_For the priority of St. Jude_: Alford, Angus, Arnaud, Bleek, Brückner, Caffin, Credner, Davidson, De Wette, Eichhorn, Ewald, F. W. Farrar, Guerike, Hatch, Herder, Hilgenfeld, Hug, Huther, Kühl, Kurz, Mayerhoff, Neander, Plumptre, Reuss, Salmon, Schenkel, Sieffert, Thorold, Weiss, Wiesinger, and others. Plumptre makes the remarkable suggestion that St. Jude may have written _both_ letters. He first wrote his own Epistle, then was sent with it to St. Peter by St. James, and finally acted as St. Peter's amanuensis in writing 2 Peter (_Cambridge Bible for Schools, Epistle of St. Peter and St. Jude_, 1879, pp. 79, 80, 88, 89). On this point also Dr. Döllinger changed his mind (see p. 31). In _The First Age of the Church_ (pp. 93, 108, Eng. Tr., 2nd ed.) he maintained the priority of 2 Peter. June 22nd, 1879, he wrote to me, "Its priority to the Epistle of Jude I _cannot_ believe" (_kann ich gar nicht glauben_). [113] The insertion of the word "God" into the authorities followed in the Authorized Version is one of the few instances in which it is possible that the Greek text of the N.T. has been corrupted in the interests of orthodoxy. [114] See the author's _Epistles of St. John_ in the _Cambridge Greek Testament_, pp. xx-xxix and 160-162. [115] _N.T. Commentary for English Readers_, edited by Bishop Ellicott (Cassell and Co. 1879), iii., p. 506. CHAPTER XXXIII. _DOUBTFUL READINGS AND THE THEORY OF VERBAL INSPIRATION. THREE PALMARY INSTANCES OF DIVINE VENGEANCE UPON GRIEVOUS SIN._ "Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, how that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not. And angels which kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, He hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication, and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire."--ST. JUDE 5-7. With these three verses the main portion of the Epistle begins, the first three verses being introductory. These put before us three instances of Divine vengeance upon those who were guilty of grievous sin--the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness, the impure angels, and the inhabitants of the cities of the plain; and in the three verses which follow (8-10) St. Jude points out the similarity between the offences of these wicked persons and the offences of the libertines who are provoking God to execute similar vengeance upon them. It is quite possible that we have here the explanation of the words, "Who were of old set forth unto this condemnation" (ver. 4). The doom of these impious profligates has long since been written in the doom of those who sinned in a similar manner.