{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p011-p015","extent":"range","passage_number":11,"through":15,"paragraph_count":5,"first_locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p011","last_locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p015","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"title":"Tenth Lecture","date":"1908-09-12","location":null,"alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Norman MacBeth","identified_edition":"AP1971","book_title":"Egyptian Myths and Mysteries","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA106/English/AP1971/19080912p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.0,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5907,"original_word_count":5918,"may_be_abridged":false},"site_heading":"Initiation, Christ, and Humanity's Spiritual Redemption","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/106/1908-09-12/p011-p015","json_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/106/1908-09-12/p011-p015.json","lecture_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/106/1908-09-12#p011","word_count":845,"quote_safe":true,"passages":[{"passage_number":11,"locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p011","text":"The mysteries existed principally in order to enable man again to illuminate his consciousness, rather than have only a shadowy consciousness in the spiritual world. Let us reflect that if there had been no mysteries there would have been no initiates, in which case man would have had an increasingly vague and shadowy consciousness in the spiritual worlds. Only through the fact that, parallel with the darkening of Devachanic consciousness, initiation into the mysteries continued, together with the acquisition of certain faculties with which selected persons could look into the spiritual worlds in full clarity—only through the fact that the initiates could speak of this in myths and sagas, was it possible for a ray of light to penetrate into the Devachanic consciousness between death and a new birth. But all those who had made themselves comfortable in the physical world experienced this fading away of consciousness in the spiritual world. It was no fairy tale but plain truth, that the initiates in the Eleusinian mysteries were able to have a special experience. The principle of initiation is that, even during his life, man can ascend to the spiritual worlds and learn what takes place there. The initiate of that time was actually able to learn directly from the shades in the spiritual world. The following is really the statement of an initiate: “Better a beggar on earth than a king in the realm of shades.”[^1] This statement is made out of the initiates' experience. We cannot take such things deeply enough, and we only understand them when we know the facts of the spiritual world.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":266,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/106/1908-09-12/p011","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Norman MacBeth","identified_edition":"AP1971","book_title":"Egyptian Myths and Mysteries","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA106/English/AP1971/19080912p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 106/1908-09-12/p011"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}},{"passage_number":12,"locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p012","text":"Now let us bring into more concrete form what we touched upon abstractly yesterday.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":14,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/106/1908-09-12/p012","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Norman MacBeth","identified_edition":"AP1971","book_title":"Egyptian Myths and Mysteries","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA106/English/AP1971/19080912p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"This passage or its German counterpart is too short to compare (a heading or a fragment)."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}},{"passage_number":13,"locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p013","text":"Had nothing occurred other than man's descent into the physical world, consciousness between death and a new birth would have grown ever darker. Ultimately men would have entirely lost their connection with the spiritual world. Now, however singular it may appear to those who are only slightly infected with some form of materialism, what I am about to say is true. Had nothing else intervened in human evolution, mankind would have succumbed to spiritual death. But there is a possibility of illuminating the consciousness between death and a new birth, and this illumination can be achieved either through initiation or (to a lower degree) through man's participating in the spiritual world during this life, having experiences that do not die out with his bodies, but remain connected with the eternal core of his being, even in the spiritual world. This was the concern of the mysteries and of all spiritual development. It was the concern of the great initiates before Christ and, above all, of the Being whom we call Christ. All other initiates were in a certain sense forerunners of the Christ; they were harbingers who pointed to the coming of the Christ.