Seven miracles of Christ

Christ-Jesus performed many miracles during his three years of Christ-Jesus on Earth, many more than those mentioned in the gospels.

From these, Rudolf Steiner extracts seven miracles as signs of an increase in power of the Christ working through the bodily structure of Jesus.

1. marriage at Cana
2. healing nobleman's son - young man of Nain
3. healing sick man Bethesda
4. feeding five thousand
5. walking on water
6. healing blind man
7. initiation or Raising of Lazarus

Aspects

• these seven signs are also as linked symbolically with the cultural ages (1911-01-21or23-GA264)
• other important miracles - see Schema FMC00.638
  • the raising of the 12 year old daughter of Jairus
    • references: Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-56
  • the raising of the son of the widow of Nain
    • reference: Luke 7:11-17
    • an initiation of this Individuality that would come to fruition in the next incarnation (as the teacher Manes - see Manicheism) (1909-09-26-GA114)
  • cleansing a leper
    • references: Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:12-14 – Jesus heals a leper and instructs him to show himself to the priest, following Leviticus 14.
  • Jesus heals ten lepers, but only one returns to thank Him.
    • reference: Luke 17:11-19
• link with seven miracles of Zarathustra, see Persian cultural age#the teachings of Zarathustra

marriage at Cana

• statement about Christ-Jesus answer to his 'mother' when it said there is no wine
  • covered in 8 lectures, see quotes below: 1904-07-18-GA090A - 1904-11-01-GA090A then in 1906-02-12-GA097 and 1906-10-31-GA094, in 1908-05-22-GA103 - 1908-05-22-GA103 - 1908-05-30-GA103, and 1909-07-02-GA112
  • the author of John's Gospel "never refers to the mother of Jesus as Mary .. the mother's name cannot have been Mary." (1904-11-01-GA090A).
  • With 'mother' is meant the time and people into which he was born, so he calls the Jewish people 'mother'. She is the spiritual substance from which Christ creates his work. The old Judaism, which was to become Christianity, referred to Jesus, when he had become a Christian, as his mother. (1904-07-18-GA090A, 1904-11-01-GA090A). "The 'mother' of Christ-Jesus is the human soul, and this must first mature before Christ can work in it." (1906-10-31-GA094) and "The mother of Jesus is a mystic term: in mysticism, ‘mother’ always refers to something that needs to be inseminated when the human being ascends to a higher level. Jesus had to take the whole of human consciousness, such as it had been until then, to a higher level. The consciousness of all humanity needed him to take it a step forward." (1906-02-12-GA097)
  • regarding the correct meaning of the incorrect translation "Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come.”
    • Christ-Jesus prophetically points to the fact that his time will come when the most important things will no longer be accomplished by men bound by the tie of blood, but by those who stand alone by themselves ... however this, his time however is yet to come. His reply is “What we are able to do today is still connected with the blood bond, with the relationship between thee and me, for My time is not yet come.”
    • This marriage expresses the great marriage of humanity on the third day ... of initiation .. which refers to what will occur when mankind passes over from the fifth to the sixth cultural age (age vs epoch not checked vs original lecture notes) (1908-05-30-GA103)
    • "Never would such a high individuality as Christ have spoken thus to his own (physical) mother."(1906-02-12-GA097, 1906-10-31-GA094)
    • Note: the GA edited and published translation of the text of lecture 1908-05-22-GA103 reads as "His mother stands there and asks Him to do something for mankind, hinting that she has the right to induce Him to an important deed for humanity." Later in this lecture it states that this passage is incorrectly translated as "Woman, what have I to do with thee?” but it should read “This has to do with me and thy blood relationship.” and also that ... it "points to a special relationship between 'me and thee', between 'us two' ... What is based upon the blood-bond still works on and will continue to be active; hence the reference to the relationship between mother and son at the Marriage of Cana." (1908-05-30-GA103). Another alternative translation clarification is given with “Woman, this now passeth over from me unto thee.” (1909-07-02-GA112) From this one could deduce that this confusing sentence in 1908-05-22-GA103 might be (or is likely) a GA-editing problem, as Steiner already clearly pointed out that it was not his physical mother standing there on several occasions in 1904 and 1906.
    • The incorrect translation of the "absurd" utterance "which, as it is usually translated, is really a blasphemy": "Woman, what have I to do with thee.” is explicitly confirmed in 1908-05-23-GA103, 1908-05-30-GA103, 1909-07-02-GA112.

Inspirational quotes

1921-10-08-GA343

The concept of a miracle, as it is often understood today, is not mentioned at all in the Gospels A miracle is a process that today's Man no longer understands ... it is only because things are no longer understood that they are thought to be miracles.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.025 provides an overview of the gradual increase in the Christ power as developing (purifying) and using the lower bodily structures of Jesus. Note that in the 1909-07-GA112 lectures referenced, a) Rudolf Steiner combines miracles 2 and 3 as well as 4 and 5, and b) he does not mention the bodily principles used other than those listed (etheric, astral, higher I). In light grey are additions not mentioned in the lectures.

Schema FMC00.638: provides a reference overview of the so-called 'miracles' in the four Gospels, put in tentative chronological sequence and with a space separating the three years of Christ-Jesus life on Earth. Note various sources vary in their interpretation of this sequence and the timing of events, therefore this is not exact but approximate and tentative.

On the right are given references to the four Gospels, as well as to Rudolf Steiner's coverage in the main cycles on these Gospels as well as other lectures. The first column on the left highlights the seven main miracles of Christ-Jesus - see also overview Schema FMC00.025.

Note this right section with references to Rudolf Steiner's lectures is not exhaustive and can be completed iteratively in future versions of the Schema.

Schema FMC00.638A: is a simplified reference table of the more complete Schema FMC00.638, for ease of use in referencing. It is less dense as it contains less columns and hence is more readable.

Schema FMC00.281: shows Alfred Heidenreich's description of the incarnation of Christ and the progressive purification of the lower bodily principles of Jesus through a few key milestone events. This is not described in this way by Rudolf Steiner but Heidenreich's description can be held against Schema FMC00.025 with the seven signs or Seven miracles of Christ.

Lecture coverage and references

general

19XX-XX-XX-GA264

Master Personalities Associated with the Awakenings in the Gospels

No place or date given, memoranda by Elisabeth Vreede

In the Gospel of Matthew, we are told how the three Magi come from the East to offer their incense, gold and myrrh to the newborn child Jesus, the reborn Zarathustra. They pay homage to their re-embodied Master, who has worked in his various incarnations in the three previous cultural epochs. They are, as it were, the keepers of the ancient treasures of wisdom from the ancient Indian, ancient Persian and Egyptian-Babylonian epochs. And by laying these at the feet of the Christ Child in the symbolic form of incense, gold and myrrh, they point out, as it were, how that which has been effective as cultural seeds in these periods of time can only be saved for humanity if it is permeated by the power of Christ, which will one day inspire this child. They themselves will not live to experience the resurrection of the wisdom treasures of their cultural epochs. “They returned to their own country by another way”.

But we can ask ourselves: Where do these three wise men go later, what actually becomes of their wisdom? And we must remember that the cultures that arise and pass away here on Earth contain a germ within them that can be fertilized by the Christ impulse and that will come to renewed bloom in the periods of time that follow the mystery of Golgotha.

What the three Magi from the Orient sacrificed to the Christ Child as cultural seeds will be awakened by the Christ; it contains the forces that can truly permeate these three later cultural periods with the Christ impulse.

