En: MACKEY - J

MACKEY – J

Source: Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry

• J

The tenth letter in the English alphabet. It is frequently and interchangeably used with I, and written in Hebrew as Yod, with the numerical value of 10, and having reference to the Supreme.

• JAABOROU HAMMAIM

The Hebrew words, aquae transibunt. A word of covered significancy in the Fifteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It also has reference to the L. D. P. (see Liber).

• JABESCHEH

The Hebrew word Earth. Also written Jebschah (see I. N. R. I.).

• JABULUM

A corrupted word used in two of the Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the Thirteenth and Seventeenth. The true word and its meaning, however, are disclosed to the initiate.

• JACHIN

Hence called by Dudley and some other writers, who reject the points, Ichin. It is the name of the right-hand pillar facing eastward, that is, on the south, that stood at the porch of King Solomon's Temple. It is derived from two Hebrew words, no, Jah, meaning God, and lace, iachin, will establish. It signifies, therefore, God will establish, and is often called the Pillar of Establishment.

• JACHINAI

A Gallic corruption of Shekinah, to be found only in the French notebooks or cahiers of the advanced Degrees.

• JACHIN AND BOAZ

A publication known by this name was brought forth in 1762 and has been constantly reprinted to the present time, probably having had a larger public sale than any other book treating of the Masonic Fraternity. The name of the author is said to have been Goodall (see Goodall; also Expositions) .

• JACKSON, JOHN

Signing the name of Philanthropos, he wrote, An Answer to a certain Pamphlet lately published under the solemn title of "A Sermon, or Masonry the way to Hell," 1768. The pamphlet to which he refers is in the British Museum at London and has the title of Masonry the way to Hell; a Sermon wherein is clearly proved, both from Reason and Scripture, that all who profess the Mysteries are in a state of Damnation, published at London in 1768.

• JACOBINS

A political sect that sprang up in the beginning of the French Revolution, and which have origin to the Jacobin clubs, so well known as having been the places where the leaders of the Revolution concocted their plans for the abolition of the monarchy and the aristocracy. Lieber says that it is a most surprising phenomenon that "so large a body of men could be found uniting rare energy with execrable vice, political madness, and outrageous cruelty, committed always in the name of virtue." Barruel, in his History de Jacobinisme, and Robinson, in his Proofs of a Conspiracy, both endeavor to prove that there was a coalition of the revolutionary conspirators with the Illuminati and the Freemasons which formed the Jacobin Clubs, those Bodies being, as they contend, only Masonic Lodges in disguise.

The falsity of these charges will be evident to anyone who reads the history of French Freemasonry during the Revolution, and more especially during that part of the period known as the Reign of Terror, when the Jacobin Clubs were in most vigor. The Grand Orient, in 1788, declared that a politico-Masonic work, entitled Les Jesuites chassés de la Maçonnerie et leur Poignard brisé par les Maçons, meaning The Jesuits driven from Freemasonry and their weapon broken by the Freemasons, was the production of a perverse mind, prepared as a poison for the destruction of Freemasonry, and ordered it to be burned. During the Revolution, the Grand Orient suspended its labors, and the Lodges in France were dissolved; and in 1793, the Duke of Orleans, the head of the Jacobins, who was also, unfortunately, Grand Master of the French Freemasons, resigned the latter position, assigning as a reason that he did not believe that there should be any mystery nor any Secret Society in a Republic. It is evident that the Freemasons, as an Order, held themselves aloof from the political contests of that period.

• JACOB'S LADDER

The introduction of Jacob's ladder into the symbolism of Speculative Freemasonry is to be traced to the vision of Jacob, which is thus substantially recorded in the twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Genesis: When Jacob, by the command of his father Isaac, was journeying toward Padanaram, while sleeping one night with the bare earth for his couch and a stone for his pillow, he beheld the vision of a ladder, whose foot rested on the earth and whose top reached to heaven. Angels were continually ascending and descending upon it, and promised him the blessing of a numerous and happy posterity. When Jacob awoke, he was filled with pious gratitude, and consecrated the spot as the house of God.

This ladder, so remarkable in the history of the Jewish people, finds its analogue in all the ancient initiations. Whether this is to be attributed simply to a coincidence—a theory which but few scholars would be willing to accept—or to the fact that these analogues were all derived from a common fountain of symbolism, or whether, as suggested by Brother Oliver, the origin of the symbol was lost among the practices of the Pagan rites, while the symbol itself was retained, it is, perhaps, impossible authoritatively to determine. It is, however, certain that the ladder as a symbol of moral and intellectual progress existed almost universally in antiquity, presenting itself either as a succession of steps, of gates, of Degrees, or in some other modified form. The number of the steps varied; although the favorite one appears to have been seven, in reference, apparently, to the mystical character almost everywhere given to that number.

Thus, in the Persian Mysteries of Mithras, there was a ladder of seven rounds, the passage through them being symbolical of the soul's approach to perfection. These rounds were called gates, and, in allusion to them, the candidate was made to pass through seven dark and winding caverns, which process was called the ascent of the ladder of perfection Each of these caverns was the representative of a world, or w state of existence through which the soul was supposed to pass in its progress from the first world to the last, or the world of truth. Each round of the ladder was said to be of metal of measuring purity, and was dignified also with the name of its protecting planet. Some idea of the construction of this symbolic ladder may be obtained from the accompanying table.

7. Gold .............. Sun ............... Truth

6. Silver ............. Moon ........... Mansion of the Blessed

5. Iron ............... Mars ............ World of Births

4. Tin ................ Jupiter ......... Middle World

3. Copper .......... Venus .......... Heaven

2. Quicksilver ... Mercury ....... World of Pre-existence

1. Lead ............. Saturn .......... First World

• SYMBOLIC LADDER OF MITHRAS

In the Mysteries of Brahma we find the same reference to the ladder of seven steps. The names of these were not different, and there was the same allusion to the symbol of the universe. The seven steps were emblematical of the seven worlds which constituted the Indian universe. The lowest was the Earth; the second, the World of Pre-existence; the third, Heaven; the fourth, the Middle World, or intermediate region between the lower and upper worlds; the fifth, the World of Births, in which souls are again born; the sixth, the Mansion of the Blessed; and the seventh, or topmost round, the Sphere of Truth, and the abode of Brahma.

Doctor Oliver thinks that in the Scandinavian mysteries the tree Yggrasil was the representative of the mystical ladder. But although the ascent of the tree, like the ascent of the ladder, was a change from a lower to a higher sphere—from time to eternity, and from death to life—yet the unimaginative genius of the North seems to have shorn the symbolism of many of its more salient features.

Among the Cabalists, the ladder was represented by the ten Sephiroths, which, commencing from the bottom, were the Kingdom, Foundation, Splendor, Firmness, Beauty, Justice, Mercy, Intelligence, Wisdom, and the Crown, by which we arrive at the En Soph, or the Infinite.

In the advanced Freemasonry we find the Ladder of Kadosh, which consists of seven steps, thus commencing from the bottom: Justice, Equity, Kindness, Good Faith, Labor, Patience, and Intelligence. The arrangement of these steps, for which we are indebted to modern ritualism, does not seem to be perfect; but yet the idea of intellectual progress to perfection is carried out by making the topmost round represent Wisdom or Understanding.

The Masonic Ladder which is presented in the symbolism of the First Degree ought really to consist not of three but seven steps, which thus ascend: Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, Faith, Hope, and Charity; but the earliest examples present it only with three, referring to the three theological virtues, whence it is called the theological ladder. It seems, therefore, to have been settled by general usage that the Masonic Ladder has but three steps. As a symbol of progress, Jacob's ladder was early recognized. Picus of Mirandola, who wrote in the sixteenth century, in his oration, De Hominis Dignitate, says that Jacob's ladder is a symbol of the progressive scale of intellectual communication betwixt earth and heaven; and upon the ladder, as it were, step by step, man is permitted with the angels to ascend and descend until the mind finds blissful and complete b repose in the bosom of divinity. The highest step he defines to be theology, or the study and contemplation of the Deity in His own abstract and exalted nature.

