themysteryofjesus

Bringing to light the discrepancies and apparent contradictions between the Gospels of Matthew & Luke

Aspect Matthew (Solomon-Jesus) Luke (Nathan-Jesus)
Genealogies

Two distinct family trees

*Both are paternal bloodlines

  1. Listed from the past into the present
  2. Goes back to Abraham
  3. Identical from Abraham to David, diverges afterward, beginning with Solomon: The kingly line of David
  4. Concludes with Joseph, then Jesus*
  1. Listed from the present into the past
  2. Goes back to Adam, a descendant of God
  3. Identical from Abraham to David, diverges afterward, beginning with Nathan: The priestly line of David
  4. Concludes with Joseph, then Jesus*

The conclusion here is that the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke each speak of a different child named Jesus.

Below the divergent paths are highlighted. Later it will be shown how the two paths unite.

To whom was the coming child announced
and to who was told what to name the child

  1. All explanatory and guiding indications of the spirit are given to the elderly Joseph

  2. The Angel, in a dream, speaks to him of the impending birth
  3. To him the Angel conveys the need to flee to Egypt and the same for their safe return
  4. Matthew conveys a more earth-bound story, focused on the child Jesus
  1. Mary experiences the Angelic annunciation before her soul
  2. The change in Mary is profound, gripping her whole being
  3. Luke conveys a more divine-cosmic event i.e. the virgin birth, more focused on the Christ
Where Joseph and Mary
Traveled from for the Census
  1. Lived in Bethlehem [1]
  2. Region of Judah [2]
  1. From Nazareth
  2. Region of Galilee [2]
Place of Jesus' Birth
  1. In a house (Mt. 2: 9-11) in Bethlehem, the 'House of David'
  2. This family was of the Solomon line, descendants from the most distinguished line of the entire nation

  1. In a stable ("laid Him in a manger", Luke 2: 7) in Bethlehem

    (Early Christians up through the Middle Ages still knew the location to be in a rocky cave)

  2. This family was of the Nathan line, from a lineage of nameless 'quiet ones in the land' (a description of those living in the region of and descended from family lines in Nazareth)

To whom the birth of the child was announced
  1. To 'pagan' priest-kings of the East
  2. Priests of the ancient Mysteries
  3. Astrological wisdom is enkindled in the priest-kings as the Cosmos communicates the coming of the vessel of the prophesied Christ[3]
  1. To lowly shepherds out in the fields
  2. The ancient clairvoyance bestowed by nature blossoms forth in the shepherds
  3. They behold the angelic choirs and hear their song of 'Gloria'
Circumstances Surrounding Jesus' Birth

In time, both families reside in the same locality, i.e. Nazareth

( 'Jesus of Nazareth' in fulfillment of the O.T. prophecy )

  1. The drama played out between four earthly kings

    (The 3 priest-kings and the evil Herodian king & his satanic infanticide)

  2. Born in danger of the Herodian infanticide
  3. After the adoration of the child by the 3 kings, the family immediately flees to Egypt
  4. They return from Egypt only after Herod dies
  5. They do not return to Bethlehem, but by Angelic direction are told to settle in Nazareth (Mt. 2:22)
  1. The Angelic proclamation of 'Peace on Earth'
  2. Born far enough into the future to avoid the threat of the Herodian infanticide
  3. After the child is worshipped by the shepherds, the parents wait 8 days before having him circumcised
  4. After another 40 days of purification, the child is presented in the Temple and is blessed by Simeon and Anna
  5. Directly after this, the family returns to Nazareth (Luke 2:39)

Each child was endowed with particular qualities that had been passed down to them via specific impulses that
were necessary for "Jesus of Nazareth" to become the vessel necessary for the Christ to incarnate. Next an overview is provided.

The "composition" of each child
  1. The ancient soul of Zarathustra (Zarathustra's Ego) incarnated as the Jesus child descendant of the Solomon line of David, bringing with him the purified Karma of this lofty soul, having experienced and overcome the challenges humanity has faced throughout its evolution[4].