• The third post-Atlantean age will be resurrected by the Christ in all that it contains as wisdom, so that it can fertilize our fifth age.
• The second age, that of Zarathustra, is resurrected so that in the sixth post-Atlantean age there can be a true understanding of the Christ.
• And the first, the ancient Indian age, experiences its resurrection in the seventh post-Atlantean age with the help of the power of the Christ.

And in every case, the Christ must resurrect a particular personality, a human soul who, through her destiny, is called to be the special bearer of this cultural seed from ancient times, and who is at the same time the soul who can ensure that what the Christ has brought as gifts to humanity is also continued, that the understanding of the Christ and His mission can also be taught to humanity in the appropriate way in later times.

We will consider these resurrections in turn.

Firstly: In the Gospel of Luke (chapter 7), the resurrection of the young man of Nain is described in moving words. Every word of this story is significant, pointing out how the youth of Nain lived through the entire third post-Atlantean age and the Egyptian-Chaldean culture, as it developed under the influence of the forces that were then active in the human soul.

The youth at Nain in the Gospel of Luke is none other than the youth at Sais; the difference between the spiritual environment of the third and fourth cultural age s is even hidden in the names. The youth at Sais wanted to know the secrets of the spiritual world unprepared; like the other initiates, he wanted to become a “son of the widow,” of Isis, who mourned the loss of her husband Osiris. But since he was unprepared, since he wanted to unveil the image of Isis and behold the heavenly secrets here on the physical plane himself, he fell prey to death. No mortal could lift the veil of Isis at that time. The impotent wisdom of the Egyptian period is symbolized in the youth of Sais.

He is reborn, he grows up as the youth of Nain, he is again a “son of the widow”, again he dies in his youth. And the Christ Jesus is approaching as the dead is carried out of the city gate. And “many of the city” were with his mother; it is the crowd of Egyptian initiates. They are all dead, and they are burying a dead man. “And when the Lord saw him, he had compassion on him.” He had compassion on the mother, who stands there as Isis, who was the sister and wife of Osiris. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” “And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and he gave him to his mother.” She has descended upon the earth, the former Isis; her powers can now be experienced on the earth itself. The son is given back to the mother; it is now up to him to fully reconnect with her. “And those standing by praised God and said, ‘A great prophet has risen among us’.

For in the youth of Nain, the Christ Jesus had planted a seed through the kind of initiation that this resurrection represents, which could only come to fruition in his next incarnation. A great prophet, a mighty teacher of religion, has become of the youth of Nain! In the third century A.D., Mani or Manes, the founder of Manichaeism, first appeared in Babylonia.

A peculiar legend tells the following about him. Scythianos and Therebinthus or Buddha were his predecessors. The latter was the disciple of the former. After Scythianos' violent death, he fled with his books to Babylonia. He also fares badly; only an old widow takes on his teachings. She inherits his books and leaves them to her foster son, who is twelve years old and whom she adopted as a seven-year-old slave boy. This man, who can also be called a “son of the widow,” appears at the age of 24 as Manes, the founder of Manichaeism.

His teaching contained a summary of all the wisdom of the ancient religions, illuminated by a Christian gnosis that made it possible for the followers of the Babylonian-Egyptian wisdom of the stars, the religion of the ancient Persians, and even the Buddhists of India to become imbued with an understanding of the Christ impulse in this form.

This soul, which had previously lived in the youth of Nain, had been initiated by the Christ in this way for later times, when that which was contained in Manichaeism and which had not fully developed, will be realized for the benefit of the peoples of the ancient Orient, this soul, in its incarnation as Manes, has worked in preparation for its actual later mission: to bring about the true harmony of all religions.

In order to do this, it had to be reborn as the soul that has a very special relationship to the Christ Impulse. Once again, everything that had emerged from this soul in that incarnation as Manes, in the form of old and new knowledge, had to be submerged, as it were. As a “pure fool” he had to face the external knowledge of the world and the working of the Christ Impulse in the depths of his soul.

He is reborn as Parsifal, the son of Herzeleide, the tragic figure abandoned by her husband. As the son of this widow, he too now leaves his mother. He goes out into the world. After many wanderings, he is chosen to become the guardian of the Holy Grail. And the continuation of the Parzival saga tells us how he again goes to the East, how he finds his brothers in the members of the dark races, and how the blessings of the Holy Grail will one day come to them too. Thus, in his life as Parsival, he prepared himself to later become a new teacher of Christianity, whose task it will be to increasingly permeate Christianity with the teachings of karma and reincarnation when the time is ripe.

Secondly: the second post-Atlantean age is that of Zarathustra. It has a special relationship to the Christ because of this. For Zarathustra pointed to the sun god, Ahura Mazdao, who approached the Earth and who was none other than the future Christ. And in his entire mission, Zarathustra was a forerunner for the Christ in that he taught to appreciate and work the earth, not to flee from evil forces but to overcome them and thereby redeem them. Thus the I of Zarathustra, the highest developed human I, could be chosen to dwell for eighteen years in the sheaths that were to receive the Christ. His I left the sheaths shortly before the baptism of St. John in the Jordan. Thus he was not embodied in the flesh when the Christ walked on Earth. He himself incarnated soon after leaving the three shells of the Nathanic Jesus; his I united with the etheric body of the Solomonic Jesus, which had been taken into the spiritual world by the mother of the Nathanic Jesus at the time of his death.

Thus, Christ Jesus could not resurrect Zarathustra as the appointed representative of the second post-Atlantean age. However, another individuality was embodied on Earth at that time, as it were vicariously, whose development and most significant mission for humanity ran in a remarkable parallel to that of Zarathustra. This was Lazarus, the reborn Hiram Abiff, the most significant of Cain's sons, who had also worked on the Earth mission of the human I, as Zarathustra had done in ancient Persia. He becomes “ill”, “dies” and is laid in the tomb. The Christ Jesus learns of his illness and speaks to his disciples of the death of Lazarus. “Then Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us go with him so that we may die with him’ (John 11:16).”

In this resurrection, which is to take place with Lazarus, the souls that belong to the second post-Atlantean age are represented like the “people from the city” at the resurrection of the young man of Nain the third post-Atlantean age - represented by Thomas, the “twin”.

For the second post-Atlantean age was the period of the twins. His otherwise completely meaningless words testify that the second post-Atlantean age is ready to be awakened by the Christ. That which lived as the cultural germ in the ancient Persian age did not die. It is not about the resurrection of a dead person, but about the initiation of a living being. That is the great difference between the story of this resurrection and the other two. Therefore, the Christ Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, even though he die, yet shall he live.”

And the Christ Jesus comes to the tomb where Lazarus, who was believed to be dead, has been laid, and He speaks the sacramental words before all the people: “Lazarus, come forth!”And the deceased came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face covered with a sweat cloth. And the Christ Jesus speaks the words that hint, as it were, that from this hour on this initiate will begin to work. “Dissolve him and let him go.”

He is not a youth like the youth at Nain, he is a man in full possession of his mental faculties. And the resurrected Lazarus becomes the scribe of the Gospel of John. He is the one who stands at the cross and to whom Christ Jesus speaks from the cross, pointing to the mother Sophia-Maria: “Behold, this is your mother!” Thus, once again, his peculiar representative relationship to the I of Zarathustra is manifested, who, as the Solomonic Jesus child, was really born as the son of this mother.

With this power within him, he can work even before the sixth post-Atlantean age; already in the fifth cultural age, he prepares the sixth, the one that will show the deepest understanding of the Christ impulse, the one that will best understand the Gospel of John.

