AARON, high-priest of the Jews, and brother to Moses, was by the father's side great grandson, and by the mother's grandson, of Levi. By God's command he met Moses at the foot of mount Horeb, and they went together into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel: he had a great share in all that Moses did for their deliverance; the scriptures call him the prophet of Moses, and he acted in that capacity after the Israelites had passed over the Red Sea. He ascended mount Sinai with two of his sons, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of the people; but neither he nor they went higher than half way, from whence they saw the glory of God; only Moses and Joshua went to the top, where they staid forty days. During their absence, Aaron, overcome by the people's eager intreaties, set up the golden calf, which the Israelites worshipped by his consent. This calf has given rise to various conjectures. Some rabbies maintain that he did not make the golden calf; but only threw the gold into the fire, to get rid of the importunities of the people; and that certain magicians, who mingled with the Israelites at their departure from Egypt, cast this gold into the figure of a calf. According to some authors, the fear of failing a sacrifice to the resentment of the people by giving a refusal, made Aaron comply with their desire; and they allege also, that he hoped to elude their request, by demanding of the women to contribute their ear-rings, imagining they would rather choose to remain without a visible deity, than be deprived of their personal ornaments. This affair of the golden calf happened in the third month after the Israelites came out of Egypt. In the first month of the
following year, Aaron was appointed by God high-priest; which office he executed during the time that the children of Israel continued in the wilderness. He died in the fortieth year after their departure from Egypt, upon mount Hor, being then 123 years old; A. M. 2522, of the Julian period 3262, before the Christian æra 1452. With regard to the attempts of the Egyptian magicians to imitate the miracles performed by his rod, see some remarks under the article MAGICIAN.
AARON and JULIUS (Saints), suffered martyrdom together, during the persecution under the emperor Diocletian, in the year 303, about the same time with Saint Alban the protomartyr of Britain. We are nowhere told what their British names were, it being usual with the Christian Britons, at the time of baptism, to take new names from the Greek, Latin, or Hebrew. Nor have we any certainty as to the particulars of their death; only that they suffered the most cruel torments. They had each a church erected to his memory; and their festival is placed, in the Roman martyrology, on the first of July.