GRAND LODGE OF 
As far as Solomon is still an Old Testament hero and is therefore revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims, St. John, who is associated solely with the Christian tradition, has a more special significance for Freemasons.
It is known that the first three degrees of regular Freemasonry are called Blue or Symbolic Freemasonry, and the Ateliers of the first three degrees are called Blue Lodges or St. John's Lodges. In the one issued in 1730 in the London book of Samuel Prishar, Masonry dissected (a critical study of Freemasonry), the following questions and answers are given which are exchanged when a Mason seeks admission into a foreign lodge:
Q. Where do you come from?
A. From the holy lodge of St. John.
Q. What recommendations do you bring from there?
A. The recommendations I bring from the True and Worshipful Brethren and Companions of the True and Holy Lodge of St. John, whence I come, and I salute you three times with all my heart.
The question is who is Saint John and why did he give his name to the lodges.
The Church knows several prominent Christian figures who were canonized under the name of Saint John.
The first in time, and perhaps also in importance, is John the Baptist, also called John the Forerunner. According to the official church interpretation, he is the son of Zachary and Elizabeth and was born when his parents were quite old. Also, he is Jesus' cousin and is slightly older than him. John is a fiery and ascetic preacher who appears after a desert retreat and calls the people of Israel to repent of their sins. The baptism he administers in the waters of the Jordan River is the outward form of repentance. Jesus was also baptized by John, through the ritual immersion in water, at which point the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended from the heavens and landed on his shoulder. By this sign, John, who always claimed to be only the forerunner of the prophesied messiah, recognized Jesus as the son of God. Today, the church celebrates this event on the feast of the Epiphany (Yordanovden - 07.01.). Soon after Jesus' baptism, John was arrested by order of the ruler at the time, Herod Antipas, for publicly denouncing his remarriage to Herodias, the ex-wife of his brother Herod Philip. According to a well-known and repeatedly interpreted legend, Herod's stepdaughter Salome danced for Herod on her birthday so beautifully that he promised her any gift he chose. Salome, taught by her mother, asked for John's head and received it on a platter.
John the Theologian is cited as the author of the fourth gospel and the Revelation (apocalypse), the last book of the New Testament. Almost nothing is known about him. He is believed to be Jesus' favorite disciple, who is traditionally depicted next to him at the Last Supper.
Also known is John of Jerusalem or John the Almsman or Shelterer, son of the king of Cyprus, who during the Crusades left his homeland, went to Jerusalem and founded an order dedicated to helping pilgrims and knights, created a shelter for the sick and distressed, donates money to restore destroyed temples. He was canonized by the Catholic Church under the name Saint John the Merciful.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church also has its Saint Ivan of Rila, the hermit who founded the Rila Monastery.
Bulgarian Freemasons have declared St. Ivan of Rila as their patron, but of course he is not the St. John revered by all Freemasons around the world.
According to Manuel du Franc-Macon (Textbook of the Freemason) from 1812. to brother E.F. Bezos, it must be admitted that the true patron of the Freemasons is St. John the Alms, who by his virtues is worthy to be the patron of a society whose only object is charity. Not without reason, this view was criticized by Paul Nodon in 1957. in his book "Les Loges de Saint Jean e 1a philosophie esoterique de la connaissance" (The Lodges of Saint John and the Esoteric Philosophy of Knowledge), according to whom Bezos, in assuming that the sole purpose of the fraternity was charity, apparently forgot that Freemasonry was before all a technique for spiritual realization. Most likely Brother Bezo's argument was influenced by a speech by Chevalier Ramsey, the founder of the old and accepted Scottish Rite, in which he said: "...our Order (Freemasonry) is closely connected with the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Since then our lodges bear the name of Saint John.” Here, however, Ramsay is referring to the higher degrees of Scottishness, not the blue lodges. The prevailing opinion is that blue Freemasonry is primarily associated with John the Baptist and John the Theologian. The first connection we find is in the symbolic meaning of the color blue. In his study "Histoire et theorie du symbolisme avant et aprës 1e christianisme" (History and theory of symbolism before and after Christianity) Abbot Ober in 1870. in Paris clarifies that the symbolism knows three blue colors: "one is derived from red, the other from white, and the third is in unison with white", which corresponds to the blue, red, black and white Freemasonry. The three varieties of blue are associated with all three degrees of threefold Christian baptism, for “….St. John baptizes in the water (which is blue) to cause repentance; it is a preparation for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, which Jesus Christ will give. Therefore, the blue lodges represent the first steps in humility and abandonment of the profane world to the later renewal through fire (Ignis - Lamb). To the symbolism of the colors is naturally added the symbolism of St. John.