Among the twelve apostles, Lazarus-John himself is, as it were, represented by another. John, the brother of James and son of Zebedee, is not an apostle in the strict sense. James and John are, as it were, one; among the more intimate disciples of Christ Jesus, they represent the power of the mind or emotional soul, which has a dual function in man but is nevertheless a unity. That is why they are called “sons of thunder,” for thunder is macrocosmically the same as thought in the human microcosm. But when Lazarus becomes John, he takes the place of one of the sons of Zebedee, and as such he is the one who lay at Jesus' breast at the Last Supper.

Thirdly, when Jesus the Christ walked the Earth, only the degenerate descendants of the third post-Atlantean cultural age remained. The second post-Atlantean age had almost completely disappeared as a cultural force, with only a few followers of the often-degenerate Zarathustra religion scattered here and there.

But the first, the ancient Indian cultural age, the oldest and most spiritual, had its descendants both at the time of Christ Jesus and still in ours, even if the culture had become sick and frail from materialism. It is the age that will rise last of all, that must wait the longest.

And in a mysterious way, this resurrection is told to us in the story of the raising of Jairus' twelve-year-old daughter and the preceding healing of the woman who had had the blood-gland for twelve years.

The girl is close to death, but Christ Jesus is supposed to heal her. But the woman is also alive, whose illness began at the birth of this girl. The blood, the life, is flowing out of her. She is what has become of the once-thriving spiritual culture of ancient India, what could not be cured by the doctors, for no method of yoga, no Vedanta philosophy, in all its sublimity, could save Indian culture from destruction.

It is karmically connected with the girl who is twelve years old, that is, the development of the etheric body is almost complete. The ancient Indian cultural period was the time of the development of the etheric body. What was placed as a germ in this etheric body in ancient Indian culture is to be awakened and preserved for the last, seventh age.

But this awakening can only take place after the woman has been healed. She comes up to Christ from behind, from the crowd (Luke 8:44), touches the hem of his garment and is healed, for “your faith has made you well” (Mark 5:34). She is healed because she had faith in the spirit embodied in the flesh on Earth. And when she is healed of the haemorrhage, through her voluntary act of touching the robe of Christ Jesus, that which was once a living force in her and which is now dying, indeed is already considered dead, can be resurrected: It is the daughter of Jairus, a “chief of the school”, because the first cultural aged was that of the Brahmins, the priests.

A large crowd is around the dead girl, “weeping and wailing”; they are again the relatives of the first post-Atlantic age, mourning what is gone. Matthew mentions the pipers (9:23) playing at the dead girl; Krishna also played the flute and the people followed this sound.

But Christ Jesus expels everyone. A great mystery will be accomplished, for the resurrection of the first age, with its development of the etheric body, has to do with deep secrets of human nature. He takes only Peter, John, James, the father and mother of the child. Thus, together with Christ Jesus and the child itself, there were seven persons: the three soul powers, the three spirit powers and the Christ as the cosmic I. Thus, the age of the ancient holy Rishis was reflected in these seven persons. Just as the Rishis could only work when they were together in sevens, so the girl could only be raised when the number seven of forces was present. And she is healed and Christ Jesus says they should give her food. For before, the ancient Indian culture did not need to eat, she received her knowledge directly from the spiritual world through the wonderful development of the etheric body. But this nourishment has run out for her. From now on she is to eat from what her surroundings can give her. “And the Christ Jesus strictly forbade them that no one should know.” A commandment that obviously cannot be understood in a physical, real sense. But the secrets that took place with this awakening were to remain unknown and hidden for a long time.

Besides these three resurrections of the three cultural ages preceding the age of Christ Jesus, there are some more remarkable stories in the Gospels that can be linked to the integration of the Christ impulse into the development of humanity.

Fourthly: In the Gospel of John (ch. 4, 47-54) it is told of the son of the royal centurion, that is, of the Roman, who was fatally ill. In him, the fourth post-Atlantean age, the Greco-Roman age, is wasting away. And the Christ heals him at the request of the father, because the father has believed even without “signs and wonders”. The son is not raised, he did not die, because the fourth age was still alive at the time of Christ Jesus, it is only sick and can only be healed through faith. For only in the form of faith could the Greco-Roman era absorb the power of Christ.

Five: Immediately after this story in the Gospel of John, there follows the account of the healing of the sick man at Bethesda, the pool with five porches. These indicate the fifth post-Atlantic age, with all the forces of the preceding cultural periods that live in it. The people who are lying ill there do not have the right relationship to the spiritual world; they have become too deeply enslaved to matter. From time to time an angel descends who touches the water: a new revelation from the spiritual worlds heals those who are closest to it, but it no longer helps those who come later.

And so there was a person who had waited for 38 years without getting to the water in time. 38 = 2 x 19, and nineteen years is the time after which the sun, moon and earth are again in the same relationship to each other, or in other words, the time in which the thinking, feeling and willing of man have passed through all possible shades in their relationship to each other. Thus nineteen years stands for one incarnation, and thirty-eight years indicates the two incarnations which on the average man has experienced since the appearance of Christ Jesus and which brings us up to our time, when a new Christ-revelation from the spiritual world will take place.

The Christ does not heal this sick man by letting him into the water when the angel descends, but He speaks to him the words: “Rise, take up thy bed and walk!” That is, He strengthens in the man that power which can overcome sickness. But the man did not know who had healed him, “for the Christ Jesus had fled because there were so many people in the place.” (John 5:13). The Christ had indeed worked in him, but the man did not know about it in his conscious mind. That is how it has been all the time since the Mystery of Golgotha until our days. But after that, “Jesus found him in the temple and the man went and proclaimed that it was Jesus who had made him whole.”

Now he knew that the word is true, which the Christ Jesus spoke to the Jews: “My Father is still working and I am also working.” And again, the Christ says, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” This hour is now upon us, the hour when the Christ will assume the office of judge over the dead and become Lord of Karma. Thus this account of the healing of the sick man at Bethesda points to our time in many ways.

Sixth: A parable is mysteriously woven into the Gospel of Luke, which points to the spiritual conditions of the sixth post-Atlantic period. We have seen that this period, which signifies the resurrection of the second post-Atlantean age, is prepared by Christ Jesus raising Lazarus. And in the Gospel of Luke, immediately after speaking of good and evil, of “serving God and serving mammon,” Christ Jesus tells a parable (ch. 16). He says: There was a rich man and also a poor man named Lazarus. The latter is doing badly on Earth, but after his death he enters Abraham's bosom, while the rich man, who lived in abundance, goes to hell.

Thus, in the sixth cultural period, good is separated from evil and that which indicates the true circumstances takes place in the spiritual world. The name of the poor man from the parable points to the connection with Lazarus in the Gospel of John. And the fact that we are dealing with the sixth post-Atlantic cultural age is expressed in the parable of the rich man when he says, “I still have five brothers,” who are then all unconverted. They are the part of humanity that has not yet received the Christ within them in the sixth period and must therefore fall prey to evil.

Seven: The seventh cultural period is no longer mentioned in particular, since this is already indicated in the relationship that exists between the woman with the issue of blood and the twelve-year-old girl. The woman has already been healed when the girl is raised; one cannot happen without the other.

In this and similar ways the Gospel writers have woven the historical course of human development into their writings.

