The Widow’s Son
 
Adapted from an article published in 1919 by William Harvey, Grand Master of
the Scottish Province of Forfarshire.

 
THE outstanding figure in modern Freemasonry is undoubtedly the widow's son who is known to members of the Fraternity under the somewhat obscure name of Hiram Abiff. He dominates Craft Masonry, and that in spite of the fact that neither the Entered Apprentice nor the Fellow-Craft knows anything at all about him. It is true that, when the Worshipful Master recites what is called "the first part of the traditional history" to the Fellow-Craft who is on his way to the secrets of the third degree, he pays the Fellow-Craft the compliment of saying, "As you are doubtless aware," Hiram was the principal architect at the building of King Solomon's Temple. But if the Fellow-Craft is so informed, he must have acquired the knowledge apart altogether from Freemasonry as, up to that particular moment, the only glimpse of the widow's son has been a couple of passing references in the explanation of the Second Degree Tracing Board. From this point onwards, however, he is chief actor in the drama, and the legend of Hiram is the most characteristic part in the ritual of the Order.

Freemasonry knows little about the man, nor, apart from Freemasonry, are many particulars to be gleaned. All that is known of him is contained in the Volume of the Sacred Law.
According to the Second Book of Chronicles, Solomon, King of Israel sent messengers to Hiram, King of Tyre, to acquaint that friendly sovereign with the fact that he contemplated erecting a Temple, and inviting him to furnish men and materials for the prosecution of the work. Solomon's first demand was for a specially gifted craftsman:
"Send me now," he says, "a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave with the cunning men that are with me in Judah, and in Jerusalem."
The King of Tyre received the embassy with cordiality, and returned a favourable answer to Solomon.
"I have sent a cunning man," he says, "endued with understanding. . . The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre."
The account given in the First Book of Kings differs somewhat so far as the parentage of the man is concerned. There it is stated that he was "a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali." The author or editor of Kings agrees with the Chronicler that Hiram's father was a Tyrian, adding that he was "a worker in brass." Josephus describes him as of Naphtali on his mother's side, his father being of the stock of Israel. It is not easy to reconcile these differences. One Biblical student suggests that the dislike felt by the editor of Kings to the idea of the Temple being built by a half-Phoenician caused him to insert the words "a widow of the tribe of Naphtali,", instead  of the phrase "of the daughters of Dan" this being the more permissible, since Dan lay in the territory of Naphtali.

The clear points that emerge are that Hiram was of mixed race, the son of a brass-worker, and a man so high in his profession as to have secured the patronage of his King, and to have been deemed worthy to uphold the reputation of his country. His exalted position is inferred from the description given in Chronicles, which alludes to him as "Hiram Abi," and the word "Abi," meaning "my father," is usually taken in the sense of "master," a title of respect and distinction.
The name is undoubtedly Phoenician, but there is some confusion, as to its actual form. "Hiram" is the more common rendering, but the author of the Chronicles adheres to the spelling "Huram," and other writers adopt the variant "Hirom." It has been pointed out that it is equivalent to "Ahiram," and means "the exalted one".

Whatever his real parentage, and whatever the exact meaning of his name, the widow's son of Freemasonry reached Jerusalem and was thereafter intimately identified with the building of the Temple. What exact share did he have in that great work ?

The editors of "The Jewish Encyclopaedia" point out that there is an essential difference as regards the nature of his technical speciality between the account preserved in the First Book of Kings and that in the Second Book of Chronicles. According to the former, Hiram was an artificer only in brass, and the pieces which he executed for the Temple were the two pillars, the molten sea with its twelve oxen, the ten lavers with their bases, the shovels and basins, all of brass. But in the Second Book of Chronicles he is depicted as a man of many parts, and the impression is conveyed that he superintended all the work of the Temple.
Josephus seeks to reconcile the two accounts by saying that Hiram was expert in all sorts of work, but that his chief skill lay in working in gold, silver and brass.

And there our exact knowledge of Hiram ends. History knows nothing of him. The volume of the Sacred Law is silent as to his fate.

