THE BUILDER JULY 1927

Freemasonry and the Essenes

BY BRO. L.F. STRAUSS, Massachusetts

THIS is the second of two articles by Bro. Strauss on the subject
of the Essenes and their connection with Speculative Freemasonry.
The first was published in the May number of THE BUILDER. The
author is strongly impressed by the very great influence that
Hebrew words and ideas have had on the Masonic ritual. He does not,
as we understand it, attempt to prove that Freemasonry is a
survival of the Essenic Order, but only to point out the very
curious parallels, which are too numerous to be due to chance. How
they are to be explained is another question.

AS already stated the scholar, the philologist, the epistemologist
and the theologian expended so much energy in the search for the
epistemology, the derivation, the etymology of the word Essaioi, or
Essenoi, of which Essenes is an anglicization, that their intellect
became exhausted and their imagination led them astray. We are here
reminded of the labor in an antique theologian's meditation over
the question as to why the term "beginning" was the third and
"heaven" the seventh word in his Bible. That his Bible was only a
translation, and that this order or sequence might be different in
the original, never entered his mind.

The situation is also analogous to the troubles of our
Egyptologists. All our knowledge of Egyptian life, culture and
history is based upon the works of the ancient Greeks. These Greeks
were a peculiar and marvelously clever and ingenious people. They
had, also, a strange, a good modern trait: a very great admiration
for themselves and their nationality. All other nations or peoples
were barbaroi, anglicized into "barbarian." These Greeks had most
elaborate spectacles; each Greek had one of its own particular
make.

As a result, a great transformation took place. The description of
the ancient world became Hellenized, even the names of ancient
Gods, places and persons. A Zarathustra became Zoroaster, Messiah
became Christos (hence our own name Christian), a Ramses became
Sesostris, a cause of much trouble and confusion to our
Egyptologist.

Now Philo and Josephus, our chief, in a way our only informants
about the order or Brotherhood of "Essenes," were writing in the
Greek language and as was but natural adopted Greek habits, that
is, they Hellenized; and so out of the word Hasidim, the popular
Jewish name of this brotherhood, they coined the Greek words,
Essaioi, or Essenoi, which, after all, was not as radical as the
change of Sesostris from Ramses.

In the New Testament we find one definite reference to our
Brotherhood by the Apostle Paul, who had been initiated into the
sixth degree of the Society; in his letter to the Corinthians,
Chapter XVI, we find logias tes is tous hagious translated by
"collection for the saints."

Our theologians are puzzled over the term Logias translated with
collection. This translation is altere pede claude, lame on the
other foot, but not as glaringly false as the rendering in the next
verse of the word Sabbatton with Sunday, or the first day of the
week. Even Martin Luther showed himself here a better man and a
more truthful translator.

After this diversion, we will ask again: what was the real name of
these Essenes, that is, what was the name, the designation of the
Essenes by themselves, of themselves, for themselves ?

This name is of special significance, of particular interest to the
members of the Society of the Ancient Order of Free and Accepted
Masons. This real name was Banaim, which translated into English
means Builders or Masons.

This word Banaim has also been translated Carpenter, and there are
some who here see a reference to Jesus the carpenter and Jesus the
carpenter's son.

As additional information we will state that the word Bannaim, with
two n's, signifies, in English, bather, or baptizer, and as these
Essenes bathed daily "before breakfast," used immersion as a symbol
of repentance and as a part of ceremony for initiation of a novice
into first "degree," the word spelled with two n's became another
popular designation. This fact throws a luminous ray over the
figure and name of John the Baptist.

FREEMASONRY AND THE ESSENES

The visible, historical threads of the order of "modern"
Freemasonry lead us to the Middle Ages, into the British Isles,
there to vanish like unto a stream that sinks into a subterranean
channel. What strikes the student at first sight as odd indeed is
the Hebrew nomenclature, the Jewish garment in which the Order of
Free and Accepted Masons presents itself to the outside world. Why
is it that Hebrew words, Jewish names and symbols are used in which
to shroud the most important ceremonial functions, the most
ingenious symbolism the world has even seen?

I will give a much abbreviated list of names, words and symbols of
Jewish origin used by Freemasonry:

Adonai--Lord; used by the Jews in place of Jehovah, the name of
God.
Adon Hiram--Adoniram--The Lord is exalted.
Ahiah--I Kings iv:3.
Aheman--Rezon. Derived from a very old and obsolete Hebrew word and
used as title to a book of instruction in the Grand Lodge of York.

