Aaron

Oversimplified

  • The older brother of Moses and his spokesman before Pharaoh, and the first high priest of Israel — the head of the priestly line that served at the Tabernacle.
  • The Church reads his priesthood as a foreshadowing of the one true High Priest, Christ.
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His Story

Aaron was a Levite, the older brother of Moses and Miriam. When Moses pleaded that he was slow of speech, God appointed Aaron to be his mouth before Pharaoh — "he shall be your spokesman to the people" (Exodus 4.14-16; Exodus 7.1-2).

After the Exodus he was set apart with his sons for the priesthood, robed in the sacred vestments and consecrated to offer the sacrifices of Israel (Exodus 28; Leviticus 8).

His record is not spotless: while Moses was on Sinai, the people pressed Aaron to make the golden calf, and he gave way (Exodus 32). Yet God confirmed his house when Aaron's rod alone budded and bore almonds among the twelve tribal staves, a sign settling the priesthood on his line (Numbers 17).

He died on Mount Hor, his priestly garments passed to his son Eleazar (Numbers 20.22-29).

The First High Priest

Aaron stands at the head of the old covenant's priesthood, and the Fathers read that priesthood as a shadow of Christ's. The Epistle to the Hebrews insists that the honor of the priesthood is never seized but given — "no one takes this honor to himself, but he receives it when he is called by God, just as Aaron was" (Hebrews 5.4) — and then shows that Christ is a priest not of Aaron's line but "after the order of Melchizedek," a priesthood that does not pass with death and so fulfills and surpasses Aaron's (Hebrews 7).[^1] Orthodox hymnography sees another figure in the miracle of the staff: Aaron's dry rod, blossoming with life, prefigures the Theotokos, who bore Christ without seed.[^2]

Sources

[^1]: The Pentateuch narrative of Aaron — spokesman (Exodus 4.14-16), consecration as high priest (Exodus 28; Leviticus 8), the golden calf (Exodus 32), the budding rod (Numbers 17), and his death (Numbers 20.22-29); with Hebrews 5.4 and Hebrews 7 on the priesthood fulfilled in Christ. [^2]: Orthodox liturgical typology reads Aaron's budding rod (Numbers 17.8) as a type of the Virgin and of the life-bearing Cross.