{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 127/1911-12-21/p005","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"In such a case one can clearly see, how the unconscious or subconscious reason or spirituality of man stands far, far higher than man with his consciousness can wholly compass. We have often reason to admire that which men have established in the past out of the hidden depths of the soul more than that which they have established out of their intellectual thoughts and understanding. How infinitely wise it appears to us, when we open the calendar, and for the 25th December we find registered the Birth-Festival of Christ Jesus, and then we see registered in the calender for the 24th December ‘Adam and Eve.’ It may be said: How clearly reasonable and spiritual it appears that out of the dim subconscious work of the Middle Ages, when Christmas plays were performed here or there about Christmas time by people from different places, when the ‘singers’ as they were called gathered for their Christmas plays, that the Paradise Tree should be brought forward. As in the calender ‘Adam and Eve’ appeared before the Christ Birthday Festival, so in the Christmas plays of the Middle Ages, the Tree of Paradise was brought forward by the troupe which took part in the performance of the Christmas plays. In short, there was something in the deep hidden soul-depths of men which caused them to place directly together the earthly beginning of humanity and the Jesus Birth Festival. In the year 353, even in ecclesiastical Rome, the 25th December was not kept as the Festival of the Birthday of Jesus. Only in 354 the Jesus Birthday Festival was celebrated for the first time in ecclesiastical Rome. Previous to this, there was a festival which brought to men a consciousness similar to the Jesus Birth Festival, namely, the 6th January, the day of remembrance of the Baptism by John in Jordan, the day which was commemorative of the Descent of the Christ from the spiritual heights, and the Self-immersion of the Christ into the body of Jesus of Nazareth. That was originally the Birth of the Christ in Jesus, the remembrance of the great historical moment which is symbolically presented to us as the hovering dove over the head of Jesus of Nazareth. The 6th January was the commemorative day of the birth of the Christ in Jesus of Nazareth. In the fourth century, however, it had for a long time been impossible for the self-assertive materialistic philosophy of the West to understand the penetration of Jesus with the Christ. Like a powerful fight this thought with instantaneous illumination was present to the Gnostics, who were in a certain respect contemporaries or direct followers of the Event of Golgotha. They were in the position of finding it unnecessary to seek the depth of this wisdom of the ‘Christ’ in ‘Jesus’ as we have to seek this wisdom again through modern clairvoyance. The Gnostics were able, by means of the last flickering of those old, original human clairvoyant powers to see, as it were, in the light of grace that which we must acquire again for ourselves concerning the great secrets of Golgotha. Much was clear to the Gnostics which we have to acquire again, for example, in particular, the secret of the birth of Christ in Jesus at the Baptism by John in Jordan.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"8. Christmas: A Festival of Inspiration","site_heading":null,"date":"1911-12-21","location":null,"word_count":550,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/127/1911-12-21/p005","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"Festivals of the Seasons","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Festivals/19111221f01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"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/127/1911-12-21/p005"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/127/1911-12-21/p005","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":"1911-12-21","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 127/1911-12-21/p006","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/127/1911-12-21/p006"},{"locus":"GA 127/1911-12-21/p007","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/127/1911-12-21/p007"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":512,"en_words":550,"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 127/1911-12-21/p006","passage_number":6,"text":"Bei einer