16th° Degree – Prince of Jerusalem

The Prince of Jerusalem is the second of the two “historical” degrees of the Scottish Rite, and it finishes the story begun in the 15th degree. The Jewish exiles have come home from Babylon, but the rebuilding of the Temple has stalled under the pressure of hostile neighbours and a hesitant Persian government. The degree follows Zerubbabel and his companions as they win back royal protection and see the work through, and it asks its members to bring the same patience, fairness and courage to their own lives.

The degree at a glance

• Number and title: 16th degree, Prince of Jerusalem. The title is the same in every major jurisdiction.
• Body: in the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States (S.J.) it is conferred in the Chapter of Rose Croix, which works the 15th to 18th degrees. In the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction (N.M.J.) it belongs to a separate Council of Princes of Jerusalem, which confers the 15th and 16th degrees and takes its name from this degree.
• Setting: Jerusalem and the court of King Darius of Persia, around 520 to 516 B.C.
• Origins: it was the 16th degree of the older Rite of Perfection and kept its number when it passed into the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

Albert Mackey records that Councils of Princes of Jerusalem were at work in America well before the first Supreme Council of 1801. Henry Andrew Francken set one up at Albany, New York, around 1767, and a Grand Council was organised at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1788. Under Albert Pike the Southern Supreme Council decided in 1870 to fold these Councils into the Rose Croix Chapters, which is why the S.J. no longer has them as a separate body. Mackey also notes that the legend of the embassy to Darius is not told in Ezra at all, but comes from the Jewish historian Josephus.

The lesson

The history behind the degree is short and well documented. The exiles who returned under Cyrus around 537 B.C. found their work on the Temple blocked by the Samaritans and other rivals, who accused them of plotting against Persia. With Cyrus busy with his wars and his successor unsympathetic, the building lay idle for years. When Darius came to the throne, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah stirred the people to begin again, and Zerubbabel, the civil leader of the colony, took up the work. Tattenai, the Persian governor of the region, wrote to Darius to ask by what authority the Jews were building. A search of the archives at Ecbatana turned up the original decree of Cyrus, and Darius not only confirmed it but ordered that the work be protected and paid for from royal revenues. The Temple was finished and dedicated in 516 B.C., the sixth year of his reign (Ezra 4 to 6).

The degree turns that story into a lesson about justice. In the drama Zerubbabel’s party has to make its way to Darius and plead its case, while the workmen at home labour with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. On their return they find a city that hardly deserves the name “City of Peace”: people are in debt, quarrelling, and without anyone to judge fairly between them. Zerubbabel’s answer is to appoint judges who will decide by equity and with mercy.

The wider point, as Hutchens explains it, is that the Temple is a symbol. The degree’s instruction carries the story on through the later sieges and the final destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, to show that no building of stone lasts. What the Prince of Jerusalem is asked to build is a temple of character, raised from justice, equity, wisdom, labour, fidelity and brotherhood.

Duties of the degree

A Bridge to Light sets out the duties of a Prince of Jerusalem simply:

• to direct and help those who are building the symbolic Temple;
• to judge fairly and equitably, and to act as a peacemaker between brothers;
• to give help of whatever kind to fellow Princes of Jerusalem;
• to keep faith in the justice and goodness of God;
• to press forward with hope on behalf of the persecuted and the oppressed.

Symbols and regalia

The regalia shown on this page follows the descriptions in A Bridge to Light. The apron is crimson, lined and edged in saffron, the deep yellow-orange of the dawn. On the flap is an evenly balanced pair of scales held by a hand of justice. In the centre is a picture of the Second Temple, with a sword lying across a shield on one side and a square and triangle on the other, and on either side are two Phoenician letters corresponding to the Greek Alpha and Theta. The crimson stands for faith in God’s justice and goodness, and the saffron for the dawn of hope for the oppressed. The balance stands for fair judgment and for the order God keeps in the universe.

The cordon is a broad watered ribbon of saffron, edged in gold and worn from the right shoulder to the left hip. It is embroidered with a balance, a hand holding the sword of justice, a dagger, five stars and two small crowns, and a small silver trowel hangs from its end. The dagger recalls Ehud, who freed Israel from the Moabite king Eglon (Judges 3), the five stars the first five Princes of Jerusalem, and the two crowns the civil and religious authority of Zerubbabel and the high priest Jeshua. The trowel is the builder’s tool and the emblem of the Masons who worked on the Temple.

The jewel is a gold medal. One side shows a hand holding a balance, for the justice and mercy of God held in perfect equilibrium. The other shows an upright, double-edged sword with stars around its point and the letters D and Z, for Darius and Zerubbabel; some versions use the Hebrew letters instead. The red gloves complete the set.

Among the other symbols Hutchens lists for the degree are the colour saffron, the Seal of Solomon, the five steps to the throne and the scales. The hangings of the first scene are white, blue, red and violet, the colours of the veil of Solomon’s Temple as Josephus and 2 Chronicles describe it. White speaks of purity, blue of friendship and fidelity, red of zeal, and violet, the blend of blue and red, of constancy under trial.

Reflections

Pike’s lecture in Morals and Dogma insists that the Temple of this degree is not a building in Jerusalem. As he puts it:

“…the whole world is God’s Temple, as is every upright heart.”

Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, 16° Prince of Jerusalem

He also reminds his readers that the work of the degree is practical and daily, and that its emblem is the builder’s tool:

“Remember always that all Masonry is work, and that the trowel is an emblem of the Degrees in this Council.”

Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, 16° Prince of Jerusalem

The judges of the old Council no longer sit in judgment over anyone, but Pike says the role survives in another form: to heal quarrels, soften prejudice and make peace between people. Rex Hutchens adds that the bare historical outline “hardly conveys the frustrations of the people during the dark days of their persecution or their joy at being able to finish such a noble work.” The question he leaves with every member is a searching one: will you leave a noble heritage to those who come after you?

Please view the video on the left, for a more detailed explanation of the 16th° Degree.