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The Book of Hiram: Freemasonry, Venus, and the Secret Key to the Life of Jesus
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Average Rating:  out of 10 Reviews
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Price: $17.95
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Sale: $6.74
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Manufacturer: Sterling
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EAN (European Article Number): 9781402735202
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Christopher Knight::Robert Lomas
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Publisher: Sterling
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Dewey Decimal Number: 366.1
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Publication Date: 2005-12-30
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Reading Level: 496
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Description: It started as a personal quest to unearth the origins of their order’s ancient rituals—but 14 years after they began their search, Freemasons Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas have discovered much more. The Book of Hiram brings their mission to an amazing close, as it painstakingly rebuilds the long-forgotten story contained in the scattered rites and ceremonies of Freemasonry and puts forth explosive evidence drawn from the latest archeological discoveries, the Bible, and early versions of Masonic rituals. What it reveals is “The Masonic Testament,”a parallel narrative to the Bible, with events that go unmentioned or unnoticed in those sacred pages—including a secret science of astronomy that they find encoded in the Bible. The study concludes with the startling revelation: that a lost science that changed the world before, could change it once again. |
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: 2.5 Stars for Weak Middle of the Great Trilogy of the Quest of Freemasonry's Lost Secrets |
Date: 2008-01-08 |
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Details: Whatever may be said about The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasonry, and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus, at least it was original and put some challenges forward, appreciated by some, reacted allergic to by others. This second part hasn't that awfully lot to reveal, mostly it is just providing more evidence for the former book (without making any progress seven years later in 2003 in excavating beneath "Rosslyn Chapel"), referencing in debth one of the authors' other books, "Uriel's Machine", and is derailing with the few new "revelations". The latter opinion from the perspective of someone who actually largely appreciated "The Hiram Key". In the 2005 edition, there are no pictures to be found, in contrast to the first part.
Exploring the Venus cult, which in itself is indeed rewarding, the authors adopt the folk etymology that Jerusalem would be derived from "Urushalim", with "-shalim" supposedly named after an Amorite god (with no evidence of his cult ever to be found in this city), meaning "Venus at dusk". Ahmed Osman's explanation in Jesus in the House of the Pharaohs: The Essene Revelations on the Historical Jesus appears to make more sense. "Salem" meaning peace. Not because the city, known under a different name before, was so peaceful, but because its inhabitants successfully attempted to appease pharao, who was rampaging through Canaan, levelling all resisting cities. Symbolically saying with the new name in their correspondence with him "we will submit to you, no need to destroy us". And guess what: 40 pages after the Venus-at-dusk interpretation, in a completely different context, the authors translate "salem" indeed as "peace". The power of constructivism must be very great!
I couldn't share the hefty criticism, which "The Hiram Key" encountered for the brave theories put forward, with supposedly too much speculation and too less evidence. One might think, the authors should have learned from that. Yes. But not as expected, rather as in: You have nothing to lose once you've lost your reputation. Circumcision would be an old rainmaking tradition. After all, it began in dry areas and rainmaking rituals are usually associated with circles. And a severed foreskin is a circle, through which once liquid sprinkled. I have to confess, as a campaigner against forced body mutilation, I will follow that one up some day (or please, anybody leave a note of confirmation with source), yet, that should have been the job of those who propose such an imaginative idea. (As in ASKING the rainmakers, what the circles are all about...) Gary Greenberg in The Bible Myth: The African Origins of the Jewish People puts the no less unorthodox, but much more conceivable information forward that this habit goes back to ancient Egypt (which by itself is accepted knowledge already), as a covenant with God (which is what it is called today in e.g. Judaism, which derives from Egypt). Originally, Osiris was meant, whose "best part" had been severed once. The foreskin representing the humanly possible symbolism for that.
