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The '''Wood of the Cross Legend''', which is reported in the apocryphal [[Gospel of Nicodemus]] ([[Acta Pilati]]) in the context of Christ's journey to [[hell]] and which is then also handed down in the Legenda aurea of Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1230-1298), and which Rudolf Steiner later referred to simply as the "'''Golden Legend'''", was very significant for Christian esotericism. [[Seth]], the third son of [[Adam]] and [[Eve]] after [[Cain]] and [[Abel]], plays an important role in it.
The '''Wood of the Cross Legend''', which is reported in the apocryphal [[Gospel of Nicodemus]] ([[Acta Pilati]]) in the context of Christ's journey to [[hell]] and which is then also handed down in the [[w:Legenda aurea|Legenda aurea]] of [[w:Jacobus de Varagine|Jacobus de Varagine]] (c. 1230-1298), and which [[Rudolf Steiner]] later referred to simply as the "'''Golden Legend'''", was very significant for Christian esotericism. [[Seth]], the third son of [[Adam]] and [[Eve]] after [[Cain]] and [[Abel]], plays an important role in it.


{{Quote|III (XIX). Now when John [→ John the Baptist] thus instructed the dead in the underworld, the first-created, the forefather Adam, also heard it, and he said to his son Seth: 'My son, I wish you to tell the forefathers of the human race and the prophets where I sent you when I fell into a fatal illness.' Then said Seth: Prophets and patriarchs hear! My father Adam, the first created, sent me, when he fell sick unto death, near the gate of Paradise. I was to ask God to let an angel lead me to the tree of mercy so that I could take oil and anoint my father with it and so that he would get up from his illness. And so I did. And after my prayer an angel of the Lord came and asked me: 'What do you wish, Seth? Because of your father's illness, do you wish for the oil that heals the sick or the tree from which such oil flows? You cannot get either now. Go, therefore, and tell your father that after the lapse of 5500 years from the creation of the world, the only begotten Son of God will descend into the Earth. He will anoint him with such oil. And he will rise again and baptise him and his descendants with water and the Holy Spirit. And then he will be healed of every disease. But now this is impossible. When the patriarchs and prophets heard this, they rejoiced greatly.|Gospel of Nicodemus}}
{{Quote|III (XIX). Now when John [→ John the Baptist] thus instructed the dead in the underworld, the first-created, the forefather Adam, also heard it, and he said to his son Seth: 'My son, I wish you to tell the forefathers of the human race and the prophets where I sent you when I fell into a fatal illness.' Then said Seth: Prophets and patriarchs hear! My father Adam, the first created, sent me, when he fell sick unto death, near the gate of Paradise. I was to ask God to let an angel lead me to the tree of mercy so that I could take oil and anoint my father with it and so that he would get up from his illness. And so I did. And after my prayer an angel of the Lord came and asked me: 'What do you wish, Seth? Because of your father's illness, do you wish for the oil that heals the sick or the tree from which such oil flows? You cannot get either now. Go, therefore, and tell your father that after the lapse of 5500 years from the creation of the world, the only begotten Son of God will descend into the Earth. He will anoint him with such oil. And he will rise again and baptise him and his descendants with water and the Holy Spirit. And then he will be healed of every disease. But now this is impossible. When the patriarchs and prophets heard this, they rejoiced greatly.|Gospel of Nicodemus}}
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== Literature ==
== Literature ==


* ''[https://sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/basis/goldenlegend/ The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda)]''. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, 1275. Englished by William Caxton, 1483, ''[https://sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume1.asp#Adam The History of Adam]'' ([https://www.fordham.edu/ Fordham University])
* [[w:Jacobus de Varagine|Jacobus de Voragine]]: ''Die Legenda aurea. Aus dem Lateinischen übersetzt von Richard Benz.'', Verlag Lambert Schneider, Gerlingen 1993
* [[w:Jacobus de Varagine|Jacobus de Voragine]]: ''Die Legenda aurea. Aus dem Lateinischen übersetzt von Richard Benz.'', Verlag Lambert Schneider, Gerlingen 1993
* Barbara Baert: ''Adam, Seth and Jerusalem. The Legend of the Wood of the Cross in Medieval Literature and Iconography'', in: “Adam, le premier home”, (Micrologus’ Library, 45) (Firenze: Sislem, 2012), p. 69-99 [https://www.academia.edu/5334245/Adam_Seth_and_Jerusalem._The_Legend_of_the_Wood_of_the_Cross_in_Medieval_Literature_and_Iconography_in_Adam_le_premier_home_Micrologus_Library_45_Firenze_Sislem_2012_p._69-99 academia.edu]
* Barbara Baert: ''Adam, Seth and Jerusalem. The Legend of the Wood of the Cross in Medieval Literature and Iconography'', in: “Adam, le premier home”, (Micrologus’ Library, 45) (Firenze: Sislem, 2012), p. 69-99 [https://www.academia.edu/5334245/Adam_Seth_and_Jerusalem._The_Legend_of_the_Wood_of_the_Cross_in_Medieval_Literature_and_Iconography_in_Adam_le_premier_home_Micrologus_Library_45_Firenze_Sislem_2012_p._69-99 academia.edu]