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":194,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/106/1908-09-12/p013","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Norman MacBeth","identified_edition":"AP1971","book_title":"Egyptian Myths and Mysteries","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA106/English/AP1971/19080912p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 106/1908-09-12/p013"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}},{"passage_number":14,"locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p014","text":"The advent of the Christ-figure will now be described. Let us imagine a man who has never heard anything of the Christ, who has never been able to absorb the mysteries of the Gospel of John, who has never been able to say, “I will imitate the life and work of the Christ; I will try to take his precepts into my own being.” If we add that the Christ had never approached this man, he would not be able to take with him into the spiritual world the treasure that the man of today must take with him if he is to avoid the darkening of his consciousness. What man takes with him as a picture of Christ is a force that brightens the consciousness after death, that saves man from the fate that all men would have had if Christ had not appeared. If Christ had not appeared, the human essence would have been maintained, but the consciousness after death could not have been illuminated. This is what gives real meaning to the advent of the Christ, that something was embodied into the core of man's being that has a wide significance. The event of Golgotha preserves man from spiritual death if he makes it one with his own being.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":212,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/106/1908-09-12/p014","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Norman MacBeth","identified_edition":"AP1971","book_title":"Egyptian Myths and Mysteries","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA106/English/AP1971/19080912p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 106/1908-09-12/p014"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}},{"passage_number":15,"locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p015","text":"We should not think that the other great leaders of mankind did not have a similar significance. There is no question of claiming some exclusive dogma for Christianity. That would be an offense against true Christianity, for anyone acquainted with the facts knows that Christianity was also taught in the ancient mysteries. Such words as those of Augustine are profoundly true: “What is called the Christian religion today existed already among the ancients and was present with the beginnings of the human race. But when Christ appeared in the flesh the true religion, which was already in existence, received the name of Christian.” What is important is not the name, but that we rightly understand the significance of the Christ impulse. Christ was the figure that appeared at the lowest point in evolution, but Buddha, Hermes, and the other great beings were in complete possession of the prophetic consciousness that the Christ would come, that he lived in them.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":159,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/106/1908-09-12/p015","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Norman MacBeth","identified_edition":"AP1971","book_title":"Egyptian Myths and Mysteries","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA106/English/AP1971/19080912p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 106/1908-09-12/p015"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}],"witnesses":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":34,"passage_count":34,"word_count":5918},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":39,"passage_count":39,"word_count":5907,"completeness":{"ratio":1.0,"band":"comparable","note":null}}],"aligned_witness":{"status":"aligned","lang":"de","edition":"original","confidence":"high","passages":[{"locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p011","passage_number":11,"text":"Die Mysterien waren im wesentlichen dafür da, es dem Menschen möglich zu machen, daß er nicht nur ein schattenhaftes Bewußtsein in der geistigen Welt hatte, sondern das Bewußtsein wieder aufzuhellen. Denken wir uns, es hätte keine Mysterien gegeben, es wären keine Eingeweihten dagewesen. Dann würde der Mensch ein immer dämmerhafteres, immer schattenhafteres Bewußtsein gehabt haben in den geistigen Welten. Einzig dadurch, daß parallel mit der Verdunkelung des Bewußtseins im Devachan die Einweihung in die Mysterien ging, und damit die Aneignung gewisser Fähigkeiten, mit denen auserlesene Menschen schon hineinsahen in die geistigen Welten in heller Klarheit, einzig dadurch, daß die Eingeweihten in Mythen und Sagen darüber berichten konnten, ist sozusagen eine Schattierung von Hellerem, von Lichterem hineingekommen in das devachanische Bewußtsein zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Bei allen denjenigen aber, die sich schon so recht hineingefunden hatten in die physische Welt, war es so, daß sie schon empfunden haben dieses Abdämmern des Bewußtseins in der geistigen Welt, und es ist kein Märchen, es ist Wahrheit, daß der Eingeweihte in den eleusinischen Mysterien eine ganz besondere Erfahrung hat machen können. Das Einweihungsprinzip ist, daß der Mensch schon während des Lebens in die Welten des Geistes steigen und erfahren kann, was da vor sich geht. Der damalige Eingeweihte hat in der Tat unmittelbar von den Schatten in der geistigen Welt erfahren können. Es ist wirklich ein Ausspruch eines Eingeweihten, wenn es heißt: Oh, besser ein Bettler in der physischen Welt als ein König im Reiche der Schatten. Dieser Ausspruch ist aus den Erfahrungen der Eingeweihten heraus gesprochen. Solche Dinge können wir nicht tief genug nehmen, und