THE HOLY ROYAL ARCH.

79 The focal point of the ceremonies of the Holy Arch is the pedestal, the altar on top of which are spelled out the ‘Sacred Words’. The traditional explanation of these words makes Freemasonry most vulnerable to the charge that its prayers and rituals are directed to a syncretistic God.

The Ritual represents the Royal Arch to be the climax of Craft Freemasonry:

  • it is intimately blended with all that is nearest and dearest to us in a future state of existence; Divine and human affairs are interwoven so awfully and minutely in all its disquisitions. It has virtue for its aim, the glory of God for its object, and the eternal welfare of man is considered in every part, point and letter of its ineffable mysteries. Suffice it to say, that it is founded on the Sacred Name J....h, who was from all beginning, is now, and will remain one and the same for ever, the Being necessarily existing in and from Himself in all actual perfection, original in His essence.

    This Supreme Degree inspires its members with the most exalted ideas of God, leads to the purest and most devout piety, a reverence for the incomprehensible J..…h, the eternal Ruler of the Universe, the elemental and primordial source of all its principles, the very spring and fount of all its virtues. (Mystical Lecture of the Aldersgate Ritual)

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    80 How is it then that JAHBULON is frequently thought to be the ‘sacred name’; the name of the God on whom the rituals of the Royal Arch are focused? There is no dispute between Freemasons and their fiercest critics that both the word Jehovah and the composite word, Jahbulon, appear on the altar, on top of which is inscribed a circle, containing a triangle. Round the circle is inscribed the name JEHOVAH and on the three sides of the triangle the letters JAH BUL ON. But a dispute there certainly is in Freemasonry itself, as to the status and significance to be attached to the two words.

    81 The Aldersgate Mystical Lecture states:

  • The word on the triangle is that sacred and mysterious name you have just solemnly engaged yourself never to pronounce... It is a compound word, and the combination forms the word... It is in four languages, Chaldee, Hebrew, Syriac, and Egyptian. (J..) is the Chaldee name of God, signifying "His Essence and majesty incomprehensible." It is also a Hebrew word signifying "I am and shall be" thereby expressing the actual, future, and eternal existence of the Most High. (B..) is a Syriac word denoting Lord, or Powerful, it is in itself a compound word, being formed from the preposition B..., in or on, and U., Heaven or on High; therefore the meaning of the word is Lord in Heaven, or on High. (0.) is an Egyptian word signifying Father of All, thereby expressing the Omnipotence of the Father of All, as in that well-known prayer, Our Father, which art in Heaven. The various significations of the words may thus be collected: I am and shall be; Lord in Heaven;
  • "Father of All! In every age

    In every clime adored

    By Saint, by savage, and by sage,

    Jehovah, Jove or Lord."

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    • 82 Just what the average candidate for Exaltation makes of all this is far beyond the competence of the Working Group to state. What Hannah and other critics of Freemasonry are quite clear about is that...

  • the secret word is not a Biblical name or a catch-phrase, nor a mumbo-jumbo of corrupt Hebrew, but a compound word of quite recognisable origin.., which claims, together with Jehovah, to be the ‘sacred and mysterious name of the true and living God most High.’ (Darkness Visible, p.34)
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    83 The vigour with which members of the Craft and of the Royal Arch dispute the matter among themselves can be seen from the Address to the Grand Chapter of that Degree on 13th November 1985 by Canon Richard Tydeman, reproduced in Appendix IX.

    84 Canon Tydeman had raised the matter of the derivation and interpretation of the word on the triangle six years earlier and with only

    a limited success. Now he raised it once again as a matter of some urgency:

  • I am sure that when our ritual was revised in 1936 it all made perfectly good sense to those who revised it. Whether it still makes sense today is a matter of opinion, for there are so many ‘differences’ that the situation has become absurd. In our Province alone we have twenty-one different Chapters with twenty-two different workings!

    Has the time come when a new revision is due?.., it might be more expedient for us to initiate such a revision ourselves, rather than have it forced on us by pressure from within and without: for there is no doubt that the continued reference to the word on the triangle as a name will bring us to disrepute with the world outside, and will cause an increase in the misgiving which already exists among our own members.

