A

BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY.

AARON. The etymology and sig-in conjunction with his brother; nification are doubtful; but it is supposed to be of the same meaning as the Hebrew word ARON, mountainous. The first Jewish high-priest, the oldest son of Amram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi, and brother of Moses. He was born about the year 2430; B.C. 1574. His name first occurs on the sacred page in the account of the appearance of God to Moses in the burning bush in Mount Horeb. Moses endeavoured to evade the important commission with which God entrusted him of delivering the enslaved and oppressed Israelites, by stating that he lacked persuasive speech, which appeared to him essential to success in the undertaking. Aaron, who was an eloquent man, was appointed his spokesman; and we find him subsequently associated with Moses in guiding and controlling the Israelites in their journeyings in the wilderness of Arabia. The relation which he sustained to Moses is stated Exod. iv. 16, and vii. 1. During the forty years' absence of Moses from Egypt, Aaron had married Elisheba, the daughter of Aminadab. He had four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. In consequence of instructions which Moses received in the mount, Aaron and his sons, and their descendants, were appointed priests for ever in the tabernacle, and were anointed with the holy oil, and invested with the sacerdotal garments. The two oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, were struck dead for conducting the service of God in an irregular manner, by offering incense with strange or unlawful fire: the priesthood, however, remained with the surviving sons. Aaron was not permitted to ascend Mount Sinai to receive the law

but, with his sons, and seventy of the elders, accompanied him part of the way up, and, as a token of the divine favour, was allowed to see afar off the outskirts of that glory which Moses viewed more closely. Exod. xxiv. 2, 9-11. While Moses was in the mount, the people became impatient, in consequence of the prolonged absence of their leader; and, looking upon Aaron as their head, a circumstance arose which clearly indicated the wisdom of the divine choice of Moses, and the unfitness of Aaron, notwithstanding his seniority and higher eloquence, for the important post. In a tumultuous manner the people addressed themselves to Aaron, and besought him to make them idolgods. He ordered them to break off the golden ear-rings of their wives and children; which, being melted, were made into a calf, or young bullock. Before this image the people danced, and shouted, "These be thy gods, Ó Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Exod. xxxii. 8. This was evidently intended to be an imitation of the worship of the country which the Israelites had just left. The god Apis, or Mnevis, was the principal idol of Egyptian worship; and, according to Herodotus, the mode in which its worship was celebrated was conformable to that practised by the Israelites on this occasion. He says, "Some of the women play on castanets, and the men play on the flute; the rest of the women and men sing and clap their hands together at the same time." See Book ii., 60. "When the manifestation of Apis took place, the Egyptians immediately put on their richest apparel and kept festive holiday: they were used to rejoice

Numb. xx., and God declared they should not enter the land of promise. At Mount Hor he was stripped of his priestly robes in the presence of all the people, his son was invested with his office, and a mourning for him was continued thirty days. He died, B.C. 1452, aged one hundred and twenty-three years. Aaron was, in his office, a remarkable type of Christ. In his being the high-priest; in his entering the holy place on the day of atonement; in his interceding for the people and blessing them; in his being anointed with holy oil; in his bearing the names of the tribes on his breast; and in his being the medium of inquiry of God by Urim and Thummim. The priesthood of Christ is, however, of a higher order. Heb. vi. 20. See CALF, HOR, URIM.

AARONITES. Numb. iv.5; 1 Chron. xii. 27. Priests, descended from Aaron, who served in the sanctuary. Eleazar was their chief.

and keep a feast." Book iii., 27. It is said of the Israelites, "They sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." No apology can be made for the great sin of Aaron on this occasion. His toleration of idol-worship did not imply his approval of it, but indicated his want of decision, and he thus became partaker of the sins of the people. His excuse to his angry brother was the headstrong determination of the people. Moses indignantly rebuked him, and averted from him the anger of the Lord, who would "have destroyed him, but that Moses prayed for him." Moses in coming down from the mount broke the tables of the law in the presence of the people; indicating that, in consequence of their sin, the covenant between them and God had become void. The sin of the people was punished by the slaughter of 3,000 of them. After the tabernacle was built, Aaron again fell into sin by concurring with his sister Miriam in envying the influence and position of their brother Moses, and by taunting him as to his marriage with a foreigner. Miriam was struck with leprosy; but Aaron, on acknowledgment of his fault, and asking forgiveness for himself and his sister, was pardoned. Numb. xii. Aaron himself was the subject of jealousy; but by two miraculous interpositions he was confirmed in his position as high-priest: the first, the destruction of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their company, see Numb. xvi.; the second, the blossoming of his rod. Twelve rods of the almond were taken, one for each tribe, with the name of the tribe AB. The eleventh month of the inscribed upon it; on the rod of the civil year of the Jews, and the fifth tribe of Levi, the name of Aaron was of the ecclesiastical. It commenced written. The rods were laid together with the new moon of our August, in a particular place in the tabernacle, and lasted thirty days. It is a month and the next day the rod which had peculiar in the Jewish calendar, in Aaron's name upon it "was budded, consequence of national calamities. and blossomed blossoms, and yielded On the 1st day, the death of Aaron almonds." The rod was laid up in took place. On the 9th, the destructhe ark, to perpetuate the remem-tion of the first temple by Nebuchadbrance of the miracle, and it after-nezzar, and of the second by Titus, wards retained its remarkable ap- and the ploughing up the foundations pendage of foliage, blossoms, and fruit. Aaron was not permitted to enter Canaan. He and his brother had not honoured God at Meribah,

