I AM, Page 5

The reader must understand the extreme nature of the stricture any writing of this high level must endure. So extensive is the revelation both of scripture and of Steiner’s teachings that one must enter into them long-term to gather their ever-increasing fruit. Each new insight adds gloss to every other. The character of the “I Am” or Ego pervades each such area. It is noteworthy that in the first series of Steiner’s Gospel lectures, The Gospel of St. John (GSJ), the sixth chapter is entitled, “The ‘I Am’.” As magnificent and essential as it is, it can only scope a small segment of the larger picture. It opens with the passage in Jn 3,3-5, moves through the creative process of the human being’s three bodies and Ego, and then expounds the meaning of the terms “son of man,” “serpent,” “manas” (Manna) and “buddhi.” Steiner himself did not, to my knowledge, ever attempt to point out all the Biblical usages of the term “I Am.” The range of revelation he had to pack within his one lifetime precluded total exposition in any one area or discipline; it remained to those who caught up his spirit to carry it further, and this he constantly urged as being demanded of us in our time. But he always gave the necessary tools for that task. It is with these that we look further below (but this is not to claim that he did not point, implicitly if not explicitly, on occasion, in many of these directions).

Let us look, for instance, at GSJ, Lect. 9. There Steiner tells us that just as in the case of Gal 1,16, the preposition used in Biblical translations of Jn 12,41 is in error by virtue of the failure of translators down through the ages to understand the descent of Christ and his appearance to those of old. The passage, which has reference to Is 6,10, should read as follows: “Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke with⁵ him.” Clearly one must use the term “with,” rather than “of” or “about,” in regard to the direct conversation in Is 6,8-13. But how can it be said that it was the Christ rather than Yahweh who is referred to by Isaiah as “the Lord?” At the outset, we have only Steiner’s word for it. Recall at the opening of the “Overview” how it was said that Steiner’s revelations on the Bible come from his direct perception in the spiritual world, and not from the content of the Bible itself. We find him stating this in the first lecture of the first cycle (GSJ) in his Gospel series. It remains only to test out what he said and see if it proves true (cf. Deut 18,21-22).

So what about Steiner’s assertion that what Isaiah saw was the Christ? When the order of the Hierarchies is recognized it becomes obvious. Paul spoke of these.⁶ In Eph 1,21, after listing “all rule and authority and power and dominion” (essentially the names of the threefold second Hierarchy (see I-6), he speaks of Christ as the one “above every name that is named.” Isaiah says “I saw the Lord [Christ] sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.” The Thrones are immediately above the second Hierarchy, being the third rank of the first Hierarchy. The Seraphim compose the highest rank of the first Hierarchy, and while Isaiah saw them “above” the Lord, the Lord was sitting and they “stood.” But most significantly, with two of their six wings they covered their faces, and they flew calling out “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The Seraphim would never have been portrayed thus if it were the Exusiai (Elohim, or Authorities⁷) he referred to as Lord, for the Exusiai constitute the sixth rank and the Seraphim the first in the Hierarchies. Yahweh was one of the seven Elohim.

Lazarus/John and Paul were the two who were initiated directly by Christ himself. In 1 Cor 10,4 (“They drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ”) Paul recognizes that Christ dealt directly with the people from the spiritual world before his Incarnation in the flesh. Similarly, in Jn 12,41 Lazarus/John recognized the action of Christ during Old Testament times. As we see below, Isaiah let the “I Am” passages ring out. Particularly in the suffering servant portions do we see the Christ. Consider Is 42,1, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations.” Could the event at the Baptism of Jesus of Nazareth, “my servant,” where the dove, “my Spirit,” descends upon him, be more precisely or beautifully expressed? Lazarus/John carries the “I Am” theme through his Gospel. In Jn 12,41 Lazarus/John recognized Isaiah as the one who, above all others, had seen the Christ in the spiritual world.

Steiner said “What ran through the Old Testament was like a prophecy,” indicating that it was the Logos, the Christ, who gave the “name” “I Am” to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Ex 3,14). We need not here denigrate the function of Yahweh, for the revelation of the Christ would seem to have come through him. But the name “I Am” that Christ spoke through Yahweh was uniquely that of the Christ, the higher “I Am.” The New Testament makes this abundantly clear, particularly in the Gospel and Apocalypse of Lazarus/John. We need only look at Is 44,1-8 to gather compelling evidence. In vs 2 we read “Thus says the Lord [Christ] who made you, who formed you from the womb.. . .” (see “The Nativity”). Then, compellingly, vs 6 reads “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, ‘I am the first and I am the last;...” (see also Is 41,4), and then vs 8b, “Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” Clearly, “the Alpha and the Omega,” the first and the last, is Christ (Rev 1,8; 21,6; 22,13). And can there be any doubt that the Christ is the Rock? See 1 Cor 10,4; also “Rock.” Steiner has delivered us from the effete interpretations of these passages in existing Bible commentaries. As we shall presently see, other passages in the Bible simply do not make sense unless the name “I Am” given to Moses was that of the Christ.