Other interpretations have, however, been given to it. The Jewish writers differ very much in their expositions of it. Thus, a writer of one of the Midrashes or Commentaries, finding that the Hebrew words for ladder and Sinai have each the same numerical value of Setters, expounds the ladder as typifying the giving of the law on that mount. Aben Ezra thought that it was a symbol of the human mind, and that the angels represented the sublime meditations of man. Maimonides supposed the ladder to symbolize nature in its operations; and, citing the authority of a Midrash which gives to it four steps, says that they represent the four elements; the two heavier, earth and water, descending by their specific gravity, and the two lighter, fire and air, ascending from the same cause. Abarbanel, assuming the Talmudic theory that Luz, where Jacob slept, was Mount Moriah, supposes that the ladder, resting on the spot which afterward became the holy of holies, was a prophetic symbol of the building of the Temple.

And, lastly, Raphael interprets the ladder, and the ascent and the descent of the angels, as the prayers of man and the answering inspiration of God. Fludd, the Hermetic philosopher, in his Philosophia Mosaica of 1638, calls the ladder the symbol of the triple world, moral, physical, and intellectual; and Nicolai says that the ladder with three steps was, among the Rosicrucian Freemasons in the seventeenth century, a symbol of the knowledge of nature. Finally, Krause says, in his drei altesten Kunsturkunden (ii, page 481), that a Brother Keher of Edinburgh, whom he describes as a skillful and truthful Freemason, had in 1802 assured the members of a Lodge at Altenberg that originally only one Scottish Degree existed, whose object was the restoration of James II to the throne of England, and that of that restoration Jacob's ladder had been adopted by them as a symbol. Of this fact he further said that an authentic narrative was contained in the Archives of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Notwithstanding Lawrie's silence on the subject, Krause is inclined to believe the story, nor is it in all its parts altogether without probability.

The old writers believed it is more than likely that the Chevalier Ramsay, who was a warm adherent of the Stuarts, transferred the Symbol of the mystical ladder from the Mithraic Mysteries, with which he was very familiar, into his Scottish Degrees, and that thus it became a part of the symbolism of the Kadosh system. But as regards the later conception of Brother Ramsey's connection with Degrees see the article herein about him. In some of the political lodges instituted under the influence of the ,Stuarts to assist in the restoration of their house, the philosophical interpretation of the symbol may have been perverted to a political meaning, and to these Lodges it is to be supposed that Keher alluded; but that the Grand Lodge of Scotland had made any official recognition of the fact is not to be believed. Lawrie's silence seems to be conclusive.

In the Ancient Craft Degrees of the York Rite, Jacob's ladder was not an original symbol. It is said to have been introduced by Dunckerley when he reformed the lectures. This is confirmed by the fact that it is not mentioned in any of the early rituals of the eighteenth century, nor by Hutchinson, who had an excellent opportunity of doing so in his lecture on the Nature of the Lodge, where he speaks of the Covering of the Lodge, but says nothing of the means of reaching it, which he would have done, had he been acquainted with the ladder as a symbol. Its first appearance is in a Tracing Board, on which the date of 1776 is inscribed, which very well agrees with the date of Dunckerley's improvements. In this Tracing Board, the ladder has but three rounds; a change from the old seven-stepped ladder of the mysteries; which, however, Preston corrected when he described it as having many rounds, but three principal ones.

As to the modern Masonic symbolism of the ladder, it is, as Brother Mackey has already said, a symbol of progress, such as it is in all the old initiations. Its three principal rounds, representing Faith, Hope, and Charity, present us with the means of advancing from earth to heaven, from death to life—from the mortal to immortality. Hence its foot is placed on the ground floor of the Lodge, which is typical of the world, and its top rests on the covering of the Lodge, which is symbolic of heaven.

In the Prestonian lecture, which Brother Mackey believed was elaborated out of Dunckerley's system, the ladder is said to rest on the Holy Bible, and to reach to the heavens. This symbolism is thus explained:

By the doctrines contained in the Holy Bible we are taught to believe in the Divine dispensation of Providence, which belief strengthens our Faith, and enables us to ascend the first step. That Fasth naturally creates in us a Hope of becoming partakers ot some of the blessed promises therein recorded. which Hope enables us to as send the second step. But the third and last being Charity comprehends the whole, and he who is possessed of this virtue in its ample sense, is said to have ample that the summit of his profession. or, more metaphorically into an ethereal mansion sealed from the mortal eye by the starry firmament.

In the modern lectures, the language is materially changed, but the idea and the symbolism are retained unaltered. The delineation of the ladder with three steps only on the Tracing Board of 1776, which is a small one, may be attributed to notions of convenience. But the Masonic ladder should properly have seven steps, which represent the four cardinal and the three theological virtues.

• JACQUES DE MALAY

See Molay, James de

• JAFUHAR

The second king in the Scandinavian mysteries. The Synonym for Thor.

• JAH

In Hebrew M. Maimonides calls it the two-lettered name, and derives it from the Tetragrammaton, of which he says it is an abbreviation. Others have denied this, and assert that Jah is a name independent of Jehovah, but expressing the same idea of the Divine Essence. It is uniformly translated in the authorized version of the Bible by the word Lord, being thus considered as Synonymous with Jehovah, except in Psalm lxviii, 4, where the original word is preserved: "Extol Him that rideth upon the heavens by His name Jah," upon which the Targum comment is "Extol Him who sitteth on the throne of glory in the ninth heaven; Yah is His name." It seems, also to have been well known to the Gentile nations as the triliteral resume of God; for, although biliteral among the Hebrews, it assumed among the Greeks the triliteral form, as IAO Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, says that this was the sacred name of the Supreme Deity; and the Clarian Oracle being asked which of the gods was Jao, replied, "The initiated are bound to conceal the mysterious secrets. Learn thou that IAQ is the Great God Supreme who ruleth over all" (see Jehovah) .

• JAHEB

The Hebrew word, arc, Latin concedens. A sacred name connected with the Thirteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

• JAINA CROSS (Haken Kruis)

Used by several Orders, and found in the abbeys of Great Britain and on the monuments of India. Its significations are many. This cross was adopted by the Jainas, a heterodox sect of the Hindus, who dissent from Brahmanism and deny the Vedas, and whose adherents are found in every province of Upper Hindustan. They are wealthy and influential, and form an important division of the population of India.

This symbol is also known as the Fylfot or Swastica. It is a religious symbol mentioned by Weaver in his Funeral Monuments, by Dr. H. Schliemann as having been found in the presumed ruins of Troy, by De Rossi and others in the Catacombs of Christian Rome, and there termed the Crux dissimulata, or concealed cross. It has been found on almost every enduring monument on the globe, of all ages, and in both hemispheres.

• JAINAS

See Jaina Cross

• JAMAICA

Largest island in the British West Indies, forming part of the Greater Antilles. Freemasonry began in Jamaica in 1839 with the authorization by the "Moderns" Grand Lodge of England of a Lodge at liingston. The Athol Grand Lodge chartered its first Lodge here in 1763. There was no Grand Lodge of Jamaica but the Grand Lodge of England and Scotland each established a Provincial Grand Lodge on the Island. The former controlled in 1924 thirteen Lodges and the latter five.

• JAMBLICHUS

It is strange that the old Freemasons, when inventing their legend, which gave so prominent a place to Pythagoras as "an ancient friend and brother," should have entirely forgotten his biographer, Jamblichas, whose claims to their esteem and veneration are much greater than those of the Samian sage. Jamblichus was a Neoplatonic philosopher, who was born at Chalcis, in Calo, Syria, and flourished in the fourth century. He was a pupil of Porphyry, and was deeply versed in the philosophic systems of Plato and Pythagoras, and, like the latter, had studied the mystical theology of the Egyptians and Chaldeans whose divine origin and truth he attempts to vindicate.

He maintained that man, through thermic rites and ceremonies, might commune with the Deity; and hence he attached great importance to initiation as the means of inculcating truth. He carried his superstitious veneration for numbers and numerical formula to a far greater extent than did the school of Pythagoras; so that all the principles of his philosophy can be represented by numbers. Thus, he taught that one, or the monad; was the principle of all unity as well as diversity, the duad, or two, was the intellect; three, the soul; four, the principle of universal harmony; eight, the source of motion; nine, perfection; and ten, the result of all the emanations of the to en. It will thus be seen that Jamblichus, while adopting the general theory of numbers that distinguished the Pythagorean school, differed very materially in his explanations. He wrote many philosophical works on the basis of these principles, and was the author of a Life of Pythagoras, and a Treatise of the Mysteries. Of all the ancient philosophers, his system assimilates him most if not in its details, at least in its spirits to the mystical and symbolic character of the Masonic philosophy.