Abbadon
Abda
Abif
Aholiab
Balgulkal--obsolete Hebrew
Bel
Bendekar
Bereith
Boaz
Breastplate
Cedars of Lebanon
Cherubim
Chased
Cohen
Emeth
Enoch
Ephod
Ephraimites
Ezel
Gabaon
Gedaliah
Giblim
Haggai
Hiram Abif
Immanuel
Jachin
Jacob's Ladder
Jah
Jehosaphat
Jeharak
Kabbala
Kadosh
Kamea
Lebanon
Levite
Manna
Melchizedek
Melech
Miter
Mizraim
Naamah
Peleg
Pentalpha--Solomon's Seal
Rabboni
Sabbaoth
Sanhedrim
Seal of Solomon
Sephiroth
Shaddai
Shamer
Shekel
Shekinah
Shiboleth
Shield of David
Signet of Zerubbabel
Tabernacle
Tetragammaton
Tomb of Adoniram
Tubalcain
Twelve Lettered Name
Two Lettered Name
Zabud
Zadok
Zedekiah
Zeredha
Zerubbabel

To the uninitiated it must appear strange that so many traces of
what might be called prehistoric Freemasonry lead us to the north
of England, thence to the Highlands of Scotland (some very learned
"higher critics" attempted with great erudition to infer from this
a connection between Freemasonry and the ancient Druids). Another
remarkable thing is the strange phenomenon consisting in the fact
that in the Scottish Rite the dates of all official documents are
given according to the Hebrew months and Jewish era, and more
remarkable still, use is made of the old form of the Hebrew
alphabet. Strange, very strange symbols (for the uninitiated or the
uninformed) are seen in the Rite of Misraim, but for him who sees
or knows, a lucid light is shed indeed on the "travails" of man.
Freemasonry has been remarkably successful in shrouding its origin,
its history and its philosophy on religion. The veil was
undoubtedly necessary and to some extent is still. I will lift it
but a very little, just enough to give a glimpse. The seeming
mystery in the apple grown on the tree of good and evil was the
thing that first attracted, then enticed our good mother Eve. In
like manner has the mystery enshrined in the symbols of Freemasonry
puzzled, in the last fifteen hundred years, the heads of the
learned and set in motion their hands and pens. What learned books
have been written on the meaning and origin of the symbols and what
scholarly controversies have been raised !

THE INTERPRETATION OF HIEROGLYPHS

For thousands of years the learned scholars of Europe and Asia
gazed at the strange hieroglyphics engraved on the sacred and
profane monuments of ancient Egypt. How ingenious and abstruse were
the scholarly treatises on, and explanations of, these strange
figures. But in the fullness of time an old, dilapidated and
half-broken stone was found in a place called Rosetti, and through
the markings on this half broken stone the strange and mysterious
figures were explained, the history, the mysteries of ancient Egypt
stood revealed.

Now, what this stone, the Rosetti stone, was, or rather has become,
to the hieroglyphics and mysteries of ancient Egypt, that the
teachings and the doctrines of the "Essenes" are to the symbols
employed by the Order of the Free and Accepted Masons.

This article is but introductory and so we will confine ourselves
to hints sufficient for the wise.

Among the first instructions the Masonic neophyte receives is a
hint as to the importance, the significance of the lambskin, the
twenty-four-inch gauge and the common gavel (the gavel stands in a
certain relation to but is by no means identical with the Master's
mallet or hammer).

Hammer or mallet is the English rendering of the Hebrew word
makkab, from which we get Maccabees, the name for the last dynasty
of the Jews.

The lion of Judah in Christology stands for the Lord Jesus but it
is also the "Essenic" appellation of Judas Maccabeus, a member and
noted figure in its history.

The following stanza from a Masonic song:

But the emblems that we shower, 
Tell us there's a mighty power 
O'er the strength of death and hell 
Judah's Lion shall prevail.

The lambskin is an Essenic figure standing for sacrifice and purity
indicated by its white color.

The number twenty-four is a favorite occult "Essenic" number as it
equals 23x3.

In Masonic lore we meet very often the heroic figures of St. John
the Baptist and John the Evangelist. The first is universally
recognized as a member of the "Essenes." The second is not thus
recognized but his relation to the order stands revealed in his
doctrines propounded.

INDEBTEDNESS TO HEBREW DOCTRINE

The student finds in Masonic literature the doctrine of the triune
triad encompassed by the Shekinah and he recognizes here the
"Essenic" doctrine of the Sephiroth.

