NOTE.--It is by no means impossible that in the phrase "cover a multitude of sins" neither St. James is quoting St. Peter, nor St. Peter St. James, nor either of them quoting Psalms or Proverbs, but that each of them is reproducing a saying of Christ's which is not recorded in the Gospels. The phrase occurs in both Clement of Rome (XLV.) and Clement of Alexandria (_Strom._ I. xxvii.; II. xv.; IV. xviii.; _Quis Div. Salv._ xxxviii.), in all which places it may be a quotation from 1 Peter iv. 8. But in one place (_Pædag._ III. xii.) he seems to give it as a saying of our Lord's, for he couples it with a saying which is certainly His (Luke xx. 25). Clement's wording is as follows: "Love, He saith, covereth a multitude of sins; and respecting citizenship, Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's;" where one and the same "He saith" (φησί) covers both sayings. In the _Didascalia_ (II. iii.) the saying is explicitly attributed to Christ: "Because the Lord saith, Love covereth a multitude of sins." See Resch, _Agrapha; Aussercanonische Evangelienfragmente_ (Leipzig, 1889), pp. 248, 249. [100] πλανηθῇ. This aorist passive _may_ have a middle signification, but it is simpler to allow it to be passive: the man has been led astray by evil influences, and he is led back by good influences. It matters not whether we regard him as led astray by sin (Bengel), or Satan, or wicked companions. [101] This is probably the true reading. _THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE._ CHAPTER XXX. _THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE._ "Judas, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied."--ST. JUDE 1, 2. Precisely as in the case of the Epistle of St. James, the question as to the authenticity of this letter resolves itself into two parts: Is the Epistle the veritable product of a writer of the Apostolic age? If it is, which of the persons of that age who bore the name of Judas is the author of it? Both of these questions can be answered with a very considerable amount of certainty.