40. The Essenes -- John the Baptist -- the Temptation
He could learn what he wished to know only from the Essenes.
The Gospels have maintained an absolute silence about Jesus' deeds and travels before his meeting with John the Baptist, when, as they relate, he assumed his ministry. Immediately afterward he appears in Galilee with a teaching which has been formulated with the assurance of a prophet and the consciousness of the Messiah. But it is evident that this bold and premeditated beginning was preceded by a long development and a virtual initiation. It is no less certain that this initiation must have taken place in the only association which then preserved in Israel the real traditions of the prophets, together with their way of living. This cannot be doubted by those who, raising themselves above the superstition of the letter and the mechanical mania for the written document, have the courage to discover the connection between things. This is apparent, not only from inner relationships between the teaching of Jesus and that of the Essenes, but also from the very silence Christ and his disciples maintained concerning this sect. Why does one who attacks all the religious groups of his time with unprecedented freedom, never name the Essenes? Why do the Apostles and writers of the Gospels not speak of them? Evidently because they consider the Essenes as their own group, because they are united with them by the vow of the Mysteries and because the sect was linked with the Christians.
In Jesus' time the Order of the Essenes constituted the last remnants of those brotherhoods of prophets organized by Samuel. The despotism of the masters of Palestine, along with the jealousy of an ambitious and servile priesthood had pushed them into retreat and silence. They no longer fought as did their predecessors; they were content with preserving tradition. They had two main centers: one in Egypt beside Lake Maoris, the other in Palestine at Engaddi, beside the Dead Sea. The name "Essenes" which they had given themselves, came from the Syrian word, Asaya, meaning physicians, in Greek, therapeutes, for their sole avowed ministry, so far as the public was concerned, was that of healing physical and moral maladies. "They studied very carefully," said Josephus, "certain writings on medicine which dealt with the secret properties of plants and minerals." Some possessed the gift of prophecy like Menahim, who had predicted to Herod that he would reign. "They serve God," said Philo, "with a great piety, not by offering Him victims, but in sanctifying their spirit. They flee from cities and apply themselves to the arts of peace. There is not one slave among them; they are all free and work for one another."
The rules of the Order were strict. In order to enter, a novitiate of one year was required. If one had given satisfactory proof of temperance, he was admitted to the ablutions but without entering into relationship with the masters of the Order. Two more years of trial were required before one was received into the Brotherhood. The members swore "by terrible oaths" to observe the duties of the Order and to betray none of its secrets. Then only did they take part in the communal meals, which were celebrated with great solemnity, forming the intimate cult of the Essenes. The garments they wore at these meals they considered sacred, removing them before returning to work. These fraternal love feasts, the primitive form of the Supper instituted by Jesus, began and ended with prayer.
On these occasions the original interpretation of the sacred books of Moses and the prophets was given, but in the explanation of the texts as well as in initiation there were three meanings and three stages. All this resembled the organization of the Pythagoreans,71 but it is certain that it also existed in about the same form among the ancient prophets, for it is found in all places of initiation. In addition, the Essenes taught the basic ideas of the Orphic and Pythagorean doctrine, including that of the pre-existence of the soul, the consequence of and reason for its immortality. "The soul," as Josephus reported, "descending from the most subtle ether and drawn into the body by a certain natural charm, lives there as in a prison; freed from the bonds of the body as from a long servitude, it flies away with joy."
Among the Essenes the brothers themselves lived in remote places under a community of property and in a state of celibacy, tilling the soil and sometimes educating the children of outsiders. As for the married Essenes, they constituted a sort of Third Order, affiliated with and subject to the other. Silent gentle and serious, they were seen here and there practising the arts of peace. Weavers, carpenters, vine growers or gardeners, they never were weapons makers or merchants. Spread in little groups throughout Palestine, in Egypt, even as far as Mount Horeb, they were dedicated to most generous hospitality. Thus we shall see Jesus and his disciples travel from city to city, from province to province, always certain of finding shelter. "The Essenes," said Josephus, "were of an exemplary morality; they strove to repress all passion and all emotion of anger; they were always kind, peaceful and of the highest good faith in their relations. Their word had more weight than an oath; they considered the oath superfluous in ordinary life. Rather than violate the least religious precept they bore the most cruel tortures with an admirable strength of soul and with a smile on their lips."
