1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, I have received a man from the Lord.
2 And she again gave birth, to his brother Abel. And Abel was a shepherd of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the soil.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat of them. And the Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering;
5 But of Cain and his offering, He was not pleased. And Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin is lurking at the door. And to you will be its desiring, but you can rule over it.
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother; and later when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him.
9 And the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know; Am I my brother's keeper?
10 And He said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the soil.
11 And now you are cursed more than the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand;
12 When you till the soil it will not again yield to you its abundance; a fugitive and a vagabond will you be on the earth.
13 And Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear.
14 Behold, you have driven me out this day from the face of the soil; and from Your face will I be hidden; and I will be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth; and it will happen that anyone that finds me will try to kill me.
15 And the Lord said to him, If anyone kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark on Cain, so that anyone finding him would not kill him.
16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and lived in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
21 And his brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those that handle the harp and pipe.
22 And Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the sharpener of every instrument of brass and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
24 If Cain will be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and called his name Seth; For God has given me another seed instead of Abel, who Cain slew.
From GENESIS Chapter 4
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat of them. And the Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering;
5 But of Cain and his offering, He was not pleased. And Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin is lurking at the door. And to you will be its desiring, but you can rule over it.
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother; and later when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him.
9 And the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know; Am I my brother's keeper?
10 And He said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the soil.
11 And now you are cursed more than the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand;
12 When you till the soil it will not again yield to you its abundance; a fugitive and a vagabond will you be on the earth.
13 And Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear.
14 Behold, you have driven me out this day from the face of the soil; and from Your face will I be hidden; and I will be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth; and it will happen that anyone that finds me will try to kill me.
15 And the Lord said to him, If anyone kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark on Cain, so that anyone finding him would not kill him.
16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and lived in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
21 And his brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those that handle the harp and pipe.
22 And Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the sharpener of every instrument of brass and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
24 If Cain will be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and called his name Seth; For God has given me another seed instead of Abel, who Cain slew.
From GENESIS Chapter 4
Primitive Freemasonry. The Primitive Freemasonry of the antediluvians is term for which we are indebted to Oliver, although the theory was broached by earlier writers, and among them by the Chevalier Ramsey. The theory is, that the principles and doctrines of Freemasonry existed in the earliest of ages of the world, and were believed and practiced by a primitive people, or priesthood, under the name of Pure or Primitive Freemasonry; and that this Freemasonry, that is to say, the religious doctrine inculcated by it, philosophers and priests, and receiving the title of Spurious Freemasonry, was exhibited in the Ancient Mysteries. The Noachidae, however, preserved the principles of the Primitive Freemasonry, and transmitted them to succeeding ages, when at length they assumed the name of Speculative Masonry. The Primitive Freemasonry was probably without ritual or symbolism, and consisted only a series of abstract propositions derived from antediluvian traditions. Its dogmas were the unity of God and the immortality of the soul. Dr. Oliver, who gave this system its name, describes it (Hist. Landm., i., p. 61,) in the following language. "It included a code of simple morals. It assured men that they who did well would be approved of God; and if they followed evil courses, sin would be imputed to them, and they would thus become subject to punishment. It detailed the reasons why the seventh day was consecrated and set apart as a Sabbath, or day of rest; and showed why the bitter consequences of sin were visited upon our first parents, as a practical lesson that it ought to avoided. But the great object if this Primitive Freemasonry was to preserve and cherish the promise a remedy for the evil that their transgression had introduced into the world, when the appointed time should come."
In his History of Initiations he makes the supposition that the ceremonies of this Primitive Freemasonry would be few and ostentatious, and consist, perhaps, like that of admission into Christianity, of a simple lustration, conferred alike on all, in the hope that they would practice the social duties of benevolence and good will to man, and unsophisticated devotion to God.
He does not, however, admit that the system of Primitive Freemasonry consisted only of those tenets which are to be found in the first chapters of Genesis, or that he intends, in his definition of this science, to embrace so general and indefinite a scope of all the principles of truth and light, as Preston has done in his declaration, that "from the commencement of the world(dawn of man), we may trace the foundation of Masonry." On the contrary, Oliver supposes that this Primitive Freemasonry included a particular and definite system, made up of legends and symbols, and confined to those who were initiated into its mysteries. The knowledge of these mysteries was of course communicated by God himself to Adam, and from him traditionally received by his descendants, throughout the patriarchal line.
The view of Oliver is substantiated by the remarks of Rosenberg, a learned French Mason, in an article in the Freemasons' Quarterly Review, on the Book of Raziel, an ancient Kabbalistic work, whose subject is these divine mysteries. "This book," says Rosenberg, "informs us that Adam was the first to receive these mysteries. Afterwards, when driven out of Paradise, he communicated them to his son Seth; Seth communicated them to Enoch; Enoch to Methuselah; Methuselah to Lamech; Lamech to Noah; Noah to Shem; Shem to Abraham; Abraham to Isaac; Isaac to Jacob; Jacob to Levi; Levi to Kelhoth; Kelhoth to Amram; Amram to Moses; Moses to Joshua; Joshua to the Elders; the Elders to the Prophets; the Prophets to the Wise Men; and then from one down to another to Solomon."
Such, then, was the Pure or Primitive Freemasonry, the first system of mysteries which, according to modern Masonic writers of the school of Oliver, has descended, of course with various modifications, from age to age in a direct and uninterrupted line, to the Freemasons of the present day.
