was established, in rudiment to begin with, by the mysterious Being who is only to be discovered when the soul ascends through the entire sequence of generations to Abraham, to the point where this Being entered into Abraham's bodily constitution, thereafter to work through the blood as a kind of Folk-Spirit in the Hebrew people. If, therefore, this secret of the evolution of humanity is to be understood, a man must rise in soul to the Spirit who implanted that power and seek for him in the realm where he was to be found before he had penetrated into Abraham.—The Essenes said: If a man desires to ascend in soul to the Spirit inspiring the Hebrew people and to know him in all purity, such a man, if he is an Essene or a Therapeut, must undergo a certain development whereby he purifies himself from everything that since the time of Abraham has approached the human soul from the physical world. The spiritual Being within man, and all the spiritual Beings who work together to bring about the evolution of humanity are to be experienced in their purity only in the spiritual world; in the state in which they exist within man they have been defiled by the forces of the physical world of sense.
According to the view held by the Essenes--and in a certain province of knowledge it is of course absolutely correct—every human being had within him whatever impurities had made their way into the soul in the past, clouding vision of the spiritual Being who had established in Abraham the power of which we have spoken. Accordingly it was essential that the soul of every Essene should be cleansed of everything that had penetrated into this power as a disturbing factor, dimming the vision of the Being indwelling the blood of the generations. The aim of all the methods of inner purification, all the exercises practised by the Essenes, was to liberate the soul from those inherited traits and influences which might obscure vision of the Being who was the Inspirer of Abraham. It was realised that the soul and spirit within man, this inmost core of his nature, had been clouded and sullied through the inherited traits.
There is a spiritual law which through their studies and clairvoyant perception the Essenes were well able to grasp, namely that the influence of heredity ceases only after 42 stages in the line of generations. Only after 42 stages have all traces of heredity been eliminated from a man's soul. He inherits something from his father and his mother, something from his grandfather and grandmother and so on, but the earlier the stages in the sequence of generations, the less are inherited impurities within him, and after 42 generations there are none; the influence of heredity no longer exists. Hence the aim of the methods of purification practised by the Essenes was to eliminate, through exercises and strict training of the inner life, whatever impurities had sullied the soul in the course of 42 generations. Every Essene was obliged to submit to severe discipline and to undergo difficult mystical experiences leading through 42 stages. There were 42 distinct stages on this mystical path to purification; when he had passed through them in actual experience an Essene knew that he was free from all influences of the world of the senses, from all the impurities in his inner nature resulting from heredity.
Thus an Essene rose in soul through 42 stages to the high level where he felt the inmost core of his own being to be related to the Divine-Spiritual. He said: By passing through these 42 stages I reach the God for whom I aspire !—The Essenes had clear perception of how a man could rise in soul to a Divine Being who had not yet descended into matter, for the path of ascent was known to them from their own experience. Among all who were living on the Earth at that time, the Therapeutae and the Essenes alone were cognizant of the truth about what had come to pass through Abraham. They knew the truth concerning heredity through the generations and they knew too that to ascend to a Being who has entered the stream of heredity and reach the stage where that Being had not yet descended into matter, a man must rise in soul through 42 stages, corresponding to the 42 generations; then the Being would be found. But they knew some-thing else as well, namely this.—Just as a man must ascend in soul through the 42 stages to reach this Divine Being, so must the Divine Being himself take the path in the opposite direction, descending through 42 stages if he is to penetrate into the blood of a man. Just as there are 42 stages on the path of ascent to the Divine Being, so must the Divine Being descend through 42 stages in order to become a man among men.
Such were the teachings given among the Essenes, above all by Jeschu ben Pandira, under the influence of the inspiring Bodhisattva. Thus it was a doctrine of the Essenes that the Being who had inspired Abraham to receive the Divine Seed into his own organism, needed 42 generations to descend to manhood.
When we know this we also know the source of the know-ledge that enabled the writer of the Gospel of St. Matthew to enumerate precisely these 42 generations. And it was Jesus, the son of Pandira, who drew the attention of the Essenes to one point in particular.—The 42 generations would not be completed until a further hundred years had elapsed after the century in which he was living. He therefore taught the Essenes that they could rise in soul through the 42 stages only so far as a link with historical events was still possible, and that from that point onwards any further advance could only be through grace from above. But, so he taught them, the time will come when, as a natural happening, a man will be born for whom it will be possible to rise through his own blood to such a lofty height that there can descend into him the Divine Power enabling him to bring to manifestation the Spirit of the Hebrew people, the Jahve-Spirit, in the blood of that people. Jeschu ben Pandira taught: If Zarathustra, the herald of Ahura Mazdao, is to incarnate in a human body, this body must have been prepared in such a way that the divine-spiritual Being indwelling it has descended through 42 generations.
The Essene communities, therefore, were the source of the teaching concerning the generations with which St. Matthew's Gospel begins. But to understand these facts thoroughly, reference must be made to an even deeper aspect of the subject.
Because man is a twofold being, everything connected with his development presents itself to us from two sides. During waking consciousness the four members of man's being are united and his twofold nature is not immediately apparent. But during sleep he is quite clearly twofold: his physical and etheric bodies remain in the physical world and his astral body and Ego have emerged from the other two members. As long as we are concerned with that which makes man part of the physical world, we can speak only of physical body and etheric body. In truth, all man-made institutions and affairs in the physical world concern the physical body and etheric body, although during waking life the activity of the other members is also involved. During the hours of waking consciousness man works from his Ego and astral body into the other two members; during sleep he leaves the latter to themselves. But in reality, the moment he goes to sleep, forces and beings begin to work from the Cosmos and to permeate the members he has temporarily abandoned; it is a fact, therefore, that a constant influence from the Cosmos is exercised upon his physical and etheric bodies. These bodies that re-main in the bed during sleep constitute the outer side of man's structure and their attributes are comprised within 42 generations, during which span these attributes are transmitted by heredity. If we take everything that belongs to the physical nature in the first generation and then pass on through 42 generations, when these have been completed, no trace at all will be found of the rudimental qualities that were the most fundamental in the first generation. In other words, the active characteristics and forces in the physical and etheric bodies of a human being arc comprised within 6 times 7 generations. Whatever the inherited traits in these two bodies may be, they must be sought among the ancestors, but only within the course of 42 generations. Beyond that, nothing is to be found; everything belonging to an earlier generation has vanished. The forces inherent in the outer constitution of a human being are therefore essentially connected with 42 generations.
In this sense the evolution or development of man in Time is based upon a principle of number. This must be studied more closely, for it has an important bearing upon the genealogy given in St. Matthew's Gospel.
Everything relating to the physical body is connected with 42 generations, because everything that has to do with development or evolution in Time is governed by the number 7. Evolution through the period during which physical attributes are inherited was known by the Essenes to be connected with this number. An Essene said to himself: You have to pass through 6 times 7 stages=42 stages; then you come to the next 7 stages which complete the multiples of 7 : 7 times 7 =49 stages. It is however the case that whatever lies beyond the 42 stages can no longer be attributed to the forces and beings working as active factors in the physical and etheric bodies. In accordance with the law governing the number 7, the whole evolution of the physical and etheric bodies is actually achieved only after 7 times 7 generations; but in the final 7 generations complete transformation has already taken place and nothing of the earlier generations is any longer present. The Essenes knew that what primarily concerned them was comprised within the 6 times 7 generations; but that when the multiples of 7 were complete, something new was there. In the sphere entered after the 42 generations, they realised that they no longer had to do with human but with superhuman existence. They said: 6 times 7 generations are connected with the Earth, and what lies beyond them to make 7 times 7 already leads beyond the Earth: this is the fruit for the spiritual world. After the 6 times 7 generations the fruit is produced which then, with the completion of the 7 times 7, emerges for the spiritual world.
Hence the thoughts of those among whom the Gospel of St. Matthew originated were somewhat to the following effect.—The physical body used by Zarathustra must be of such maturity that after the 42 generations it is already at the point of spiritualisation, therefore of deification. It is in existence at the beginning of the 43rd generation, but instead of passing into the further stages this body allows itself to be permeated by another Being—by the spirit of Zarathustra who incarnated on the Earth as Jesus of Nazareth.—Thus through the fulfillment of the mystery of numbers the most fitting body and the most fitting blood had been provided for the Zarathustra-soul in Jesus of Nazareth.—Such is the preparation of whatever relates to physical and etheric body in human evolution.
But now there are in man—hence also in him who was to be the bearer of the Christ Being—not only physical body and etheric body but astral body and Ego as well. Therefore the astral body and Ego too, not only the physical and etheric bodies, had to be adequately prepared. For an event of such stupendous importance this could not be accomplished in one personality, and two were necessary. The physical body and the etheric body were prepared in the personality with whom the Gospel of St. Matthew is primarily concerned; the astral body and Ego-principle were prepared in the personality of whom the Gospel of St. Luke tells and whom we know as the Nathan Jesus. During the early years this was a different personality. Whereas Jesus of St. Matthew's Gospel received the suitable physical and etheric bodies, Jesus of St. Luke's Gospel was to receive the suitable astral body and Ego-principle. How could this come to pass?
As I said before, it is a fallacy due to the assertions of an inferior kind of clairvoyance that the whole astral being and the Ego of a man are contained in the cloudlike formation hovering near the physical and etheric bodies of one who is asleep. The truth is that when, during sleep, man passes out of the physical and etheric bodies, his being expands into the whole Cosmos, into everything pertaining to the Cosmos. The mystery of our sleep is that We draw from the world of t he stars—hence we speak of ‘astral’ body—the purest cosmic forces We then bring these forces with us when, on waking, we descend into the physical and etheric bodies. We emerge from sleep strengthened and vitalized by everything we have been able to draw into ourselves from the Cosmos.
When a man develops clairvoyance in its higher form to-day—and this applies also to the time of Christ Jesus—what experiences must he undergo? In the conditions normal at the present time, man becomes unconscious when with his astral body and Ego he passes out of the physical and etheric bodies. Clairvoyant consciousness must, however, be brought to the stage where there can be vision through the astral body and Ego alone, to the entire exclusion of physical and etheric bodies. This clairvoyant consciousness then participates in and perceives the happenings of the world of the stars—not only gazes into that world but actually penetrates it. Just as the consciousness unfolded by the Essenes rose upwards through the chronological sequence of generations governed by the number 7, so must a man pass through the stages that make it possible for him to have clairvoyant vision of the Cosmos.
