tatian's diatessaron and a persian harmony of the gospels (bruce m. metzger)

7/24/2019 Tatian's Diatessaron and a Persian Harmony of the Gospels (Bruce M. Metzger)

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TATIAN'S DIATESSARON AND A PERSIAN

HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS

BRUCE M. METZGER

PRINCETON THOLOGICA SEMINARY

EXCEPT for a tiny parchment fragment in Greek, all the

extant witnesses to Tatian's famous Diatessaron are of

secondary or tertiary character. These witnesses may be con-veniently divided into two groups, one Estern and the otheWestern The chief members of the Eastern group include,rst, the Syiac commentary o the Diatessaron by St Ephraemof the fourth century preserved today only in an Armenian

translation which has been edited from two manuscripts;2second, an Arabic Diatessaron which was translated from the

'Edited by Car! H Kraelng, A Greek Fragment of Tatian's Diatessaronfro Dura (Stdies and Documents III; London 1935). The editor datesthe fragment about the year 222 (p. 7 that is about fty years after Tatiandrew up the orignal Diatessaron. This is the only known witness to Tatans

work which is extant n Greek for the leaf from a papyrus co dex containingthe Greek text of parts of Mt 18 and 19 which its edtor Otto Stegmllerbelieved to be a fragment of the Greek Diatessaron (see hi s artcle "EnBruchstck aus dem griechschen Diatessaron (P. 16 388) Zeitschrift frdie neutestamentliche Wissensct, XXXVII [1938] 223-229 is probablynothing more than a Greek text whch contans several Tatanc readings(so Curt Peters "Ein neues Fragment des griechischen Datessaron? Bblica,XXI 1940] 515 and "Neue unde und orschungen zum Diatessaronibid. XXIII 1942] 6877).

The Armenian text Srboyn Ephremi matenagrouthiun II was publshedin 1836 by the Mechitarist athers of the Monastery of San Laaro at VeniceThis edition was made available for the use of scholars ho are not expertin the rmenian language by J. B. ucher who prepared a Latin rendernghich was edted and published by Georg Moesnger n 1876 collecton ofEphraems citations from the Diatessaron arranged in the order of the rabcDiatessaron and carefully translated into English was supervised by rmitage Robinson and published as ppendix X i n J. Hamlin Hl TheEarliest Lije of C!rist ever Compiled from the Gospels Being the Diatessaon of

Ttin (Ednburgh 1894 pp 333-377; ths ppendix accompaned by two261


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262 JORNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATRE

Syriac and which is extant in two forms, represented by two andfour manuscripts respectively;3 and, third, a Syriac Diatessariclectionary for Passiontide extant in about two dozen manu-scripts. 4 The chief witnesses of the Western group includerst, the famous Codex Fuldensis, a Latin harmony of the

additional essays was reprinted with very minor alterations in J Hamlin

Hill A Dissertaton on the Gospel Commentary of S. Ephraem the SyrianEdinburgh 1896) pp 75-119

According to V F Bchner of the two manuscripts of Ephraem's Commentary from which the Armenian edition was prepared it appears thatmanuscript A is more reiable than manuscript B; see his note "Soe Remarkson the Tradition of the Armenian Translation of Ephraem Syrus Commentaryon the Diatessaron Buletin of the Bezan Club, V (1 928) 34 and "Zu einerStelle der armenischen bersetzung von Ephrem Syrus DiatessaronKommentar Handes Amsorya XL (1927) cols 685-688.

a The editio Princeps based on two manuscripts A of the thirteenth orfourteenth century and B of a somewhat later date so Paul L Kahle TheCairo Geniza [London 197] p 213) was prepared by Agostino Ciasca laterardinal Ciasca) Tatiani Evangeliorum harmoniae arabice Rome 1888

anastatic reprint 1930) . Translations into English and German accompaniedby critical introductions and notes were prepared by Hill (op cit), Hope W.Hogg The Diatessaron of Tatian (The Ante-Nicene Fathers IX [New York1896 pp 33-138) and Ein Preuschen with the help of August PottTatians Diatessaron aus den arabischen bersett Heidelberg 1926) Thmost recent edition of the Arabic text on the basis of three manuscripts Aand B with a much later one designated E) is that prepared by AS Marmardji Diatessaron de Tatien texte arabe tabi traduit en franais Beyrouth 1935) Unfortunately however it is often impossible to eterminefrom Marmardjis apparatus whether his printed text is that of ms E or isthe editors idea of what the ms ought to read For further inrmationregarding the manuscripts of the Arabic iatessaron see Georg Graf Geschicte der christlichen arabischen Literatur (Studi e testi XVIII; itt del