Where did the founders of Freemasonry obtain their knowledge of the
meaning of the twelve-lettered name, only revealed to the Essenic
initiates of the order of Zenuim or Chaste Ones ? There is also a
forty-two lettered name which, if found in Masonic symbols, would
be of deep significance.

Of special interest also are the names of Enoch and Melchizedek, so
often met with in Masonic literature. These names, so conspicuous
in the doctrines of the "Essenes" and in apocalyptic literature,
have ever been a puzzle to the learned but uninitiated theologians.

We cannot help sympathizing with the Apostle Paul when he throws
out such vague but significant hints about the personality of
Melchizedek, of whom, as he says, "I have much to tell you but you
are babes and cannot stand strong meat." But our sympathy goes out
still more to Christian theologians when they attempt to explain or
explain away the words of the apostle.

This fact, and the way in which Freemasonry has incorporated these
two names in its doctrines and its symbols, is one of the strongest
evidential factors of Masonic cognizance of Jewish concealed
knowledge and of the inner connection between the Society of Free
and Accepted Masons and the ancient order of "Essenes."

Strange indeed is human ingenuity ! That Enoch lived three hundred
and sixty-five years, exactly as many years as the year has days,
has no special significance to the ordinary Bible student. "And
Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him." That he
should have ascended seems indeed extraordinary, but that the
number three hundred and sixty five and the ascension into heaven
should have any connection with the sun or zodiac is never
suspected by the innocent reader of the Bible.

NUMERICAL COINCIDENCES

That the renaissance of the society of Free and Accepted Masons
begins in the British Isles in the year 1717 and thence starts its
triumphal march over the entire face of our globe, is nothing
specially remarkable. Is there no significance in the year 1717 nor
is any special meaning to be attached to Hebrew nomenclature? Is it
not significant that at a period when the Jews were persecuted and
despised everywhere a reverential recognition of Hebrew symbols of
Hebrew nomenclature should take place and this in the year 1717 ?
It may be a little help for some to obtain an additional glimpse of
that strange figure 17. See Gospel of John, chapter xxi. Here we
find the number 153. We hear, or rather read, of a great catch, a
catch of 153 great fishes. Now why not 152 or 154 fishes ? What
special significance is there in the number of 17 ? Is it because
ten plus seven is seventeen ? Is it the fact that 153 equals 32
multiplied by seventeen? Is it the fact that one plus five plus
three equals nine ? A special significance was recognized by the
initiates, the so-called Church Fathers, Origenes was informed. He
gave hints sufficient for the wise or the initiated; St. Augustine
had not been initiated or only partially. He was puzzled. As his
explanation, he gives us the fact that 153 equals a binominal
co-efficient, that it is the sum of the natural numbers up to
seventeen, that one plus two plus three plus four, etc., up to
seventeen equals 153. In addition, Augustine gives us this reason
for seventeen: the number ten for commandments plus the number
seven as of the "spirits."

Let us ask Augustine why count up to number seventeen, and not to
eighteen or nineteen?

We come nearer the solution of the riddle when we look at II
Chronicles, chapter ii :16, where we find Salomon numbered all the
strangers that were in the land of Israel, and found their number
153 thousand and six hundred.

One of the most conspicuous symbols with the most definite meaning
for our brethren, our predecessors the Banaim, is the letter "G."
How many modern Freemasons know today the significance of this
letter "G"?

The "explanation" by the term "geometry" may fulfill a useful
purpose. We are here reminded of Bacon Shakespeare's "A little
scratched will serve." But that this letter "G" should have as its
main significance the word "God" the idea of the absolute cannot
possibly be accepted.

Freemasonry is first of all a universal, an international
organization or institution.

Here it should be borne in mind that the word "God," for the
Supreme or Absolute, is confined to the German or Teutonic
languages. The letter in Hebrew we do not wish to give, but it is
not "G." In the Greek language the first letter for the word "God"
is Theta. In the Latin, French and Italian, in fact in all the
socalled Roman languages, the initial of the name of the Most High
is "D," and as this letter "G" was used as a symbol by the "Banaim"
thousands of years before a letter in the German-Teutonic language
was written or printed, this symbol "G" cannot possibly have stood
as a first letter of the Teuton word for God.

In a subsequent article we may give--in a veiled form--the
significance of this "G" as a symbol in the lore of the
"Brotherhood" named "Banaim"--the pre-Christian Masons.

