Abstract

This work reflects on the "supersensible insights" of Rudolf Steiner on the subject of the relationship between Jesus and the Essenes. Steiner dealt with this question in his lecture cycle The Fifth Gospel and presented the findings of his research from the Akashic Chronicle. In order to filter out the independence of the Akashic research from Steiner, the author contrasts the research of the Theosophist Blavatsky with Steiner's findings. The aim of this comparison is to explore the limits and possibilities of Steiner's Akashic research. The work shows that Steiner's Fifth Gospel contains some basic statements about the relationship between Jesus and the Essenes, which can already be found in Blavatsky's "Isis Unveiled". It is therefore unlikely that Steiner conducted his research completely independently of existing results (from Blavatsky). Steiner reports on personal encounters of Jesus with the Essenes that cannot be found anywhere else in the literature, and therefore he has made an additional contribution to esoteric research that should not be overlooked. One thesis that emerges from this work is that Steiner methodically incorporated both theosophical mediumism and somnambulism as well as the meditative vision of the Akashic Chronicle, which he found to be more accurate, into his research.