Regional Timelines

We are familiar with the story of the exile to Babylon.  It is told in our Royal Arch degree.  2 Kings 24:15 states "15Nebuchadnezzar deported Jehoiachin to Babylon. He took the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the leading men of the landinto exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”  Notice that it is the “leading men of the land” who are taken into exile.  Probably, it would be the sons of these leading men who were the Masons that are portrayed in our Knight Masons Degrees. Let’s look a bit at the the ancient civilizations associated with the people of this region.

Let’s first go back to about 5500 BC, some 7,500 years ago.  The ancient civilization of Sumer, that of the Sumerians, in southern Iraq may have been first settled by a non-Semitic people that scholars now call the Ubaidians. These “non-native” peoples arrived from somewhere outside of the region and are assumed by scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer, draining the marshes for agriculture, developing trade, and establishing industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery.  

The next “superpower” of their time were the people of Amurru, the Amorites.  Their time was around 2400 BC, some 4,500 years ago.  The region of their influence was over the lands to the west of the Euphrates, including Canaan and what was to become Syria.  They were a non-urbanized and nomadic people connected with the mountainous region in northern Syria.  A major drought starting about 2200 BC led to a large-scale migration of Amorite tribes into southern Mesopotamia, andthey were one of the instruments of the downfall of the Sumerian dynasty of Ur.  They also established new city-states, the most famous of which was to becomeBabylon.

The Babylonians rose to “superpower” status about 1900 BC, or 4000 years ago as a small Amorite-ruled state which contained the minor city of Babylon. Babylon greatly expanded during the reign of Hammurabi in the first half of the 18th century BC, and became a major capital city. However, this Babylonian empire rapidly fell apart after Hammurabi’s death.  The Hittites then rose to power.

The Hittite civilization was one of the cradles of human culture. They were famous for their skill in building and using chariots. Some consider the Hittites to be the first civilization to have discovered how to work iron and thus the first to enter the Iron Age. Their development of trade links did much to generate awareness of inter-dependence between peoples. They often used treaties to secure safe trade and to establish its terms. These terms ensured fairness and profit on both sides. They also made efforts to integrate conquered people by adapting some of their religious customs.  The kingdom even managed to sack Babylon at one point, but made no attempt to govern there, instead ruling for over 400 years from another capitol.  By 1160 BC civil war and rivaling claims to the throne, combined with the external threat of the Sea Peoples weakened the Hittites, and the Empire collapsed.

Next was Media, the land of the Medes,in about 1000 BC, about 3000 years ago.  The Medes were an ancient people who arrived in the region as a first wave of migrating Aryan tribes into Ancient Iran.  The term Aryanhas generally been used to describe the Proto-Indo-Iranian language root *aryawhich was adopted to describe Aryans.  It means “honourable, respectable, noble”.  The word Aryanwas adopted to refer not only to the Indo-Iranian peoples, but also to native Indo-European speakers as a whole, including the Romans, Greeks and the Germans; Balts, Celts, and Slavs.  It is thought that all of these languages originated from a common language spoken by an ancient people who were thought of as ancestors of the European, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan peoples.

The history of the Judean people records four outstanding episodes intimately connected with Ancient Freemasonry:  1) The building of King Solomon’s Temple (the focus of Craft Freemasonry); 2) the “rediscovery” of the law during King Josiah’s renovation of the Temple, and 3) the destruction of the Temple and the return from the diaspora to Babylon (the focus of Royal Arch Freemasonry); and 4) the building of the Second Temple by Zerubbabel after the return of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin from their seventy years of captivity in Babylon (the focus of Knight Masonry).

During the 1000 BC to about the 600s BC the western parts of Media fell under the domination of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empirebased in northern Mesopotamia.  This empire stretched from Cyprus to Ancient Iran, and from the Caucasus to Egypt and Arabia.  It was this empire, led by Nebuchadnezzar, that conquered the nation of Judah around 600 BC (597 BC to be exact).  It was this empire that destroyed Solomon’s Temple as referenced in the Royal Arch Degree.

About 550 BC, Persia initiates a series of imperial dynasties centered in what is now southern Iran. The first is established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC.  The Persians conquered Media and Babylonia.  In 537 BCE Cyrus the Great allowed Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple. He did not, however, allow the restoration ofthe Judean monarchy, which left the Judean priests as the dominant authority. Without the constraining power of the monarchy, the authority of the Temple in civic life was amplified. (Thus, I presume, is why the leader of the Chapter is the High Priest rather than the king or scribe).

Cyrus the Great, fully supported the Restoration of the Jews. He gave the golden vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Solomon’s temple to Sheshbazzar who led the first returning group of the Jews.  He carried them back to Jerusalem.  This important figure then disappears from the story of the return without further explanation

The realism of hard times, however, soon hit this first group of returning pioneers and slowed the rebuilding of the Temple.  Serious economic setbacks coupled with opposition of the local populations eventually ground the work to a near standstill.  About 18 years after the first pioneers returned, God Called Haggai to preach the same message:  Rebuild the temple as testimony that God is the center of your lives.