I have often spoken of where the danger lies for development either in the one direction or in the other. Among the Essenes it was fundamentally a matter of descent into the physical and etheric bodies in order that after traversing the 42 generations they might find the Divine. With them it was as if, on waking, instead of seeing the world around him, a man were to plunge into his physical and etheric bodies in order to observe their forces—in other words, to perceive his external nature from within. Normally, man does not descend consciously into these bodies on waking; lie is protected from doing so because at the moment of waking his consciousness is diverted to the environment and is not directed to the forces of the physical and etheric bodies. What was essential for the Essenes was to learn to perceive all the forces and capabilities originating from the 42 generations, to learn to disregard entirely what the eyes observe in the outer world and to plunge straightaway into their own physical and etheric bodies where they then beheld the living produce of the secret of 6 times 7=42 generations.
Man must raise his consciousness in a similar sense if his aim is to ascend into the Cosmos in order to learn of the mysteries underlying cosmic existence. This is a mightier task. When descending into his own inner nature the only danger facing him is that of being laid hold of by its forces, by desires, passions and other tendencies in the soul to which lie generally pays no heed or even has no inkling that they exist, because in ordinary circumstances his external interests keep him from direct knowledge of them. In normal circumstances there is no possibility that he will be overpowered by these forces, because at the very moment of waking his attention is diverted by the appearance of the outer world. Whereas, therefore, when descending into his inner nature the danger is that a man will be overwhelmed by his own lowest and most egotistical urges, a different danger confronts one who is living through the experience. of expanding over the Cosmos. This danger cannot be more exactly characterized than by saying: One who at the moment of going to sleep does not become unconscious but retains so much consciousness that in his astral body and Ego he has an instrument for perception of the spiritual world—for such a one the danger may be that he is utterly dazzled, as if he were facing the blinding rays of the sun. He is dazzled and bewildered by the stupendous grandeur of the impressions.
While it was necessary for the Essenes to recognize that all inherited attributes in the physical and etheric bodies were connected with the secret of the number 6 times 7, a certain secret of number was also connected with the attainment of knowledge of the mysteries of the Cosmos, of the Great World. Again, the best approach to this secret was to turn to movements and constellations in the Cosmos, to the manifestations of the stars themselves. As we have heard, 6 times 7 stages lead to the secrets of man's inner nature; the secrets of cosmic space are reached after 12 times 7=84 stages. A man who has passed 12 times 7 stages arrives at the point where the labyrinth of the spiritual forces of the Cosmos is no longer bewildering; he attains the state of calm in which he can find his bearings in this labyrinth and see through its intricacies. In a certain sense that too was a teaching given by the Essenes.
When a man who possesses the clairvoyant faculties here described goes to sleep, his being flows out into conditions expressed in the secret of the number 12 times 7. But at the last of these stages he is already in the super-sensible; for when he has completed the it times 7 stages he has reached the boundary of the conditions to which the numerical secrets apply. Just as the 7 times 7 stages have already led into the Spiritual, so too have the 12 times 7. To reach the Spiritual along this path a man must have passed through t times 7 stages in the astral body and Ego. This is indicated in the stellar script itself, 7 being the number of the planets and I 2 that of the constellations of the Zodiac which the soul must traverse in cosmic space. As the seven planets group them-selves within the twelve zodiacal constellations and pass in front of them, when a man is ascending in soul into the Cosmos he must pass through 7 times 12, or rather 7 times it stages to reach the Spiritual.
You can, if you like, picture the 12 constellations of the Zodiac as the spiritual periphery, with man himself in the centre. If he is to reach the Spiritual, he cannot begin by spreading as it were from the centre, but he must expand in spirals, gyrating in 7 spirals and passing all the 12 constellations in each complete circuit—therefore 7 times 12 stages. Man expands in spirals gradually into the Cosmos—all this is of course only a figurative description—and if, circling in this way, he were to have passed through the 12 constellations for the seventh time, he would have reached the Divine-Spiritual. Then, instead of looking into the Cosmos from the centre, he looks inwards from the spiritual periphery, from the twelve stations, and from these vantage-points he can behold the external world and all that is in it. There must be twelve such vantage-points; one alone does not suffice. Thus a man who aspired to reach the Divine-Spiritual must sublimate astral body and Ego through 11 times 7 stages; when 12 times 7 stages had been scaled, he was within the Spiritual.
Astral body and Ego had in this way to pass through 1 2 times 7, or rather t times 7 stages to reach the Divine. But if the Divine is to descend and a human Ego be made fit to be its vehicle, the descent must equally be through times 7 stages.
Therefore in setting out to describe these spiritual forces whereby astral body and Ego were rendered fit to be bearers of the Christ, it was natural that the Gospel of St. Luke should indicate how the Divine-Spiritual Power descended through 11 times 7 stages. And this the Gospel does. Because the Gospel of St. Luke is describing that other Personality for whom astral body and Ego-bearer were prepared, it does not—as the Gospel of St. Matthew—describe 6 times 7 generations, but a sequence of it times 7 stages through which the Power indwelling the Individuality of the Jesus of whom this Gospel is speaking, came down from God himself. This is expressly stated. Count the stages enumerated in St. Luke's Gospel as those through which the Divine Power descends, and you will find that there are 77.
Because the Gospel of St. Matthew is describing the secret of what is taking effect during the descent of the Divine Power working formatively in physical body and etheric body, the ruling number is 7 times 7. And in the Gospel of St. Luke the number 11 times 7 must necessarily appear, because this Gospel is describing the descent of the Divine Power by which the astral body and Ego are transformed. From this we can realise what deep foundations underlie these presentations and how in very truth the secrets of Initiation, the stages in the descent of the Divine-Spiritual into a human individuality and in the expansion into the Cosmos arc indicated in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke.
We will speak again tomorrow of the reasons why the Gospel of St. Luke enumerates a line of generations and why, in an age when the mystery of Christ Jesus was imparted to only a very few human beings, it was made known that from God and from Adam down to the Jesus of St. Luke's Gospel there had been 77 generations.
Fünfter Vortrag
Daß jener Jesus, Sohn des Pandira, Jeshu ben Pandira, in bezug auf Verwandtschaft oder sonstwie, nichts zu tun hat mit derjenigen Persönlichkeit oder Individualität, von welcher wir sprechen als dem Jesus des Matthäus-Evangeliums oder dem Jesus des Lukas- oder irgendeines anderen Evangeliums, daß dieser ein Jahrhundert vor unserer Zeitrechnung, also vor dem Stattfinden des Christus-Ereignisses gesteinigte und nachher an einen Baum gehängte Jeshu ben Pandira nicht verwechselt werden darf mit alledem, wovon wir sprechen, wenn wir von den Evangelien sprechen, das muß streng festgehalten werden. Nur bemerken will ich ausdrücklich: Um auf die Persönlichkeit des Jeshu ben Pandira hinzuweisen, um darüber etwas zu sagen, daß er existiert hat, dazu ist zunächst nicht notwendig irgendeine okkulte Erkenntnis, nicht irgendein hellseherisches Vermögen, sondern das kann man sich zusammenlesen, wenn man will, aus den hebräischen, den talmudischen Urkunden. Die Verwechslung mit demeigentlichen Jesus hat ja zu verschiedenen Zeiten immer stattgefunden, und sie hat zuerst bereits stattgefunden im 2. Jahrhundert nach dem Beginne unserer Zeitrechnung. Wenn wir also ausdrücklich betont haben, daß dieser Jesus, Sohn des Pandira, in dieser Beziehung nichts zu tun hat mit dem Jesus der Evangelien, so müssen wir auf der anderen Seite aber doch wieder einen geschichtlichen, allerdings jetzt nur durch geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung feststellbaren Zusammenhang dieser beiden Persönlichkeiten festhalten. Diesen Zusammenhang werden wir aber nur dann in seiner Tiefe begreifen, wenn wir auf die Menschheitsevolution und ihre Führer noch einmal mit ein paar Worten eingehen.
Wenn wir zu denjenigen Wesenheiten, denjenigen Individualitäten hinaufschauen, welche die großen Führer der Menschheitsevolution sind, so kommen wir zuletzt zu einer Reihe hoher Individualitäten, die man gern bezeichnet — weil sozusagen die Theorie von diesen Individualitäten am besten im Orient festgestellt worden ist - als die Bodhisattvas. Solcher Bodhisattvas gibt es eine ganze Anzahl. Ihre Aufgabe ist es, große Lehrer derMenschheit zu sein, von Epoche zu Epoche dasjenige von den geistigen Welten durch die Mysterienschulen in die Menschheit einfließen zu lassen, was nach der menschlichen Reife für irgendeine Epoche einfließen soll. Und man kann sagen: Diese Bodhisattvas wechseln sich ab in den aufeinanderfolgenden Zeiten; es wirkt immer einer der Bodhisattvas als Nachfolger des anderen. Für unsere Zeiten interessieren uns zunächst jene beiden Bodhisattvas, die wir schon öfter haben anführen müssen, wenn wir von unserer Menschheitsentwickelung sprechen: jener Bodhisattva, der als der Sohn des Königs Suddhodana Buddha geworden ist, und jener, welcher in der Würde des Bodhisattva sein Nachfolger wurde, und der, da das Amt des Bodhisattva so lange dauert, es auch heute noch ist und - im Einklange der orientalischen Weisheit mit der hellseherischen Forschung darf es gesagt werden - es auch noch durch die nächsten zweitausendfünfhundert Jahre sein wird. Dann wird dieser Bodhisattva denselben Aufstieg durchmachen, den sein Vorgänger durchmachte, als er zum Buddha erhoben worden ist. Es wird der gegenwärtig amtierende Bodhisattva dann erhoben werden zur Würde des Maitreya Buddha.
In der Leitung der Menschheitsevolution, von der wir sprechen als von einer Leitung durch Lehrer, haben wir die sich abwechselnd folgenden Bodhisattvas. Und wir müssen die Reihe dieser Bodhisattvas auffassen als die großen Lehrer der Menschbeitsevolution und dürfen sie nicht verwechseln mit dem, was Quell dieser Lehre ist, und wovon wieder die Bodhisattvas dasjenige erhalten, was sie der Menschheitsevolution als aufeinanderfolgende Lehren zu geben haben. Wir haben uns gleichsam vorzustellen ein Kollegium von Bodhisattvas, und inmitten dieses Kollegiums haben wir uns zu denken den lebendigen Quell für die Lehren der Bodhisattvas. Und dieser lebendige Quell ist kein anderer als derjenige, den wir nach unserem Sprachgebrauch mit dem Ausdrucke «Christus» bezeichnen. So daß von dem Christus alle Bodhisattvas dasjenige empfangen, was sie im Laufe der Zeitentwickelung den Menschen zu geben haben.
