17:4, 9; Num. 9:13; 15:30–36).11 Under the Mosaic Covenant the penalty for deliberate sin was loss of physical life. Soteriology is not the issue in Numbers 15; the issue is temporal discipline for violating the Mosaic Covenant. Willful sin committed μετὰ τὸ λαβεῖν τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τῆς ἀληθείας (“after receiving the full-knowledge of the truth”) results in no sacrifice for sins. The author paralleled his New Testament warning with the Old Testament principle: no sacrifice is available for willful