• JAMES II AND III OF SCOTLAND

See Stuart Freemasonry

• JAMINIM OR IAMINIM

The Hebrew word for water. See I . N . R . I .

• JANITOR

A door-keeper. The word Sentinel which in a Royal Arch Chapter is the proper equivalent of the Tiler in a Lodge, was in some jurisdictions replaced by the word Janitor. There is no good authority for the usage.

• JAPAN

A chain of islands off the east coast of Asia. An English Lodge, No. 1092, was instituted at Yokohama in 1866 and others at Sobe, Yeddo, and Tokio were soon at work. A District Grand Master was appointed in 1873. Lodges instituted by the Grand Lodge of Scotland are also at work in Sobe, Yokohama, and Nagasaki.

There is a home of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Japan at Yokohama. A Lodge of Perfection and a Chapter of Rose Croix were both opened here under the same name, Dai Nippon, No. 1, on February 17, 1883. Des Payens Council of Kadosh, No. 1, and Grand Consistory, No. 1, were also chartered at Yokohama on March 15, 1886, all under the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction of the United States.

• JAPANESE FAITH

See Kofiki; also Nihongi

• JAPHET

The Hebrew spelling is no. The eldest son of Noah. It is said that the first ark—the Ark of Safety, the archetype of the Tabernacle—was constructed by Shem, Ham, and Japhet under the superintendence of Noah. Hence these are significant words to the Royal Arch Mason.

• JASHER, BOOK OF

The Hebrew is Sepher havashar, The Book of the Upright. One of the lost books of the ancient Hebrews, which is quoted twice (Joshua x, 13; Second Samuel I, 18). A Hebrew minstrelsy, recording the warlike deeds of the national heroes, and singing the praises of eminent or celebrated men. An original is said to be in the library at Samarkand.

• JASPER

The Hebrew is, n . A precious stone of a dullish green color, which was the last of the twelve inserted in the High Priest's breast-plate, according to the authorized version; but the Vulgate translation more correctly makes it the third stone of the second row. It represented the Tribe of Zebulun.

• JAVA

One of the larger islands of the Dutch East Indies in Asia, in that portion of the Malay Archipelago known as the Sunda Island. A Dutch Provincial, Grand Lodge, under the Grand Orient of the Netherlands, at Waltevreden controlled in 1922 twenty Lodges of which fourteen were in Java itself, three in Sumatra and the rest at Kedivi, Makassar and Salatigo.

• JEBUSITE

See Ornan

• JEDADIAH

A special name given to King Solomon at his birth. It signifies beloved of God.

• JEHOSHAPHAT

East of Jerusalem, between Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives, lies the Valley of Jehoshaphat. In the most recent instructions this word has lost its significance. but in the older ones it played an important part. There was in reality no such valley in ancient Judea, nor is there any mention of it in Scripture, except once by the Prophet Joel. The name is altogether modern. But, as the Hebrew means the judgment of God! and as the prophecy of Joel declared that God would there judge the heathen for their deeds against the Israelites, it came at last to be believed by the Jews, which belief is shared by the Mohammedans, that the Valley of Jehoshaphat is to be the place of the last judgment. Hence it was invested with a peculiar degree of sanctity as a holy place. The idea was borrowed by the Freemasons of the eighteenth century, who considered it as the symbol of holy ground. Thus, in the earliest instructions we find this language: Where does the Lodge stand? Upon holy ground, or the highest hill or lowest vale, or in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, or any other secret place. This reference to the Valley of Jehoshaphat as the symbol of the Ground Floor of the Lodge was in the United States retained until a very recent period; and the expression alluding to it in the instructions of the Second Degree has only within a comparatively few years past been abandoned. Hutchinson referred to this symbolism, when he said that the Spiritual Lodge was placed in the Valley of Jehoshaphat to imply that the principles of Freemasonry are derived from the knowledge of God, and are established in the judgments of the Lord.

• JEHOVAH

Jehovah is, of all the significant words of Freemasonry, by far the most important. Reghellini very properly calls it "the basis of our dogma and of our mysteries." In Eebrew it consists of four letters, item and hence is called the Tetragrammaton, or Four-lettered Name; and because it was forbidden to a Jew, as it is to a Freemason, to pronounce it, it is also called the Ineffable or Unpronounceable Name. For its history we must refer to the sixth chapter of Exodus, verses 2, 3. When Moses returned discouraged from his first visit to Pharaoh, and complained to the Lord that the only result of his mission had been to incense the Egyptian King, and to excite him to the exaction of greater burdens from the oppressed Israelites, God encouraged the Patriarch by the promise of the great wonders which He would perform in behalf of His people, and confirmed the promise by imparting to him that sublime name by which He had not hitherto been known: "And God," says the sacred writer, "spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as E1 Shaddai, but by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them."

This Ineffable Name is derived from the substantive verb hayah, meaning to be; and combining, as it does, in its formation the present, past, and future significations of the verb, it is considered as designating God in His immutable and eternal existence. This idea is carried by the Rabbis to such an extent, that Menasseh Ben Israel says that its four letters may be so arranged by permutations as to form twelve words, every one of which is a modification of the verb to be, and hence it is called the Nomen substance selessentiae, the name of his substance or existence.

The first thing that attracts our attention in the investigation of this name is the ancient regulation, still existing, by which it was made unlawful to pronounce it. This, perhaps, originally arose from a wish to conceal it from the surrounding heathen nations, so that they might not desecrate it by applying it to their idols. Whatever may have been the reason, the rule was imperative among the Jews. The Talmud, in one of its treatises, the Sanhedram, which treats of the question, Who of the Israelites shall have future life and who shall not? says: "Even he who thinks the name of God with its true letters forfeits his future life." Abraham Ben David Halevi, when discussing the names of God, says: "But the name mm we are not allowed to pronounce. In its original meaning it is conferred upon no other being, and therefore we abstain from giving any explanation of it."br> We learn from Jerome, Origen, and Eusebius that in their time the Jews wrote the name in their copies of the Bible in Samaritan instead of Hebrew letters, in order to veil it from the inspection of the profane. Capellus says that the rule that the holy name was not to be pronounced was derived from a tradition, based on a passage in Leviticus, xxiv, 16, which says that he who blasphemeth the name of Jehovah shall be put to death; and he translates this passage, "whosoever shall pronounce the name Jehovah shall suffer death," because the word nokeb, here translated to blaspheme, means also to pronounce distinctly, to cay by name. Another reason for the rule is to be found in a rabbinical misinterpretation of a passage in Exodus.

In the third chapter of that book, when Moses asks of God what is His name, He replies "I am that I arn ;" and He said, "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you," and He adds, "this is my name forever." Now, the Hebrew word I am is Ehyeh. But as Mendelssohn has correctly observed, there is no essential difference between nnn in the sixth chapter and mm in the third, the former being the first person singular, and the latter the third person of the same verb, the future used in the present sense of the verb to be; and hence what was said of the name Ehyeh was applied by the Rabbis to the name Jehovah. But of Ehyeh God had said, "this is My name forever." Now the word forever is represented in the original by :by9, I'olam; but the Rabbis, says Capellus, by the change of a single letter, made l'olam, forever, read as if it had been written l'alam, which means to be concealed, and hence the passage was translated "this is my name to be concealed," instead of "this is my name forever."

And thus Josephus, in writing upon this subject, uses the following expressions: "Whereupon God declared to Moses His Holy name, which had never been discovered to men before; concerning which it is not lawful for me to say any more." In obedience to this law, whenever the word Jehovah occurs to a Jew in reading, he abstains from pronouncing it, and substitutes in its place the word bout, Adonai. Thux, instead at saying holinxqs to Jehovah." as it is in the original, he would say "holiness to Adonai." And this same reverential reticence has been preserved by our translators in the authorized version, who, where ever Jehovah occurs, have, with a few exceptions, translated it by the word Lord, the very passage just quoted, being rendered "Holiness to the Lord."

