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

JAPIIET
JEHO"VAU 363
Japhet . Heb ., re`. The eldest son of
Noah. It is said that the first ark-the ark
of safety, the archetype of the tabernaclewas
constructed by Shem, Ham, and Japhet
under the superintendence of Noah . Hence
these are significant words in the Royal Arch
Degree .
dasher, Book of. (Heb., Sepher hayashar,
The Book of the Upright .) One of the
lost books of the ancient Hebrews, which is
quoted twice (Josh . x. 13 ; 2 Sam. i . 18) . A
Hebrew minstrelsy, recording the warlike
deeds of the national heroes, and singing the
praises of eminent or celebrated men . An
original is said to be in the library at Samarkand
.
Jasper. Heb ., TV' . A precious stone of a
dullish green color, which was the last of the
twelve inserted in the high priest's breastplate,
according to the authorized version ;
but the Vulgate translation more correctly
makes it the third stone of the second row . It
represented the tribe of Zebulun .
Jebusite . See Oman .
Jedadiah . A special name given to King
Solomon at his birth. It signifies "beloved of
God ."
Jehoshaphat. East of Jerusalem, between
Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives,
lies the Valley of Jehoshaphat . In the most
recent rituals this word has lost its significance,
but in the older ones it played an important
part . There was in reality no such
valley in ancient Judea, nor is there any mention
of it in Scripture, except once by the
prophet Joel . The name is altogether modern
. But, as the Hebrew means the judgment
of God, and as the prophecy of Joel declared
that God would there judge the heathen for
their deeds against the Israelites, it came at
last to be believed by the Jews, which belief
is shared by the Mohammedans, that the Valley
of Jehoshaphat is to be the place of the last
judgment . Hence it was invested with a peculiar
degree of sanctity as a holy place . The
idea was borrowed by the Masons of the last
century, who considered it as the symbol of
holy ground . Thus, in the earliest rituals we
find this language :
"Where does the Lodge stand?"
"Upon holy ground, or the highest hill or
lowest vale, or in the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
or any other secret place ."
This reference to the Valley of Jehoshaphat
as the symbol of the ground floor of the Lodge
was in this country retained until a very recent
period ; and the expression which alludes
to it in the ritual of the Second Degree has only
within a few years past been abandoned .
Hutchinson referred to this symbolism, when
he said that the Spiritual Lodge was placed in
the Valley of Jehoshaphat to imply that the
principles of Masonry are derived from the
knowledge of God, and are established in the
judgments of the Lord.
Jehovah . JEHOVAH is, of all the significant
words of Masonry, by far the most important
. Reghellini very properly calls it
"the basis of our dogma and of our mysteries ."
In Hebrew it consists of four letters, and
hence is called the Tetragrammaton, or fourlettered
name ; and because it was forbidden
to a Jew, as it is to a Mason, to pronounce it,
it is also called the Ineffable or Unpronounceable
name . For its history we must refer to
the sixth chapter of Exodus (verses 2, 3) .
When Moses returned discouraged from his
first visit to Pharaoh, and complained to the
Lord that the only result of his mission had
been to incense the Egyptian king, and to excite
him to the exaction of greater burdens
from the oppressed Israelites, God encouraged
the patriarch by the promise of the great
wonders which he would perform in behalf of
his people, and confirmed the promise by imparting
to him that sublime name by which
he had not hitherto been known : "And God,"
says the sacred writer, "spake unto Moses,
and said unto him, I am Jehovah : and I appeared
unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name JEHovAn
was I not known unto them ."
This Ineffable name is derived from the
substantive verb hayah, to be; and combining,
as it does, in its formation the present,
past, and future significations of the verb, it is
considered as designating God in his immutable
and eternal existence. This idea is carried
by the Rabbis to such an extent, that
Menasseh Ben Israel says that its four letters
may be so arranged by permutations as to
form twelve words, every one of which is a
modification of the verb to be, and hence it is
called the nomen substantive vel essentim, the
name of his substance or existence .
The first thing that attracts our attention in
the investigation of this name is the ancient
regulation, still existing, by which it was made
unlawful to pronounce it . This, perhaps,
originally arose from a wish to conceal it from
the surrounding heathen nations, so that they
might not desecrate it by ap p lying it to their
idols. Whatever may have been the reason,
the rule was imperative among the Jews.
The Talmud, in one of its treatises, the "Sanhedrim,"
which treats of the question, Who of
the Israelites shall have future life and who
shall not? says : "Even he who thinks the
name of God with its true letters forfeits his
future life ." Abraham Ben David Halevi,
when discussing the names of God, says :
"But the name fl T' we axe not allowed to
pronounce. In its original meaning it is conferred
upon no other being, and therefore we
abstain from giving any explanation of it ."
We learn from Jerome, Origen, and Eusebius
that in their time the Jews wrote the name in
their copies of the Bible in Samaritan instead
of Hebrew letters, in order to veil it from the
inspection of the profane . Capellus says that
the rule that the holy name was not to be pronounced
was derived from a tradition, based
on a passage in Leviticus (xxiv. 16), which
says that he who blasphemeth the name of
Jehovah shall be put to death ; and he translates
this passage, "whosoever shall pronounce
the name Jehovah shall suffer death," because
the word nokeb, here translated "to