Widow's Son, Page 4

The Elijah Individuality is so immeasurably important to the entire Bible that we must here pause to examine it more fully. For perspective, it is well to reflect upon how the Bible message revolves around the five exalted Individualities (entelechies as distinguished from personalities in a given incarnation) already identified in this work who are recapitulated in the final essay, “Pillars on the Journey,” below. This Individuality is the first among those listed.

Steiner gave two excellent lectures on Naboth/Elijah. The first (December 14, 1911), “The Prophet Elijah in the light of Spiritual Science,” was the fifth of six lectures published in Turning Points in Spiritual History (TPSH, the six being on Zarathustra, Hermes, Buddha, Moses, Elijah and Christ). The second (September 17, 1912) is Lect. 3 in The Gospel of St. Mark (GSMk).

Let us look at what he said in the first and longer of the two.

We shall . . . endeavour to portray all pertinent events first as they actually happened and later draw attention to the manner in which they are depicted in the ancient Biblical records. . . .

We must go back in thought to those ancient Hebrew times when the brilliant epoch that marked the reign of Solomon was passed, and the kingdom of Palestine was enduring many and varied forms of privation. We must recall the troubles [with] the Philistines and other similar incidents, and transport ourselves in mind to those days when all that formerly constituted a united and centralized monarchy was already divided into the separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and King Ahab, who was the son of Omri, reigned in Samaria. . . .

Between King Ahab[’s father] and the King of Tyre and Sidon .. . there was . . . a sort of alliance [that was] further strengthened by the marriage of Ahab with Jezebel, [the latter king’s daughter]. . . . We are looking back into an age when that ancient clairvoyant gift which was in general a spiritual attribute of man in primeval times had by no means entirely disappeared among those [who] retained the fitting disposition. Now, Queen Jezebel was not only endowed with this gift, but her clairvoyant powers were of a very special order; [but these] were not always employ[ed] . . . to promote that which was good and noble. While we look upon Jezebel as a kind of clairvoyant, we must regard King Ahab as a man who only under exceptional circumstances evinced a faculty [wherewith] the hidden forces of his soul could break in upon his conscious state. In olden times such manifestations were much more [widespread than today]. . . . Ahab [sometimes] experienced visions and presentiments, but never to any marked extent, and .. . only when he was confronted with some special matter connected with human destiny.

At [this] time . . . a rumour had spread throughout the land that a remarkable spirit was abroad. In reality, this was . . . Elijah. Few there were . . . who knew precisely in what place the personality that bore this name might be found—nor did they know [how] he exerted so powerful an influence upon . . . people and events. . . . Throughout the widest circles any reference to this mysterious being, or even the mention of his name was accompanied by a thrill of awe, and .. . it was generally felt that this spirit must possess some singular and hidden attribute of greatest import [see fn 15 below]. But no man knew [how or where] it might be sought. Only certain . . . initiates had true knowledge....

King Ahab was also ignorant concerning these matters, but .. . experienced a peculiar feeling of apprehension, and a kind of dread overcame him whenever mention was made of [Elijah]. Ahab .. . had introduced into . . . Palestine a certain religious order which held to outer forms and ceremonies, . . . Such information [about] Elijah as came to the followers of this pagan form of worship .. . created in them a strange and peculiar feeling of fear and dismay. For [they knew of] the Jahveh-religion . . . [and its] belief in One God—in One Great Spiritual Being in the cosmos, Who rules over the superperceptual realm, and Who by means of its forces makes His influence felt, and affects both the evolution and the history of mankind....

It was well known that in truth the religion of Moses contained the germ of all that one might term the Jehovah-Religion, but this fact had been grasped by the nation in a manner more or less after the fashion of a people yet in a stage of childhood or early youth. [cf. I-65]

The old faith .. . may only be described .. . as an awareness of contact with that which is invisible and superperceptual, which comes to man when he indeed apprehends and realizes his own true Ego—and it was this consciousness of the supersensible which had descended upon the people. But [it was] based upon an attempt to picture . . . the workings of . . . Jehovah, as conceived from their experiences of the external phenomena of life. . . . It was the custom to say that Jehovah acted .. . in such a manner that when all nature was luxuriant and fruitful, it was a sign that He was rewarding mankind [and vice versa].