Indifferent to the external pomp of the cult in Jerusalem, repelled by the hardness of the Saducees, by the pride of the Pharisees, by the pedantry and dryness of the synagogue, Jesus was drawn to the Essenes by a natural affinity.72 Joseph's premature death left Mary's son, now a man, entirely free. His brothers could continue their father's trade and maintain the home. His mother allowed him leave in secret for Engaddi. Welcomed as a brother, greeted as one of the elect, he must have rapidly acquired an invincible ascendancy over the masters themselves by means of his superior faculties, his ardent charity and that divine element which pervaded all his being. But from them he received what the Essenes alone could give him: the esoteric tradition of the prophets, and through this, his own historical and religious orientation.
He understood the abyss which separated the official Jewish doctrine from the ancient wisdom of the initiates, the true mother of religions, forever persecuted by Satan, that is, the spirit of Evil, the spirit of egotism, hatred and negation joined with absolute political power and priestly imposture. He learned that under the seal of its symbolism, Genesis contained a theogony and a cosmogony as far removed from its literal meaning as the deepest science from the most childish fable. He contemplated the Days of the Elohim, of eternal creation through the emanation of the elements and the formation of the worlds, the origin of souls and their return to God by progressive existences, or The Generations of Adam. He was struck by the greatness of the thought of Moses, who desired to pave the way for the religious unity of nations by creating the cult of the One God and by incarnating this idea in a people.
They then communicated to him the doctrine of the Divine Word, already taught by Krishna in India, by the priests of Osiris in Egypt, by Orpheus and Pythagoras in Greece and known among the prophets under the name the Mystery of the Son of Man and of the Son of God. According to this teaching, the highest manifestation of God is man, who by virtue of his constitution, his form, his organs and his intellect is the image of the Universal Being, possessing His faculties. But, in the earthly evolution of mankind, God is dispersed as it were, broken up and mutilated in the multiplicity of men and of human imperfection. He suffers, he seeks himself, nevertheless, he is the Son of Man, the perfect Man. The Man symbol, deepest thought of God, remains hidden in the infinite abyss of His desire and His power. However, at certain periods when it is a question of saving humanity from an abyss, of bringing mankind together in order to lift them higher, a chosen one becomes identified with Divinity, draws It to him through strength, wisdom and love and in turn, manifests It to men. Then the Divine, through the power and the breath of the Spirit, is completely present in him; the Son of Man becomes the Son of God and His living Word. In other ages and among other peoples there had already been Sons of God, but since Moses none had been raised in Israel. All the prophets waited for his Messiah. The seers even said that this time he would be called the Son of Woman, of celestial Isis, of the divine Light, who is the Bride of God, because in him the light of Love would shine with a brilliance as yet unknown to earth.
These hidden things which the patriarch of the Essenes unveiled to the young Galilean on the arid shores of the Dead Sea in the solitude of Engaddi, seemed both marvelous and familiar to him. With great emotion he heard the leader of the Order explain these words which are still read today in the Book of Enoch: "From the beginning, the Son of Man was in the Mysteries. The Most High kept him in His presence, and manifested him to His elect . . . But the kings will be frightened and will bow their faces to earth, and fear will seize them when they shall see the Son of Woman sitting on the throne of his glory. Then the Elect will call all the forces of heaven, all the saints from on high, and the power of God. Then the Cherubim, the Seraphim, the Ophanim, all the angels of Power, all the angels of the Lord, that is, of the Elect and of the other Power, who serve on earth and above the waters, will lift up their voices."73
At these revelations, the words of the prophets, read and meditated upon a hundred times, flamed in the Nazarene's eyes with new, deep and terrible light like flashes of lightning in the night sky. Who then was this Chosen One, and when would he come to Israel?
