The symbolism of Freemasonry : $b Illustrating and explaining its science and philosophy, its legends, myths and symbols — John Shaqi
The symbolism of Freemasonry : $b Illustrating and explaining its science and philosophy, its legends, myths and symbolsMackey, Albert Gallatin
Religion
The symbolism of Freemasonry : $b Illustrating and explaining its science and philosophy, its legends, myths and symbols
Mackey, Albert Gallatin
Freemasonry -- Symbolism
Lawrie, whose elaborate researches into this subject leave us nothing
further to discover, places the arrival of the Dionysiacs in Asia Minor at
the time of the Ionic migration, when "the inhabitants of Attica,
complaining of the narrowness of their territory and the unfruitfulness of
its soil, went in quest of more extensive and fertile settlements. Being
joined by a number of the inhabitants of surrounding provinces, they
sailed to Asia Minor, drove out the original inhabitants, and seized upon
the most eligible situations, and united them under the name of Ionia,
because the greatest number of the refugees were natives of that Grecian
province." [32] With their knowledge of the arts of sculpture and
architecture, in which the Greeks had already made some progress, the
emigrants brought over to their new settlements their religious customs
also, and introduced into Asia the mysteries of Athene and Dionysus long
before they had been corrupted by the licentiousness of the mother
country.
Now, Playfair places the Ionic migration in the year 1044 B.C., Gillies in
1055, and the Abbé Barthelemy in 1076. But the latest of these periods
will extend as far back as forty-four years before the commencement of
the temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, and will give ample time for the
establishment of the Dionysiac fraternity at the city of Tyre, and the
initiation of "Hiram the Builder" into its mysteries.
Let us now pursue the chain of historical events which finally united
this purest branch of the Spurious Freemasonry of the pagan nations with
the Primitive Freemasonry of the Jews at Jerusalem.
When Solomon, king of Israel, was about to build, in accordance with the
purposes of his father, David, "a house unto the name of Jehovah, his
God," he made his intention known to Hiram, king of Tyre, his friend and
ally; and because he was well aware of the architectural skill of the
Tyrian Dionysiacs, he besought that monarch's assistance to enable him to
carry his pious design into execution. Scripture informs us that Hiram
complied with the request of Solomon, and sent him the necessary workmen
to assist him in the glorious undertaking. Among others, he sent an
architect, who is briefly described, in the First Book of Kings, as "a
widow's son, of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father a man of Tyre, a
worker in brass, a man filled with wisdom and understanding and cunning to
work all works in brass;" and more fully, in the Second Book of
Chronicles, as "a cunning man, endued with understanding of Hiram my
father's, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father, a
man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in
stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen and in
crimson, also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out any device
which shall be put to him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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