{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 123/1910-09-12_02/p025","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Let us suppose that the time is approaching when a sublime Being is to descend from spiritual realms in order again to give a stimulus to human evolution. Those who participate in the Mysteries must wait in expectation for this to happen; their task is to interpret the signs of the times. In calmness and patience, without ostentation, they must wait for a God to descend from heavenly heights and give an impetus to mankind. But it is also their task to observe humanity, to watch for a personality who can be directed and made fit to be the vehicle, the temple, for such a Being. If the Being who is to descend is very exalted, the personality who is to be the temple must be under guidance from earliest childhood. This actually happens, only it is not perceived. Later on, however, in accounts of the lives of such men, certain similar features become apparent. Even if there are differences in the external circumstances of their lives, a certain underlying similarity is evident. Looking back over history we find individuals here and there whose lives, even outwardly, have taken a somewhat similar course. There is no denying this and it has not escaped the notice of certain modern researchers. In current, though not very profound academic writings, tables of similarities in the biographies of such individuals are presented. Professor Jensen (of Marburg), for example, has collected similarities in the life-histories of Gilgamesh, Moses, Jesus, Paul. The tables set out certain comparable features in the lives of each of these individuals and are very convincing. No wonder the materialistic mind of to-day is taken aback by the remarkable similarities. Very naturally the conclusion drawn is that one myth was copied from another, that the writer of the life of Jesus copied from the life-history of Gilgamesh, that the life-history of Moses is nothing but a paraphrase of an ancient epic. And the final conclusion reached is that none of them—neither Moses, nor Jesus, nor Paul—existed as physical personalities! People usually have no inkling of the point to which materialistic interpretations are carried by research today.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture XII","site_heading":"Divine Beings Descending: Christ as the Greatest Avatar","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.","date":"1910-09-12","location":null,"word_count":354,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/123/1910-09-12_02/p025","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Dorothy S. Osmond and Mildred Kirkcaldy","identified_edition":"RSP1965","book_title":"The Gospel of St. Matthew (1965)","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA123/English/RSP1965/19100912p02.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/123/1910-09-12_02/p025"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/123/1910-09-12_02/p025","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},"other_renderings":{"loci":[{"locus":"GA 123/1910-09-12","ga":"123","lecture":"1910-09-12","kind":"renderings","relation":"another translation or transcription of the same lecture"}],"note":"The same lecture is also served at the loci listed, each with how it relates to this one. They are ONE witness, not independent attestations: quote the rendering you fetched, and do not cite another as corroborating it. Wording differs between translations, so a quotation found in one need not occur in the other."},"unit_kind":{"kind":"second_translation","base_unit":"GA 123/1910-09-12","note":"A second English translation of the same lecture as 1910-09-12. The German served under this id repeats the German of 1910-09-12: one German text, to be cited at 1910-09-12.","same_lecture_as":"GA 123/1910-09-12","german_repeats":"GA 123/1910-09-12"},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1910-09-12_02","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 123/1910-09-12_02/p021","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/123/1910-09-12_02/p021"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":411,"en_words":354,"ratio":0.86,"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 123/1910-09-12_02/p021","passage_number":21,"text":"Nehmen wir an, es kommt die Zeit, wo heruntersteigen soll ein höheres Wesen aus geistigen Sphären, um der Menschheit wieder einen Ruck vorwärts zu geben. Diejenigen, die in den Mysterien dienen, haben abzuwarten, wann ein solcher Zeitpunkt eintritt; sie haben ja die Aufgabe, die Zeichen der Zeit zu deuten. In aller Ruhe und Entsagung und ohne viel Aufhebens zu machen, haben sie abzuwarten den Zeitpunkt, wo ein Gott aus Himmelshöhen heruntersteigt, um der Menschheit einen Ruck vorwärts zu geben. Es ist aber auch ihre Aufgabe, achtzugeben auf die äußere Menschheit, damit sich irgendeine Persönlichkeit finde, die gelenkt und geleitet werden kann, damit sie geeignet ist, eine solche Wesenheit aufzunehmen. Wenn nun das Wesen, das heruntersteigen soll, ein ganz besonders hohes ist, so muß im Grunde genommen von der frühesten Kindheit an ein solcher Mensch geleitet werden, der der Tempel sein soll für ein solches Wesen. Das geschieht auch, nur merkt man es nicht. Nur hinterher, wenn man das Leben solcher Menschen beschreibt, findet man darin gewisse Regelmäßigkeiten. Wenn sich auch in bezug auf die Außenseite ihre Lebensverhältnisse in verschiedener Weise darstellen, so haben sie doch eine gewisse Gleichheit. Daher kann man angeben: Wenn wir den Blick zurückwenden in den Lauf der Menschheitsentwickelung, finden wir da und dort Wesenheiten, die einen gewissen gleichförmigen Gang selbst in bezug auf die äußere Biographie haben. Das ist gar nicht zu leugnen. Das ist auch den Forschern der neueren Zeit aufgefallen. Und Sie können in gebräuchlichen, aber nicht sehr tiefgründigen gelehrten Werken Tabellen finden über Ähnlichkeiten der Biographien solcher Persönlichkeiten. So können Sie zum Beispiel bei Professor Jensen, Marburg, zusammengestellt finden Ähnlichkeiten in bezug auf die Biographien des altbabylonischen Gilgamesch, des Moses, des Jesus, des Paulus. Da stellt er ganz hübsche Tabellen auf. Er nimmt gewisse Züge aus dem Leben jeder dieser Persönlichkeiten heraus — diese einzelnen Züge kann man ganz gut gegenüberstellen -, und es ergeben sich dabei ganz wunderbar merkwürdige Ähnlichkeiten, Ähnlichkeiten, vor denen wirklich unser materialistischer Sinn ganz verblüfft ist. Die Schlußfolgerung, die daraus gezogen ist, ist natürlich die, daß eine Mythe von der anderen abgeschrieben ist, daß der Schreiber des Jesuslebens abgeschrieben hat aus der Biographie des altbabylonischen Gilgamesch, daß die Moses-Biographie nur der Abklatsch eines alten Epos ist. Und die letzte Schlußfolgerung ist dann die, daß keiner von allen, weder Moses noch Jesus noch Paulus, als physische Persönlichkeit existiert habe! Gewöhnlich ahnen die Menschen gar nicht, wie weit heute die sogenannte Forschung ist in bezug auf diese materialistische Ausdeutung der Sache.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":411,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/123/1910-09-12_02/p021"}],"english":["GA 123/1910-09-12_02/p025"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":411,"en_words":354,"ratio":0.86,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.0,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10733,"original_word_count":10721,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Dorothy S. Osmond and Mildred Kirkcaldy","identified_edition":"RSP1965","book_title":"The Gospel of St. Matthew (1965)","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA123/English/RSP1965/19100912p02.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 123/1910-09-12_02/p021"],"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."}}