The LDS Temple Endowment: Origins, Masonry and Changes

For faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the temple endowment is among the most sacred experiences of life. Young adults usually receive it before a mission or a temple marriage, and members return to the temple to receive it on behalf of the dead. The Church teaches that it is one of the ordinances "necessary for salvation and exaltation."

The endowment also raises a historical question that Latter-day Saint historians now discuss openly. Joseph Smith first gave it in May 1842, seven weeks after he became a Freemason, to nine men who were all Masons, and its outward form resembled Masonic ritual closely enough that early participants remarked on it. This article sets out what the LDS Church itself says the endowment is, how it began, what scholars of several persuasions say about the Masonic parallels, how it has changed, and how the Orthodox Church judges it. Out of respect for what members hold sacred, it does not reproduce wording that participants promise not to reveal; it relies on what the LDS Church has published and on what historians and journalists have reported in general terms.

In brief

The Church describes the endowment as "a gift from God" received in two parts: an initiatory washing and anointing with the temple garment, and instruction on the Creation, the Fall and the Atonement in which members make five covenants the LDS Church names publicly. It is one of the ordinances the LDS Church calls necessary for exaltation, of which Doctrine and Covenants 132:20 says, "Then shall they be gods." Joseph Smith was initiated and raised a Master Mason on March 15-16, 1842, and introduced the endowment on May 4. The Church's own history acknowledges "some similarities" with Masonry and calls Masonry a "catalyst for revelation"; the historian David John Buerger concluded that Joseph Smith "specifically borrowed the tokens, signs, and penalties." The ceremony has since been revised many times: an oath of vengeance was removed by 1927, the penalty gestures in 1990, and further changes followed in 2019, 2023 and 2024.

Thesis: The endowment is a nineteenth-century rite that drew part of its form from Freemasonry and serves a doctrine of exaltation contrary to the apostolic faith; it is not a restoration of ancient Christian worship, whose washing, anointing and white garments are still kept in the Orthodox Church's baptism and chrismation.

What the endowment is, in the LDS Church's own words

The Church's General Handbook explains that "the word endowment means 'a gift'" and that "the endowment can be received only in holy temples." It "is received in two parts. In the first part, a person receives preliminary ordinances called the initiatory," which "include being symbolically washed and anointed, as well as instruction on wearing the temple garment." In the second part, "the plan of salvation is taught, including the Creation, the Fall of Adam and Eve, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ," and members "receive instruction on how to return to the Lord's presence." The Handbook then names the covenants: the law of obedience, the law of sacrifice, the law of the gospel, the law of chastity and the law of consecration.¹

Elsewhere the Handbook lists the "ordinances of salvation and exaltation": baptism, confirmation, Melchizedek Priesthood ordination for men, the "temple endowment" and the "temple sealing."² Exaltation is the highest degree of the celestial kingdom. Doctrine and Covenants 131 teaches that "in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]," and D&C 132:20 says of those who keep that covenant: "Then shall they be gods, because they have no end."³

Brigham Young gave a definition in 1853, at the laying of the Salt Lake Temple's cornerstone, that Latter-day Saint writers still quote: "Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell."⁴ The site has discussed the further temple ordinance of the second anointing and the requirements for a temple recommend elsewhere.

From Kirtland to Nauvoo

Joseph Smith's temple rites developed in stages. At the Kirtland Temple in 1836 he and other leaders performed washings and anointings that Buerger describes as "a simple, staged ceremony clearly patterned after similar washings and anointings described in the Old and especially the New Testament."⁵ In January 1841 a revelation directed the Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois, to build a new temple, "that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people" (D&C 124:40).⁶

The Church's own history essay, "Masonry," supplies the next steps. In December 1841, eighteen Latter-day Saint Masons organized a lodge in Nauvoo. On March 15, 1842, the Illinois Grand Master, Abraham Jonas, "initiated Joseph and Sidney Rigdon to the degree of 'Entered Apprentice'" in the room above Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store; "the next day, Jonas passed Joseph and Sidney as 'Fellow Craft' and raised them as 'Master Masons.'" On May 3 Joseph had the same room prepared "preparatory to giving endowments to a few Elders," and "the next day, Joseph introduced the temple endowment for the first time to nine men, all of whom were also Masons."⁷

