Jahbulon
Encyclopedia
Jahbulon is a word which was used historically in some rituals of Royal Arch
Masonry
. According to Francis X. King
, it is also used in Ordo Templi Orientis
rituals.
There has been much debate over the origin and meaning of this word. There is no consensus even among Masonic researchers as to its meaning or legitimacy: one Masonic scholar alleges that the word first appeared in an early 18th Century Royal Arch ritual as the name of an allegorical explorer searching for the ruins of King Solomon's Temple; another Masonic scholar believes it is a descriptive name for God in Hebrew; The most common masonic explanation is that it is a word derived from combining parts of the name of God in different historic languages.
Non-Masonic authors, especially those with an anti-masonic
attitude, have alleged that it is a Masonic name for God
, and even the name of a unique "Masonic God", despite repeated statements by Freemasonry's officials that "There is no separate Masonic God", nor a separate proper name for a deity in any branch of Freemasonry. It is this interpretation of a "Masonic God" that has led to debates about and condemnation of Freemasonry
by several religious groups. In England, no ritual containing the name has been in official Masonic use since February 1989.
In Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor, published in the mid-19th century, Malcolm Duncan uses the word as a recognition password in his rendition of the Royal Arch degree, and in a footnote states that the word is a combination of sacred names. However, there has been controversy regarding Duncan's ritual. Some Masonic authors state that even if Duncan's ritual is authentic, it is either an outdated exposure or that it had been superseded by another explanation.
: the Lodge of Perfection, in which the candidate receives the Fourth Degree (which is called Perfect Magician and Companion of the Holy Royal Arch of Enoch); and the Perfect Initiate (or Prince of Jerusalem) degree, which falls between the fourth and fifth degrees. King prints in his book the lyrics of a song that mentions the word "Jahbulon."
Jerry Cornelius wrote that O.T.O. Caliph Grady McMurtry
believed that there were some ritualistic errors and omissions in King's version of the rituals. Specifically, McMurtry was concerned about the omission of a paper concerning the IX°. However, according to Cornelius, McMurty considered the book accurate enough to be used for initiations.
, comes from the term Jahbulon, although the name JAH appears in the King James Version of the Bible, in Psalm 68:4. William David Spencer, in Dread Jesus
(ISBN 0-281-05101-1), proposes that Archibald Dunkley
and Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert were among the preachers that inspired the Rastafari movement, and that both were members of the "Ancient Mystic Order of Ethiopia", a fraternal order derived from Prince Hall Freemasonry
. Spencer believes that several features of the Rastafari movement derive from this lodge, including the name "Jah", from the word Jah-Bul-On.
According to Stephen Knight, following Walton Hannah
, the word is a compound of the names of three gods worshipped in the ancient Middle East.
. Royal Arch Masonry is an appendant body to Freemasonry. In some areas it forms part of the York Rite
, and in others it is an independent body. To be eligible to join one must first be a Master Mason. The administration of the Royal Arch is entirely separate from the administration of Craft Freemasonry. Most importantly, every Masonic organization is sovereign only in its own jurisdiction, and has no authority in any other jurisdiction. This means that there is no standardization whatsoever with regards to words, signs, grips, or any other Masonic "secrets".
York Rite
The York Rite or American Rite is one of several Rites of the worldwide fraternity known as Freemasonry. A Rite is a series of progressive degrees that are conferred by various Masonic organizations or bodies, each of which operates under the control of its own central authority...
Masonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
. According to Francis X. King
Francis X. King
Francis X. King was a British occult writer and editor who wrote about tarot, divination, witchcraft, magic, sex magic, tantra, and holistic medicine.-Partial bibliography:* Techniques of High Magic with Stephen Skinner...
, it is also used in Ordo Templi Orientis
Ordo Templi Orientis
Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...
rituals.
There has been much debate over the origin and meaning of this word. There is no consensus even among Masonic researchers as to its meaning or legitimacy: one Masonic scholar alleges that the word first appeared in an early 18th Century Royal Arch ritual as the name of an allegorical explorer searching for the ruins of King Solomon's Temple; another Masonic scholar believes it is a descriptive name for God in Hebrew; The most common masonic explanation is that it is a word derived from combining parts of the name of God in different historic languages.
