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Proverbs 10:12

"Love covereth all sins" and 1 Peter 4:8

"Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins." The Hebrew says love covers all transgressions (pesha'im). The library's Greek reads quite differently: "love protects all who do not love strife." 1 Peter 4:8 ("charity shall cover the multitude of sins") follows the Hebrew sense, not this Greek.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
  • Uncertain connection
Hebrew
  1. The proverb as first composedCollections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Proverbs
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
New Testament quotation
  1. Greek New Testament (library: Statistical Restoration text)1st century AD; edition 2010sUncertain relationship to the proverb (which wording it followed is the question)

Every witness, in order

  1. Collections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)

    The proverb as first composed

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Proverbs are two small Qumran fragments (4Q102, 4Q103, 1st century BC – 1st century AD, reported).

  2. 1st century AD; edition 2010s

    Greek New Testament (library: Statistical Restoration text)

    ✓ Contains this passageUncertain relationship to the proverb (which wording it followed is the question)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: the Greek New Testament editions in the library (Textus Receptus, Byzantine Textform, Statistical Restoration).

    πρὸ πάντων, τὴν εἰς ἑαυτοὺς ἀγάπην ἐκτενῆ ἔχοντες, ὅτι ἀγάπη καλύπτει πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν·

    Above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover the multitude of sins.

    1 Peter 4:8. KJV: "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins."

  3. Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Odium suscitat rixas, et universa delicta operit caritas.

    Latin position: Proverbs 10:12. Jerome translated Proverbs from Hebrew (c. AD 398); the Clementine Vulgate sometimes also carries lines from the Greek.

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    שִׂ֭נְאָה תְּעוֹרֵ֣ר מְדָנִ֑ים וְעַ֥ל כָּל־פְּ֝שָׁעִ֗ים תְּכַסֶּ֥ה אַהֲבָֽה׃

    Hatred stirs up quarrels, but over all transgressions love draws a cover

    Hebrew position: Proverbs 10:12.

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.

  6. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Proverbs

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    La haine suscite la discorde; l’amitié protège tous ceux qui n’aiment point les querelles.

    Greek (digital file) position: Proverbs 10:12. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). In these chapters the Greek verse positions in the digital file shift; the matching line was found by content. No Göttingen critical edition of Greek Proverbs is published; a C check needs Rahlfs–Hanhart and specialist studies.

What changed, and why

"Covers" (tekhasseh) means to forgive and not stir up again, as 17:9 says: "He that covereth a transgression seeketh love." The contrast is between hatred that reopens old wounds and love that lets them heal.

1 Peter 4:8 and James 5:20 ("shall hide a multitude of sins") echo the Hebrew wording. Since the Old Greek has a different second line, the New Testament writers either knew the Hebrew, a revised Greek, or a proverbial saying current in Jewish circles. This is a case where a New Testament quotation does not follow the Old Greek (C check: Rahlfs; NT critical text).

Later Christian readers sometimes took "love covers sins" to mean that charity atones for the giver's own sins (compare Tobit 12:9; Sirach 3:30). In Proverbs the point is relational: love does not expose and prolong a neighbour's offence.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek of 10:12b differs from the Hebrew.
  • Strongly supported1 Peter 4:8 follows the Hebrew sense of 10:12.
  • Conflicts with current evidenceProverbs 10:12 teaches that charity atones for the giver's sins. A later reading; the proverb speaks of forgiving others.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Proverbs 10: A Wise Son Maketh a Glad Father →With a new heading, "The proverbs of Solomon" (10:1), the long instructions of chapters 1–9 give way to short, self-contained sayings of two lines each. Chapter 10 is dominated by antithetic sayings that set the righteous against the wicked and the wise against the fool. Its themes are family (v. 1), honest and dishonest wealth (vv. 2–5, 15–16, 22), speech (vv. 6–21, 31–32: the mouth, lips and tongue appear again and again), and the security of the righteous (vv. 24–30).