The title given by Dermott to the Book of Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons in England, which was established about the middle of the eighteenth century in opposition to the legitimate Grand Lodge and its adherents who were called the Moderns, and whose code of laws was contained in Anderson's work known as the Book of Constitutions. Many attempts have been made to explain the significance of this title; thus according to Doctor Mackey, it is derived from three Hebrew words, *zhlm*, meaning brothers; *manah*, to appoint, or to select in the sense of being placed in a peculiar class (see Isaiah liii, 12); and *ratzon*, the will, pleasure, or meaning; and hence the combination of the three words in the title, Ahiman Rezon, signifies the will of selected Brethren—the law of a class or society of men who are chosen or selected from the rest of the world as Brethren.
Doctor Dalcho (Ahiman Rezon of South Carolina, page 159, second edition) derives it from *ahi*, a brother; *manah*, to prepare; and *rezon*, secret, so that, as he says, “Ahiman Rezon literally means the secrets of a prepared brother.” But the best meaning of *manah* is that which conveys the idea of being placed in or appointed to a certain, exclusive class, as we find in Isaiah liii, 12 “he was numbered (nimenah) with the transgressors,” placed in that class, being taken out of every other order of men. Although *rezon* may come from *ratzon*, a will or law, it can hardly be selected by any rules of etymology out of the Chaldee word *raz*, meaning a secret, the termination in *on* being wanting; and furthermore, the book called the Ahiman Rezon does not contain the secrets, but only the public laws of Freemasonry. The derivation of Dalcho seems therefore inadmissible.
Not less so is that of Brother W. S. Rockwell, who, as recorded in the Ahiman Rezon of Georgia (1859, page 3) thinks the derivation may be found in the Hebrew, *amun*, meaning a builder or architect and *rezon*, as a noun, prince, and as an adjective, royal, and hence, Ahiman Rezon, according to this etymology, would signify the royal builder, or, symbolically, the Freemason. But to derive *ahiman* from *amun*, or rather *amon*, which is the Masoretic pronunciation, is to place all known laws of etymology at defiance. Rockwell himself, however, furnishes the best argument against his strained derivation when he admits that its correctness will depend on the antiquity of the phrase, which he acknowledges that he doubts. In this, he is right. The phrase is altogether a modern one, and has Dermott, the author of the first work bearing the title, for its inventor.
Rockwell's conjectural derivation is, therefore, for this reason still more inadmissible than Dalcho's.
But the most satisfactory explanation is as follows: In his prefatory address to the reader, Dermott narrates a dream of his in which the four men appointed by Solomon to be porters at the Temple (First Chronicles ix, 17) appear to him as sojourners from Jerusalem, and he tells them that he is writing a history of Freemasonry; upon which, one of the four, named Ahiman, says that no such history has ever yet been composed and suggests that it never can be.
It is clear, therefore, that the first word of the title is the name of this personage. What then does Rezon signify? Now the Geneva or Breeches Bible, published in 1560, contains a table giving the meanings of the Bible names and explains Ahiman as a prepared brother or brother of the right hand and Rezon as a secretary, so that the title of the book would mean Brother Secretary. That Dermott used the Geneva Bible is plain from the fact that he quotes from it in his address to the reader, and therefore it may fairly be assumed that he selected these names to suit his purpose from the list given in it, especially as he styles himself on his title-page merely Secretary.
The first Book of Masonic Law published by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania was entitled: *Ahiman Rezon abridged and digested: as a Help to all that are or would be Free and Accepted Masons*. It was prepared by the Grand Secretary, the Rev. Brother William Smith, D.D., Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and was almost entirely a reprint of Dermott's work; it was approved by the Grand Lodge November 22, 1781, published in 1783, and dedicated to Brother George Washington. It is reprinted in the introduction to the first or edited reprint of the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, 1730-1808. On April 18, 1825, a revision of the Ahiman Rezon was adopted, being taken largely from Anderson's Constitutions.
