# The Essence of Christianity

## GA 68a — 6 November 1909, Bremen

### 50. The Higher Meaning of the Gospel of John

*Report in the “Bremer Nachrichten” of November 9, 1909*

Theosophical Society (Adyar), Bremen branch. Last Saturday, the Secretary General of the Theosophical Society, Dr. Rudolf Steiner of Berlin, spoke before a large audience at the Gewerbehaus on the topic of the higher significance of the Gospel of John. The speaker, as we were told, [among other things] stated the following: The two factors on which today's man relies when he searches for the sources of his religious concepts are, firstly, the abstract ideal that he creates in his heart of the Christ, and secondly, the external documents, the Gospels, to which he turns when he seeks consolation. The first leaders of Christianity had a different attitude to the Gospels than today's. They were not put off by the contradictions, but were glad that their view was opened in four directions. When one knows that each Evangelist wanted to portray a special aspect of the divine Being, then the apparent riddle of the Gospel of John, as the wisdom aspect, is solved. Today there is a new tool for the exploration of the tremendous Christ problem: spiritual research. Just as external science uses instruments to examine physical matter, so spiritual research uses its instrument, the human soul, to enter the spiritual world. With this developed instrument, the past can be fathomed without external records. Not everyone needs to become a spiritual researcher, just as not everyone needs to become a natural scientist. The unbiased person will use his sound reason to test the claims of the spiritual researcher. Critical research frays the fibers, spiritual research brings full light. There is not a single superfluous word in any of the four Gospels. Anyone who approaches them with a developed sense of truth has the impression that no more significant document could ever be created. This is especially true of the Gospel of John, which seems mysterious to people because of its beginning. The Logos (the Word) was called that which permeates the whole world, namely the ideas of wisdom. Man can form a certain idea of the wisdom-filled cause if he seeks to regard his own ego as a drop and the divine being as an ocean in which all ideas are contained. “In the beginning was the Logos” (John 1:1) can be translated as: “Before there was a visible world, there was the spiritual one, in which all the egos of humanity are rooted.” It will take a long development before man can recognize the highest human degree of development of the I, which was embodied in Christ Jesus. Not what was in him as a power was also in John; but the ability to recognize him completely was, for John means “seer”, or more correctly “feeler of God within”; because the forerunner, the Baptist, was such a one, the Evangelist could refer to him as a witness. The evolution of humanity is based on the law of love, which before Christ was linked to blood relationship. With the appearance of Christ Jesus, humanity was faced with the task of striving for the great ideal of universal brotherhood. Understanding from soul to soul, the cooperation of separated egos outside of blood relationship has only become possible with the appearance of Jesus. At the marriage at Cana, the mother was still a partner in the blood bond, which the Samaritan woman, as a stranger by blood, proves that the power of the ego penetrated into the alien soul. The resurrection of Lazarus proves the flowing over of his soul into the other being. The Mystery of Golgotha becomes understandable when one considers the development of humanity. The great Buddha, at the sight of death, gains the conviction that life is suffering; 600 years later, at the sight of the Christian symbol of Golgotha, the disciples gain the conviction of the victory of life over death. The spiritual world is not closed as long as man strives to let the spirit of Christ Jesus flow into him. Every sunrise can be a comparison for the awakening of the developed sense of truth. A forerunner for the understanding of Christ is the Gospel of John. — The speaker was rewarded with warm applause.