Zerubbabel, the grandson of the last King of Judah, serves as King for the returning second wave of Jewish captives.

Joshua is the first person to be chosen High Priest for the reconstruction of the Temple.

Haggai supported Joshua, and Zerubbabel in their work.

Shethar-Boznai, who’s name means starry splendor, was a Persian official.  He, along with Tattenai, (a name probably derived from of the Persian name Ustanu, a word meaning “teaching”) a Persian governor of the province west of the Euphrates River during the time of Zerubbabel and the reign of Darius, at first sought to discourage the rebuilding of the Temple. Tattenai wrote a letter to King Darius to ask if the statements of the Jews were true.  King Darius wrote a letter confirming that the statements were true and Darius asked that the people do everything they can to support this rebuilding financially and that they do nothing to impede it lest they suffer harsh punishment.  

Archaeologically, a number of cuneiform tablets bearing the name Tattenai have survived.  After the receipt of the decree from Darius, he and Shethar-boznai, offered no further obstruction to the Jews. The Biblical accounts of the Jewish prosperity during the period would indicate that these Persian governors acted fully up to the spirit of their instructions from the king.

This history is born out in our Knight Mason degrees. The Council of Knights of the Sword represents Zerubbabel approaching King Cyrus in Persia asking for permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.  Cyrus grants his permission, and Zerubbabel returns to Jerusalem.

The Knights of the East represents Zerubbabel on his way to King Darius of Persia to ask him to grant the continued building of the Temple as Cyrus had initiated, and the final Knight Mason degree, the Knights of the East and West is set when Zerubbabel returns to Jerusalem. Thus some 22 years after Cyrus’ decree, the second temple was finished in 516 BC.   

After the completion of the second Temple, the Macedonian Empire of Phillip, and the Greek Empire of his son Alexander the Great began to rise to prominence between the years of 500 to 323 BC.

Nearly 60 years after the completion of the second temple. Ezra the scribe is sent by Persian King Artaxerxes with another group of Jews who return to Judah in about 458 BC and who exhorts the people to place the law of Moses at the center of their life.  In the time of Ezra, the priests controlled the rituals of the Temple, while the scribes and sages, later called rabbis (meaning “teacher/master”), dominated the study of the Torah that was mostly written the Semetic language of Aramaic, a language related to Hebrew and closely associated to the Persian empire and thus the exile. That is why after the return, Ezra had to organize a group of proto-rabbi’s to explain in Aramaic the words of the Law which were written in Hebrew.

About 13 years later, in 445 BC,  Nehemiah went to Judah to serve as governor for about a dozen years.  After his first term of office, he returned to Persia to consult with King Artaxerxes.  When Artaxerxes came to power he followed the example set by his predecessors by appointing individuals from the empire’s various people groups to high-ranking government positions; it is not surprising to hear that Nehemiah was King Artaxerxes’ cup bearer.

While he was visiting with Artaxerxes, Nehemiah’s brother Hanani returns from the “Jewish frontier” and reports that the “frontier colony” was not going well.  There is opposition from those living there, there is persecution from those “in charge”, there are economic stresses that ultimately bring the reconstruction project to a halt.  Nehemiah was greatly affected by this news.  He grieved greatly, praying and fasting for some four months.  In the second chapter of the book of Nehemiah we learn that because of his depression over the situation in Jerusalem, Nehemiah was granted a leave of absence, received letters of permission (a passport) to return to Judah, AND acquired the necessary lumber for the kings rebuilding project.

Nehemiah returned to the “governors of the province beyond the river” who, not surprisingly, don’t like the idea that the someone would actually come to seek the welfare of the Jews. So Nehemiah went to Jerusalem and for three days went on a personal and unannouncedinspection program after dark.  The Jews then start their rebuilding program and when the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that there were building the city wall, they all plotted together to come and fight against the Jews in Jerusalem.  Nehemiah records “so we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. None of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand.”  This is illustrated in our Knight Mason Degrees where the knights hold a sword in their right hand and a trowel in their left.

A little over 110 years later the Hellenistic period of Jewish history began when Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 332 BCE.  After his death in 323 BC, Judea was ruled by the Egyptian-Hellenic Ptolemies until 198 BC, when the Syrian-Hellenic Seleucid Empire took control. Then, in 167 BC, the Seleucid King Antiochus IV invaded Judea, entered the Temple, and stripped it of money and ceremonial objects. He imposed a program of forced Hellenization, requiring Jews to abandon their own religion, laws and customs, thus precipitating the Maccabean Revolt.  This resulted in the liberation of Jerusalem in 165 BC and the Temple was restored. In 141 BC an assembly of priests and others affirmed Simon Maccabeus as high priest and leader, in effect establishing the Hasmonean ruling dynasty.

In reading all this, one naturally asks “why did the Jews suffer such hardship and return to Jerusalem?” The degrees of Knight Masonry provide us with an answer. They had demonstrated to the world of those days that the main object in life was the search for truth. The lesson of the Jewish Temple as relayed in Ancient Freemasonry is for the candidate to seek to rebuild their temple as testimony that God is the center of their lives.