{{very-strong: Joseph Smith became a Master Mason on March 16, 1842, and seven weeks later introduced the endowment, in the room where the lodge met, to nine men who were all Masons.}}

One of the nine, Heber C. Kimball, wrote to Parley P. Pratt that "there is a similarity of priesthood in masonry," and that Joseph taught that Masonry was "taken from priesthood but has become degenerated."⁸ Joseph began giving the endowment to women in September 1843, and after his death in 1844 Brigham Young and others administered it to thousands of Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo before the exodus west.⁹ The site's infographic Joseph Smith, Freemasonry, and the Origins of the Mormon Temple Ceremony gives a short visual summary of this sequence.

The Masonic parallels scholars note

Masonic lodges, the LDS Church's essay explains, "ritually reenact a story based on the brief biblical account of a man named Hiram," and in the reenactment "Masons advance by degrees, using handgrips, key words, and special clothing."¹⁰ Scholars who have studied both rites, believers and others, agree that there are real resemblances. They differ on what the resemblances mean.

• David John Buerger, a Latter-day Saint historian writing in Dialogue in 1987, listed parallels in the signs, tokens, penalties, a new name and a ritual apron, and concluded that "this pattern of resemblances provides strong indications that Joseph Smith drew on the Masonic rites in shaping the temple endowment, and specifically borrowed the tokens, signs, and penalties." He added that "the creation and fall narrative, the content of the major covenants, and the washing and anointings have no parallel in Masonry," so that "the temple ceremony cannot be explained as wholesale borrowing from Masonry; neither can it be explained as completely unrelated to Masonry."¹¹
• Michael W. Homer, a historian of Freemasonry and Mormonism, argued that "the rituals of Freemasonry provided a starting point for the Mormon prophet's revelation of 'true Masonry.'"¹²
• Steven C. Harper, a historian in the LDS Church History Department, writing for Brigham Young University's Religious Studies Center, granted "a clear chronological tie" and noted that nine men is "the same number needed to create a Royal Arch Chapter of Masonry," while adding that "it is not clear what, if anything, Joseph Smith knew of Royal Arch Masonry by 1842." He cautioned that "similarity" is not proof of "dependence," but allowed that "it may be that some ritual forms were adapted from Masonic traditions."¹³

The Church's essay offers its own synthesis: "the endowment did not simply imitate the rituals of Freemasonry. Rather, Joseph's encounter with Masonry evidently served as a catalyst for revelation." It also records two other Latter-day Saint readings: that the resemblances to "many ancient religious ceremonies" are "evidence that the endowment was a restoration of an ancient ordinance," and that "the ideas and institutions in the culture that surrounded Joseph Smith frequently contributed to the process by which he obtained revelation."¹⁴

{{moderate: Some of the endowment's ritual forms, especially its signs, tokens and former penalties, were adapted from Masonic ritual.}} The rating is moderate rather than strong because the private ritual texts are not public and historians, including the LDS Church's own, frame the relationship differently; but the timing, the participants' testimony and Buerger's analysis all point the same way.

The older explanation, that Masonry preserved degenerate fragments of an ancient priesthood, faces a historical problem the LDS Church's essay itself states: "There are no known Masonic documents before about 1400," and "the rituals of Freemasonry appear to have originated in early modern Europe."¹⁵ A rite that resembles Masonry therefore resembles something early modern, not something from Solomon's temple or the apostolic Church.

A ceremony that keeps changing

The endowment was first committed to writing under Brigham Young at the St. George Temple in 1877, when he also delivered a "lecture at the veil" that included his teaching that Adam was God, a doctrine the LDS Church later rejected.¹⁶ Since then it has been revised many times.