These "Banaim" were, primarily, what in modern parlance would be
called "Theologians." Theos, God and Logos, Knowledge or Science.
But these "Banaim" were also philosophers and even scientists, and
as such they had found a solution to problems puzzling to the
philosophers and scientists of our own day.

ANCIENT DOCTRINE AND MODERN SCIENCE

Ignorant people think that the so-called doctrine of evolution,
just as they think of the so-called heliocentric doctrine, is a
modern discovery or, as some hold, an invention and delusion. Here
it might be of interest to learn that the Banaim-Builders came
nearer to actuality in their doctrines than we find today in the
doctrines or theories given in the text-books of our children.

Again, ignorant people think that the problem of evolution has been
solved. That the theories have been scientifically established. For
the benefit of our readers we will present the opinion of William
James, recognized not only in America, but also in Europe, as
America's greatest and only original thinker and pioneer in the
world of thought. We will here present an extract from a lecture
delivered a few years only before the change called death:


The plain truth is that the philosophy of evolution, as
distinguished from our special information about particular
changes, is a metaphysical creed and nothing else. It is a mood of
contemplation, an emotional attitude, rather than a system of
thought--a mood which is as old as the world and which no
refutation of any one incarnation of it (such as the Spencerian
philosophy) will dispel; the mood or fatalistic pantheism with its
intuition of the One and All, which is, which was and ever shall be
and from which womb every single thing proceeds. Far be it from us
to speak slightingly here of so holy and mighty a style of looking
at the world as this. What we at present call scientific
discoveries had nothing to do with bringing it to birth. Nor can
one conceive that they should ever give it its burial, no matter
how logically incompatible the ultimate phenomenal distinctions
which science accumulates, should turn out to be. It can laugh at
the phenomenal distinctions on which science is based for it draws
its vital breath from a region which--whether above or below--is at
least altogether different from that in which science dwells. A
critic however, who cannot disprove the truth of the scientific
creed can, at least, raise his voice in protest against its
disguising itself in scientific plumes.

The reader should here bear in mind that William James accepts the
idea, the principle of evolution. He only calls attention to the
fact that this idea, these principles are today not scientifically
established, that our scientists are still in search and thus far,
in vain, for the "modus" and still more the "opus operandi."

The members of the Brotherhood of Free and Accepted Masons will be
pleased to learn that their preChristian ancestors, the
Banaim-Builders-Essenes, just as they had received the heliocentric
doctrine, had also received, by divine revelations, or as some
would call it, inner illumination, or using the most modern
scientific expression, a vision into "cosmic consciousness," not
only the mere theory of evolution but also the "modus and opus
operandi" of "mother nature" in what is called today the doctrine
of evolution.

Neither the doctrine of evolution nor what is called today the
heliocentric doctrine, could be given out to the general public.
These doctrines would necessarily have seemed strange and absurd to
the uninitiated.

Here we are reminded of the Master's words, "To you it is given to
know the 'secrets' of the Kingdom of Heaven, to them I speak in
parables.

"Do not give that which is Holy unto dogs, do not cast pearls
before swine lest they turn and rend you, and their second state is
worse than their first."

Now just as the mental progress of the human race, the advance of
science made possible and expedient the publication and ensured the
acceptance of the heliocentric doctrine, and the doctrine of
evolution, so in the opinion of some the discoveries made through
psychic research, some features imbedded in the doctrine of
relativity have made it possible and expedient to proclaim aloud
some of the secret doctrines given under a most solemn oath of
secrecy after a lengthy period of probation on the banks of the
Nile and the river Jordan by our spiritual ancestors the "Banaim."

As already stated, we will here lift the veil a little, very
little. Just enough to give a glimpse of the wisdom of our
predecessors, the founders, or using a term more modest, the
propagandists or "missionaries" (another translation of the Apostle
Paul's hagioi) of Christianity.

As an illustration of the truth of the words of Solomon, "There is
nothing new under the sun," I will quote a passage from a book that
has furnished to Freemasonry most of its symbols and rites:

In the book of Hammuna the Elder we learn through some extended
explanation that the earth turns upon itself in the form of a
circle; that some are on top, the others below; that all creatures
change in aspect, following the manner of each place, but keeping
the same position. But there are some countries on the earth which
are lighted while others are in darkness and there are countries in
which there is constantly day or in which the night continues only
some instants. These secrets were made known to the men of the
"secret science," but not to the geographers.

These words, a graphic description of the modern heliocentric
theory, are found in a book compiled more than 2000 years before
Kepler, Galileo or Newton.

