literaryhistoryo02crut - Carmel Apologetics

348
I 111-: APOLOGISTS.
Unit thoiigli the .sulhstance is complete, the form lias uiidcrgone
alteration.
In order to arrive at the expressions actually used by
Tatian, it is necessary to go back to Ephraem's fragments
and I he eitiitions by Aphraates. Ephraem in his Armenian
(hess is very faitliful to tlie original: but Apln-aates' Syriac
citations alone give the ipsisdma verba of Tatian.
Finally, there is some evidence that even in the Greekspeaking
churches the Diatessaron was not wholly unknown.
In A.D. 1523 the Humanist Luscinius puldislied an epitome
of the Gospel History entitled " Evangelicac historiae ex
qicatnor Evangelistis perpetuo tenorc continuata narratio ex
Ammonii Alcxandrini frafpnentis qiiibusdaiii.^' He is no
doubt in error in su})p()sing Ids Greek epitome to be the
work of Ammonius : but he seems to have been equally
ignorant of Tatian and of Victor's Harmony : Zahn declares
that the fragment shows clear traces of the Diatessaron,
and tluis it would seem that in both the Greek and Latin
churches an attempt was made to utilise it.
It was, however, in tlie Syrian Church that it found its
proper home, and there is no reasonable doul)t tliat it appeared
first in Syriac.
On leaving Home, Tatian probably spent a short time at
Alexandria, wliere he has left traces of his teaching. But
his ictiremcnt to ^lesopotamia was virtually the surrender
of his ]M)sition as a Greek theologian. During the remainder
of liis life he seems to liave reverted to Syriac as the vehicle
of his literary composition, as of course it was of his oral
preaching. I If dii-d at Edessa, somewhere about 180 A.D.,
liaving accoiuplishiMl Ids life's work.
His idea of an eclectic Gospel was as ha]>py as it was
original. It icinains to discuss the principle on which he
carricMl it out. We must remember tliat his fii-st object
was suital»ility for public use. The consistency at which he
aimed was rather moral than historical. For this purpose
he places several events out of their ])roper order to liring
out more vividly the spiritual lesson they embody. The
general basis of the work is the (losjtcl of S. Matthew, wliich