At that time about which we are speaking the nation was enduring the miseries caused by a period of dearth and starvation, and many turned aside from the God Jehovah, because they could no longer believe in His works when they saw how He treated mankind.. . . [To] speak of progress in connection with the Jahveh-conception, .. . the nation must henceforth form a new Jehovah-concept embodying the old thoughts and ideas, through which must flow a fuller and a higher order of human understanding, so that all might say:—“No matter what shall take place in the outer world, . . . such external events are in no way an evidence of either the wrath or the benevolence of Jehovah. . . . And even though we meet with the direst want and affliction, nevertheless, through those inner forces alone which dominate the soul, man shall come to the sure conviction that—HE IS.”

This great revolution in religious outlook was destined to be consummated and wrought through the power of the prophet Elijah (and, as will be seen later, his spiritual force operated at times through the medium of a chosen human personality). When it is ordained that some great momentous change shall be brought about in the concepts of mankind, as was the case in Elijah’s day, it is necessary . . . that there be certain fitting personalities at hand in whose souls can be implanted the germ .. . of those things . . . ordained [to] enter into the history of mankind. . . .

[It was] the preordained fate of the nation that the individuality known as the prophet Elijah should be the chosen one whose soul should first grasp the Jehovah-concept in the form which I have described. To this end it was essential that certain . . . special forces be called up from the hidden depths of his soul—deep-seated powers as yet unknown to mankind, . . . Something in the nature of a holy mystical initiation of the highest order . . . must first take place in the innermost being of Elijah. . . .

Such personalities as Elijah who are chosen [to stimulate] some momentous forward impulse stand, for the most part, isolated and alone. In olden days, however, there gathered around them certain followers, . . . or Schools of the Prophets as they were called in Palestine, and which by other nations have been termed Initiation or Mystery Sanctuaries. Thus we find the prophet Elijah .. . surrounded by a few earnest disciples . . . [2 K 2,3,5,7,15]. [Now at that time strange events had begun to take place in the land] the people, however, had no idea where the mysterious personality might be found who had brought them about. They could only say:—“He must be here, or there,—for something unusual is happening.”

Hence . . . there was spread abroad .. . [a] rumour .. . that HE, a prophet, was actually at work, but no man knew rightly where. This uncertainty was due to the exercise of a definite and peculiar influence, which could be exerted by all such advanced spiritual beings as are found among outstanding seers. . . .

All truly exalted spiritual personalities, such as Elijah, were endowed with this specific and highly penetrative quality which made itself felt now here, now there. [It] entered little by little into the souls of the people. It operated in such manner as to cause them to be unable to tell, at times, just where the external form of some great spiritual personality might be found. But the true followers and disciples of Elijah knew . . . and were . . . aware that his outer individuality might perchance assume a wholly unpretentious character . . . [in a] quite lowly station in earthly life. . . .

At the time [in question] the actual bearer of the spirit of Elijah was a close neighbour of Ahab’s, . . . and [was] the possessor of a small property in his immediate vicinity; but Ahab had no suspicion that such was the case. He sought everywhere for [Elijah, but] he entirely failed . . . to take into consideration the simple and unassuming land-owner who lived so near him, and gave no thought as to why he should, at times, absent himself, nor where he went on these occasions. But Jezebel (being clairvoyant) had discovered that this unobtrusive personality had actually become the external physical embodiment of the spirit of Elijah, [but this] knowledge she . . . did not impart to Ahab [keeping] it to herself . . . as a secret, for reasons which will become apparent later. . . . In the Bible this . . . character . . . is known by the name of Naboth. We thus see that according to the investigations of Spiritual Science we must recognize in the Naboth of the Bible, the physical bearer of the spiritual individuality of Elijah.