The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLARwas not utterly destroyed, for they kept up a regularsuccession of kings and high priests. Some of theprincipal captives were Advancedto offices of dignityand power in the royal palace, and were permittedto share in the councils of state.Jehoiachin, who was the first king of Judea carriedcaptive to Babylon, was succeeded by his sonShealtiel, and he by his son Zerubbabel, who wasthe head of the captivity or nominal prince of Judeaat the close of the captivity. Jehosadek was thehigh priest carried by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon,where he died during the captivity and was succeededby his eldest son, Joshua.Babylon the Great, as the prophet Daniel calls it,was situated 475 miles in a nearly easterly directionfrom Jerusalem. It stood in the midst of a largeand fertile plain on each side of the river Euphrates,which ran through it from north to south, theoriginal foundation of which was Babel. Babelwas also' the name of a lofty tower, which the descendantsof Noah began to build, among whomNimrod was a leader, about one hundred and twentyyears after the flood, so called because God thereconfounded the language of those who were employedin the undertaking (Gen. x. 10; xi. 9). Theirobject in building the city and tower was to concentratethe population and the dominion at thatspot; and as this was contrary to the divine purposeof replenishing the earth with inhabitants, andbetrayed an ungodly and perhaps idolatrous disposition,God frustrated their designs by miraculouslygiving to different portions of the people differentlanguages or different modes of pronunciation anddivergent dialects of the original language of man,95