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What is the relationship between the Nauvoo endowment and Freemasonry?

Common ground

Joseph Smith became a Freemason in March 1842 and introduced the Nauvoo endowment in May 1842. Washings and anointings had already been introduced in Kirtland in 1836; Hyrum Smith and some other early members were Masons before 1830, and exposés of Masonic ritual circulated in New York in the late 1820s. The two rituals share elements, and the endowment has since been revised, including in 1990. The dispute concerns what the similarities explain: whether Masonic forms served a restoration of ancient ordinances, whether ancient temple patterns illuminate the endowment independently, or whether Smith adapted Masonic ritual and its broader esoteric inheritance to his developing theology. These explanations can overlap, and proponents differ over whether borrowing bears on claims of restored ancient ordinances.

The dispute

For the chronology and public comparison, see the Church’s “Masonry”. For ritual development, including the 1990 revision, see Homer’s 1994 study, especially pp. 42–50 and 103–104.

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  1. accessibleSteven C. Harper, “Freemasonry and the Latter-day Saint Temple Endowment Ceremony,” A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History (2016): 143–157.

    A short, freely available chapter explains the chronology and a restoration interpretation while distinguishing ritual form from purpose.

  2. scholarlyMichael W. Homer, Joseph’s Temples: The Dynamic Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism (University of Utah Press, 2014).

    A book-length history places the endowment within the changing relationship between Mormonism and Freemasonry.

  3. criticalDavid John Buerger, “The Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20, no. 4 (1987): 33–76.

    A freely available historical argument that Smith drew on Masonic rites in shaping the endowment and its later revisions.

Restoration using Masonic forms

Ancient ordinances were restored through revelation, with Masonic forms or vocabulary serving as a vehicle for their teaching.

Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

history · religious studies · Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition

Bradshaw argues that major temple teachings and ordinances were developing before Joseph Smith joined the Nauvoo lodge and have parallels in biblical and other ancient traditions. He treats Masonry as preparation for the endowment, while interpreting the ordinances and their later revisions as authorized revelation.

Further, many aspects of Latter-day Saint temple worship are well attested in the Bible and elsewhere in antiquity.

Abstract, paragraph beginning “Further” · Original

Steven C. Harper

history · religious studies · Professor of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University

Harper suggests that Joseph Smith used familiar Masonic ideas and ritual forms to teach a revealed plan of salvation and covenant relationship with God. He distinguishes the forms of the ceremony from the endowment of divine power and argues that similarities and chronology alone do not establish the full causal relationship.

Joseph seems to have used Masonry as a point of departure, a beginning rather than an end in itself.

“Scholarly Observations,” opening sentence (p. 152) · Original

Ancient-temple pattern

Biblical and other ancient temple themes and texts provide the principal comparative framework for understanding the endowment.

Hugh Nibley

religious studies · ancient near east

Nibley interprets Latter-day Saint temple worship as a restoration of an ancient pattern joining creation, initiation, and humanity’s return to God. He treats parallels with Masonry as part of a wider landscape of surviving temple traditions, rather than an adequate explanation of the restored temple as a whole.

Here for the first time in many centuries men may behold a genuine Temple, functioning as a Temple should

“The Question of Priority,” paragraph beginning “The work of the Temple” · Original

Jeffrey M. Bradshaw · see above

Masonic adaptation

Joseph Smith adapted Masonic ritual to his developing theology and the needs of his religious community.

Cheryl L. Bruno, Joe Steve Swick III, and Nicholas S. Literski

history · religious studies

Bruno, Swick, and Literski argue that Joseph Smith’s engagement with Masonry began before Nauvoo and shaped more than the endowment alone. Their account interprets temple ritual as part of Smith’s effort to restore “true Masonry,” using Masonic legends and an esoteric framework to bring people into God’s presence.

Believing himself to be a Masonic restorer, Smith called upon God to inspire him to create ritual in the Masonic mold.

David John Buerger

history · religious studies

Buerger argues that Joseph Smith drew on Masonic ritual in shaping the Nauvoo endowment, while combining it with scriptural narratives and his developing theology. He distinguishes this selective borrowing from copying the whole Masonic ceremony and traces subsequent changes in temple practice.

This pattern of resemblances provides strong indications that Joseph Smith drew on the Masonic rites in shaping the temple endowment

Section II, paragraph beginning “This pattern of resemblances” (p. 45) · Original

Michael W. Homer

history · religious studies

Homer argues that Freemasonry supplied a starting point for Joseph Smith’s development of the endowment and situates the connection within a changing relationship between the two movements. He treats adaptation as compatible with a religious interpretation of revelation and argues that the ritual’s spiritual value does not depend on Masonry’s supposed descent from Solomon’s temple.

the rituals of Freemasonry provided a starting point for the Mormon prophet's revelation of "true Masonry."

p. 112, paragraph continuing from p. 111 · Original

Esoteric or hermetic tradition

The endowment belongs within a wider esoteric inheritance, transmitted in part through Masonry and reworked in the restoration.

Cheryl L. Bruno · see above

John L. Brooke

history · religious studies · Emeritus Professor of History, The Ohio State University

Brooke interprets Joseph Smith’s cosmology as a renewal of traditions joining radical Christianity with hermetic ideas about recovering divine powers lost by Adam. In this account, Freemasonry helped transmit an esoteric cultural inheritance that informed Mormon priesthood and temple theology.

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