Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl[1]
Jesus of Nazareth.
Question. — What is historically known about the personality of Jesus of Nazareth?
Reply. — As good as nothing. — His story in the “New Testament” is a symbolic representation of man’s spiritual evolution, from incarnation to transfiguration; a symbol of salvation, the descent of the spirit into material existence and the spiritualization of the material that is only made possible by this. Christ is crucified in every man, and only in this way can his union with the God-man take place and man, born again and risen in the Spirit of God, attain liberty. Hence the saying of the old Rosicrucians: “Ex Deo nascimur. In Jesu morimur. Reviviscimus per Spiritum Sanctum.” [“]Of God we are born, in Jesus we die (renounce self-delusion), through the Holy Spirit (the knowledge of God) we live again (to a higher existence).[”] Therefore also the one aim of every Christian is to find the divine Master within himself, and the apostle rightly says: I desire nothing and long for nothing but the crucified (in me) God-man, Jesus Christ.
But as for the earthly personality called Jesus of Nazareth, H. P. Blavatsky calls him the greatest of all adepts, and Eliphas Levi speaks of him as the mightiest of all initiates. All modern descriptions have made him more or less a caricature. Some describe him as an idealist, others as a reformer, or as a socialist, anarchist, as a kind of family doctor, magnetizer, some even see him as a swindler and conjurer and want to explain his miracles in this way.
A well-known historian, [Gerald] Massey, writes: “The Jehoshua” (Jesus) of the Talmud was undoubtedly a historical figure. According to the tradition contained in “Toledoth Jehoshua” he was related to Queen Salome, the wife and later widow of King Jannaeus, who ruled from the year 106 to 79 BC. One account says he was a disciple of Jehoshua ben-Perachia, who began teaching in 154 B.C., and went with him to Egypt. It is then claimed that Jehoshua ben Pandira was stoned to death in the city of Lud or Lydde and his body nailed to a cross. Epiphanius in the fourth century traces the genealogical tree of Jesus to that Pandira who was the father of that Jehoshua who died more than a hundred years before our era, and who was called the “Nazarene” because he was a member of the sect of the Nazarenes.”[2]
It seems that in the “New Testament” the story of Jehoshua ben Pandira served as the material basis for symbolizing spiritual facts; something definite is not to be found in the ancient writings, and that is not to be regretted either; for the personality of even the greatest Adept is but the shadow of the spirit which indwells the perishable body, the vessel that contains the wine. Although the bearer of such a spirit is most venerable, it is not the essence, and those who only look at the shell overlook the core. But the core is the Spirit of Christ in us, of which the apostle says: “Do you not know that you are temples of God, and that the Spirit of God is in you; that’s you.”
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Forgiveness of sins.
Question. — What is to be thought of concerning the forgiveness of sins and indulgences, and what is the explanation of chapter 16, verse 19 of Matthew: “I will also give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth, that shall also be bound in heaven, and whatever you redeem on earth shall also be redeemed in heaven”?
Reply. — I think Christ himself can give us the best information about this. If you ask the Master in your heart, perhaps he will answer you: “Peter is the man who has come to know. The keys are his willing and thinking, the forces within him, which he can either direct towards the earthly and sensual and bind them to, or detach from them. If he ties his thinking and willing to the material here on earth, it is also tied to it in the “beyond” after leaving the body; if he releases it from it, he is also free from it in the “heavenly state.” But as for the remission of sins, whoever wants it must forsake his own sins; no one else can do this for him.”
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Question. — What does the fable of the raven and the dove that Noah let fly out of the ark mean?
Reply. — The ark is man; the raven means the earthly common sense, which searches for the eternal truth and finds rest nowhere; the dove with the olive branch in its beak, the symbol of peace, signifies the revelation of the Word of God. The raven flies to and fro in selfhood, the dove finds land and returns to its origin with its message. “Mount Ararat” signifies the kingdom of God, the kingdom of faith, the true knowledge in which the spirit finds its rest.
Notes
[1] Theosophical Correspondence. Jesus of Nazareth; forgiveness of sins, etc. [Theosophische Korrespondenz. Jesus von Nazareth; Sündenvergebung, etc. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 2, no. 9-10 (September-October 1909), 315-319] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[2] See, F. Hartmann, “Jehoshua, the Prophet of Nazareth.”