wir verstehen sie erst dann, wenn wir die Tatsachen der geistigen Welt kennen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":277,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/106/1908-09-12/p011"},{"locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p012","passage_number":12,"text":"Jetzt wollen wir das, was gestern in abstrakter Form angedeutet worden ist, in eine konkretere Form bringen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":17,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/106/1908-09-12/p012"},{"locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p013","passage_number":13,"text":"Wäre nichts anderes eingetreten als das Heruntersteigen der Menschen in die physische Welt, immer dunkler wäre das Bewußtsein geworden zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Die Menschen hätten zuletzt den Zusammenschluß mit der geistigen Welt vollständig verloren. Nun mag es noch so sonderbar erscheinen demjenigen, der auch nur noch ein klein wenig angekränkelt ist im Inneren von irgendeiner Form des Materialismus, wahr ist es doch, was ich jetzt sagen werde. Wäre jetzt nichts eingetreten in der Entwickelung der Menschheit, dann wäre die Menschheit geistig dem Tode verfallen. Aber es ist eine Möglichkeit der Aufhellung des Bewußtseins zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt vorhanden, und diese Aufhellung kann entweder durch die Einweihung selbst errungen werden, oder heute schon in einem niedrigeren Grade dadurch, daß der Mensch schon in diesem Leben teilnimmt an der geistigen Welt, daß er schon Erlebnisse hat, die nicht mit seinen Leibern absterben, die mit ihm verbunden bleiben in seinem ewigen Wesenskern, auch in der geistigen Welt. Dafür sorgten nun die Mysterien, die ganze geistige Entwickelung, es sorgten dafür die großen Eingeweihten vor Christus und vor allem die Wesenheit selbst, die wir als Christus kennen. Alle anderen Eingeweihten waren in gewisser Weise Vorläufer des Christus, es waren Vorausgesandte, die auf das Erscheinen des Christus hinwiesen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":207,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/106/1908-09-12/p013"},{"locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p014","passage_number":14,"text":"Es soll die Erscheinung der Christus-Gestalt jetzt einmal geschildert werden. Denken wir uns einen Menschen, der nie etwas gehört hätte von dem Christus, welcher niemals die Geheimnisse des Johannes-Evangeliums in sich hätte aufnehmen können, der niemals sich hätte sagen können: Ich will dem Christus, der da lebt und wirkt, nachleben, seine Grundsätze will ich aufnehmen in meine Wesenheit. -— Denken wir uns also, der Christus wäre einem solchen niemals nahegetreten, er würde jenen Schatz nicht mit in die geistige Welt nehmen können, den der Mensch heute mitnehmen muß, wenn er die Verdunkelung seines Bewußtseins vermeiden will. Dasjenige, was der Mensch mitnimmt als Christus-Vorstellungen, das ist eine Kraft, die das Bewußtsein nach dem Tode hell macht, die den Menschen errettet vor dem Schicksal, das die Menschen gehabt hätten, wenn nicht Christus erschienen wäre. Wenn Christus nicht erschienen wäre, so würde das Menschenwesen zwar erhalten bleiben, aber das Bewußtsein würde sich nach dem Tode nicht erhellen können. Das ist dasjenige, was dem Auftreten des Christus die eigentliche Bedeutung gibt, daß dem Wesenskern des Menschen etwas einverleibt wird, was eine weite Bedeutung hat. Das Ereignis von Golgatha bewahrt den Menschen vor dem geistigen Tode, wenn er es mit seinem eigenen Wesen identifiziert.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":199,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/106/1908-09-12/p014"},{"locus":"GA 106/1908-09-12/p015","passage_number":15,"text":"Wir dürfen nun nicht glauben, daß die anderen großen Menschheitsführer nicht eine ähnliche Bedeutung hätten. Es handelt sich nicht darum, daß ein ausschließliches Dogma für das Christentum in Anspruch genommen werden soll. Das wäre ein Verstoß gegen das wahre Christentum, denn derjenige, der die Tatsachen kennt, der weiß, daß auch in den alten Mysterien das Christentum gelehrt worden ist. Und ein solches Wort, wie Augustinus es sprach, ist tief wahr: «Was man gegenwärtig die christliche Religion nennt, bestand schon bei den Alten und fehlte nicht in den Anfängen des Menschengeschlechtes, bis Christus im Fleische erschien, von wo an die wahre Religion, die schon vorher vorhanden war, den Namen der christlichen erhielt.» Es kommt nicht darauf an, daß man es so nennt, sondern daß man recht versteht die Bedeutung des Christus-Impulses. Und wie der Christus die Gestalt war, die auftrat beim tiefsten Punkt der Entwickelung, so war es auch bei Buddha, Hermes und den anderen großen Wesenheiten so, daß sie durchaus das prophetische Bewußtsein hatten, daß der Christus kommen werde, daß er in ihnen selber lebte.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":175,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/106/1908-09-12/p015"}],"beads":[{"from":[11],"to":[11],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed"},{"from":[12],"to":[12],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed"},{"from":[13],"to":[13],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed"},{"from":[14],"to":[14],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed"},{"from":[15],"to":[15],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed"}],"note":"Paired by the paragraph aligner; each language numbers its own paragraphs. A bead at either end of the span can carry text beyond it (the `from` numbers show what each bead covers)."}}