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

362 JACQUES
JAPANESE
Bible we are taught to believe in the Divine
dispensation of Providence, which belief
strengthens our Faith, and enables us to ascend
the first step .
"That Faith naturally creates in us a Hope
of becoming partakers of some of the blessed
promises therein recorded, which Hope enables
us to ascend the second step .
"But the third and last being Charity comprehends
the whole, and he who is possessed
of this virtue in its ample sense, is said to have
arrived at the summit of his profession, or,
more metaphorically, into an ethereal mansion
veiled from the mortal eye by the starry firmament
."
In the modern lectures, the language is
materially changed, but the idea and the
symbolism are retained unaltered .
The delineation of the ladder with three
steps only on the Tracing Board of 1776,
which is a small one, may be attributed to
notions of convenience . But the Masonic
ladder should properly have seven steps,
which represent the four cardinal and the
three theological virtues .
Jacques de Molay . See Molay, James de .
Jafuhar. The second king in the Scandinavian
mysteries . The synonym for Thor .
Jah . In Hebrew, 'T'. Maimonides calls it
the "two-lettered name," and derives it from
the Tetragrammaton, of which he says it is
an abbreviation . Others have denied this,
and assert that Jah is a name independent of
Jehovah, but expressing the same idea of the
Divine Essence. It is uniformly translated in
the authorized version of the Bible by the
word Loin, being thus considered as synonymous
with Jehovah, except in Psalm lxviu . 4,
where the original word is preserved : "Extol
him that rideth upon the heavens by his name
JAH," upon which the Targum comment is :
"Extol him who sitteth on the throne of flory
in the ninth heaven ; YAH is his name.' It
seems, also, to have been well known to the
Gentile nations as the triliteral name of God ;
for, although biliteral among the Hebrews, it
assumed among the Greeks the triliteral form,
as IAa . Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, says
that this was the sacred name of the Supreme
Deity ; and the Clarian Oracle being asked
which of the gods was Jao, replied, "The initiated
are bound to conceal the mysterious
secrets . Learn thou that IAtt, is the Great God
Supreme who ruleth over all ." (See Jehovah.)
Jaheb . (Heb., 1'1', concedens.) A sacred
name used in the Thirteenth Degree of the
A . A. Scottish Rite .
Jaina Cross . Used by several orders, and
found in the abbeys of Great Britain
and on the monuments of India.
Its signifieations are many . This
cross was adopted by the Jainas, a
heterodox sect of the Hindus, who
dissent from Brahmanism and deny the Vedas,
and whose adherents are found in every province
of Upper Hindustan . They are wealthy
and influential, and form an important division
of the population of India . This symbol is
also known as the Fylfot or Swastika . It is a
religious symbol mentioned by Weaver in his
Funeral Monuments, by Dr . H . Schliemann as
having been found in the presumed ruins of
Troy, by De Rossi and others in the Catacombs
of Christian Rome, and there termed
the Crux dissimulata . It has been found on
almost every enduring monument on the
globe, of all ages, and in both hemispheres .
Jainas. See Jaina Cross.
Jamblichus . It is strange that the old
Masons, when inventing their legend, which
gave so prominent a place to Pythagoras as
"an ancient friend and brother," should have
entirely forgotten his biographer, Jamblichus,
whose claims to their esteem and veneration
are much greater than those of the Samian
sa ge . Jamblichus was a Neoplatonic philosopher,
who was born at Chalcis, in Calo, Syria,
and flourished in the fourth century . He was
a pupil of Porphyry, and was deeply versed in
the philosophic systems of Plato and Pythagoras,
and, like the latter, had studied the mystical
theology of the Egyptians and Chaldeans
whose Divine origin and truth he attempts to
vindicate . He maintained that man, through
theurgic rites and ceremonies, might commune
with the Deity ; and hence he attached
great importance to initiation as the means
of inculcating truth . He carried his superstitious
veneration for numbers and numerical
formula to a far greater extent than did the
school of Pythagoras ; so that all the principles
of his philosophy can be represented by
numbers .
Thus, he taught that one, or the monad,
was the principle of all unity as well as diversity
; the duad, or two was the intellect ;
three the soul ; four, the principle of universal
harmony ; eight, the source of motion ;
nine, perfection • and ten, the result of all the
emanations of the to en. It will thus be seen
that Jamblichus while adop ting the general
theory of numbers that distinguished the
Pythagorean school, differed very materially
in his explanations . He wrote many philosophical
works on the basis of these principles,
and was the author of a Life of Pythagoras,
and a Treatise of the Mysteries. Of all the
ancient philosophers, his system assimilates
him most-if not in its details, at least in its
spirit-to the mystical and symbolic character
of the Masonic philosophy .
James H . and III. of Scotland . See
Stuart Masonry .
Jaminim or laminim. (Heb., water .)
(See L% N .- .R .- .1 .- .)
Janitor. A door-keeper . The word Sentinel,
which in a Royal Arch Chapter is the
proper equivalent of the Tiler in a Lodge, is in
some jurisdictions replaced by the word Janitor.
There is no good authority for the
usage.
Japan. Freemasonry was introduced in
Japan by the establishment at Yokohama, in
1865, of a Lodge by the Grand Lodge of England
. A Masonic hall was built at Yokohama
in 1869 .
Japanese Faith . See Kofiki; also Nihongi.