The last example is the softening of the authors on Astrology. Generally, they do not believe in it, but after reading some Swiss paper on it, they suddenly have to confess: "But something is happening out there." The author of the paper took official population data and sortet it according to e.g. which sign of the zodiak marries another, who stays single, who dies of what cause etc. With astonishing results, of course. Using probability calculations, it gets "proven" that it is impossible to be accidental that so many... yawn... Any disciple on constructivism has a field day with such studies. I don't know about Switzerland, but about neighbouring Germany. The frequency of people there asking after someone's star sign within the first three questions of getting acquainted and then acting accordingly is this alarming that I stopped giving out that information. People get fed with Astrology and who gets along with whom best from earliest childhood. IT IS A RELIGION, addable to any other, including Atheism. Any marrying schemes are self-fulfilling prophecies. Who stays unmarried? Well, e.g. homosexuals have not been excluded by the data, who didn't have a choice in that country at the time. Many other data was not considered and as such this part of the study is void. For the death causes accidents and violence has been excluded to get best results. ??? Could someone, within the logic of Astrology, explain that to me, please? I am sure wondering, wether the big tsunami killed according to the asterisk... If I had time and space, I could debunk that study for hours and pages. But, according to the book, the probability statistics say that people have been convicted for less likelihood with DNA-samples. In DNA there are no unknown factors, everything is 100% measurable. Life is not measurable, but full of LIMITLESS, INTERCONNECTED and UNKNOWN factors. Probability statistics simply cannot get compared in both fields. If you attempt that, you fall victim to constructivism. But even that aside, for such a study to merit some attention, it would have to be reproducable anytime, anywhere, by anyone. Where Astrology has never been heard of, let's say in a remote valley in Papua New Guinea and with a different Astrological system such as China. Plus, there wouldn't have to be single exceptions admissable - otherwise any theory gets automatically invalid.
But now it starts: The authors attempt to prove their theories via probability calculations, as in how likely is it that two unrelated cultures developed this many features the same way. Don't shoot the messenger: It all depends and what and how you feed the calculation with. For example I could say probability calculations prove that Hitler's Germany is secretly related to Tibet, because both used the swastika, believe in an Underworld people (I am not kidding!), are relatively close to "Aryans", share a number of similar words, and the Nazis visited Tibet. That already is sufficient to make for a probability of several million to one. However, the Egyptians believed in the Underworld, used the swastika before Tibet, gave Germans their words for e.g. Mum, sea, nature and there were Arians as well (as in followers of Aris). Plus, the Nazis even invaded Egypt. Statistically it is more likely for anyone to get hit by lightning than to win the jackpot in the lottery. Yet, week for week, more people hit the jackpots than get killed by lightning. Using statistics is for politicians and the desperate: You can "prove" ANYTHING with that, depending on your input and interpretation. It should not be part of history books. If your theory does not work without statistics, then discard it. That is not to debunk completely the book. After all, there IS a connection between Nazigermany and Tibet in my example. There is also better evidence, of HOW and WHY the Nazis borrowed so much from Tibet.
But why did the authors got into the notion of attempting to prove Astrology? Because they found out that Freemasonry and Christianity, in their roots, however unrecognizable, are based on Astrological beliefs. And if Astrology is complete nonsense, than both Freemasonry and Christianity must be also. Completely disregarding that humanity progresses and/or leaves its concepts, and that this line of thinking, venerating the origins only, is needlessly nihilistic. Humans would be "worthless", if they originate, say in seaworms, and so on. I have read something similar in Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Plus). The author, once an adherent to inerrancy, converted to a "happy agnostic", because he doesn't know what the original text of the Bible was and only the original counts. That is a typical human mechanism: Getting ever more radical, and when something disturbs that picture, the ENTIRE concept is pushed from the pedestal. Completely unnecessary... (Besides: Read Lost Star of Myth and Time and find out, what Astrology in turn is based on, if you cannot find another way than looking at origins to find some comfort.)
I also advise reading the books by Rocco A. Errico (e.g. Let There Be Light: The Seven Keys to find out about the original meaning of Aramaic idioms in the Bible quoted and misunderstood in this book.
Other criticism include that the Groove Ware People of Western Europe are supposed to be the origin of Egyptian civilization. Please read "Before the Pharaos: Egypt's Mysterious Prehistory", "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings" and "When We Ruled" to adjust to this Eurocentric orthodox Egyptology time frame!
One last audacity of this book is to explain the economic situation of a country based on her inhabitants' learning capabilities (somehow linked to Astrology again), using the term of the Achieving Society. In what sort of parallel globalization are the authors dwelling? I advise reading Confessions of an Economic Hitman (Unabridged) to start with instead.
