I AM, Page 9

We must now consider, as earlier promised, the meaning of the awe-inspiring “Yahweh” standing alone without the “I Am” appendage of Ex 3,14. Having looked at the “I Am” itself in its Biblical context, we are now in a better position to return to the meaning of this ancient sound as it emerged in humanity’s consciousness out of the mists of time. All Bible scholars know that its Hebrew origin was expressed in the equivalent of the Greek Tetragrammaton, literally “four letters,” YHWH, which, by extrusion through the Germanic tongue became also known as JHVH. The vowels of the Greek Adonai and the Hebrew Elohim, alternative names for God, were inserted so that we have “Yahweh,” or the Germanized “Jehovah.” (See WNWD.) While our New Testament came to us in Greek form, the Old Testament is available in both Hebrew (primarily the “Masoretic Text”) and Greek (the “Septuagint”). Ironically, the Greek is the older of the two Old Testament texts in terms of when they were physically created, having been written down before the time of Christ, whereas the Hebrew did not come into written form until after Christ. (See WNWD and 14 Brit 780 at 786 “Biblical Literature; Old Testament Canon, Texts and Versions”). The foregoing applies to the known documents at the time our basic existing translations were made, and ignores the highly important discoveries of ancient texts in the twentieth century. The Greek word for “YHWH,” or “Yahweh,” is “Kyrios.” These are the words that appear in our present translations as “Lord.”

In a few words, what Steiner reveals to us, in an analysis similar to that of “AUM” above, is that “Yahweh” is completely synonymous with “I Am.” While this obviously reconciles any element of contention as to which “name” was intended in Ex 3,14, and thus could clearly obviate much of the foregoing discussion, it is well that we see both angles. Steiner takes up the meaning of “Yahweh” in BKM, Lects. 4 and 11, where he focuses upon Is 40,3:

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

Also Mk 1,3:

“the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight—”

He stresses that in order to understand these passages one must ponder the meaning of the two words “Wilderness” and “Lord.” “Wilderness” means “loneliness,” or “aloneness,” or “solitude,” or “the desolation of the soul.”¹⁵ It is only in that condition that the “I Am” exists and can be recognized; thus those who seek the “I Am” invariably go into a “Wilderness” to do so. Steiner also points out that the term “messenger,” as used in Mk 1,2 and intended by Isaiah, means a specific announcing angel¹⁶ who was to work through John the Baptist. Let us see Steiner’s own words from Lect. 11:

Such an event in the history of humanity actually took place when the Individuality who had lived in Elijah was reborn as John the Baptist. An Angel entered into the soul of John the Baptist in that incarnation, using his bodily nature and also his soul to accomplish what no human being could have accomplished. In John the Baptist there lived an Angel whose mission was to herald in advance the Egohood that was to be present in its fullness in Jesus of Nazareth. It is of the greatest importance to realize that John the Baptist was maya and that an Angel, a Messenger, was living in him. This is indeed what the Greek says: Lo, I send my Messenger. The Messenger is an Angel. But nobody pays attention to what is actually said here. A deep mystery, enacted in the Baptist and foretold by Isaiah, is indicated. Isaiah foretold that the future John the Baptist would be maya—in reality he was to be the vehicle for the Angel, the Messenger who was to proclaim what man will become if he takes the Christ Impulse into himself. Angels announce in advance what man will later become. The passage in question might therefore be translated: Lo, the bestower of Egohood sends his Messenger (Angel) before you to whom Egohood is to be given.