In this paper I wish to address and attempt to explain the true background of the Master Mason's two words; their meaning and how and why the second word was adopted and from where, I think, it was derived.
To the best of my knowledge, in the 20 years I have been a brother in Freemasonry, I have never read in any Masonic literature, nor heard or read an explanation by any (research) lodge, as to the unifying quintessence of these two words. In other words there should be a way to show that these two words do bear a relationship one to the other.
In general, all that is expounded is the period from when the words came into being; originally one and then two with no explicit unity of thought linking them. I would expect that these words should bear an understandable relationship one to the other; but this is not so because no one, as far I know, has been able to demonstrate the relevance of the second word to the first. Most comments have been conjecture without any background proof. Serious papers have found their way into respectable Masonic research journals and the reader is still left with nothing tangible.
In order to do this it is essential to review some 18th and 19th century European history, especially of England, the beginnings of Speculative Masonry, the Hiram legend and to appreciate the nuances of Hebrew.
My premise is that the accepted translation into English of the second word is incorrect because the original Hebrew was corrupted, thus causing today’s Israeli Masons to use the correct Hebrew for an incorrect meaning. This will be demonstrated later in the lecture having clarified the historical, philosophical and linguistic nuances.
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