"Freemasonry, in the form we would recognise today, started at the building of Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh." - Robert Lomas
Rosslyn Chapel, properly named the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, was founded on a small hill above Roslin Glen as a Roman Catholic collegiate church (with between 4 and 6 ordained canons and two boy choristers) in the mid-15th century.
The chapel was founded by William Sinclair,1st Earl of Caithness (also spelled Sainteclaire / Saintclair / Sinclair / St. Clair) of the Sinclair family, a noble family descended from Norman knights, using the standard designs the medieval architects made available to him.
Carvings within this chapel were used by some as proofs of the chapel's and its owner's connection to Freemasonry and the Knights Templar.
The picture on the left shows the fallen angel Lucifer hanging upside down and bound with a rope. It is one of the depictions of angels in unusual positions in the Chapel which are significant in the rites of Freemasonry - http://www.rosslynchapel.org.uk/history.php (see picture number 4).
The picture on the right is a carving which shows seven distinct points of similarity to the modern first Degree of Freemasonry. The figure shows a man kneeling between two pillars. He is blindfolded and has a running noose about his neck. His feet are in a strange and unnatural posture and in his left hand he holds a bible. The end of the rope about his neck is held by another man who is wearing the mantle of a Knight Templar. To read more about Rober Lomas' opinions about this matter, please see his website.
However, the Knights Templar alone, do not make the whole of Freemasonry when it started. It is their association with a certain group of nobility that completes Freemasonry. This group of nobility is none other than certain members belonging to the families of Jewish Exilarchs.
The Exilarchs refer to the leaders of the Diaspora Jewish community following the deportation of the population of Judah into Babylonian exile after the destruction of the kingdom of Judah. The people in exile were called golah or galut.
The origin of this dignity is not known, but the princely post was hereditary in a family that traced its descent from the royal Davidic line. The office lasted to the middle of the sixth century CE, was restored in the seventh century, and continued to be appointed through the 11th century.
Now allow me to point to the Rosslyn chapel to prove my claim that certain members of the families of Jewish Exilarchs were in fact, the other half of the original Freemasonry. The picture on the left is that of a lintel or ’straight arch’ which bears the only writing in the fabric of the Rosslyn chapel. It is in Latin:
FORTE EST VINUM, FORTIOR EST REX, FORTIORES SUNT MULIERES:
SUPER OMNIA VINCIT VERITAS.
"Wine is strong, a King is stronger, women are stronger still but truth conquers all".
This is taken from Chapter 3 of Esdras, a book found in the Apocrypha which, following the Reformation, was not included in Protestant Bibles. The words quoted above were that of Zerubbabel, the third Exilarch after King Jeconiah, and Shealtiel; and it won him a contest which resulted to King Darius honoring his former vow to build Jerusalem, return the holy vessels, and rebuild the temple. In addition, King Darius also granted Zerubbabel and all who would go to build Jerusalem safe passage and assistance in building.
Zerubbabel is unique among his fellow Exilarchs in that he is also a Master mason by profession. He is believed by some to have descended from families of masons who worked in the construction of King Solomon's Temple. Furthermore, the Bible credits him for laying the foundation of the second Temple, and for completing it as well:
"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty. "What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of 'God bless it! God bless it!' " Then the word of the LORD came to me: "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. "Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. "(Zechariah 4;5-10)
The members of the families of Exilarchs who joined the Knights Templar to form Freemasonry may have been the masons and Master masons who designed and constructed the Rosslyn chapel. It is not surprising therefore that some people insist that the Rosslyn chapel is patterned after the Jerusalem Temple built by Zerubbabel. Please visit this website for more information about this topic.
But why would Jewish masons build a Christian chapel? Their association with the Knights Templar, who were also monks in addition to being knights, may have led to their acceptance of Christ as their Messiah. In other words, these Jews were converted to Christianity by the Templars through their proselytizing. As a result, one can say that Freemasonry is a Christianized version of Jewish masonry which existed long way back in ancient times, perhaps even upto the time of Moses when the Jews were forced to serve as masons for the Pharaoh of Egypt. Whatever secrets they may have learned from the Egyptians about masonry, such as the construction of colossal pyramids, must have been passed on from one generation of Jewish masons to another. And from whom did the ancient Egyptians learn their secrets? They learned it from Melchizedek, King of Salem (or ancient Giza), the builder of the Great Pyramids and the originator of the Holy Grail. I can even go back as far as the time of prophet Enoch as the start of this ancient and sacred masonic tradition, but this is a topic I would like to discuss in my future blogs. So why is Freemasonry such a secretive society? Because there are so many sacred secrets that can be revealed to those who reach its highest rank ...
