the blood of the sacrificial animals and ultimately by the blood of Christ in fulfillment of the Old Testament type (Heb 9:22; 1:3). It is Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). There are several texts in the apocryphal books Tobit and Sirach focusing on almsgiving as a way to find favor with God. Tobit 4:10 tells us that “charity [almsgiving] delivers from death and keeps you from entering the darkness.” According to Sirach 17:22, “A man’s almsgiving is like a
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