THE
ORIGIN OF MASONRY
IV
Mt. Gerizim and the Land of Moriah
by
E. Cromwell Mensch 32 degree
THE
NEW AGE - OCTOBER 1948
The
fame of King Solomon's Temple lies in the reflected glory of the House of Moses,
for it was planned and built with the idea of replacing the Tabernacle with a
more permanent structure. The purpose behind its building is to be found in the
history of David, father of Solomon. The original Tabernacle was the vehicle
which had welded the Israelites into a united mass, and had kept them united
during their successful invasion of Palestine. The initial breakthrough took
place at Jericho, after which the Israelites spread out to the north and south,
but they did not succeed in taking Jerusalem.
Their
first objective was to locate the "spot" on which to erect the
Tabernacle, which was believed to be at Luz. Moses died just prior to the
invasion, but he had left certain instructions, which were to be followed out
after they reached the promised land. Among other things, they were instructed
to put the blessing upon Mt. Gerizim, and the curse upon Mt. Ebal. Neither the
geographical location of these mounts, nor the manner in which the blessing was
to be bestowed, were specified. It was decided that the medium was the altar
specified in Exodus 20:24, which was to be of earth, or of unhewn stone, and
without steps. The allegorical meaning here, of course, is the good earth upon
which we dwell.
The
Israelites found Luz ill-favoured as a location for the Tabernacle, even though
it had been specified by Moses as none other but the house of God and the gate
of heaven in Genesis 28:17. They then moved on to Samara and set up their
Tabernacle and their altar between the two peaks in that country, which are
still called Mt. Gerizim and
Mt.
Ebal to this day. However, the choice of this "spot" was far from
unanimous, and it was not long before the Tabernacle was moved elsewhere.
About
200 years later, or in 1005 B.C.David succeeded in wresting Jerusalem away from
the native Jebusites. After taking the city; he had himself declared king over
both Israel and Judah. Israel was the common name applied to the Israelites of
the north, for by then they had lost their tribal distinctions. David himself
had risen to power under the banner of the Tribe of Judah, which had maintained
its tribal identity in the south. At the time David established himself at
Jerusalem, the true location of the mount upon which a blessing was to be put
was still a live issue.
In
the meantime the original Tabernacle had vanished and the Ark of the Covenant
had been placed in storage. The lustre of the Ark had been somewhat dimmed prior
to this on account of its failure to stop the Philistines on the field of
battle. Under this combination of circumstances David saw a splendid opportunity
to restore the Ark to its natural setting, and, at one and the same time,
establish a mount of his own upon which to put a blessing. He accordingly
purchased the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite, and this is the
"spot" upon which the Temple was subsequently erected.
It
was called the Zion, or hill, which is the literal interpretation of the word
Zion. Mount would have served the purpose just as well, for it was here that he
pitched a new tabernacle in order that the Ark might be brought out of storage.
The use of the word Gerizim was probably avoided because this new shrine was
designed to serve Israel as well as Judah, and these people of the north already
had a Mt. Gerizim. We get a vague hint of this from the use of the word Moriah,
which is commonly called Mt. Moriah today. The original use of this word is to
be found in Genesis 22:2, which states that the sacrifice of Abraham's son Isaac
was to take place in the land of Moriah, and upon one of the mountains of which
he was to be told. This passage of Scripture was probably cited at that time as
an authority, or precedent, for the establishment of a second mount at
Jerusalem.
It
was after David had pitched this new Tabernacle that he made known his intention
of replacing it with a more permanent structure. With this structure he
undertook to create a vehicle, which, in the words of II Samuel 7:13, he hoped
would establish the throne of his kingdom forever. This hope lay in the belief
that he could endow his contemplated Temple with the powers of the original
Tabernacle by duplicating its design. Hiram of Tyre was called in as a
collaborator, because he had previously built the palace in which David had set
himself up as king over the two branches of the Israelites. Hiram was a
Phoenician, and his city of Tyre was in a better position to furnish skilled
artisans.
However,
the basic, design of the Temple was copied from the description of the
Tabernacle, or rather that part of its description which is to be found in the
Book of Exodus. The builders of the Temple apparently did not understand the
true cabalism of the writings of Moses, for the key to the design of the
Tabernacle is concealed in the ladder Jacob supposedly dreamt about. In the
words of Moses, this was none other but the house of God and the gate to heaven,
as set forth in Genesis 28:17. In the previous verse, Genesis 28:16, Jacob had
just awaked out of his sleep, which refers back to Genesis 28:12, and, "he
dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to
heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."
The
essence of the ladder of Jacob was the cubical Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle.
It was projected into a column of 7 cubes on the Trestle Board, with horizontal
coordinates extending out over the centre of the drawing from the upper levels
of the 2nd, 4th, and 6th cubes. Below these horizontals, and on the base line,
another cube was drawn to represent the Holy of Holies itself. From the centre
of this Holy of Holies a series of ascending "angles" were projected
upward to intercept the horizontals. At the points of intersection, vertical
ordinates were dropped to the base line, and they exactly prescribed the 48
cubits length of the Tabernacle. A 7th ordinate was projected upwards into
infinity, from the centre of the base line, and represented the joining of the
celestial with the terrestrial sphere. This 7th ordinate was the top of the
ladder, which reached to heaven. The cubes were 7 in number because they
represented the 7 bodies of our planetary system which are visible to the naked
eye. Each of the ascending angles were 23 1/2 degrees", because that is the
celestial angle at which the earth is inclined away from the plane of its orbit.
The
unit of measurement was obtained by dividing one edge of the cubical Holy of
Holies into 10 equal parts. The Apex of the curtains of Goats' Hair was equal to
the height of 3 cubes, or 30 cubits. Half this height, or 15 cubits, was
equivalent to the combined widths of the 10 boards of the sheathing, and the
upper half prescribed the height of the pediments. The descending
"angles" of Genesis 28:12 exactly subtended the 1 1/2, cubits cross
section of the Ark of the Covenant below the centre of the Holy of Holies".
The descending ordinates exactly laid out the 7 bents, or vertical bars across
which the "six" boards of Exodus 36:27 were spaced out. This is indeed
none other but the House of God, and the House we proclaim was erected to God
and dedicated to His Holy name.
The
7th ordinate came direct from the celestial, and was symbolic of the path down
which Moses had brought the word of God, for it intersected the mercy seat of
the Ark in its exact centre. This was within the cubical of the Holy of Holies,
which was designated as the most Holy place. The balance of the space within the
House was called the Holy place, and its several parts were symbolic of the
several features of our planetary system.
Outside
the House, and far off about the Tabernacle, the 12 tribes were encamped. As
each tribe was encamped under the ensign of his Father's house, the encampment
itself was symbolic of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac. Hence, the complete
layout of Tabernacle and encampment was copied from the design of the Father's
house in the celestial.