In the
modern text of D&C, we read the following:
Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of
Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the
ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by
immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from
the earth, until the sons of Levi do
offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.
However, the
earliest texts do not use the conjunction "until" but "that”
(i.e., a purpose clause). One
can see this in the 1844 Doctrine and Covenants and other works, including
the following:
. . as he said, "upon you my fellow
servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer this priesthood and this authority,
which shall remain upon earth, that the sons of Levi may yet offer and offering
unto the Lord in righteousness!" (Messenger
and Advocate, October 1834, p. 16)
This is a
superior reading, as it means the text is not ambiguous as to whether the
Aaronic priesthood will continue once the offering is made (“until,” even in
biblical languages, is ambiguous but predominately means a termination of the
main clause once the “until” [Heb: עד ; Greek: εως] is reached); instead, it
teaches that a (if not the main) function of the restoration of the Aaronic
Priesthood is to bring about the completion of the promise that the sons of
Levi will make an offering to the Lord in righteousness.
