Mary, Sister of Aaron: Difference between revisions

Modern scholars note that the author of Surat-Maryam had an in depth knowledge of the Christian tradition, and that in fact the author might have themselves been a Christian clergyman of some sort, whose work was taken up and used by the incipient believers movement or who joined the movement himself. As the author was likely themselves steeped in the Christian tradition, it seems unlikely that they would have made a mistake about of Mary, the mother of Jesus, conflating her with Mary, the sister of Aaron and Moses. Rather, what is being invoked here is likely both Mary's descent from the scions of the Jewish people, Moses and Aaron, as well a priestly tradition in the Church of Kathisima in Jerusalem, linking the Dormition (apparent death, followed by the resurrection and assumption of Mary alive into heaven) with the priesthood of Aaron. As such a Georgian Christian homiletic text exists which seems to explicitly calls Mary the sister of Aaron. The reference to this Georgian text from Jerusalem in the Qur'an is remarkable; it suggests that whoever the author is of the rest of the Qur'an and even surat-Maryam, the author of this passage must have been a Christian from the area around Jerusalem, one intimately familiar with the Christian tradition around the church of Kathisima and the liturgical traditions the church possessed around the virgin Mary.

==See Also==