Addenda--Dialogue Between Teacher and Pupil

Teacher: The sun is the begetter of all good, the ruler of all
order, movement, and the governor of the seven worlds. All things
change and are in motion continually.

Pupil: Do you say, Father, that the earth is motionless ?

Father-Teacher: No, my son! Not even the earth!

Evolution

"Breaths" of the nature of creeping things change into things which
dwell in the water. "Breaths" which dwell in the water change into
beasts which dwell on land; "Breaths" which dwell on land change--
"Breaths" change into man.

Translation of words for which dashes are substituted is not
considered expedient. This presentation of evolution is an extract
of a translated translation of the traditional teaching given
thousands of years before Darwin, Wallace or Spencer.

"Extract" No. 2

"The word 'space' is unmeaning when it stands alone; for it is only
by regarding something which is in space that we come to see what
'space' is; and apart from the meaning to which it belongs, the
meaning of the term 'space' is incomplete. Thus we may rightly
speak of the space occupied by water and fire, and so on (but not
of space alone). FOR AS THERE CANNOT BE A VOID, so it is impossible
to determine what space is if you regard it by itself. For if you
assume a space apart from something which is in it, it will follow
that there is a void space, and I TEACH you that there is no such
thing as a void space in the universe. If 'void' has no existence
then it is impossible to find any REAL thing answering to the word
'space' taken by itself."

Translation of a translation of knowledge delivered traditionally
given orally only under the seal of secrecy by our friends the
Banaim thousands of years before our brother Einstein presented the
"new" doctrine of relativity.

"Extract" No. 3

"There is no death. The word 'death' is a mere name without any
corresponding fact. Death means destruction, and nothing in the
cosmos is or can be destroyed."

Translation of a translation from the traditional teaching given
orally only by our brethren the "Banaim" thousands of years before
Maeterlink wrote his "Blue Bird."

"Extract" No. 4

"God is pre-existent and ever existent. He and He alone made all
things, created all things by His will. Who then can speak of Thee
or to Thee and tell Thy Power ? Whither shall I look when I praise
Thee ? Upward or downward, inward or outward? For Thou art the
place in which all things are contained; there is no other place
besides Thee and all things are in Thee."

"And what offerings shall I bring Thee, for all things are from
Thee? Thou givest all and receivest nothing; for Thou hast all
things and there is nothing that Thou hast not."

Translation of a translation of the lore of our brethren the
"Banaim."

"Extract" No. 5

"And at what time shall I sing hymns to Thee ? For it is impossible
to find a season or a space of time that is apart from Thee. And
for what shall I praise Thee, for the things Thou hast made or for
the things Thou hast not made; for the things Thou hast made
manifest or for the things Thou hast concealed, and wherewith shall
I sing to Thee? Am I my own or have I anything of my own? Am I
other than Thou? Thou art whatsoever I am; Thou art whatsoever I do
and whatsoever I say. Thou art all things and there is nothing
beside thee, nothing that Thou art Not. Thou art all that has come
into Being and all that has not come into being. Thou art mind so
that Thou thinkest and Father in that Thou createst, and God in
that Thou workest, and God in that Thou makest all things."

Translation of a translation of the lore of our ancestors the
"Banaim" given orally under the seal and solemn oath of secrecy
hundreds of years before Plato and thousands of years before Kant,
Emerson, Bacon Shakespeare, Royce, Pope, Tennyson or Walt Whitman.


"Extract" No. 6

1. "Holy is God the Father who is before the First beginning;
2. Holy is God Whose purpose is accomplished by His several powers;
3. Holy is God Who wills to be known and is known by them that are
His own;
4. Holy are Thou Who by Thy Word hast constructed all that is;
5. Holy are Thou whose brightness nature has not darkened;
6. Holy art Thou of Whom all nature is an image;
7. Holy art Thou Who are stronger than all domination;
8. Holy art Thou who art greater than all preeminence;
9. Holy art Thou Who surpasseth all praises.
10. Therefore with all my strength will I give praise to God the
Father.

I pray, O Lord, accept pure offering of speech from a soul and
heart uplifted to Thee, Thou of Whom no words can tell, no tongue
can speak, Whom silence alone can declare.

I pray that I may never fall away from that knowledge of Thee,
Which makes our Being; grant Thou this my prayer and put power into
me, that so having obtained this boon, I may enlighten those of my
race who are in ignorance, my brothers, Thy sons."

An extract from a prayer taught as a secret lore, orally only, by
our brethren, our predecessors the Banaim Builders Masons,
thousands of years before this our time.

