{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 112/1909-06-25/p013","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"And now men had to overcome, step by step, the obstacles placed in their path by their earth life. What is the nature of these obstacles? The aspect of evolution essential for mankind was the need for the Gods to remain spiritual, while men, as their descendants, became physical. All the obstacles presented specifically by physical existence had to be surmounted by man, who possessed spirit only as the inner phase of the physical, and who as an outer being had become physical. It was within the confines of material existence that he had to develop; and it was in this way that he progressed upward step by step, steadily maturing until he should become increasingly able to turn to the Gods in whom he had his genesis. A descent from the Gods, and then a turning back to them, in order to reach and re-unite with them, that is man's path through life on earth. But if this evolution was to come about, certain human individualities always had to develop more rapidly than the rest, to hurry on ahead in order to become their leaders and teachers. Such men, then, have their being in humanity's midst and find their way back to the Gods, as it were, in advance of others. We can picture it in this way: In a given epoch men have attained to a certain degree of maturity in their development. They may have the premonition of a return to the Gods, but they have a long way to go before achieving it. Every man has within him a spark of the divine, but in the leaders it is always brighter: they are closer to that divine principle to which man must ultimately attain again. And this that dwells in the leaders of mankind is perceived, by those whose eyes have been opened to the spirit, as their essence and chief attribute.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"2. Living Spiritual History","site_heading":null,"date":"1909-06-25","location":null,"word_count":316,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/112/1909-06-25/p013","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Samuel and Loni Lockwood","identified_edition":"AP1948","book_title":"The Gospel of St. John","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA112/English/AP1948/19090625p02.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"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/112/1909-06-25/p013"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/112/1909-06-25/p013","paragraph_aligned":true}],"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},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1909-06-25","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 112/1909-06-25/p013","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/112/1909-06-25/p013"},{"locus":"GA 112/1909-06-25/p014","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/112/1909-06-25/p014"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":296,"en_words":316,"ratio":1.07,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 112/1909-06-25/p013","passage_number":13,"text":"Und nun mußten die Menschen von Stufe zu Stufe jene Hindernisse überwinden, die das Erdenleben bewirkte. Was sind das für Hindernisse?","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":21,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/112/1909-06-25/p013"},{"locus":"GA 112/1909-06-25/p014","passage_number":14,"text":"Das ist ja das Wesentliche für den Menschen, daß die Götter geistig geblieben sind, und die Menschen als ihre Nachkommen physisch geworden sind. Der Mensch, der das Geistige nur als das Innerliche des Physischen hatte und als äußeres Wesen physisch geworden war, mußte alle die Hindernisse, die eben das physische Dasein gab, überwinden. Innerhalb des materiellen Daseins mußte er sich weiterbilden. Dadurch entwickelte er sich von Stufe zu Stufe herauf, wurde immer reifer und reifer, und dadurch wurde es ihm immer mehr und mehr möglich, sich hinaufzuwenden zu den Göttern, aus deren Schoß er herausgeboren ist. Also ein Heruntersteigen von den Göttern und ein Sich-wieder-Hinaufwenden zu den Göttern, um die Götter nach und nach wieder zu erreichen und sich wieder mit ihnen zu vereinigen, das ist der Weg des Menschen durch das Erdenleben. Damit der Mensch aber diese Entwickelung durchmachen konnte, mußten einzelne menschliche Individualitäten immer etwas schneller als die andern sich entwickeln, den andern voraneilen, um deren Führer und Lehrer zu werden. Solche Führer und Lehrer stehen dann innerhalb der übrigen Menschheit und finden sozusagen den Weg zu den Göttern früher zurück als die andern. So daß wir uns vorstellen können: In einem bestimmten Zeitalter haben die Menschen eine gewisse Entwickelungsreife erlangt; da ahnen sie vielleicht nur den Rückweg zu den Göttern, aber haben es noch weit bis dahin. Es ist ein Funke dieses Göttlichen in dem Menschen, aber in den Führern ist jeweilig mehr vorhanden. Sie stehen näher dem Göttlichen, das der Mensch wieder erreichen soll. Und das, was in diesen Führern der Menschheit lebt, das erblickt derjenige, dessen Auge für das Geistige geöffnet ist, als das Wesentliche und die Hauptsache an ihnen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":275,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/112/1909-06-25/p014"}],"english":["GA 112/1909-06-25/p013"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":296,"en_words":316,"ratio":1.07,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.99,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6326,"original_word_count":6406,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Samuel and Loni Lockwood","identified_edition":"AP1948","book_title":"The Gospel of St. John","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA112/English/AP1948/19090625p02.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 112/1909-06-25/p013","GA 112/1909-06-25/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."}}