solchen Gelegenheit kann man so recht sehen, wie die unbewußte oder die unterbewußte Vernunft und Geistigkeit der Menschen weit, weit höher steht als das, was der Mensch mit seinem Bewußtsein dann umschließen kann. Wir haben oftmals Grund, dasjenige, was die Menschen aus den verborgenen Seelentiefen in der Vergangenheit festgesetzt haben, viel mehr zu bewundern als das, was sie festsetzten aus ihren verstandesmäßigen Gedanken und aus dem, was sie begrifflich erfassen konnten. Wie unendlich weise erscheint es uns, wenn wir den Kalender aufmachen und für den 25. Dezember verzeichnet finden das Geburtsfest des Christus Jesus und dann im Kalender verzeichnet sehen für den 24.Dezember «Adam und Eva». Man möchte sagen: Anschaulich, vernünftig, geistig konnte einem das vor Augen treten aus dem dumpfen, unterbewußten Schaffen im Mittelalter, wenn da oder dort gegen die Weihnachtszeit die mittelalterlichen Weihnachtsspiele von Leuten dieser oder jener Orte aufgeführt werden sollten. Wenn, wie man sie nannte, die «Singer» zu ihren Weihnachtsspielen zogen, da wurde vorangetragen der «Paradiesbaum». Wie im Kalender «Adam und Eva» vor dem Christ-Geburtstagsfest erschien, so erschien in den mittelalterlichen Weihnachtsspielen der Baum des Paradieses vorangetragen der Truppe, welche zur Aufführung dieser Weihnachtsspiele schritt. Kurz also, es gab einmal etwas, was die tiefen, verborgenen Seelenuntergründe der Menschen veranlaßte, irdischen Menschenanfang und Jesu-Geburtsfest unmittelbar zusammenzustellen. Im Jahre 353 gab es selbst im kirchlichen Rom noch nicht den 25. Dezember als Jesu-Geburtstagsfest. Denn 354 wurde zum ersten Male auch im kirchlichen Rom das Jesu-Geburtstagsfest am 25. Dezember gefeiert. Vorher wurde etwas gefeiert, bei dem man ein ähnliches Bewußtsein hatte wie später an dem Jesu-Geburtstagsfest, nämlich der 6. Januar als der Tag der Erinnerung der Johannestaufe im Jordan, als der Tag, welcher der Gedenktag war des Herunterkommens des Christus aus den spirituellen Höhen und des Sich-Versenkens des Christus in den Leib des Jesus von Nazareth. Das war ursprünglich die Geburt des Christus in dem Jesus, die Erinnerung an den großen geschichtlichen Augenblick, der uns symbolisch dargestellt wird durch das Weilen der Taube über dem Haupt des Jesus von Nazareth. Der 6. Januar war der Erinnerungstag an die Geburt des Christus in dem Jesus von Nazareth.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":349,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/127/1911-12-21/p006"},{"locus":"GA 127/1911-12-21/p007","passage_number":7,"text":"Aber im 4. Jahrhundert war eigentlich für die sich ankündigende materialistische Weltanschauung des Abendlandes längst die Möglichkeit dahin, den großen Gedanken der Durchdringung des Jesus mit dem Christus zu verstehen. Wie ein gewaltiges Licht war zu kurzer Aufklärung dieser Gedanke vorhanden bei den Gnostikern, die in gewisser Beziehung Zeitgenossen oder unmittelbare Nachfolger des Ereignisses von Golgatha waren und in der Lage waren, daß sie die Tiefe dieser Weisheit von dem «Christus in dem Jesus» nicht in der Weise suchen mußten, wie wir durch das moderne Hellsehen diese Weisheit wieder suchen müssen, sondern bei den Gnostikern war es so, daß sie durch das letzte Aufflackern gerade alter, ursprünglicher menschlicher hellseherischer Kräfte das wie im Gnadenlichte geschaut haben, was wir uns wieder erobern müssen über die großen Geheimnisse von Golgatha. Da leuchtete so manches bei den Gnostikern auf, was wir uns wieder erobern müssen, so zum Beispiel besonders das Geheimnis von dem Geborenwerden des Christus in dem Jesus von Nazareth bei der Johannestaufe im Jordan.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":163,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/127/1911-12-21/p007"}],"english":["GA 127/1911-12-21/p005"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":512,"en_words":550,"ratio":1.07,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.04,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":3413,"original_word_count":3277,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"Festivals of the Seasons","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Festivals/19111221f01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 127/1911-12-21/p006","GA 127/1911-12-21/p007"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","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."}}