Maimonides tells us that the knowledge of this word was confined to the hachamin or wise merit who communicated its true pronunciation and the mysteries connected with it only on the Sabbath daft, to such of their disciples as were found worthy; but how it was to be sounded, or with what vocal sounds its four letters were to be uttered, was utterly unknown to the people. Once a year, namely, on the Day of Atonement, the holy name was pronounced with the sound of its letters and with the utmost veneration by the High Priest in the Sanctuary. The last priest who pronounced it, says Rabbi Bechai, was Simeon the Just, and his successors used in blessing only the twelve-lettered name. After the destruction of the city and Temple by Vespasian, the pronunciation of it ceased, for it was not lawful to pronounce it anywhere except in the Temple at Jerusalem, and thus the true and genuine pronunciation of the name was entirely lost to the Jewish people. Nor is it now known how it was originally pronounced. The Greeks called it Jao; the Romans, Jova; the Samaritans always pronounced it Jahve.

The task is difficult to make one unacquainted with the peculiarities of the Hebrew language comprehend how the pronunciation of a word whose letters are preserved can be wholly lost. It may, however, be attempted. The Hebrew alphabet consists entirely of consonants. The vowel sounds were originally supplied by the reader while reading, he being previously made acquainted with the correct pronunciation of each word; and if he did not possess this knowledge, the letters before him could not supply it, and he was, of course, unable to pronounce the word. Every Hebren, however, knew from practice the vocal sounds with which the consonants were pronounced in the different words, in the same manner as every English reader knows the different sounds of A in hat, hate, far, was, and that krtt is pronounced knight.

The words God save the Republic, written in the Hebrew method, would appear thus: Gd so th Rpblc. Now, this incommunicable name of God consists of four letters, Yod, He, Vau, and He, equivalent in English to the combination J H V H. It is evident that these four letters cannot, in our language, be pronounced, unless at least two vowels be supplied.

Neither can they in Hebrew. In other words, the vowels were known to the Jew, because he heard the words continually pronounced, just as we know that Mr. stands for Mister, because we continually hear this combination so pronounced. But the name of God, of which these four letters are svmbols, was never pronounced, but another word, Adonai, substituted for it; and hence, as the letters themselves have no vocal power, the Jew, not knowing the implied vowels, was unable to supply them, and thus the pronunciation of the word was in time entirely lost. Hence some of the most learned of the Jewish writers even doubt whether Jehovah is the true pronunciation, and say that the recovery of the name is one of the mysteries that will be revealed only at the coming of the Messiah. They attribute the loss to the fact that the Masoretic or vowel points belonging to another word were applied to the sacred name, whereby in time a confusion occurred in its vocalization.

In the Ineffable Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, there is a tradition that the pronunciation varied among the patriarchs in different ages. Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah pronounced it Juha; Shem, Arphaxad, Selah, Heber, and Peleg pronounced it Jeva; Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, and Judah, called it Jova; by Hezrom and Ram it was pronounced Jevo; by Aminadab and Nasshon, Jevah; by Salmon, Boaz, and Obed, Johe; by Jesse and David, Jehovah. And they imply that none of these was the right pronunciation, which was only in the possession of Enoch, Jacob, and Moses, whose names are. therefore, not mentioned in this list. In all these words it must be noticed that the J is to be pronounced as Y. the a as in father, and the e as a in fate. Thus Je ho vah would be pronounced Yay-ho-vah.

The Jews of old believed that this holy name, which they held in the highest veneration, was possessed of unbounded powers. "He who pronounces it," said they, "shakes heaven and earth, and inspires the very angels with astonishment and terror. There is a sovereign authority in this name: it governs the world by its power. The other names and surnames of the Deity are ranged about it like officers and soldiers about their sovereigns and generals: from this King-Name they receive their orders, and obey."

It was called the Shem hamphorash, the explanatory or declaratory name, because it alone, of all the Divine names, distinctly explains or declares what is the true essence of the Deity. Among the Essenes, this sacred name, which was never uttered aloud, but always in a whisper, was one of the mysteries of their initiation, which candidates were bound by a solemn oath never to divulge.

It is reported to have been, under a modified form, a password in the Egyptian mysteries, and none, says Schiller, dare enter the temple of Serapis who did not bear on his breast or forehead the name Jao or Je-ha-ho; a name almost equivalent in sound to that of Jehovah, and probably of identical import; and no name was uttered in Egypt with more reverence.

The Rabbis asserted that it was engraved on the rod of Moses, and enabled him to perform all his miraeles. Indeed, the Talmud says that it was by the utterance of this awful name, and not by a club, that he slew the Egyptian; although it fails to tell us how he got at that time his knowledge of it.

That scurrilous book of the Jews of the Middle Ages, called the Toldoth Jeshu, attributes all the wonderful works of Jesus Christ to the potency of this incommunicable name, which He is said to have abstracted from the Temple, and worn about Him. But it would be tedious and unprofitable to relate all the superstitious myths that have been invented about this name. And now as to the grammatical signification of this important word. Gesenius (Thesaurus ii, page 577), thinks—and many modern scholars agree with him that the word is the future form of the Hiphil conjugation of the verb to be, pronounced Yavah, and therefore that it denotes "He who made to exist, called into existence." that is. the Creator. The more generally accepted definition of the name is, that it expresses the eternal and unchangeable existence of God in respect to the past, the present, and the future.

The word mn is derived from the substantive verb hayah, meaning to be, and in its four letters combines those of the past, present and future of the verb. The letter ' in the beginning, says Buxtorf (de Nomine v), is a characteristic of the future; the 1 in the middle, of the participle or present time; and the is at the end, of the past. Thus, out of m1lr we get Urn, He was mn, He is; and mm, He wil be. Hence, among other titles it received that of nomen essential, because it shows the essential nature of God's eternal existence. The other names of God define His power, wisdom, goodness, and other qualities; but this alone defines His existence.

It has been a controverted point whether this name was made known for the first time to Moses, or whether the patriarchs had been previously acquainted with it. The generally recognized opinion now is, and the records of Genesis and Exodus sustain it, that the name was known to the patriarchs, but not in its essential meaning, into which Moses was the first to be initiated. In the language of Aben Ezra, "Certainly the name was already known to the patriarchs, but only as an uncomprehended and unmeaning noun, not as a descriptive, appellative one, indicative of the attributes and qualities of the Deity."

"It is manifest," says Kallisch (Commentary on Exodus), "that Moses, in being initiated into the holy and comprehensive name of the Deity, obtains a superiority over the patriarchs, who, although perhaps from the beginning more believing than the long-wavering Moses, lived more in the sphere of innocent, childlike obedience than of manly, spiritual enlightenment." This, too, is the Masonic doctrine. In Freemasonry the Holy Name is the representative of the Word, which is itself the symbol of the nature of God. To know the Word is to know the true nature and essence of the Grand Architect.

Cohen the pronunciation of the name was first interdicted to the people is not with certainty known. Leusden says it was a rabbinical prohibition, and probably made at the second Temple. The statement of the Rabbi Bechai, already cited, that the word was pronounced for the last time by Simeon, before the spoliation by the Roman emperor Vespasian, would seem to indicate that it was known at the second Temple, although its utterance was forbidden, which would coincide with the Masonic tradition that it was discovered while the foundations of the second Temple were being laid. But the general opinion is, that the prohibition commenced in the time of Moses, the rabbinical writers tracing it to the law of Leviticus, already cited. This, too, is the theory of Freemasonry, which also preserves a tradition that the prohibition would have been removed at the first Temple, had not a well-known occurrence prevented it. But this is not to be viewed as a historic statement, but only as a medium of creating a symbol.

The Jews had four symbols by which they expressed this Ineffable Name of God: the first and most common was two Yods, with a Sheva and the point Kametz underneath, thus, '..' the second was three points in a radiated form like a diadem, thus, his, to represent, in all probability, the sovereignty of God; the third was a Yod within an equilateral triangle, which the Cabalists explained as a ray of light, whose luster was too transcendent to be contemplated by human eyes; and the fourth was the letter if, which is the initial letter of Shaddai, meaning the Almighty, and was the symbol usually placed upon their phylacteries, the strips of parchment inscribed with passages of Scripture and enclosed in- a case having thongs for binding it on the forehead or around the left arm. Buxtorf has a fifth method of three Yods, with a Kametz underneath ' ", enclosed in a circle.

