Two Jesus Boys

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Through his research based on spiritual perception, Rudolf Steiner came to the conclusion that not only one, but two Jesus boys were born in Bethlehem around the turn of time, the Nathanic and the Solomonic Jesus, both of whom came from the lineage of David. At the age of twelve, the I of the Solomonic Jesus passed into the body of the Nathanian Jesus. Steiner spoke in great detail about the further life of this Jesus of Nazareth from the 18th to the 30th year of life, which is not reported in the four Gospels, in his lectures on the so-called fifth Gospel. In it, Steiner describes how the earthly incarnation of the Christ was prepared, which actually only began in the 30th year of life with the Jordan baptism and was completed with the Mystery of Golgotha. Only this human figure, permeated by Christ, formed by the union of the two Jesus boys and having passed through rich experiences, may rightly be addressed as Jesus Christ, as a third Messiah, as it were.

Rudolf Steiner's explanations throw an illuminating light on the two contradictory genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels, which for a long time presented biblical scholars and theologians with seemingly unsolvable riddles. Apocryphal texts, and especially the writings of the Essenes discovered at Qumran near the Dead Sea, now seem to support Steiner's views through external documents as well, by also pointing to two messianic figures descended from the royal and the priestly line of the House of David. Recent discoveries and interpretations of the Essenes' scrolls, moreover, show that they expected not just one or two, but even three Messiahs, which fits in well with Steiner's accounts, as indicated above.

„12 And David knew that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. 13 And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David. 14 And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, 15 Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, 16 Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.“

The Ancestors of the Two Jesus Boys

In his lectures on the Gospel of Luke, given in Basel in September 1909, Rudolf Steiner revealed for the first time the mystery of the two Jesus boys. The birth of the Solomonic Jesus boy is reported in the Gospel of Matthew.

„There was within the ancient Hebrew people the Davidic family. Those whom we call the "Davidic families" all traced back to their progenitor David. You can see from the Bible that David had two sons, Solomon and Nathan (2 Samuel 5:14). Two lineages, the Solomonic line and the Nathanic line, are therefore descended from David. If we therefore disregard the intermediate links, we can say: At the time when our era begins, the descendants of both the Solomonic line and the Nathanian line of the Davidic family are present in Palestine. And there is a descendant of the line which we call the Nathanian line of the Davidic family, a man named Joseph, living in Nazareth. He has for his wife a Mary. And there is a descendant of the Solomon line of the Davidic family living in Bethlehem, who is also called Joseph. It is no wonder that there are two people from the family of David, both named Joseph, and that both are married to Mary, as the Bible calls her. So we have two pairs of parents at the beginning of our era in Palestine; both bear the names Joseph and Mary. One set of parents traces their descent back to the Solomonic line of the family of David, that is, to the "royal line"; the other set of parents, the one in Nazareth, traces their descent back to the Nathanian line, that is, to the "priestly line" [...] At that time, when the child was to be born, this set of parents from the Nathanian line went from Nazareth to Bethlehem - as Luke says - "for the estimation" (Luke 2:4-5). This is what the genealogical register of Luke's Gospel tells us.

The other pair of parents, who did not originally live in Nazareth - one only has to take the Gospels literally - lived in Bethlehem, and this is described to us by the writer of the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 2:1). The Gospels always tell the truth - there is no need to be clever - and through Anthroposophy people will again come to take the Gospels literally. To this pair of parents of Solomon's line a child is born who is also called Jesus. This child also has a powerful individuality within its body. But this child first had another task - the wisdom of the world is profound - this child was not to be called to deliver the youthful powers to the astral mother's womb, but it was called to bring to humanity that which one can only bring if one is a mature soul. This child was so guided by all the forces that came into consideration that it could be the embodiment of that individuality which once taught Ahura Mazdao in Persia, which once could give up its astral body to Hermes and its etheric body to Moses and which reappeared as the great teacher of Pythagoras, as Zarathas or Nazarathos, the great teacher in ancient Chaldea: it is no other individuality than the individuality of Zarathustra. The I of Zarathustra was re-embodied in the child of whom Matthew the Evangelist tells us that he was born of a pair of parents, Joseph and Mary, who came from the royal line, from the Solomonic line of the Davidic family, and who originally lived in Bethlehem.

Thus we find in Matthew one part of the truth, in Luke the other part of the truth. Literally we must take both, for the truth of the world is complicated.“ (Lit.:GA 114, p. 92f)

Rudolf Steiner was well aware that at first glance his statements about the two Jesus boys could appear not only perplexing and disconcerting, but even offensive:

„Especially offensive to many people is what spiritual science has to say about the Christ Being. And yet this too is only based on a misunderstanding. If, for example, someone says that spiritual science maintains that Jesus did not mature into the Christ from a young age under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but that in the first thirty years of his life he only prepared the bodily shell into which the Christ settled at his baptism by John, he distorts the results of spiritual science on this point. Spiritual science investigates what actually happened through John's baptism, which, according to the Bible, is undoubtedly an important event in the life of Jesus. (There are translators of the Gospel who reproduce the important passage in Luke: "This is my much beloved Son; today I have begotten him".[1]) And this research finds that the Christ-Spirit, which guided Jesus of Nazareth until his thirtieth year as if from without, then moved into the innermost part of his being in that year. Biblical research in the future will certainly recognise that on this very point the Gospel, too, does not prove the opponents of spiritual science right, but this one.“ (Lit.:GA 35, p. 167f)

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.

References

  1. ↑ Carl Heinrich von Weizsäcker: Das Neue Testament, Verlag von J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1904, p. 65 archive.org; cf. Luke 3:21–22
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