Posted by:
Fetal Deity
(
)
Date: March 09, 2013 01:19PM
From the King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.):
"Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock."
[Other Bible versions of this verse are essentially the same in meaning.]
http://bible.cc/leviticus/1-2.htmOne Bible interpreter says this about the above verse:
"[Note] 27 Leviticus 1:2 makes it clear that only domesticated animals may be offered, and not wild game, which is (too) easily obtained."
Fetal Deity note--Birds could apparently be offered by the poor, but in my research I could find no indication that they could be of the non-domesticated variety. While traveling, as you have noted, accomodations could be made for sacrifice, but domesticated animals were still required:
"When Moses told Pharaoh that Israel must take their cattle with them into the wilderness to worship their God, it was because they needed them to offer burnt offerings (Exod. 10:25-26)."
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WHN0yhc5BI4J:bible.org/seriespage/law-burnt-offerings-leviticus-11-17[I am referecing the Google Cache site because my security sofwared red-flagged the original web site.]
The Book of Mormon says that Lehi's party took nothing with them into the wilderness except "provisions, and tents" (Book of Mormon | 1 Nephi 2:4). Could "provisions" include animals for later sacrifice? I don't think that's a reasonable interpretation of the word in this context, and besides, keeping animals alive that were not adapted to this kind of travel would be problematic and could have slowed them down in their escape into the wilderness. Additionally, when wild game was scarce for the group, there is no mention of any consideration of consuming animals they might have brought along on their journey.
Any thoughts?
Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2013 02:30PM by Fetal Deity.