1909-07-03-GA112  

Thus we see what led up to the Marriage in Cana. We see that what occurred there had to be brought about by an initiate excelling an initiate of the fifth degree, and we are also shown that this fact bore a connection with the folk forces inherent in the female personality. In a marvelous fashion the author of the John Gospel prepares us for what came to pass there. As has been said, we shall approach the miracle question itself later; but in the meantime you can readily imagine that freshly drawn water is different from water that has stood for a time, just as a flower freshly picked is different from one that has been wilting for three days. Differentiations of that sort naturally do not occur to materialistic observation. Water until recently united with the forces of the earth is very different from stale water. In conjunction with the forces residing in the freshly drawn water, one who is initiated as described can work through the forces which are linked with a spiritual relationship such as that between Christ and the Mother who has become virgin. Christ carries farther what the earth is capable of achieving. The earth can transform the water in the grapevine into wine. The Christ, Who has approached the earth and become the Spirit of the Earth, is the spiritual principle that is otherwise active in the entire earth body; so if He is the Christ He must be able to accomplish as much as the earth. And the earth, within the vine, transforms water into wine.

The first sign, therefore, performed by Christ Jesus as set forth in the John Gospel is one that links up, so to speak, with what could be accomplished in olden times by an initiate who controlled the forces extending through the blood ties of the generations, as we have just learned out of the Books of Kings.

But now we find a continuing increase in the strength of those forces which Christ develops in the body of Jesus of Nazareth—not those that the Christ had within Himself. Therefore, do not ask, Can it be, then, that the Christ has to develop? Certainly not. But what did have to be developed through the Christ was the body of Jesus of Nazareth, however purified and ennobled: it had to be guided upward step by step by the Christ; for into this body were to be poured the forces intended to manifest themselves shortly.

The next sign is the healing of the nobleman's son, and the following one, the healing of him who had lain sick for thirty-eight years by the Pool of Bethesda. What intensification have we here of the forces through which Christ worked on this earth? It consists in the fact that now Christ could influence not only those who surrounded Him, those actually present in the flesh. At the Marriage of Cana He caused the water to become wine as the people drank it: He worked upon the etheric bodies of those present; for by the infusion of His force into the etheric bodies of the people surrounding Him the water became wine in their mouths—that is, the water tasted like wine. Now, however, the effect was intended not alone for the body, but for the very depths of the soul; for only in that way could Christ influence the nobleman's son through the mediation of his father, and only thus could He penetrate the sinful soul of him who had lain sick for thirty-eight years. To send His forces into the etheric body alone would not have sufficed: the astral body had to be acted upon, for it is the astral body that sins. By exerting an influence upon the etheric body, water can be turned into wine; but in order to affect another personality it is necessary to penetrate to something deeper. And this demanded that Christ continue to work upon the threefold sheath of Jesus of Nazareth.—Note well that Christ does not thereby change, thereby become another: He merely works upon the threefold sheath of Jesus of Nazareth; and this He does henceforth in such a way that the etheric body can become more independent of the physical body than it was previously.

...

Thus the threefold sheath of Jesus of Nazareth was prepared by the Christ, Who dwelt in it, for the acts that were to follow: for what was to be infused into the souls of men. This implied a degree of sovereignty in the soul dwelling in Jesus of Nazareth that would enable it to act upon other bodies. But acting upon another soul is an entirely different matter from the type of influence we discussed yesterday. It comes to light in the next intensification, in the Feeding of the Five Thousand and in the Walking on the Water. To be seen in the flesh without being physically present called for something more; and so powerful had the force become, even at that stage, in the body of Jesus of Nazareth that the Christ was seen not only by His disciples but by others as well. Only, here again we must read the John Gospel carefully; for someone might take the standpoint of readily believing this sign in the case of the disciples, but not in the others.

The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone; (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat the bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:) When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.

Let me emphasize that it says here, the people who sought Jesus. The narrative continues:

And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?

That implies the same occurrence as in the case of the disciples. It does not say that every ordinary eye saw Him, but that He was seen by those who sought Him and who found Him, by virtue of an increase in their soul force. To say that someone saw another person does not imply that the person seen stood there in the flesh as a spatial figure visible to the physical eye. What in outer life is generally called "taking the Gospel literally" is really anything but that.

1910-01-12-GA117A

This is the essential thing that confronts us in these first chapters of the Gospel of John. The modern man finds miracles in the gospel that do not follow [today's] natural laws. This view can only be held by someone who believes that the world has always looked the same as it does today. Our soul has lost clairvoyant gifts in order to conquer self-awareness in the time leading up to the ascent into future clairvoyance. Because people used to be clairvoyant, the soul could have a more direct and immediate effect on the soul. Today it can do so through the word. Those who develop through the methods of living themselves into spiritual worlds must, in order to be understood, seek and find receptivity in the other, and today this is found through the word.

This was not the case in ancient Persian and Egyptian times. A wish that one experienced had an effect on the soul of the other, and the soul had a stronger power over the body. By influencing through the will, namely through pictorial imagination, one could have a healing effect on the other person.

Therefore, when Christ appeared, people were not surprised that healing could take place through psychic influence. The most important thing for those around Him, including the unbelievers and the rulers in Palestine, was not that Christ worked miracles, but something else.

What was it like in the old initiation? The dim old clairvoyance could work by looking; but it could not get to a point; not to the center of the I, because the I, the self-consciousness in this highest sense, had only come into the world through Christ. So: He saw into the I, the innermost part of the human spirit, from I to I, not [only] from soul to soul could He work.

...

The Gospel of John shows us in a powerful way how Christ grows. This is the artistically accomplished part of the structure of the Gospel of John. And now we see how John the Baptist speaks of Christ. He is supposed to say what kind of spirit lives in the Christ... He compares it to the spirit in the ancient initiations. This spirit has previously spoken “according to measure,” but now it does not - what is this? In the past, the initiate had to use a meter; he had to work in a mantric measure; this stimulated the soul of the other person. Now the spirit is to work directly, not according to an external syllabic measure.

So here, too, we are given a hint of how the I of the Christ is to unfold in its direct divine activity.

That which can be taught about the Christ should be gradually absorbed by people, so that they educate themselves spiritually: First there was the I, which shows us how we should become. If we have applied each incarnation in the Christian sense, we will have been permeated by the goal of evolution on Earth. An impulse from the I, from the innermost center, will pass over to the innermost center of the other. Thus brotherhood will be achieved through the power of Christ. Therefore it is shown how the spirit takes the place of what previously only matter could do.

I am the bread of life. Taken symbolically on the outside: in the ancient Egyptian mysteries, it was known that bread was a symbol of wisdom; the real inner meaning: the I developed to the highest degree of strength should take the place of material activity. This was to be demonstrated in a great deed, in the feeding of the five thousand. It is said: When the loaves and fishes were brought to Christ, he blessed them – that is, he united them with his spirit – the spirit took effect in place of matter. The spirit brought about what otherwise matter brings about. They had been filled. With what? I am the bread of life, says Christ. The body of Jesus, as it gradually died, could overflow its powers through sacrifice.

From the center into the material existence, Christ Jesus could work. The effect of the body of Christ Jesus is eaten by the five thousand. In the mystery language, the body of Man is divided into twelve members, which correspond to the twelve signs of the Zodiac: forehead - Aries, neck - Taurus, hands - Gemini, breastplate - Cancer, and so on.

What the people around had enjoyed was connected to the body of Christ; therefore twelve baskets were collected. It is a real event that the spirit had a physical effect, that of being filled; and through this the people around were imbued with the spirit and clairvoyantly saw the twelve parts of Jesus at that moment.

Thus, in these narratives, we always find a transition from the physical to the clairvoyant.

So we have an intensification in the fourth sign and also in the fifth sign. The writer of the Gospel of John describes the events so that we can take his words quite literally. But modern headlines are often wrong.

