{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 68b/1906-11-30/p004","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Faust enters into a pact with the emissary of hell; Goethe took this motif, like the material of the Faust saga in general, from German legends. The fact that Faust, the representative of humanity striving for the highest, should sign over his soul with blood is already known in the oldest Faust books – as early as the sixteenth century. He has to cut his hand, dip the pen into the blood, write his name, and then the words are said to have appeared in the coagulated blood: “Man, escape” — and yet blood should be something that Mephisto could not stand? On the contrary, it must be something very precious to him; that is Goethe's opinion of this passage in his great poem. From the standpoint of spiritual research, we can approach the significance of blood for life by considering the question: What actually is this blood? — This question is not to be treated scientifically; from the standpoint of spiritual science, we can look more deeply into the nature of man. We see the undercurrent of this saying for the entire historical development of man, so that we can at least answer the question in a certain direction. In doing so, we want to start from a saying that comes from an ancient teacher of the Egyptian secret schools, Hermes Trismegistus:","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"42. Blood is a Very Special Fluid","site_heading":null,"date":"1906-11-30","location":null,"word_count":223,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/68b/1906-11-30/p004","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 Circular Flow of Man's Life within the World Of Sense, Soul And Spirit","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA068b/English/SOL2024/19061130p01.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/68b/1906-11-30/p004"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/68b/1906-11-30/p004","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"listeners_notes","scope":"volume","note":"Written from listeners' notes, summaries, or memory rather than a shorthand transcript. The wording is the note-taker's as much as Steiner's: weigh a single striking phrase here far more cautiously than the same phrase in a stenographic volume, and do not rest an argument on one word.","evidence":"Da keine professionellen Stenogramme vorliegen, handelt es sich oftmals um notizenhaft festgehaltene Zusammenfassungen oder Berichte.","evidence_translation":"Since no professional shorthand transcripts exist, these are often summaries or reports kept in the form of notes.","evidence_source":"The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 68b). The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 68b/1906-11-30/p004","passage_number":4,"text":"Faust soll einen Vertrag eingehen mit dem Sendboten der Hölle; dieses Motiv, wie der Stoff der Faust-Dichtung überhaupt, hat Goethe der deutschen Sagendichtung entnommen. Dass Faust, der Repräsentant der zum Höchsten strebenden Menschheit, seine Seele mit Blut verschreiben soll, ist schon in den ältesten Faustbüchern - schon um das sechzehnte Jahrhundert — bekannt. Er muss seine Hand aufritzen, die Feder in das Blut tauchen, seinen Namen schreiben, und da sollen in dem geronnenen Blute die Worte erschienen sein: «Mensch, entrinne» — und trotzdem sollte das Blut etwas sein, was Mephisto nicht hätte leiden können? Es muss ihm doch vielmehr etwas ganz Wertvolles sein; das ist Goethes Meinung dieser Stelle seiner großen Dichtung. Vom Standpunkt der Geistesforschung können wir der Bedeutung des Blutes für das Leben näherkommen, indem wir uns mit der Frage beschäftigen: Was ist eigentlich dieses Blut? — Diese Frage soll nicht naturwissenschaftlich behandelt werden; vom Standpunkt der Geisteswissenschaft können wir tiefer hineinschauen in das Wesen des Menschen. Wir sehen für die ganze geschichtliche Entwicklung des Menschen die Unterströmung dieses Spruches, sodass wir die Frage wenigstens in einer gewissen Richtung beantworten können. Dabei wollen wir ausgehen von einem Spruch, der von einem alten Lehrer der ägyptischen Geheimschulen, dem Hermes Trismegistos, stammt:","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":202,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/68b/1906-11-30/p004"}],"english":["GA 68b/1906-11-30/p004"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":202,"en_words":223,"ratio":1.1,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","anchors","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.09,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":2963,"original_word_count":2719,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Circular Flow of Man's Life within the World Of Sense, Soul And Spirit","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA068b/English/SOL2024/19061130p01.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 68b/1906-11-30/p004"],"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."}}