Jesus of Nazareth

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Giotto di Bondone: Jesus with the Torah Teachers, Cappella degli Scrovegni (Padua)

Jesus of Nazareth (GreekἸησοῦς Iēsoûs; Aramaicישוע Jeschua or Jeschu; in the Koran Isa ibn Maryam - Arabic عيسى بن مريم, DMG ʿĪsā b. Maryam ‚Jesus Sohn der Maria‘) was, according to the current state of historical research, probably born between 7 and 4 BC in Bethlehem and died in Jerusalem in 30, 31 or 33. From an anthroposophical point of view, this is the Solomon Jesus whose birth is recounted in the Gospel of Matthew. According to Rudolf Steiner, his I later passed into the body of the Nathan Jesus described in the Gospel of Luke when the latter had reached the age of 12.

The Two Jesus Boys

Raffael's Madonna Terranuova with John the Baptist and the two boys Jesus
Main article: Two Jesus boys

Rudolf Steiner has pointed out that at the turn of time in Bethlehem not only one, but two Jesus boys were born, both of whom came from the lineage of David, which is why the term "Son of David" is used several times in the New Testament. The Solomon Jesus boy, whose parents lived in Bethlehem, came from the royal line of the house of David, as the Gospel of Matthew reports. The Nathan Jesus, on the other hand, whose parents, according to the Gospel of Luke, lived in Nazareth and had only come to Bethlehem for the census, came from the priestly line. Rudolf Steiner writes about this in his 1911 book "Die geistige Führung des Menschen und der Menschheit" (CW 15):

„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 Solomonian 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, came crying to the royal palace of the Buddha's father when Gotama Buddha was a small child. 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 has 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 in 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)

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.