All Master Masons already know, and those of lower degree in due course learn, that in the climax of Craft Masonry which is revealed in the Third Degree, a certain ancient figure named Hiram is held up to us, and rightly so, as the ever-enduring Masonic example of unshaken and unshakeable fidelity.
The school of Masonic criticism which I have here, and elsewhere, pointed out, is hostile to the idea of an ancient Jewish origin, or even a mediaeval Christian perpetuation of Masonry, seeks to cast doubt upon the antiquity, and still more the accuracy, of the central Masonic tradition.
In particular, they point to the seemingly conflicting references of the Hebrew Bible to several different persons of the name of Hiram and claim that these conflicts cut away all ground for the Masonic legend.
But an eminent Eastern European Hebrewist of the last century, Rabbi Malbim, in a commentary on the Bible published in 1874, so far cleared up these apparent contradictions as to enable thoughtful Masons to retain their confidence in the historical foundation as well as the moral value of the legend on which Craft Masonry still bases its ritual and teaching.
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1934 - Hebrew Light on the Widow's Son - The late Bro Rev Rabbi Cohen.
