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

FREEMASONRY AXD KNIGHTS TEMPLAR5.The Temple of Zerubbabel.6. The Temple of Herod.7. The Mosque of Omar. In the fourtenth centurythis building was described as a very fairhouse, lofty and circular, covered with lead, wellpaved with white marble.The temple area is now occupied by two Turkishmosques, into which, until recently, neither Jew norChristian was permitted to enter.Ancient Temples.The Egyptian form of a temple was borrowedby the Jews, and with some modifications adoptedby the Greeks and Romans, whence itpassed overinto modern Europe.The direction of an Egyptian temple was usuallyfrom east to west, the entrance being at the east.It was a quadrangular building, much longer thanits width, and was situated in the western part of asacred enclosure. The approach through this enclosureto the temple proper was frequently by adouble row of Sphinxes. In front of the entrancewere a pair of tall obelisks, which will remind thereader of the two pillars at the porch of Solomon'stemple. The temple was divided into a spacious hall,where the great body of the worshipers assembled.Beyond it, in the western extremity, was thecell or sekos, equivalent to the Jewish Holy of Holies,into which the priests only entered ;and in theremotest part, behind a curtain, appeared the imageof the god seated on his shrine or the sacred animalwhich represented him.The Grecian temDle c like the Egyptian and the54