Revision as of 15:42, 14 July 2021

The Wood of the Cross Legend, which is reported in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (Acta Pilati) in the context of Christ's journey to hell and which is then also handed down in the Legenda aurea of Jacobus de Varagine (c. 1230-1298), and which Rudolf Steiner later referred to simply as the "Golden Legend", was very significant for Christian esotericism. Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve after Cain and Abel, plays an important role in it.

„III (XIX). Now when John [→ John the Baptist] thus instructed the dead in the underworld, the first-created, the forefather Adam, also heard it, and he said to his son Seth: 'My son, I wish you to tell the forefathers of the human race and the prophets where I sent you when I fell into a fatal illness.' Then said Seth: Prophets and patriarchs hear! My father Adam, the first created, sent me, when he fell sick unto death, near the gate of Paradise. I was to ask God to let an angel lead me to the tree of mercy so that I could take oil and anoint my father with it and so that he would get up from his illness. And so I did. And after my prayer an angel of the Lord came and asked me: 'What do you wish, Seth? Because of your father's illness, do you wish for the oil that heals the sick or the tree from which such oil flows? You cannot get either now. Go, therefore, and tell your father that after the lapse of 5500 years from the creation of the world, the only begotten Son of God will descend into the Earth. He will anoint him with such oil. And he will rise again and baptise him and his descendants with water and the Holy Spirit. And then he will be healed of every disease. But now this is impossible. When the patriarchs and prophets heard this, they rejoiced greatly.“

– Gospel of Nicodemus

In the Legenda aurea we read:

„When Adam was sick, his son Seth went to the gate of the earthly paradise and desired oil from the tree of compassion, that he might anoint the body of his father Adam with it and make him well. Then the archangel Michael appeared to him and said: 'Do not seek to obtain the oil from the tree of compassion, and do not weep for it, for it may not come to you before five thousand and five hundred years have passed'. But it is believed that no more than five thousand one hundred and ninety-nine years elapsed from Adam to Christ's passion. We also read that the angel gave Seth a little branch and commanded him to plant it on Mount Lebanon. In a Greek story, which is apocryphal, we find that the angel gave Seth some of the wood on which Adam had sinned and said: 'When this branch bears fruit, your father will be healed. And when Seth was come home, his father was dead, and he planted the branch upon his grave, and the branch grew, and became a great tree, and continued unto the days of Solomon. But whether this be true or not, we leave to the reader's judgment, for in no approved history or chronicle do we find it written. When Solomon saw how beautiful the tree was, he had it cut down and gave it to build the forest house. But the wood did not fit into any place of the house, as Johannes Beleth writes, because it was always too long or too short; for if it had been shortened according to the right measure for a place, it was then so short that it never fitted into it. Therefore the builders were enraged, and rejected the timber, and laid it over a lake, that it might be a bridge for them that would cross over. But when the queen of Sheba had heard of Solomon's wisdom, and wished to go to him over the lake, she saw in her spirit that the Redeemer of the world should one day hang upon this wood: therefore she would not go over the wood, but kneeled down and worshipped it. In the Historia Scholastica it is said that the queen of Sheba saw the wood in the forest house, and when she returned to her country, she told Solomon that one would hang on that wood, that by the death of the Jews the kingdom would be destroyed. Therefore Solomon took the wood and buried it deep in the bowels of the earth. After a long time the pool of sheep was made over the same place, in which the Nathineans washed the sacrificial animals; and so the movement of the water and the healing of the sick took place not only by the coming of the angel, but also by the power of the wood. Now when the passion of Christ was at hand, the wood floated up; and when the Jews saw it, they took it, and prepared therefrom the cross of the Lord.“ (Lit.: Legenda aurea, p. 349f)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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