These three men get a mention in the Royal Arch but it is a very brief mention and little more is said about them afterwards. So what is their claim to fame?
    At the beginning of the book Exodus in the Bible the Hebrews had been in Egypt for several generations and had increased in number to such an extent that the Egyptian Pharaoh determined to reduce their population by a species of genocide: male Hebrew babies were to be destroyed at birth. A couple named Amram and Jochabed, who already had a teenage daughter, Miriam, and a three-year-old son, Aaron, now produced a new son and did their best to keep him alive. After three months in hiding, Jochabed put the baby in a wickerwork boat, floated it out on the Nile, and departed in tears. Miriam stayed to watch and so it was she who saw Pharaoh’s daughter rescue the child and adopt him.
    His new ‘mother’ called him ‘Drawn-out-of-the-water’ or ‘Moses’ and he was brought up as an Egyptian - though, apparently, he learned of his Hebrew origin too. Years later, after killing an Egyptian who had been torturing a Hebrew, he was forced to flee to the land of Midian where for many years he lived as a shepherd and where he married a Midianite girl. The turning point of his life came when he found himself near Mount Horeb in the wilderness of Sinai and heard the voice of God issuing from a burning bush. Moses was instructed to return to Egypt and rescue his people from their bondage, as he himself had been rescued from the river.
    Reluctantly Moses accepted the commission and, with the help of his brother Aaron, he defied the new Pharaoh, invoking ten plagues until the Pharaoh would ‘let my people go’, leading to the institution of the Passover ritual and the final departure of the Hebrews on their long journey back to ‘the promised land’ which Jacob and his family had left so long ago.
    According to the Bible the journey took forty years during which the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Ten Commandments appeared. Eventually, after many battles and privations, the Hebrews arrived at the north-eastern end of the Dead Sea from which the land of Canaan could be seen in the distance. Moses stood on Mount Nebo and saw the land but was not permitted to go there. It was here that he died. The place of his burial is unknown.
    Yes, Moses was a great man but what connection can he have had with masonry or architecture? Mention had been made of the Tabernacle: six whole chapters of the Bible are devoted to its planning and construction and many more with its furnishing, its ceremonies and equipment. Centuries later, when Solomon built the Temple at Jerusalem, it was to the Tabernacle that he looked for the ground plan, the shape and orientation of his building.
    The instructions given by Moses for the building of the Tabernacle were comprehensive in every detail. Not only are all the measurements laid down in Exodus but all the materials to be used, even to the number of curtain rings, loops and tassels. These details Moses maintained were prescribed to him directly from God and Solomon treated them with the same reverence; the only difference being that the Temple was built as a permanent structure of stone, whereas the Tabernacle had to be taken to pieces and carried by the Hebrews as they moved through the wilderness, and then laboriously put together again at their next stopping-place. We tend to think of Moses only as a law-giver but he can also be considered as an architect of no mean ability.
    There is so much to say about Moses that little room has been left for Aholiab and Bezaleel. This may be just as well because very little is known about either of them. Of the two, it seems that Bezaleel was the more important for he is credited with actually making the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant and all the vessels of gold, silver and brass, together with the altar and the menora candlestick. He could apparently cut precious stones and make settings for them, carve and engrave. Bezaleel was a highly talented craftsman of the Tribe of Judah.
    Aholiab is associated with Bezaleel and seems to have acted as his assistant, particularly in the textile fabrics and embroidery. It is interesting to note that Aholiab was of the Tribe of Dan, the tribe which also produced, many years later, the mother of Hiram Abif. Perhaps skilled needlework was inherited in the family?
    So then, here are three men, Moses, Aholiab and Bezaleel, who all played their part in the building of the first recorded place of Jewish worship; and although their building was a movable structure, masons have recognized it as the fore-shadowing of the Temple that was to come. Just as there had to be a planner with the wisdom of Solomon, a supporter with the strength of King Hiram and a skilled craftsman to provide the beautiful work of Hiram Abif, so we see here the wisdom of Moses, the support of Aholiab and the beauty of Bezaleel. They deserve our respect.