A Study of the Winding
Staircase
by Homer L. Zurrrwalt
[From Ihe 1989 Transactions of the
Illinois Lodge of Research]
and
[From the May, 1990 issue of
Southern California Research Lodge]
In the ritual of the modern day Masonic
Degrees, the building of King Solomon's
Temple plays an important role. It has also
fascinated the Biblical scholar and the archaeologist in their attempts to prove the excistence
of the Temple and the Bible story of King
Solomon. All through history this subject has
produced an air of mystery which seems to
defy a positive solution.
The Masonic scholar, willing to spend the
time and effort, can spend hours of research on
almost any one of the many features of King
Solomon's Temple and still end on a note of
mystery admitting that the subject is incomplete and more research is needed. An example to illustrate this point is the reference in
the Second Degree which refers to the winding staircase, which we are led to believe
existed in King Solomon's Temple. Although
there is but one reference to the winding staircase in Masonic ritual, it has been made the
central feature of the Second Degree which
every Fellowcraft Mason must symbolically
ascend in order to make his advancement in
the degree. As all Masons will recall, the
reference is made "to advance through a porch,
by a flight of winding stairs to the middle
chamber, there to receive his wages." The
details very clearly give a winding staircase
leading from the porch way entrance up through
the Temple Sanctuary to the upper floors. This
reference contains a number of specific and
positive statements which we are apparently
asked to accept as facts. They are (1) that there
was a winding staircase in King Solomon's
Temple; 92) that it was approached through an
entrance from the porchway; and (3) that the
workmen on the building ascended these stairs
to receive their wages in the middle chamber.
The serious researcher will find that writers
of the Charges and ritual of the craft were
apparently more interested in the dramatic
effect on the candidate than they were on
historical accuracy. Biblical scholars and archaeologists differ widely as to the interpretation placed both on historical and the archaeological evidence dealing with King Solomon's
Temple and in particular, with the passages
dealing with the staircase, but it's fairly safe to
say that neither the Biblical scholar nor the
archaeologists would support the specific statements made in the Masonic ritual of the Second Degree.
As of today, the only historical evidence
relative to the building of Solomon's Temple
is found in three different books of the Old
Testament and in the writings of Josephus. Of
these writings, it is generally accepted that the
version in the First Book of Kings is both the
oldest and most reliable description we have
of the Temple. Our interest here is the mention
of the winding staircase. The passages relevant to the winding staircase are found in
Chapter 6 of the Authorized Version, which is
probably the one used by the ritualists who
composed the Lecture on the Second Degree.
First Kings, Chapter 6, Verse 1: "And it
came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were
come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth
year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the
month Zip, which is the second month, that
he began to build the house of the Lord."
Verse 5: "And against the wall of the house
he built chambers round about, against the
walls of the house round about, both of the
temple and of the oracle; and he made
chambers round about."
Verse 7: "And the house, when it was in
building, was built of stone made ready
before it was brought thither; so that there
was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of
iron heard in the house, while it was in
building."
Verse 8: "The door for the middle chamber
was in the right side of the house; and they
went up with winding stairs into the middle
chamber and out of the middle into the
third."
The description above clearly states that
there were winding stairs, but an examination
of the text finds inconsistencies in the passages themselves and serious discrepancies
are noticed between our Masonic ritual and
the scriptures above. An example is in Verse 8
which places the entrance door for the middle
chamber in the right side of the building. It
continues by stating that the stairway went
from the door to the middle chamber and on up
to the third chamber. No mention is made to an
entrance on the ground floor.
The second Bible reference is in Chronicles,
Book II, Chapter 3, Verses 1-9. The description, which parallels the Kings version, omits
all references to the chambers except for Verse
9 which states: "And he overlaid the upper
chambers with gold..." It is widely accepted
that the "upper chambers" in Chronicles are
the "Side chambers" mentioned in Kings.
Notice that there is no mention of a winding
staircase.
The third description is found in the Book of
Ezekiel. Ezekiel came from a priestly family
and some researchers think could have lived at
a time which would have enabled him to have
seen Solomon's Temple first hand. However,
at the time of his writing, the Temple had been
destroyed by the Babylonians.
The parallel passages of the above quoted
from Kings and Chronicles are to be found in
the 41st Chapter of Ezekiel, but differs from
the other two.
Ezekiel, Chapter 41, Verse 6: "And the side
chambers were three, one over another, and
thirty in order; and they entered into the
wall which was of the house for the side
chambers around about, that they might
have hold, but they had not hold in the wall
of the house."