Nun hat ein Bodhisattva sich vorzugsweise der Lehre zu widmen, solange er eben Bodhisattva ist; denn wir haben gesehen, daß der Bodhisattva, wenn er zur Buddhawürde erhoben wird, nicht wieder heruntersteigt, um in einem physischen Leibe inkarniert zu werden. Wiederum kann es im Einklange mit aller orientalischen Philosophie gesagt werden, daß der Gautama Buddha, der damals als Sohn des Königs Suddhodana seine letzte Inkarnation in einem physischen Leibe durchmachte, seit jener Zeit nur noch Verkörperungen erlebt, die hinuntergehen bis zum Ätherleib. Und wir haben bei den Vorträgen über das Lukas-Evangelium hervorgehoben, welches die nächste Aufgabe dieses zum Buddha gewordenen Bodhisattva war. Wir haben gesehen: Als der Jesus des Lukas-Evangeliums geboren worden ist, der sogenannte nathanische Jesus, der ein anderer ist als der Jesus des MatthäusEvangeliums, da drang die Wesenheit des Buddha, die damals verkörpert war bis zum Ätherleibe, gleichsam ein in den astralischen Leib dieses nathanischen Jesus, den uns zunächst das Lukas-Evangelium schildert. Daher kann man sagen: Seit seiner Inkarnation als Gautama Buddha war dieses Wesen nicht mehr zum Lehren da, sondern es war fortan dieser Buddha da zur lebendigen Wirksamkeit. Zu einer realen Kraft war er geworden, die von der geistigen Welt hereinwirkt in unsere physische Welt. Es ist etwas durchaus anderes, zu wirken durch Lehre und zu wirken durch lebendige Kraft, durch Wachstumskraft. Bis zu dem Moment, wo ein Bodhisattva Buddha wird, ist er Lehrer; von diesem Moment ab ist er eine lebendige Kraft, die organisierend, lebengebend eingreift in irgendeiner Beziehung. So griff der Buddha ein in die Organisation des nathanischen Jesus, wie es Lukas schildert, und so verhielt er sich gemäß seiner neuen Würde.
Vom 6. Jahrhundert der vorchristlichen Zeit bis in unsere Zeit hinein ist nun an die Stelle jenes Bodhisattva, der damals Buddha wurde, sein Nachfolger in die Reihe der großen Lehrer getreten, jener, der später zum Maitreya Buddha werden wird. Daher haben wir die Lehre, welche die Menschheit notwendig hatte seit jener Zeit, da Gautama Buddha, der Sohn des Königs Suddhodana wirkte, dort zu suchen, wo jener Bodhisattva, der sein Nachfolger ist, die Inspiration ausübt, wo er sozusagen einfließen läßt in seine Schüler, in seine Zöglinge dasjenige, was sie der Welt mitteilen sollen. - Ich habe gestern schon darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie ausersehen war zu einem Instrument für diesen Bodhisattva alles, was zum Beispiel vereinigt war in den 'Therapeuten- und Essäergemeinden, und daß zu den bedeutendsten, zu den erhabensten und reinsten Persönlichkeiten innerhalb der Essäergemeinden Jesus, Sohn des Pandira, gehörte. So müssen wir gleichsam hereinscheinen sehen den Lehrgehalt jenes Bodhisattva in die Erdenmenschheit durch die Essäer.
Die eigentlichen Essäergemeinden waren dem tieferen Lehrgehalt nach - davon können Sie sich auch durch die äußere Geschichte überzeugen - verhältnismäßig bald verschwunden, nachdem das ChristusEreignis sich auf der Erde abgespielt hatte. Daher wird es nicht gar so unglaublich erscheinen, wenn ich sage, daß im Grunde die Therapeuten- und Essäergemeinden wesentlich dazu eingerichtet waren, um aus den geistigen Regionen, aus den Sphären der Bodhisattvas dasjenige heruntergelangen zu lassen, was man brauchte, um das große, bedeutsame Ereignis der Christus-Erscheinung zu begreifen. Die wichtigsten Lehren, die der Menschheit zugekommen sind, um das Christus-Ereignis zu begreifen, stammten aus den Therapeuten- und Essäergemeinden. So war gewissermaßen Jesus, der Sohn des Pandira, dazu ausersehen, sich von dem Bodhisattva, der der Maitreya Buddha werden wird und der hineinwirkte in die Essäergemeinden, inspirieren zu lassen zu solchen Lehren, welche das Mysterium von Palästina, das Mysterium des Christus verständlich machen konnten. Das Genauere über die Therapeuten und Essäer ist allerdings nur zu erkunden auf dem Wege der geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschung. Die äußere Geschichte weiß sehr wenig davon. Und wir wollen sozusagen ohne Scheu - da wir in einem anthroposophischen Kreise sind, der solche Dinge hinzunehmen versteht - aus den Geheimnissen der 'Therapeuten und Essäer herausholen, was notwendig ist, um zu einem tieferen Verständnis des Matthäus-Evangeliums und auch der anderen Evangelien zu kommen. Und wir wollen diese Geheimnisse so schildern, wie der Geisteswissenschafter über die Therapeuten und Essäer denken muß.
Das Wesentliche, worauf es bei diesen Gemeinden ankam, die also ein Jahrhundert vor dem Christus-Ereignis blühten, um es durch Lehre vorzubereiten, war die Art, wie bei denen, die Mitglieder der Therapeuten und Essäer waren, die Einweihung bewirkt wurde. Sie machten eine Einweihung durch, die ganz besonders geeignet sein sollte, ein Verständnis, ein Verständnis durch hellseherische Anschauung hervorzurufen von der Bedeutung des Hebräismus, des Abrahamismus für das Christus-Ereignis. Das war geradezu ein Mysterium der Therapeuten- und Essäergemeinden. Ihre Bekenner wurden dazu eingeweiht, gerade den hiermit bezeichneten Zusammenhang hellseherisch genauer einzusehen. Ein solcher Essäer sollte also zunächst einsehen lernen die ganze Bedeutung dessen, was durch Abraham für das hebräische Volk geschehen war, damit er das würdigen konnte, daß in Abraham wirklich eine Art Stammvater des hebräischen Volkes zu sehen ist. Daß in ihn jene Anlage gelegt worden ist, von der ich Ihnen in den letzten Stunden gesprochen habe, jene Anlage, welche sich dann durch viele Generationen hindurch gleichsam filtrieren mußte und hinunterrinnen durch das Blut, das sollte ein Essäer durch eigene Anschauung einsehen.
Um so etwas zu verstehen, wie durch eine Persönlichkeit wie Abraham etwas Wichtiges für die ganze Menschheitsevolution geschehen kann, müssen Sie einen Satz, eine wichtige Wahrheit ganz genau ins ‚Auge fassen: daß immer, wo eine Persönlichkeit zu einem besonderen Instrument für die Menschheitsevolution ausersehen wird, bei einer solchen Persönlichkeit ein unmittelbares Eingreifen einer göttlichgeistigen Wesenheit notwendig ist.
Diejenigen von Ihnen, welche an der Münchener Aufführung des «Rosenkreuzermysteriums» teilgenommen haben, oder es gelesen haben, werden wissen, daß eine der wichtigsten dramatischen Verwicklungen darauf beruht: Der Hierophant macht die Maria darauf aufmerksam, wie sie ihre Mission nur dadurch erfüllen kann, daß in der Tat ein solcher Einfluß einer höheren Wesenheit stattgefunden hat; und bei ihr wird dadurch wirklich so etwas hervorgerufen, was man nennen kann eine Trennung der höheren Glieder von den niederen, so daß die letzteren dann besessen werden können von einem untergeordneten Geist. - Alles, was in dem «Rosenkreuzermysterium» zu finden ist, kann Sie, wenn Sie es auf Ihre Seele wirken lassen und nicht leicht hinnehmen, auf große Geheimnisse der Menschheitsevolution aufmerksam machen. Da nun Abraham ausersehen war, eine solche wichtige Rolle in der Menschheitsevolution zu spielen, war es bei ihm notwendig, daß hineindrang in das Innere seiner Organisation, was die Menschheit früher in den atlantischen Zeiten wahrgenommen hatte als denjenigen Geist, der durchwebt und durchlebt die Außenwelt. Das geschah zum ersten Male bei Abraham, und damit war eszum ersten Male möglich, daß eine Veränderung des geistigen Anschauens stattfinden konnte. Allerdings, damit das geschehen konnte, war notwendig der Einfluß einer göttlichgeistigen Wesenheit. Es legte gleichsam eine göttlich-geistige Wesenheit in die Organisation des Abraham hinein den Keim für alle die Organisationen, die von ihm in der Generationenfolge abstammen sollten.
Also sagte sich ein Essäer der damaligen Zeit: Was eigentlich das hebräische Volk bilden konnte, wodurch es der Träger der ChristusMission werden konnte, das wurde zuerst in der Anlage bewirkt durch jenes geheimnisvolle Wesen, das man nur finden kann, wenn man durch die ganze Generationenfolge hinaufsteigt bis zu Abraham, wo es gleichsam hineingeschlüpft ist in die innere Organisation des Abraham, um dann durch das Blut hindurch als eine Art von Volksgeist im hebräischen Volke zu wirken. Will man also dieses sozusagen letzte Geheimnis der Menschheitsevolution verstehen, so muß man zu diesem Geiste hinaufsteigen, der jene Anlage verpflanzt hat, und ihn dort aufsuchen, wo er noch nicht in die Organisation des Abraham hineingeschlüpft war. Deshalb sagte der Essäer: Wenn der Mensch zu diesem eigentlich inspirierenden oder inaugurierenden Geist des hebräischen Volkes hinaufsteigen will und ihn in seiner Reinheit erkennen will, so muß er als Essäer oder Therapeut eine gewisse Entwickelung durchmachen, wodurch er sich von alledem reinigt, was seit dem AbrahamEreignis aus der physischen Welt an die menschliche Seele herangekommen ist. Denn der Essäer sagte sich: Das geistige Wesen, das der Mensch in sich trägt, und alle die geistigen Wesenheiten, die mitwirken an dem Menschheitswerden, sind in ihrer Reinheit nur in der geistigen Welt zu schauen; wie sie in uns selbst wohnen, sind sie verunreinigt durch die Kräfte der physisch-sinnlichen Welt.
