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Aaron (ןֹרֲהַא;, a word meaning "bearer of martyrs" in Hebrew (perhaps also, or instead, related to the Egyptian "Aha Rw," "Warrior Lion"), Standard Hebrew Aharon, Tiberian Hebrew ʾAhărōn), was a Levite and the elder brother of Moses and the eldest son of Amram and Jochebed (Exodus 6:16 ff.; Numbers 33:39). He is considered the traditional founder, ancestor and head of the Jewish priesthood and with Moses, led the Israelites out of Egypt. The greater part of his life-history is preserved in Biblical narratives.
The Biblical representation of his character, negative and shadowy compared with Moses's, may be viewed in several ways. A clue to the seemingly contradictory delineations of Aaron is found in the framework of documentary analysis (see also Hexateuch), which is accepted by some but not all scholars. According to those who accept the Documentary hypothesis, the following portions of text belong to (1) E, (2) J, (3) D, and (4) P sources, respectively, with the fifth item being from Ezekiel.
In Exodus 25-30 and 35-40, and in Leviticus and Numbers, Aaron's name occurs frequently, but evidently as a convenient priestly symbol demonstrating the priestly function to the people (cf. the usage in Ezekiel). What was done to and for Aaron was what whould be done with any high priest. The ceremonial enduement prescribed in Exodus 28, 29 and Leviticus 8 is a manual for the sanctuary ritual. The prominence of Aaron's name in Exodus and Numbers reveals and emphasizes the necessity felt for prescriptive rights for the priesthood.
Although Aaron was said to have been sent by the Lord to meet Moses at the "mount of God" (Horeb, Exodus 4:27), he plays only a secondary part in the incidents at Pharaoh's court. After the "exodus" (from Greek, going out) from Egypt a striking account is given of the vision of the God of Israel vouchsafed to him and to his sons Nadab and Abihu on the same holy mount (Exodus 24:1; 9-11), and together with HUR he was at the side of Moses when the latter, by means of his wonder-working rod, enabled Joshua to defeat the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-16). Hur held up the right hand of Moses while Aaron lifted up his brother's left hand. With their help, Moses was able to hold the rod up high in supplication to God.
Hur and Aaron were left in charge of the Israelites when Moses and Joshua ascended the mount to receive the Tables of the Law (Exodus 24: 12-15), and when the people, in dismay at the prolonged absence of their leader, demanded a god, and persuaded Aaron to fashion the golden calf. This was regarded as an act of Apostasy which, according to one tradition, led to the consecration of the Levites, and almost cost Aaron his life (Deuteronomy 9:20). Hur was, according to legend and tradition, murdered by the mob when he refused to go along with the people's idolatrous demands. Aaron, wishing to avoid such a fate for himself, acceded to their demands and built the calf. The incident paves the way for the account of the preparation of the new tables of stone which contain a series of laws quite distinct from the first Ten Commandments (Exodus 33 and following).
Aaron was given the priesthood when Moses, who was supposed to receive the priesthood along with the leadership of the Jewish people, argued with God that he should not be the leader. It was then given to Aaron. Aaron received the priesthood along with his children and any descendents that would be born subsequently. However, his grandson Pinchas (Phineas) had already been born, and did not receive the priesthood until he killed the prince of the Tribe of Simeon and the princess of the Midianites (Numbers 31:11–12).
It was for striking a rock in anger at Kadesh that both Aaron and Moses were prohibited from entering the Promised land (Numbers 20). In what way they had not sanctified (an allusion in the Hebrew to the word kodesh "holy") is unclear. Aaron is said to have died at Moserah (Deuteronomy 10:6), or at Mount Hor; the latter is an unidentified site on the border of Edom (Numbers 20:23, 33:37; for Moserah see Numbers 30-31), and consequently not in the neighbourhood of Petra, which has been the traditional scene from the time of Josephus (Antiquities iv.4.7).
Aaron's son Eleazar was buried in an Ephraimite locality known after Aaron's grandson as the hill of Phinehas (Joshua 24:33). Little historical information has been preserved of either. The name Phinehas (apparently of Egyptian origin, Pi Nehas, "the Nubian") is better known as that of a son of Eli, a member of the priesthood of Shiloh, and Eleazar is only another form of Eliezer the son of Moses, to whose kin Eli is said to have belonged. The close relation between Aaronite and Levitical names and those of clans related to Moses is very noteworthy, and it is a curious coincidence that the name of Aaron's sister Miriam appears in a genealogy of Caleb (1 Chronicles 4:1) with Jether and Heber.
Recently, the tradition that Kohanim are actually descended from Aaron was supported by Genetic testing (Skorecki et al., 1997). Since all direct male lineage shares a common Y chromosome, testing was done across sectors of the Jewish population to see if there was any commonality between their Y chromosomes. There was proven to be certain distinctions among the "Kohen" Y chromosomes, implying that the Kohanim do share some common ancestry. This information was used to support the claim of the Lemba (a sub-Saharan tribe) that they were in fact, a tribe of Jews.
In the Qur'an he is known as Harun.