Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. iii. 25) divides the writings of the Church into three classes:—
1. The Received Books (ὁμολογούμενα), i.e. the Four Gospels, Acts, the Fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John, and the Revelation (?).
2. Doubtful (ἀντιλεγόμενα), i.e. James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude (cf. ii. 23 fin.).
3. Spurious (νόθα), Acts of St. Paul, Shepherd of Hermas, Revelation of St. Peter, Epistle of Barnabas, the so-called Διδαχαί, Revelation of St. John (?).
This division appears to need confirmation, if it is to be taken as representing the general opinion of the Church of the time.
Cureton's Syriac is the only known copy of the Gospels in which the three omitted kings are found in St. Matthew's Gospel: which, I suppose, explains why the learned editor of that document flattered himself that he had therein discovered the lost original of St. Matthew's Gospel. Cureton (Pref., p. viii) shews that in other quarters also (e.g. by Mar Yakub the Persian, usually known as Aphraates) 63 generations were reckoned from Adam to Jesus exclusive: that number being obtained by adding 24 of St. Matthew's names and 33 of St. Luke's to the 3 names common to both Evangelists (viz. David, Salathiel, and Zorobabel); and to these, adding the 3 omitted kings.
The testimony of MSS. is not altogether uniform in regard to the number of names in the Genealogy. In the Textus Receptus (including our Saviour's name and the name of the Divine Author of Adam's being) the number of the names is 77. So Basil made it; so Greg. Naz. and his namesake of Nyssa; so Jerome and Augustine.
I am not of course asserting that any known cursive MS. is an exact counterpart of one of the oldest extant Uncials. Nor even that every reading however extraordinary, contained in Codd. BאD, is also to be met with in one of the few Cursives already specified. But what then? Neither do any of the oldest Uncials contain all the textual avouchings discoverable in the same Cursives.
The thing asserted is only this: that, as a rule, every principal reading discoverable in any of the five or seven oldest Uncials, is also exhibited in one or more of the Cursives already cited or in others of them; and that generally when there is consent among the oldest of the Uncials, there is also consent among about as many of the same Cursives. So that it is no exaggeration to say that we find ourselves always concerned with the joint testimony of the same little handful of Uncial and Cursive documents: and therefore, as was stated at the outset, if the oldest of the Uncials had never existed, the readings which they advocate would have been advocated by MSS. of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries.
Ap. Galland. iii. 688 c:—ὅθεν ὁ Ἀπόστολος εὐθυβόλως εἰς Χριστὸν ἀνηκόντισε τὰ κατὰ τὸν Ἀδάμ; οὕτως γὰρ ἂν μάλιστα ἐκ τῶν ὀστῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς σαρκὸς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν συμφωνήσει γεγονέναι. And lower down (e, and 689 a):—ὅπως αὐξηθῶσιν οἱ ἐν αὐτῷ οἰκοδομηθέντες ἅπαντες, οἱ γεγεννημένοι διὰ τοῦ λουτροῦ, ἐκ τῶν ὀστῶν καὶ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός, τουτέστιν ἐκ τῆς ἁγιωσύνης αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκ τῆς δόξης προσειληφότες; ὀστᾶ γὰρ καὶ σάρκα Σοφίας ὁ λέγων εἶναι σύνεσιν καὶ ἀρετήν, ὀρθότατα λέγει. From this it is plain that Methodius read Ephes. v. 30 as we do; although he had before quoted it (iii. 614 b) without the clause in dispute. Those who give their minds to these studies are soon made aware that it is never safe to infer from the silence of a Father that he disallowed the words he omits,—especially if those words are in their nature parenthetical, or supplementary, or not absolutely required for the sense. Let a short clause be beside his immediate purpose, and a Father is as likely as not to omit it. This subject has been discussed elsewhere: but it is apt to the matter now in hand that I should point out that Augustine twice (iv. 297 c, 1438 c) closes his quotation of the present place abruptly: “Apostolo dicente, Quoniam membra sumus corporis ejus.” And yet, elsewhere (iii. 794), he gives the words in full.