It does not say “Jesus walks on the sea,” but that the disciples “saw how he walked.” The fact that he worked across, was really with them where they felt abandoned, was spiritually real with them, is hinted at. [Where his physical body was is never mentioned. This is also of no importance. The important thing was that he was with them in their need in his astral body, although he was absent with his physical body. And in this way we also always have Christ with us. - “I am with you always.”

Thus we can always experience Christ when we ascend to the spirit. He had emerged with His spirit and was with the disciples, overcoming space and time through the strong power of the I.

1921-10-08-GA343

The concept of a miracle, as it is often understood today, is not mentioned at all in the Gospels.

Rather, the Gospels are concerned with a time when the effect of soul on soul and thus from body to body was much more intense than it is today, and when, let us say, miracles are mentioned, we must understand that this is said entirely from the factual world of the time. These are the things that we must take into account when considering the Gospels. In my cycles on the Gospels, you will find numerous examples of how the concept of a miracle, as understood today, is not present in the Gospels at all.

What is a miracle, as it is understood today?

I have tried to reveal the resurrection of Lazarus in my book 'Christianity as a Mystical Fact'. If you read there how the so-called miracle of Lazarus is revealed, you will find that it is only possible to penetrate the mystery through supersensible cognition, but that one must simply penetrate the mystery through it.

Miracles are — I do not say this out of some kind of prejudice, but I can say this from the real knowledge of the facts — miracles are what arise in the consciousness of modern Man. A miracle is a process that today's Man no longer understands, but that could have taken place in the course of human development as a process. It is only because things are no longer understood that they are thought to be miracles.

On the one hand, people today help themselves by thinking of things as miracles, but on the other hand, they help themselves by extending what has taken place over the course of a few millennia to 20 million years, whereby the funny thing is that with respect to geological periods, one [researcher] differs from the other by the trivial fact that one calculates some period as being 20 million years in the past, while the other calculates it as being 200 million years in the past. It is only that they are not noticed because one is usually taught only from one side. If you read about some geological period, Devonian or Alluvium, and according to some teaching 20 million years are claimed for their length, then you do not immediately read another geological writer, but you may read it only after ten years, and when he then writes that this geological period dates back 200 million years, then you have long forgotten the other. These things abound in humanity, and today, in all seriousness, everything should be paid attention to.

And so, when faced with a mystery such as the Immaculate Conception, it is necessary to understand things in the right way. I have already told you that in addition to the actual dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, [the Catholic Church has also] established [the dogma of] the Immaculate Conception of St. Anne, and of course this should go further back, but that is not possible; I have already spoken about this.

(1) - marriage in Cana

On the meaning of 'mother' - Christ-Jesus reply to his 'mother' (when it is said there is no wine)

1904-07-18-GA090A

Today, I would like to share with you some of the Secret Doctrine from the point of view that can introduce and lead us to an understanding of the Gospel of John. The scholars have taken great pains to understand the Gospel of John. But there are many points that cannot be understood by pure word research. Just as little as one can understand what “going up the mountain” means, one will not be able to understand other expressions. You can go through entire volumes of learned researchers and you will find that only one, Betke, came very close to the meaning, but only close. He would have to know the secret language. But the fact that someone came close to it shows that the secret meaning lies in the words. One point I would still like to touch on is where the wedding at Cana is described. You remember the words:

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. But Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. And since there was a lack of wine, the mother says to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. [John 2:1-5]

It is noteworthy that the mother of Jesus' name is not mentioned. And what constitutes the crux of the matter is that Jesus says, “Woman, what do I have to do with you?” And the following words: “My hour has not yet come.”

[editor: here RS does not go into the meaning or translation of these words]

Take another passage in John where it is said who witnessed the crucifixion. If you compare this with the other gospels, you will find that they describe it quite differently. If you only read it in the gospel of John, you can hardly make sense of it. The same applies to the passage about the distribution of the robe:

So the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; but also his coat. But the robe was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be,” that the scripture might be fulfilled which says, “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my robe.” [John 19:24]. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. [John 19:25]

It is not said of the mother of Jesus that her name was Mary, just as it was not said at the wedding at Cana. It is said that the sister of the mother of Jesus was called Mary. If one wanted to go by the wording here, then two sisters must have been standing at the cross, both named Mary.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.

Read it in John. A disciple is always mentioned: ‘a disciple whom he loved’. [...]

Then saith he to the] mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the] he, behold thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

We are told that the disciple whom Jesus loved stood at the cross, that He made him His mother's son, and that this son took the mother to be his. This, of course, can only be the same mother spoken of at Cana of Galilee.

This has caused the interpreters the greatest difficulties, and we must ask ourselves: What is actually behind this? What can be said about it?

We can only grasp the Gospels correctly if we know what the mother of a spirit-afflicted personality is in the secret language. We must be clear about who Jesus is talking about when he speaks of his mother, and we must understand this speech in the sense that we learn in occult schools.

The one who comes into this world as an initiate – whether he be on the level of Buddha or higher, like Jesus, the Christ – does not derive his origin from this world. What lives in him comes from another world. He is the messenger of another world. He is born out of this world only in his physical and temporal existence, at a certain place. He who has entered the world as an initiate has the highest degree of what is called tolerance. You will never find even a trace of what could be called intolerance in an initiate. When an initiate goes somewhere to proclaim a teaching, he will practice the principle of tolerance to the highest degree. He will not offend anyone's feelings. The initiate knows that the truth has existed among all peoples. He knows that the truth is present everywhere in some form or other. He knows that the world is progressing, and he regards himself as an instrument of the world spirit, which is beyond physical reality and has the task of advancing the world a little further. He does not lead people by spreading a doctrine that hurts them, but he associates above all with those who long for liberation from old bonds. He does not associate with scribes and Sadducees, but with those who are sinners in the sense of these scribes, but who long for something that is yet to come.

Those He comes to are completely entwined with their people and their time. Jesus came to the Jews, although He was not born of this people, and had to work among them. He had to create something higher out of the substance of the people, which would flourish in the world. His followers came from three groups.

• The first group were those who were attached to Judaism, to the laws that he had not come to abolish but to fulfill with complete tolerance. This was the people in whom he planted his teaching like a mustard seed, so that it would flourish.
• The second group, where he spread his teaching with complete love and tolerance. This was the group that believed in him because of his personal power and influence. These were the ones who were close to him, who knew what he meant to them.
• And there was still a third group. These were the ones who believed because of the deeds he did, although they were not particularly close to him, but who were captivated by his appearance, and therefore, at the moment when this appearance was dragged down – after the crucifixion – they could no longer believe until they had proof.

He had spoken to these three groups. In the language of the secret lore, they must have a very definite designation. He calls the time and the people into which the initiate is born his “mother”. He thus calls the Jewish people 'mother'.

• When Jesus spoke of 'the mother of Galilee', he meant the Jewish people: to them he showed the water of the Old Testament and the wine of the New. The souls in whom a teaching is laid are represented by female personalities.
• Those who were close to him are represented by Mary, the wife of Clopas. These were attached to Jesus because of their personal relationship.
• The third group were people who needed proof. Now we know that Jesus entrusted the mission of taking care of the Jewish-Christian people to another. Now we know why he says to the mother, Jewish Christianity: This is your son! This is the one who has to carry Christian progress, this is the disciple whom he loves. And now we know that the disciple took on the task. This refers to the words: And from that hour he took the mother with him. That is, he was the one who was to develop Christianity out of Judaism.

One word remains unclear: “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. We need to recognize who the disciple is here. The word means that Jesus initiated the person himself. This shows that the master is this disciple's friend and loves him.

1904-11-01-GA090A

Is John the theologian the same as the author of the Gospel of John?

