Fellowcraft;

The Two Pillars.

Probably no item of the furniture of a lodge is more easily traced to King Solomon’s Temple than The Two Pillars. While it must be admitted that license was taken with the description in several essentials, no doubt exists of their actual existence, for no less that four accounts appear in the Bible, and Josephus, in his Antiquities, authoritatively verifies their existence. I Kings 7:21, II Kings 25:13 and Jeremiah 52:20 say that they were set up “in the porch of the Temple” or “in the Temple.” II Chronicles 3:15,17 says the pillars were erected “before the house”

In the same passage from Second Chronicles we read –

“Also he made before the house tow pillars of thirty and five cubits high and the chapiter that was on the top of each was five cubits.”

Other accounts (I Kings 7:15, Jeremiah 52:12, II Kings 25:17) place their height at 18 cubits.

Since a cubit is considered the equivalent of 18 inches, the variance would extend from 27 feet 10 over 50 feet. Too the references to the chapiters vary in their description and seem to indicate that the pommels or globes were, in fact, a part of the chapiters. I Kings 7:17-21 describes the net of checker work and wreaths of chain work for the chapiters, and the rows of pomegranates upon the chapiters “over against the belly” and the lily work upon the top of the pillars. Another passage (II Chronicles 4:12-13) describes the wreaths and pomegranates covering the two pommels of the chapiters, which were on top of the pillars.

The names of the Pillars are, however, not a matter of doubt, all authorities agreeing on the names and their meanings. Whatever symbolism is interpreted for other aspects of their form, no doubt exists of the meaning of their names, for combined, they give the meaning “In strength will God establish”

These two brazen pillars, therefore, with their globes should remind us of the reverence due the deity and His works, and of the knowledge of the ancient geometricians, astronomers, and geographers, and that of the arts and sciences ”by which mankind has been so much benefited.”

Excerpted from “Handbook for Candidate’s Coaches”

By The Committee on Ritual and Donald G. Campbell, Past Grand Lecturer.

Grand Lodge F.&A.M. of California.