XLV. Occult Research on the Gospels

GA 90a/1904-07-18/p012 ·1904-07-18 · English MediumMedium alignmentSome paragraph re-numbering between this translation and the German original — the locus may slip by a paragraph or two.
Record: listeners' notes. 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: «Frühe Vortragsreihen und Einzelvorträge für Mitglieder in Berlin 1903–1904 nach ausführlichen und z.T. fragmentarischen Mitschriften.» (Early lecture series and single lectures for members in Berlin 1903-1904, from detailed and in part fragmentary listeners' transcripts.). The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 90a); the description calls them "Hörermitschriften", and the served text carries the note-taker's gap marker "[Lücke in der Mitschrift]". The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.

The gospels are all written in or with a certain secret language. They are written in such a way that they can be understood by the most simple-minded people, but there is no degree of understanding, however high, that could not find ever deeper and deeper truths in them. Those who know what a mundane word actually means in the secret language can unravel the secret meaning of the Gospels. If you just read what is at the beginning of what we call the Sermon on the Mount, you will find that it says something very general: He sat down on a mountain and opened his mouth and spoke to his disciples. He did not speak to the people, he went away with the disciples and spoke to them. The initiate understands this immediately because he knows that the words “going up the mountain” have a certain meaning. It means going into the interior of a sanctuary, where secret teachings are received, so that nothing more is said with these lines than: Jesus saw that something had to be taught to the people; so he led the disciples into a temple and explained to them what was to be handed down to the people. In ancient traditions, every disciple learned what these words have meant since time immemorial. You can go through the religious books of all times and you will always find the meaning of these words “to go up the mountain”. It is necessary to really understand this language in order to learn the occult.

Read this passage in another edition
DEoriginalENEnglish
Raw JSON: /v1/steiner/en/ga/90a/1904-07-18/p012.json
Cite: GA 90a/1904-07-18/p012 · edition English