232 FROM THE ART OF BUILDING TO THE ART OF THINKING
these glosses, encouraged their creation to a certain extent. We may
recall how similar legends were transposed into apocryphal texts and
were spread through sculptures and the images in stained-glass win-
dows. Some of these were Christianized forms of ancient beliefs and
stories—depictions of myths that were eternal bearers of the
Transcendent. As described in the image of Isidore de Seville, Holy
Scripture was a lyre whose strings had infinite resonance.
Thus, all the patron saints and fabled figures who were the protec-
tors of the crafts had their own legends. Those of Saint Christopher,
Mary Magdelene, and the Three Magi, which remain extremely popular
today, shared the same sources. Outside of these particularly deep-
rooted cases, however, other similar innovations woven from the scrip-
tures were no longer accepted by Christian churches—either Protestant
or Catholic—after the Reformation and the Council of Trent.
In the masonic rite of initiation, Hiram, projection and adaptation
of the tradition, is the embodiment of Christ in the form of a minor
deity. The Church itself declared as much for eight centuries through
Bedes and Strabo's commentaries on the Bible. In them, Hiram and
Adoniram are seen to be combined in a single figure: the image and fig-
ure of Christ. As we learned earlier, Hic est Christus is written in the
text about Adoniram (Ordinary Gloss in Kings III, 5:28).
The comparison gains more strength when we recall that Adoniram
was executed by stoning at the hands of the northern tribes of Israelites
who rebelled with Jeroboam against Solomon, King of Judea and
Jerusalem, and then against his son Roboam. To Roboam the Israelites
declared, "What have we to do with the son of Jesse?" (Kings I,
22:16-18). These are words fraught with significance, for according to
Saint Matthew, who based his position on Isaiah (11:1-10), Jesse,
David, and the kings of Judea were the source of Christ's genealogy:
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit
of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an ensign of the people.