The endowment is more firmly grounded in scriptural narrative than Masonry is. While Masonry refers to the building of Solomon's temple, as described in the Bible, the ritual drama that forms the heart of the Master Mason degree (the murder of Hiram Abiff) is legendary, not biblical. The same is true of the ritual drama for the Royal Arch degree. Biblical passages are read in the course of Masonic rituals, including selections from Ruth, Judges, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes; but no biblical events are directly reenacted, as in the endowment.
Various portions of a Masonic ritual are performed in order to regulate the space in which the rite occurs: to formally open and close the rite; to ensure that all present are Masons; to see that a tyler, or guard, is posted outside; etc. Indeed, portions of Masonic ritual occur without the initiate being present. By contrast, the endowment involves no ceremonies to regulate sacred space (since the temple has already been dedicated for that purpose); this means that the endowment moves much more quickly into initiation and ritual drama. Also, the endowment involves no ceremonies performed outside the initiate's presence.
In Masonry, the drama of Hiram Abiff is a straightforward narrative of events purported to have occurred in the past: these events may have allegorical meaning, but the drama makes sense within itself as historical reenactment. By contrast, the ritual drama of the endowment becomes blatantly anachronistic once initiates enter the World Room, where (prior to the 1990 revision) a Protestant minister preaches to Adam and Eve. The endowment is thus freer than Masonry in how it plays with symbols--one might even say that the endowment is more "postmodern."
The rites of Masonry are supposed to be restricted to men (though auxiliary orders have emerged for Masons' wives and daughters). By contrast, the endowment was administered, almost from its beginning, to women as well as to men, in keeping with Joseph Smith's new doctrine that celestial marriage was required to attain the highest degree of exaltation. Furthermore, where the rites of Masonry created fraternal bonds between mortals, the endowment aimed to create such bonds between mortals and God, who, according to Joseph's Nauvoo teaching, is himself an exalted man.
Masonic initiates identify, as the name indicates, with masons--those who built the temple. Only in the Royal Arch degree (an additional, optional rite) do participants identify with temple priests, wearing Old Testament-style robes and passing through a temple veil into a holy of holies. The endowment, by contrast, is from first to last an initiation into priesthood. Where the symbolism of stonemasonry looms large in the Blue Lodge rites, only vestiges of such symbolism appear in the endowment: the marks of the compass and the square. The central metaphor of the endowment is not building the temple, but rather officiating in the temple as priests and priestesses, kings and queens, to God.
Despite Masonry's emphasis on fraternity, the endowment is a less elitist, more community-focused rite. Where the Blue Lodge rites are administered only to individuals, the endowment was administered, from its very beginning, to groups. And the endowment requires far less memorization on the part of initiates than Masonry does, making the endowment more accessible. Also relevant to accessibility, consider that the endowment is a single ceremony (disregarding the second anointing), while full initiation into Blue Lodge Masonry requires three separate ceremonies (and additional ceremonies for the Royal Arch degree).
Finally, Masonry has no concept of work for the dead. In Mormonism, it has been the practice since the 1870s for living persons to receive the endowment on behalf of deceased persons.
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