Jesus spent several years with the Essenes. He submitted himself to their discipline, he studied the secrets of nature and practiced esoteric healing with them. He completely blunted his senses in order to develop his spirit. Not a single day passed without his meditating on the destinies of mankind and in questioning himself. It was a memorable night for the Order of the Essenes and for its new adept when he received, in deepest secret, the higher initiation at the fourth stage, the one granted only in the special case of a prophetic mission, desired by the brother and approved by the Elders. They met in a grotto carved inside a mountain, a vast room containing an altar and seats of stone. The leader of the Order was there with a few Elders. At times two or three Essene women, initiate prophetesses, were admitted to the mysterious ceremony. Bearing torches and palms, they greeted the new initiate, who was clothed in white linen, as "Bridegroom and King," whom they had foretold and whom they now saw for the first time. Then the head of the Order, ordinarily a man of one hundred years (Josephus says that the Essenes lived to a very advanced age), presented the golden chalice to him, the symbol of supreme initiation, which held the wine of the Lord's vineyard, symbol of divine inspiration. Some said that Moses had drunk from it with the Seventy. Others believed that it dated back to Abraham, who received from Melchizedek this same initiation with the elements of bread and wine. The Elder presented the cup only to that man in whom he had recognized with certainty signs of a prophetic mission. But nobody could define this mission for him; he had to discover it for himself. For this is the law of the initiates: Nothing from the outside; all from within. Henceforth he was free, the master of his actions, liberated from the Order, himself a hierophant, left to the breath of the Spirit, which could cast him into the abyss or bear him to the summits beyond the region of torment and earthly passions.
When the Nazarene took the cup after the songs, prayers and sacramental words of the Elder, a faint ray of dawn, slipping through a crevice in the mountain, gently touched the torches and the long white garments of the young Essene women. The latter trembled when the light fell upon the pale Galilean, for a great sadness appeared upon his beautiful face. Did his wandering gaze rest upon the sick of Siloam? Did he already see his path leading into the depths of that ever present suffering?
Now at this time John the Baptist was preaching beside the Jordan. He was not an Essene, but was a prophet of the people, a member of the strong race of Judah. Driven into the desert by a fierce piety, he had led the most ascetic life in prayers, fasts and macerations. Over his bare skin, tanned by the sun, he wore a garment of camel's skin as a sign of the penance he wished to impose upon himself and his people. For he deeply felt the distress of Israel and awaited the deliverance. In line with the Judaic idea he imagined that the Messiah would come soon as an avenger and a judge; that, as a new Maccabeus, he would organize the people, drive out the Romans, punish the guilty, enter Jerusalem in triumph and reestablish the kingdom of Israel in peace and justice. John announced to the multitudes the imminent arrival of this Messiah; he added that it was necessary to prepare oneself by repentance of the heart. Borrowing the custom of ablutions from the Essenes, transforming it in his own way, he had conceived of baptism in the Jordan as a visible symbol, an external fulfillment of the inner purification he required.
This new ceremony, this vehement preaching before immense crowds in the desert, which bordered the waters of Jordan between the rugged mountains of Judea and Perea, gripped imaginations, drew multitudes. It recalled the glorious days of the ancient prophets; it gave the people what they did not find in the Temple: the inner appeal, and, after the terrors of repentance, a dim but mighty hope. From all parts of Palestine they came to hear the saint of the desert, who announced the Messiah. Large groups, drawn by his voice, remained camped for weeks so they could hear him each day. They did not want to go away, for they were waiting for the Messiah to appear. Many asked to take up arms under his command, to begin the holy war again.
Herod Antipas and the priests of Jerusalem were becoming troubled by this movement. Besides, the signs of the time were serious. Tiberius, seventy-four years of age, was ending his life surrounded by the debaucheries of Capri; Pontius Pilate re-doubled his violence against the Jews. In Egypt, the priests had announced that the Phoenix was about to be reborn from its own ashes.
Inwardly aware that his prophetic calling was increasing, but still groping his way, Jesus also came to the desert of Jordan, accompanied by a few Essene brothers, who already were following him as a teacher. He wanted to see the Baptist, to hear him and to submit himself to public baptism. He wanted to enter upon his tasks by way of an act of humility and reverence for the prophet who dared lift his voice against the rulers of the day and to awaken the soul of Israel from its sleep.He saw the rude ascetic, shaggy and hairy with his visionary leonine head, standing in a wooden pulpit under a rustic tabernacle covered with branches and goatskins. Around him, among the sparse bushes of the desert, was an immense crowd, a whole encampment: tax collectors, Herod's soldiers, Samaritans, Levites from Jerusalem, Idumeans with their herds of sheep. Even Arabs had stopped there with their camels, tents and caravans at "the voice which cried in the wilderness." And that thundering voice rolled over the multitude: "Repent, prepare the way of the Lord; clear his paths!" He called the Pharisees and Sadducees "a generation of vipers." He added that "the axe is already at the root of the trees," and about the Messiah, he said, "I baptize you only with water, but he will baptize you with fire!"
