{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 52/1904-01-04/p026","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Christ could not always express what he meant openly. You all know the saying: before the people he spoke in parables, but when he was with his disciples, he explained these parables to them. — Where did this intention of the founder of Christianity to speak two languages, so to speak, come from? A simple comparison can tell us where it came from. If you need an object, a table, for example, you don't go to just anyone, but to someone who knows how to make a table. And when they have made it, you don't presume to say that you made the table yourself. You calmly admit that you are a layman when it comes to table-making. But people do not want to admit that one can also be a layman in relation to the highest things that exist, that the simple mind, which is, so to speak, in a natural state, must first climb to the highest heights. From this arose the longing to bring this highest truth down to the level of common sense. But just as we, as laymen in table-making, know when a table is good and how to put it to use, so we know, when we have heard the truth, whether it speaks to our hearts, whether our hearts can use it. But we must not presume to want to produce knowledge ourselves out of the mere heart, out of simple human understanding. From this view arose the distinction that was always made in ancient times between priests and lay people. In ancient times, we are dealing with priestly wisdom and with highest truths that were not proclaimed out on the streets, but inside the mystery temples.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"IV. Theosophy and Christianity","site_heading":null,"date":"1904-01-04","location":null,"word_count":284,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/52/1904-01-04/p026","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Spiritual Teachings Concerning the Soul","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA052/English/SOL2025/19040104p01.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/52/1904-01-04/p026"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/52/1904-01-04/p026","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},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 52/1904-01-04/p026","passage_number":26,"text":"Was Christus meinte, das konnte er nicht immer unumwunden aussprechen. Sie alle kennen das Wort: Vor dem Volke sprach er in Gleichnissen, wenn er aber mit den Jüngern zusammen war, da legte er ihnen diese Gleichnisse aus. — Woraus entsprang diese Absicht des Stifters des Christentums, sozusagen zwei Sprachen zu sprechen? Die einfache Vergleichung kann es uns sagen, woraus das entspringt. Wenn Sie irgendeinen Gegenstand, einen Tisch brauchen, dann gehen Sie nicht zu jedem beliebigen Menschen, sondern zu demjenigen, der versteht, einen Tisch zu machen. Und wenn dieser ihn gemacht hat, dann maßen Sie sich nicht an, den Tisch selbst gemacht zu haben. Sie gestehen ruhig zu, ein Laie zu sein im Tischemachen. Das aber wollen die Menschen nicht zugestehen, daß man auch ein Laie sein kann in bezug auf die höchsten Dinge, die es gibt, daß der schlichte Verstand, der sozusagen im Naturzustande ist, die höchsten Höhen erst erklimmen muß. Daraus ist.die Sehnsucht entsprungen, herunterzuziehen diese höchste Wahrheit auf das Niveau des allgemeinen Menschenverstandes. Aber ebenso wie wir als Laien im Tischemachen wissen, wenn ein Tisch gut ist, wie wir ihn in unseren Dienst zu stellen haben, so wissen wir, wenn wir das Wahre gehört haben, ob es zu unseren Herzen spricht, ob unser Herz es gebrauchen kann. Aber wir müssen uns nicht anmaßen, aus dem bloßen Herzen, aus dem schlichten Menschenverstande heraus auch selbst die Erkenntnis erzeugen zu wollen. Aus dieser Anschauung ist die Unterscheidung entsprungen, die in alten Zeiten immerdar gemacht worden ist zwischen Priestern und Laien. Mit Priesterweisen haben wir es in alten Zeiten zu tun, und mit höchsten Wahrheiten, die nicht draußen auf den Straßen verkündert wurden, sondern drinnen in den Mysterientempeln.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":277,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/52/1904-01-04/p026"}],"english":["GA 52/1904-01-04/p026"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":277,"en_words":284,"ratio":1.03,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.02,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":7261,"original_word_count":7118,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Spiritual Teachings Concerning the Soul","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA052/English/SOL2025/19040104p01.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 52/1904-01-04/p026"],"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. 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