In Freemasonry, the equilateral triangle, called the delta, with or without a Yod in the center, the Yod alone, and the letter G. are recognized as symbols of the sacred and Ineffable Name. The history of the introduction of this word into the ritualism of Freemasonry would be highly interesting, were it not so obscure. Being in almost all respects an esoteric symbol, nearly all that we know of its Masonic relations is derived from tradition; and as to written records on the subject, we are compelled, in general, to depend on mere intimations or allusions, which are not always distinct in their meaning. In Freemasonry, as in the Hebrew mysteries, it was under the different appellations of the Word, the True Word, or the Lost Word, the symbol of the knowledge of Divine Truth, or the tale nature of God.

That this name, in its mystical use, was not unknown to the medieval Freemasons there can he no doubt. Many of their architectural emblems show that they possessed this knowledge. Nor can there be any more doubt that through them it came to their successors, the Freemasons of the beginning of the eighteenth century. No one can read the Defense of Freemasonry, written in 1730, without being convinced that the author, probably Martin Clare, which see elsewhere in this work, was well acquainted with this name; although he is, of course, careful to make no very distinct reference to it, except in one instance. "The occasion," he says, "of the brethren searching so diligently for their Master was, it seems, to receive from him the secret Word of Masonry, which should be delivered down to their fraternity in after ages" (Constitutions, 1738, page 225).

It is now conceded, from indisputable evidence, that the holy name was, in the earlier years, and, up to the middle of the eighteenth century, attached to the Third Degree, and then called the Master's Word. On some early tracing boards of the Third Degree among the emblems displayed is a coffin, on which is inscribed, in capital letters, the word JEHOVAH. Hutchinson, who wrote in 1774, malces no reference whatever to the Royal Arch, although that system had, by that time, been partially established in England; but his lectures to Master Masons and on the Third Degree refers to "the mystic word, the Tetragrammaton" (see Lecture X, page 180). Brother Oliver tells us distinctly that it was the Master's word until Dunckerley took it out of the Degree and transferred it to the Royal Arch. That it was so on the Continent, we have the unmistakable testimony of Guillemain de Saint Victor, who says, in his Adonhiramite Masonry (page 96), that Solomon placed a medal on the tomb of Hiram, '"on which was engraved Jehova, the old Master's Word, and which signifies the Supreme Being."

So far, then, these facts appear to be established: that this Ineffable Name was known to the Operative Freemasons of the Middle Ages; that it was derived from them by the Speculative Freemasons, who, in 1717, revived the Order in England; that they knew it as Master Masons; and~that it continued to be the Mastery Word until late in that century, when it was removed by Dunckerley into the Royal Arch.

Although there is, perhaps, no point in the esoteric system of Freemasonry more clearly established than that the Tetragrammaton is the true somnific word, yet innovations have been admitted, by which, in jurisdictions in the United States, that word has been changed into three others, which simply signify Divine names in other languages, but have none of the sublime symbolism that belongs to the true name of God. It is true that the General Grand Chapter of the United States adopted a regulation disapproving of the innovation of these explanatory words, and restoring the Tetragrammaton; but this declaration of what might almost be considered a truism in Freemasonry has been met with open opposition or reluctant obedience in some places.

The Grand Chapter of England has fallen into the same error, and abandoned the teachings of Dunckerley the founder of the Royal Arch in that country, as some of the Grand Chapters in America did those of Debby who was the founder of the system here. It is well, therefore, to inquire what was the Somnific Word when the Royal Arch system was first invented.

We have the authority of Brother Oliver, who had the best opportunity of any man in England of knowing the facts, for saying that Dunckerley established the Royal Arch for the modern Grand Lodge; that he wisely borrowed many things from Ramsay and Dermott; and that he boldly transplanted the word Jehovah from the Master's Degree and placed it in his new system. Brother Hawkins adds the following comment at this point to Brother Mackey's article: "But more recent authorities, such as Brother R. F. Gould, History of Freemasonry and Brother H. Sadler, Life of Dunckerley, have cast great doubt on these statements (see Dunckerley)." Now, what was The Word of the Royal Arch, as understood by Dunckerley? We have no difficulty here, for he himself answers the question. To the first edition of the Latvs and Regulations of the Royal Arch, published in 1782, there is prefixed an essay on Freemasonry, which is attributed to Dunckerley. In this he makes the following remarks:

It must be observed that the expression The Word is not to be understood as a watchword only, after the manner of those annexed to the several Degrees of the Craft, but also theologically, as a term, thereby to convey to the mind some idea of that Grand Being Who is the sole author of our existence, and to carry along with it the most solemn veneration of His sacred Name and Word, as well as the most clear and perfect elucidation of His power and attributes that the human mind is capable of receiving. And this is the light in which the Name and Word hath always been considered, from the remotest ages, amongst us Christians and the Jews.

And then, after giving the well-known history from Jos4ephus of the word, which, to remove all doubt of what it is, he says is the Shem Hamphorash, or the Unutterable Name, he adds: "Philo, the learned Jew, tells us no' only that the Word was lost, but to make an end of these unprofitable disputes among the learned, be it remembered that they all concur with the Royal Arch Masons in others much more essential first, that the Name or Word is expressive of Self Existence and Eternity; and, secondly, that it can be applicable only to that Great Being who Was and is and Jill be. Notwithstanding this explicit and un. mistakable declaration of the founder of the English Royal Arch, that the Tetragrammaton is the Somnific Word, the present system in England has rejected it, and substituted in its place three other words, the second of which is wholly unmeaning.

In the American system, as revised by Thomas Smith Webb, there can be no doubt that the Tetrad grammaton was recognized as the Omnific Word. In the Freemasons Monitor, prepared by him for monitorial instruction, he has inserted, among the passages of Scripture to be read during an Exaltation, the following from Exodus, which is the last in order, and which anyone at all acquainted with the ritual will at once see is appropriated to the time of the Euresis or Discovery of the Word.

And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord, and I appeared unto Abrnham and unto lsaae, and unto Jaeob by the name of clod Almighty, but by my name Jehovah wan I not known to them;

From this it will be evident that Webb recognized the word Jehovah, and not the three other words that have since been substituted for them by some Grand Chapters in America, and which it is probable were originally used by Webb as merely explanatory or declaratory of the Divine nature of the other and principal word. And this is in accordance with one of the traditions of the Degree, that they were placed on the Substitute Ark around the real word, as a key to explain its signification. To call anything else but this four-lettered name an Omnifie Word—an all-creating and all-performing word—either in Freemasonry or in Hebrew symbolism, whence Freemasonry derived it, is to oppose all the doctrines of the Talmudists, the Cabalists, and the Gnostics, and to repudiate the teachings of every Hebrew scholar from Buxtorf to Gesenius. To fight the battle against such odds is to secure defeat. It shows more of boldness than of discretion. And hence the General Grand Chapter of the United States has very wisely restored the word Jehovah to its proper place. It is only in the York and in the American Rites that this error has ever existed. In every other Rite the Tetragrammaton is recognized as the True Word.

• JEKSON

This word is found in the French handbooks of the advanced Degrees. It is undoubtedly a corruption of Jacquesson, and this a mongrel word compounded of the French Jacques and the English son, and means the son of James, that is, James II. It refers to Charles Edward the Pretender, who was the son of that abdicated and exiled monarch. It is a significant relic of the system attempted to be introduced by the adherents of the house of Stuart, and by which they expected to enlist Freemasonry as an instrument to effect the restoration of the Pretender to the throne of England. For this purpose they had altered the legend of the Third Degree, making it applicable to James II, who, being the son of Henrietta Maria, the widow of Charles I, was designated as the Widow's Son.

• JENA, CONGRESS OF

Jena is a city of SaxeWeimar, in Thuringia. A Masonic Congress was b convoked there in 1763, by the Lodge of Strict Observance, under the presidency of Johnson, a Masonic charlatan or fraud, whose real name was Becker. In this Congress the doctrine was announced that the Freemasons were the successors of the Knights Templar, a dogma peculiarly characteristic of the Rite of Strict Observance. In the year 1764, a second Congress was convoked by Johnson or Leucht with the desire of authoritatively establishing his doctrine of the connection between Templarism and Freemasonry. The empirical character of Johnson was here discovered by the Baron Hund, and he was denounced, and subsequently punished at Magdeburg by the public authorities.