Then toward sunset, Jesus saw these masses of people pressing toward a cove on the banks of the Jordan, and Herod's mercenaries and brigands bent their rough backs beneath the water which the Baptist poured over them. Jesus went nearer. John did not know Jesus; he had heard nothing of him, but he recognized the Essene by his linen robe. He saw him, lost in the crowd, descend into the water to the waist, humbly bending himself to receive the baptism. When the neophyte stood up again, the fearful eyes of the wild preacher and the gaze of the Galilean met. The man of the desert trembled under this ray of wondrous sweetness, and the words escaped him involuntarily, "Are you the Messiah?" The mysterious Essene answered nothing, but bowing his thoughtful head and crossing his hands upon his breast, he asked the Baptist for his benediction. John knew that silence was the law of the Essene novices. Solemnly he raised his two hands; then with his companions the Nazarene disappeared among the reeds beside the river.
The Baptist watched him depart with a mixture of doubt, secret joy and profound melancholy. What were his own knowledge and his prophetic hope before the light he had seen in the eyes of the Unknown, a light which seemed to light up all his being? If this young, handsome Galilean was the Messiah, he had seen the joy of his days! But his own task was finished, his voice was about to be silent. From that day on he began to preach with a deeper and more emotional fervor on the sad theme, "It is necessary that he grow and that I diminish." He began to feel the lassitude and sadness of old lions who are weary with roaring and lie down in silence, awaiting death. . . .
Was he the Messiah? The Baptist's question also resounded in Jesus' soul. Since the unfolding of his consciousness, he had found God in himself and the certainty of the kingdom of heaven in the radiant beauty of his visions. Then human suffering had thrust into his heart its terrible cry of anguish. The Essene sages had taught him the secret of religions, the science of the Mysteries; they had shown him the spiritual decay of mankind, its expectation of a Saviour. But how could he find the strength to save mankind from the abyss? -- Here the direct call of John the Baptist fell into the silence of his meditation like the lightning of Sinai. -- Was he the Messiah?
Jesus could answer this question only by withdrawing into the deepest part of his being. Hence that retreat, that fast of forty days, which Matthew sums up in the form of a symbolic legend. In reality, in Jesus' life The Temptation represents that great crisis, that sovereign vision of Truth which all prophets and all religious initiates must experience before beginning their work.
Above Engaddi where the Essenes cultivated sesame and grapes, a steep path led to a grotto opening in the face of the mountain. It was entered between two Doric columns carved in the rock, similar to those of the retreat of the Apostles in the Valley of Jehosaphat. There one remained suspended over the deep abyss as though in an eagle's nest. At the end of a gorge below, one could see vineyards and human dwellings; in the distance was the Dead Sea, motionless and grey, while further away rose the desolate Mountains of Moab. The Essenes had obtained this retreat for their members who wished to submit themselves to the trial of solitude. Here were found several scrolls of the prophets, strengthening aromatics, dry figs and a little stream of water, the only food of the ascetic in meditation. Here Jesus came.
First he reviewed in his mind all of mankind's past. He weighed the gravity of the present moment. Rome was dominant, and with her what the Persian Magi had called the reign of Ahriman, and the prophets, the reign of Satan, the sign of the Beast, the apotheosis of evil. Darkness was coming over humanity, the somber soul of the earth. From Moses the people of Israel had received the royal and priestly mission of representing the male religion of the Father, the pure Spirit, and of teaching it to the other nations, thus bringing about its triumph. Had Israel's kings and priests fulfilled this mission? The prophets who alone had had an awareness of it, answered with a single voice, No! Israel was dying in the grip of Rome. Was it necessary for the hundredth time to risk such an uprising as the Pharisees still wished, a restoration of the temporal royalty of Israel by force? Should he declare himself the son of David, crying out with Isaiah, "I will crush the people in my anger, and I will make them drunk in my indignation, and I shall overturn their power on the earth?" Should he be a new Maccabeus and have himself named pontiff-king? Jesus could attempt this. He had seen the crowds ready to rise up at the voice of John the Baptist, and the strength which he felt within himself was even greater still! But did might make right? Would the sword put an end to the reign of the sword? Would that not be merely providing new recruits for the powers of darkness, lurking in the shadows, waiting for their prey?
