on which the need probably introduced the practice (Gesenius, Carm. Samar. p. 63). In Dan. iv, 24, we find the Chald. word np*I^ (tsidkah' ' , lit. righteousness), rendered iXirjpoavvai in the Sept., and the ensuing member of the sentence puts the meaning beyond a question : " O king, break off thy sins by righteous- ness, and thine iniquities b}r showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity." A new idea is here presented, namely, that of merit and purchase. Alms-giving had come to be regarded as a means of conciliating God's favor and of warding off evil. At a still later period this idea took a firm seat in the national mind, and almsdeeds were re- garded as a mark of distinguished virtue (Tobit ii, 14 ; iv, 11). That begging was customary in the time of the Saviour is clear from Mark x, 46, " Blind Barti- nifflus sat by the wayside begging;" and Acts iii, 2, "A lame man was laid daily at the gate of the temple called Beautiful to ask alms" (comp. ver. 10). And that it was usual for the worshippers, as they entered the temple, to give relief, appears from the context, and particularly from the fine answer to the lame man's entreaty made by the Apostle Peter. See Beggar. Charity toward the poor and indigent— that is, alms-giving — was probably among the later Jews a highly-honored act of piety (see Buxtorf, Fhrileg. Heb. p. 88 sq. ; Otho, Lex. Uabb. p. 196 sq.), and hence is named even in connection with prayer and fasting (Tobit, xii, 9). It Avas regarded as especially agree- able to God (comp. Acts x, 4, 31 ; Heb. xiii, 16 ; Thilo, Apocr. p. 324), as meritorious in the divine sight (Prov. x, 2 ; xi, 4 ; Tob. ii, 14), even availing to blot out sins (Tob. iv, 10; Sir. xxix, 10-13; comp. Dan. iv, 24), in short, as a fulfilment of the whole law (Talm. Jerus. Peah, i). Children were early trained up to it (Tob. xiv, 11), and among the enco- miums of pious persons their charitableness was al- most always enumerated (Sir. xxxi, 11; Acts ix, 36; x, 2). Exhortations to this virtue are especially fre- quent in the Proverbs of Solomon (iii, 27 sq. ; xxii, 9 ; xxviii, 27), and in the book of Sirach (iii, 23 sq. ; vii, 36), and the latter gives practical hints for the performance of this duty (xii, 1 sq. ; xviii, 14 ; xx, 13 sq.). Accordingly, there were arrangements in the synagogues for the collection of alms on the Sabbath (Matt, vi, 2 ; comp. Yitringa, Synag. p. 811), and in the temple was a chamber (D^Xdn PS'ib) where alms not specially designated for the poor Jews (d"arj "03 tSl^y) were deposited (Mishna, Shek. v, 6) ; on the other hand, the trumpet-shaped vessels (ri-lSVJ, to which some have erroneously referred the term aaXiriZoj in Matt, vi, 2) served for the reception of those that individuals contributed for the support of divine worship. See Tejiple. In the communi- ty, according to Maimonides, eleemosynan- contribu- tions were so arranged that almoners (" "N2 J, collectors, fully >"!£7"-£ "^Sli Talm. Jerus. Demay, fol. xxiii, 2) sometimes took up collections of money in a box (tlS^p) on the Sabbath, and sometimes received daily from house to house voluntary offerings, consisting of victuals, in a vessel (^W^P) carried for that purpose (see, [Eck or] Werner, De jisco et paropside paupe- rum duab. specieb. eleemosynar. vet. Ebrceor. Jen. 1725). By far the foremost in alms-giving were the Pharisees, but they did it mostly in an ostentatious manner. The charge laid against them in Matt, vi, 2, has not yet been fully explained, on account of the obscurity of the expression "do not sound a trumpet before thee" (p>) (mXTrioyc. tpTrpoirSii' gov), which can hardly refer to the modern Oriental practice (Nie- buhr, Reisen, i, 181) of beggars (as in some parts of Switzerland) demanding charity by making music, since in that case the " trumpeting" would not pro- ceed from the donor, nor would he be at all in fault. The language conveys the idea that the Pharisees as-
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sembled the poor in the synagogues and streets by the sound of a trumpet, which naturally attracted also spectators thither ; but this custom would be too cer- emonious to be probable, because it would require these individuals to have an attendant with a trum pet, as they could not well have blown it themselves By the term "synagogues" here could not be meant the audience-room, at least during divine service, but only the porch or immediate vicinity of the edifice. On the whole, the expression " sound a trumpet" may more easily be interpreted metaphorically (with the Church fathers, also Grotius, Fritzsche, Tholuck, and others), q. d., don't make a flourish of music in front of you, i. e. do not proclaim your liberality in a noisy manner. See generally Aster, Ds Eleemosynis Juda- orum (Lips. 1728) ; Maimonides, De Jure Pauperis, vii, 10; ix, 1, G; Jahn, Arch. Bibl. iv, 371; Lightfoot; Horce Ilebr. on Matt, vi, 2, and Descr. Templi, 19; and comp. Smith's Diet, of Class. Antiq. s. v. Tuba. See Offerings ; Tithes ; Temple.
II. Apostolical. — The general spirit of Christianity, in regard to succoring the needy, is nowhere better seen than in 1 John iii, 17 : " Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" With the faithful and conscientious ob- servance of the " royal law" of love, particular mani- festations of mercy to the poor seem to be left bv Christianity to be determined by time, place, and cir- cumstances ; and it cannot be supposed that a re- ligion, one of whose principles is " that, if any would not work, neither should he eat" (2 Thess. iii, 10), can give any sanction to indiscriminate alms-giving, or intend to encourage the crowd of wandering, idle beggars with which some parts of the world are f till infested. The emphatic language employed by the Lord Jesus Christ and others (Luke iii, 11 ; vi, 30 ; xi, 41 [see the treatise on this text by Somnel, Lond. and Goth. 1787]; xii, 33; Matt, vi, 1; Acts ix, 37; x, 2, 4) is designed to enforce the general duty of a merciful and practical regard to the distresses of the indigent — a duty which all history shows men have been lamentably prone to neglect ; while the absence of ostentation and even secrecy, which the Saviour enjoined in connection with alms-giving, was intend- ed to correct actual abuses, and bring the practice into harmony with the spirit of the Gospel. In the inim- itable reflections of Jesus on the widow's mite (Mark xii, 42) is found a principle of great value, to the ef- fect that the magnitude of men's offerings to God is to be measured by the disposition of mind whence they proceed ; a principle which cuts up by the very roots the idea that merit attaches itself to alms-giving as such, and increases in proportion to the number anl costliness of our almsdeeds.