{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 68a/1907-12-14/p017","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Let us contrast this with the Gospel of John. This also takes as its starting point the beginning of our entire development. However, it does not begin where the Old Testament begins, but rather, in a certain way, before that. The Old Testament places the emergence of the material world, of what can be seen, of what is there for the outer senses, at the very beginning. “And God said, ‘Let there be light!’” (Genesis 1:3) The author of the Gospel of John takes us further back, to an even earlier time, to a point when nothing material yet existed, when only the spiritual was there: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God” (John 1:1), which is nothing other than the spiritual, of which all material things are the manifestation. He says: It is true that the visible world began as it is described in the Old Testament. But it was preceded by a spiritual world. All the laws that were lived out in that primeval beginning are expressed not in any individual, but in the common blood that connects him to the whole people. If we go back to the spirit that precedes this sensual beginning of the world, we also come to that in man which is exalted above all sensuality, above all national context and to that which is found in every human being, in every human individuality. If we put ourselves in the place of the Jew for the God principle, we find: He felt united with the father Abraham when he traced back the whole line of blood.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"35. The Gospel of John and the Future of Christianity","site_heading":null,"date":"1907-12-14","location":null,"word_count":268,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/68a/1907-12-14/p017","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA068a/English/SOL2024/19071214p01.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/68a/1907-12-14/p017"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/68a/1907-12-14/p017","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 68a/1907-12-14/p017","passage_number":17,"text":"Stellen wir dem gegenüber das Johannesevangelium. Auch das nimmt seinen Ausgangspunkt beim Beginn unserer ganzen Entwicklung. Es setzt aber nicht da ein, wo das Alte Testament einsetzt, sondern es setzt in einer gewissen Weise vorher ein. An den Urbeginn setzt das Alte Testament die Entstehung der sinnlichen Welt, dessen, was gesehen werden kann, was für die äußeren Sinne da ist. «Und Gott sprach: Es werde Licht!» (1 Mos 1,3) Der Schreiber des Johannesevangeliums versetzt uns weiter zurück, in eine Zeit, die noch früher war, zu einem Punkte, wo noch nichts Sinnliches war, wo nur das Geistige da war: «Im Urbeginne war das Wort und das Wort war bei Gott» (Joh 1,1), das ist nichts anderes als das Geistige, wovon alles Sinnliche die Offenbarung ist. Er sagt: Wahr ist es, die sichtbare Welt begann so, wie sie geschildert ist im Alten Testament. Aber ihr ging voran eine geistige Welt. Alle Gesetze, die sich auslebten in jenem Urbeginn, drücken sich aus in keinem Einzelnen, sondern im gemeinsamen Blut, das ihn mit dem ganzen Volke verbindet. Geht man bis zum Geiste, der diesem sinnlichen Weltenanfang vorausgeht, so kommt man auch zu dem im Menschen, was erhaben ist über alles Sinnliche, über allen Volkszusammenhang und bis zu dem, was sich in jedem Menschen findet, in jeder menschlichen Individualität. Wenn wir uns versetzen in die Empfindung des Juden für das Gottesprinzip, so finden wir: Er fühlte sich einig mit dem Vater Abraham, wenn er die ganze Blutslinie zurückverfolgte.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":243,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/68a/1907-12-14/p017"}],"english":["GA 68a/1907-12-14/p017"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":243,"en_words":268,"ratio":1.1,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","anchors","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 68a/1907-12-14/p017"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.06,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5065,"original_word_count":4785,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA068a/English/SOL2024/19071214p01.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 68a/1907-12-14/p017"],"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."}}