"... Christians were also presented with a larger set of biblical passages, in which almsgiving featured as a virtuous activity rewarded in various ways by God’s blessing, such as in the portrayal of the just man, Job, as a ‘father of the poor’ or the promise that ‘sins are washed away through faith and almsgiving’. They were to be further impressed by a third set of biblical texts which the promoters of almsgiving in the fourth and fifth centuries interpreted as bearing on almsgiving, including, for example, the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. In all, promoters appealed to over one hundred different passages in the Old and New Testaments. The biblical texts gave a number of reasons why Christians should give alms: to ensure prosperity in this life (Proverbs 28:27), as a matter of justice (Psalms 36:21, 111:9), as a means to win God’s favour in general by securing the prayers of the poor (Sirach 35:21), as a way to escape in particular the ever-present threat of death in a violent world (Tobit 4:10), as expiation for sin (Daniel 4:24, Sirach 3:30, Tobit 12:9), as a way to secure treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19–20, Luke 18:22), as wealth lent to God to be repaid with interest of a spiritual kind (Proverbs 19:17), as an act of kindness towards Christ in the person of the poor (Matthew 25:31–46). These texts influenced almsgivers directly when read aloud in the Church’s liturgy for all to hear or when read and consigned to memory by individuals ..."