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)

Marcantonio Raimondi (after Raphael): The Massacre of the Innocents, copperplate engraving, c. 1509

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 Genealogy 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.

The Genealogy of Jesus

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)

The birth of the Solomon Jesus

The birth of the Solomon Jesus is not announced to Mary, but to Joseph:

The Birth of Jesus

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

– Matthew 1:18–25

The Wise Men from the East

Furthermore, the Gospel of Matthew tells of the visit of the Wise Men from the East, led by the Star of Bethlehem, and of the infanticide ordered by Herod the Great (* around 73 BC; † probably in March 4 BC in Jericho), from which the Solomon Jesus could only be saved by fleeing to Egypt. A similar narrative is not found in the Gospel of Luke. According to Rudolf Steiner, the Jesus boy of Luke's Gospel, the Nathan Jesus, was born some time after the Solomon Jesus, when this infanticide was already over.

The Visit of the Wise Men

1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” 7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

The Flight to Egypt

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Herod Kills the Children

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

The Return to Nazareth

19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

– Matthew 2:1–23

The Adoration of the Magi, who bring gold, frankincense and myrrh as symbols for the three soul powers of thinking, feeling and willing, has been a popular motif in Christian art since late antiquity. The Star of Bethlehem is usually seen in the sky. Some astronomers and historians assume that the Star of Bethlehem could have been a Great Conjunction of the planets Saturn and Jupiter in the years 7 to 6 B.C. In astrology this constellation is considered a classical royal aspect (coniunctio aurea), representing the union of spiritual wisdom (Jupiter) and worldly creative power (Saturn), but which after all can be interpreted both beneficially and inauspiciously.

Occasionally, the scene is also mistakenly mixed with the Adoration of the Shepherds, which, however, refers to the Nathan Jesus who was born much later. If one follows the astronomical-astrological interpretation of the Star of Bethlehem as the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, it would have been a good six years between the birth of the two boys. This is also indicated by the following reference by Rudolf Steiner:

„The Akasha Chronicle tells us that in the time approximately as it is stated in the Bible - a few years' difference is not important - Jesus of Nazareth was born, that in the body of Jesus of Nazareth lived an individuality which in earlier incarnations had already experienced high stages of initiation, had gained high insights into the spiritual world. Yes, the Akasha Chronicle tells us something more, and for the time being I will only go into the outer outlines of what it says. The Akasha Chronicle, which provides the only real history, tells us that the one who appeared in this Jesus of Nazareth had undergone the most diverse initiations in his earlier embodiments in the most diverse regions. And it leads us back to the fact that this later bearer of the name Jesus of Nazareth had originally attained a high, significant level of initiation and a high, significant effectiveness within the Persian world. Thus the Akasha Chronicle shows us how this individuality, which was in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, had also already worked within the spiritual world of ancient Persia, how it had looked up to the sun and addressed the great Sun-Spirit as Ahura Mazda.“ (Lit.:GA 112, p. 141)

== The reborn Zarathustra and the Nathan Jesus

According to Rudolf Steiner, in the Solomon Jesus was reborn the individuality of Zarathustra (Greek: Ζωροάστηρ Zōroastēr "gold star"), who is one of the great initiates of humanity. In the twelfth year of life, with the onset of sexual maturity, the I of Zarathustra, that is, of the Solomon Jesus, passed into the very specially prepared body-shells of the Nathan Jesus. This is indicated by the story of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple, handed down in the Gospel of Luke.

The Boy Jesus in the Temple

41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 43 And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45 and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” 49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

– Luke 2:41–52

The body shells of the Solomonic Jesus, abandoned by their I, decayed very soon afterwards and died. Until the age of 30, the I of Zarathustra lived in the body of the Nathanian Jesus. The two Jesus boys had become one who can now be called Jesus of Nazareth.

