Aaron in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Whitewash or Criticism

This essay considers the way in which the collection known popularly as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in the areas around Qumran in modern day Israel, depicts the biblical figure of Aaron. Aaron was Moses’ elder brother and the first high priest, yet in the Hebrew bible there are remarkably few instances of his own words. And because of the stigma attached to him in connection with “The Great Sin” which resulted from Aaron’s central involvement in creating the golden calf found in Exodus chapter 32, it is not easy to objectively evaluate him. As in the Hebrew scriptures, personal accounts of Aaron are remarkably few in the Dead Sea Scrolls, even though much more is written about him in his
official capacity as high priest. The distinguishing evaluative mark of this biblical figure must be in the way he is treated by the authors, specifically determining whether their intent was to exalt and preserve Aaron’s relative stature by exalting the deeds of his descendants or
whether their intent was to strictly censure him.