  2. In this child was reincarnated the Zarathustra-Individuality, from whom the people of ancient Persia had once received the teaching concerning Ahura Mazdao, the great Sun Being. We know that this Sun Being must be regarded as the soul and spirit of the external, physical sun. Hence Zarathustra was able to say: 'Behold not only the radiance of the physical sun; behold, too, the mighty Being who sends down His spiritual blessings as the physical sun sends down its beneficient light and warmth!' — Ahura Mazdao, later called the Christ — it was He whom Zarathustra proclaimed to the people of Persia, but not yet as a Being who had sojourned on the Earth. Pointing to the sun, Zarathustra could only say: 'There is His habitation; He is gradually drawing near and one day He will live in a body on the Earth!' (Rudolf Steiner, GA 114, 19 September 1909)

  3. In the Solomon-Jesus [we see] an individuality of exceptional maturity, having profound understanding of the world.

    —Rudolf Steiner, 19 September, 1909

  1. The higher hierarchies created the seed of the human kingdom in the supersensory realm through their sacrificial deeds. This human soul was held back in heaven by the angelic kingdoms and was not allowed down into the dark destinies of earth, because all the celestial spheres were aglow in holy admiration and love for this soul. This being was the dearest child of all the gods, not only when it lay in the crib in Bethlehem, but from primordial beginnings onwards in the cosmic cradle of heaven. (Page 73)

  2. After all the other human souls had departed the pre-physical light sphere of paradise and had descended to the earthly world of matter which, following the Fall, was becoming ever more dense and dark. In this celestial sister soul, earthly humanity possessed not only a preserved recollection of their origin in light but a heart of light and warmth which sympathized adn suffered along with all their trials and tribulations. (Page 73)
  3. This higher Adam soul was too young, germinal and devoid of destiny, however, to step in and help on its own. Nevertheless, due to its unique selflessness and genius of devotion, it could turn itself into the mediating vessel which the lofty divine being, willing and able to help, required for intervening in the sphere of humanity. (Page 74)

  4. At the birth of the Nathan Jesus child, the Being of the Buddha (his nirmanakaya[5]), who was then incorporated as far as the etheric body, entered into the (pure) astral body of the Nathan Jesus. Compassion and love in the highest sense of the words are the ideal of Buddhism. (Rudolf Steiner, GA 114, September, 1909)

  5. In the Nathan-Jesus we see a being with infinite depths of feeling.

    —Rudolf Steiner, 19 September, 1909

The death of the Solomon Joseph

  1. At about the older Jesus boy's age of eleven or twelve, the aged Joseph died

  2. He left behind his widow Mary and seven children

Together with many other pilgrims, the two families — the widowed Mary and her son, traveling together with the
Nathan-line family — journeyed from Nazareth to Jerusalem in order to celebrate the Passover festival at the Temple. Pg. 143

Each boy had reached a crucial point in his development of purpose. Here they experience all the forces that had drawn them together, to one another.

Age of each boy at the time
of this journey for Passover		 Thirteen, perhaps Fourteen Twelve years old
What Happened in the Temple at that time
  1. Having held the individuality of Zarathustra in his soul, in this particular incarnation, that individuality now sought a new sheath – the sheath of a pure soul, untarnished by Karma.
  2. The 'I' (the individuality) of the Solomon-Jesus child left this child and moved into the Nathan-Jesus boy.
  1. The soul of the Nathan-Jesus received the individuality of Zarathustra and with it the depth of his wisdom.
  2. The boy that had never exhibited any robust knowledge of earthly matters suddenly sat with elders in the Temple, teaching them depths of mysteries they had not previously understood.
  3. In past ages of humanity such transfers of individuality were not only feasible, but actually occurred more frequently. Pg.147
What occurred as a result of this transferring of individuality
  1. The older Jesus boy who had sacrificed his spirit became silent and withdrawn in contrast to his former nature. Pg. 147
  2. For no discernable outer reason he rapidly wasted away and died not long after the above Passover festival.
  3. item
  1. As the parents made their way back to Nazareth, they soon realized that their son was not with them
  2. They found him after days of searching in the Temple among the elders
  3. When his parents showed their concern, Jesus answered them, "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
What circumstances befell the two
families after the death of the Solomon-Jesus boy?
  1. For no apparent reason the wife Mary of the carpenter Joseph died.
  2. The celestial virgin-mother was drawn back to Heaven
  3. Both families having lived in Nazareth, an Essene community, it was likely suggested that the Nathan-Joseph become wed to the widowed Solomon-Mary
  4. Thus, Mary became mother to the Jesus boy of Luke's Gospel and her children into a sibling-relationship with him
  5. This resulting union of the two families — quite natural within the Nazarene colony — was the coming together of the noble bearer of the royal legacy became the wife of a carpenter, brought about by Providence.
  6. In a very real sense, Mary was living with her own son – his individuality now existing in her stepson.
  7. As time progressed, their relationship grew stronger, deeper, she slowly coming to realize the reality of what had occurred within each of the Jesus boys.