Out of this slender basis of fact Freemasonry has created a wonderfully vivid character. The Order maintains that he was the chief architect at the construction of the Temple and associates him with Hiram, King of Tyre, and Solomon, King of Israel, on a footing of Masonic equality. It suggests that these three were the most exalted personages in the Masonic world and that the secrets of a Master Mason had either descended to them, or been invented by them, and could not be communicated to anyone else without the consent of all three.
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It was postulated by Johann Buhle that "Hiram" was understood by the older Freemasons as an anagram H.I.R.A.M. derived from two Latin phrases: the one, "Homo Jesus Redemptor Animarum," and the other, "Homo Jesus Rex Altissimus Mundi." By "older Freemasons," Buhle probably meant Rosicrucians.
If the inventors of the third degree got the suggestion from the Rosicrucians to make Hiram the central figure in their new scheme, it is very obvious that they incorporated details from a story called "The Legend of the Temple," and turned that story to suit the purpose they had in view*.
Based as it obviously was on this Legend of the Temple, the question still remains, why was the story of Hiram engrafted with so much detail upon Freemasonry? The postulant is taught that the peculiar object of the Third Degree is to teach the heart to seek for happiness in the consciousness of a life well-spent, and invited to reflect upon death and to realise that to the just and virtuous man death has no terror equal to the stain of falsehood and dishonour. All excellent moral teaching, but not illustrated in any way by the career of Hiram Abiff concerning whose life and conduct we know absolutely nothing. And it seems that we must look for an explanation in some other direction.

Many writers - chiefly non-Masons - have sought to throw light upon the subject, and with one voice they agree that the story of Hiram is simply the Masonic way of serving up an ancient mystery. The story of Hiram is only another version, like those of Adonis and Astarte, and of Ceres and Proserpine, of the fable of Osiris and Isis. The likeness throughout is so exact as not to admit of doubt - so much in the Masonic legend has allusion to, and comport with, the allegory of Osiris and Isis.
Assuming that this is all correct, what is the reason why the inventors of the Third Degree in the first quarter of the eighteenth century gave a Biblical turn to an old-world fable and introduced it into Freemasonry to teach the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead? The question is not easy to answer, and at most one can but hazard a guess…  may it not be that those who were anxious to build up the new third degree also found their starting point in that anagram familiar to the Rosicrucians, which, by a very striking coincidence, agreed with the name of the principal architect of the Temple? Thus directed to Hiram, they decided to turn that craftsman to account and found much material ready to their hands in the Legend of the Temple.
What the ultimate origin of Freemasonry was may never be discovered, but in the legend of Osiris they found something that fitted in exactly with their scheme, and just as the H.I.R.A.M. of the Rosicrucians referred to that Son of God who is the Light of the World, so their Hiram was made to represent Osiris, or the sun, the glorious luminary of the day.

An early catechism of the Craft says that Masonry is "a system of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols." To-day it is something more. The first degree accords with the definition; but the second degree is largely concerned with the erection of a Temple to the Lord, and the Third Degree points the Craftsman to the Grand Lodge above to which he may hope to ascend after he has passed through the valley of the shadow of death. All this is religion - not morals; and it is as part of our common faith in immortality that Hiram's legend is used as an illustration in the high and sublime degree of a Master Mason. Just as, in early pagan belief, the Sun was supposed to lose his strength in the dark days of winter, and rise again to glory in the height of summertime; so, throughout all the world, wherever Craft Masonry is practised, the postulant typifies our Master Hiram, not alone to show that death is preferable to dishonour, but to impress upon the Fraternity that the just and virtuous man may hope to be received as a worthy brother into the Grand Lodge above, where the world's Great Architect lives and reigns forever.
 


* "The Legend of the Temple" is recounted in the source material for this article. It is too long to be reproduced here, but this web reference will lead to the full article for those curious to read it:

https://archive.org/stream/The_Story_Of_Hiram_Abiif_-_W_Harvey/The_Story_Of_Hiram_Abiif_-_W_Harvey_djvu.txt