Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 1, 2025
Thus to learn Masonry is to know our work and to do it well. What true mason would shrink from the task? AB. The Hebrew word בא, AB, signifies "father," and was among the Hebrews a title of honor. From it, by the addition of the possessive pronoun, is compounded the word Abif, signifying "his father," and applied to the Temple Builder. ABIF. See Hiram Abif.
The Greeks, who were indebted to the Phoenicians for many things, may be supposed to have learned from them the art of building temples; and it is certain that the Romans borrowed from the Greeks both the worship of the gods and the construction of temples." TEMPLE BUILDER. The title by which Hiram Abif is sometimes designated.
The legend relating to him is of no value as a mere narrative, but of vast importance in a symbolical point of view, as illustrating a great philosophical and religious truth; namely, the dogma of the immortality of the soul. Hence, Hiram Abif is the symbol of man in the abstract sense, or human nature, as developed in the life here and in the life to come.
The first written record that I have been able to find of this legend is contained in the second edition of Anderson's Constitutions, published in 1738, and is in these words: But their joy was soon interrupted by the sudden death of their dear master, Hiram Abif, whom they decently interred, in the lodge near the temple, according to ancient dusage."
"Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus traditum est." That is, we are to believe whatever tradition has been at all times, in all places, and by all persons handed down. With this rule the legend of Hiram Abif, they say, agrees in every respect. It has been universally received, and almost universally credited, among Freemasons from the earliest times.
One thing, at least, is incapable of refutation; and that is, that we are indebted to the Tyrian Masons for the introduction of the symbol of Hiram Abif. The idea of the symbol, although modified by the Jewish Masons, is not Jewish in its inception.
Thus the sprig of acacia, although it is material, visible, and tangible, is, nevertheless, not to be treated as a material symbol; for, as it derives all its significance from its intimate connection with the legend of Hiram Abif, which is a mythical symbol, it cannot, without a violent and inexpedient disruption, be separated from the same class.
Hence, then, Hiram Abif is, in the masonic system, the symbol of human nature, as developed in the life here and the life to come; and so, while the temple was, as I have heretofore shown, the visible symbol of the world, its builder became the mythical symbol of man, the dweller and worker in that world. Now, is not this symbolism evident to every reflective mind?
But if, on the other hand, it be admitted that the legend of the third degree is a fiction, that the whole masonic and extra-scriptural account of Hiram Abif is simply a myth, it could not, in the slightest degree, affect the theory which it is my object to establish.
This definition precisely fits the character of the myths of Masonry. Take, for instance, the legend of the master's degree, or the myth of Hiram Abif. As "a simple narration of facts," it is of no great value certainly not of value commensurate with the labor that has been engaged in its transmission.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking