My opinion that Mary was from the tribe of Levi, and a descendant of Aaron was shared by one great church father, who not only believed Mary was fro the tribe of Levi, but had a an ancient Gospel which said precisely that. This church father is the renowned Faustus of Britain. He was known for his piety, humility and knowledge.
I have arrived at my conclusions about Mary solely by reflecting on her story as told in the Quran. I was, therefore amazed when I read an ancient Gospel, one which was apparently accepted as truthful by some of the great church fathers, lending support to my ideas.
These gospels give great credence to the accuracy of the story of Mary as told in the Koran.
I quote from of the introduction to: The Gospel of the Birth of Mary {The Lost Books of The Bible, Testament Books}, originally published in 1890, reprinted in 1926, and again in 1979:
“In te primitive ages there was a Gospel extant bearing this name, attributed to St. Mathew, and received as genuine and authentic by several of the ancient Christian sects. It is to be found in the works of Jerome, a father of the church who flourished in the fourth century, from whence this translation is made. His contemporaries Epiphanies, bishop of Salamis, and Austin also mention a Gospel under this name.
The ancient copies differed from Jerome’s; for from one of them, the learned Faustus, a native of Britain, who became Bishop of Riez, in Provence, endeavored to prove that Christ was not the Son of God till after his baptism; and that he was not of the House of David and tribe of Judah, because according to the Gospel he cited, the Virgin her self was not of this tribe but of the tribe of Levi; her father being a priest of the name of Joachim.“
Furthermore, from the Gospel attributed to James known as “The PROTEVANGELION” I quote:
8.1: And her parents went away filled with wonder, and praising God, because the girl did not return back to them. 2 But Mary continued in the temple as a dove educated there, and received her food from the hand of an angel.
Also from the same Gospel, chapter 10, when Mary was pregnant, Joseph is quoted saying:
For I received her, a Virgin from the temple of the Lord my God, and have not preserved her such! Who has thus deceived me? 4 Who has committed this evil in my house and, seducing the Virgin from me, has defiled her? 5 Is not the history of Adam exactly accomplished in me? 6 For in the very instant of his glory, the serpent came and found Eve alone, and seduced her. 7 Just after the same manner it has happened to me.” 8 Then Joseph, arising from the ground, called her and said, “O you who have been so much favored by God, why have you done this? 9 Why have you thus debased your soul, who were educated in the Holy of Holies, and received your food from the hand of angels?
These writing absolutely confirm the story as told in Koran, and demonstrate that Mary grew up in the Temple, had access to the Holy of Holies and was fed by angles- exactly as told in the Koran:
[Quran 3:37] And her Lord accepted her with full acceptance and vouchsafed to her a goodly growth; and made Zachariah her guardian.
Whenever Zachariah went into the sanctuary where she was, he found that she had food. He said: O Mary! Whence cometh unto thee this (food)? She answered: It is from Allah. Allah gives without stint to whom He will.
One additional argument, I would like to put forward here:
Anna, Mary’s mother was a cousin to Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias. Anna was a Levite (Luke), therefore: At least one of Anna’s parents was from the tribe of Levi.
Jesus himself is said to be “from David by the flesh”, and since he had no human father, this could only be a reference to his ancestry through his mother. If we accept ancestry through mothers, then surely we can say that Anna and Mary were also from Levi, because we are certain that at least one of Anna’s parents was from the tribe of Levi.
If we do not accept ancestry through mothers, then it is impossible to say that Jesus was from David by the flesh. This, of course, will cause great difficulties with other doctrinal and faith issues such as the very important question “Was Jesus message intended for the Gentiles? “. I will try to answer this question in a future post.
This whole discussion is an attempt to fend of the charge that the mention of Mary, sister of Aaron in the Koran is erroneous. I set out to prove that there are a strong grounds for Mary to be addressed as “sister of Aaron”.
To summarize, here are my points:
1. It is quite possible that Mary was a descendant of Aaron and from the Tribe of Levi, There is evidence of some older Gospels attesting to this; and at least one prominent church father believed so.
2. Mary grew up in the Temple, and was considered to be a holy person; something closely linked to- if not exclusive to the descendants of Aaron- as was later discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls
3. Many parts of her story as mentioned in the Koran, and omitted by the canonical Gospels, can be confirmed by other very important writings of early Christians, including Gospels which were accepted by many Church Fathers.
In light of the above it is extremely unreasonable to say that Muhammad [[PBUH] erred when the Koran referred to Mary as “sister of Aaron”.