Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
in the name of Rabbi Oshia that he struck his hammer upon the stone , that it emitted a spark that consumed him . 2
This Rabbinical tradition is discussed by various exegetes , with the concealment of the Ark underground often attributed to King Josiah . In his fifteenth-century commentary on the Book of Kings , for example , scholar and statesman Isaac Abarbanel ( 1437 – 1508 ) recounts that :
Solomon knew that the Temple would be destroyed . And so he had a labyrinthine hiding place built under the floor of the shrine , and had a stone put there on which he placed the Ark , and also a flask of manna , Aaron ’ s rod , and the anointing oil . 3
It is no great distance from this “ labyrinthine hiding place ” to a vault . Even today , some rabbis believe that those who pray at the Wailing Wall do not gather before an archaeological remnant but stand merely a stone ’ s throw from the Ark of the Covenant , still housed “ in a labyrinthine hiding place ” in the heart of the Temple Mount .
This story also forms part of the Christian tradition , in which it is reported in several books . During the very period in which modern Freemasonry was taking shape , Humphrey Prideaux ’ s influential work The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations ( 1717 with numerous subsequent editions ; translated into French from 1722 ), recounted that :
What became of the old ark , on the destruction of the temple ... is a dispute among the rabbis .... But most of them will have it that King Josiah , being foretold by Huldah the prophetess , that the temple would speedily after his death be destroyed , caused the ark to be put in a vault under ground , which Solomon foreseeing this destruction , had caused of purpose to be built , for the preserving of it . 4
We see therefore how an unspecified hidden place under the Temple became a “ labyrinthine hiding place ” and finally a “ vault under ground .”
III . Philostorgius ’ Church History
The interest of English Masonic historians in the origins of the legend of the Royal Arch natu-
2 Mishnah Yomit , “ Mishnah Shekalim ”, trans . Joshua Kulp , chapter 6 . Available online at : https :// www . sefaria . org / Mishnah _ Shekalim ? lang = bi .
3 Reference and translation into French kindly provided by M . Maurice Kriegel , director of studies at the EHESS . I am very grateful to him , and to my friend Jean Passini for his assistance with this research . Translator ’ s note : Unless otherwise stated , all English translations of cited foreign language material in this article are our own .
4 Humphrey Prideaux , The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations , 9th edition ( London : Knaplock & Tonson , 1725 ), Part I , 212 .
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