(Pg. 180-181)

What occurred prior to Jesus (at age 30) going
to John the Baptist at the River Jordan?
  1. Before Jesus departed on his way to John the Baptist, before he bade his mother goodbye, a conversation took place between Jesus and Mary.
  2. This conversation evoked a change in soul in both Jesus and Mary
  3. In the preceding years up to this time, Mary had shared in Jesus experiences as he grew
  4. Now Jesus gave Mary a glimpse into the deepest recesses of his inner being
  5. This outpouring of himself to Mary opened up in him a profound readiness for devotion and sacrifice that lay before him
  6. This also brought great change within Mary: An emotional upheaval took hold of her soul due to her extreme compassion for Jesus and the suffering he faced
  7. The virginal soul of Luke's Mary, irradiated by the divine Isis-Sophia entity, descended upon the soul of this, the "other" Mary.
  8. This event extended even into the bodily dimension; Mary had become permeated with the spirit of cosmic virginity
  9. The union of the two Jesus boys was followed by the union of the two Marys
  10. Folk songs of the Middle Ages spoke of this farewell conversation like this: "When Jesus left his mother, his bitter suffering began."

(Pg. 180-185)

☩

What Happened at the Baptism of Jesus of Nazareth

John not only announced the closely approaching coming of the Messiah in words; he brought about an actual precognition of what was spiritually about to happen to those who let themselves be baptized by him in the Jordan. Through the baptism in which all the ancient soul disciplines that aimed for ecstatic translation were concentrated, he evoked prophetic visions of the future principle of spiritual indwelling, an indwelling that would make its appearance through him who would come to baptize, in place of water, with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' inner being the profoundly significant transformation took place which prepared him to sacrifice himself to the approaching Christ-being as vessel and vehicle. The mature 'I' of humanity which had lived in him since his twelfth year began to loosen itself from the body and soul sheaths in a final will of surrender and sacrifice.

The moment had come when the divine Christ-entity was to make his entry into the bodily and soul sheaths of a human being. As nver before, the narrow confines of a terrestrial human body were to receive a superterrestrial content. And here, the mighty Grace of Providence was fulfilled in the Baptist's life: by carrying out the Baptism in the Jordan on Jesus of Nazareth, he was privileged to help in the incarnation, in a human being, of the lofty 'I' of God.

John's task in his life fulfilled, as he had said, "He must increase, I must decrease." John and Jesus had first met while still in the womb and, now, with the leaving of the Solomon-Jesus' individuality, replaced by the 'I' of God, so too had the time come for John to depart the earth.

Detail of the painting by Raphael* titled "The Visitation": Elizabeth and Mary meet, John baptizes Jesus in the background

* Raphael was an incarnation of John the Baptist

☩

How Should We Then Respond?

This revelation, this Mystery held within the silence of apparent contradiction, should open up within our consciousness a sense of wonder and amazement at what it means to be a human being on this earth. It is herein revealed that 'Christianity' is not a new religion that usurps and invalidates all other valid religions, but contrarily it is the fulfillment of all Mystery traditions.

Christianity, in this (new) light, is not the dogma boxed in by the many expressions of the 'church' but rather is in actuality what it claims to be – the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This brings a better understanding of the reference to Christ Jesus as the 'King of Kings'. He is the Cosmic Christ, the infusion of the Creator God into the life of humanity in order to break us free of the bonds of materialism and the chains of a belief that 'this is it.'

☩

Notes

  1. In relating the childhood events of Mary, the apocryphal gospels deal with the story preceding the Christmas narration of Matthew. They survived into the Middle Ages in legendary form and represent a tradition that, with the unproblematic matter-of-factness, designates Bethlehem, not Nazareth, as Joseph's domicile. In the legend of 'our dear lady's annunciation,' the miracle of the staff is related, whereby the right husband was supposed to be discovered for Mary, the temple maiden. All the men have already passed by without the sign having appeared on their staffs. Then a divine voice speaks: 'There is one more who is called Joseph and dwells in Bethlehem.' In the legend of 'the birth of the blessed Virgin Mary,' it says afer the miracle of the staff has been fulfilled in Joseph's case: 'Thus, the engagement between them was solemnized. Then Joseph went back to his city of Bethlehem in order to set up his house and prepare what was required for the wedding.'
    Page 33

  2. ...Parents from Bethlehem would mean that Jesus emerges from the specifically Jewish heritage and environment in which strictest attention was paid to maintaining the purity of the Jewish bloodline. By contrast if, according to Luke, the parents come from Nazareth, then, even though he was born in Bethlehem, Jesus' homeland is Galilee, the multinational region which, as the stage of the greatest variety of human destinies, possessed the strongest non-Jewish pagan infusions*.
    Page 34

    * Galilee was composed of peoples from many different cultures and backgrounds and far from the strictness of Jewish Law, hence the question raised at one point, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?'

