Similarly, it would make no difference to Masonry if Hyram Abiff were not in fact slain, but lived to complete the Temple, got a performance bonus from Solomon, retired on a nice pension and spent his twilight years touring the world in his motor home.  The lessons taught would be no less valid.  We would be no less Masonic.
	In fact, it is most likely that the legend of the Third Degree is fiction.  Scripture does not record a murder during the building of the Temple.  Such an act would almost have to have been recorded, particularly the murder of one in so important a position as “Architect of the Work”.  Even if a murder had been committed and somehow gone unrecorded, the body would not – COULD not – have been reduced to ashes.  Cremation did not exist, and Jewish law specifically forbids it anyway.  Nor could the body have been buried “near the Sanctum Sanctorum”.  Jewish law required that cadavers be buried without the gates of the city, and the Temple was Hallowed Ground.
	The point here is that it doesn’t matter if the Legend is based on fact or fiction.  It is allegory.  It’s basis doesn’t affect it’s validity in our Craft.