The writer of the Gospel of John is the most intimate disciple of Jesus. This also enabled him to give the deepest form to the teaching. Today it is impossible for most people to understand. In the nineteenth chapter it says:

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside him, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” [John 19:25-26]

To love a disciple means to be an initiate. Then he says to the disciple:

Behold your mother! And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

This is a significant passage. It tells us that the mother's name cannot have been Mary. John never refers to the mother of Jesus as Mary. There is another passage from the second chapter that deals with this.

And when the wine failed, Jesus' mother saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

I would just like to note that this implies that the mother of Jesus is hinting at something very special. She is the spiritual substance from which he creates his work. The old Judaism, which was to become Christianity, referred to Jesus, when he had become a Christian, as his mother.

This mission of his people calls him, calls him first when he is to turn the old water into wine. Then he says: Woman, my hour has not yet come. The Jewish people have been handed over to the son of the Jewish people with the words: Behold, this is your mother.

It was this John who then also wrote the Gospel and the Apocalypse.

1906-02-12-GA097

The approach used in the science of the spirit is preparing the way for this ascent. Christianity first had to guide humanity down. Now it must guide them upwards again. Wine must be transformed into water again.

John was able to see beyond physical reality. The deed accomplished by the Lord, his mission, thus appeared to John the disciple in the image of the marriage at Cana in Galilee. This is how one should read the first 12 chapters of the gospel of John.

It does not say that Mary asked him but the mother of Jesus. This is a mystic term. In mysticism, ‘mother’ always refers to something that needs to be inseminated when the human being ascends to a higher level. Jesus had to take the whole of human consciousness, such as it had been until then, to a higher level. The consciousness of all humanity needed him to take it a step forward. This is why Jesus was able to say: ‘Woman, what have I to do with you?’ He would not have said this to his mother.

On the third day, a marriage took place. This means that John lay in the sleep of initiation for three days. There the vision of the marriage in Cana in Galilee occurred. In a sleep lasting three days he went through the events that took place in the world of the spirit. On the third day he experienced the vision of the marriage in Cana. All that follows are events he saw in his astral vision.

1906-10-31-GA094

What the moral instinct was for the individual tribe, that is budhi or the Christ principle for all mankind. In Christ, this process has become flesh. Christ came when the tribal blood ties had loosened sufficiently for the tribal god to change into a god of all men, for blood brotherhood to become a duty towards every fellow human being, and for tribal loyalty to be extended to self- and god-loyalty. What sunlight is to matter, what intelligible truth to intellect, that is the Christ-light to the budhi, the grace coming from above. Through the budhi, the earlier is no longer decisive, neither the moral instinct given by blood ties nor the law of the priests, neither Moses nor tribal authorities at all, the last of which was Jehovah. Now the sentence applies: “Whoever does not leave father and mother and brother for my sake cannot be my disciple.” That is to say, anyone who does not forget the old tribal principles and does not extend blood love to all people cannot follow Christ. The old tribal gods had entered into indissoluble marriages with their peoples, and with their peoples they had to pass away. The Christ represents a completely new spirit in the world, which entered into humanity, and this spirit united with the human soul, which passes through the whole evolution. Those who bore the name John, the leading people of that time, were so far as to feel with the greatest strength the burning yearning for something that lies above mere legality and justice, that is, they thirsted for the new Son of Man. And the One Who satisfied this longing was the Christ, the Bridegroom of the soul of humanity in general, humanity itself being the Bride. Thus Christ or Budhi is indeed the only begotten Son of God: “He must increase, but I must decrease,” was the saying of John the Baptist. One of the greatest symbols of this wedding feast is the wedding at Cana in Galilee, a place where all kinds of peoples flocked together in a colorful, international mix. We see how a wedding feast is celebrated there. “And the mother of Jesus was also there,” it says. In the Gospel of John, the mother of Jesus is never called “Mary”, just as the author of the Gospel of John, the disciple whom the Lord loved, is never called “John”. The mother of Jesus is the human soul, and this must first mature before Christ can work in it. Hence the words: “Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come.” Never would such a high individuality as Christ have spoken thus to his mother.

1908-05-22-GA103

Now we shall see in the following lectures how this theme is further developed and at the same time how it is shown that the Christ is not only the guide of those who are united with the group-soul, but how He enters into each individual human being and endows the individual ego itself with His Impulse. The blood-tie indeed remains, but the spiritual aspect of love is added to it, and to this love which passes over from one individual, independent ego to another, He gives His Impulse.

Day by day, one truth after another was revealed to the neophyte in the course of his initiation. A very important truth is always disclosed, for example, on the third day. Then it is that one learns fully to understand that there is a point in the evolution of the earth when physical love, bound up with the blood, becomes ever more spiritualized. This point of time is the event which demonstrated the transition from a love dependent upon the blood-tie to a spiritualized form of love. In significant words Christ-Jesus makes reference to this when He says: “A time will come which is my time, a time when the most important things will no longer be accomplished by men bound by the tie of blood, but by those who stand alone by themselves. This time however is yet to come.” The Christ Himself who gave the first impulse, says on one important occasion that this ideal will sometime be fulfilled, but that His time is not yet come.

He prophetically points to this when His mother stands there and asks Him to do something for mankind, hinting that she has the right to induce Him to an important deed for humanity. He then replies, “What we are able to do today is still connected with the blood bond, with the relationship between thee and me, for My time is not yet come.”

That such a time will come when each must stand alone is expressed in the narrative of the Marriage at Cana when the announcement: “They have no wine,” was answered by Jesus with the words: “That is something that has still to do with thee and me, for My time is not yet come.” Here we have the words, “between thee and me” and “My time is not yet come.” What stands there in the text refers to this mystery.

Like many others, this passage also is usually very roughly translated. It should not read: “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” but: “This has to do with me and thy blood relationship.” The text is very fine and subtle, but comprehensible only to those who have the will to understand it. But when, in our age, these religious documents are repeatedly interpreted by all kinds of people, one would like to ask, have those who call themselves Christians then no feeling for all this, that they make the Christ utter the words, incorrectly translated, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?”

In much that today calls itself Christianity which rests upon the teaching of the Gospel, we are inclined to ask, Do they really possess the Gospel? The important thing is that they should first possess it. And with such a profound document as the Gospel of St. John every word must be weighed in order that its proper value be recognized.

1908-05-23-GA103

Christ goes to the Galileans who are jumbled together out of all kinds of nationalities that were not bound by the blood-tie and there He performed the first Sign of His mission and He adapted Himself so fully to their habits of life that he turned water into wine for them. Let us hold clearly in mind what the Christ really wished to say by this: Those who have descended to the stage of materialism, symbolized by the drinking of wine, will I also lead to a union with the Spirit.—So He will be there, not alone for those who can be raised by means of the symbol of baptism, by water. It is very significant that we are shown at once that here are six vessels of purification. We shall return to this number. Purification is what is accomplished by means of baptism. If in those epochs in which the Gospel had its origin one wished to express the fact of baptism, it was spoken of as a purification. The word “baptism” was never actually used, but they said “to baptize,” and what resulted through baptism was called “purification.” Never will you find in the Gospel of St. John the corresponding ΒαπτιζΩ, except in verb form. But when it is used as a noun, it is the cleansing that is always meant, the process through which the human being is reminded of his state of purification, his relationship with the Godhead.

