Note 654 — BOOK FIRST.

So the Donatists commonly quoted Ecclus. xxxiv. 25, which is more correctly rendered in our version, "He that washeth himself after the touching of a dead body, if he touch it again, what availeth his washing?" Augustine (Retract. i. 21, sec. 3) says that the misapplication was rendered possible by the omission in many African Mss. of the second clause, "and touches it again."