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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Deeper Secrets of Human History
in the Light of the Gospel of St. Matthew
GA 117

These lectures examine the four aspects of Christ as portrayed in the four Gospels with special emphasis on the Gospel of Matthew. The topics discussed include the mission of the ancient Hebrews and the preparations for the understanding of the Christ Mystery.

Lectures 3, 4, and 8 from the lecture series: Deeper Secrets of Human Existence in the Light of the Gospels, published in German with the title: Die Tieferen Geheimnisse des Menschheitswerdens im Lichte der Evangelien.

Translation by D. S. Osmond and A. P. Shepherd, from shorthand reports unrevised by the lecturer.

Foreword
Lecture I November 02, 1909
Christ-Jesus: the Being of Light and Love. The Gospel of St. John: transcendental Ideas. The Gospel of St. Luke: self-offering sacrifice. The Gospel of St. Mark: the spirit-power of the earthly sun-hidden forces of nature and of spirit. The Gospel of St. Matthew: the. Christ as the harmonised picture of Man: secrets of human history.
Lecture II November 09, 1909
The faculty of reasoned thought, recognising Divinity without clairvoyance, as an external revelation, is developed in the ancient Hebrew people. To this end, the particular bodily constitution of Abraham must be transmitted by way of heredity. The combining of the mathematical world-picture with inner Imagination is achieved through Moses in Egypt. The Law is given in Arabia. In the Babylonian captivity, contact is made with oriental wisdom. Recapitulation of the history of the ancient Hebrew people in the coming of Jesus of Bethlehem. The kingdom of Man or the kingdom of Heaven.
Lecture III November 23, 1909
The different streams of spiritual life in antiquity converge in Jesus. Ancient clairvoyance and the significance of blood-relationship fade away before the new happening: the full function of the Ego, the kingdom of Heaven. Preparation for this among the Nazarenes. The Baptism of John. The Children of the Serpent and the image of the Lamb. John the Baptist as the bringer-in of the new era, in which the spiritual world shines into the soul of man through the phenomena and manifestations of the outer world.
Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III