aucity cannot surprise us,
as in the same Curetonian text there is not a single quotation
from the Old Testament. One Old Testament quotation and two
Evangelical allusions occur in the Epistle to the Ephesians, which
is one of the three contained in Cureton's MS.; the fifth and
sixth chapters, however, in which they are found, are wanting in
the Syriac. The allusions are, in Eph. v, 'For if the prayer of
one or two have such power, how much more that of the bishop and
of the whole Church,' which appears to have some relation to Matt.
xviii. 19 ('If two of you shall agree' &c.), and in Eph. vi, 'For
all whom the master of the house sends to be over his own
household we ought to receive as we should him that sent him,'
which may be compared with Matt. x. 40 ('He that receiveth you'
&c.). Both these allusions have some probability, though neither
can be regarded as at all certain. The Epistle to the Trallians
has one coincidence in c. xi, 'These are not plants of the Father'
([Greek: phyteia Patros]), which recalls the striking expression
of Matt. xv. 13, 'Every plant ([Greek: pasa phyteia]) that my
heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.' This is a
marked metaphor, and it is not found in the other Synoptics; it is
therefore at least more probable that it is taken from St.
Matthew. The same must be said of another remarkable phrase in the
Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, c. vi, [Greek: ho choron choreito]
([Greek: ho dynamenos chorein choreito], Matt. xix. 12), and also
of the statement in c. i. of the same Epistle that Jesus was
baptized by John 'that He might fulfil all righteousness' ([Greek:
hina plaerothae pasa dikaiosynae hup' autou]). This corresponds
with the language of Matt. iii. 15 ([Greek: houtos gar prepon
estin haemin plaerosai pasan dikaiosynaen]), which also has no
parallel in the other Gospels. The use of the phrase [Greek:
plaerosai pasan dikaiosynaen] is so peculiar, and falls in so
entirely with the characteristic Christian Judaizing of our first
Evangelist, that it seems especially unreasonable to refer it to
any one else. There is not the smallest particle of evidence to
connect it with the Gospel according to the Hebrews to which our
author seems to hint that it may belong; indeed all that we know
of that Gospel may be said almost positively to exclude it. In
this Gospel our Lord is represented as saying, when His mother and
His brethren urge that He should accept baptism from John, 'What
ha