2Mc 12:38-46: Judas Macabeu pediu um sacrifício expiatório para que os mortos fossem livres de suas faltas

38 Judas then rallied his army and moved on to the town of Adullam where, as it was the seventh day of the week, they purified themselves according to custom and kept the Sabbath.
39 Next day, they came to find Judas (since the necessity was by now urgent) to have the bodies of the fallen taken up and laid to rest among their relatives in their ancestral tombs.
40 But when they found on each of the dead men, under their tunics, sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the Law prohibits to Jews, it became clear to everyone that this was why these men had lost their lives.
41 All then blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous judge who brings hidden things to light,
42 and gave themselves to prayer, begging that the sin committed might be completely wiped away. Next, the valiant Judas urged the soldiers to keep themselves free from all sin, having seen with their own eyes the effects of the sin of those who had fallen;
43 after this he took a collection from them individually, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmas, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for sin offered, an action altogether fine and noble, prompted by belief in the resurrection.
44 For had he not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead,
45 whereas if he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end, the thought was holy and devout. Hence, he had this expiatory sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might be released from their sin.