Verse 7: 1 "And there was an enlarging, and
a winding about still upward to the said
chambers; for the winding about of the
house went still upward round about the
house; therefore, the breadth of the house
was still upward, and so increased from the
lowest charnber to the highest by the midst."
It would appear that what Ezekiel was trying to say is that the chambers themselves
wound about the house in long galleries. By
"wound about" does he mean encircle? He
makes no reference to a staircase. There are
other differences noted in the three versions of
the Old Testament.
Our Masonic view was probably taken from
the translation of the Authorized Version of
the Old Testarnent, which contained many
mistranslations in the relevant passages. The
translators themselves were aware of the difficulties, for attached to their manuscripts are
numerous marginal notes and questions. Bib-
lical Hebrew text often presents difficulties in
translation and some cases impossible to a
point of where one can only surmise at the true
meaning.
Prof. Robert H. Pfeiffer of Harvard University and Boston University in "An Introduction to the Old Testament" writes: "The third
element in Solomon's magnificence consisted
of his buildings, primarily on Zion in Jerusalem, but elsewhere. The account in Chapter 6,
Verses 1-9 is one of the most difficult sections
in the Old Testament. First, owing to scribes
who failed to understand architectural terms
and the obscure descriptions of the original
author, neither an architect nor a clear writer,
the text has been greatly corrupted. Secondly,
the account has endured successive additions
and revisions."
The first difficulty comes from the Hebrew
text of Verse 8 in which one word is defective.
The word appears as "Lullim" and then translated to English as "Winding Stairs. ' Scholars
point out that if the word is really "Lullim" it
appears nowherc else in the Old Testament,
but an associated word "Lulin" appears in
several passages of the Jewish code known as
the "Mishna" and later called thc "Talmud."
One reference reads: "there were Lulin in
the upper chamber opening into the Holy of
Holies, by which the workmen were let down
in baskets, so that they should not feed their
eyes on the Holy of Holies." Most translators
translate this word to mean "opening" while
others translate the word as "Trap-doors." The
Jewish Encyclopaedia, Volume 12, pp. 85,92
says that the word"Lullin" refers to "trapdoors" but gives no supporting evidencd to the
meaning.
The second difficulty from the Hebrew text
comes from the original word "Tichonah"
translated as "middle" in our phrase from
Kings, Verse 8, "the door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house." The
meaning of the word "Tichonah" is uncertain,
but most modern translators refer to it as the
"lowest~' instead of "middle." This seems to
make more sense.
Dr. James Moffat in his translation of the
Bible in 1924 entitlcd "A New Translation of
the Bible" translated Verse 8 in Kings this
way: "The entrance into the lower side rooms
was on the south side of the Temple; you
climbed to the middle row, and from the middle
to the top row, through trap doors."
In 1965, another translation came out in an
English Edition of the "Jewish Bible" with
Verse 8: "The entrance to the lower story was
at the right hand corner of the Temple and
access to the middle story above was by trap
doors and so from the middle story to the
third." There is no reference to winding stairs.
If the Temple had a winding staircase, as a
few scholars still think, it was probably in the
side walls and served the side chambers built
into the thickness of the walls from the first
and second levels. These side chambers were
used while lhe Temple was being built for the
purpose of paying the workmen their wages.
Later, they were used as store-houses or treasury rooms of the Temple into which the
treasures and gifts to the Temple were placed.
As mentioned at the beginning of this paper,
the other source of information about King
Solomon's Temple is in the writings of
Josephus, a Jewish historian. He mentions
Solomon's Temple in several of his works, but
the main references are in his history of the
Jewish people called "The Antiquities of the
Jews." One relevant passage quoted from
Wriston's translation, Book Vlll, Chapter 3:
"The King also had a fine contrivance for an
ascent to the upper room over the Temple, and
that was by steps in the thickness of its wall;
for it had no large door on the east end, as the
lower house had, but the entrances were by the
sides, through very small doors."
Apart from Josephus and the Bible, we have
no other literary source to turn to for information. Unfortunately, there is no evidence in
Jerusalem to which we might gain a knowledge of this subject, for successive conquerors
made a thorough job of the destruction of the
Temple and not one part remains standing and
nothing has been uncovered by archaeologists. Regardless of whether there was a winding staircase, a trap-door or just an opening to
the different compartments of the Temple, the
mystery still remains, and will continue to
fascinate both the biblical scholar and the
archaeologist and be of particular interest to
the Freemason.
References: Books of The Old Testament, Standard Work-Grand Lodge of Illinois; The
Mystery of the Winding Staircase by A. L.
Shane; and A New Translation of the Bible by
Dr. James Moffat.
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