The Threefold Word – JahBulOn – One Word That Has Caused Us No End of Grief – Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of New Zealand

The Threefold Word – JahBulOn – One Word That Has Caused Us No End of Grief
Paper presented at Timaru Chapter 5th May 2010
by RE Comp Phil Ivamy GLec

The Three Fold word of the Royal Arch degree has a very interesting history, and has at times, caused the Royal Arch, and with it Royal Arch Masons no end of grief. Today the word is given to a newly exalted companion in three parts without explanation of its derivation. Merely it is stated that it is “a word which is the Grand Word of the RA degree and which is in its tripartite form the true and long lost method of pronouncing the Sacred Word inscribed on the circle, for it is of too ineffable a nature to be fully comprehended by human wisdom, or clearly pronounced by the tongue of any individual”.

However it was not always so…

The word Jahbulon was previously referred to in one of the additional Royal Arch lectures as a compound word in four languages – Chaldee, Hebrew, Syriac and Egyptian; Jah being the Chaldee name for God (also the Rastafarian name), it is also the Hebrew expression for the “I am”; Bul being the Syriac word denoting “Lord”; and On, the Egyptian word signifying Father of All.

It is the middle part “Bul” that created all the fuss.

Stephen Knight in “the Brotherhood” holds that Ba’al is the devil, or fertility god of the Canaanites.

However had he done his homework he would have found that Ba’al is as far from being the devil as possible, the translation from the Hebrew rendered as “Lord” or “Master”, generally an early tribal god, one of the many, of which Yahweh was another.

It is this misinformation that is often trotted out by those of an anti Masonic nature to prove that we are devil worshipers! I quote “For Masonry to employ the name of the Almighty God in such a blasphemous manner is an abomination before heaven”. Such a practice breaks the third commandment, which states “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD in vain” and “How can any Christian accept…the adoration of false gods in Lodge?” A fitting example of never letting the facts get in the way of a good, anti Masonic, story!

The word itself appears to have been created by a committee in 1834 in the UK when they were revising the Royal Arch ritual, endeavoring to recreate how the three original Grand Masters would have uttered the name of God in their native tongues. They assumed that King Solomon would have spoken Hebrew (uttering “Jah”); Hiram King of Tyre would have contributed the Syrian “Bul” and Hiram Abiff uttering the Egyptian “On”. Little did they foresee the storm in a tea cup they would create over a century later!

In fact if we investigate a little further we find that they were probably inaccurate in their creation as there is no evidence to suggest that Syriac existed at the time of the rebuilding of the Temple. Syriac is an Aramaic dialect used in Edessa, “It was similar to, but not identical with, the Aramaic dialect used in Palestine during the time of Jesus and his apostles.” (The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, New York: Abingdon Press, 1962, Vol. 4, p. 754a).

Investigating further we find that as regards the Chaldeen Bul. The Chaldeens were the survivors of the Babylonian invaders. In the Chaldean language, Bel or Ba’al, means “he who possesses, subdues or rules,” and always refers to Marduk, the state-god of Babylon. Hence the Chaldeen Bul or Ba’al would not have been welcome by our ancestral companions, being the god of their traditional enemy; as illustrated in the Red Cross of Babylon degree working. In that case it is most unlikely to be a welcome addition to the other two parts of the three fold word. In fact if the anti masons had investigated further they would have found that it was the “word” of the Royal Arch degree – word with a little “w” not a capital; i.e. a password of the degree, not the “Word” of the name of the redeemer.

More on the word as the Word shortly.

An alternative explanation for the tripartite word is given by the Rev. Canon Richard Tydeman, in an address to the Supreme Grand Chapter of England on 13 November, 1985, where he contends that the word is a compound of three Hebrew terms:

(Yah, I AM, which indicates eternal existence),
(bul, on high, in heaven) and
(on, strength);

pronouncing three aspects or qualities of Deity, namely Eternal Existence, Transcendence, and Omnipotence and equating to “The True and Living God – Most High – Almighty”.

This interpretation has merit given that the words of the earlier craft degrees are of Hebrew origin, it would make sense that the word of the ultimate Royal Arch degree ought to be Hebrew?

An interesting aside is provided by Tobias Churton in his book “Freemasonry – The Reality” where he postulates that perhaps the word itself was created to replace an earlier word that was removed with the de-Christianization of Freemasonry around this time, and that perhaps the original word was the name of the redeemer – Yeheshuah, which itself is created in Hebrew by adding the letter “shin” to the yod, veh, hau, veh of the tetragrammaton, which we tend to interpret in English as either Jehovah, or Yahweh. Those who are members of a Rose Croix chapter will see the Hebrew characters illustrated upon the front of the altar. This transformation from the Hebrew deity into the Christian deity is the fundamental element of the Christianized Cabala from the middle ages. In fact if you are to look at the working tools of the degree – the pick axe, the crowbar and the shovel; if they are laid out correctly they can form the letter shin –

It is also worth remembering that in Hebrew that letters and words hold far more power than we English speakers treat our language; for Jews Hebrew words are words of power resonating on many levels. For example the High Priest would utter the word of the Tetragrammaton, the almighty, in its proper name once a year in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement; such was the power of the Word. This reverence for the Word of the Hebrews would resonate just as strongly with the Christians. Is it perhaps for this reason that Laurence McDermott, the power behind the Antients, considered that Royal Arch was the “root and marrow” of Freemasonry? (Churton P464)

This timing would fit well with the committee that readdressed the ritual in the 1830’s given that craft freemasonry was effectively dechristianised in 1813 with the union of the two Grand Lodges.

Over the next few years the ritual of the Royal Arch was being discussed and negotiated by effected parties – hence the rewriting of the ritual in the 1830s would tie in perfectly.

This then begs the question did we to some extent throw out the baby with the bath water by trying to make the Royal Arch ritual open to all comers rather than revealing the Word as being that of the Christian deity?

Bear in mind that atop the altar in the Royal Arch degree are the letters of two words not one – we have Jehovah along with JahBulOn – so the sensibilities of both Hebrews and Christians could be appeased by pointing to both names on the altar.

Again – if we bear in mind the Royal Arch ritual proper has as a part of its centrepiece the discovery of the book of the law which in some of the older rituals began “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God…” This being the start of John Chapter one verse one – distinctly New Testament. Again in New Zealand this reference has been dropped in favour of the start of Genesis.

As in many areas of Royal Arch masonry we find that all in all there is a great deal of food for the thinking Royal Arch Mason to feast himself upon, and any time spent in reflection of this wonderful set of degrees that make up the Royal Arch will be amply rewarded.

Companions I thank you for the attention paid to this paper and welcome any comments or queries.

Bibliography

Royal Arch ritual Barrett, DV; Secret Societies; Blandford, 1997

Churton, T; Freemasonry – The Reality; Lewis Masonic, 2007

Knight, S; The Brotherhood; 1984

An Historical Address to Grand Chapter [of England], The Rev’d Canon Richard Tydeman, Grand Chapter Proceedings, 13 November 1985.

http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/jahbulon.html

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Jahbulon

http://www.evangelicaltruth.com/RoyalArch.htm

SGRACNZ
royalarch.org.nz