Nun hatte nach Anschauung der Essäer - und das ist natürlich auf einem gewissen Gebiet der Erkenntnis absolut richtig — ein jeder Mensch, der damals lebte, alles das in sich, was in vorausgegangenen Zeiten in die menschliche Seele hineingekommen war an Verunteinigungen, was den freien Blick auf das geistige Wesen trübte, das jene charakterisierte Anlage in Abraham gelegt hatte. Es mußte demnach eine jede Essäerseele sich reinigen von dem, was in die Anlage hineingekommen war und was sozusagen den Blick auf jenes Wesen trübte, das im Blute dieser Generationen wohnte; erst dann konnte es richtig geschaut werden. Alle Reinigungen seelischer Art, alle Exerzitien des Essäers waren darauf berechnet, die Seele frei zu bekommen von den durch die Generationen herunter vererbten Einflüssen und vererbten Merkmalen, welche den Blick auf das den Abraham inspirierende geistige Wesen trüben konnten; denn der Mensch hat ja nicht bloß sein innerstes geistig-seelisches Wesen in sich, sondern er hat es getrübt und verunreinigt in sich durch die vererbten Merkmale.
Nun ist es ein geisteswissenschaftliches Gesetz, das die Essäer vorzugsweise durch ihre Forschung und ihr hellseherisches Anschauen erfüllen konnten: daß der Einfluß der Vererbung erst wirklich aufhört, wenn man durch zweiundvierzig Stufen hindurch in der Ahnenreihe aufsteigt. Dann erst hat man alles aus seiner Seele herausgeworfen,wenn man diese zweiundvierzig Stufen hinaufsteigt. Das heißt, man ererbt etwas vom Vater und von der Mutter, etwas von Großvater und Großmutter und so weiter. Immer weniger aber hat man von dem in sich, was durch Vererbung an Verunreinigungen des inneren Wesens entstanden ist, je weiter man in der Ahnenreihe hinaufsteigt, und nichts mehr hat man, wenn man dutch zweiundvierzig Generationen hindurch aufsteigt. Da verliert sich der Einfluß der Vererbung. Daher waren die Reinigungen der Essäer darauf berechnet, alles aus dem Inneren durch innere Exerzitien, durch sorgfältige Schulung herauszuarbeiten, was durch zweiundvierzig Generationen hindurch an Verunreinigungen in die Seele hineingekommen war. Deshalb mußte jeder Essäer schwere innere Exerzitien, schwere mystische Wege durchmachen; die führten ihn durch zweiundvierzig Stufen dazu, seine Seele zu reinigen. In der Tat waren es zweiundvierzig genau definierbare Stufen, die er in sich durchmachen mußte; dann wußte er sich frei von allen Einflüssen der Sinnenwelt, von allem, was durch Vererbung an Verunreinigung seines inneren Wesens entstanden war.
So stieg der Essäer hinauf durch zweiundvierzig Stufen so weit, daß er seine innerste Wesenheit, den Zentralkern seines Wesens verwandt fühlte mit dem Göttlich-Geistigen. Deshalb sagte er sich: Ich steige bis zu dem Gotte hinauf, auf den es mir ankommt, indem ich diese zweiundvierzig Stufen durchmache. Es hatte der Essäer eine gute Anschauung davon, wie man zu einem noch nicht in die Materie untergetauchten Gotteswesen aufsteigt. Er kannte den Weg hinauf. Das wußte er aus eigener Erfahrung. Unter all denen, die damals auf der Erde lebten, waren die Therapeuten und Essäer die einzigen, die mit Bezug auf ein solches Ereignis, wie es das Abraham-Ereignis war, das Richtige wußten. Sie wußten es, insofern es auf die Vererbung durch die Generationen ankommt. Sie wußten: Will man hinaufsteigen zu einem Wesen, das in die Vererbungslinie hineingekommen ist, und will man an dem Ort ankommen, wo es noch nicht in die Materie untergetaucht ist, dann muß man durch zweiundvierzig Stufen, die den zweiundvierzig Generationen entsprechen, hinaufsteigen, dann findet man es. Aber die Essäer kannten noch etwas anderes. Sie wußten: Ebenso wie der Mensch durch zweiundvierzig Stufen, welche die Entsprechungen sind der zweiundvierzig Generationen, hinaufsteigen muß, um zu diesem göttlichen Wesen zu kommen, so muß dieses göttliche Wesen, wenn es bis in das menschliche Blut hinunterdringen will, durch zweiundvierzig Stufen hinuntersteigen, muß also den umgekehrten Weg machen. Braucht der Mensch zweiundvierzig Stufen, um zu dem Gotte hinaufzusteigen, so braucht der Gott zweiundvierzig Stufen, um herunterzusteigen, um Mensch unter Menschen zu werden.
So lehrten die Essäer. Und so lehrte vor allen Dingen unter den Essäern Jeshu ben Pandira unter dem Einfluß des ihn inspirierenden Bodhisattva. Daher war es eine Essäerlehre, daß jenes Wesen, welches den Abraham dazu inspiriert hatte, daß er den Gotteskeim in die eigene Organisation aufnahm, zweiundvierzig Generationen brauchte, um bis zur vollen Menschlichkeit herunterzusteigen.
Wenn wir das wissen, kennen wir jetzt auch die Quelle, aus der die Erkenntnis geflossen ist für den Schreiber des Matthäus-Evangeliums, daß er gerade diese zweiundvierzig Generationen aufgesucht hat. Und Jesus, der Sohn des Pandira, war es, der die Essäer vor allem auf eines aufmerksam machte. Er lebte in einem Jahrhundert, bevor es möglich war, daß die zweiundvierzig Generationen da waren; denn sie waren erst nach einem Jahrhundert möglich. Er machte die Essäer darauf aufmerksam, daß sie den Weg durch die zweiundvierzig Stufen nur bis zu einem gewissen Grade erst durchmachen konnten, wo sie an Historisches anknüpfen können, und ihn von da ab nur durch die Gnade von oben weiter durchmachen konnten, daß aber die Zeit eintreten würde, wo dies ein natürliches Ereignis sein wird, wo ein Mensch geboren werden wird, der in sich die Möglichkeit haben wird, mit seinem eigenen Blut so weit hinaufzusteigen, daß jene göttliche Kraft zu ihm heruntersteigen kann, die er braucht, um den ganzen Geist des hebräischen Volkes, den Jahvegeist, in dem Blut des hebräischen Volkes zur Manifestation zu bringen. Daher lehrte Jeshu ben Pandira: Soll Zarathustra, der Bringer des Ahura Mazdao, sich in einem Menschenleib inkarnieren, so ist das nur möglich, wenn dieser Menschenleib so zubereitet ist, daß das ihn erfüllende göttlich-geistige Wesen durch zweiundvierzig Generationen heruntergestiegen ist.
Damit haben wir darauf hingewiesen, wie aus den Essäergemeinden herausgeflossen ist der Quell zu jener Generationenlehre, mit der gleich das Matthäus-Evangelium beginnt. Wenn wir diese Tatsachen vollständig verstehen wollen, müssen wir allerdings noch auf etwas Tieferes der ganzen Angelegenheit hinweisen.
Alles, was mit der menschlichen Evolution, mit der menschlichen Entwickelung zusammenhängt, tritt uns sozusagen von zwei Seiten entgegen - einfach dadurch, daß der Mensch ein zweigespaltenes Wesen ist. Wenn uns der Mensch während seines Tagesbewußtseins entgegentritt, sind die vier Glieder seines Wesens miteinander verbunden, und wir können nicht gleich unterscheiden, wie er ein zweigespaltenes Wesen ist. Aber in der Nacht, wo wir ja auch die ganze menschliche Wesenheit vor uns haben, haben wir deutlich diese menschliche Wesenheit in zwei Teile gespalten: in das, was in der physischen Welt zurückbleibt als physischer Leib und Ätherleib, und in das, was herausdringt aus physischem Leib und Ätherleib als astralischer Leib und Ich. Aus diesen zwei Teilen ist der Mensch gleichsam zusammengefügt. Solange wir reden von dem, wodurch der Mensch in die physische Welt hineingehört, können wir eigentlich nur sprechen von physischem Leib und Ätherleib. Alles, was menschliche Verrichtungen, was Angelegenheiten in der physischen Welt sind, geht nur den physischen und den Ätherleib an, obwohl während des Tagwachens die übrigen Glieder daran beteiligt sind. Während des Tagwachens wirkt der Mensch vom Ich und astralischen Leib aus in die beiden anderen Glieder hinein; während des Schlafes überläßt er sie sich selbst. In Wahrheit aber beginnen im Augenblick, wo der Mensch einschläft, aus dem Weltenraum, aus dem Kosmos heraus die Kräfte und Wesenheiten zu wirken und das zu durchdringen, was der Mensch verlassen hat, so daß wir es in der Tat zu tun haben mit einem fortgehenden Einfluß vom Kosmos auf den physischen Leib und Ätherleib des Menschen. Aber was von uns im Bette liegen bleibt, und was die Außenseite unseres Wesens ist, nämlich physischer Leib und Ätherleib, das ist eigentlich beschlossen innerhalb zweiundvierzig Generationen; da vererbt es sich. Wenn wir also bei der ersten Generation beginnen und alles nehmen, was da dem physischen Wesen angehört, und durch zweiundvierzig Generationen weitergehen, so finden wir nach zweiundvierzig Generationen nichts mehr von dem, was die wesentlichsten Anlagen waren beim ersten Gliede. Also in sechs mal sieben Generationen liegt das beschlossen, was eigentlich weset und kraftet in einem uns vorliegenden physischen Leibe und Ätherleibe eines Menschen. Alles, was wir in diesen zwei Leibern an vererbten Merkmalen finden können, müssen wir suchen bei den Vorfahren, aber nur im Verlaufe von zweiundvierzig Generationen. Kommen wir weiter hinauf, so finden wir nichts mehr davon; alles, was einer früheren Generation angehört, ist verschwunden. Wenn wir also die äußere Seite einer menschlichen Wesenheit betrachten, finden wir die sie durchsetzende Kraft gebunden an zweiundvierzig Generationen.
Die menschliche Entwickelung in der Zeit gründet sich so auf ein Zahlenverhältnis. Betrachten wir dieses Zahlenverhältnis einmal genauer; es ist wichtig, daß wir es ins Auge fassen. Betrachten wir es, wie es eigentlich betrachtet sein will, wenn wir gerade die Geschlechterfolge im Matthäus-Evangelium verstehen wollen.