• 1919-1927. An apostolic committee shortened the ceremony and changed the garment. In 1927 Apostle George F. Richards instructed temple presidents to "omit from the prayer circles all reference to avenging the blood of the Prophets," ending an oath of vengeance given since the Nauvoo period. The committee also moderated the graphic penalties, which, Buerger notes, "closely followed Masonic penalties' wording."¹⁷
• 1990. The New York Times reported that the revisions diminished the Masonic-like elements, "including gestures symbolizing the participant's pledge to undergo a gruesome death rather than reveal the rituals," and dropped a scene in which Satan hires a non-Latter-day Saint "preacher" and a vow in which women pledged obedience to their husbands. "Church officials have confirmed that changes went into effect in mid-April," the paper said, though they declined to discuss details.¹⁸
• 2019. As reports of new changes circulated, the First Presidency stated on January 2, 2019, that "details associated with temple work have been adjusted periodically, including language, methods of construction, communication, and record-keeping," and that prophets have taught "there will be no end to such adjustments as directed by the Lord to His servants."¹⁹ According to The Salt Lake Tribune, the revision made men and women enter the same covenants and removed the remaining wording that placed wives under their husbands.²⁰
• 2023 and 2024. The Tribune reported in February 2023 a version "placing an enhanced emphasis on Jesus Christ, boosting gender equity and providing more explanations of the promises participants make to God," with the covenants explained earlier in the ceremony. In August 2024 it reported a further "streamlined" version of about an hour; a Church spokesperson pointed to a First Presidency statement issued with another round of changes in July 2020, asking members "not to engage in speculation or public discussions about these changes."²¹

{{very-strong: The endowment has been substantially revised several times, including in 1927, 1990, 2019, 2023 and 2024, and the LDS Church acknowledges in general terms that its temple ceremonies are adjusted over time.}}

The Orthodox assessment

Ancient Christian initiation is still kept, and it is not the endowment

Latter-day Saint writers sometimes point to washing, anointing and white garments in early Christianity as evidence that the endowment restores ancient practice. Those rites are real, and the Orthodox Church still celebrates them, because they are holy baptism and chrismation. The fourth-century Mystagogical Catecheses attributed to St Cyril of Jerusalem explained them to the newly baptized: "Now you have been made Christs, by receiving the antitype of the Holy Ghost," and, because they had put on garments "spiritually white," "you must be continually robed in white," meaning, he explains, a life kept spiritually pure.²² These rites were given once, to make a person a Christian and a member of the Church, and led straight to the Eucharist. They had no tokens to be given to angels and no penalties, and their content was the Trinity and the Cross. The ancient parallels Latter-day Saints cite point to the Church that still performs these Mysteries, not to a ceremony first given in a Masonic lodge room in 1842.

The early Church did practice reserve. In his introductory lecture St Cyril told candidates: "if a Catechumen ask you what the teachers have said, tell nothing to him that is without."²³ Honesty requires saying so. But that reserve guarded the sacraments of Christ from casual curiosity until a person was baptized; it was not a system of passwords for the afterlife, nor were its promises sealed, as the endowment's were until 1990, with gestures of death.

The way to the Father is Christ, not words given to sentinels

Brigham Young described the endowment as giving "the key words, the signs and tokens" needed to pass "the angels who stand as sentinels." The New Testament teaches a different way into God's presence: "having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh" (Hebrews 10:19-20). "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).²⁴ Christ Himself is the door. No knowledge of ritual words is required to pass beyond death, and no covenant can add to the sufficiency of His Cross and Resurrection, which the faithful receive in the Church's Mysteries.

Exaltation is not theosis

The end the endowment serves is exaltation, in which faithful couples become gods with eternal increase. The Orthodox Church teaches that human beings are called to become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4) by grace, sharing in God's uncreated energies while remaining creatures, never becoming gods by nature or rulers of worlds of their own. There is one God, the Father, with His eternal Son and Holy Spirit, and "besides Me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6). The site's article on theosis and exaltation sets out the difference in detail, and its study of Matthew 22 treats the eternal-marriage claim.