In the 1919 edition (page 210) are these comments: “The revision of 1825 contains the following as the definition of the words Ahiman Rezon: The Book of Constitutions is usually denominated Ahiman Rezon. The literal translation of Ahiman is a prepared Brother, from *manah*, to prepare, and *Rezon*, secret; so that Ahiman Rezon literally means, the secrets of a prepared Brother. It is likewise supposed to be a corruption of *Achi Man Ratzon*, the thoughts or opinions of a true and faithful Brother. As the Ahiman Rezon is not a secret, but a published book, and the above definition has been omitted from subsequent revisions of the book, the words were submitted to Hebrew scholars for translation upon the assumption that they are of Hebrew origin. The words, however, are not Hebrew.
“Subsequent inquiry leads to the belief that they come from the Spanish, and are thus interpreted: *Ahi*, which is pronounced Ah-ee, is demonstrative and means there, as if pointing to a thing or place; *man* may be considered a form of *monta*, which means the account, amount, sum total, or fullness; while *razon* or *rezon* means reason, principle, or justice, the word justice being used in the sense of law. If, therefore, we ascribe the words *Ahiman Rezon* to Spanish origin, their meaning is—There is the full account of the law.”
But the history of the origin of the book is more important and more interesting than the history of the derivation of its title.
The premier Grand Lodge of England was established in 1717 and ruled the Freemasons of London and the South of England without opposition until in 1751 when some Irish Freemasons established another body in London. This organization professed to work “according to the old institutions,” and the Brethren called themselves Ancient Freemasons and the members of the older Grand Lodge Moderns, maintaining that they alone preserved the ancient usage of Freemasonry.
The former of these contending bodies, the Grand Lodge of England, had, in the year 1722, caused Dr. James Anderson to collect and compile all the Statutes and Regulations by which the Fraternity had in former times been governed. These, after having been submitted to due revision, were published in 1723, by Anderson, with the title of *The Constitutions of the Freemasons*. This work, of which several other editions subsequently appeared, has always been called the Book of Constitutions, and contains the foundations of the written law by which the Grand Lodge of England and the Lodges deriving from it, both in that country and in America, are governed.
But when the Irish Freemasons established their rival Grand Lodge, they found it necessary, also, to have a Book of Constitutions. Accordingly, Laurence Dermott, who was at one time their Grand Secretary, and afterward their Deputy Grand Master, compiled such a work, the first edition of which was published by James Bedford, at London, in 1756, with the following title: *Ahiman Rezon: or a Help to a Brother; showing the Excellency of Secrecy, and the first cause or motive of the Institution of Masonry; the Principles of the Craft; and the Benefits from a strict Observance thereof, etc., etc.; also the Old and New Regulations, etc. By Bro. Laurence Dermott, Secretary.*
A second edition was published in 1764 with this title: *Ahiman Rezon: or a help to all that are or would be Free and Accepted Masons; containing the Quintessence of all that has been published on the subject of Freemasonry, with many Additions, which renders this Work more useful than any other Book of Constitution now extant. By Lau. Dermott, Secretary. London, 1764.*
A third edition was published in 1778, with the following title: *Ahiman Rezon: or a Help to all that are or would be Free and Accepted Masons (with many Additions). By Lau. Dermott, D.G.M. Printed for James Jones, Grand Secretary; and sold by Peter Shatwell, in the Strand. London, 1778.*
Five other editions were published: the fourth, in 1778; the fifth in 1787; the sixth in 1800; the seventh in 1801; the eighth in 1807, and the ninth in 1813.
In this year, the Ancient Grand Lodge was dissolved, and a union took place between the two contending Grand Lodges, which resulted in a Grand Lodge known as the United Grand Lodge of England, and in 1815 a new edition of the Ahiman Rezon, including the Ancient Constitutions, was published.
In this work is incorporated a large part of the earlier edition of the *Book of Constitutions*, published in 1723 by Anderson, with such modifications and additions as were made necessary by the union of the two Grand Lodges.
It was Dermott's custom to draw upon all previous work in this field and his compilation was not, therefore, as his title suggested, an original compilation but rather a reprint of existing materials, with additions and some modifications. This was consistent with the practice of the time.
The work of Dermott, although entitled Ahiman Rezon, was in reality a collection of various Masonic laws and regulations, rather than an original work containing any new matter. Its importance lies in the fact that it represents the attempt of one of the parties to the great schism which occurred in England between the Grand Lodges, to set forth its laws in a readable and practical form. It was therefore of great value to the Fraternity in maintaining the rights and privileges of the Ancient Masons, as opposed to the Moderns.