Even to the symbolical vessels of the rite of purification, Christ-Jesus undertook the Sign through which He indicated His mission as far as it was possible at that time. Thus in the marriage at Cana in Galilee, something of the profound mission of the Christ is expressed. He said: “My time will come in the future, it is not yet come. What I have to accomplish here has to do in part with what must be overcome through My mission.” He stands in the present and at the same time points to the future, thereby showing how He works for the age, not in an absolute but in a cultural, educational sense. It is the mother, therefore, who besought Him and said, “They have no wine.” But He replied: “What I have now to accomplish has still to do with ancient times, with me and thee, for My proper time has not yet come when wine will be transformed back again into water.”

How could it have had any meaning at all to say, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” when He then complied with what the mother had asked! It only has a meaning if we are shown that the present condition of humanity has been brought about because of the blood relationship and that a Sign has been performed in accordance with ancient usages which still needs the employment of alcohol in ordcr to point to the time when the independent I shall have risen above the tie of the blood; it has a significance only when we are shown that for the present we must still reckon with ancient times which are symbolized by wine, but that a later time is coming which will be “His time.”

And chapter after chapter of the Gospel reveals to us two things. First it shows that what was communicated was for those who, in a certain way, were able to comprehend occult truths. In our times, exoteric Spiritual Science is presented in lectures, but at that period spiritual-scientific truths could only be understood by those who had been in a certain way actually initiated into this or that degree. Who were those who were able to understand something of what Christ-Jesus was saying about profound truths? ...

1908-05-30-GA103

Wherever in ancient documents numbers are mentioned, the hidden aspect of numbers is meant. When we read, “On the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee,” every initiate knows that with this “third day,” something very special is meant. What is meant? The writer of the Gospel of St. John points out that it is not alone a matter of an actual experience, but that it is, at the same time, a great, an overpowering prophecy.

This marriage expresses the great marriage of humanity which occurred on the third day of initiation.

• On the first day there occurred what took place in the transition from the third to the fourth cultural age;
• on the second day, what took place in the transition from the fourth to the fifth age and
• on the third day what will occur when mankind passes over from the fifth to the sixth age.

These are the three days of initiation. The Christ Impulse has been compelled to wait until the third age. Before that, the time had not come when it could operate. The Gospel of St. John points to a special relationship between “me and thee,” between “us two.” That is what is really said, not the absurd “Woman, what have I to do with thee.”

When the Mother asks the Christ to make a sign, He answered: “My time is not yet come” to be active at marriages, that is, to bring people together. That time is yet to come. What is based upon the blood-bond still works on and will continue to be active; hence the reference to the relationship between mother and son at the Marriage of Cana.

When we consider the documents in this way, all that is really external stands out in bold relief against a significant spiritual background. We gaze into the abysmal depths of the spiritual life when we penetrate into what has been bestowed upon mankind by such an initiate as the writer of the Gospel of St. John, into what he was able to bestow upon it, because the Christ had implanted His Impulse within human evolution.

Therefore we have seen that these things must be explained by the astral reality which the initiate experiences, not by empty allegory or symbolism. We are not dealing with a symbolic interpretation only, but with the narration of the experiences of the initiate. If this were not so, then one might feel that those who stand outside are right when they say that spiritual science offers nothing but allegorical interpretations. If we apply to this passage the spiritual-scientific interpretation, as we now understand it, we learn how, through three cosmic days, the Christ Impulse works upon humanity, from the third cultural epoch over into the fourth, from the fourth to the fifth and from the fifth into the sixth. And viewing this evolution from the standpoint of the Gospel of St. John, we are now able to say: The Christ Impulse was so great that mankind of the present has understood but very little of it, and only in a later age will it be wholly comprehended.

1909-07-02-GA112

I said that a transition must be effected if such an event is to take place: the psychic force had to be assisted by something. By what, then? Here we come to the utterance which, as it is usually translated, is really a blasphemy; for I believe it will strike any sensitive person as offensive when, to the statement “they have no wine”, Jesus replies: “Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.”

From any angle it is impossible to accept that in a document of this sort. Imagine the ideal of love, as the Gospels describe the relations between Jesus of Nazareth and His mother, and then try to imagine Him using the expression, "Woman, what have I to do with thee"! It is not necessary to say more: the rest must be felt. But the point is, these words are not in the text. Examine this passage in the John Gospel and then look up the Greek text. This contains nothing more than the words employed by Jesus of Nazareth in indicating a certain event:

Woman, this passeth over from me unto thee.

What He referred to was that subtle, intimate force which passed from soul to soul, from Him to His mother; and that is what He needed at this moment. Greater signs He was as yet unable to perform: for this the time must gradually ripen. Therefore He says: My time—the time when I shall work through my own force—is not yet come. For the present, that magnetic psychic union between the soul of Jesus of Nazareth and His mother was still indispensable.

“Woman, this now passeth over from me unto thee.” Otherwise—well, after an utterance like “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” why would she turn to the servants and say, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it”? She had to possess the old forces of which nowadays people can have no conception; and she knew that He referred to the blood tie between them, to the bond that should then pass over into the others. Then she knew that something like an invisible spiritual force held sway, capable of effectuating something.

And here let me beg you to read the Gospel—really to read it. I ask how anyone can come to terms with the Gospel who believes that something happened at that wedding—I really don't know what—that six ordinary jars stood there “for the purifying of the Jews”, as we are told; and that according to ordinary observation—without reference to anything such as we have just been considering—the water turned into wine. How could such a thing have come about externally?

(2) - awakening’ of the young man of Nain

1909-09-26-GA114

In what manner Christ made such provision for the ages following the Event of Golgotha is related by the writer of the Gospel of St. John. He shows us how, in Lazarus, Christ Himself ‘raised’, ‘awakened’, that Individuality who continued to work as ‘John’, from whom the teaching proceeded in the form described in the lectures on the Gospel of St. John.

But Christ had also to provide for the appearance, in later times, of an Individuality who would bring to humanity in a form compatible with subsequent evolution, that for which men would by then be ready. How an Individuality was ‘awakened’ by Christ for this purpose is faithfully described by the writer of the Gospel of St. Luke. Having declared that he would describe what ‘seers’ endowed with the vision of Imagination and Inspiration could say about the Event of Palestine, he also points to what would one day be taught by another — but only in the future. In order to describe this mysterious process the writer of St. Luke's Gospel has also included an ‘awakening’, a ‘raising’, in his account (Luke VII, 11–17.) In what we read concerning the ‘awakening’ of the young man of Nain lies the mystery of the progress of Christianity.

Whereas in the case of the healing of the daughter of Jairus, to which brief reference was made in a previous lecture, the mysteries connected with it were so profound that Christ admitted only a few to witness the act and charged them not to speak of it, this other ‘raising’ was accomplished in such a way that it might immediately be related. The former healing was an act presupposing in the healer a profound insight into the processes of physical life; the latter healing was an ‘awakening’, an Initiation. The Individuality in the body of the young man of Nain was to undergo an Initiation of a very special kind.

There are various kinds of Initiation.

• In one kind, immediately after the process has been completed, knowledge of the higher worlds flashes up in the aspirant and the laws and happenings of the spiritual world are revealed to him.
• In another kind of Initiation it is only a seed that is implanted into the soul, and the individual has to wait until the next incarnation for the seed to bear fruit; only then does he become an Initiate in the real sense.

The Initiation of the young man of Nain was of this kind. His soul was transformed by the event in Palestine but he was not yet conscious of having risen into the higher worlds. It was not until his next incarnation that the forces laid in his soul at that earlier time came to fruition.

In an exoteric lecture names cannot now be given; all that is possible is an indication to the effect that the Individuality awakened by Christ in the young man of Nain subsequently appeared as a great teacher of religion; in later time a new teacher of Christianity arose, equipped with the powers implanted into his soul in a previous incarnation.

