1. In regard to vocation, both were appointed by God (He S'*) ; yet to the priesthood of Christ no Aaronic (7"), or Levitical (7"), or legal (9^) measure may be put. He was a man like Aaron (2^^'-)> capable of sympathy both by nature and from experience (4^'') ; yet His priesthood is distinctly of a higher and eternal order (5*), limited neither to an earthly sanctuary (9^), nor to the necessity of repeating the one great sacrifice (9^*), nor in efiiciency to the treatment of offences that were chiefly ceremonial or ritual (9^* ").
2. In the consecration of the high priest the supreme act was anointing with oil (Lv 8^^), from which, indeed, the designation Messiah ('anointed one') arose. Yet such was the lofty position of Jesus, and such was His consciousness, that He could say, ' I consecrate myself ' ( Jn 17^^), on the very eve of His priestly sacrifice.
3. In function Aaron stood between God and the congregation, representing each to the other. On the one hand, not only were the priests gathered together into an embodied unity in him, but in his annual approach to God he brought a sacrifice even for the 'ignorances' of the people
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(He 9'), and purified the sanctuary itself from any possible defilements contracted through the sina of its frequenters (9^^*^- ; cf. Lv 16^^). As the repre- sentative of God, he wore the sacred Urim and Thummim in the pouch of judgment upon his heart (Ex 28^**), indicating his qualification to com- municate God's decision on matters that tran- scended human wit ; and through him and his order the blessing of God was invoked. In the Chris- tian thought of the apostolic age all these functions pass over to Jesus Christ, with modifications em- phasizing their ethical efiect and the intrinsically spiritual benefit that follows. One of the most general statements is He 2", wliere the phrase ' things pertaining to God ' covers both sides of the relations between God and man, though promin- ence is given, as in the passages that speak of Christ as our Advocate with God, to the work done by Him as representing men. Much the same is the case with the great passage on medi- atorship (1 Ti 2^). As He is the Saviour, so He is the High Priest, of all men, ' specially of them that believe' (1 Ti 4'"). In virtue of His imma- nence as God, as well as of His priestly rank and sympathy. He fitly represents all men before God, while for those who have put themselves into a right attitude towards Him He acts as Paraciete (1 Jn 2^), promoting their interests and completing their deliverance from sin. On the other hand, as representative of God, He bestows gifts upon men (Eph 4^), communicating to them the will of God and enriching them with every spiritual bless- ing. He is not only the Eevealer of the Father ; but, just as He offers His sacrifice to God in the stead of man, so He represents to man what God is in relation to human sin, and what God has devised and does with a view to human redemption. Between God and man He stands continuously, the medium of access on either side, the channel of Divine grace and of human prayer and praise. See, further, art. Melchizedek.
Literature. — See art. ' Aaron ' in EDB, DCG and JE, and Comm. on Hebrews, esp. those of A. B. Davidson and B. F. Westcott, A. S. Peake {Century Bible), E. C. Wickham (Westminster Com.) ; also Phillips Brooks, Sermons in English Churches, 1883, p. 43 ; J. Wesley, Works, vii. [London, 1872] 273. R. W. Moss.
AARON'S ROD. — Aaron's rod is mentioned only in He 9*, which locates the rod in the ark. An earlier tradition (Nu 17^** ; cf. 1 K 8^) preserves it
ABADDON
AEBA
' before ' the ark, on the spot on which it had budded (see HDB i. S*"). In either case the object ■was to secure a standing witness to the validity of the claims of the Aaronic priesthood (so Clement, 1 Cor. § 43). The rod has sometimes been identi- fied as a branch of the almond tree ; and both Jewish and Christian fancy has been busy with it. For early legends associating it symbolically with the cross, or literally with the transverse beam of the cross, see W. W. Seymour, The Cross in Tradi- tion, History, Art, 1898, p. 83. R. W, Moss.
ABADDON.— The word is found in the NT only in Rev 9^^. In the OT text 'dbhaddun occurs six times (onlj' in the Wisdom literature), AV in each case rendering 'destruction,' while RV gives ' De- struction' in Job 28" 3V-, Ps 8S'i, but 'Abaddon' in Job 26®, Pr 15^^ 27-", on the ground, as stated by the Revisers in their Preface, that ' a proper name appears to be required for giving vividness and point.' Etymologically the word is an abstract term meaning ' destruction,' and it is employed in this sense in Job 31'-. Its use, however, in paral- lelism with Sheol in Job 26", Pr 15" 27-» and with ' the grave ' in Ps 88" shows that even in the OT it had passed beyond this general meaning and had become a specialized term for the abode of the dead. In Job 28--, again, it is' personified side by side with Death, just as Hades is personified in Rev 6^. So far as the OT is concerned, and not- withstanding the evident suggestions of its deriva- tion (from Heb. 'dbhadh, 'to perish'), the connota-_ tion of the word does not appear to advance be- yond that of the parallel word Sheol in its older meaning of the general dwelling-place of all the dead. In later Heb. literature, however, when Sheol had come to be recognized as a sphere of moral distinctions and consequent retribution, Abaddon is represented as one of the lower divi- sions of Sheol and as being the abode of the wicked and a place of punishment. At first it was distin- guished from Gehenna, as a place of loss and de- privation rather than of the positive suffering assigned to the latter. But in the Rabbinic teach- ing of a later time it becomes the very house of perdition (Targ. on Job 26''), the lowest part of Gehenna, the deepest deep of hell (Emek Ham- melcch, 15.3).