The theory is an attractive one, and may be qualifiedly adopted, if we may accept what appears to have the doctrine of Anderson, of Hutchinson, of Preston, and of Oliver, that the purer theosophic tenets of "the chosen people of God" were similiar to those subsequently inculcated in Masonry, and distinguished from the corrupted teaching of the Pagan religions as developed in the mysteries. But if we attemptto contend that there was among the Patriarchs any esoteric organization at all resembling the modern system of Freemasonry, shall we find no historical data on which we may rely for support.
Spurious Freemasonry. For this term, and for the theory connected with it, we are indebted to Dr. Oliver, whose speculations led him to the conclusion that in the earliest ages of the world there two systems of Freemasonry, the one of which preserved by the patriarches and their descendants, he called Primitive or Pure Freemasonry. The other, which was a schism from this system, he designated as the Spurious Freemasonry of Antiquity. To comprehend this system of Oliver, and to understand his doctrine of the declension of the Spurious from the Primitive Freemasonry, we must remember that there two races of men descended from the loins of Adam, whose history is as different as their characters were dissimiliar. There was the virtuous race of Seth and his descendants, and the wicked one of cain. Seth and his children, down to Noah, preserved the dogmas and instructions, the legends and symbols, which had been recieved from their common progenitor, Adam; but Cain and his descendants, whose vices at length brought on the destruction of the earth, either totally forgot or greatly corrupted them. Their Freemasonry was not the same of that of Sethites. They distorted the truth, varied the landmarks to suit their own profane purposes. At length the two races became blended together. The descendants of Seth, becoming corrupted by their frequent communications with those of Cain, adopted their manners, and soon lost the principles of the Primitive Freemasonry, which at length was confined to Noah and his three sons, who alone, in the destruction of the wicked world, were thought worthy of recieving mercy. Noah consequently preserved this system, and was the medium of communicating it to the post-diluvian world. Hence, immediately after the deluge, Primitive Freemasonry was the only system extant.
But this happy state of affairs was not to last. Ham, the son of Noah, who had been accursed by his father for his wickedness, had been long familiar with the corruptions of the system of Cain, and with the gradual. deviations from truth which, through the influence of evil example, had crept into the system of Seth. After the deluge, he propagated the worst features of both systems among his immediate descendants. To sects or parties, so to speak, now arose in the world - one which preserved the great truths of religion, and consequently of Masonry, which had been handed down from Adam, Enoch, and Noah - and another which deviated more and more from this pure, original source. On the dispersion at the tower of Babel, the schism became still wider and more irreconcilable. The legends of Primitive Freemasonry were altered, and its symbols peverted to a false worship; the mysteries were dedicated to the worship of false gods and the practice of idolatrous rites, and in the place of the Pure of Primitive Freemasonry which continued to be cultivated among the patriarchal descendants of Noah, was established those mysteries of Paganism to which Dr. Oliver has given the name of the "Spurious Freemasonry."
It is not to Dr. Oliver, nor to any modern writer, that we are indebted for the idea of a Masonic schism in this early age of the world. The doctrine that Masonry was lost, that is to say, lost in its purity, to the larger portion of mankind, at the tower of Babel, is still preserved in the ritual of Ancient Craft Masonry. And in the degree of Noachites, a degree which is attached to the Scottish Rite, the fact is plainly adverted to as, indeed, the very foundation of the degree. Two races of Masons are there distinctly named, the Noachites and Hiramites; the former were the conservators of the Primitive Freemasonry as the descendants of Noah; the latter were the descendants of Hiram, who was himself of the race which had fallen into Spurious Freemasonry, but had reunited himself to the true sect at the building of King Solomon's Temple, as we shall hereafter see. But the inventors of the degree do not seem to have had any very precise notions in relation to this latter part of the history.
The mysteries, which constituted what has been thus called Spurious Freemasonry, were all more or less identical to character. Varying in a few unimportant particulars, attributable to the influence of local causes, their great similarity in all important points showeed their derivation from a common origin.
In the first place, they were communicated through a system of initiation, by which the aspirant was gradually prepared for the reception of their final doctrines; the rites were performed at night, and in the most retired situations, in caverns or amid the deep recesses of groves and forests; and the secrets were only communicated to the initated after the administration of an obligation. Thus, Firmicus (Astrol., lib. vii.,) tells that "when Orpheus explained the ceremonies of his mysteries to candidates, he demanded of them, at the very entrance, an oath, under the solemn saction of religion, that they would not betray the rites to profane ears." And hence, as Warburton says from Horus Apollo, the Egyptian hieroglyphic for the mysteries was a grasshopper, because that insect was supposed to have no mouth.
The ceremonies were all of a funeral character. Commencing in representations of lugubrious description, they celebrated the legend of the death and burial of some mythical being who was the especial object of their love and adoration. But these rites, thus beginning in lamentation, and typical of death always ended in joy. The object of their sorrow was restored to life and immortality of the soul and the existence of God.
Such, then, is the theory on the subject of what is called "Spurious Freemasonry," as taught by Oliver the desciples of his school. Primitive Freemasonry consisted of that traditional knowledge and symbolic instruction (primarily genetic engineering) which had been handed down from Adam, through Enoch, Noah, and the rest of the patriarchs, to the time of Solomon. Spurious Freemasonry consisted of the doctrines and initiations practiced at first by the antediluvian descendants of Cain, and, after the dispersion at Babel, by the Pagan priests and philosophers in their "Mysteries."
Encyclopedia of Freemasonry