„We must now note that up to the twelfth year we have the Nathanian Jesus before us in the flesh, but that from the twelfth year onwards the ego of Zarathustra lives on in the Nathanian Jesus. What does this actually mean? It means nothing other than that this I, this mature I, beginning in the twelfth year, worked on the sentient body, sentient soul and intellectual soul of the Nathanian Jesus and worked out these qualities of human nature in the way that only such a mature I, which has gone through the fates of the Zarathustra-I through the most varied incarnations, can work out the human faculties. Thus we have before us the wonderful fact that in the body of the Nathanian Jesus, at the age of twelve, the I of Zarathustra embodied itself, that it worked out the faculties in the soul in the most refined way imaginable. So a sentient body developed which was able to look up into the cosmos in such a way that it could have the sensations of the old Ahura Mazda, which is his spiritual nature; a sentient soul developed which could cherish the knowledge, the wisdom, which gradually developed within humanity on the basis of the Ahura Mazda teaching; and then there developed an intellectual soul which was able to comprehend, that is, to put into concepts, into words, into easily comprehensible words, all that humanity had formerly attained only through its spiritual currents from without.“ (Lit.:GA 114, p. 134f)

Rudolf Steiner reports in detail on the life of Jesus of Nazareth from the 18th to the 30th year of his life in the Fifth Gospel given by him. At the baptism in the Jordan, the divine Christ-I finally descended into the body of Jesus of Nazareth, who thereby became Jesus Christ.

„First of all, consider Jesus of Nazareth. He had very special conditions of existence. At the beginning of our era, two Jesus boys were born. One came from the Nathanian line of the house of David, the other from the Solomonic line of the same house. These two boys were not born at quite the same time, but approximately. In the Solomon Jesus boy, whom the Gospel of Matthew describes, the same individuality incarnated that had previously lived on earth as Zarathustra, so that in this Jesus child of the Gospel of Matthew we have before us the re-embodied Zarathustra or Zoroaster. Thus, as Matthew describes him, the individuality of Zarathustra grows up in this infant Jesus until the twelfth year. In this year Zarathustra leaves the body of this boy and passes over into the body of the other Jesus-boy described in the Gospel of Luke. That is why this child suddenly becomes something completely different. The parents are astonished when they find him again in Jerusalem in the temple after the spirit of Zarathustra has entered into him. This is indicated by the fact that the child, after he had been lost and was found again in Jerusalem in the temple, spoke in such a way that the parents did not recognise him, because they only knew this child - the Nathanian Jesus boy - as he had been before. But when he began to speak to the scribes in the temple, he was able to speak in this way because the spirit of Zarathustra had entered into him. - Until his thirtieth year, the spirit of Zoroaster lived in the young Jesus, who came from the Nathanian line of the House of David. In this other body he matured to a still higher perfection. It should also be noted that in this other body, in which the spirit of Zarathustra now lived, the peculiar thing was that the Buddha allowed his impulses from the spiritual world to radiate into its astral body.

The Oriental tradition is correct that the Buddha was born as a "Bodhisattva" and only ascended to the dignity of Buddha during his time on earth, in his twenty-ninth year.

Asita, the great Indian sage, when Gotama Buddha was a small child, came to the royal palace of the Buddha's father crying. This was because, as a seer, he could have known that this royal child would become the "Buddha", and because he felt that he was an old man who would not live to see the son of Suddhodana become the Buddha. This sage was reborn in the time of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the same one who is presented to us in the Gospel of Luke as the temple priest who sees the Buddha revealed in the Nathanian Jesus boy. And because he saw this, he said: "Let your servant go in peace, Lord, for I have seen my Master!" What he could not see in India at that time, he saw through the astral body of this Jesus-boy, who confronts us as the one of the Gospel of Luke: the Bodhisattva who had become the Buddha.

All this was necessary so that the body could come into being, which then received the "baptism of John" at the Jordan. At that time the individuality of Zarathustra left the threefold body - physical body, etheric body, astral body - of that Jesus who had grown up in such a complicated way so that the spirit of Zarathustra could be in him. The reborn Zarathustra had to pass through two possibilities of development which were given in the two Jesus boys. Opposite the Baptist stood the body of Jesus of Nazareth, and into this the cosmic individuality of the Christ worked. In another human being the cosmic-spiritual laws work only in such a way that they bring him into earthly life. Then, in opposition to these laws, those which originate in the conditions of earthly development come into play. In the case of the Christ Jesus, after John's baptism, the cosmic-spiritual forces alone remained active, without any influence from the laws of earthly evolution. While Jesus of Nazareth walked on Earth as the Christ Jesus in the last three years of his life from the thirtieth to the thirty-third year in Palestine, the whole cosmic Christ Being continually worked into him. The Christ was always under the influence of the whole cosmos; he never took a step without the cosmic forces working into him. What happened here with Jesus of Nazareth was a continual realisation of the horoscope; for at every moment that happened which otherwise happens only at the birth of man. This could only be so because the whole body of the Nathanian Jesus remained influenceable in relation to the totality of the forces of the cosmic-spiritual hierarchies directing our Earth.“ (Lit.:GA 15, p. 74ff)

Master Jesus

Since the Mystery of Golgotha, the Solomon Jesus incarnates again and again as Master Jesus.

