Diogenes the Cynic

Syncretizing separate tribal traditions probably. "Aaron" probably had some legendary tribal origin associated with the pre-Judaic mountain cults from which at least part of the braided stories in Exodus are derived. Calling him Moses' "brother" was probably just an ad hoc piece of chewing gum used to stick two narratives together.

outhouse

i was along the lines of giving credibility of his lineage and importance to his legend as the first high priest.

stephan huller

That's the standard explanation. But the question nevertheless is why is it done so badly? Why not introduce Aaron at the very beginning?

Diogenes the Cynic

I don't really know, but they were trying to connect local tribal sagas with a figure connected to Egyptian royalty (likely some garbled, Chinese whispers version of Ahmose 1). They were creating a chimera - grafting together two animals which originally had nothing to do with each other. Why they didn't do it more deftly, I don't know. Just lack of skill, maybe. Or lack of need. They didn't really have to fear being examined or challenged.

stephan huller

For what it's worth I think that Mark (= Marqe) thought they were mystically married together. They were made into brothers. I also think zimmut might be the original Aramaic term behind ekklesia. But I've never seen anything written about this.

Vorkosigan

perhaps he was. is there any evidence that Aaron's origin was dropped from the story? Stuff falls out of ancient texts all the time....

Sheshbazzar

Hmmm..... One can speculate. Perhaps Aaron was originally the more prominent cult hero of the two, but his tale needed to be trimmed down to size in order to make Moses bigger.
Like in the NT, where Peter starts out as the new faiths foremost leader, and then is trimmed down into virtual insignificance by the emergent Paulinistitc cult.

Religion is a weird creature that has little to do with any real facts, and everything to do with the politics of popularity and social manipulation, and the ever evolving historical revisionism and story-telling abilities of its victors and cult supporters.

stephan huller

But remember Moses and Aaron never met because Moses was sent down the river at the very beginning. It wouldn't make sense for Moses to have a real brother. How would Moses have even known who his mother and father were. He thought he was Egyptian until he saw an Egyptian oppressing a Hebrew. Hence Freud speculated that he was really an Egyptian.

stephan huller

Hot off the presses here is the short poem of Aaron b. Maner[13Th century] based on Marqe (just quoted above) which is sang only in the Shabbath of Zimmut of Pessach (translated by my friend Benny Tsedaka this morning):

Listen to my words,
Beautiful and heavy words,
Coming from full heart,
And the Almighty supports it,
My words will inform you,
what is quickly done,
Between the Man that testify,
The Great Prophet,
When Aaron went out to meet him,
With happiness and greatness,
He raised his eyes from far,
Saw an honored light,
Hid the light of the sun,
Like a flame of fire,
He said: Is it an Angel?
Or Prophet? or a king? or a obedience?
And he was wondering in his heart,
Could not stand still.
And the Angel of God said to him
With an honorable way,
Aaron, He is you brother Moses,
That promoted and honored,
Go forward and greet him,
And kiss his hand.
Aaron went towards Moses
And bowed down before him,
Saying to him, Hello my brother Moses,
The honorable man,
Hello the messenger of the Almighty
The Slave of the Almighty,
Hello the Man of the Almighty,
That his hand was raised,
I never expected to see your face,
And be hold the Almighty let us meet,
Today is between you and me,
In happiness and kindness,
Today the Will
Established in it,
The meeting of Aaron and his brother,
The meeting of kind with kind
The meeting of the moon and sun,
Meeting of teacher with teacher.
There Aaron prayed,
And honored and praised,
And said: The World Creator,
Should be bowed to the Almighty.
And the Angels Commented and said:
The Almighty is King and the world witness.

The implications are clearly to me at least that Moses didn't know he had a brother before this - neither do we. The text does mention Moses's sister (Ex 2.7) but nothing about a brother.

Dicky Diamond

Is now a bad time to bring up the fact that Moses isn't a real figure in history and that Jewish people were never in Egypt?

The Egyptians were fantastic record keepers and they have none of slavery. In fact the Egyptian societal structure was ahead of it's time allowing workers days off and pay periods. There are no records of bringing any slaves let alone in any part of Ancient Egypt. There is also no other evidence either that Jewish people ever set foot in Egypt.

You have to exist first before you can have siblings.