228 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
228 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XII December. 1934 No.12
|
||
|
||
PASSAGES OF JORDAN
|
||
|
||
by: Unknown
|
||
|
||
And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went
|
||
northward, and said unto Jephthah. Wherefore passest thou over to
|
||
fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go
|
||
with thee? We will burn thine house upon thee with fire.
|
||
And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife
|
||
with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me
|
||
not out of their hands.
|
||
And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands,
|
||
and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the Lord
|
||
delivered them into my hand; wherefore then are ye come up unto me
|
||
this day, to fight against me?
|
||
Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought
|
||
with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they
|
||
said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites,
|
||
and among the Manassites.
|
||
And the Gileadites took the passage of Jordan before the
|
||
Ephraimites, and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were
|
||
escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him,
|
||
Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay:
|
||
Then said they unto him, Say ye Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth;
|
||
for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and
|
||
slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of
|
||
the Ephraimites forty and two thousand. - (Judges 12:1-6)
|
||
This account from the Old Testament is the source material from
|
||
whence comes the familiar Masonic story of the pass in our Middle
|
||
Chamber lecture.
|
||
Mispronunciation marking the user as enemy is a device used at least
|
||
four times since “Sibboleth” betrayed the Ephraimites. St. Bryce’s
|
||
Day, November 2, 1002, Saxons used “Chichester Church” as a test
|
||
word; pronounced soft, the speaker was a Saxon and spared; if hard,
|
||
he was a Dane and slain. In 1282 the French were massacred by
|
||
Sicilians; the test was the word for dried peas. One pronouncing it
|
||
“checkaree” satisfied the soldiers, that he was a Sicilian; if he
|
||
said “siseri,” he was known to be a Frenchman and was killed. In
|
||
1840 the Egyptians returned across the Jordan from a campaign to
|
||
drive the Turks from their country. Resentful at being forced to
|
||
help Egyptians, Syrians seized some of the Jordan fords and asked
|
||
those who crossed to pronounce the word for Camel: “Jamel.”
|
||
Egyptians have no soft “J” sound. When they answered “Gamel,” like
|
||
their prototypes among the Ephraimites, they were “slain at the
|
||
passages of the Jordan.” Still a third time was a test used at the
|
||
Jordan. In the world war straggling Turks were met at the fords by
|
||
the Syrians who demanded of those who would pass that they pronounce
|
||
the Syrian word for onion. Those who said “buzzel” passed safely;
|
||
those who said “bussel” were killed.
|
||
That forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at the passages of
|
||
the Jordan is Improbable; forty, plus two thousand, is generally
|
||
considered to be a much more likely figure. At least, the words are
|
||
open to either construction.
|
||
“Shibboleth” is a word of many meanings, both Masonically and
|
||
Biblically.
|
||
R.W. Charles C. Hunt, Librarian and Grand Secretary of the Grand
|
||
Lodge of Iowa, Masonic student and authority, went to the Hebrew
|
||
Bible for the use of the word, with the following interesting
|
||
result:
|
||
“It appears in Zecharias 4:12, translated “Branch.”
|
||
Isaiah 27:12, translated :Channel.”
|
||
Genesis 41:5-6-7-22-23-24-26-27;
|
||
Ruth 2:2; Job 24:24, translated “Corn” or “Ears of Corn.”
|
||
Psalms 69:15, translated “Water Flood.”
|
||
Judges 12:6, not translated, as to do so would be to destroy the
|
||
sense of the story in which it is used as a pass or test word.
|
||
In modern days “shibboleth” means (Standard Dictionary)
|
||
“A test word or pet phrase of a party; a watchword.” The example
|
||
given is: “Opposition to internal improvements became a Democratic
|
||
shibboleth,” quoted from Harper’s Monthly, July, 1892.
|
||
Masonically, Shibboleth means both a stream, and corn or wheat; so
|
||
used, both are emblems of plenty.
|
||
“Corn” does nor denote the familiar source of corn meal, familiar
|
||
and dear to the American palate. Our corn is a cultivated
|
||
descendant of “Indian Corn” or Maize, so called to distinguish it
|
||
from European corn, which, prior to the discovery of America, was
|
||
the term for wheat, barley and other grains. “Corn” is so used in
|
||
the Old Testament, the principal grains of which are wheat and
|
||
barley.
|
||
There is no unanimity of opinion as to what kind of a stream should
|
||
be an emblem of plenty. For years a minor controversy has raged, as
|
||
interesting as (apparently) it is unsettleable.