Now on the part of the Templars, they have in turn come to accept the families of Exilarchs as the rightful dynasty to rule Jerusalem and all of Israel. This mutual acceptance between the Templars and the families of Exilarchs was the original basis of their "brotherhood". This means also that the Templars have come to reject the Merovingians' claim to rightfully rule the Kingdom of Israel. (I will discuss in my succeeding blogs the basis of this claim by the Merovingians).
Now other than the Rosslyn chapel, is there any other proof that the Knights Templar have indeed come into close contact with the families of Jewish Exilarchs in Scotland?
Unknown to some people, before King Philip IV of France persecuted the Knights Templar in 1307, he already condemned the Jews in his kingdom to banishment just a year before that, and took forcible possession of their property, real and personal. It was on July 22, 1306, the day after Tisha B'Av, a Jewish fast day, that the Jews were arrested. In prison they received notice that they had been sentenced to exile; that, abandoning their goods and credits, and taking only the clothes which they had on their backs and the sum of 12 sous tournois each, they would have to quit the kingdom within one month.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_France#The_Great_Exile_of_1306.
Now just 16 years earlier, the Jews of England also suffered the same fate when In 1290, King Edward I issued an edict expelling all of them from his kingdom. It has been suggested that these Jews may have migrated to Scotland as there was never a corresponding expulsion from this country before. Indeed the eminent Jewish-Scottish scholar David Daiches states in his autobiographical Two Worlds: An Edinburgh Jewish Childhood that there are grounds for saying that Scotland is the only European country which has no history of state persecution of the Jews.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Scotland#Middle_Ages_to_Union_with_England
It is easy to conclude that the Jews who were expelled from France in 1306, and who had the means to do so, must have migrated to Scotland as well. And when the Templars migrated to Scotland in 1307 just one year later, it must have been the natural thing to do for the Templars and the expelled Jews to seek each other's assistance. After all, both were persecuted by the same person, King Philip IV of France; and as the saying goes "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
Allow me to give you a brief history of the Jews in France to give you a good background of those Jews who united with the Knights Templar to form Freemasonry after 1307.
The history of the Jews of France dates back over 2000 years. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, "In the year 6 C.E. there were Jews at Vienne and Gallia Celtica; in the year 39 at Lugdunum [i.e. Lyon])."
Is there evidence of families of Exilarchs living in France before 1307?
Makhir of Narbonne was a Babylonian-Jewish scholar, perhaps the Exilarch of the Jews of Babylon, certainly the leader of the Jewish community of Narbonne, France in southern Gaul at the end of the eighth century. His descendants were for many generations the nasi or leaders of that important community, and Carolingian client-kings in Septimania.
According to a tradition preserved by Abraham ibn Daud in his Sefer ha-Qabbalah, written about 1161, Makhir was a descendant of the house of David.
The Makhir family enjoyed for centuries many privileges and that its members bore the title of "nasi" (prince). Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Narbonne in 1165, speaks of the exalted position occupied by the descendants of Makhir, and the "Royal Letters" of 1364 also record the existence of a rex Iudaeorum at Narbonne. The place of residence of the Makhir family at Narbonne was designated in official documents as "Cortada Regis Judæorum". Makhir is said to have founded a Talmudic school there which vied in greatness with those of Babylonia and which attracted pupils from many distant points.
What was so special about this Talmudic school in Narbonne that it attracted so many pupils?
Rabbeinu Abraham ben David was a Provençal rabbi, a great commentator on the Talmud, Sefer Halachot of rabbi Yitzhak Alfasi and Mishne Torah of Maimonides, and is regarded as a father or founder of Kabbalah and one of the key and important links in the chain of Jewish mystics. He was born in Provence, France, about 1125 CE; died at Posquières, 27 November 1198 CE.