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    85 The distinction between the name of God — Jehovah — inscribed round the circle and the description of God — conveyed in the composite word JAHBULON — inscribed on the side of the triangle is crucial to Canon Tydeman’s argument, as is his own explanation of the derivation of the composite word on the triangle. It is a distinction which appears to have been originally emphasised in Royal Arch Masonry but which became less clear as the ritual was promulgated by word of mouth and local differences inevitably appeared. ‘It is, to say the least, unfortunate that several rituals no longer make this distinction’,

    observes the United Grand Lodge, ‘and that Walton Hannah was able to use one of them as the basis of his damaging comments’ (Supplementary evidence of the United Grand Lodge).

    86 But even if, as is the case in many other Royal Arch Rituals, the distinction between name and description continues to be stressed and the argument is accepted ‘that we can leave Syria and Egypt and Chaldea out of it altogether’ and turn to the Hebrew language as the source of ‘JAHBULON’, the confusion between the status of the words round the circle and on the triangle is not solved since, in Hebrew, description and name are interlocked; the description is the ‘name'.

    87 Nor is this the greatest difficulty to present itself to a Christian and again we come upon a paradox of the rituals of Freemasonry. A Christian already knows the name of God: he does not have to have it revealed to him in a ritual drama. Above all, a Christian is committed to proclaim the name and nature of his God. To have to pretend that the Holy Name is the property of an exclusive, explicitly non-Christian society and to swear on Holy Writ not to reveal it to others is at best absurd and might deservedly be labelled both reprehensible and offensive to Christian conscience.

    88 To all this must be added the third and final feature of the top of the pedestal: the Hebrew characters set at the angles of the triangle:

    Aleph, Beth and Lamed, each of which is said to have reference to the deity or to some divine attribute:

  • Take the Aleph and the Beth, they form AB, which is Father; take the Beth, the Aleph, and the Lamed, they form BAL, which is Lord; take the Aleph and the Lamed, they form AL, which means Word; take the Lamed, the Aleph, and the Beth, they form LAB, which signifies Heart or Spirit. Take each combination with the whole, and it will read thus: AB BAL, Father, Lord: AL BAL, Word, Lord; LAB BAL, Spirit, Lord.
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    The obvious result of such juggling of the Hebrew characters is to emphasise the formation of BAL, the name of a Semitic deity bitterly opposed by Elijah and the later Hebrew prophets; to associate this name in any way with that of Jehovah would have deeply shocked them. It is also a result which gives colour to the view that, in fact, the name on the triangle, far from being a means of describing God, is a syncretistic name for God made out of the name of Yahweh, Baal and Osiris (the Egyptian fertility God).

    89 The Supreme Grand Chapter of England of the Royal Arch Degree is as sensible as anyone of the necessity to reconsider the content and implications of its ritual and ceremonies. In advance of the formal report of the meeting of the Grand Chapter held on 12th November 1986, a letter was circulated to Royal Arch Grand Officers and Scribes of the Royal Arch which refers inter alia to alterations to the ritual:

  • Following recent changes in the Craft Ritual, the President of the Committee of General Purposes gave notice of a resolution for the regular Convocation (of the Grand Chapter) on 11th February 1987 that the physical penalty be removed from the Obligation of the Royal Arch Exaltation ceremony and reference thereto from the Installation Ceremony.
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    90 The letter also refers to other, highly important, matters relating to the working of the Royal Arch, which were reported by the President of the Committee of General Purposes, who refers to a Working Party who are currently considering

    (a) aspects of the Royal Arch Ritual which are known to offend the conscience of Companions and the possibility of shortening the Mystical Lecture

    (b) the exchange by the Principals of two words, when their agreement is to keep only one, and

    (c) the explanation of the word on the triangle and the characters at the angles of the triangle.

    ‘In due course, Grand Chapter will be asked to consider what changes, if any, should be made.’

    91 Just what the proposed changes are, whether the Grand Chapter will accept them, and whether Canon Tydeman’s argument is reflected in them, it will be interesting to see. The continued use of ritual which is clearly open to very serious objection from both Masons and non-Masons can only be a grave embarrassment to Freemasonry and a very powerful basis for its critics. First, because Christians reject gnostic claims that further ‘revelation’ beyond that found in Christ is necessary or possible. Second, the Working Group has concluded that JAHBULON (whether it is a name or description), which appears in all the rituals, must be considered blasphemous: in Christian theology the name of God (Yahweh/Jehovah) must not be taken in vain, nor can it be replaced by an amalgam of the names of pagan deities.