The Orthodox verdict is therefore clear. The endowment is not a restored apostolic ordinance; Joseph Smith was not a prophet of God; and the plan of exaltation it serves is not the Gospel. Latter-day Saints who attend the temple do so with sincere devotion, and this site does not doubt their sincerity or mock what they hold sacred. It says plainly that what they have been given there is not what the apostles handed on.

Objections and replies

"Masonry descends from Solomon's temple, so the parallels are ancient."

The Church's own essay says Masonic records begin about 1400 and that its rituals "appear to have originated in early modern Europe." No evidence links them to Solomon's temple or to early Christian worship.

"Changes show continuing revelation, not error."

Latter-day Saints consider the details of the ceremony adjustable, and the First Presidency has said so. But elements once presented as part of a restored ancient ordinance, such as the penalties and the wife's vow, have been removed, often after public criticism, while the Masonic origin of some of them is acknowledged by Latter-day Saint historians. That pattern fits a nineteenth-century rite being refined better than an ancient one being restored. The Orthodox Church's liturgy has also developed over centuries, but its baptism, chrismation and Eucharist are attested from the earliest Christian sources and were never introduced by one man.

"Outsiders cannot judge what they have not experienced."

This article judges only what the LDS Church has published and what historians and reporters have documented. That is enough to compare the endowment's origin and purpose with the apostolic faith.

What we can say confidently

• The Church describes the endowment as a two-part ordinance, necessary for exaltation, in which members are washed and anointed, receive the temple garment, are taught the plan of salvation, and make five named covenants.
• Joseph Smith was raised a Master Mason on March 16, 1842, and first gave the endowment on May 4, 1842, to nine men who were Masons, in the room where the lodge met.
• Early participants and modern Latter-day Saint historians acknowledge similarities with Masonic ritual.
• The ceremony has been revised repeatedly, including the removal of the oath of vengeance by 1927 and of the penalty gestures in 1990.
• Early Christian washing, anointing and white garments belong to baptism and chrismation, which the Orthodox Church still celebrates.

What remains disputed

• How much of the endowment's form was adapted from Masonry, and whether Joseph Smith knew Royal Arch or other higher-degree rituals by 1842.
• The exact content of each revision, since the LDS Church does not publish the ceremony and news reports rely on participants.
• Why Joseph Smith joined the lodge; the LDS Church's essay says "historical sources do not explain" his motives.

Conclusion

The endowment matters deeply to Latter-day Saints, and it deserves to be described carefully and without ridicule. Described carefully, its history speaks for itself: a rite given in a lodge room weeks after its founder's Masonic initiation, shaped in part by Masonic forms, revised repeatedly since, and directed toward an exaltation in which men and women become gods.

The Orthodox Church offers something older and simpler. In baptism the believer is washed, buried with Christ and robed in white; in chrismation he is sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit; in the Eucharist he receives the Body and Blood of the Lord. These Mysteries have been given since the apostles, without passwords or penalties, to all who believe. Through them Christ, the only Way to the Father, makes His people partakers of the divine nature by grace. That door stands open to every Latter-day Saint.

