Egypt, Page 3

Egypt’s first appearance in the Bible (Gen 10,6) is as the name of Ham’s second son. We note that Noah was the tenth generation starting with Adam (Gen 5).⁹ Adam’s son Abel apparently died without issue (Gen 4), and nothing further is said about Cain after Gen 4, save in Heb 11,4; 1 Jn 3,12 and Jude 1,11 (but see fn 9). Adam’s only son said to have had issue was Seth (Gen 5). All three of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, had issue (Gen 10), but Ham is our particular concern here. Recall that Ham had seen his father’s “Nakedness” (Gen 9,22; see “Naked”), thus probably indicating a predominant tendency toward atavistic clairvoyance. Ham is said to have had four sons, Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan (Gen 10,6). Strangely, Put is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible. Ham’s other three sons had issue, and it is most noteworthy that the three predominant Old Testament civilizations aside from Israel (the Shemites) come from these, namely, the Babylonians (and Assyrians) from Cush, the Egyptians (and Philistines) from Egypt, and the Canaanites (including Sodom and Gomorrah) from Canaan. Also otherwise peculiar is that Noah blessed his two sons Shem and Japheth, but said nothing about Ham, instead cursing one (only) of his sons, Canaan (Gen 9,22-27). The Babylonians, the Egyptians, and the Canaanites would have had an atavistic clairvoyance, and Israel was in turn held “captive” by, and absorbed much for its growth from, the first two, but it was to take over only the land of the cursed Canaan. The rich seeds of allegorical and evolutionary truth can thus readily be seen in these unfolding lineages. See the discussion of Gen 10 in “Three Bodies” (as well as of the controversy over “wells” in #27 thereof).

It is noteworthy that Moses killed the Egyptian (Ex 2,12), and David killed the Philistine giant, Goliath (also of Egypt’s lineage), by stoning him on the “Forehead” then cutting off his head (1 Sam 17,49-51). Thus each of these two outstanding leaders of Israel got his start by “killing” the Egyptian element. And in David’s case, the deed is particularized right down to the “Forehead,” which the stone “sank into,” thus getting right to the locus of the pineal gland, the seat of both the ancient and future clairvoyant center¹⁰—the point of which seems to be killing the ancient to move forward to the future. And thus began the Davidic line from which the Messiah was to come.

The threefold “sister ruse” used by Abraham and Isaac (Gen 12; 20 and 26) has long troubled traditional theology. Its seeming immorality has been variously rationalized, and its redundancy has lured seekers down variant pathways of documentary hypotheses and critical analyses. But it is as Abraham said (Gen 20,12), “Besides she is indeed my sister.” How could this be? The etheric body is always of the opposite sex from the physical body, and is what gives the physical body life (being also known as the “life body”). It was necessary for the etheric body to gain the benefits of the ancient spiritual insights, thus to dwell to some extent with the Egyptian (or Philistine) heritage, out of fear that otherwise it would cost the physical body its “life,” i.e., its “life” mission. But in each case, after some degree of availability to the ancient influence, it was to return, and with a dramatic enhancement of benefits from the venture. In the first instance (Gen 12) the “sister” is actually taken by Pharaoh for his wife; in the second (Gen 20) the Philistine Abimelech was warned by God in a dream and thus did not approach her; and in the third (Gen 26) it was not even Abimelech who was attracted to her but some of his underlings whom he himself warned off after seeing Isaac fondling her. This declining involvement illustrates how the outside influence upon the “sister” etheric body is attenuated as its impact moves from working directly on the etheric body to having to work on the etheric body secondarily through the younger astral body and finally through the still younger and more remote Ego. The inherent immorality in the ruse itself is a strong hint to the alert seeker, as in Abraham’s child sacrifice, that something much deeper than its surface meaning is intended. Anthroposophical insight now brings understanding not often previously to be “found.”

From these beginnings, the Biblical story is replete with Egyptian involvement, and if we are to understand its significance, we must comprehend these beginnings and weave the threads of such insight into the developing picture. In doing so, we must remember the great spiritual law of reflection. Metaphorically, it can be imaged as a pathway out and back such that it must be travelled in reverse on the return journey (see I-1 through I-3, and especially I-71). The human being, the Prodigal Son, came through Egypt in the third segment of its sevenfold journey through the first post-Atlantean Epoch. The Christ incarnated at the far point of the journey, in the fourth segment, the Greco-Roman, and we are now retracing the third in the present fifth Cultural Era. Understandably much had to be said about Egypt in the Bible, which helps to nurture us on our Way. The atavistic clairvoyance, though fading in Egypt, must be transformed through the Christ “in” us into that spiritual “seeing” toward which the redeemed must move. Our new organ of spiritual perception, when Christ-enabled, will gradually permit more and more of the redeemed to “Witness” him in his “Second Coming.”