|
||
Should the sheaf of wheat be suspended near a “waterfall” or a
|
||
“waterford?”
|
||
The greatest American Masonic authority - many argue that on the
|
||
whole the greatest Masonic authority of the world - is Albert
|
||
Gallatin Mackey. He pronounced emphatically for “waterfall.” Yet
|
||
many learned authorities contend that Mackey was not infallible, and
|
||
that he erred.
|
||
It is human to see our own ideas as correct, the other fellow’s
|
||
wrong. South Carolina, Mackey’s state, uses “waterfall,” Iowa and
|
||
Colorado, among others, use “waterford;” Henry Evans, Editor of the
|
||
“Square and Compass,” of Denver, is a Colorado Mason; Charles Hunt,
|
||
already quoted, is of the Grand Lodge of Iowa. The student,
|
||
therefore, must judge which is correct by argument rather than by
|
||
weight of authority which attaches to such names as Mackey, Hunt,
|
||
Evans, etc.
|
||
The two following quotations, grave and dignified when considered
|
||
alone, at least border on the humorous when read together. The
|
||
first is from the Ahiman Rezon (Code and Monitor combined) of South
|
||
Carolina:
|
||
“The passages of Scripture which are referred to in this part of the
|
||
section will be found in Judges XII, 1-6. The vulgate version gives
|
||
a paraphrastic translation of a part of the 6th verse, as follows:
|
||
“Say. therefore, Shibboleth, which being interpreted is an ‘Ear of
|
||
corn.’ The same word also in Hebrew signifies a rapid stream of
|
||
water, from the root SHaBaL, to flow copiously. The too common
|
||
error of speaking, in this part of the ritual, of a ‘waterford’
|
||
instead of a ‘waterfall,’ which is the correct word, must be
|
||
carefully avoided. A ‘waterfall’ is an emblem of plenty, because it
|
||
indicates an abundance of water. A ‘waterford,’ for converse reason,
|
||
is, if any symbol at all, a symbol of scarcity.”
|
||
Hear now the South Dakota (Monitor):
|
||
“Note - The common error of using the word ‘waterfall’ instead of
|
||
‘waterford,’ which is the correct one, must be carefully avoided.
|
||
The word to which allusion is made in this part of the ritual
|
||
signifies an ear of corn. Corn has never been used as an emblem of
|
||
Plenty. The fall or the ford has nothing to do with it, except that
|
||
it originated for the purposes used by us at the Fords of Jordan,
|
||
and not at the falls. The same volume of water which passes over
|
||
the falls may be found at the ford below.”
|
||
At first sight the argument that the same volume of water passes
|
||
over the ford as passes the falls seems unanswerable; some go
|
||
further, saying that as a fall may not extend all the way across a
|
||
river, more water “may” cross the ford than goes over the fall!
|
||
To which those who argue on the other side submit that it is not a
|
||
matter of gallons per minute, for either ford or fall, but the
|
||
impression which fords and falls make upon the mind. Less water
|
||
tumbles over Niagara than flows down the Mississippi, yet the
|
||
torrential falls give a greater impression of quantity than the
|
||
Father of Waters, peacefully and sluggishly moving in great but
|
||
shallow width. According to those who argue for fall instead of
|
||
ford, the former conveys the idea of plenty of water, while a ford,
|
||
which can only exist where the water is shallow, argues a paucity of
|
||
water: -
|
||
“’Fall of Water. - There is a certain emblem in the degree of
|
||
Fellowcraft, which is said to derive its origin from the waters of
|
||
the Jordan, which were held up while the Israelites passed over, and
|
||
which would naturally fall with great violence when the whole host
|
||
had reached the opposite shore.’ Oliver Dict.
|
||
“An ingenious explanation of a false emblem. The Jordan, it is
|
||
true, is full of rapids and falls, and a waterfall may not be out of
|
||
keeping in the emblem, yet a waterford has much more meaning, and
|
||
waterfall is probably its corruption. The Jordan is fordable in
|
||
places.”
|
||
The April 15, 1876, issue of the “Canadian Craftsman” contained the
|
||
following:
|
||
“WATER-FALL OR WATER-FORD.”
|
||
|
||
“There is a dispute now going on among our brethren in the State of
|
||
New York, which promises to afford scope for very a learned
|
||
discussion during the next meeting of their Grand Lodge. The work
|
||
as agreed upon by the Grand Lodge requires the use of the words
|
||
‘waterford’ in the lecture to the Second Degree, instead of ‘fall of
|
||
water,’ and the ritual having thus been formally and authoritatively
|
||
declared, every Lodge is required to conform to it, on pain of
|
||
losing its Warrant if it disobeys. The old form ‘fall of water,’
|
||
however, has its partisans, and the controversy waxes somewhat warm.