Notes

1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, General Handbook, 27.2, "The Endowment," https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/general-handbook/27-temple-ordinances-for-the-living?lang=eng.
2. General Handbook, 18.1, "Ordinances of Salvation and Exaltation," https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/general-handbook/18-priesthood-ordinances-and-blessings?lang=eng.
3. Doctrine and Covenants 131:1-4; 132:20 (the bracketed words are in the LDS Church's printed text), https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/131?lang=eng and /dc/132?lang=eng.
4. Brigham Young, oration at the southeast cornerstone of the Salt Lake Temple, April 6, 1853, reported by G. D. Watt, Journal of Discourses 2:29-33, at 31, Brigham Young University edition, https://scriptures.byu.edu/jod/pdf/JoD02/JoD02_0031.pdf.
5. David John Buerger, "The Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20, no. 4 (Winter 1987): 33-76, at 35, https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V20N04_35.pdf.
6. Doctrine and Covenants 124:39-41, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/124?lang=eng.
7. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Masonry," Church History Topics, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/masonry?lang=eng.
8. "Masonry," Church History Topics (see note 7), quoting Heber C. Kimball to Parley P. Pratt, June 17, 1842 (spelling standardized by the LDS Church; Harper, note 13, quotes the original spelling).
9. Steven C. Harper, "Freemasonry and the Latter-day Saint Temple Endowment Ceremony," in Laura Harris Hales, ed., A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History (Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2016), 143-58, https://rsc.byu.edu/reason-faith/freemasonry-latter-day-saint-temple-endowment-ceremony; "Masonry," Church History Topics (see note 7).
10. "Masonry," Church History Topics (see note 7).
11. Buerger, "Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony," 45.
12. Michael W. Homer, "'Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry': The Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism," Dialogue 27 (1994), as quoted by Harper (see note 9). Homer later expanded his study as Joseph's Temples: The Dynamic Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2014).
13. Harper, "Freemasonry and the Latter-day Saint Temple Endowment Ceremony" (see note 9).
14. "Masonry," Church History Topics (see note 7).
15. "Masonry," Church History Topics (see note 7).
16. David John Buerger, "The Adam-God Doctrine," Dialogue 15, no. 1 (Spring 1982): 14-58, at 32-33, https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V15N01_16.pdf.
17. Buerger, "Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony," 53-55, quoting George F. Richards's 1927 letter to temple presidents.
18. Peter Steinfels, "Mormons Drop Rites Opposed by Women," The New York Times, May 3, 1990, as reprinted in Gregory A. Prince's research excerpts, "Temples & Mormonism: 1990," Mormon Studies, University of Virginia, https://mormonstudies.as.virginia.edu/princes-research-excerpts-temples-mormonism/year-1990/.
19. First Presidency, "First Presidency Statement on Temples," January 2, 2019, Newsroom of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/temple-worship.
20. Tamarra Kemsley and David Noyce, "LDS temple endowment ceremony is shortened," The Salt Lake Tribune, August 15, 2024 (summarizing the 2019 changes), https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/08/15/lds-temple-endowment-ceremony-is/.
21. Tamarra Kemsley and David Noyce, "LDS temple ceremonies change again, putting more focus on Jesus and increasing gender equity," The Salt Lake Tribune, February 9, 2023, https://sltrib.com/religion/2023/02/09/lds-temple-ceremonies-change; Kemsley and Noyce, August 15, 2024 (see note 20).
22. Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catecheses 3.1 and 4.8 (Catechetical Lectures 21 and 22), trans. Edwin Hamilton Gifford, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 7, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310121.htm and https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310122.htm. Some scholars assign these lectures to Cyril's successor, John of Jerusalem.
23. Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatechesis 12, trans. Gifford, NPNF2 7, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310100.htm.
24. Scripture is quoted from the New King James Version.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
• Young, Brigham. Oration of April 6, 1853. Journal of Discourses 2:29-33. Brigham Young University online edition.

Orthodox and patristic sources

• Cyril of Jerusalem. Procatechesis and Mystagogical Catecheses. Trans. Edwin Hamilton Gifford. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 7. Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1894.

Other scholarship and reporting

• Buerger, David John. "The Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony." Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20, no. 4 (Winter 1987): 33-76.
• Buerger, David John. "The Adam-God Doctrine." Dialogue 15, no. 1 (Spring 1982): 14-58.
• Homer, Michael W. Joseph's Temples: The Dynamic Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2014.
• Steinfels, Peter. "Mormons Drop Rites Opposed by Women." The New York Times, May 3, 1990.
• Kemsley, Tamarra, and David Noyce. Reports on temple ceremony changes. The Salt Lake Tribune, February 9, 2023, and August 15, 2024.

Latter-day Saint sources

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. General Handbook, chapters 18 and 27.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Masonry." Church History Topics.
• First Presidency. "First Presidency Statement on Temples." January 2, 2019.
• Doctrine and Covenants 124; 131; 132.
• Harper, Steven C. "Freemasonry and the Latter-day Saint Temple Endowment Ceremony." In A Reason for Faith, ed. Laura Harris Hales, 143-58. Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2016.