The article suggests answers to the following questions: what are the characteristics of God's forgiveness in the intertestamental literature and what connection do these characteristics have with the Old Testament? Important passages in the late Second Temple period that expose the characteristics of God's forgiveness, such as certain Qumran texts (1QH 12:35-37, 1QH 13:2 and the Damascus Document 14:18-19), the writings of Philo and Josephus, the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha, are investigated for this purpose.

DNA sequence comparison of 412 base-pairs fragments of the mitochondrial cytochrome B gene was used to infer the genetic structure of nine geographical Triatoma infestans populations and their phylogenetic relationship with T. melanosoma and T. brasiliensis. T. infestans and T. melanosoma were compared by morphometry, allozyme and cytogenetic analyses, as well as subjected to reciprocal crosses, in order to clarify the taxonomic status of the latter. No differences were found to distinguish the two species and the crosses between them yielded progeny. T. infestans populations presented four haplotypes that could be separated in two clusters: one formed by the samples from Bolivia (Andes and Chaco) and the other formed by samples from Argentina and Brazil. Silvatic and domestic T. infestans populations from Bolivia (Andes) were genetically identical.