|
||
An effort is to be made at the next meeting of the Grand Lodge to
|
||
reverse its decision, but we hardly think the effort will succeed.
|
||
It is difficult to see upon what principle the term ‘fall of water’
|
||
can be used; ‘waterford’ is in every respect more correct.”
|
||
It is to be noted that in New York the proper term is “still”
|
||
“waterford.”
|
||
Certain Jurisdictions print the word they prefer in their Monitors;
|
||
others indicate it with a picture; most consider it secret work and
|
||
do not print anything about it. Colorado, Iowa, New York, South
|
||
Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin are among those which suspend sheaves of
|
||
wheat beside fords, while South Carolina, Florida, Delaware and the
|
||
District of Columbia hang theirs beside a waterfall.
|
||
In September this year, the “Square and Compass” of Denver stated:
|
||
“Too often the word ‘waterfall’ is used to indicate the location
|
||
where the sheaf of wheat was found. The proper indication is
|
||
‘waterford’ as showing an abundant flow of water affording ‘plenty’
|
||
of that necessary element in a dry country for the sustenance of
|
||
man and beast, whereas a ‘waterfall’ would suppose a restricted
|
||
amount of the precious drops, caught among the rocks of a fall,
|
||
instead of being spread out over a thirsty land.”
|
||
Previously the “Illinois Freemason” stated: “A Waterford is not a
|
||
symbol of plenty. The text should not read waterford , but instead
|
||
waterfall. The oldest charts illustrate a waterfall, not a ford.
|
||
Just how the substitution came to be made is one of those things
|
||
which cannot be explained other than to say that somebody did some
|
||
tinkering with the ritual.”
|
||
To which the “Masonic Chronicler” of Chicago retorted:
|
||
“It is absurd to contend that a waterford is a symbol of plenty,
|
||
neither can a waterfall have any such significance.”
|
||
It is true that many early charts show falls, not fords. But
|
||
whether “the oldest charts” did so is a matter to be answered only
|
||
by those who have seen them. “Very” old “Master’s Carpets” or
|
||
“Trestleboards” of England show neither. Allyn’s Ritual (an Expos’)
|
||
published 1831, uses “ford.” Jeremey Cross’s “True Masonic Chart”
|
||
shows neither. So that with authorities at odds on the question,
|
||
“proof” becomes merely argument and opinion!
|
||
More space than the controversy is worth may well have been given
|
||
it, yet so many ask the facts that it seems worth while to put the
|
||
several contentions side by side.
|
||
More pertinent, perhaps, is the natural query; “Why should there be
|
||
“any” symbol of plenty? Plenty of “what?”. And why emphasize it to
|
||
the Fellowcraft?”
|
||
Here again authority may not speak, since all symbols of rich content
|
||
have many meanings, not only one. Those who attempt to read from her
|
||
wealth of symbols the inner, spiritual meaning of Freemasonry’s
|
||
gentle teachings find no difficulty of meeting upon common ground
|
||
that an ear of corn or sheaf of wheat suspended near a waterfall or
|
||
waterford, are symbols of the “plenty” (all we need) of ethical
|
||
teaching, moral value and spiritual inspiration, which he who hath
|
||
eyes to see may discern in Freemasonry
|
||
The Fellowcraft has come from darkness into light; he is now,
|
||
Masonically, a man grown. He has climbed the Winding Stairs, and
|
||
pauses before he approaches the Middle Chamber. Entry into that
|
||
holy place is not a mere physical going into a room, but an ability
|
||
to join mentally and spiritually in the search for the solution of
|
||
the mystery there symbolized by the letter “G.” Freemasonry seems to
|
||
cry with no uncertain voice. “Here, in what you have seen, is
|
||
plenty - (all you require) - to read the mystery and know as much as
|
||
man may know of the meaning of that letter which is the symbol of
|
||
the Most High.
|
||
So read, the symbol becomes high and beautiful, and the controversy
|
||
as to whether ford or fall is correct is of little consequence or
|
||
worth. Happy the Fellowcraft who does, indeed, receive his “plenty”
|
||
when he crosses the passages of the Jordan, learns the correct
|
||
pronunciation of Shibboleth, and pauses into his Middle Chamber.
|
||
|
||
|