Meaning:
A number of undesirable qualities.
Background:
From the Bible, James 5:20.
Remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save
them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
It also appeared later in Peter 4:8, King James Version, 1611:
And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity
shall cover the multitude of sins.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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And Peter, a simple angler who made the ill-fated career move from the Sea of
Galilee to the Tiber River, was caught torching, ajudged guilty, and hanged.
Two and a half centuries later, however, the locals had a change of heart. He
was not only found innocent but consecrated as the first head, posthumously, of
a large thriving nonprofit.
I wonder if his blithe generalization above, now as the words of a Saint and
some say of God Himself, gave rise to the practice of indulgences in the Roman
Catholic Church until, over time, some started to worry the way sins multiplied
into such multitudes that no amount of charity could cover. They protested long
and hard and in the end became Protestants and among them, Peter's words were
not brought up as often anymore.