AB, father. This is the first member of many compound Hebrew words. It is found, as also the word AM, mother, in numerous languages, only in most the consonants precede. It is met with in Turkish and Persic. In Greek we have πάжаç, náññaç; μάμα, μάμμα, μάμμη; and in English, papa, mamma, contracted pa, ma. When it occurs in composition, it is to be regarded in what Hebrew grammarians call the construct state; equivalent to the genitive case in Greek or Latin: this will decide the meaning of many words. ABNER can only mean father of light, not light of the father.

of the temple by Turnus Rufus. On the 18th, the western lamp of the temple went out in the time of Ahaz. The 15th, or 22d, was the feast of

Evλopopía, laying up of wood for the | used by slaves in addressing the burnt-offering.

ABARIM, passages. A chain of ABEL. The word has a twofold mountains in the district east of the meaning, vanity and mourning. Both Dead Sea and the Lower Jordan. are justified by the Scripture narraNebo and Pisgah were elevations in tive. CAIN, a possession, was this chain. Deut. xxxii. 49; xxxiv. 1. called to indicate the joy of his moTravellers have been disposed to iden-ther, and his right to the inheritance tify Mount Attarous, about ten miles north of the Arnon, with Nebo.

his flock." God accepted the offering, command, offered that sacrifice which and gave him assurance of it. Heb. xi. had been enjoined as the religious 4. Cain brought an offering of the expression of his faith; whilst Cain, frait of the ground, and was rejected. disregarding the gracious assurances Cain consequently slew his brother. which had been vouchsafed, or, at The superiority of Abel's sacrifice least, disdaining to adopt the preis ascribed by the apostle Paul to scribed method of manifesting his faith. Faith implies a previous re- belief, possibly as not appearing to velation it cometh by hearing, and his reason to possess any efficacy or hearing by the word of God. It is natural fitness, thought he had suffiprobable that there was some com- ciently acquitted himself of his duty mand of God, in reference to the rite in acknowledging the general superof sacrifice, with which Abel complied, intendence of God, and expressing and which Cain disobeyed. The his gratitude to the supreme Bene"more excellent sacrifice" was the factor, by presenting some of those firstlings of his flock; in the offering good things which he thereby conof which there was a confession that fessed to have been derived from his his own sins deserved death, and the bounty. In short, Cain, the firstexpression of a desire to share in the born of the fall, exhibits the firstbenefits of the great atonement which fruits of his parents' disobedience in in the fulness of time should be pre- the arrogance and self-sufficiency of sented to God for the sins of man. reason rejecting the aids of revelation, By his faith he was accepted as because they fell not within his "righteous," that is, was justified. apprehension of right. He takes the God testified, probably by some visible first place in the annals of Deism, sign, the sending of fire from heaven and displays, in his proud rejection to consume the victim, (a token that of the ordinance of sacrifice, the same justice had seized upon the sacrifice spirit which, in later days, has acinstead of the sinner,)-that the gift tuated his enlightened followers in was accepted. Cain had no faith: rejecting the sacrifice of Christ." his offering was not indicative of this There are several references to Abel principle. If we render the clause in the New Testament. Our Saviour in God's expostulation with him- designates him "righteous." Matt. "sin lieth at the door"-by the xxiii. 35. He ranks among the illus-' words, "a sin-offering lieth or crouch-trious elders mentioned in Heb. xi. eth at the door," that is, a sin-offering is easily procured, then the sin of Cain is clearly pointed out; for though he was not a keeper of sheep, yet a victim whose blood could be shed as a typical propitiation could without difficulty have been procured and presented. The truths clearly taught in this important event are, confession of sin; acknowledgment that the penalty of sin is death; submission to an appointed mode of expiation; the vicarious offering of animal sacrifice, typical of the better sacrifice of the Seed of the woman; the efficacy of faith in Christ's sacrifice to obtain pardon, and to admit the guilty into divine favour. See Wesley's Notes on Heb. xi. 4. The difference between the two offerings is clearly and well put by Dr. Magee: "Abel, in firm reliance on the promise of God, and in obedience to his

His blood is spoken of Heb. xii. 24. The blood of sprinkling speaks for the remission of sins; the blood of Abel for vengeance: the blood of sprinkling speaks of mercy; the blood of Abel of the malice of the human heart.

ABEL. This word signifies mourning, and hence, to be wet with the moisture of grass; also fresh grass. It is the name of several villages in Palestine, with additions for the sake of distinction. They were probably all situated in verdant neighbourhoods.

ABEL-BETH-MAACHAH,

Abel

near the house of Maachah. A town in the north of Palestine, lying southeast of Cæsarea Philippi. It was to this place that Sheba fled when he rebelled against David. 2 Sam. xx. 14, 15; 1 Kings xv. 20. For fear of a siege, the citizens cut off Sheba's