Alles, was den physischen Leib betrifft, ist an zweiundvierzig Generationen gebunden, aus dem Grunde, weil alles, was an Zeitentwickelung gebunden ist, was die Zeit betrifft, an die Siebenzahl gebunden ist. Daher ist auch die Entwickelung hinauf über die physisch vererbten Merkmale bei den Essäern an die Siebenzahl gebunden gewesen. Ein Essäer sagte sich: Du hast durchzumachen sechs mal sieben, das sind zweiundvierzig Stufen; dann kommst du hinauf zu den nächsten sieben Stufen, die also die Vollendung der Siebenzahl, die sieben mal sieben = neunundvierzig Stufen ergeben. Was jedoch über den zweiundvierzig Stufen liegt, ist nicht mehr zu rechnen zu den Kräften und Wesenheiten, welche im physischen und im Ätherleibe wirksam sind. Es wird zwar die ganze Evolution des physischen Leibes und des Ätherleibes erst vollendet wirklich nach dem Gesetz der Siebenzahl, nach sieben mal sieben Generationen ; aber für die letzten sieben Generationen ist schon eine vollständige Umwandelung erreicht; da ist von den ersten Generationen nichts mehr vorhanden. Was also für uns in Betracht kommt, haben wir zu suchen innerhalb von sechs mal sieben. Wenn aber die Siebenzahl voll wird, haben wir etwas vor uns, was schon als etwas Neues anzuerkennen ist. Bei jenem Gebiet, in das man nach den zweiundvierzig Generationen hineinkommt, hat man es nicht mehr mit einem menschlichen, sondern mit einem übermenschlichen Dasein zu tun. Wir unterscheiden also sechs mal sieben Generationen, die durchaus an die Erde sich halten, und was darüber ist, die Siebenmalsieben, das führt schon über die Erde hinaus; das ist die Frucht für die geistige Welt. Nach der Sechsmalsieben geht die Frucht auf, die dann bei der Siebenmalsieben für die geistige Welt herauskommt.
Deshalb sagten sich gleichsam diejenigen, von denen das MatthäusEvangelium ausgegangen ist: Es mußte die physische Leiblichkeit, deren sich Zarathustra bediente, so reif sein, daß sie nach den zweiundvierzig Generationen schon am Beginne der Vergeistigung, der Vergottung steht, schon am Beginne dessen steht, wo sie der Deificatio anheimfallen mußte. - Sie fällt also da schon in den Beginn der dreiundvierzigsten Generation hinein, tritt sie aber nicht an, sondern läßt sich jetzt von einer anderen Wesenheit durchsetzen, von jener Wesenheit, die als der Geist des Zarathustra sich auf der Erde verkörpert als Jesus von Nazareth. So war durch die Erfüllung des Zahlengeheimnisses alles geschehen, was der Zarathustra-Seele in dem Jesus von Nazareth den angemessensten Leib, das angemessenste Blut geben konnte. Alles, was sich bezieht auf physischen Leib und Ätherleib, ist dadurch für die Evolution der Menschheit zubereitet gewesen.
Nun aber sind in einem Menschen, also auch in demjenigen, der der Träger für die Christus-Wesenheit werden sollte, nicht bloß physischer Leib und Ätherleib vorhanden, sondern auch noch astralischer Leib und Ich. Es mußte also nicht bloß alles getan werden für die entsprechende Zubereitung des physischen Leibes und des Ätherleibes, sondern es mußte ebenso alles getan werden für die entsprechende Zubereitung des astralischen Leibes und des Ich. Dies konnte für ein so großes Ereignis zunächst nicht an einer Persönlichkeit bewirkt werden, sondern es mußte an zwei Persönlichkeiten geschehen. Der physische Leib und der Ätherleib wurden zubereitet bei der Persönlichkeit, von der das Matthäus-Evangelium zunächst erzählt. Und astralischer Leib und Ich wurden zubereitet bei der Persönlichkeit, die wir vom LukasEvangelium her kennen als den nathanischen Jesus. Das ist für die ersten Jahre eine andere Persönlichkeit. Während der Jesus des Matthäus-Evangeliums den entsprechenden physischen und Ätherleib bekam, sollte der Jesus des Lukas-Evangeliums bekommen den entsprechenden astralischen Leib und den entsprechenden Ich-Träger. Wie konnte das letztere geschehen?
Wir sahen, daß die Kräfte der zweiundvierzig Generationen in einer ganz bestimmten Weise zubereitet werden mußten, damit die Glieder zustande kamen, die notwendig waren für den Jesus des MatthäusEvangeliums. Es mußten aber auch astralischer Leib und Ich zubereitet werden, damit sie dann später in entsprechender Weise zusammenkommen konnten. Wie sie zusammenkommen konnten, darüber werden wir noch sprechen. — Bei dem Jesus des Lukas-Evangeliums mußten also auch entsprechende Vorbereitungen getroffen werden. Betrachten wir dazu das Wesen des Schlafzustandes. Es ist eine Fabel, sagte ich, die aus den Angaben des niederen Hellsehens herrührt, daß in der Nebelwolke, die in der Nähe des physischen Leibes und des Ätherleibes des schlafenden Menschen schwebt, die ganze astralische und Ich-Wesenheit des Menschen enthalten ist. Denn es ist in der Tat so, daß der Mensch, wenn er im Schlafzustande herausgeht aus physischem Leib und Ätherleib, in Wahrheit ergossen ist, ausgedehnt ist in den ganzen Kosmos, in das, was zu unserem Kosmos gehört. Das ist ja auch das Geheimnis unseres Schlafes, daß wir uns aus der Sternenwelt - daher reden wir von dem astralischen Leib, der über die Welt der Sterne ausgegossen ist - herausholen die reinsten Kräfte aus dem ganzen Kosmos, die wir dann beim Aufwachen, wenn wir wieder untertauchen müssen in den physischen Leib und Ätherleib, uns mitbringen. Da dringen wir aus dem Schlaf heraus, gestärkt und gekräftigt durch alles, was wir einsaugen können aus dem ganzen Kosmos.
Wenn der Mensch nun heute - und ähnlich war es auch zur Zeit des Christus Jesus - im höheren Sinne hellsichtig wird, was muß dann mit ihm geschehen? Im heutigen normalen Zustande wird der Mensch unbewußt, wenn er mit seinem astralischen Leibe und seinem Ich herausdringt aus physischem Leib und Ätherleib. Das hellseherische Bewußtsein muß aber in die Lage gebracht werden, mit Außergebrauchsetzung von physischem Leib und Ätherleib, bloß mit den Instrumenten des astralischen Leibes und des Ich zu schauen. Dann wird das hellseherische Bewußtsein teilhaftig der Welt der Sterne und nimmt wahr, was darinnen ist; es sieht nicht nur hinein, sondern es steigt hinein in die Welt der Sterne. Ganz ähnlich, wie das Essäerbewußtsein hinaufsteigt durch die Zeitenfolge, der die Siebenzahl zugrunde liegt, so muß der Mensch die Stufen durchmachen, die es ihm ermöglichen, den Weltenraum hellseherisch wahrzunehmen.
Nun habe ich schon öfter angedeutet, worinnen die Gefahren liegen sowohl für die Entwickelung nach der einen Seite, wie auch für die Entwickelung nach der anderen Seite. Im Grunde ist es bei den Essäern ein Hineinsteigen in den physischen Leib und Ätherleib gewesen, um in dem Dutchgange durch die zweiundvierzig Generationen den Gott zu finden. Es ist bei ihnen so gewesen, wie wenn ein Mensch, der aufwacht, die Welt nicht um sich herum sähe, sondern hineintauchte in den physischen Leib und Ätherleib, um deren Kräfte zu schauen, also sein Äußeres von innen wahrzunehmen. Der Mensch steigt beim Aufwachen nicht bewußt in den physischen und Ätherleib hinunter. Davor ist er dadurch bewahrt, daß ihm im Moment des Aufwachens sein Bewußtsein abgelenkt wird auf die Umgebung und nicht sich richtet auf die Kräfte des physischen und des Ätherleibes. Das war nun das Wesentliche bei den Essäern, daß sie alle Kräfte, die aus den zweiundvierzig Generationen herrührten, wahrnehmen lernten; daß sie absehen lernten von dem, was der Blick in der Außenwelt findet, und untertauchen lernten in den eigenen physischen Leib und Ätherleib und dort sahen, was lebte im Sinne des Geheimnisses von Sechsmalsieben, von zweiundvierzig Generationen.
In ähnlicher Weise muß der Mensch sich hinaufleben, wenn er in den Kosmos hinaufsteigen will, wenn er kennenlernen will, was dem ganzen Kosmos als Geheimnisse zugrunde liegt. Das ist mächtiger. Wenn der Mensch hinuntersteigt in das eigene Innere, ist er nur der Gefahr ausgesetzt, daß er ergriffen wird von all den Kräften des eigenen Inneren, von den Begierden, Leidenschaften und allem, was auf dem Grund der Seele ist, worauf ja der Mensch gewöhnlich nicht achtet, wovon er gar nichts ahnt, denn für gewöhnlich wird er durch die äußere Erziehung abgehalten, diese Kräfte kennenzulernen. Er hat gar nicht die Möglichkeit, sich von ihnen ergreifen zu lassen, denn es wird ja der Blick gleich abgelenkt durch das Auftauchen der Außenwelt beim Aufwachen. Während also beim Hinuntersteigen in das eigene Innere die Gefahr vorhanden ist, daß man sozusagen ergriffen wird von den niedersten Trieben und egoistischsten Kräften seiner eigenen Natur, so ist eine andere Gefahr dann vorhanden, wenn man erlebt das Sich-Ausbreiten über den ganzen Kosmos. Und diese Gefahr kann man nicht genauer charakterisieren, als daß man sagt: Wer diesen Moment erlebt, wo er nicht in die Unbewußtheit hineinschläft, sondern so bewußt einschläft, daß er in seinem astralischen Leib und seinem Ich ein Instrument hat, um die geistige Welt wahrzunehmen, für den ist die Gefahr, welche ihn da überkommt, etwas wie eine gewaltige Blendung, wie wenn der Mensch den Sonnenstrahlen gegenüberträte. Geblendet ist er von der gewaltigen Größe und vor allem von dem ungeheuer Verwirtenden der Eindrücke.
