Solomon Jesus

El Greco: The Adoration of the Magi, , 1568 Museo Soumaya, Mexico City

Codex Egberti, fol. 15v: The Bethlehemite Infanticide (Master of the Registrum Gregorii)

Solomon Jesus or Solomonian Jesus is called the Jesus boy of whom we are told in the Gospel of Matthew. Rudolf Steiner's spiritual-scientific research led him to the view that not only one, but two Jesus boys were born at the turn of time. In fact, on closer examination, the Gospels also point in this direction. The birth narrative in the Gospel of Matthew differs in essential points from that in the Gospel of Luke; in particular, both Gospels also indicate significantly different lines of descent.

The descent line of the Solomon Jesus

The Jesus boy described in the Gospel of Matthew comes from the Solomonic line of the House of David, which is traced back over 42 generations to Abraham. The Gospel of Luke, on the other hand, reports the birth of the Nathanian Jesus boy.

„1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. 12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.“

– Matthew 1:1–17

The deeper significance of this generational sequence was known especially to the Essenes.

„They underwent an initiation which was particularly suitable to bring about an understanding, an understanding through clairvoyant vision, of the significance of Hebraism, of Abrahamism for the Christ event [...] Such an Essaean should first learn to understand the whole significance of what had happened through Abraham for the Hebrew people, so that he could appreciate that in Abraham there is really to be seen a kind of progenitor of the Hebrew people [...]

Since Abraham was destined to play such an important role in the evolution of humanity, it was necessary for that spirit to penetrate into the interior of his organisation which humanity had previously perceived in the Atlantean times as that spirit which weaves through and lives through the outer world. This happened for the first time with Abraham, and with it it was possible for the first time that a change of spiritual perception could take place. However, for this to happen, the influence of a divine-spiritual being was necessary. A divine-spiritual being laid the seed, as it were, in the organisation of Abraham for all the organisations that were to descend from him in the succession of generations.

So an Essene of that time said to himself: What could actually form the Hebrew people, through which it could become the bearer of the Christ mission, was first brought about in the plant by that mysterious being which one can only find if one ascends through the whole succession of generations up to Abraham, where it slipped, as it were, into the inner organisation of Abraham, in order then to work through the blood as a kind of national spirit in the Hebrew people. If, therefore, one wishes to understand this, so to speak, last secret of the evolution of humanity, one must ascend to this spirit which has transplanted that disposition, and seek it out where it had not yet slipped into the organisation of Abraham. Therefore the Essaean said: If man wants to ascend to this actually inspiring or inaugurating spirit of the Hebrew people and recognise it in its purity, he must, as an Essaean or therapist, go through a certain development whereby he purifies himself of all that has come to the human soul from the physical world since the Abraham event. For the Essaean said to himself: The spiritual being that man carries within himself, and all the spiritual entities that contribute to the becoming of humanity, can only be seen in their purity in the spiritual world; as they dwell in ourselves, they are contaminated by the forces of the physical-sensual world [...]

Now it is a law of spiritual science which the Essenes were able to fulfil, preferably through their research and clairvoyant vision: that the influence of heredity only really ceases when one ascends through forty-two steps in the ancestral line. Only then has one thrown everything out of one's soul when one ascends these forty-two steps. That is to say, you inherit something from your father and mother, something from your grandfather and grandmother, and so on. But one has less and less of the impurities of the inner being which have arisen through heredity, the further one ascends in the ancestral line, and one has nothing more when one ascends through forty-two generations. There the influence of heredity is lost [...].

But the Essaeans knew something else. They knew: Just as man must ascend through forty-two steps, which are the correspondences of the forty-two generations, in order to come to this divine being, so this divine being, if it wants to penetrate down to the human blood, must descend through forty-two steps, must therefore take the opposite path. If man needs forty-two steps to ascend to the God, the God needs forty-two steps to descend to become man among men.“ (Lit.:GA 123, p. 94ff)

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Die geistige Führung des Menschen und der Menschheit, GA 15 (1987), ISBN 3-7274-0150-8 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Das Lukas-Evangelium, GA 114 (2001), ISBN 3-7274-1140-6 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Das Matthäus-Evangelium, GA 123 (1988), ISBN 3-7274-1230-5 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Aus der Akasha-Forschung. Das Fünfte Evangelium, GA 148 (1992), ISBN 3-7274-1480-4 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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.