Boaz and Jachin
The two pillars that stood at the porch of King Solomon's Temple, named in the Bible Jachin and Boaz, and represented in every Masonic lodge.
Meaning
Every Masonic lodge has representations of two pillars, replicas of the columns that flanked the entrance to King Solomon's Temple, the Grand Lodge of California explains; they are said to represent strength and establishment. The names come from 1 Kings 7:21. In the commentary of the Soncino translation, as Walter Sharman quotes it, Jachin is Hebrew for 'He (God) will establish', and Boaz is made of two words, 'in him' and 'strength'. English ritual places the B pillar on the left of the porch and the J pillar on the right, and a candidate learns the name of one in the first degree and the other in the second.
Origin and history
The American monitors describe the pillars in the words of the ritual. George Thornburgh's 1903 monitor gives them as eighteen cubits high, cast of molten brass, hollow, and serving as the archives of Masonry, with chapiters of net-work, lily-work and pomegranates denoting union, peace and plenty. Walter Sharman sets them beside the free-standing pillars that archaeologists have found flanking other temples of the ancient world.
Write in the Freemasons’ cipher
stringmash.comPigpen cipherThe grid cipher once used for lodge records, drawn from any text you type.Read next
- Next in Masonic symbolsCheckered pavementA floor of black and white squares. Masons call it the Mosaic Pavement and read it as human life, checkered with good and evil.
- In Tarot cardsThe High PriestessTrump II of the tarot: a woman enthroned between two pillars. Older decks called her the Papess, the female pope.
See also
Square and compasses, The letter G, All-seeing eye, Double-headed eagle, Rough and perfect ashlars, Level.
Sources
- Freemasonry Symbols, Masons of California (Grand Lodge of California)
- Beside the pillar... as the manner was, Walter Sharman, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol. 106 (1993), pp. 236–40, Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon
- Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason, George Thornburgh, 1903, approved by the Grand Lodge of Arkansas, Project Gutenberg, Fellow Craft degree
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or lines.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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