• JEPHTHAH

A Judge of Israel, and the leader of the Gileadites in their war against the Ephraimites, which terminated in the slaughter of so many of the latter at the passes of the river Jordan (see Ephraimites).

• JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER

The First Degree in the American Order of the Eastern Star, or Adoptive Rite. It inculcates obedience. Color, blue (see Eastern Star, Order of the).

• JERICHO, HEROINE OF

See Heroine of Jericho

• JERMYN, HENRY

Anderson says in the Constitutions (1738, page 101) that Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, was Grand Master and held a General Assembly on the 27th of December, 1663, at which six Regulations, which he quotes, were made. Roberts, in his edition of the Old Constitutions printed in 1722, the earliest printed Masonic book that we have, refers also to this General Assembly; the date of which he, hoxvever, makes the 8th of December. Roberts gives what he calls the Additional Orders and Constitulions. The Harleian Manuscript, in the British Museum, numbered 1942, which Brother Hughan supposes to have the date of 1670, and which he has published in his Old Chargers of the British Freemasons (page 52, edition of 1872), contains also six new articles. The articles in Robert's and the Harleian Manuscript are identical, but the wording is slightly altered by Anderson after his usual fashion. Of these new articles, one of the most important is that which prescribes that the society of Freemasons shall thereafter be governed by a Master and Wardens. Brother Hughan thinks that there is no evidence of the statement that a General Assembly was held in 1663. But it would seem that the concurring testimony of Roberts in 1722 and of Anderson in 1738, with the significant fact that the charges are found in a manuscript written seven years after, give some plausibility to the statement that a General Assembly was held at that time.

• JERROLD, J. J.

Wrote a song, Grey Head, sung bv Brother Collyer in aid of the Home for Aged and Decayed Freemasons at London, 1838.

• JERUSALEM

The capital of Judea, and memorable in Masonic history as the place where was erected the Temple of Solomon. It is early mentioned in Scripture, and is supposed to be the Salem of which Melchizedek was King. At the time that the Israelites entered the Promised Land, the city was in possession of the Jebusites, from whom, after the death of Joshua, it was conquered, and afterward inhabited by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The Jebusites were not, however, driven out; and we learn that David purchased Mount Moriah from Ornan or Araunah the Jebusite as a site for the Temple. It is only in reference to this Temple that Jerusalem is connected with the legends of Ancient Craft Freemasonry. In the Degrees of Chivalry it is also important, because it was the city where the holy places were situated, and for the possession of which the Crusaders so long and so bravely contested. It was there, too, that the Templars and the Hospitalers were established as Orders of religious and military knighthood. Modern Speculative Freemasonry was introduced into Jerusalem by the establishment of a Lodge in 1872, the Warrant for which, on the application of Brother Rob Morris and others, was granted by the Grand Lodge of Canada. More recently a Lodge has been warranted in England to meet at Chester, but to be in due course removed to Jerusalem, named King Solomon's Temple, No. 3464. A Lodge was consecrated by English authority in Jerusalem in 1924. The Grand Orient of France has also established a Lodge there.

• JERUSALEM, KNIGHT OF

See Knight of Jerusalem

• JERUSALEM, NEW

The symbolic name of the Christian Church (Revelations xxi, 2-21; in, 12). The Apostle John (Revelations xxi), from the summit of a high mountain, beheld, in a pictorial symbol or scenic representation, a city resplendent with celestial brightness, which seemed to descend from the heavens to the earth. It was stated to be a square of about 400 miles, or 12,000 stadia, equal to about 16,000 miles in circumference—of course, a mystical number, denoting that the city was capable of holding almost countless myriads of inhabitants. The Netu Jerusalem was beheld, like Jacob's ladder, extending from earth to heaven. It plays an important part in the ceremony of the Nineteenth Degree, or Grand Pontiff of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, where the descent of the Sew Jerusalem is a symbol of the descent of the Empire of Light and Truth upon the earth.

• JERUSALEM, PRINCE OF

See Prince of Jerusalem

• JERUSALEM WORD

In the Grand Mystery of the Freemasons Discovered of 1724 occurs the following demand and answer:

Give me the Jerusalem Word.

Giblin.

The origin of this phrase may perhaps be thus traced: The theory that after the completion of the Temple a portion of the workmen traveled abroad to seek employment, while another portion remained at Jerusalem, was well known to the Fraternity at the beginning of the eighteenth century. It is amply detailed in that old manuscript known as the York Manuscript, which is now lost, but was translated by Krause, and inserted in his Runsturkunden. It may be supposed that this Jerusalem Word was the word which the Freemasons used at Jerusalem, while the University Word, which is given in the next question and answer, was the word common to the Craft everywhere. The Jerusalem Word, as such, is no longer in use, but the Universal Word is still connected with the First Degree.

• JESSE

A large candlestick, of metal, with many sconces, hanging from the ceiling, and symbolically referring to the Branch of Jesse.

• JESTERS

Usually so called, but more formally named the Royal Order of Jesters, an organization evolved out of the good fellowship of members of the Mystic Shrine during a voyage to Honolulu, February 15 to March 7, l911. An offhand ceremony grew into a ritual, and to local Courts and a National Body, very much of its success due to the initiative of William S. Brown, many years the Treasurer of the Mystic Shrine; Lou B. Winsor, Past Imperial Potentate and Grand Secretary of Michigan, and others of their genial kind who organized and led the Body whose local units were limited to thirteen initiates yearly. Initiation, by invitation, and unanimous ballot, limited to members in good standing of the Mystic Shrine. The slogan, "Mirth is lying," expounded by Jester Brown, and the poem by Edmund Rowland Sill, "The Fool's Prayer," recited by Jester Winsor, have furnished inspiration. Officers, thirteen, bear the titles: Director, Tragedian, b Property Man, Impresario, Treasurer, Soubrette, Light Comedian, Serio Comic, Heavy Man, Leading Lady, Judge, High Constable, Stage Manager; the national officers' titles are the same but preceded by the word Royal.

• JESUITS

In the eighteenth century the Jesuits were charged with having an intimate connection with Freemasonry, and the invention of the Degree of Kadosh was even attributed to those members of the Society who constituted the College of Clermont. This theory of a Jesuitical Freemasonry seems to have originated with the Illuminati, who were probably governed in its promulgation by a desire to depreciate the character of all other Masonic systems in comparison with their own, where no such priestly interference was permitted. Barruel scoffs at the idea of such a connection, and cans it (Histoire de Jacobinisme iv, page 287) "la fable de la Franc-Maçonnerie Jésuitique" meaning an invention of false or Jesuitical Freemasonry. For once he is right. Like oil and water the tolerance of Freemasonry and the intolerance of the "Society of Jesus" cannot commingle. Yet it cannot be denied that, while the Jesuits have had no part in the construction of pure Freemasonry, there are reasons for believing that they took an interest in the invention of some Degrees and systems which were intended to advance their own interests. But wherever they touched the Institution they left the trail of the serpent.

They sought to convert its pure philanthropy and toleration into political intrigue and religious bigotry. Hence it is believed that they had something to do with the invention of those Degrees, which were intended to aid the exiled house of Stuart in its efforts to regain the English throne, because they believed that would secure the restoration in England of the Roman Catholic religion. Almost a library of books has been written on both sides of this subject in Germany and in France.

• JESUS CHRIST

Jesus in Latin comes from the Greek word Iesous, pronounced ee-ay-soos, and this in turn is from the Hebrew Joshua or Jeshua or perhaps more properly Yeshua, meaning "Jehovah is salvation" or "He will save." These latter Hebrew words are shortened forms of Jehoshua, pronounced as yeh-ho-shoo-ah, "Jehovah saves." Christos, the Greek word for the anointed or consecrated is equivalent to Messiah and Messias from the Hebrew word Mashach, meaning to anoint with oil. The word Christos suggested in sound the somewhat similar term Chrestos, signifying benign qualities as in First Epistle of Peter (ii, 3), "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is (chrestos) gracious." This expression was applied by their enemies to Christians as being followers of Chrestos. An early Latin writer on the Church, Tertullian, 193 to 217 A.D., pointed out that this word given ignorantly in enmity was actually expressive of benevolence.