Wie man nun die Stufen, die der Mensch in Essäerweise durchzumachen hatte, um erkennen zu lernen alles, was von vererbten Merkmalen im physischen Leibe und Ätherleibe war, zu bezeichnen hat durch das Zahlengeheimnis von Sechsmalsieben, so gibt es auch ein Zahlengeheimnis, welches darstellt, wie der Mensch zur Erkenntnis der kosmischen Geheimnisse kommt, der Geheimnisse der großen Welt. Am besten kann man diesem Geheimnis wieder dadurch nahekommen, daß man sich dessen bedient, was draußen im Kosmos an Bewegungen und Konstellationen, an Ausdrucksformen in den Sternen von selber vorhanden ist, was gleichsam in die Sterne eingeschrieben ist. - Wie man durch sechs mal sieben Stufen zu den Geheimnissen des menschlichen Inneren vordringt, so gelangt man durch zwölf mal sieben, also vierundachtzig Stufen hinauf zu den geistigen Geheimnissen des Weltenraumes. Wenn man solche zwölf mal sieben = vierundachtzig Stufen durchgemacht hat, kommt man an den Punkt, wo das Labyrinth dieser geistigen Weltenkräfte nicht mehr blendend ist, wo der Mensch wirklich die Ruhe gewonnen hat, sich auszukennen in diesem gewaltigen Labyrinth, wo dieses Labyrinth durchschaut wird. Das lehrten wieder in einem gewissen Sinne die Essäer.
Wenn der Mensch in diesem geschilderten Sinne hellseherisch wird, dann gießt er sich aus beim Einschlafen in etwas, was sich ausdrückt in dem Zahlengeheimnis von Zwölfmalsieben. Aber bei dem, was das Zwölftemalsieben ist, ist er schon im Geistigen drinnen: denn wenn er die Elfmalsieben vollendet hat, ist er schon an die Grenze der Geheimnisse gelangt. Wie die Siebenmalsieben schon im Geistigen darinnen ist, so ist auch die Zwölfmalsieben schon im Geistigen darinnen. Will der Mensch diesen Weg durchmachen, so braucht er, um anzukommen im Geistigen, elf mal sieben Stufen, das heißt, es muß der Mensch im astralischen Leibe und Ich elf mal sieben Stufen durchmachen. Das wird ausgedrückt in der Sternenschrift, indem man die Siebenzahl hernimmt von der Siebenzahl der Planeten, und das, was man durchzumachen hat im Weltenraum, hernimmt von der Zwölfzahl der Sternbilder des Tierkreises. Wie sich innerhalb der zwölf Sternbilder konstellieren die sieben Planeten und die Sternbilder bedecken, so hat der Mensch durchzumachen, wenn er sich hineinlebt in den Weltenraum, sieben mal zwölf beziehungsweise sieben mal elf Stufen, bis er ankommt im Geistigen.
So können Sie, wenn Sie sich ein Bild machen wollen, den Umkreis des Geistigen in den zwölf Sternbildern des Tierkreises sich denken und den Menschen selber in der Mitte darinnen. Nun ist das Geistige so ausgebreitet, daß er, wenn er es erreichen will, nicht etwa vom Mittelpunkt aus anfangen kann sich auszugießen, sondern er muß sich spiralförmig ausbreiten, indem er sich gleichsam in sieben Spiralwindungen dreht, und jedesmal, wenn er eine Spiralwindung durchmacht, alle zwölf Sternbilder passiert, so daß er sieben mal zwölf Punkte zu passieren hat. Der Mensch breitet sich allmählich spiralförmig in den Kosmos aus — das alles ist natürlich nur ein Sinnbild für das, was der Mensch erlebt -, und wenn er, so herumkreisend, das siebente Mal die zwölf Sternbilder durchmachen würde, wäre er beim Göttlich-Geistigen angelangt. Es ist dann so, daß der Mensch, anstatt von seinem Zentrum aus in den Kosmos hinauszublicken, dann von dem geistigen Umkreise, von den zwölf Punkten hereinblickt und das, was in der äußeren Welt ist, anschauen kann. Das muß man durchmachen, wenn man das sehen will, was in der Welt ist. Es genügt nicht, daß man sich auf einen Gesichtspunkt stellt, sondern man muß sich auf zwölf Gesichtspunkte stellen. Wer heraufdringen wollte zum Göttlich-Geistigen, mußte durch elf mal sieben Stufen durchgehen, mußte den astralischen Leib und das Ich durch elf mal sieben Stufen heraufführen. Wenn er an der Zwölfmalsieben ankam, war er im Geistigen darinnen.
In dieser Weise mußten astralischer Leib und Ich durch zwölf mal sieben beziehungsweise elf mal sieben Stufen durchgehen, wenn sie zum Göttlichen kommen wollten. Will das Göttliche herunterkommen und ein menschliches Ich geeignet machen, so muß es ebenso durch elf mal sieben Stufen heruntersteigen.
Wenn also das Lukas-Evangelium jene geistigen Kräfte schildern will, die den astralischen Leib und das Ich geeignet machten zum 'Träger des Christus, dann mußte es schildern, wie die göttlich-geistige Kraft durch elf mal sieben Stufen heruntersteigt. Das schildert uns wirklich das Lukas-Evangelium. Weil uns das Lukas-Evangelium jene andere Persönlichkeit schildert, für welche der astralische Leib und das Ich zubereitet wurden, schildert es uns nicht wie das Matthäus-Evangelium sechs mal sieben Generationen, sondern elf mal sieben Stufenfolgen, durch welche von Gott selber - das wird ausdrücklich im Lukas-Evangelium gesagt — heruntergeleitet wird, was in der Individualität des Jesus des Lukas-Evangeliums wohnte. Zählen Sie die Menschenstufen, die im Lukas-Evangelium angekündigt werden, durch welche die göttliche Kraft heruntergeleitet wird, so bekommen Sie siebenundsiebzig Stufen (Luk. 3, 23-38).
Weil uns das Matthäus-Evangelium schildert das Geheimnis der Wirksamkeit in dem Herabsteigen jener göttlichen Kraft, welche physischen Leib und Ätherleib durchbildet, muß darin herrschen die Zahl Sechsmalsieben. Und es muß im Lukas-Evangelium, weil es uns schildert das Herabsteigen der göttlichen Kraft, die astralischen Leib und Ich umgestaltet, erscheinen die Zahl Elfmalsieben. Daran können wir sehen, aus welchen Tiefen diese Dinge hergenommen sind, wie in der Tat die Geheimnisse der Initiation, der Stufenfolge beim Hinunterdringen des Göttlich-Geistigen in eine menschliche Individualität und beim Hinausdringen in den Kosmos im Matthäus-Evangelium und im Lukas-Evangelium angegeben sind.
Warum auch beim Lukas-Evangelium eine Generationenfolge zustande gekommen ist, und warum in der Zeit, als nur wenigen Menschen das Geheimnis von dem Christus Jesus gelehrt worden ist, mitgeteilt wurde, daß von Gott und von Adam bis herunter zu dem Jesus des Lukas-Evangeliums siebenundsiebzig Generationen vorhanden sind, davon wollen wir morgen weiter sprechen.
Fifth Lecture
That Jesus, son of Pandira, Jeshu ben Pandira, has nothing to do, in terms of kinship or otherwise, with the personality or individuality of whom we speak as the Jesus of the Gospel of Matthew or the Jesus of Luke or any other Gospel, that this person, who was stoned a century before our era that is, before the events surrounding Christ, and was subsequently hung on a tree, must not be confused with all that we speak of when we speak of the Gospels. This must be strictly adhered to. I would just like to point out explicitly: in order to refer to the personality of Jeshu ben Pandira, to say something about his existence, it is not necessary to have any occult knowledge or clairvoyant abilities. This can be gleaned from the Hebrew and Talmudic documents, if one wishes to do so. The confusion with the real Jesus has always occurred at various times, and it first occurred in the 2nd century after the beginning of our calendar. So when we have expressly emphasized that this Jesus, son of Pandira, has nothing to do with the Jesus of the Gospels in this respect, we must nevertheless note a historical connection between these two personalities, which can now only be established through spiritual scientific research. However, we will only understand this connection in its depth if we once again briefly discuss human evolution and its leaders.
When we look up to those beings, those individualities who are the great leaders of human evolution, we ultimately come to a series of high individualities who are often referred to as Bodhisattvas, because the theory of these individualities has been best established in the East. There are a whole number of such Bodhisattvas. Their task is to be great teachers of humanity, to bring into humanity from epoch to epoch, through the mystery schools, that which is to flow into humanity after it has reached maturity for a particular epoch. And one can say that these Bodhisattvas alternate in successive times; one of the Bodhisattvas always acts as the successor of another. For our times, we are initially interested in those two Bodhisattvas whom we have often had to mention when speaking of the evolution of humanity: the Bodhisattva who became Buddha as the son of King Suddhodana, and the one who became his successor in the dignity of the Bodhisattva, and who, since the office of Bodhisattva lasts so long, is still Bodhisattva today and – in accordance with Oriental wisdom and clairvoyant research, it may be said – will remain so for the next two thousand five hundred years. Then this Bodhisattva will undergo the same ascent that his predecessor underwent when he was raised to Buddhahood. The Bodhisattva currently in office will then be raised to the dignity of Maitreya Buddha.
In the guidance of human evolution, which we speak of as guidance by teachers, we have the Bodhisattvas who follow one another in succession. And we must understand the series of these Bodhisattvas as the great teachers of human evolution and not confuse them with the source of this teaching, from which the Bodhisattvas receive what they have to give to human evolution as successive teachings. We must imagine, as it were, a college of Bodhisattvas, and in the midst of this college we must think of the living source of the teachings of the Bodhisattvas. And this living source is none other than the one we refer to in our language with the term “Christ.” Thus, all Bodhisattvas receive from Christ what they have to give to human beings in the course of time.
Now, a Bodhisattva must devote himself primarily to the teachings as long as he is a Bodhisattva, for we have seen that when the Bodhisattva is elevated to Buddhahood, he does not descend again to be incarnated in a physical body. Again, in accordance with all Eastern philosophy, it can be said that Gautama Buddha, who at that time underwent his last incarnation in a physical body as the son of King Suddhodana, has since that time experienced only incarnations that descend to the etheric body. And we have emphasized in the lectures on the Gospel of Luke what the next task of this Bodhisattva who became Buddha was. We have seen that when the Jesus of Luke's Gospel was born, the so-called Nathanic Jesus, who is different from the Jesus of Matthew's Gospel, the essence of the Buddha, who was then incarnated down to the etheric body, entered, as it were, into the astral body of this Nathanic Jesus, whom Luke's Gospel first describes to us. Therefore, we can say that since his incarnation as Gautama Buddha, this being was no longer there to teach, but from then on, this Buddha was there to be actively effective. He had become a real force that works from the spiritual world into our physical world. It is something completely different to work through teaching and to work through living power, through the power of growth. Until the moment when a bodhisattva becomes Buddha, he is a teacher; from that moment on, he is a living force that intervenes in some relationship in an organizing, life-giving way. Thus, the Buddha intervened in the organization of the Nathanic Jesus, as Luke describes, and thus he behaved in accordance with his new dignity.
