joined this petty band?]

But, says Tischendorf,--the verse is omitted by Origen and by
Eusebius,--by Irenaeus and by Lucifer of Cagliari,--as well as by Cyril
of Alexandria. I answer, this most insecure of arguments for mutilating
the traditional text is plainly inadmissible on the present occasion.
The critic refers to the fact that Irenaeus[274], Origen[275],
Eusebius[276] and Cyril[277] having quoted 'the parable of the wicked
husbandmen' _in extenso_ (viz. from verse 33 to verse 43), _leave off at
verse_ 43. Why may they not leave off where the parable leaves off? Why
should they quote any further? Verse 44 is nothing to their purpose. And
since the Gospel for Monday morning in Holy Week [verses 18-43], in
every known copy of the Lectionary actually ends at verse 43,--why
should not their quotation of it end at the same verse? But,
unfortunately for the critic, Origen and Cyril (as we have seen,--the
latter expressly,) elsewhere actually quote the verse in dispute. And
how can Tischendorf maintain that Lucifer yields adverse testimony[278]?
That Father quotes _nothing but_ verse 43, which is all he requires for
his purpose[279]. Why should he have also quoted verse 44, which he does
not require? As well might it be maintained that Macarius Egyptius[280]
and Philo of Carpasus[281] omit verse 44, because (like Lucifer) they
only quote verse 43.

I have elsewhere explained what I suspect occasioned the omission of St.
Matt. xxi. 44 from a few Western copies of the Gospels[282].
Tischendorf's opinion that this verse is a fabricated imitation of the
parallel verse in St. Luke's Gospel[283] (xx. 18) is clearly untenable.
Either place has its distinctive type, which either has maintained all
down the ages. The single fact that St. Matt. xxi. 44 in the Peshitto
version has a sectional number to itself[284] is far too weighty to be
set aside on nothing better than suspicion. If a verse so elaborately
attested as the present be not genuine, we must abandon all hope of ever
attaining to any certainty concerning the Text of Scripture.

In the meantime there emerges from the treatment which St. Matt. xxi. 44
has experienced at the hands of Tischendorf, the discovery that, in the
estimation of Tischendorf, Cod. D [is a document of so much importance
as occasionally to outweigh almost by itself the other copies of all
ages and countries in Christendom.]

Sec. 5.

I am guided to my next example, viz. the text of St. Matt.