The Degree Rituals The Supreme Council, 33 ... - Scottish Rite, NMJ

60 The Degree Rituals
The paraplegic narrator, who identified himself by name not found among
the crew and passengers of the troopship Dorchester, and incredibly as “a
member of this Valley,” was replaced by an anonymous survivor. A new, historically
factual character and incident, relating to the gloves of one of the
Chaplains, were added.
Numerous passages of dialogue were deleted from the allegory because
they were considered superfluous to the dramatic action or lesson of the degree,
or because they simply were improbable. Scene five, which dramatized
an unlikely verbal and physical altercation between one of the Chaplains and
a fictitious crewman, and which did not contribute to the theme of the ritual,
was deleted in its entirety.
The scriptural reading in the renumbered scene five was reworded from
that of the New Revised English Standard Bible to the King James version,
as the former had not yet been written in 1943. Many refinements in wording
were made throughout the allegory for the sake of clarity, style, or historical
or literary accuracy. Among these was the rewording of the Hebrew prayer in
the renumbered scene seven. Profanity also was eliminated from the dialogue.
The result of these thorough-going revisions, the 23° Ritual of 2008, preserved
the dramatic theme with greater attention to historical accuracy and a
clearer statement of the moral lesson. It also represented a substantial shortening
of playing time over the previous ritual which had been the longest of
the 29 degree rituals. Finally, the revised ritual renamed the degree from the
traditional “Chief of the Tabernacle,” which dated from 1805, but had been
irrelevant since 1988, to “Knight of Valor.”