Verily, verily, the third part of the trilogy is the best of all: Civilization One: The World Is Not as You Thought It Was. |
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Review Summary: Disappointing fantasy |
Date: 2006-09-07 |
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Details: Knight and Lomas tend to go on a bit in all of their books, but never before have they gone so far afield, and astray, as in this one. I had hoped that after The Hiram Key there would be more hard research and less WAGs and speculation, but instead this book proves to be the opposite.
Essentially, the Book of Hiram is really two books. The first concerns man's early spiritual development in Europe, and the spread of what the authors take to be worship of Venus, allegedly transferred from prehistoric society to more modern ones down to where Jesus becomes a Venus-worshipper. Got that? And from there of course the knowledge was picked up by others and has become the guiding light of Freemasonry. Completely ridiculous, of course.
One would have more patience for such flights of fancy if the research and reasoning behind this kind of wild conjecture were more sound. However, the m.o. seems to be to attribute one (perhaps even plausible) practice to a given society - say, the Grooved Ware People who in this book drive all knowledge - and then, when seeing a similar-appearing development occur hundreds or thousands of miles away, assume that all of this 'knowledge' was transferred wholly, completely and without alterations to that much newer society. Coincidences become proof, and the chain of coincidences of course never ends. This kind of reasoning also drove Donnelly's discussion of languages in the original book on Atlantis over 100 years ago, and it's just as laughable here.
The second part of the book amounts to a distillation and itemization of as many parts of Masonic teaching and lore as Knight and Lomas could compile, presenting it in the form of a coherent 'religious' book. Leaving aside that Masonry is not a religion, though it has drawn from several, this Genesis-like invention seems an exercise in intellectual self-abuse. It is not religious, it is not Masonic, it is not complete and it is not definitive or informative. It seems pointless.
The best section of this book is the Bibliography. Take an entry at random, go to the library and read it, and you will have read a better book than The Book of Hiram. |
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Review Summary: Full of potential, but fails to deliver. |
Date: 2006-09-02 |
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Details: I bought this in hope it would resolve where the "The Hiram Key" left off, however, the whole treasure-under-Rosslyn-Chapel theory remains just that, as permission to excavate was withdrawn for some reason.
This book just like previous ones, journeys all over the place. It's main theme appears to be on mankind's past and ongoing relationship with the planet Venus. Terms and customs we use today all relating to the appearance and position of this planet in our early morning skies. This then progresses onto the scientific validity of astrology, and so on it goes...
A large portion at the end of this book is "The Masonic Testament" - a compilation of stories "reassembled from across the rituals of the 160 degrees of Freemasonry", adopting "the chapter and verse convention of other testaments".
"The Hiram Key" was a good read, full of uncited wild theories. "The Book of Hiram" improves on this by including sources of reference to their quoted research, and yet, still has me scratching my head about what's going on.
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Review Summary: The Hiram Key was better |
Date: 2005-05-30 |
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Details: Moving farther away from Freemasonry, Chris and Robert try to explain our origins of human civilization. This book is longwinded, drawing on the conclusions of their first book. If you are looking for a book about Masonic history, this isn't the best read. However, I did really like The Hiram Key, and I am looking forward to reading Turning the Hiram Key. |
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Review Summary: Astronomic Empire shines through Masonic History |
Date: 2005-04-26 |
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Details: In their third book following "The Hiram Key" and "The Second Messiah", Masonic Authors Knight and Lomas set out to uncover some masonic relevance to ancient astronomy that ties in closely with a stone age cult towards Venus. This was passed down to Solomon, and later Jewish Kings. They show how this Venus worship was even embraced by Jesus Christ.
The Book of Hiram answers long sought after questions about Freemasonry's beginnings -- presenting an exciting challenge to readers to reconsider many of their preconceived notions (Hence keeping an open mind, or being a "freethinker" as freemasons often refer to themselves and their great fraternity.) In this, the final stage of their fourteen year quest (which spans five thousand years and four continents) to find the origins of Masonic ritual.
I found this book to be extremely uplifting and educational for anyone interested in ancient history or freemasonry. It is truly a fascinating read and not "preconceived history" as many critics will try and tell you. Perhaps they tell you this so you won't educate yourself with the "corner cases" of history. Perhaps they are afraid you will discover something, and make up your own mind from there...
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