He was the son-in-law of Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne Av Beth Din (known as the RABaD II). He was the father of Rabbeinu Isaac the Blind also of Narbonne, a Neoplatonist and important Jewish mystical thinker.
So the Jews of France who settled in Scotland after 1306 were not only direct descendants of King David, but were also practitioners of the ancient wisdom of Kabbalah.
This is the reason why Freemasonry is closely associated with Kabbalah; and to read more about this topic, please visit the following website.
Opponents of Freemasonry accuse it of trying to divert Christians towards the practice of Kabbalah, when in fact quite the opposite is true. It was the Kabbalists who were attracted to Christianity and the end result was Freemasonry. Think about it, if the Knights Templar were the ones diverted towards Kabbalah, then we will see a Rosslyn synagogue instead of the Rosslyn chapel.
The Jews of France were just recently persecuted by King Philip IV for being Jews; if their fellow Jews find out that they converted to Christianity on their own free will, then they will probably also suffer persecution from the hands of their fellow Jews. Is it any wonder then that Freemasonry started out like "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma"?
The study of Kabbalah used to be very exclusive, so much so that even among Jews, not everyone are allowed (or qualified) to study it. But this was true only until the year 1490, according to the sixteenth century Kabbalist Rabbi Avraham Azulai (1570–1643):
"I have found it written that all that has been decreed Above forbidding open involvement in the Wisdom of Truth [Kabbalah] was [only meant for] the limited time period until the year 5,250 (1490 C.E.). From then on after is called the "Last Generation", and what was forbidden is [now] allowed. And permission is granted to occupy ourselves in the [study of] Zohar. And from the year 5,300 (1540 C.E.) it is most desirable that the masses both those great and small [in Torah], should occupy themselves [in the study of Kabbalah], as it says in the Raya M'hemna [a section of the Zohar]. And because in this merit King Mashiach will come in the future—and not in any other merit—it is not proper to be discouraged [from the study of Kabbalah]."
The year 1490 may have had some significance in the construction of the Rosslyn chapel which was started in 1446 and ended unfinished in 1484 upon the untimely death of its owner William Sinclair. Were the masons of Rosslyn chapel targeting the year 1490 as the completion of their construction work in order to celebrate the new found freedom in the study and teaching of Kabbalah that year? Was 1490 supposed to be the year when Freemasonry opens its door to anyone who wants to join its fraternity?
Addendum:
Reuters: Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves. (January 11, 2010)
I mentioned in this blog that Melchizedek, King of Righteousness and priest of the Most High God was the builder of the Great Pyramids of Giza. Therefore, he would not have forced to slavery the stone masons who helped him build these colossal monuments. In the Midrash, the Rabbis identified Melchizedek with Shem son of Noah. I have my own unique theory as to who Melchizedek really is and I will discuss this topic in my future blogs. If we are to take the date of Noah's flood as the earliest possible date for the building of the pyramids, then according to Ussher's chronology this will be sometime after 2,348 B.C.or approximately 4,358 years ago.
New tombs found in Giza support the view that the Great Pyramids were built by free workers and not slaves, as widely believed, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Sunday.
Films and media have long depicted slaves toiling away in the desert to build the mammoth pyramids only to meet a miserable death at the end of their efforts.
"These tombs were built beside the king's pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves," Zahi Hawass, the chief archaeologist heading the Egyptian excavation team, said in a statement.
"If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king's."
He said the collection of workers' tombs, some of which were found in the 1990s, were among the most significant finds in the 20th and 21st centuries. They belonged to workers who built the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre.
Hawass had earlier found graffiti on the walls from workers calling themselves "friends of Khufu" -- another sign that they were not slaves.
The tombs, on the Giza plateau on the western edge of Cairo, are 4,510 years old and lie at the entrance of a one-km (half mile)-long necropolis.
Hawass said evidence had been found showing that farmers in the Delta and Upper Egypt had sent 21 buffalo and 23 sheep to the plateau every day to feed the builders, believed to number around 10,000 -- or about a tenth of Greek historian Herodotus's estimate of 100,000.
These farmers were exempted from paying taxes to the government of ancient Egypt -- evidence that he said underscored the fact they were participating in a national project.