The Essence of Christianity

GA 68a — 3 November 1908, Bielefeld

42. The Bible and Wisdom

The Bible has been passed down through the centuries with a significance [for the human heart] that towers above everything. You could say that what is presented to counter the Bible comes from the Bible.

At the time of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, something similar was happening with regard to the natural world as is happening today with regard to the Bible. At that time, the old Greek writings of Aristotle et cetera were considered valid. Today, what has been studied in the chemical laboratory et cetera is accepted as correct; it seems logical today, and people believe what researchers say.

This was not the case in the past. What Aristotle, a great and comprehensive mind, wrote and taught was learned, not what was seen with one's own eyes, etc. When the first person dissected a corpse, there was initially opposition from those who swore by Aristotle.

One such reformer once said that Aristotle had something about nerves that was not quite right. A believer in Aristotle found it incredible. It was demonstrated to him in the body. “Yes, it's like that here,” he said, “but if nature is not as Aristotle says, then I believe Aristotle.” This belief weighed on humanity like a burden.

It seemed as if Aristotle's esteem would suffer by looking at nature. But that did not happen. Those who believed in Aristotle had only believed the letter. Gradually, people learned to recognize Aristotle correctly.

It is very similar with the Bible. [Until the eighteenth century, it was considered incontrovertible that it had a different origin than other books.] It was said that those who wrote the Bible were inspired by God and therefore infallible.

The first contradictions were found in the Old Testament. Not a theologian, but a French doctor found that different things were reported about Yahweh and Elohim. There must have been two writers, and that was compiled. It was finally accepted that, like other books, the Bible was written by several people and should be studied and examined like other books.

The same was true for the New Testament. John was one who still lived in higher worlds; that the spirit must always triumph over life – so one read in Paul's letters. How could the materialistic mind find anything in the Book of Revelation by John other than fantasy?

For the faithful, it is still the case that the Bible is a support in life and a consolation in death. But can it remain so if the tone-setters, the scientists, pick everything apart? With Aristotle, there were the faithful, then came those who could see and gradually understood Aristotle correctly. Can't the same happen with the Bible?

Aristotle saw in nature itself, and what he set down in his books is what he saw; likewise Kepler, et cetera. Might not a proper appreciation of the Bible arise from this, if a similar process takes place for the humanities as it did for the natural sciences in the time of Kepler?

Today there is a spiritual movement, Theosophy. Some may shake their heads or shrug their shoulders; but anyone who seriously engages with it will recognize the seriousness of this spiritual movement.

Just as there are researchers of nature, there have always been researchers or explorers of the spiritual worlds, who are called initiates. The natural scientist has the telescope, the microscope, and the human mind. Great things are found with these. — But for the spiritual researcher, these instruments are of no use. The only thing that exists is the human being itself. One must only have the right point of view. One must become aware that in every human soul there are dormant abilities, spiritual eyes and ears, which, when awakened, open up a world, just as it would be for someone who has undergone an operation and is born blind. A blind person must not say: There are no colors. No human being may say: There are no spiritual worlds around us. He who has the patience to develop these inner sense organs within himself becomes a seer, an initiate. The natural scientist must learn to use the telescope and all the instruments. [In the same way, the spiritual scientist must learn to use his higher organs.]

Great mysteries confront us when only the words sleep, waking, life, and death are presented to us. Just as Haeckel's books contain Haeckel's research, so the books of Theosophy contain spiritual facts of spiritual worlds.

Only a seer could have written the beginning of the Old Testament, for example, and only a seer can recognize such documents. It is seership that underlies the Bible.

The fact that the Gospel of John seems to have more contradictions than the other three Gospels is because John was a deeper initiate than the three synoptics.

If you approach the Bible from the standpoint of spiritual science, its value and depth become ever greater. Only wisdom can properly recognize the Bible, since it flowed from wisdom.