From the sixth century BC to the present day, the bodhisattva who became Buddha at that time has been replaced by his successor in the line of great teachers, the one who will later become Maitreya Buddha. Therefore, we must seek the teaching that humanity has needed since the time when Gautama Buddha, the son of King Suddhodana, was active, where that Bodhisattva, who is his successor, exerts his inspiration, where he, so to speak, infuses into his disciples, into his pupils, that which they are to communicate to the world. Yesterday I already pointed out how everything that was united, for example, in the communities of therapists and Essenes was predestined to be an instrument for this Bodhisattva, and that Jesus, son of Pandira, belonged to the most significant, most exalted, and purest personalities within the Essenes. Thus we must see, as it were, the teaching content of that Bodhisuttva shining into the earth humanity through the Essenes.
The actual Essene communities, according to their deeper teaching content—you can also convince yourself of this from external history—disappeared relatively soon after the Christ event took place on earth. Therefore, it will not seem so incredible when I say that the Therapean and Essene communities were essentially established to bring down from the spiritual regions, from the spheres of the Bodhisattvas, what was needed to understand the great and significant event of the Christ appearance. The most important teachings that came to humanity in order to understand the Christ event originated from the Therapeutae and Essene communities. Thus, in a sense, Jesus, the son of Pandira, was chosen to be inspired by the Bodhisattva who would become Maitreya Buddha and who worked within the Essene communities to teach doctrines that could make the mystery of Palestine, the mystery of Christ, understandable. However, more precise details about the Therapeutae and Essenes can only be explored through spiritual scientific research. Outer history knows very little about this. And we want, so to speak, without hesitation—since we are in an anthroposophical circle that understands such things—to draw from the mysteries of the therapists and Essenes what is necessary to arrive at a deeper understanding of the Gospel of Matthew and also of the other Gospels. And we want to describe these secrets as the spiritual scientist must think about the Therapeutae and Essenes.
The essential thing that mattered to these communities, which flourished a century before the Christ event in order to prepare for it through teaching, was the way in which initiation was effected among those who were members of the Therapeutae and Essenes. They underwent an initiation that was particularly suited to bringing about an understanding, an understanding through clairvoyant perception, of the significance of Hebraism, of Abrahamism, for the Christ event. This was truly a mystery of the Therapeutae and Essene communities. Their followers were initiated into this in order to gain a more precise clairvoyant insight into the connection described here. Such an Essene had to learn first of all to understand the full significance of what Abraham had done for the Hebrew people, so that he could appreciate that Abraham really was a kind of forefather of the Hebrew people. An Essene had to understand from his own observation that the predisposition I have spoken to you about in the last few hours had been placed in him, a predisposition that then had to filter through many generations, as it were, and flow down through the blood.
In order to understand how something as important as this could happen to the whole of human evolution through a personality such as Abraham, you must grasp one sentence, one important truth very clearly: that whenever a personality is chosen to be a special instrument for human evolution, the direct intervention of a divine-spiritual being is necessary.
Those of you who attended the Munich performance of the Rosicrucian Mystery or have read it will know that one of the most important dramatic twists is based on this: The Hierophant points out to Mary that she can only fulfill her mission if such an influence from a higher being has actually taken place; and this really brings about something in her that can be called a separation of the higher members from the lower, so that the latter can then become possessed by a subordinate spirit. Everything to be found in The Rosicrucian Mystery can draw your attention to great secrets of human evolution, if you allow it to work on your soul and do not accept it lightly. Since Abraham was chosen to play such an important role in human evolution, it was necessary for him to allow into his inner being what humanity had previously perceived in Atlantean times as the spirit that permeates and animates the outer world. This happened for the first time with Abraham, and thus it was possible for the first time for a change in spiritual perception to take place. However, for this to happen, the influence of a divine-spiritual being was necessary. A divine-spiritual being laid, as it were, the seed for all the organizations that were to descend from him in successive generations into Abraham's organization.
So an Essene of that time said to himself: What actually enabled the Hebrew people to become the bearers of the Christ mission was first brought about in their constitution by that mysterious being whom one can only find by ascending through the entire succession of generations back to Abraham, where it slipped, as it were, into the inner organization of Abraham, in order to then work through the blood as a kind of national spirit in the Hebrew people. If one wants to understand this, so to speak, last secret of human evolution, one must ascend to this spirit that transplanted that predisposition and seek it out where it had not yet slipped into the organization of Abraham. That is why the Essene said: If man wants to ascend to this truly inspiring or inaugurating spirit of the Hebrew people and recognize it in its purity, he must undergo a certain development as an Essene or therapist, whereby he purifies himself of everything that has come to the human soul from the physical world since the Abraham event. For the Essener said to himself: The spiritual being that man carries within himself, and all the spiritual entities that participate in the becoming of humanity, can only be seen in their purity in the spiritual world; as they dwell within us, they are contaminated by the forces of the physical-sensory world.
Now, according to the Essenes' view—and this is, of course, absolutely correct in a certain realm of knowledge—every human being living at that time had within themselves everything that had entered the human soul in previous times in the form of defilements, which clouded the clear view of the spiritual being that had laid that characteristic predisposition in Abraham. Accordingly, every Essene soul had to purify itself of what had entered into its predisposition and clouded, so to speak, the view of that being that dwelt in the blood of those generations; only then could it be seen correctly. All purifications of the soul, all the exercises of the Essenes, were designed to free the soul from the influences and inherited characteristics passed down through the generations that could cloud the view of the spiritual being that inspired Abraham; for man does not merely have his innermost spiritual-soul being within himself, but he has clouded and defiled it through inherited characteristics.
Now it is a spiritual-scientific law, which the Essenes were able to fulfill primarily through their research and their clairvoyant vision, that the influence of heredity only truly ceases when one ascends through forty-two stages in the ancestral line. Only then has one cast everything out of one's soul when one ascends these forty-two stages. This means that one inherits something from one's father and mother, something from one's grandfather and grandmother, and so on. However, the further one ascends in the ancestral line, the less one has within oneself of what has been created through heredity as impurities of the inner being, and one has nothing left when one has ascended through forty-two generations. There the influence of heredity is lost. Therefore, the purifications of the Essenes were designed to work out everything from within through inner exercises and careful training that had entered the soul through forty-two generations of impurities. That is why every Essene had to undergo severe inner exercises, difficult mystical paths, which led him through forty-two stages to purify his soul. In fact, there were forty-two precisely defined stages that he had to go through within himself; then he knew himself to be free from all influences of the sensory world, from everything that had come about through hereditary contamination of his inner being.
Thus the Essene ascended through forty-two stages until he felt his innermost being, the central core of his being, related to the divine spirit. Therefore, he said to himself: I will ascend to the God who is important to me by going through these forty-two stages. The Essene had a good understanding of how to ascend to a divine being who had not yet immersed himself in matter. He knew the way up. He knew this from his own experience. Among all those who lived on earth at that time, the Therapeuts and Essenes were the only ones who knew the right thing to do in relation to an event such as the Abraham event. They knew this insofar as it depended on inheritance through the generations. They knew that if one wants to ascend to a being that has entered the line of inheritance and wants to arrive at the place where it has not yet submerged into matter, one must ascend through forty-two steps corresponding to the forty-two generations, and then one will find it. But the Essenes knew something else. They knew that just as man must ascend through forty-two steps, which correspond to the forty-two generations, in order to reach this divine being, so this divine being, if it wants to descend into human blood, must descend through forty-two steps, must therefore take the opposite path. If man needs forty-two steps to ascend to God, then God needs forty-two steps to descend, to become man among men.
This is what the Essenes taught. And this is what Jeshu ben Pandira taught above all among the Essenes under the influence of the Bodhisattva who inspired him. Therefore, it was an Essene teaching that the being who inspired Abraham to take the seed of God into his own organization needed forty-two generations to descend to full humanity.
Knowing this, we now also know the source from which the writer of the Gospel of Matthew drew his knowledge, that he sought out precisely these forty-two generations. And it was Jesus, the son of Pandira, who drew the attention of the Essenes to one thing above all else. He lived in a century before it was possible for the forty-two generations to exist, for they were only possible after a century. He pointed out to the Essenes that they could only go through the forty-two stages to a certain degree, where they could connect with history, and from there they could only continue through the grace from above, but that the time would come when this would be a natural event, when a human being would be born who would have within himself the possibility of rising so high with his own blood that the divine power he needed to bring the whole spirit of the Hebrew people, the spirit of Yahweh, to manifestation in the blood of the Hebrew people could descend upon him. Therefore, Jeshu ben Pandira taught: If Zarathustra, the bringer of Ahura Mazdao, is to incarnate in a human body, this is only possible if this human body has been prepared in such a way that the divine-spiritual being filling it has descended through forty-two generations.
We have thus pointed out how the source of the doctrine of generations, with which the Gospel of Matthew begins, flowed out of the Essene communities. If we want to understand these facts completely, however, we must point to something deeper in the whole matter.
Everything connected with human evolution, with human development, confronts us, so to speak, from two sides—simply because human beings are dual beings. When human beings confront us during their daytime consciousness, the four members of their being are connected with one another, and we cannot immediately distinguish how they are dual beings. But at night, when we also have the whole human being before us, we clearly see this human being split into two parts: that which remains in the physical world as the physical body and etheric body, and that which emerges from the physical body and etheric body as the astral body and I. The human being is, as it were, composed of these two parts. As long as we are talking about what makes human beings belong to the physical world, we can really only speak of the physical body and the etheric body. Everything that is human activity, everything that is business in the physical world, concerns only the physical and etheric bodies, although during waking life the other members are also involved. During waking life, the human being works from the ego and astral body into the other two members; during sleep, he leaves them to themselves. In truth, however, the moment a person falls asleep, forces and beings begin to work from the world space, from the cosmos, and to permeate what the person has left behind, so that we are in fact dealing with a continuing influence from the cosmos on the physical body and etheric body of the human being. But what remains of us in bed, and what is the outer aspect of our being, namely the physical body and etheric body, is actually determined within forty-two generations; it is inherited. So if we start with the first generation and take everything that belongs to the physical being, and continue through forty-two generations, after forty-two generations we find nothing more of what were the most essential dispositions in the first link. So in six times seven generations, what actually exists and is active in the physical body and etheric body of a human being before us is determined. Everything we can find in these two bodies in terms of inherited characteristics must be sought in the ancestors, but only in the course of forty-two generations. If we go further back, we find nothing more of it; everything that belonged to an earlier generation has disappeared. So when we look at the outer side of a human being, we find the force that permeates it bound to forty-two generations.
