Wood of the Cross Legend
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.
„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.“
Literature
- 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 academia.edu
- Rudolf Steiner: Die Tempellegende und die Goldene Legende , GA 93 (1991), ISBN 3-7274-0930-4 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Das christliche Mysterium, GA 97 (1998), ISBN 3-7274-0970-3 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Aus der Bilderschrift der Apokalypse des Johannes, GA 104a (1991), ISBN 3-7274-1045-0 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Zur Geschichte und aus den Inhalten der erkenntniskultischen Abteilung der Esoterischen Schule von 1904 bis 1914, GA 265 (1987), ISBN 3-7274-2650-0 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
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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. |