Non-Masonic authors, especially those with an anti-masonic
Anti-Masonry
Anti-Masonry is defined as "avowed opposition to Freemasonry". However, there is no homogeneous anti-Masonic movement...
attitude, have alleged that it is a Masonic name for God
Names of God
Names of God, or Holy Names, describe a form of addressing God present in liturgy or prayer of various world religions. Prayer involving the Holy Name or the Name of God has become established as common spiritual practice in both Western and Eastern spiritual practices...
, and even the name of a unique "Masonic God", despite repeated statements by Freemasonry's officials that "There is no separate Masonic God", nor a separate proper name for a deity in any branch of Freemasonry. It is this interpretation of a "Masonic God" that has led to debates about and condemnation of Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
by several religious groups. In England, no ritual containing the name has been in official Masonic use since February 1989.
Masonic
According to Masonic historian Arturo de Hoyos, the word Jahbulon was first used in the 18th century in early French versions of the Royal Arch degree. It relates a Masonic allegory in which Jabulon was the name of an explorer living during the time of Solomon who discovered the ruins of an ancient temple. Within the ruins he found a gold plate upon which the name of God (Jehovah) was engraved.In Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor, published in the mid-19th century, Malcolm Duncan uses the word as a recognition password in his rendition of the Royal Arch degree, and in a footnote states that the word is a combination of sacred names. However, there has been controversy regarding Duncan's ritual. Some Masonic authors state that even if Duncan's ritual is authentic, it is either an outdated exposure or that it had been superseded by another explanation.
Ordo Templi Orientis
According to Francis X. King in The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O., the word is used in two rituals of the Ordo Templi OrientisOrdo Templi Orientis
Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...
: the Lodge of Perfection, in which the candidate receives the Fourth Degree (which is called Perfect Magician and Companion of the Holy Royal Arch of Enoch); and the Perfect Initiate (or Prince of Jerusalem) degree, which falls between the fourth and fifth degrees. King prints in his book the lyrics of a song that mentions the word "Jahbulon."
Jerry Cornelius wrote that O.T.O. Caliph Grady McMurtry
Grady McMurtry
Grady Louis McMurtry was a student of author and occultist Aleister Crowley and an adherent of Thelema. He is best known for reviving the fraternal organization, Ordo Templi Orientis, which he headed from 1971 until his death in 1985.-Early life and career:He lived in various parts of Oklahoma and...
believed that there were some ritualistic errors and omissions in King's version of the rituals. Specifically, McMurtry was concerned about the omission of a paper concerning the IX°. However, according to Cornelius, McMurty considered the book accurate enough to be used for initiations.
Rastafari
It has been suggested that the Rastafari word for God, JahJah
Jah is the shortened form of the divine name YHWH , an anglicized version of the Tetragrammaton . The name is most commonly associated with the Rastafari movement or within the word hallelujah, although Christian groups may use the name to varying degrees. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses use a...
, comes from the term Jahbulon, although the name JAH appears in the King James Version of the Bible, in Psalm 68:4. William David Spencer, in Dread Jesus
Dread Jesus
Dread Jesus, published in 1999, is a book written by William David Spencer about the Rastafari movement....
(ISBN 0-281-05101-1), proposes that Archibald Dunkley
Archibald Dunkley
Henry Archibald Dunkley was, along with Leonard Howell, Joseph Hibbert, and Robert Hinds, one of the first preachers of the Rastafari movement in Jamaica following the coronation of Ras Tafari as Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia on 2 November 1930....
and Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert were among the preachers that inspired the Rastafari movement, and that both were members of the "Ancient Mystic Order of Ethiopia", a fraternal order derived from Prince Hall Freemasonry
Prince Hall Freemasonry
Prince Hall Freemasonry derives from historical events which led to a tradition of separate predominantly African-American Freemasonry in North America...
. Spencer believes that several features of the Rastafari movement derive from this lodge, including the name "Jah", from the word Jah-Bul-On.
Examples of interpretations of the word based on its syllables
According to The Rev. Canon Richard Tydeman, in an address to the Supreme Grand Chapter of England on 13 November 1985, the word is a compound of three Hebrew terms:- יהּ (Yah, I AM, which indicates eternal existence),
- בּעל (b'el, owner, husband, lord ) and
- און (on, strength); pronouncing three aspects or qualities of Deity, namely Eternal Existence, Ownership, and Omnipotence and equating to "The Eternal God - Master - Almighty".
