Jordan baptism

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With Jordan baptism (also baptism of Jesus), which took place near Bethany[1], situated on the eastern bank of the Jordan, at almost the lowest point of the solid earth[2], the Christ moved into the threefold earthly shell of Jesus of Nazareth, consisting of physical body, etheric body and astral body, in order to live on earth from then on for three years.

„28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me: ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.“

Through his spiritual-scientific research, Rudolf Steiner had come to the conclusion that around the turning point of time, not one, but two Jesus boys had been born, the Nathanian and the Solomonic Jesus, both descended from the lineage of David. A clear indication of this is given by the two very different birth narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. In neither of these two Jesus boys did the I of the Christ initially dwell. At the age of 12, the I of the Solomonic Jesus, who according to Rudolf Steiner was the reborn Zarathustra, passed into the body of the Nathanian Jesus, in order to prepare until his thirtieth year for the great act of sacrifice with which he surrendered his body-shells to the incarnating Christ. Steiner was well aware that these insights could appear strange or even offensive:

„For many people, what spiritual science has to say about the Christ Being is particularly offensive. 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".[3]) 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 to be right, but this one.“ (Lit.:GA 35, p. 167f)

The Christ, the Divine Word of Creation (Honover according to Persian tradition) is the same being of whom it says in the Old Testament: "And the Spirit of God brooded upon the waters." (Genesis 1:2). To the imaginative vision, the spiritual of Jesus, which detaches itself from the body with the baptism of the Jordan, shows itself in the form of the white dove.

„Thus the I of Zarathustra, the highest ascended human I, could be chosen to dwell for 18 years in the sheaths which were then to receive the Christ. His I left the shells shortly before John's baptism in the Jordan. Thus he was not present in the flesh when the Christ walked on earth. Zarathustra himself incarnated soon after leaving the three shells of Jesus of Nazareth; his I united with the etheric body of the Solomonic Jesus, which at his death had been taken into the spiritual world by the mother of the Nathanian Jesus.“ (Lit.:GA 264, p. 231)

„Anthroposophical research shows that a view which was also alive in early Christianity is correct: the deeper connection of the cosmic Christ-being with the man Jesus of Nazareth came about only in the thirtieth year of this human life, and that through the baptismal event.“ (Lit.: Hans-Werner Schroeder, The Cosmic Christ, p. 142)

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. ↑ Not to be confused with the second Bethany mentioned in the New Testament. This was located about 15 stadia (just under 2.8 km) southeast of what was then Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. According to John 11:18, it was the home of the three siblings Mary, Martha and Lazarus and it was here that the raising of Lazarus took place.
  2. ↑ The lowest point of the solid earth at 420 m below sea level is where the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea. The Jordan Rift Valley is part of the Great African Rift Valley, which is the "deepest and most conspicuous scrape on the face of the Earth."
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