CHAPTER XXXVI. THE DESCRIPTION CORRESPONDING TO BALAAM: THE IMPIOUS DISCONTENT AND GREED OF THE LIBERTINES.--THE APOSTOLIC WARNING RESPECTING THEM 442 CHAPTER XXXVII. THE DESCRIPTION CORRESPONDING TO KORAH: MAKING SEPARATIONS.--EXHORTATIONS TO THE FAITHFUL TO BUILD UP THEMSELVES, AND THEN RESCUE OTHERS 450 CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE FINAL DOXOLOGY: PRAISE TO GOD, THE PROTECTOR OF HIS SERVANTS 463 INDEX 471 INTRODUCTORY. CHAPTER I. _THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES._ This volume is to treat of the General Epistle of St. James and the General Epistle of St. Jude. According to the most common, but not invariable arrangement, they form the first and the last letters in the collection which for fifteen centuries has been known as the Catholic Epistles. The epithet "General," which appears in the titles of these Epistles in the English versions, is simply the equivalent of the epithet "Catholic," the one word being of Latin (_generalis_), the other of Greek (καθολικός) origin. In Latin, however, _e.g._ in the Vulgate, these letters are not called _Generales_, but _Catholicæ_. The meaning of the term Catholic Epistles (καθολικαὶ ἐπιστολαι) has been disputed, and more than one explanation may be found in commentaries; but the true signification is not really doubtful. It certainly does not mean _orthodox_ or _canonical_; although from the sixth century, and possibly earlier, we find these Epistles sometimes called the Canonical Epistles (_Epistolæ Canonicæ_), an expression in which "canonical" is evidently meant to be an equivalent for "catholic." This use is said to occur first in the _Prologus in Canonicas Epistolas_ of the Pseudo-Jerome given by Cassiodorus (_De Justit. Divin. Litt._, viii.); and the expression is used by Cassiodorus himself, whose writings may be placed between A.D. 540 and 570, the period spent in his monastery at Viviers, after he had retired from the conduct of public affairs. The term "catholic" is used in the sense of "orthodox" before this date, but not in connexion with these letters. There seems to be no earlier evidence of the opinion, certainly erroneous, that this collection of seven Epistles was called "Catholic" in order to mark them as Apostolic and authoritative, in distinction from other letters which were heterodox, or at any rate of inferior authority. Five out of the seven letters, viz. all but the First Epistle of St. Peter and the First Epistle of St. John, belong to that class of New Testament books which from the time of Eusebius (_H. E._ III. xxv. 4) have been spoken of as "disputed" (ἀντιλεγόμενα), _i.e._ as being up to the beginning of the fourth century not _universally_ admitted to be canonical.[1] And it would have been almost a contradiction in terms if Eusebius had first called these Epistles "catholic" (_H.