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

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLARJoseph was the eleventh of the twelve sons ofJacob, and was born at Haran, in Mesopotamia,about 1745 B. C. He wa^the favorite son of hisfather, and envied by his brethren on that account.Their enmity was further excited by two 'dreamsin which his future greatness was foreshadowed,and this led them to sell him as a slave to someMidianite* traders, by whom he was carried intoEgypt, and sold to Potiphar, an officer of the king.The Midianite traders were an ancient Arabianrace, the descendants of Midian, the fourth of thesix sons of Abrahani by Keturah.They appear tohave dwelt mainly to the south of Moab, and covereda territory extending to the neighborhood ofMount Sinai. Joseph acquired the confidence ofhis master, who set him as overseer over all hisproperty, but, having repelled dishonorable proposalsmade to him by his mistress, she accused himfalsely to her husband, and caused him to be throwninto prison. Here he interpreted the dreams oftwo of his fellow-prisoners, the chief baker andchief butler of Pharaoh, and when his predictionshe was summonedhad been justified by the result,by King Pharaoh, at the instance of the butler,interpret two dreams which portended seven yearsof prosperity followed by seven of famine. Thethe wisdom of theking was so much struck byadvice given by the young Hebrew that he adoptedall his suggestions for making preparations for thetime of famine, and appointed him ruler over thewhole land. The measures taken by Joseph asvizier or viceroy resulted greatly to the advantageof the king and his people, securing an abundantprovision for the time of the famine. This calamity21to