    'Pagan infusions' is a reference to the ancient 'pagan' Mysteries, all of which pointed to the coming of the Christ (and which used different and varied titles for the Christ). Think of the fact that all primary belief (religious) systems refer to a time of a great flooding across the earth. Think of 'perennial philosophy' and its perspective on spirituality that views religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge originates i.e. the same Divine origin.

    An important example of this, the root of which comes into play within the Solomon-Jesus, is a prophecy found in the Avesta, the collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism of ancient Persia:

    The mighty, royal promise-bearing sun-ether aura,
    Created by God, we revere it in our prayer;
    It will pass to the most victorious of Saviours
    And to the others, his apostles;
    He who brings the world forward
    And causes it to overcome old age and death, corruption and decay,
    Who helps attain to eternal life, to eternal well-being, to free will;
    When the dead rise again,
    When the living vanquisher of death appears
    And the world is brought forward through will.

    Page 64

    This connection to Zarathustra reaches back to the Babylonian exile of the Israelites, concealed behind the figure of the initiate Jethro, a priest of Midian and Moses' father in law (Exodus 2:16) who taught Moses for 40 years before Moses' encounter with the burning bush. Incidentally, let's remember that Moses' was raised as a son of the Egyptian Pharaoh and therefore would have been taught in the school of Hermes (i.e. Hermetic truth – the Seven Hermetic Principles). These two impulses would be carried forth through time and become infused in the vessel of the Christ (Jesus). These are the inner paths of which the Messianic people embarked on their journey through the desert, inner paths on which they had to journey so as to be able one day to receive the Messiah.

  3. It was prophesied that Zarathustra himself would incarnate as the human being in whom the incarnation of Christ was to take place, and in a mysterious way he would become both the content and object of Messianic prophecy.

    And when the time had come, three lofty royal representatives of eastern, surviving Zarathustra wisdom — the New Testament calls them 'magi' — became aware through the position of the planets and stars that the age-old prophecy had been fulfilled.

    The inner connection of the birth of Jesus with the wisdom stream of Zarathustra remained alive until the late Middle Ages and has often been expressed in words, especially by theologians of Syrian and Armenian Christendom.
    Pages 69,70

  4. The Four-fold Human Being

    At this point in the discussion, some understanding of the 'composition' of the human being is required.

    1. The Physical body. This is the physical form we share with minerals, plants and animals. It is this body that is perceptible to the "naked eye." The physical body is connected to the root chakra, which is linked with security, instinct and the element of earth.

    2. The Etheric body completely permeates the physical, of which it may be regarded as a kind of architect - it is what holds the form of the physical body together. All the organs of the physical body are maintained in their form and structure by the currents and movements of the etheric body. Underlying the physical heart there is an etheric heart, underlying the physical brain an etheric brain, and so on. The etheric body is in effect a differentiated body like the physical, only far more complicated. And whereas in the physical body there are relatively separated parts, in the etheric all is in living interflow and movement. Man has the etheric body in common with the plant world, just as he has the physical body in common with the mineral. Everything that is alive has an etheric body. The etheric body can be linked to the sacral chakra, which, like water, symbolizes fluidity and nurturing.

    3. The Astral body is the seat of our sensory perceptions. It is where our passions originate and exist. The astral body is where we experience pleasure and pain, feelings of hunger or of thirst. Feelings and emotions belong to the realm of the astral body. We share an astral body with the animal kingdom. The astral body has a characteristic movement of contraction, shrinking and closing down on the one hand, and expansion, relaxation and openness on the other - as in breathing. The astral body can be linked to the solar plexus chakra, which is related to emotions and will or purpose.

    4. The 'I' or 'Ego' is what defines us as Human, distinct from all other life forms. It is the source of our self-consciousness. The ego or 'I' enters the Human organism from above and lives in the inner warmth of man. Our individual 'I' is what gives us direction and what determines the course of our life. It lives in warmth, in the element of fire. The 'I' is related to the heart chakra, which encompasses higher emotions such as love and compassion. It is where our Spirit lives - the divine aspect of the whole human being as an individual unity but which never reveals itself. The only way to gain access to our 'I' is by first understanding the three archetypal qualities of spirit: thinking, feeling and willing.

  5. Nirmanakaya means "emanation body." This is the physical body that is born, walks the earth, and dies.