The work includes a number of quotations from standard authors such as the Cappadocians, John Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria, and also Pseudo-Dionysius, but also from a number of authors condemned at various councils (e.g. Apollinarius, Eunomius, Eutyches, Nestorius, Paul of Samosata, Valentinian).
Some early writers, Tertullian, Helvidius and Eunomius of Cyzicus, interpreted Matthew's statement to mean that Joseph and Mary did have normal marital relations after Jesus' birth, and that James, Joses, Jude, and Simon were the biological sons of Mary and Joseph, a view held by Helvidius and Eunomius.