Human development in time is thus based on a numerical ratio. Let us consider this numerical ratio more closely; it is important that we take it into account. Let us consider it as it actually needs to be considered if we want to understand the succession of generations in the Gospel of Matthew.
Everything that concerns the physical body is bound to forty-two generations, because everything that is bound to time, to the development of time, is bound to the number seven. Therefore, the development beyond the physically inherited characteristics among the Essenes was also bound to the number seven. An Essene said to himself: You have to go through six times seven, that is forty-two stages; then you come up to the next seven stages, which thus complete the number seven, seven times seven = forty-nine stages. However, what lies above the forty-two stages can no longer be counted among the forces and beings that are active in the physical and etheric bodies. It is true that the entire evolution of the physical body and the etheric body is only truly completed according to the law of the number seven, after seven times seven generations; but for the last seven generations, a complete transformation has already been achieved; nothing of the first generations remains. What is relevant for us, therefore, must be sought within six times seven. But when the number seven is complete, we have before us something that must be recognized as something new. In the realm that is entered after the forty-two generations, one is no longer dealing with a human existence, but with a superhuman one. We therefore distinguish between six times seven generations that are entirely bound to the earth, and what is above that, the seven times seven, which already leads beyond the earth; that is the fruit for the spiritual world. After the six times seven, the fruit blossoms, which then emerges for the spiritual world in the seven times seven.
That is why those from whom the Gospel of Matthew originated said, as it were: The physical body that Zarathustra used had to be so mature that after forty-two generations it was already at the beginning of spiritualization, of deification, already at the beginning of where it had to fall prey to deification. So it already falls into the beginning of the forty-third generation, but it does not begin, instead allowing itself to be replaced by another entity, the entity that incarnates itself on earth as Jesus of Nazareth, the spirit of Zarathustra. Thus, through the fulfillment of the mystery of numbers, everything happened that could give the soul of Zarathustra the most appropriate body, the most appropriate blood, in Jesus of Nazareth. Everything that relates to the physical body and the etheric body was thereby prepared for the evolution of humanity.
But now, in a human being, including the one who was to become the bearer of the Christ being, there is not only a physical body and an etheric body, but also an astral body and an I. Therefore, not only did everything have to be done to prepare the physical body and the etheric body, but everything also had to be done to prepare the astral body and the ego. For such a great event, this could not initially be accomplished in one personality, but had to be accomplished in two personalities. The physical body and the etheric body were prepared in the personality described in the Gospel of Matthew. And the astral body and the I were prepared in the personality we know from the Gospel of Luke as the Nathanic Jesus. This is a different personality for the first few years. While the Jesus of the Gospel of Matthew received the corresponding physical and etheric bodies, the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke was to receive the corresponding astral body and the corresponding I-bearer. How could the latter happen?
We saw that the forces of the forty-two generations had to be prepared in a very specific way so that the members necessary for the Jesus of the Gospel of Matthew could come into being. But the astral body and the I also had to be prepared so that they could later come together in the appropriate way. We will speak more about how they came together later. — So, corresponding preparations also had to be made for the Jesus of Luke's Gospel. Let us consider the nature of the state of sleep. I have said that it is a fable, originating from the information provided by lower clairvoyance, that the entire astral and I-being of the human being is contained in the cloud of mist that floats around the physical body and etheric body of the sleeping person. For it is indeed the case that when a person leaves their physical body and etheric body in the state of sleep, they are in truth poured out, expanded into the whole cosmos, into that which belongs to our cosmos. This is also the secret of our sleep, that we draw from the starry world — hence we speak of the astral body that is poured out over the world of the stars — the purest forces from the entire cosmos, which we then bring back with us when we wake up and have to submerge ourselves again into the physical body and etheric body. We emerge from sleep strengthened and invigorated by everything we can absorb from the entire cosmos.
If a person today—and it was similar at the time of Christ Jesus—becomes clairvoyant in the higher sense, what must happen to them? In today's normal state, a person becomes unconscious when they emerge from their physical body and etheric body with their astral body and ego. However, clairvoyant consciousness must be enabled to see using only the instruments of the astral body and the I, without the physical body and etheric body. Then clairvoyant consciousness participates in the world of the stars and perceives what is there; it not only looks into it, but rises into the world of the stars. Just as the Essene consciousness ascends through the sequence of time based on the number seven, so must human beings pass through the stages that enable them to perceive the world space clairvoyantly.
I have already indicated several times where the dangers lie for development in both directions. Basically, the Essenes entered the physical body and etheric body in order to find God in the Dutchgang through the forty-two generations. It was as if a person who woke up did not see the world around them, but plunged into the physical body and etheric body in order to see their forces, that is, to perceive their exterior from within. When a person wakes up, they do not consciously descend into their physical and etheric bodies. They are prevented from doing so by the fact that, at the moment of waking, their consciousness is diverted to their surroundings and not directed toward the forces of the physical and etheric bodies. This was the essence of the Essenes: they learned to perceive all the forces that originated from the forty-two generations; they learned to look beyond what the eye finds in the outer world and to dive into their own physical and etheric bodies and see there what lived in the sense of the mystery of six times seven, of forty-two generations.
In a similar way, human beings must live their way upward if they want to ascend into the cosmos, if they want to know what lies at the foundation of the entire cosmos as mysteries. That is more powerful. When man descends into his own inner being, he is only exposed to the danger of being seized by all the forces of his own inner being, by the desires, passions, and everything that lies at the bottom of the soul, which man does not usually pay attention to, of which he has no inkling, because he is usually prevented by his external education from getting to know these forces. They have no opportunity to let themselves be seized by these forces, because their gaze is immediately distracted by the emergence of the external world upon awakening. So while there is a danger in descending into one's own inner being of being seized, so to speak, by the lowest instincts and most selfish forces of one's own nature, there is another danger when one experiences spreading out over the entire cosmos. And this danger cannot be characterized more precisely than by saying: Whoever experiences this moment, when he does not fall asleep into unconsciousness, but falls asleep so consciously that he has an instrument in his astral body and his ego to perceive the spiritual world, for him the danger that overtakes him is something like a tremendous glare, as if a person were facing the sun's rays. They are blinded by the tremendous size and, above all, by the enormously confusing nature of the impressions.
Just as the stages that man had to go through in Essenism in order to learn to recognize everything that was inherited in the physical body and etheric body can be described by the numerical secret of six times seven, so there is also a numerical secret that shows how man comes to the knowledge of the cosmic secrets, the secrets of the great world. The best way to approach this mystery is to make use of what is already present in the cosmos in the form of movements and constellations, in the expressions of the stars, which are, as it were, inscribed in the stars. Just as one advances through six times seven stages to the secrets of the human inner being, so one advances through twelve times seven, that is, eighty-four stages, to the spiritual secrets of the universe. When one has passed through these twelve times seven = eighty-four steps, one reaches the point where the labyrinth of these spiritual world forces is no longer dazzling, where man has truly gained the peace of mind to find his way in this mighty labyrinth, where this labyrinth is seen through. This was taught again in a certain sense by the Essenes.
When a person becomes clairvoyant in the sense described above, they pour themselves out as they fall asleep into something that is expressed in the numerical mystery of twelve times seven. But in what twelve times seven is, they are already in the spiritual realm: for when they have completed eleven times seven, they have already reached the boundary of the mysteries. Just as seven times seven is already present in the spiritual realm, so too is twelve times seven. If a person wants to go through this path, they need eleven times seven steps to arrive in the spiritual realm, which means that they have to go through eleven times seven steps in their astral body and ego. This is expressed in the star script by taking the number seven from the seven planets and taking what must be gone through in the world space from the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Just as the seven planets are constellated within the twelve constellations and the constellations cover each other, so must human beings go through seven times twelve or seven times eleven stages when they live themselves into world space until they arrive in the spiritual realm.
So, if you want to form a picture of this, you can imagine the circumference of the spiritual realm in the twelve constellations of the zodiac and the human being himself in the middle of it. Now, the spiritual realm is so vast that if you want to reach it, you cannot start from the center and spread out, but must spread out in a spiral, turning in seven spiral turns, so to speak, and each time you complete a spiral turn, you pass through all twelve constellations, so that you have to pass through seven times twelve points. Man gradually spreads out spirally into the cosmos—all this is, of course, only a symbol for what man experiences—and when, circling in this way, he passes through the twelve constellations for the seventh time, he would have reached the divine-spiritual. It is then the case that instead of looking out into the cosmos from their center, human beings look in from the spiritual circle, from the twelve points, and can see what is in the outer world. One must go through this if one wants to see what is in the world. It is not enough to stand on one point of view; one must stand on twelve points of view. Anyone who wanted to ascend to the divine-spiritual had to pass through eleven times seven stages, had to raise the astral body and the I through eleven times seven stages. When they reached the twelve times seven, they were within the spiritual.
In this way, the astral body and the I had to pass through twelve times seven or eleven times seven stages if they wanted to reach the divine. If the divine wants to descend and make a human ego suitable, it must likewise descend through eleven times seven stages.
So if the Gospel of Luke wants to describe those spiritual forces that made the astral body and the ego suitable as the 'bearer of Christ,' then it had to describe how the divine-spiritual force descends through eleven times seven stages. This is what the Gospel of Luke really describes to us. Because the Gospel of Luke describes to us that other personality for whom the astral body and the I were prepared, it does not describe to us, as the Gospel of Matthew does, six times seven generations, but eleven times seven stages through which God Himself — this is expressly stated in the Gospel of Luke — leads down what dwelt in the individuality of the Jesus of Luke's Gospel. If you count the stages of human development announced in Luke's Gospel through which the divine power is brought down, you get seventy-seven stages (Luke 3:23-38).
Because the Gospel of Matthew describes the mystery of the effectiveness of the descent of that divine power which permeates the physical body and the etheric body, the number six times seven must prevail in it. And because the Gospel of Luke describes the descent of the divine power that transforms the astral body and the I, the number eleven times seven must appear in it. From this we can see from what depths these things are taken, how indeed the mysteries of initiation, the sequence of stages in the descent of the divine-spiritual into a human individuality and in its emergence into the cosmos, are indicated in the Gospel of Matthew and in the Gospel of Luke.
Why a succession of generations also came about in the Gospel of Luke, and why, at a time when only a few people were taught the secret of Christ Jesus, it was revealed that there were seventy-seven generations from God and Adam down to the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke, we will discuss further tomorrow.