Did you know that the practice of praying for the repose of the souls of the dead can be found all the way back in the Old Testament? The Holy Bible tells us of the pious action of a man named Judas Machabeus, chief of the army of Israel.

During a battle, some of the Israelite soldiers committed a serious fault. They took treasures from their enemy - objects of wealth which those pagans had offered to their idols. It was against God's law to do such a thing. God did not want His people to be endangered by the deadly riches of the pagans, either by greed for the wealth itself or by corruption to the evil use that they were put to in pagan worship.

The soldiers who took these forbidden objects were killed in that battle.

Meanwhile, Judas Machabeus defeated the enemy and the Israelites won. After the battle, he and his men found the bodies of the guilty soldiers. They also found the pagan offerings under the coats of those dead men. Judas Machabeus and his men clearly saw that God allowed those men to be killed in punishment for their sin.

Then Judas Machabeus ordered prayers and sacrifices to be offered for these unfortunate men - that God would pardon their sin and save their souls. He also urged the people to learn from what they saw, and avoid sin in their own lives - for they had seen how their companions were punished by God’s justice.

Let us see how this fact is related in the Holy Scriptures. (2 Machab. 12:39 - 43).

"After the Sabbath, Judas went with his company to take away the bodies of them that were slain, and to bury them with their kinsmen in the sepulchres of their fathers.

" And they found under the coats of the slain some of the donaries of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbiddeth to the Jews [to take]; so that all plainly saw that for this cause they [the dead soldiers] were slain.

"Then they all blessed the just judgment of the Lord, Who had discovered the things that were hidden.

"And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought Him that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten. But the most valiant Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, for so much as they saw before their eyes what had happened, because of the sin of those that were slain.

"And, making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection."

Judas Machabeus did this because he believed in God's teaching of "the resurection of the dead and the life of the world to come". And he offered this act of charity because, as the Holy Bible tells us, he had hope that they who had been slain could rise again unto life everlasting. Otherwise, without this hope, "it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead." Yet, Judas Machabeus considered that they who had died - even though they had committed a great wrong in taking the gold - had still done good deeds for God in life and therefore could have great grace laid up for them.

"It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." (2 Machab. 12:46).