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

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8. Temple
Chapter 5 - Technical Terminology
As already demonstrated in our chapter on the lodge room, the lodge is a
symbol of King Solomon's temple, and thus a symbol of universality. The
Freemasons work on the erection of a spiritual temple, which is built by God as
the chief architect, who has to inspect and approve all the material that goes into
it. These materials, i.e. the stones, are the Masons themselves, and the Holy of
Holies symbolizes the human heart:
[...] Moses and Solomon, in building the Temples, were wise in the
knowledge of God and of man; from which point it is not difficult to
pass on to the moral meaning altogether, and affirm that the building,
which was erected without the noise of a 'hammer, nor ax, nor any tool
of iron' (1 Kings vi. 7,) was altogether a moral building - a building of
God, not made with hands. In short, many see in the story of Solomon's
Temple, a symbolical representation of MAN as the temple of God,
with its HOLY OF HOLIES deep seated in the centre of the human
heart. 768
Thus, another related expression, the "temple of the body," is an early
Christian metaphor for the indwelling of God, which the Masons have adopted
into their teachings with reference to John, chapter 2, verses 19-22, and 1 Cor.,
chapter 6, verse 19:
The symbolism of Solomon's Temple in the science of speculative
Masonry, and the several rites and ceremonies of the order based upon
operative Masonry in the construction of the Temple, are intended to
convey and inculcate great moral, ethical, and spiritual truths. Among
these truths is the teaching that man's body is to be made a fit temple for
the indwelling of God, and that many of the symbolisms in the building
of King Solomon's Temple find their realities in human life and
experience. 769
The semantic use of "temple" includes the "rubbish of the temple," which
denotes worldly values in contrast to spiritual ones, and is thus explained in a
Biblical index to Freemasonry:
Hindrances in the erection of the Temple of Solomon caused by the
scattered rubbish is a figure of the worldly and material things of life
which prevent proper moral, ethical, and spiritual growth, or the
building of that spiritual structure of character and usefulness which is
768 Quoted in EOF, p. 706.
769 Cf. The New Standard Alphabetical Indexed Bible, chapter "Biblical Index To Freemasonry," p. 38.