[760 - Improvement Era, Vol. 13:8, June 1910]

Priesthood Quorums' Table.

Beginning of the Aaronic Priesthood.--"Did the Lesser Priesthood (or the priesthood known to us as the Aaronic or Levitical) have a beginning with Aaron?  This idea seems to be carried out in the two lessons, 8 and 9, of the high priests' manual."

The answer to the question must necessarily be "no."  The Aaronic Priesthood is but an appendage to the Melchizedek Priesthood, or a part of it, a separate function, whose particular mission is to precede the Melchizedek, or to prepare the way for its dispensations upon the earth.  Priesthood is the agency of God, and, therefore is eternal, without beginning of days or end of years, and as the lesser, Aaronic, Levitical or preparatory priesthood, partakes of the nature of the higher priesthood, it must necessarily be eternal, though it may be called by different names under different dispensations.  So that, while the Lesser Priesthood was first called the Aaronic Priesthood in the days of Aaron, for we have no knowledge of its having been known by that name before that time, undoubtedly the authority, and perhaps the exercise, of, that priesthood had always existed and did not begin with Aaron.