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THE ORIGIN OF MASONRY

II. The House Erected to God

by E. Cromwell Mensch 32 degree

THE NEW AGE - AUGUST 1948

The House, which it was decreed in the wisdom and counsels of Deity
aforetime should be built, was the Tabernacle of Moses, and not the
Temple of Solomon. The Tabernacle was the vehicle used by Moses to bring
the word of God to the people he had led out of Egypt. It was the shrine
around which these Israelites gathered after they had migrated into
Palestine. It served that purpose for something like 200 years, but had
fallen into disuse by the time David came into power. Realizing the
importance of the Tabe rnacle, David planned to replace it with the
structure now known to history as Solomon's Temple. In this replacement
an attempt was made to copy the Tabernacle's design, the secrets of
which had been lost ever since the death of Moses. The secrets of this
design were concealed by Moses in the Pentateuch, or the first five
books of the Bible. Therein lies the key to Masonry, for the Temple was
merely an imperfect copy of the Tabernacle.

There are two sets of specifications covering the building of the
Tabernacle in the Book of Exodus. Those in Chapter 26 represent the
command of God that the House should be built. Those set forth in
Chapter 36 are the specifications for the actual building of the House.
Exodus 36:8 is the starting point, and states that every wise hearted
man that wrought the work of the Tabernacle made ten curtains of Fine
Twined Linen. These curtains were 4 cubits wide and 28 cubits long. Five
of them were coupled togeth er, and the other 5 were coupled together.
The result was a pair of curtains, each half of which contained 5
strips. The total width of each set of 5 strips was 20 cubits, for the
individual strips were 4 cubits wide. This 20 cubits coincided with the
width of the House. When assembled, they were raised over the House to
form a gable roof. As there were 10 strips in all, they represented the
digits of a pair of hands raised in supplication.

From this symbolic meaning it will be seen why Moses placed these
curtains as the first item in his list of specifications. It was his
admonition to us that no man should ever enter upon any great or
important undertaking without first invoking the blessing of God. There
were several thousand people engaged in the building of the House, and,
obviously, only a small percentage were actually engaged in the
fabrication of these curtains. And yet the language is clear, for it
says "every wise hearted man that w rought the work of the tabernacle
made ten curtains." Those who chose to engage in the work were first
prepared in their hearts, or became "wise hearted." They all "made" ten
curtains, for this was the sign of a pair of hands raised in
supplication.

The second item in the specifications was the curtains of Goats' Hair.
They were superimposed above those of Fine Twined Linen, and were 4
cubits wide by 30 cubits long. There were 11 of these curtains, and this
fact has stumped the experts for centuries. Ten of them may be arranged
to match the 10 curtains of Fine Twined Linen. Being above the first set
of curtains, those of Goats' Hair represented a pair of hands stretched
forth in benediction. That this is so is gleaned from the fact that this
is the onl y specification in Chapter 36 that needs to be filled in from
the supplemental information contained in Chapter 26 of Exodus. This
Chapter 26 contains the command of God, and this second pair of curtains
symbolized His hands stretched forth in benediction.

Exodus 26:9 and 26:12 dispose of the 11th curtain of Goats' Hair by
stating that it shall be doubled over in the forefront of the
Tabernacle, and the remnant that remaineth, the half curtain that
remaineth, shall hang over the backside of the Tabernacle. In other
words, the 11th curtain of Goats' Hair was cut into 4 strips, each 1
cubit wide, to form the drip for the gable part of the roof. Exodus
26:13 explains how the eaves were formed on the ends, for it states that
the length of these curtains shall han g over a cubit on the one side
and a cubit on the other side.

The length of these Goats' Hair curtains was 30 cubits, which was
symbolic of the 30 days of the solar month. The length of the curtains
of Fine Twined Linen, which were protected from the sun by the upper
curtains, was 28 cubits. They were symbolic of the 28 days of the lunar
month.

The gable roof arrangement of the curtains of Goats' Hair formed an
isosceles triangle, each leg of which was 30 cubits long. The length of
its base is obtained from Exodus 26:13, which states that the curtains
shall hang over a cubit on the one side and a cubit on the other side.
This called for a base of 52 cubits, for the Court which encompassed the
Tabernacle was exactly 50 cubits wide. The actual length of the
Tabernacle was 48 cubits, which left a space of 1 cubit between each of
its ends and the adja cent wall of the court. This space was
approximately 24 inches wide and, no doubt, sheltered the original
eavesdroppers. No such arrangement was possible in the Temple, for it
was encompassed by 3 banks of chambers, which were set into the walls of
the main structure.

These triangular spaces formed in the east and west walls of the
Tabernacle were called pediments. They were covered with the Rams' Skins
dyed red specified in Exodus 36:19. Like the roof curtains, they also
were 4 cubits in width, and 12 of them exactly fitted into the 48 cubits
width of the base of the pediments. There were 12 of these curtains in
the east pediment, and 12 in the west pediment - together they
symbolized the 24 hours of the day.

This Rams' Skins dyed red was a translucent material, and as the sun
rose in the east the interior was filled with a soft, red glow. The sun
at meridian height came down through an aperture in the roof, but only
on occasion. As the sun was in the west at the close of the day, the
soft tones which filtered through the Rams' Skins dyed red again
permeated the interior. Above them were placed the Badgers' Skins, which
were opaque, and were manipulated like window shades to control the
lighting effects. There w as no such arrangement in the Temple, for
neither roof curtains nor rams' skins were employed in its construction.


The lower part of the Tabernacle was sheathed with boards, 20 of them
being specified for the south wall, and a like number for the north
wall. According to Exodus 36:21, these particular boards were each 10
cubits long and 1 1/2 cubits wide. Two of them, placed end to end,
matched the 20 cubits width of the House, which makes it obvious that
the 20 boards in both north and south walls were arranged in two stacks
of 10 boards each. This height of 10 boards in each panel was symbolic
of the "Ten Commandments . Exodus 36:27 specifies 6 boards for the west
wall of the Tabernacle. These 6 boards were laid out end to end, and
formed the bottom course for the 6 panels into which the west wall was
divided. Each board was 8 cubits long, and the total length of the wall
was 48 cubits. Each panel was 10 boards high, or 15 cubits, for each
board was 1 1/2 cubits wide. Actually, the 6 panels of the west wall
were laid out by means of a mathematical formula, which Moses designated
as Jacob's ladder . This fact was unknown t o the builders of the
Temple, for they made the west wall of their structure 60 cubits long.
The interior of the Temple was sheathed with boards, and obviously the 6
boards they used were each 10 cubits long.

The height of the Tabernacle at the apex of its roof was 30 cubits; its
depth, or width, was 20 cubits; and its length, which was across the
breadth of the Court, was 48 cubits. The first two dimensions were
faithfully copied into the design of the Temple, for it was 30 cubits
high by 20 cubits deep. But the length of the Temple, as given in I
Kings 6:2, was 60 cubits. This discrepancy over the 48 cubits length of
the Tabernacle is prima facie evidence that the builders of the Temple
did not possess the sec rets of the design of the original House. In
other words "that which was lost" was the secret design of the
Tabernacle, which had not been discovered at the time Solomon built his
Temple.