Abstract: Numerous discussions of the similarities between the LDS temple endowment and Masonic rites exist, which give the impression that the two overlap considerably. Rather than focus on the similarities themselves, this paper seeks to quantify how much the two rites overlap by performing a textual analysis. In the first section, the named entities, clothing, props, and participants in the ceremonies are compared. In the second section a line-by-line comparison identifies similar wording, structure, and meaning in the text, which results in a 10% to 17% overlap between the texts. The third section involves comparing sequences of one to five words in the text. For this task, three additional texts were included for comparison: portions of the Pearl of Great Price, the Odd Fellows rite, and the mystagogical catechesis (an initiation into mysteries). In some instances, comparisons indicate more similarity between the Masonic and Odd Fellows ceremonies than between the LDS endowment and the Masonic rite.





The relationship between Masonry and the LDS temple endowment has generated a great deal of interest in the LDS community, among friends of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in anti-LDS circles. Numerous publications discuss the similarities between the endowment ceremony and Masonry.1 The [Page 312]extant similarities were explained by early members of the Church as evidence of an early ceremony that arrived in a corrupted form in Masonry, then restored by revelation to Joseph Smith.2 Yet others explain many of the similarities by pointing to their existence in sources that predate both the Masonic rite and the endowment.3

I recognize that the similarities are undeniable, and my purpose is not to further nor to dispute any of those arguments. One way to approach the two rites and their similarities is to acknowledge that they employ similar frameworks, but for very different purposes. Kearney describes it this way: “the temple ritual teaches us about our relationship to deity the Masonic Lodge is teaching us about our relationship to our fellowmen.”4 As useful as this explanation may be, it still leaves the question regarding how similar the two ceremonies truly are. Seaich asserts, “It is particularly noteworthy that of all the extensive Masonic ritual, which occupies more than two-hundred double-columned pages in Richardson’s Monitor of Freemasonry,