Thus Christ provided for the subsequent appearance of an Individuality able to bring Christianity to a further stage of development. Moreover the mission of the Individuality who had been awakened in the young man of Nain is destined to permeate Christianity later on, and to an ever-increasing extent, with the teachings of Karma and Reincarnation — teachings which when Christ was on Earth could not be proclaimed explicitly as wisdom, because the human soul had first to receive them into the life of feeling.

(3) - healing at pool of Bethesda

1907-11-21-GA100

In the course of His conversation with the woman of Samaria, Christ Jesus said to her: “Thou hast has five husbands; and he whom thou now has is not thy husband.” (John 4:18) And again, in the story of the healing of the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, the five occurs: the pool of Bethesda had five porches. (John 5:2)

We will now look somewhat more closely into the significance of this mystical number five.

...

In the sixth and seventh ages of civilisation the Spirit Self and the Life Spirit will develop through the power of Christ in those who rely upon Him, and at the same time these will gain healthy thought and feeling. Christianity brings health and healing, for the life force of Christ conquers all disease and death. The human body as a solid body has developed out of liquid substances.

The five porches or halls which surround the pool of Bethesda signify the five ages which man has used to penetrate more and more deeply into the body, and in the end he has succumbed entirely to matter. Only after he has passed through these five ages can Man be healed. One who has entered into these five halls cannot be healed unless the great Healer, the Christ, approaches him; but when this happens, there takes place what is described in the fifth chapter of St. John's Gospel. Thus the story of the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years is a prophetic announcement of what will take place in the sixth age, when man will no longer need any remedies, because he will be his own healer.

(5) - walking on water

1909-07-02-GA112

And further: the fifth sign, related in the same chapter, and beginning with the words:

‘And when evening came, His disciples went down unto the sea, and they entered in a boat, and were going over the sea until Capernaum. And it was dark and Jesus had not come into them. And the sea was rising by reason of the great wind that blew. When therefore they had rowed about five-and-twenty or thirty furlongs, they beheld Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the boat; and they were afraid.’

Publishers of the Gospels insert here a very superfluous heading: ‘Christ walketh on the sea’, as if that were anywhere stated in this chapter. Where is ‘Jesus walketh on the sea’?

The words are: ‘The disciples beheld Jesus walking on the sea.’

That is the point. We must take the Gospels literally. The power of Christ had once more been strengthened. So great had it become, through its exercise in the last miracles, that it could now not only work from one soul to another — not only could the Christ-soul, in its power, communicate itself to other souls; Christ could now appear in His own living form to the souls of others who were duly prepared.

What occurred therefore was as follows: someone is at a remote place; so great is his power that it works upon others who are far removed from that place. So mighty has the Christ-power now become that it not only evokes a force in the disciples — as when the power was transmitted to them who were with Him on the mountain, to perform the miracle; — it now enables them to see Christ and behold His very form, although they cannot see with physical eyes where He is. Christ could become visible to those distant from Him, with whose souls He had now united His own.

His own form is now so distant that it can be beheld in the spirit. Inasmuch as the possibility of physical sight is removed from the disciples, spiritual sight becomes more and more possible for them, and they see Christ. This vision at a distance is of such nature that the image of the object seen, appears in the immediate vicinity. Here again we have an increase of the Christ-power.

Discussion

Note 1 - Strengthening versus weakening

Scope

Schema's FMC00.025 and FMC00.281 above illustrate the gradual purification of the body of Jesus of Nazareth by the progressive working of the force of the Christ in the lower bodily sheaths, thereby purifying the blood.

The seven signs or miracles show an ever greater increase of the power in Christ-Jesus, whereby Rudolf Steiner explains it is obviously not the power of Christ that had to develop, but the workings of the Christ power in Jesus of Nazareth (as a result of the above process).

On the other hand however, it is described how the Jesus, and the body of Jesus, became ever-weaker, so that during arrestation and crucifixion Jesus had become a mere shadow of the great Christ-Jesus that had walked the Earth the years before.

This discussion note is about this contradiction and how it is to be understood.

Relevant materials

• on the process of purification of blood and what this means for the lower bodies upto the physical
  • Blood is a special fluid#The blood of Christ at Golgotha.2C and the purity of the blood
  • FMC00.285 on Blood is a special fluid, and compare also Mystery of silver
• The Fleeing Youth:
  • is described by Rudolf Steiner in 1912-09-23-GA139, o.a.

    No Gospel other than that of St. Mark tells how only the Son of Man remained, and that the cosmic element only hovered around Him. Thus in no other Gospel do we perceive the cosmic fact in relation to the Christ event expressed with such clarity, the fact that at the very moment when men who failed to understand laid their violent human hands upon the Son of Man, the cosmic element escaped them. The youthful cosmic element which from that turning point of time entered earth evolution as an impulse, escaped. All that was left was the Son of Man; and this is clearly emphasized in the Mark Gospel. ... Who is this youth? Who was it who escaped here? Who is it who appears here, next to Christ Jesus, nearly unclothed, and then slips away unclothed? This is the youthful cosmic impulse, it is the Christ who slips away, who now has only a loose connection with the Son of Man. Much is contained in these 51st and 52nd verses. The new impulse retains nothing of what former times were able to wrap around man. It is the entirely naked, new cosmic impulse of earth evolution. It remains with Jesus of Nazareth, and we find it again at the beginning of the sixteenth chapter. ... [after three days at the tomb] ... they saw a youth sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white robe; and they were startled. This is the same youth. In the whole artistic composition of the Gospels nowhere else does this youth confront us, the youth who slips away from the people at the moment when they condemn the Son of Man, who is there again when the three days are over, and who from now onward is active as the cosmic principle of the earth. Nowhere else in the Gospels — you should compare the others — except in these two passages does this youth confront us, and in such a grandiose manner.

  • the Freeing Youth is discussed by o.a. (unqualified, meaning the contents of these book is not especially recommended or believed to be consistent, it is left upto the reader to assess)
    • Oskar Kuerten in 'The son of Man and the cosmic Christ'
    • Edward R. Smith in 'The disciple whom Jesus loved'
    • Richard Distasi: 'The Fleeing Youth: The Cosmic Principle of Christ'

Note 2 - Marriage at Cana

Location

Regarding discussions on the location of Cana in Galilee

Note on study process learning

In 2025 a question was asked in the facebook anthroposophy Q&A forum, with over a dozen replies and spawing a whole discussion on 'truth'.

The original question:

Is truth a moving goalpost? How do we know that when something is true one day and then it isn’t true the next day? Well one way is that if the proponent of the truth says so.

Rudolf Steiner in 1906 gave the reasons why Jesus Christ said to his to his mother ‘woman what have I to do with thee’ (normal translation) and then after a couple of years said that the words are wrong and they should be translated to ‘woman this has to do between you and me’ and also gave the reasons why.

[one is from the 1906 book series on Christology; the other is from the 1908 series on the St John Gospel]

What we see here is that anthroposophy is quickly evolving and should change yet after Steiner’s death it has become rather fixed . Is the fear of change behind this fixity?

As is shown higher on this page, the statements from 1906 versus 1908 do not contain such contradiction when one studies the specific phrase with more rigour studying all that Rudolf Steiner had to say.

A similar and even better example of the same pattern is given on: Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani - EELS#Aspects

Related pages

• Three years of Christ Jesus
• Christ Module 2 - the nature of the Christ being

References and further reading

• Alfred Heidenreich
  • 1949-04 - Alfred Heidenreich: The Risen Christ and the Etheric Christ
  • Healings in the Gospels (1990)