Jesus Christ, whose life and teachings form the foundation and structure of Christianity, was born at Bethlehem, about five miles south of Jerusalem, the chief city of Palestine. His birth chronologically is now generally assigned to a few years prior to the beginning of the modern era, or about 4-5 B.C., later estimates placing the time of the event differently to what was formerly accepted.

From the Bible we learn that Jesus was the son of Mary, a virgin of Nazareth, in the ancient province of Galilee. She was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter, and during a visit made by them to Bethlehem for enrollment, Jesus was born in a stable and cradled in a manger because of the over-crowded condition of the local inn. Here came shepherds and the Magi, wise men from the East, and their publicly proclaimed reverence for the babe as the King of the Jews endangered the family with the reigning monarch and they fled to Egypt after the circumcision of the child. King Herod died and Joseph and Mary with Jesus returned to the home at Nazareth. From the record of the Scriptures we note that the boy listened to instruction at the Temple and that he "advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." That the trade of Joseph was adopted in due course is suggested by the visit to Nazareth during the public ministry of Jesus when the gossiping spectators said "Is not this the carpenter?"

From the year 4 B.C. to 30 A.D. is estimated in the Stevens-Burton Harmony of tile Gospels Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1912) as the period from birth to crucifixion with the actual ministry between three and four years. However, the length of ministry has also had other estimates based on the probable number of passovers in that period and accordingly as these were three or four the results figure out respectively as two and a half or three and a half years of public life. Baptized by John, as Luke tells us (iii, 23), "And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age." Then followed forty days in the wilderness and later the public preaching to the people with the private instruction of the disciples, urging repentance and faith upon all. In public as well as religious affairs the new teaching was not acceptable to the officials, civil and ecclesiastic.

The leaders, the priests and the Roman Governor, prepared to put Jesus on trial. Betrayed by Judas, taken before the high priest for examination and then to the Roman Governor, condemnation was speedy and crucifixion promptly followed. Resurrection after burial with appearances to the disciples and the ascension to heaven are told by the biblical narrative. A popular Life of Christ, written by Dean F. NV. Farrarg London, 1874, many following editions, is b admirable for study, and there are excellent discussions upon allied topics in James Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1914), and in similar works. Ernest Renan's Life of Jesus, an English translation from the twenty-third edition (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1917), less orthodox than the work of Farrar, is scholarly and independent, while H. G. Enclow's Jeurish View of Jesus, Macmillan, New York, 1920, presents a viewpoint of decided interest and importance.

The existence of the Essenes, a Jewish brotherhood of the time of Christ, not mentioned in the Bible but recorded by other authorities and having suggestive resemblance to features of Christianity, in fact the latter has been described as a popularized Essenism, brings up the often debated question of Jesus being an Essene. Brother Dudley Wright's book Was Jesus an Essene (Power-Book Company, London, 1908) submits concisely considerable information though many authors reject claims made for the membership of Jesus in the organization which came to an end in the second century. Essenes were tillers of the soil, esteemed ceremonial purity—bathing and white garments were featured, special food was prepared by priests and eaten solemnly together, marriage was forbidden and every sensual enjoyment deemed sinful, all property was held in common, and three years' preparation or probation was necessary before full initiation into this monastic order (see Essenes).

• JETZIRAH, BOOK OF

See Jezirah

• JEWEL, MEMBER'S

In many Lodges, especially among the Germans, where it is called Mitglieder Zeichen, a jewel is provided for every member and presented to him on his initiation or affiliation. It is to be worn from the buttonhole, and generally contains the name of the Lodge and some Masonic device.

• JEWEL OF AN ANCIENT GRAND MASTER

A Masonic tradition informs us that the jewel of an ancient Grand Master at the Temple was the square and compass with the letter G between. This was the jewel worn by Hiram Abif on the day which deprived the Craft of his invaluable services, and which was subsequently found upon him.

• JEWELS, IMMOVABLE

See Jewels of a Lodge

• JEWELS, MOVABLE

See Jewels of a Lodge

• JEWELS OF A LODGE

Every Lodge is furnished with six jewels, three of which are movable and three immovable. They are termed jewels, says Brother Oliver, because they have a moral tendency which renders them jewels of inestimable value. The movable jewels, so called because they are not confined to any particular part of the Lodge, are the Rough .Ashlar, the Perfect Ashlar, and the Trestle-Board. The Immovable Jewels are the Square, the Level, and the Plumb. They are termed Immovable, because they are appropriated to particular parts of the Lodge, where alone they should be found, namely, the Square to the East, the Level to the West, and the Plumb to the South. In the English system the division is the reverse of this. There, the Square, Level, and Plumb are called Movable Jewels, because they pass from the three officers who wear them to their successors.

• JEWELS, OFFICIAL

Jewels are the emblems worn by Maçonic officers as distinctive badges In Masonic Facts and Fict (page 12), Brother Sadler is of the opinion that in the early days no jewels were worn, even by the Grand Master himself. He points to the portrait of Antony Sayer, the Grand Master, 1717, who is represented wearing a plain leather apron, but no jewel of any kind. The same may be said of Montgomery, the Grand Guarder. Brother Sadler also quotes a most important Minute of the Grand Lodge as follows:

24th June, 1727. Resolved Nem. Con. that in all private Lodges and Quarterly Communications and general meetings Ma(ste)r and Wardens do wear the Jewels of Masonry hanging to a white ribbon (viz.) that the Ma(ste)r wear the Square, the Senior Warden the Level, the Junior Warden the Plumb Rule.

Brother W. Harry Rylands says this points to the idea of wearing jewels instead of using them.

For the purpose of reference, the jewels worn in Symbolic Lodges, in Chapters, Councils, and Commanderies are here appended.

1. Symbolic Loges

W.-. Master, a square.

Senior Warden a level.

Junior Warden a plumb.

Treasurer, crossed keys.

Secretary crossed pens.

Senior Deacon, square and compass, sun in the center.

Junior Deacon, square and compass, moon in the center

Steward, a cornucopia.

Tiler, crossed swords.

The jewels are of silver in a subordinate Lodge, and of gold in a Grand Lodge. In English Lodges, the jewel of the Deacon is a dove and olive branch.

2. Royal Arch Chapters

High Priest, a miter.

King, a level surmounted by a crown.

Scribe, a plumb-rule surmounted by a turban.

Captain of the Host, a triangular plate inscribed with a soldier.

Principal Sojourner a triangular plate inscribed with a pilgrim.

Royal Arch Captain, a sword.

Grand Master of the Veils, a sword.

The other officers as in a Symbolic Lodge. All the jewels are of gold, and suspended within an equilateral triangle.

3. Royal and Select Councils

T. I. Grand Master, a trowel and square.

I. Hiram of Tyre, a trowel and level.

Principal Conductor of the Works a trowel and plumb.

Treasurer, a trowel and crossed keys.

Recorder, a trowel and crossed pens.

Captain of the Guards, a trowel and sword.

Steward, a trowel and crossed swords.

Marshal, a trowel and baton.

If a Conductor of the Council is used, he wears a trowel and baton, and then a scroll is added to the Marshal's baton to distinguish the two officers.. All the jewels are of silver, and are enclosed within an equilateral triangle.

4. Commanderies of Knights Tempter

Em't Commander, a cross surmounted by rays of light.

Generalissimo, a square surmounted by a paschal lamb

Captain-General, a bevel surmounted by a rooster.

Prelate a triple triangle.

Senior Warden, a hollow square and sword of justice.

Junior Warden, eagle and flaming sword.

Treasurer, crossed keys.

Recorder, crossed pens.

Standard-Bearer a plumb surmounted by a banner.

Warder, a square plate inscribed with a trumpet and crossed swords.

Three Guards, a square plate inscribed with a battle-ax.

The jewels are of silver.

• JEWELS, PRECIOUS

In the lectures of the Second and Third Degrees, allusion is made to certain moral qualities, which, as they are intended to elucidate and impress the most important moral principles of the Degree, are for their great value called the Precious Jewels of a Fellow Craft and the Precious Jewels of a Master Mason. There are three in each Degree, and they are referred to by the Alarm. Their explanation is esoteric.

• JEWISH RITES AND CEREMONIES

A period of excitement in favor of the rites of Judaism centered upon and pervaded the people of various nations during the early portion of the fourteenth century. The ceremonies grew and took fast hold upon the minds of the Romans, and, combining with their forms, spread to Constantinople and northwest to Germany and France. The Jewish rites, traditions, and legends thus entered the mystic schools. It was during this period that the legend of Hiram first became known, according to Brother George H. Fort, and Jehovah's name, and mystic forms were transmitted from Byzantine workmen to Teutonic sodalities and German gilds.