Was it not necessary rather to make accessible to all, that Truth which until then had remained the privilege of a few sanctuaries and rare initiates, to open hearts to it, while waiting for it to enter the understanding through inner revelation and wisdom? In other words, should he, not preach the kingdom of heaven to the simple, to substitute for the reign of law that of grace, thus thoroughly transforming mankind while regenerating human souls?
But whose would be the victory? Satan's or God's? Would it be that of the spirit of evil who reigns with the tremendous powers of earth, or of the divine Spirit who reigns in the invisible, heavenly regions and sleeps in the heart of men like a spark within the people? What would be the future of the prophet who would dare to tear the veil from the Temple, to show the emptiness of the sanctuary, to brave both Herod and Caesar?
Nevertheless, it was necessary! The inner voice did not say to him as to Isaiah, "Take a great roll and write in it with a pen of man!" The voice of the Lord cried to him, "Rise up, and speak!" It was a question of finding the living word, the faith which moves mountains, the strength which breaks down strongholds.
Jesus began to pray with fervor. Then, an anxiety, an increasing disturbance overcame him. He had the feeling of losing the marvelous felicity which previously had been his, and of sinking into a dark abyss. A black cloud, filled with shadows of all kinds, enveloped him. He distinguished the faces of his brothers, of his Essene teachers, of his mother. The shadows spoke to him, one after the other: "Fool who desires the impossible! -- You do not know what is in store for you! Give it up!" The invincible inner voice answered, "I must!" Thus he fought for a series of days and nights, sometimes standing, sometimes kneeling, sometimes prostrate on the ground. And deeper became the abyss into which he descended, thicker became the cloud around him. He had the sensation of approaching something terrible and indescribable.
At last he entered the state of clear ecstasy to which he was accustomed, in which the deepest part of the consciousness awakens, enters into communication with the living Spirit of things, projecting the images of the past and future upon the diaphanous fabric of a dream. He closes his eyes; the external world disappears. The seer contemplates Truth by the light which floods his being, making of his intelligence a glowing furnace.
Thunder rolls; the foundations of the mountain tremble. A whirlwind from the depths carries the seer away to the top of the Temple of Jerusalem. Rooftops and minarets shine below him like a forest of gold and silver. Hymns arise from the Holy of Holies. Clouds of incense ascend from all the altars, whirling around Jesus' feet. People in festival robes fill the porticoes; beautiful women sing hymns of ardent devotion for him. Trumpets sound, and a hundred thousand voices cry, "Glory to the Messiah! -- To the King of Israel!" "You will be that king if you will worship me," says a voice from below. "Who are you?" asks Jesus.
Again the wind carries him away through space to the summit of a mountain. At his feet are the kingdoms of earth, spread out in their golden light. "I am the king of spirits and the prince of earth," says the voice from below.
"I know who you are," cries Jesus. "Your forms are innumerable; your name is Satan! Appear in your earthly form!" The form of a crowned monarch appears, sitting upon a cloud. A dim aureole surrounds his imperial head. The dark figure is outlined against a blood-red cloud; his face is pale, his gaze is like steel. He says, "I am Caesar. Only bow, and I will give you these kingdoms." Jesus says to him, "Get behind me tempter! It is written, You shall worship only the Lord your God." At once the vision fades.
Finding himself alone in the cave of Engaddi, Jesus asks, "By what sign shall I conquer the powers of the earth?" "By the sign of the Son of Man," answers a voice from above. "Show me this sign," says Jesus ...
A shining constellation appeared upon the horizon. It consisted of four stars in the form of a cross. The Galilean recognized the sign of the ancient initiations, familiar to Egypt and preserved by the Essenes. In the dawn of the world, the sons of Japhet had worshipped it as the sign of earthly and heavenly Fire, the sign of Life with all its joys, of Love with all its marvels. Later the Egyptian initiates had seen in it the symbol of the great Mystery, the Trinity dominated by Unity, the image of sacrifice of the Ineffable Being Who is broken in order to reveal Himself in the cosmos. Symbol of life, death and resurrection, it covered innumerable tombs and temples ... The splendid cross grew larger, coming nearer as though drawn by the heart of the seer. The four living stars flamed into suns of power and glory. "This is the magic sign of Life and Immortality," said the heavenly voice. "Men once possessed it, but they lost it. Do you wish to give it back to them?" "I do," answered Jesus. "Then look! This is your destiny!"
