But Aaron and his sons offered on the altar of burnt offering and on the altar of incense, for all the work of the most holy place, and to make atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.This again appears to be summarizing history. I speculated in a previous chapter that this book was written at least after the Babylonian captivity, and perhaps after the return. We also know from earlier in this chapter that the genealogies here were not exhaustive, because there's a jump from Levi's son straight to Moses and Aaron, some 400 years later.
From this verse, it appears that those reading this may not know their own people's history. Any Israelite should know that Aaron was the high priest, and what those duties were. So why mention it again here? Either the writer was trying to make clear whose genealogy was about to be given, or else he was explaining/reminding the reader that this is what that lineage did. Either way, it suggests the readers might not be familiar with Israelite history or customs.
No comments:
Post a Comment