What were the masonic myths relating to Noah

Manuscript Constitutions of the Old Charges trace the transmission of building skills and geometry through the Deluge by means of two pillars erected to survive fire or flood, which were subsequently recovered in the post-deluge world 1. In early modern Masonic tradition, James Anderson's 1738 Constitutions designated Masons as "Noachidae" or sons of Noah, representing them as preservers of a primary natural religion and moral code embodied in the traditional seven precepts of Noah 1.

An early variant of the raising narrative appears in the Graham Manuscript, where Noah's sons attempt to raise his body to regain a lost secret, as a paper read before Quatuor Coronati Lodge notes. Legendary accounts compiled by Albert Mackey describe Noah searching for Enoch's subterranean vault, retrieving the Stone of Foundation to serve as an altar inside the Ark, and later using it for a sacrifice of thanksgiving upon landing 1.

The account of the dove and raven released from the Ark provided symbolic imagery of peace and renewal, which was incorporated into various Masonic emblems 1. Further traditions centered on the Tower of Babel built by Noah's descendants; Arthur Edward Waite observes that early eighteenth-century writers allegorized the resulting confusion of tongues as the origin of Masons conversing without speech 21.

The Graham Manuscript is an early Masonic text dated 1726 that features a traditional narrative involving Noah and his three sons as an alternative or precursor allegory to the Hiram Abiff legend, alongside early Masonic catechisms and expressions, as an article on the Quatuor Coronati Lodge website notes. Transcripts, scholarly analyses, and facsimiles of the text are published in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, as a paper read before Quatuor Coronati Lodge records.