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

GABAON
GAEDICKE 289
or Jehovah, and is constantly to be met with
among Hebrew writers, as the abbreviation
or symbol of that most holy name, which,
indeed, was never written at length . Now,
as G is in like manner the initial of God,
the English equivalent of the Hebrew Jehovah,
the letter has been adopted as a symbol
intended to supply to modern Lodges the
place of the Hebrew symbol . First adopted
by the English ritual makers, it has, without
remark, been transferred to the Masonry of
the Continent, and it is to be found as a
symbol in all the systems of Germany, France,
Spain, Italy, Portugal, and every other
country where Masonry has been introduced ;
although in Germany only can it serve, as it
does in England, for an intelligent symbol .
The letter G, then, has in Masonry the
same force and signification that the letter
yod had among the Kabbalists . It is only a
symbol of the Hebrew letter, and, as that
is a symbol of God, the letter G is only a
symbol of a symbol . As for its reference
to geometry, Kloss the German Masonic
historian, says that the old Operative Masons
referred the entire science of geometry to
the art of building, which gave to the modern
English Masons occasion to embrace the
whole system of Freemasonry under the
head of Geometry, and hence the symbol
of that science, as well as of God, was adopted
for the purpose of giving elevation to the
Fellow-Craft's Degree .
Indeed, the symbol, made sacred by its
reference to the Grand Geometrician of the
universe, was well worthy to be applied to
that science which has, from the remotest
times, been deemed synonymous with Masonry
.
Gabaon . A significant word in the high
degrees. Oliver says (Landm ., i ., 335), "in
philosophical Masonry, heaven, or, more correctly
speaking, the third heaven, is denominated
Mount Gabaon, which is feigned to be
accessible only by the seven degrees that
compose the winding staircase. These are
the degrees terminating in the Royal Arch ."
Gabaon is defined to signify "a high place ."
It is the Septuagint and Vulgate form of
1l ;7:a, Gibeon, which was the city in which
the tabernacle was stationed during the
reigns of David and Solomon . The word
means a city built on a hill, and is referred
to in 2 Chron . i . 3. "So Solomon, and all
the congregation with him, went to the high
place that was at Gibeon ; for there was the
tabernacle of the congregation of God ."
In a ritual of the middle of the last century,
it is said that Gabanon is the name
of a Master Mason . This word is a striking
evidence of the changes which Hebrew
words have undergone in their transmission
to Masonic rituals, and of the almost impossibility
of tracing them to their proper
root . It would seem difficult to find a connection
between Gabanon and any known
Hebrew word. But if we refer to Guillemain's
Ritual of Adonhiramite Masonry, we
will find the following passage :
"Q. How is a Master called?
"A . Gabaon, which is the name of the place
where the Israelites deposited the ark in the
time of trouble .
"Q . What does this signify?
"A . That the heart of a Mason ought to be
pure enough to be a temple suitable for God ."
(P. 95.)
There is abundant internal evidence that
these two rituals came from a common source,
and that Gabaon is a French distortion, as
Gabanon is an English one, of some unknown
word-connected, however, with the Ark of
the Covenant as the place where that article
was deposited .
Now, we learn from the Jewish records that
the Philistines, who had captured the ark,
deposited it "in the house of Abinadab that
was in Gibeah" ; and that David, subsequently
recapturing it, carried it to Jerusalem
but left the tabernacle at Gibeon . The
ritualist did not remember that the tabernacle
at Gibeon was without the ark, but supposed
that .it was still in that sacred shrine .
Hence, Gabaon or Gabanon must have been
corrupted from either Gibeah or Gibeon, because
the ark was considered to be at some
time in both places. But Gibeon had already
been corrupted by the Septuagint and the Vulgate
versions intoGabaon; and this undoubtedly
is the word from which Gabanon is derived,
through either the Septuagint or the Vulgate,
or perhaps from Josephus, who calls it Gabao .
Gabaonne . In French Masonic language,
the widow of a Master Mason . Derived from
Gabaon .
Gabor. Heb ., 1:a, strong . A significant
word in the high degrees .
Gabriel. Heb ., a man of God . The
name of one of the archangels, referred to in
some of the high degrees . He interpreted to
Daniel the vision of the ram and the he-goat,
and made the prophecy of the "seventy
weeks" (Dan . viii . and ix .) ; he announced
the future appearance of the Messiah (Dan .
ix . 21, 27) . In the New Testament he foretold
to Zacharias the birth of John the Baptist
(Luke i . 19), and to Mary the birth of Christ
(Luke i . 26) . Among the Rabbis Gabriel is
entrusted with the care of the souls of the
dead, and is represented as having taught
Joseph the seventy languages spoken at Babel .
In addition, he was the only angel who could
speak Chaldee and Syriac . The Talmud speaks
of him as the Prince of Fire, the Spirit presiding
over thunder . The Mohammedans
term him the Spirit of Truth, and believe
that he dictated the Koran to Mohammed .
Gaedicke, Johann Christian . A bookseller
of Berlin, born on the 14th of December,
1763, and initiated into Masonry in 1804 . He
took much interest in the Order, and was the
author of several works, the most valuable
and best known of which is the Freimaurer-
Lexicon, or Freemasons' Lexicon, published in
1818 ; which, although far inferior to that of
Leaning, which appeared four years afterward,
is, as a pioneer work, very creditable to
its author. The Lexicon was translated into