Abruptly the four stars were extinguished. Night fell. A subterranean rumbling shook the heights, and from the bottom of the Dead Sea came a dark mountain, surmounted by a black cross. A dying man was nailed upon it. A demon-ridden people swarmed over the mountain, shouting with an infernal mockery, "If you are the Messiah, save yourself!" The seer opened his eyes wide, then he fell backward, dripping with a cold sweat. For this crucified man was himself . . . He understood. In order to conquer, it was necessary to become identified with this frightful double, evoked by himself and placed before him like a sinister interrogation. Suspended in uncertainty as in the emptiness of infinite space, Jesus felt the tortures of the crucified one, the insults of men and the deep silence of heaven, all at the same time. "You can accept or reject it," said the angelic voice.
The vision trembled, and the phantom cross with its tortured victim began to dim, when suddenly Jesus saw near him the sick people of the pool of Siloam, and behind them came a whole host of despairing souls, murmuring with lifted hands, "Without you we are lost! Save us, you who know how to love!" Then the Galilean slowly arose, and opening his arms with fullest love, cried out, "Give me the cross! -- And let the world be saved!"
Immediately Jesus felt a great tearing in all his limbs, and he uttered a terrible cry . . . At the same time, the black mountain crumbled, the cross was swallowed up; a soft light, a divine happiness, flooded the seer, and in the azure heights a triumphant voice was heard saying, "Satan is no longer master! Death is conquered! Glory to the Son of Man! Glory to the Son of God!"
When Jesus awakened from this vision, nothing around him had changed. The rising sun gilded the walls of the grotto of Engaddi, a warm dew like tears of angelic love moistened his aching feet and floating mists arose from the Dead Sea. But he was no longer the same. A definitive event had taken place in the unfathomable abyss of his consciousness. He had solved the riddle of his life; he had won the peace, and great certainty had entered into him. A new and radiant consciousness had come forth it the breaking of his earthly being, which he had trodden under his feet and thrown into the abyss. He knew that he had become the Messiah by an irrevocable act of his will.
Shortly afterward he descended to the village of the Essenes. There he learned that John the Baptist had just been seized by Antipas and was imprisoned in the citadel of Makerous. Far from becoming frightened at this event, he saw in it a sign that the time was ripe, that now it was necessary for him to act. Therefore he announced to the Essenes that he was about to preach in Galilee "the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven." This meant that he was about to place the great Mysteries within the reach of the simple, to interpret for them the teaching of the initiates. Such courage had not been seen since the time that Sakya Muni, the last Buddha, moved by tremendous pity, had preached on the banks of the Ganges. The same sublime compassion for humanity moved Jesus. But to this he added an inner light, a power of love, a greatness of faith and a strength of action which were his alone. From the abyss of death, which he had fathomed and had tasted in advance, he brought to his brothers hope and life.
Notes for this chapter:
71. Points in common between the Essenes and Pythagoreans: Prayer at sunrise; linen clothing; fraternal love-feasts; novitiate of one year; three stages of initiation; organization of the Order and community of property arranged by trustees; law of silence; oath of the Mysteries; division of teaching into three parts: 1) science of universal principles or theogony, which Philo calls Logic; 2) Physics or cosmogony; 3) morality, that is, everything that deals with man, the science to which the Therapeuts would be dedicated. (See also Rudolf Steiner's lecture cycle on the Gospel of Matthew and Bock's The Three Years-Ed.)
72. Points in common between the teaching of the Essenes and that of Jesus: Love of one's neighbor as a first duty; prohibition of an oath in attesting to truth as a witness; hatred of the lie; humility; institution of the Supper borrowed from the love-feasts, but with an entirely new meaning, that of Sacrifice.
73. Book of Enoch, Chapters 48 and 61. This passage proves that the doctrine of the Word and the Trinity found in John's Gospel existed in Israel long before the time of Jesus, and came from the depths of esoteric prophecy. In the apocryphal Book of Enoch, The Lord of Spirits represents the Father; The Elect, the Son, the Chosen One; The Other Force, the Holy Spirit.
41. Jesus' Public Life and Esoteric Teaching