The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

Chapter 4 - Signs & Symbols 137
contained the celebrated letter which was a symbol of the Divine
name. 377
The "celebrated letter" is the letter "G," here meaning "God," which
consequently must have been displayed in the original Middle Chamber in
Hebrew. Likewise, in one Masonic ritual the question in the catechism is: "When
in the Middle Chamber of the Temple [sic] was there anything that particularly
arrested their attention?" Whereupon the candidate answers: "There was; certain
Hebrew characters, which are now depicted in a F.C.'s Lodge by the letter G."
The examiner then asks, "What does that denote?", and the examinee answers:
"The Grand Geometrician of the Universe, to whom we must all submit, and
whom we ought most cheerfully to obey." 378 The proposition that there actually
were Hebrew letters displayed in the Middle Chamber of King Solomon's temple
seems to be modeled by certain enthusiastic Masons and void of historical truth.
Thus says Sickels in The General Ahiman Rezon:
Although the legend of the Winding Stairs forms an important tradition
of Ancient Craft Masonry, the only allusion to it in scripture is to be
found in a single verse in the 6 th chapter of the 1 st Book of Kings [...].
Out of this slender material has been constructed an allegory, which, if
properly considered in its symbolical relations, will be found to be of
surpassing beauty. But it is only as a symbol that we can regard this
whole tradition; for the historical facts and the architectural details alike
forbid us for a moment to suppose that the legend, as it is rehearsed in
the second degree of Masonry, is anything more than a magnificent
philosophical myth. 379
As to the historical probability of the existence of a middle chamber with a
winding staircase in the original temple, and with regard to the number of steps,
Coil writes that
[t]here is little doubt about the Winding Stairs, for there was little room
or need for any other kind. [...] Moreover, there seems to have been but
one door to the Middle Chamber and that on the right side of the house.
Hence, there was probably but one Winding Stairway. There is no
indication in the Scriptural account as to the number of steps in the
Winding Stairs, but these have been supplied from time to time by
Masonic ritualists. Some tracing boards of the 18 th century show five
steps, others 7. Preston, in his lectures about 1772, divided them into
377
Quoted in TRMC, p. 485. Bold print added.
378
Anonymous ("Compiled by a member of the Craft."), The Text Book of Freemasonry from 1881,
p. 147/148.
379
Sickels, p. 159.