Jesus of Nazareth as known in esoteric traditions

From Jesus to Christ by Steiner

FROM JESUS TO CHRIST

A public Lecture
Delivered at Carlsruhe, 4th October, 1911

by
DR. RUDOLF STEINER7

•Translation by H. Collison and revised by Charles Davy•
Translated by H. Collison from shorthand notes unrevised by the lecturer.
This English edition was revised by Charles Davy.

This book contains many of Steiner's fundamental ideas concerning Christ and should be considered as a foundation for an understanding of Steiner's Christology.

In these lectures, Steiner shows how the Mystery of Golgotha can be seen as the pivotal event of human history

He demonstrates how the religious streams of Zarathustra and Buddha helped prepare the way for the events of Palestine.

and the Gospels as initiation documents that can help us on a path of spiritual development.

Steiner's emphasis is on rediscovering the esoteric path to Christ and of awakening to the new revelation breaking through in our time: Christ as the Lord of Karma. 

 The historical Jesus     

               We might say that the Historical Jesus of nineteenth century thought originated under the influence of the intellectual current that takes a merely external view of spiritual life and judges it by means of external documents:

There is evidence of Jesus having lived , at the beginning of our era in Palestine, that He was crucified and, according to the faithful, rose again.

Faith limited itself to what it was thought could be confirmed by historical documents in the same way as any ordinary event is confirmed by independent writings .

This is quite in line with the character and nature of the present era, in the case of theological research

It may be said that all the historical written traditions elsewhere than in the New Testament could, in the opinion of one of the most important judges, be "easily contained in a quarto page."

All the other references to the historical Jesus in any documents whatever, such for example as in Josephus or Tacitus, may be put out of court, for they can never be used from the standpoint of that historical science which holds good to-day. Beyond these ,there are only the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles.  

 A true picture of Jesus of Nazareth 

How did the historical research of the nineteenth century examine the Gospels?

Regarded purely externally , how do they appear?

If taken like other records, such as those of military engagements and so forth, they seem to be very contradictory documents of the physical plane, the fourfold presentation ( the 4 gospels) of which cannot be brought into harmony

In face of what we call historical criticism these records fall to pieces.

For it must be allowed that everything which the earnest and diligent research of the nineteenth century collected out of the Gospels themselves, in order to gain a true picture of Jesus of Nazareth, has crumbled away through the presentation of the kind of research brought forward by Professor Drews.

As to all that can be said against the Gospels as facts of history, it is evident that

nothing can come to light about the Person of Jesus of Nazareth if we apply the methods whereby accurate science and strict criticism ratify other historical facts.