In the Revelation, John receives from the angel a reed like a staff, with the command to measure the temple, without the outer court, which the Lord left to the Gentiles, who in the outer darkness must languish for three and a half years. Similarly, in the Esoteric Temple, the Lodge of St. John, laymen were admitted only after three years' apprenticeship in being admitted journeymen, the only rank in old Freemasonry.
Saint John's number is seven. John the Baptist is depicted in the Church of St. John Lateran in Rome, surrounded by seven stags, a symbol of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit received at baptism. The revelation of St. John the Theologian is addressed to the seven churches that are in Asia and is from Jesus and from the seven spirits that are before his throne. In order for a new lodge to be consecrated, it is necessary that it has been requested by at least nine brothers, of whom seven are masters. No lodge is closed if seven masters oppose.
The feasts of the two Saints coincide (or at least in ancient times they coincided) with the days of the winter and summer solstice. January 7, Midsummer, is the feast of Saint John the Baptist, while June 24 Midsummer (summer Saint John) is the feast of Saint John the Theologian. The two solstices - the highest and the lowest sun, the longest and the shortest day - harmonize with the basic Masonic symbolism of opposing magnitudes - the sun and the moon, the black and white squares of the carpet, east and west, noon and midnight, darkness and light, profaneness, and initiation.
In ancient Hebrew, the name John was pronounced Johanan, which means both benevolence and mercy, praise, forgiveness and mercy (the latter meaning is in the sense of mercy and here a connection is found with St. John the Almsgiving, as well as with the Order of the Knights of the Trinity or of Mercy , he set himself the goal of redeeming Christians who had fallen into the hands of infidels. The 26th degree of the highest Scottish ranks is dedicated to this order - Prince of Mercy). Johanan means both "mercy from God" and "praise to God", the first being associated with John the Baptist, and the second with John the Theologian. On this occasion, it is noted that mercy is descending, while praise is ascending, just as the sun completes its descending path on the feast of St. John the Forerunner, giving charity through baptism, and completes its ascending path on Midsummer Day on the feast of St. John the Theologian, praising God .
This duality of Saint John makes him directly associated with the Roman Janus, the two-faced deity. The feasts of Janus were celebrated on the two solstices, and became subsequently the feasts of the two Saints John. Janus is the patron of craftsmen - builders in ancient Rome. The builders' feasts of the Middle Ages are on June 24 and December 27 - the then days of the solstice. Janus is a locksmith and has among his attributes a key, symbolizing the tool with which to open the doors, the partitions, to go to a more perfect, deeper knowledge of esotericism. Ovid tells us that no one can go to heaven unless Janus opens the door. Therefore, Janus is also the god of initiation. The extent to which St. John is identified with the two-faced Janus is evident from a stained glass window in the church of St. Remy in Reims, where a synthetic St. John is depicted, uniting the Baptist and the Theologian. The fusion between the two is emphasized by the two sunflowers depicted above the figure's head, facing in opposite directions and symbolizing the summer and winter solstices.
In their book The Key of Hiram, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, both regular Freemasons, offer a different interpretation of the symbolic meaning of John the Baptist. In stating that both John and Jesus were members of the sect of the Essenes, they claim that both were leaders and were accepted as messiahs. John was the spiritual leader, while Jesus was the worldly one. The two were perceived as the spiritual pillars of the Qumran community. An association is made with Solomon's temple, which had the same meaning for the Essenes as it has today for the Freemasons. John represents the right pillar "Jachin", personifying holiness, justice, righteousness or, generally speaking, the divinely established order, while Jesus is associated with the left pillar "Boaz" - governance, justice, statehood, since Boaz is the great-grandfather of David, king of Israel, and as we know from the evangelist Matthew, Jesus is of David's lineage. According to Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince in their book The Insight of the Templars, Knight and Lomas are wrong and John and Jesus were not only not companions, but on the contrary, they were rivals.
According to them, John was the leader of a religious sect in which Jesus was also a disciple. Subsequently, Jesus abandoned the path of his teacher and began to fight for the political liberation of the Jews. Thanks mainly to St. Paul, the founder of the Christian Church, much of John's teaching was passed down as a message to Jesus, and John's role was purposefully downplayed to the forerunner of Jesus, while the historical truth was the opposite. It is said that even today in southern Iraq, the Mandaeans - the living today Johnites - the followers of the church of John, have survived. The name Mandaean literally means Gnostics, and their religion certainly contained Gnostic ideas. Gnostics are known to have adopted a dualistic explanation of the world, as opposed to light and dark, good and evil. These ideas are also the basis of Freemasonry.
There is a definite connection between Saint John and the Knights Templar order. One of the accusations leveled at the order when they were disbanded was that they worshiped a demon called "Baphomet", which represented a severed head - perhaps the head of the Baptist. After the banning of the order, all his property was handed over to the order of the Knights Hospitallers, who were also called the Knights of St. John. This is already a separate topic.