The Thank Offering

One of the basic offerings of the Law of Moses was the peace offering. A subcategory of peace offering was the thank offering (Leviticus 7:11-13). This offering, which was made of grain made into some sort of bread, or cake, or pastry, which was unleavened, Unlike the costly sacrifice of an entire animal, a thank offering did not need to be expensive. It was relatively simple expression of what came from the heart.

One of the things about this category of offerings that I have always appreciated is the name that they are given in the Septuagint: θυσίας σωτηρίου, the sacrifice of salvation. There is thus a connection between gratitude and salvation. That is something to be grateful for.

Ranking the Law of Moses

Having discussed the laws associated with various kingdoms, one might wonder where the law of Moses fits into this scheme.

Using D&C 76:103 as a basis, we can examine the law of Moses for its treatment of liars, sorcerers, adulterers, and whoremongers.

Liars
The Law of Moses is actually fairly lenient to liars:

16 If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong;
17 Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days;
18 And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother;
19 Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
(Deuteronomy 19:16–19)

There are also ways to atone for falsehoods:

2 If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbour;
3 Or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein:
4 Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found,
5 Or all that about which he hath sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of his trespass offering.
6 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest:
7 And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord: and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in trespassing therein. (Leviticus 6:2–7)

Socerers
For sorcerers and the like, the law was less forgiving:

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (Exodus 22:18)

And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. (Leviticus 20:6)

A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:27)

So sorcery gets the death penalty.

Adulterers
For adulterers, the law was also not lenient:

And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10)

If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman (Deuteronomy 22:22)

Adultery also gets the death penalty.

Whoremongers
Whoremongers fair no better than adulterers. One passage suffices to illustrate:

11 And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
12 And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.
13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
14 And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.
15 And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.
16 And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:11–16)

Whoremongers also get the death penalty.

So liars are allowed to make up for their lies, but sorcerers, adulterers and whoremongers--all candidates for the telestial kingdom--are not permitted to live. They are not permitted under the Law of Moses. This brings us back to the Doctrine and Covenants:

he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory. (Doctrine and Covenants 88:23)

If the Law of Moses is not a celestial law (D&C 84:19-27), it is at least terrestrial law.

A Passover Connection

One never knows where one might find insight into a scripture. Sometimes it is simply a matter of making an odd connection.

This connection deals with a side note on something I wrote about a a few years ago on the various versions of Leviticus 1-5. (Sorry, the pdf or print version will be necessary to follow the philological arguments.)

In the Septuagint version of the Chronicles account of the passover feast of Hezekiah it mentions more than once the peace offerings that were made (2 Chronicles 29:35; 30:22). Specifically it says:

And Hezekiah spoke to every heart of the Levites and of those who had a good understanding of the Lord, and they finished the feast of unleavened bread, seven days of offering "peace offerings" and confessing to the Lord God of their fathers (2 Chronicles 30:22 LXX).

The peace offerings, of course, are detailed in Leviticus 3. Two details strike me as significant in this passage.

1. The first is that the major offering of Passover was the so-called peace offering. 
2. The second is that the Septuagint does not call it the "peace offering." That is the translation the King James Version uses for the Hebrew of this term. The Septuagint calls it the θυσία σωτηρίου "the offering of salvation."

For early Greek-speaking Christians, whose version of the scriptures was the Septuagint, the connection of Jesus's death with the Passover would have made perfect sense. The major sacrifice associated with Passover was the sacrifice of salvation and Jesus offered his life to bring about salvation.