TATIAN--DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH.
Tatian was a teacher of rhetoric, an Assyrian by birth, who was
converted to Christianity by Justin Martyr, but after his death
fell into heresy, leaning towards the Valentinian Gnosticism, and
combining with this an extreme asceticism.
The death of Justin is clearly the pivot on which his date will
hinge. If we are to accept the conclusions of Mr. Hort this will
have occurred in the year 148 A.D.; according to Volkmar it would
fall not before 155 A.D., and in the ordinary view as late as 163-
165 A.D. [Endnote 238:1] The beginning of Tatian's literary
activity will follow accordingly.
Tatian's first work of importance, an 'Address to Greeks,' which
is still extant, was written soon after the death of Justin. It
contains no references to the Synoptic Gospels upon which stress
can be laid.
An allusion to Matth. vi. 19 in the Stromateis of Clement [Endnote
238:2] has been attributed to Tatian, but I hardly know for what
reason. It is introduced simply by [Greek: tis (biazetai tis
legon)], but there were other Encratites besides Tatian, and the
very fact that he has been mentioned by name twice before in the
chapter makes it the less likely that he should be introduced so
vaguely.
The chief interest however in regard to Tatian centres in his so-
called 'Diatessaron,' which is usually supposed to have been a
harmony of the four Gospels.
Eusebius mentions this in the following terms: 'Tatian however,
their former leader, put together, I know not how, a sort of
patchwork or combination of the Gospels and called it the
"Diatessaron," which is still current with some.' [Endnote 239:1]
I am rather surprised to see that Credner, who is followed by the
author of 'Supernatural Religion,' argues from this that Eusebius
had not seen the work in question [Endnote 239:2]. This inference
is not by any means conveyed by the Greek. [Greek: Ouk oid' hopos]
(thus introduced) is an idiomatic phrase referring to the
principle on which the harmony was constructed, and might well be
paraphrased 'a curious sort of patchwork or dovetailing,' 'a not
very intelligible dovetailing,' &c. Standing in the position it
does, the phrase can hardly mean anything else. Besides it is not
likely that Eusebius, an eager collector and reader of books, with
the run of Pamphilus' library, should not have been acquainted
with a work that he says himself was current in more quarters than
one. Eusebius, it will be observed, is quite explicit in his
statement. He says that the Diatessaron was a harmony of the
Gospels, i.e. (in his sense) of our present Gospels, and that
Tatian gave the name of Diatessaron to his work himself. We do not
know upon what these statements rest, but there ought to be some
valid reason before we dismiss them entirely.
Epiphanius writes that 'Tatian is said to have composed the
Diatessaron Gospel which some call the "Gospel according to the
Hebrews"' [Endnote 240:1]. And Theodoret tells us that 'Tatian
also composed the Gospel which is called the Diatessaron, cutting
out the genealogies and all that shows the Lord to have been born
of the seed of David according to the flesh.' 'This,' he adds,
'was used not only by his own party, but also by those who
followed the teaching of the Apostles, as they had not perceived
the mischievous design of the composition, but in their simplicity
made use of the book on account of its conciseness.' Theodoret
found more than two hundred copies in the churches of his diocese
(Cyrrhus in Syria), which he removed and replaced with the works
of the four Evangelists [Endnote 240:2].
Victor of Capua in the sixth century speaks of Tatian's work as a
'Diapente' rather than a 'Diatessaron' [Endnote 240:3]. If we are
to believe the Syrian writer Bar-Salibi in the twelfth century,
Ephrem Syrus commented on Tatian's Diatessaron, and it began with
the opening words of St. John. This statement however is referred
by Gregory Bar-Hebraeus not to the Harmony of Tatian, but to one
by Ammonius made in the third century [Endnote 241:1].
Here there is clearly a good deal of confusion.
But now we come to the question, was Tatian's work really a
Harmony of our four Gospels? The strongest presumption that it was
is derived from Irenaeus. Irenaeus, it is well known, speaks of
the four Gospels with absolute decision, as if it were a law of
nature that their number must be four, neither more nor less
[Endnote 241:2], and his four Gospels were certainly the same as
our own. But Tatian wrote within a comparatively short interval of
Irenaeus. It is sufficiently clear that Irenaeus held his opinion
at the very time that Tatian wrote, though it was not published
until later. Here then we have a coincidence which makes it
difficult to think that Tatian's four Gospels were different from
ours.
The theory that finds favour with Credner [Endnote 241:3] and his
followers, including the author of 'Supernatural Religion,' is
that Tatian's Gospel was the same as that used by Justin. I am
myself not inclined to think this theory improbable; it would have
been still less so, if Tatian had been the master and Justin the
pupil [Endnote 241:4]. We have seen that the phenomena of Justin's
evangelical quotations are as well met by the hypothesis that he
made use of a Harmony as by any other. But that Harmony, as we
have also seen, included at least our three Synoptics. The
evidence (which we shall consider presently) for the use of the
fourth Gospel by Tatian is so strong as to make it improbable that
that work was not included in the Diatessaron. The fifth work,
alluded to by Victor of Capua, may possibly have been the Gospel
according to the Hebrews.
2.
Just as the interest of Tatian turns upon the interpretation to be
put upon a single term 'Diatessaron,' so the interest of Dionysius
of Corinth depends upon what we are to understand by his phrase
'the Scriptures of the Lord.'
In a fragment, preserved by Eusebius, of an epistle addressed to
Soter Bishop of Rome (168-176 A.D.) and the Roman Church,
Dionysius complains that his letters had been tampered with. 'As
brethren pressed me to write letters I wrote them. And these the
apostles of the devil have filled with tares, taking away some
things and adding others, for whom the woe is prepared. It is not
wonderful, then, if some have ventured to tamper with the
Scriptures of the Lord when they have laid their plots against
writings that have no such claims as they' [Endnote 242:1]. It
must needs be a straining of language to make the Scriptures here
refer, as the author of 'Supernatural Religion' seems to do, to
the Old Testament. It is true that Justin lays great stress upon
type and prophecy as pointing to Christ, but there is a
considerable step between this and calling the whole of the Old
Testament 'Scriptures of the Lord.' On the other hand, we can
hardly think that Dionysius refers to a complete collection of
writings like the New Testament. It seems most natural to suppose
that he is speaking of Gospels--possibly not the canonical alone,
and yet, with Irenaeus in our mind's eye, we shall say probably to
them. There is the further reason for this application of the
words that Dionysius is known to have written against Marcion--'he
defended the canon of the truth' [Endnote 243:1], Eusebius says--
and such 'tampering' as he describes was precisely what Marcion
had been guilty of.
* * * * *
The reader will judge for himself what is the weight of the kind
of evidence produced in this chapter. I give a chapter to it
because the author of 'Supernatural Religion' has done the same.
Doubtless it is not the sort of evidence that would bear pressing
in a court of English law, but in a question of balanced
probabilities it has I think a decided leaning to one side, and
that the side opposed to the conclusions of 'Supernatural
Religion.'