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Article THE HISTORICAL DEGREES; ← Page 8 of 15 →
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The Historical Degrees;
large , prevent the execution of unsightly structures and confusion of styles . ' ¦¦ The thirteenth degree is denominated the Master \ oj the Nintli Arch , and sometimes , the " Ancient Royal Arch of Solomon . " The historical traditions of this degree are represented as affording
copious information on certain points in which the sacred volume is not entirely free from obscurity , and these have reference to the mode in which Enoch , notwithstanding the destruction caused by the deluge and the lapse of ages , was enabled to preserve important secrets that eventually were to be communicated to the first possessors of this degree . The Book of Enoch is one of the Hebrew scriptures designated apocryphal , that is , hidden books , from the
fact that after the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem by the Romans , the Jews , having established their sacred archives at Tiberias , hid there in a cell such books as it was considered expedient to withdraw from public inspection . ' The scriptures now known as canonical , were deposited in a new chest , or ark of the covenant ; but those holy books which were not included in this receptacle , and which at the close of the first century were suppressed by the Jews , 5
and thus concealed , were called " " the Anoervuha A . " ' The motive for and thus concealed , were called the pocrypha . The motive for this proceeding is said to be , that the predictions of the Messiah's advent and reign on earth contained in the Book of Enoch , are so direct and incontrovertible , that it was on this account concealed . The Book of Enoch appears to have been read by both Jews and Christians in the apostolic" age ; and this is seen in that passage of
St . Jude ' s writings in which he says , " And Enoch also , the seventh from Adam , prophesied of these , saying , Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints , to execute judgment upon all , and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed , and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him . " The Book of
Enoch existed until the eighth century , when it unaccountably disappeared , save some fragments , until , in 1774 , Bruce brought from Abyssinia three complete and beautiful copies of what was asserted to be the long-lost bool ? . One of these he presented to the Bodleian library , and from this , in 1826 , Dr . Lawrence , Professor of Hebrew , afterwards Archbishop of Cashel , produced a complete translation .
The subject matter of the book consists chiefly of relations of Enoch ' s prophetical and celestial visions , in the most remarkable ot which the angel Uriel shows to the prophet various mysterious scenes in heaven , including a survey and explanation of the solar and lunar revelations , according to the ancient astrological theory . Eusebius tells us that the Babylonians acknowledged Enoch as the inventor of
astrology , and that he is the Atlas of the Greeks , who communicated to that people the knowledge of astronomy and the celestial globe . Tertullian endeavours to show that the Book of Enoch was preserved by Noah during the deluge . There have been many treatises by the learned on this book , but it must be allowed that although occasionally religious ancl moral precepts are enjoined , all sense of propriety
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Historical Degrees;
large , prevent the execution of unsightly structures and confusion of styles . ' ¦¦ The thirteenth degree is denominated the Master \ oj the Nintli Arch , and sometimes , the " Ancient Royal Arch of Solomon . " The historical traditions of this degree are represented as affording
copious information on certain points in which the sacred volume is not entirely free from obscurity , and these have reference to the mode in which Enoch , notwithstanding the destruction caused by the deluge and the lapse of ages , was enabled to preserve important secrets that eventually were to be communicated to the first possessors of this degree . The Book of Enoch is one of the Hebrew scriptures designated apocryphal , that is , hidden books , from the
fact that after the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem by the Romans , the Jews , having established their sacred archives at Tiberias , hid there in a cell such books as it was considered expedient to withdraw from public inspection . ' The scriptures now known as canonical , were deposited in a new chest , or ark of the covenant ; but those holy books which were not included in this receptacle , and which at the close of the first century were suppressed by the Jews , 5
and thus concealed , were called " " the Anoervuha A . " ' The motive for and thus concealed , were called the pocrypha . The motive for this proceeding is said to be , that the predictions of the Messiah's advent and reign on earth contained in the Book of Enoch , are so direct and incontrovertible , that it was on this account concealed . The Book of Enoch appears to have been read by both Jews and Christians in the apostolic" age ; and this is seen in that passage of
St . Jude ' s writings in which he says , " And Enoch also , the seventh from Adam , prophesied of these , saying , Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints , to execute judgment upon all , and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed , and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him . " The Book of
Enoch existed until the eighth century , when it unaccountably disappeared , save some fragments , until , in 1774 , Bruce brought from Abyssinia three complete and beautiful copies of what was asserted to be the long-lost bool ? . One of these he presented to the Bodleian library , and from this , in 1826 , Dr . Lawrence , Professor of Hebrew , afterwards Archbishop of Cashel , produced a complete translation .
The subject matter of the book consists chiefly of relations of Enoch ' s prophetical and celestial visions , in the most remarkable ot which the angel Uriel shows to the prophet various mysterious scenes in heaven , including a survey and explanation of the solar and lunar revelations , according to the ancient astrological theory . Eusebius tells us that the Babylonians acknowledged Enoch as the inventor of
astrology , and that he is the Atlas of the Greeks , who communicated to that people the knowledge of astronomy and the celestial globe . Tertullian endeavours to show that the Book of Enoch was preserved by Noah during the deluge . There have been many treatises by the learned on this book , but it must be allowed that although occasionally religious ancl moral precepts are enjoined , all sense of propriety