„Thus this Nathan Jesus evolved with the Zarathustra-I within him. And he developed in this way until the thirtieth year approached. Then a new fact asserted itself. The phenomenon that had already occurred in a certain way to the Nathanian Jesus at the age of twelve, that his innermost being had been filled with a new I-ness, occurred once more, but now in a more universal, more significant way. Towards the thirtieth year we see how the Zarathustra-I completed its task on the soul of the Nathan Jesus, how it trained the faculties in the highest way.There it had, as it were, completed the mission for this soul, there it had worked into this soul all that it had gained through the earlier incarnations, and could now say: My task is now completed. - And one day the Zarathustra-I left the body of the Nathan Jesus.

The I of Zarathustra lived in the body of the Solomonic Jesus until the twelfth year. This boy could not have developed further on Earth. He remained, so to speak, in his former position because the Zarathustra-I, which had dwelt in him, had left him. He had, however, reached a high and rare maturity because such a high I was in him. Anyone who had observed the Solomon Jesus child on the outside would have found him to be a precocious child to the highest degree. But from the moment when the I of Zarathustra had left him, he stood still, he could go no further. And when the time approached when the mother of the Nathan Jesus died relatively early and was caught up into the spiritual world with regard to the spiritual members, she took with her that which was of eternal value, that which was of formative power in the Solomon Jesus child. This child also died, that is, at about the same time as the mother of the Nathan Jesus died. It was a precious etheric sheath that left the body of the Solomon Jesus at that time. We know that the etheric body acquires its special formation from that time onwards, when a child has passed about the seventh year, between the seventh year and sexual maturity. So this was an etheric body that was formed by the powers that the Zarathustra-I had. We know that at death the etheric body leaves the physical body, that everything that is not useful for eternity is stripped away in normal human life and that a kind of extract from the etheric body is taken with it. In the case of the Solomon Jesus boy, the greatest conceivable quantity of the etheric body was usable for eternity. The whole life body of this child was taken into the spiritual world by the mother of the Nathan Jesus.

Now the etheric body is the builder and constructor of the physical human body. We can now imagine that there was indeed a deep relationship between this etheric body, which had been raptured into the spiritual world as the etheric body of the Solomon Jesus, and the I of Zarathustra, for the same was one with him in the earthly change up to the twelfth year. And when, through the development of Jesus of Nazareth, it left his body and, so to speak, emerged from the body of the Nathanian Jesus, the forces of attraction between the Zarathustra-I and the etheric body, which came from the Solomon Jesus child, asserted themselves. They came together again and then built a new physical body. The Zarathustra-I was so mature that it did not need another passage through a Devachan. After a relatively short time, it was able to build a new physical body with the help of the etheric body that we have just characterised. And thus, for the first time, that being was born which subsequently appeared again and again, always appearing in such a way that relatively short periods of time elapsed between physical death and a new birth, so that this being, whenever it left the physical body in death, soon appeared again incarnated on Earth.

This being, which thus sought out its etheric body again in the manner described, subsequently walked through the history of mankind. It became, as you can imagine, the greatest helper of those who wanted to understand the great event of Palestine. As the so-called "Master Jesus", this individuality walks through the turning point of time; so that Zarathustra, the Zarathustra-I, after the rediscovery of his etheric body, began his career through the evolution of humanity as the "Master Jesus", who since then has lived again and again embodied on our Earth for the guidance and direction of that spiritual stream which we call the Christian. He is the inspirer of those who wish to understand the living development of Christianity; he has inspired those within the esoteric schools who have had to cultivate the teachings of Christianity. Behind the great spiritual figures of Christianity he stands, ever teaching what the great event of Palestine actually means.“ (Lit.:GA 114, p. 135ff)

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.