There is one other point connected with this subject to which brief reference must be made, namely, the means whereby sins are atoned for; the importance here lies in the fact that the teaching of this book concerning atonement for sins is the same as that of the later Rabbinical literature; it is, therefore, a great development upon Old Testament teaching. Ben-Sira follows the teaching of the Old Testament in so far that he believes in the need of the sacrificial system provided that sacrifices are offered in the right spirit; he says, for example, in one place: Give a meal-offering with a memorial, And offer a fat sacrifice to the utmost of thy means (xxxviii. 11); but it depends upon the spirit of him who offers as to whether the sacrifice is acceptable or not: The sacrifice of the unrighteous man is a mocking offering, And unacceptable are the oblations of the godless. The Most High hath no pleasure in the offerings of the ungodly, Neither doth He forgive sins for a multitude of sacrifices (xxxiv. 18, 19, in the Greek xxxi. 21-23). That sacrifices atoned for sins is a fundamental Old Testament doctrine, but the other means of atonement which Ben-Sira mentions show a development; these are as follows; (one quotation in support of each must suffice for illustration). Concerning Almsgiving it is said in iii. 30: A flaming fire doth water quench, So doth almsgiving atone for sin. That Fasting is an atonement is implied in the following: ... So a man fasting for his sins And doing the same again,— Who will listen to his prayer, And what hath he gained by his humiliation? (xxxiv. 26; in the Greek xxxi. 31). Another means of atonement is Death; this is seen, or at any rate adumbrated, in the words in xviii. 22: Delay not to pay thy vow in due time, And wait not till death to be justified. This last assumed ever-increasing importance with the growth of the belief in the resurrection; in Ecclesiasticus it is perhaps no more than adumbrated, for where there was as yet no belief in the resurrection nor in punishment for unatoned sins hereafter there was no inducement to formulate a doctrine as to the atoning efficacy of death; the above-quoted passage is, however, worth giving as illustrating a tendency. One other means of atonement must be mentioned because it teaches the truth of mediatorship; this is in xlv. 23: Moreover Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, Was glorious in might as a third [i.e. after Moses and Aaron], In that he was jealous for the God of all, And stood in the breach for his people, While his heart prompted him, And he made atonement for the children of Israel.