The Nativity, Page 13

Third, in concluding Lect. 6, GSMt, Steiner says:

In the so-called “Gospel of the Egyptians” [the editor also added the ‘Second Epistle of Clement’³⁰] there is a passage which already in the early centuries of our era was regarded as extremely heretical, because Christian circles either did not want to hear the truth or did not want the truth to come to light.³¹ Something was never theless preserved in an apocryphal writing where it is said in effect that salvation (the Kingdom) will come to the world when the Two become One and the Outer becomes as the Inner. This sentence exactly expresses the occult reality of which I have told you. Salvation depends upon the Two becoming One. And the Two became One in very truth when in the twelfth year of his life the Zarathustra-Individuality passed over into the Nathan Jesus and qualities that at first had been entirely inward became outward. The inwardness of soul in the Jesus of St. Luke’s Gospel was profound beyond all telling. But this quality manifested outwardly too when the Zarathustra-Individuality, whose development had proceeded in the physical and etheric bodies of the Solomon Jesus, permeated that inwardness with the forces engendered by his contact with those bodies.

It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the Dead Sea Scrolls discoveries in the middle of this century, especially the document known as “The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs,” have vindicated Steiner in the sense that they show a clear expectation on the part of the Essenes of two Messiahs. See BC, Chap. 8; Gnosis (GNOS), Chap. 3; and TEO, Chaps. 5 and 6.

Finally, while Steiner may not have addressed the point, it seems highly probable that 1 K 3 gives an ancient clairvoyant vision of the two Marys. There Solomon is said to have “made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, [taking his] daughter” and bringing her to Jerusalem “until he had finished building his own house.” Solomon next prayed for wisdom and it was given him in a “dream” vision, and immediately we are told of the account of the “two harlots.” This account, in verses 16-27, seems quite accurately to portray what happened in the case of the two Jesus children. It was the Nathan Mary, the mother of the primeval “Second Adam,” who died and thus turned her son over to the Solomon Mary. The Solomon Mary’s son died and she thus “claimed” the son of the Nathan Mary, the son whose “three bodies” were to be inhabited at the Baptism by the Christ. These passages include the esoteric phrases “Third Day” (vs 17) and “Midnight” (vs 20). It was the very ancestor of the Solomon Jesus child to whom this dream vision was given. The fact that knowledge of it was passed on down into esoteric Essenism suggests that the reality of the two future Messiahs was made known in Israel—the apparent meaning of vs 28. The “sword” with which he was to divide the child might well be the one of which Simeon said to the Nathan Mary that “a sword will pierce through your own soul also” (Lk 2,35).

Rudolf Steiner stands at a fork in the road for humanity. Either what is made manifest by him about the Nativity and all that came therefrom is prophecy of the highest and most divine nature, or his teachings comprised some combination of abysmal ignorance and fraud. He has made it clear how necessary it now is for humanity to undertake the branch of the fork he has lighted. While many are obviously not equipped in their present incarnation to understand these things, if Steiner is right then woe³² unto those who could but merely shrug him off out of some form of weakness, for in so doing they are also deafening their ears to the knocking of the Master. These matters are not simple, but as he often said, if there are so many complex things in the world, how can we expect the most magnificent event in the entirety of evolution to be simple.

For the first time, the Biblical Nativity accounts now constitute a magnificent, consistent whole. One who contemplates the full implications of the Nativity as here presented must see in it anew the unspeakable majesty of Jesus Christ and therein the profoundly stimulating meaning and hope which is spoken by Isaiah (Is 9,2-7):

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.

Thou has multiplied the nation, thou hast increased its joy; they rejoice before thee as with joy at the harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as on the day of Midian.

For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.