{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 155/1912-05-23/p007","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"An extremely interesting legend of Hebrew antiquity tells us that in those old Hebrew times there was a consciousness that this anxious question which we formulated as to the meaning of life, and especially as to the meaning of man, occurs not only to man, but to beings quite other than man. This legend is extremely instructive and runs as follows:—When the Elohim were about to create man after their own image and likeness, the so-called ministering angels, certain spiritual beings of a lower grade than the Elohim themselves, asked Jahve or Jehovah: “Why is man to be made in the image and likeness of God!” Then Jehovah collected—so continues the legend—the animals and the plants which could already spring forth on earth before man was there in his earthly form, and He gathered together the angels also, the so-called ministering angels—those who immediately served Him. To those He showed the animals and plants and asked them what they were called, what were their names? But the Angels did not know the names of the animals and plants. Then man was created, as he was before the Fall. And again Jehovah gathered around him Angels, animals and plants, and in the presence of the Angels he asked man what the animals whom He made to pass by in succession before man’s eyes, were called, what their names were. And behold! Man was able to answer: “This animal has this name, that animal has that, this plant has this name, that plant has that,” Then Jehovah asked man: “And what is thine own name?” And man said: “I must be called Adam.” (Adam is related to Adama, and means: “Out of the earth: earth-being”). Jehovah then asked man: “And what am I myself to be called?” “Thou shalt be called Adonai,” man replied, “Thou art the Lord of all created beings of the earth.” The Angels now began to have an idea of the meaning of man’s existence on the earth. Though religious tradition and religious writings often express the most important riddle of life in the simplest way, there are many difficulties in understanding them, because we have to get behind their simplicity. We must first penetrate into the meaning behind them. If we succeed in this, great wisdom and deep knowledge are revealed. It may well be so with this legend, which we shall just keep in mind for a moment, for these two lectures will give us, in some sort, an answer to the question which it contains.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture I","site_heading":"Life's Meaning Through Spiritual Science and Reincarnation","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":"1912-05-23","location":null,"word_count":420,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/155/1912-05-23/p007","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"RSPC1946","book_title":"On the Meaning of Life","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA155/English/RSPC1946/19120523p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"source_says_translator_unknown","note":"The source page itself says the translator is unknown. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"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/155/1912-05-23/p007"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/155/1912-05-23/p007","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":"1912-05-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 155/1912-05-23/p007","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/155/1912-05-23/p007"},{"locus":"GA 155/1912-05-23/p008","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/155/1912-05-23/p008"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":447,"en_words":420,"ratio":0.94,"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 155/1912-05-23/p007","passage_number":7,"text":"Eine außerordentlich interessante Legende des hebräischen Altertums sagt uns, daß in diesem hebräischen Altertum ein Bewußtsein vorhanden war, daß diese bange Frage, die wir aufgeworfen haben über den Sinn des Lebens und namentlich über den Sinn des Menschen, eigentlich nicht nur den Menschen, sondern noch ganz anderen Wesen aufgeht. Diese Legende ist außerordentlich lehrreich und heißt so: Als die Elohim daran gehen wollten, den Menschen zu schaffen nach ihrem Bilde und Gleichnisse, da fragten die sogenannten Dienst-Engel der Elohim, also gewisse Geister von niedrigerer Art, als die Elohim selber sind, den Jahve oder Jehova: Warum sollen die Menschen nach dem Bilde und Gleichnisse des Gottes geschaffen werden? Da versammelte, so geht die Legende weiter, Jahve die Tiere und die Pflanzen, die hervorsprießen konnten schon zu einer Zeit, bevor noch der Mensch in seiner Erdengestalt vorhanden war, und dann versammelte Jahve oder Jehova auch die Engel, die sogenannten Dienst-Engel, das heißt diejenigen, die unmittelbar den Dienst bei Jahve oder Jehova verrichteten. Er zeigte diesen nun die Tiere und auch die Pflanzen und fragte sie, wie denn diese Pflanzen und diese Tiere heißen, was sie für Namen haben. Die Engel wußten nicht die Namen der Tiere und die Namen der Pflanzen. Da wurde geschaffen der Mensch so, wie er war vor dem Sündenfalle. Und wieder versammelte Jehova oder Jahve die Engel, die Tiere und die Pflanzen und fragte darauf vor den Engeln den Menschen, wie die Tiere, die er der Reihe nach vor dem Blicke des Menschen vorbeigehen ließ, hießen, welche Namen sie hätten, und siehe da, der Mensch konnte antworten: Dieses Tier trägt diesen Namen, jenes Tier jenen, diese Pflanze hat diesen Namen, jene Pflanze hat jenen. Und dann fragte Jehova den Menschen: Welches ist dein eigener Name? Da sagte der Mensch: Ich muß eigentlich Adam heißen. — Adam hängt zusammen mit Adama und heißt: aus Erdenschlamm, Erdenwesen; so ist Adam zu übersetzen. — Und wie soll ich selber heißen ? fragte dann Jehova den Menschen. Du sollst heißen Adonai, du bist der Herr aller auf der Erde geschaffenen Wesen, antwortete der Mensch, und die Engel hatten nun eine Ahnung, welcher Sinn verbunden war mit dem menschlichen Dasein auf Erden.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":359,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/155/1912-05-23/p007"},{"locus":"GA 155/1912-05-23/p008","passage_number":8,"text":"Religiöse Überlieferungen und religiöse Ausdrücke stellen die wichtigsten Lebensrätsel oft sehr einfach dar, aber die Sache ist deshalb doch schwierig, weil wir erst hinter ihre Einfachheit kommen müssen, weil wir erst einsehen müssen, was dahintersteckt. Gelingt uns dies, dann enthüllen sich uns große Weistümer, dann enthüllt sich uns ein tiefes Wissen. So wird es wohl auch bei dieser Legende sein, die wir zunächst nur vor uns hinstellen wollen, denn die beiden Vorträge werden uns eine Art von Antwort auf die für uns in dieser Legende liegenden Fragen geben.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":88,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/155/1912-05-23/p008"}],"english":["GA 155/1912-05-23/p007"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":447,"en_words":420,"ratio":0.94,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.97,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":8157,"original_word_count":8442,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"RSPC1946","book_title":"On the Meaning of Life","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA155/English/RSPC1946/19120523p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"source_says_translator_unknown","note":"The source page itself says the translator is unknown. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing.","warning":"No translator is recorded for this edition. An unattributed translation cannot be weighed as a witness: you cannot tell which hand made the choices in it. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 155/1912-05-23/p007","GA 155/1912-05-23/p008"],"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."}}