According to Stephen Knight, following Walton Hannah
Walton Hannah
Walton Thompson Hannah was an Anglican clergyman who converted to Roman Catholicism and who wrote the book Darkness Visible....
, the word is a compound of the names of three gods worshipped in the ancient Middle East.
- Jah (= YahwehYahwehYahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
) - BaalBaalBaʿal is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu...
- On, a name in Genesis in the Bible (in "PotipharPotipharPotiphar or Potifar is a person in the Book of Genesis's account of Joseph. Potiphar is said to be the captain of the palace guard and is referred to without name in the Quran. Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, is taken to Egypt where he is sold to Potiphar as a household slave...
priest of On"), thought in older times to be a name of OsirisOsirisOsiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
(but now known by Egyptologists to be the Hebrew form of the Ancient Egyptian name of the city of HeliopolisHeliopolis (ancient)Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, the capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome that was located five miles east of the Nile to the north of the apex of the Nile Delta...
).
Criticisms of the word and its uses
Much of the available material that discusses the word Jahbulon does not address the administrative and jurisdictional distinctions amongst the appendant bodies of FreemasonryMasonic appendant bodies
The fraternity of Freemasonry, also known as "Free and Accepted Masons," is organized by private groups of members variously known in English as lodges, chapters, councils, commanderies, consistories, etc., which can be collectively referred to as Masonic bodies.The basic unit to which an...
. Royal Arch Masonry is an appendant body to Freemasonry. In some areas it forms part of the York Rite
York Rite
The York Rite or American Rite is one of several Rites of the worldwide fraternity known as Freemasonry. A Rite is a series of progressive degrees that are conferred by various Masonic organizations or bodies, each of which operates under the control of its own central authority...
, and in others it is an independent body. To be eligible to join one must first be a Master Mason. The administration of the Royal Arch is entirely separate from the administration of Craft Freemasonry. Most importantly, every Masonic organization is sovereign only in its own jurisdiction, and has no authority in any other jurisdiction. This means that there is no standardization whatsoever with regards to words, signs, grips, or any other Masonic "secrets".
- Walton Hannah stated in his book Darkness Visible that the interpretation that Jabulon was a name for God reportedly disturbed Albert PikeAlbert PikeAlbert Pike was an attorney, Confederate officer, writer, and Freemason. Pike is the only Confederate military officer or figure to be honored with an outdoor statue in Washington, D.C...
, the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish RiteScottish RiteThe Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry , commonly known as simply the Scottish Rite, is one of several Rites of the worldwide fraternity known as Freemasonry...
, who, when he first heard the name, called it a "mongrel word" partly composed of an "appellation of the Devil".
- A Church of EnglandChurch of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
report into compatibility of Freemasonry and the Church reached conclusions of objection based on six points. One of these points was Knight's interpretation of Jahbulon; "JAHBULON, the name of description of God which appears in all the rituals is blasphemous because it is an amalgam of pagan deities. In effect, use of the term is taking God's name in vain." The interpretation of the word as discussed by Knight led certain churches to include it in their justification for objections to Freemasonry. These churches state that, conjoined with a number of other aspects of Freemasonry, it demonstrates that Freemasonry is incompatible with their religious philosophies.
- It has been claimed that the "Masonic God" allegations "proves" that the Royal Arch Degree - and by extension all of Freemasonry - is incompatible with Christianity. The Southern Baptist convention has mentioned this as an offensive concept that is incompatible with Christianity.
- Certain Christian ministries take the position that Jahbulon is a the name of a Masonic Pagan god, and therefore violates the second commandment "You shall have no other gods before me".
- The interpretation by Knight also contributes to an assertion, which emerged in 1987, that there is a link between Freemasonry and the DajjalDajjalal-Masih ad-Dajjal , is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology. He is to appear pretending to be Masih at a time in the future, before Yawm al-Qiyamah , directly comparable to the figures of the Antichrist and Armilus in Christian and Jewish eschatology, respectively.-Name: is a common Arabic word ...
, a Muslim equivalent of the AntichristAntichristThe term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
. A reference by David Misa Pidcock, a British convert, has been widely propagated on the Internet following the events of September 11, 2001. The Muslim group, Mission Islam, states on their website that based on Knight's interpretation, "Freemasons secretly worship a Devil-God, known as JAHBULON."