IS
JABULON THE SECRET NAME OF GOD?
LET ME GIVE YOU THE SHORT ANSWER FIRST. NO, MASONRY DOES NOT HAVE A SECRET NAME FOR GOD.
In an effort to prove that Masons are indeed a pagan religion and that there are secret methods of worshipping, and that there are secret gods, the anti-Masons claimed that Freemasonry has a god by the name of Jabulon. This claim was first made in The Brotherhood by Stephen Knight. It was later picked up by Rev. Ankerberg and Dr. Weldon, who claim that the name Jabulon means Jehovah - Baal - Osiris. Of course, this claim is nonsense.
The Tetragammaton, or the four-letter name of JHVH is often called the Ineffable Name or the Omnific Name. This Name of Deity was too sacred for the Jews to pronounce. Only the High Priest was allowed to pronounce it in the Holy of Holies once a year during their ceremony of atonement. Only hearing the Word pronounced once a year it somehow became lost. To this day the Jews are not able to pronounce the True Name of God. It became the Lost Word.
The men who constructed some of the rituals in the appendant organizations of Freemasonry (the degrees above the Master Mason's Degree), decided to incorporate this event into their rituals. In order for the ritual to teach a lesson on morality they created a new theme whereby the Lost Word was hidden somewhere beneath the Temple. As the rituals progressed the Word is later discovered and revealed to the new candidates. The purpose of the ritualist was not to change the Bible. After all, the Bible says nothing about what happened to the Lost Word.
The Royal Arch Degree has incorporated the use of the name Jabulon in its ritual. The purpose is confusing, but be that as it may, the word is dissected into three parts. Jah is called the Syriac name of God, Bel or Baal is the Chaldean name of God, and On is the Egyptian Name. The inventor of the ritual apparantly made a mistake because the name of On is actually the name of a city in Eygpt. J A H ,or in Hebrew just JH was the shortened version of JHVH and represented the name of Jehovah. You cannot pronounce the Hebrew word without the Masoretic points. These are like vowels in our English language. Because these "vowels" were unknown to early scholars it was said that the name of Deity was lost. In an attempt to supply these "vowels" some scholars took the "vowels" out of another Hebrew word for God "Yahweh."
In an article on the word "Bel," Masonic encyclopedist Albert Mackey tells us
It has, with Jah and On, been introduced into the Royal Arch as a representative of the Tetragrammaton [the Hebrew letters YHWH or JHVH, i.e., "Jehovah"], which it and the accompanying words have sometimes ignorantly been made to displace. At the session of the General Grand Chapter of the United States, in 1871, this error was corrected; and while the Tetragrammaton was declared to be the true omnific word, the other three were permitted to be retained as merely explanatory.
Mackey's statement leaves no doubt: Jehovah is the "true omnific word", whereas Jah, Bel, and On are only explanatory words.
But what
did Mackey mean when he wrote that Jah, Bel and On were
"explanatory" of the name Jehovah? Unaware of its true origins, some
early ritualists tried to explain the tri-lingual
word using etymology. First, Jabulon was divided into
syllables (Jao-Bul-On, Jah-Buh-Lun, Jah-Bel-On, etc.) on the supposition that they were Hebrew,
Chaldean, Assyrian, Egyptian or other foreign words for God. Like Hebrew names
in the Old Testament, some believed that Jabulon had
a meaning which could be recovered. Old Testament names often had meanings
which were intended to glorify God. For example, Azaziah
means "Jehovah is strong," Eliphaz
means "God is victorious," and Elijah means "Jehovah is
my God." The following example explores possible roots of Jah-Bel-On. (Masonic
Information Center).
Jah.--This could be a name of God used in Psalm 68:4, "Extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him."
Bel.-- Rev. Ankerberg and Dr. Weldon accuse Freemasonry of paganism because some Masons tried to equate this syllable with the word baal. Although Baal was the name of a Phoenician deity, it is also a Hebrew word meaning "lord" or "master," and when it forms part of a name it can be used to identify Jehovah. A son of David, for example, is called both Eliada, "God Knows" (2 Samuel 5:16), and Beeliada, "Baal knows" (1 Chronicles 14:7).
Another man, who was a friend of David, was named Bealiah (1 Chronicles 12:5), meaning "Jehovah is Baal" or "Jehovah is Lord." After winning a victory over the Philistines, David named the location Baal-Perazim (2 Samuel 5:20; 1 Chronicles 14:11), which means, "Lord of breaches."
On.--This Hebrew word means "force" or "power." (Masonic Information Center).
BUL was an Assyrian word which meant "Lord" or "Powerful", but it is also a Hebrew word which means "Lord in Heaven." When all three interpretations are put together they come to mean "Father-Lord", "Word-Lord", and Spirit-Lord."
All of this may seem quite complicated, but it appears that the ritualist took the vowels from the Master's Word (or the E from Bel, the O from On, and the A from Jah) and placed them inside the Word JHVH in order to make in pronouncable. You may object on the grounds that it is not of inspired origin. Well, can you prove that taking the vowels out of the Name "Yahweh" was of inspired origin? That seems to be what the Jewish scholars did. They had such a desire to find the lost Name that they did a little fabrication.
What is the name of God? Moses gave it to us in Exodus 3:14 "I am the Being", or "I am that I am."
Just to tie up a few lose ends on this subject let us take a look again at the purpose of the ritual writers. They apparently tried to connect the Royal Degree with the Cabbalah. This, admittedly, caused a lot of misunderstanding about the ritual. In fact, the Hebrew "vowels" were not discovered at the time the ritual portrays them being found. They were invented long after the Second Temple was built. There is no "secret" name of God. The Name of God is common knowledge. The purpose of the ritual is to bring to the candidate's attention that the Name of God was lost, and there has been a search to rediscover it.
There has been so much confusion over this problem of trying to straightened out perceived errors made by the early ritualist that many jurisdictions have completed dropped the use of the word "Jabulon."