Thus, also, when the Christian enthusiasm pervaded the North, Paganism gave way, and the formal toasts at the ceremonial banquets were drunk in the name of the saints in lieu of those of the Pagan gods.

• JEWS, DISQUALIFICATION OF

The great principles of religious and political toleration which peculiarly characterize Freemasonry would legitimately make no religious faith which recognized a Supreme being a disqualification for initiation. But, unfortunately, these principles have not always been regarded, and from an early period the German Lodges, and especially the Prussian, were reluctant to accord admission to Jews. This action has given great offense to the Grand Lodges of other countries which were more liberal in their views, and were more in accord with the Masonic spirit, and was productive of dissensions among the Freemasons of Germany, many of whom were opposed to this intolerant policy.

But a kindlier tolerance now prevails; and more recently the Grand Lodge of the Three Sobes at Berlin, the leading Masonic body of Prussia, has removed the interdict, and Judaism is there no longer a disqualification for initiation.

• JEZEEDS

A Mohammedan sect in Turkey and Persia, which took its name from the founder, Jezeed, a chief who slew the sons of Ali, the father-in-law of Mohammed. They were ignorant in the extreme, having faith in both the Hebrew Bible and Moran; their hymns were addressed, without distinction, to Moses, Christ, or Mohammed.

• JEZIRAH or JETZIRAH, BOOK OF

The Hebrew spelling is tnssb NDD, meaning, Book of the Creation. A Cabalistic work, which is claimed by the Cabalists as their first and oldest code of doctrines although it has no real affinity with the tenets of t he Cabala. The authorship of it is attributed to the Patriarch Abraham; but the actual date of its first appearance is supposed to be about the ninth century Steinschneider says that it opens the literature of the Secret Doctrine. Its fundamental idea is, that in the ten digits and the twenty letters of the Hebrew alphabet we are to find the origin of all things. Landauer, a German Hebraist, thinks that the author of the Jetzirah borrowed his doctrine of numbers from the School of Pythagoras, which is very probable. The old Freemasons, it is probable, derived some of their mystical ideas of sacred numbers from this work.

• J. N. R. I.

See I. N. R. I. Formerly the first letter J was preferred.

• JOABERT

This, according to the legends of the advanced Degrees, was the name of the chief favorite of Solomon, who incurred the displeasure of Hiram of Tyre on a certain occasion, but was subsequently pardoned, and, on account of the great attachment he had shown to the person of his master, was appointed the Secretary of Solomon and Hiram in their most intimate relations. He was afterward still further promoted by Solomon, and appointed with Tito and Adoniram a Provost and Judge. He distinguished himself in his successful efforts to bring certain traitors to condign punishment, and although by his rashness he at first excited the anger of the king, he was subsequently forgiven, and eventually received the highest reward that Solomon could bestow, by being made an Elect, Perfect, and Sublime Freemason. The name is evidently not Hebrew, or must at least have undergone much corruption, for in its present form it cannot be traced to a Hebrew root. Lenning says (Encydopädie) that it is Johaben, or, more properly, Ihaoben, which he interprets the Son of God; but it would be difficult to find any such meaning according to the recognized rules of the Hebrew etymology.

• JOACHIM, ORDER OF

A secret association instituted in Germany near the end of the eighteenth century. Its recipients swore that they believed in the Trinity, and would never waltz. None but nobles, their wives and children, were admitted. It had no connection with Freemasonry.

• JOB'S DAUGHTERS

The International Order of Job's Daughters was founded in 1920 in Omaha, Neb., by Mrs. Ethel T. Wead Mick. Job's Daughters began in an atmosphere of Masonry and the Order of the Eastern Star. The membership is composed of Masonic related teen-aged girls—12 to 20. It is International, as it has Bethels in 29 States in the Union, four Provinces in Canada and Australia. In 1951 there were 932 Chartered Bethels. California has the greatest number of Bethels (210), with some 22,000 active members and this State has Initiated over 70,000 girls; Illinois is next.

• JOHANNITE MASONRY

A term introduced by Doctor Oliver to designate the system of Freemasonry, of which the two Saints John are recognized as the patrons, and to whom the Lodges are dedicated, in contradistinction to the more recent system of Doctor Hemming, in which the dedication is to Moses and Solomon. Brother Oliver was much opposed to the change, and wrote an interesting work on the subject entitled A Mirror for the Johannite Masons, which was published in 1848. According to his definition, the system practiced in the United States is Johannite Masonry.

• JOHANNITES

A Masonico-religious sect established in Paris, in 1814, by Fabré-Paliprat, and attached to the Order of the Temple, of which he vas the Grand Master (see Levitikon and Temple, Order of the).

• JOHN'S BROTHERS

In the Charter of Cologne, it is said that before the year 1440 the society of Freemasons was known by no other name than that of John's Brothers Joannaeorum fratrum; that they then began to be called at Valenciennes, Free and Accepted Masons; and that at that time, in some parts of Flanders, by the assistance and riches of the brotherhood, the first hospitals were erected for the relief of such as were afflicted with Saint Anthony's fire. In another part of the Charter it is said that the authors of the associations were called Brothers consecrated to John, or in Latin fratres Joanni Sacros, because "they followed the example and imitation of John the Baptist."

• JOHNSON

Sometimes spelled Johnstone. An b adventurer, and Masonic charlatan, whose real name was Leucht. He assumed Freemasonry as a disguise under which he could carry on his impositions. He appeared first at Jena, in the beginning of the year 1763, and proclaimed that he had been deputed by the chiefs of Templar Freemasonry in Scotland to introduce a reform into the German Lodges. He established a Chapter of Strict Observance, the Rite then dominating in Germany, and assumed the dignity of Grand Prior. He made war upon Rosa, the founder of the Rosaic Rite, and upon the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes, which then sustained that enthusiast. Many of the German Lodges succumbed to his pretensions, and, surrendering their Warrants, gave in their adhesion to Johnson. Von Hund himself was at first deceived by him; but in 1764, at Altenberg, having discovered that Johnson had been formerly, under the name of Becker, the Secretary of the Prince of Bernberg, whose confidence he had betrayed; that during the seven years' war he had been wandering about, becoming, finally, the servant of a Freemason, whose papers he had stolen, and that by means of these papers he had been passing himself as that individual Brother von Hund denounced him as an impostor. Johnson fled, but was subsequently arrested at Magdeburg, and imprisoned in the fortress of Wartzberg, where in 1773, he died suddenly.

• JOHN THE BAPTIST

See Saint John the Baptist

• JOHN THE EVANGELIST

See Saint John the Evangelist

• JOINVILLE, CHAILLOU DE

See Chaillou de Coincide

• JOKSHAN

Hebrew,Fowler. The second son of Abraham and Keturah, whose sons appear to be the ancestors of the Sabeans and Dedanites, who inhabited part of Arabia Felix. Same as Jeksan.

• JONATHAN AND DAVID, ORDER OF

A Dutch Roman Catholic Order organized about 1770, with statutes issued in 1773 at Amsterdam. The seven grades were: Ostearius, Lector, Exorcist, Acoluthus, Subdiaconus, Diaconus, and Summus Superior, or S. S., and the latter grade also known as Confederati, the head being a vicarius Summus.

See also

• En:Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry
• En:Albert Mackey
• Albert Mackey
• En: MACKEY - A
• En: MACKEY - B
• En: MACKEY - C
• En: MACKEY - E
• En: MACKEY - F
• En: MACKEY - G
• En: MACKEY - H
• En: MACKEY - I
• En: MACKEY - K
• En: MACKEY - L
• En: MACKEY - M
• En: MACKEY - N
• En: MACKEY - O
• En: MACKEY - P
• En: MACKEY - Q
• En: MACKEY - R
• En: MACKEY - S
• En: MACKEY - T
• En: MACKEY - U
• En: MACKEY - V
• En: MACKEY - W
• En: MACKEY - X
• En: MACKEY - Y
• En: MACKEY - Z

Links

• Phoenixmasonry http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/mackeys_encyclopedia/j.htm