Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

EONS
EQUALITY 247
their name from the Greek ai ,y, an age, in
reference to the long duration of their existence
. Valentinius said there were but thirty
of them; but Basilides reckons them as three
hundred and sixty-five, which certainly has an
allusion to the days of the solar year. In some
of the philosophical degrees, references are
made to theEons,whose introduction into them
is doubtless to be attributed to the connection
of Gnosticism with certain of the high degrees .
Eons, Rite of the . Ragon (Tuilleur Gen .,
p. 186) describes this Rite, as one full of beautiful
and learned instruction, but scarcely known,
and practised only in Asia, being founded on
the religious dogmas of Zoroaster . The existence
of it as a genuine Rite is doubtful, for
Ragon's information is very meager .
Eostre . Easter, a name given to the paschal
festival in the spring of the year .
Ephod. The sacred vestment worn by the
high priest of the Jews over the tunic and outer
garment . It was without sleeves, and divided
below the arm-pits into two parts or halves
one falling before and the other behind, and
both reaching to the middle of the thighs .
They were joined above on the shoulders by
buckles and two large precious stones, on
which were inscribed the names of the twelve
tribes, six on each . The ephod was a distinctive
mark of the priesthood . It was of two
kinds, one of plain linen for the priests, and
another, richer and embroidered, for the high
priest, which was composed of blue, purple,
crimson, and fine linen . The robe worn by the
high prest in a Royal Arch Chapter is intended
to be a representation, but hardly can
be called an imitation, of the ephod .
Ephraimites . The descendants of Ephraim.
They inhabited the center of Judea between
the Mediterranean and the river Jordan .
The character given to them in the ritual of
the Fellow-Craft's Degree, of being "a stiffnecked
and rebellious people," coincides with
history, which describes them as haughty,
tenacious to a fault of their rights, and ever
ready to resist the pretensions of the other
tribes, and more especially that of Judah, of
which they were peculiarly jealous . The circumstance
in their history which has been appropriated
for a symbolic purpose in the ceremonies
of the Second Degree of Masonry, may
be briefly related thus . The Ammonites, who
were the descendants of the younger son of
Lot, and inhabited a tract of country east of
the river Jordan, had been always engaged in
hostility against the Israelites . On the occasion
referred to, they had commenced a war
upon the pretext that the Israelites had deprived
them of a portion of their territory .
Jephthah, having been called by the Israelites
to the head of their army defeated the Ammonites,
but had not called upon the Ephraimites
to assist in the victory . Hence, that
high-spirited people were incensed, and more
especially as they had had no share in the rich
spoils obtained by Jephthah from the Ammonites.
They accordingly gave him battle,
but were defeated with great slaughter by the
Gileadites, or countrymen of Jephthah, with
whom alone he resisted their attack . As the
land of Gilead, the residence of Jephthah, was
on the west side of the Jordan, and as the
Ephraimites lived on the east side, in making
their invasion it was necessary that they
should cross the river, and after their defeat,
in attempting to effect a retreat to their own
country, they were compelled to recross the
river . But Jephthah, aware of this, had
plated forces at the different fords of the river,
who intercepted the Ephraimites, and detected
their nationality by a peculiar defect
in their pronunciation. For although the
Ephraimites did not speak a dialect different
from that of the other tribes, they had a different
pronunciation of some words, and an inability
to pronounce the letter lU or SH, which
they pronounced as if it were 0 or S . Thus,
when called upon to say SHIBBOLETH,
the pronounced it, SIBBOLETH, "which
tri g defect," says the ritual, "proved them
to be enemies ." The test to a Hebrew was a
palpable one, for the two words have an entirely
different signification ; shibboleth meaning
an ear of corn, and sibboleth, a burden . The
biblical relation will be found in the twelfth
chapter of the Book of Judges .
Epoch. In chronology, a certain point of
time marked by some memorable event at
which the calculation of years begins . Different
peoples have different epochs or epochs :
Thus, the epoch of Christians is the birth of
Christ ; that of Jews, the creation of the world ;
and that of Mohammedans, the flight of their
prophet from Mecca. See Calendar.
Epopt. This was the name given to one
who had passed through the Great Mysteries,
and been permitted to behold what was concealed
from the mystee, who had only been initiated
into the Lesser . It signifies an eye-witness,
and is derived from the Greek, d¢osdw,
to look over, to behold. The apopts repeated the
oath of secrecy which had been administered
to them on their initiation into the Lesser
Mysteries, and were then conducted into the
lighted interior of the sanctuary and permitted
to behold what the Greeks emphatically
termed "the sight," wrrollla . The epopts alone
were admitted to the sanctuary, for the mystae
were confined to the vestibule of the temple .
The epopts were, in fact, the Master Masons of
the Mysteries, while the mystee were the Apprentices
and Fellow-Crafts ; these words bemg
used, of course, only in a comparative
sense.
Equality. Among the ancient iconologists,
equality was symbolized by a female
figure holding in one hand a pair of scales
equipoised and in the other a nest of swallows
. The moderns have substituted a level
for the scales. And this is the Masonic idea .
In Masonry, the level is the symbol of that
equality which, as Higgins (Anac ., i ., 790),
says, is the very essence of Freemasonry .
"All, let their rank in life be what it may,
when in the Lodge are brothers-brethren
with the Father at their head . No person can
read the Evangelists and not see that this is
correctly Gospel Christianity ."