The final Biblical usage of Egypt is appropriately found in Rev 11,8, where the Temple is to be measured (Rev 11,1). It is in connection with that measurement that we are then told of the two “Witness(es),” Elijah and Moses, who make their “Three Days’ Journey” (Rev 11,9), respectively, through what is “allegorically [spiritually] called Sodom and Egypt,” the two main branches of Biblical involvement with the sons of Ham. The long journey through the mineral-physical world, the “flesh,” is then nearing its end. Soon thereafter “the last ‘Trumpet’” is to be blown. It is critical, if we are to effectively follow the Christ lead, that we come to comprehend the Way.

Steiner often spoke of the last decade of this millennium as being immensely critical from the standpoint of the spiritual evolution of humanity, from both the good and evil perspectives. From the “good,” one is struck by the fact that in 1993, a meaningful seven years before the decade’s expiration, an event occurred of immense significance for enhancing Biblical understanding. In that year complete and unabridged works of Philo (Philo Judeas, ca. 20 B.C. –ca. A.D. 50, “Philo of Alexandria”) were, for the first time, published in English in a single, popularly priced volume (see Philo [PHILO] in the Bibliography). His general importance has long been recognized as a background for Christian literature, but any recognition by Biblical commentaries or critics of its full significance has escaped my attention.

We have seen above the spiritual law of “reflection” by which humanity in the present fifth Cultural Era must retrace, and transform, that which it passed through in the third (Egypt). Steiner has pointed out one of the principle negative aspects of the Egyptian Era that must now be reversed, namely, the fascination with death and the emphasis upon and preservation of the physical body. Nowhere was this more pointedly illustrated than in the process of mummification. And eerily the excavated remains of those mummies have recently fascinated vast throngs as they have been displayed with great fanfare on worldwide tour. The escalating cost of disposing of human remains is tied to our fascination with the decaying mineral body that the Ego, the burning “Bush,” must necessarily abandon forever so that it can “return to dust” (Gen 2,7 and 3,19). Typically, today one tries to remember the “personality” that lived in a given incarnation, oblivious of the need to look to it only in searching for the reality of the eternal Individuality of which the former was merely a partial representation. We are still deceived by the Egyptian-like attraction to “maya,” the “flesh.” This is the negative we must overcome if we are to experience the overcoming of “Death” represented by the Risen Christ.

Thus, we come to Philo (of Alexandria, the leading Egyptian city founded by Aristotle’s student Alexander in the Greek Era) at this critical time, for in him we see reflected the positive aspect of Egypt as it was itself evolving during the fourth Era. That positive aspect is Philo’s wisdom in seeing the allegorical nature of the ancient, clairvoyantly perceived Mosaic scriptures. Once again it can be said, “Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Mt 2,15; Hos 11,1) in repetition and fulfillment of the pattern started by Abraham. How marvelous that the works of Philo have become widely available as a part of the flame of spiritual awakening fanned by Steiner.

Three writers in the Bible specifically utilize “allegories,”¹¹ namely, Ezekiel (Ezek 17,2; 20,49; 24,3), Paul (Gal 4,24; cf. 1 Cor 10,1-4), and Lazarus/John (Rev 11,8). The latter two can be seen to have been not only totally compatible with, but also probably strongly influenced by, Philo in this respect. Notably Ezekiel looked back upon the just ended Egyptian Era and spoke of “dry bones” (Ezek 37) in the “valley” (37,1-2) which the “spirit” (37,5-6) would one day enter, when the two kingdoms would become one (37,19; see also “The Nativity” on when the two become one), which will occur on the “Mountain(s)” (Ezek 37,22). The entirety of Chapter 37 is an allegory of great beauty in the light of Steiner’s teachings. It was in the fourth Era when the Christ came, but it is in the present fifth Era when we must retrace the steps of the third on our journey back home to the spirit (i.e., Father) whence we came. To do so, we must come to see “the way.” We must come to an anthroposophical understanding of the burning “Bush” to know with assurance what we are searching for, namely, to know ourselves, our entelechies or Individualities (rather than simply our one-lived earthly personalities), as “sons of God.” When we come thus to know ourselves, we shall then walk as servants from life to life without death (of our consciousness) intervening— we shall have overcome death. Then only can we rejoice as sacrificial servants rather than as beings of status and privilege. Then only can we meaningfully erase the decaying, and increasingly putrefying, distinctions of sex, race and creed. Then only can Christianity rise above being simply one of the world’s divisive religions and take its rightful place as the one and only path of humanity’s salvation (Jn 14,6), from which the “elect” can be gathered (see “East, West, North & South”).

Let us now look more closely at the evidence pointing to Philo’s influence with the original Apostolic group and Evangelists and his status as a “Christian.”