Vaticano 194) pp 152 -15 4; A B Higgens "The Arabic Versio n ofTatians Diatessaron Joual of Theoloical Stuies XLV (1944) 187-199,and Kahle op cit pp 21 1-28

< See P P Martn Introduction a la crique textuelle du Nouveau Testament Partie practique III Pars [1885) 21-144 and "Le bi Uffpwvde Tatien Revue des questions historiques XXXIII (1883) 366378; H H.Spoer "Spuren eines syrischen Diatessaron Zeischrift fr die deutscenmorgenndischen Gesellscaft, LXI (1907) 850-859; G A Barton and H HSpoer "Traces of the Diatessaron of Tatian in Harclean Syriac LectionariesJBL XXIV (1905) 179195 ; and the appendix in Marmardi op cit "vanglaire diatessarique syriaque pp 1 *75*.

METZGER: DIATESSAR ON AND HARMONY OF GOSPELS 263

Gospels prepared at the direction of Bishop Victor of Capuanear the middle of the sixth century second, various medievalGerman harmonies, the most notable of which is an Old HighGerman (East Frankish) bilingual harmony dating from thesecond half of the ninth century, the Latin text of which dependsupon Victor's work6 third, the Middle Dutch (Flemish) har-

monies preserved in nine manuscripts of the thirteenth to f-

teenth centuries,7 the best known of which are the manuscriptat Lige8 and the one at Stuttgart9 fourth, two Old Italian

s Edited by Ernst Ranke Code Fuldensis Novn Testaentum latineinterprete ieronyo e manuscripto Victoris Capuani arburg 1868)

6 Edited by Eduard Sievers Tatian lateinisc und altdeutsch mit ausfhrlichen Glossar 2te Au (Bibliothek der ltesten deutschen LitteraturDenklerV Paderborn 1892) For information regarding other medieval Germanhrmonies see urt Peters Das Diatessaron Tatians seine berlieferung undsein Nachwirken im rgen d Abendland sowie der heutige Stand seinerErforschung (Orientalia cristiana analecta XXIII; Rome 1939) pp 177-188

1 For a list of these see Peters Das Diatessaron Tatians, pp 140-142

. Edited rst by G J Meier Het Leven van Jezs een nederlandsch andschrift uit de dertiende Eeuw Groningen 1835) the signicance of which forNew Testament scholarship was discovered fty years later by A RobinsonAcademy XLV (24 arch 1894) 249-250 The manuscript was reeditedwith evidence from other Middle utch harmonies by Bergsma De Levensvan Jezus in et Middelnederlandsch (Bibliotheek van middelnederlandsche Letterkde LIV LV LXI; Groningen 1895-98) The lack of an index inBergsmas volume is supplied by A hillips Inde to the Lige Diatessaron(Edition of Dr. J Bergsa) privately printed for the members of the BezanClub a photostatic copy is available in the Library of Princeton TheologicalSeminary) It is to be hoped that the magnicent edition which has been inthe course of publication under the auspices of the Royal Academy at Amsterdam will be brought to a conclusion namely The Lige Diatessaron edited

with a Textual Apparatus by Danil Plooi A Phillips and A ABakker Parts I-V ( Verandelingen der koninklijke nederlandsche Akadeievan Wetenschappen Afd Letterkunde Nieuwe Reeks Deel XXXI; Amsterdam 1929 -1938) Fr a general discussion of this and other iddle Dutchharmonies see De Bruin 1iddelnederlandse Vertalingen van et NiweTestaent Groningen 1935) pp 32-68 and for a stemma showing the relationship of several Dutch Harmonies see the incisive critique of Plooispreliminary work on the Lige Diatessaron A rmtive Tet of the Diatessaron Leyden 1923) by the Germanist Th Frings in Literaturbltt frgermanische und roanische hilologie XLVII (1926) cols 150155

9 The text is printed by Bergsma op cit


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266 JOURNA OF BIBICA ITERATURE

appear to embody in varying degrees Diatessaric readings. Infact, i t is likely that the policy of approving as genuinely Tatianionly those readings in the Arabic Diatessaron which dier fromthe Peshitta ha been unwarrantably rigorous, for even wherethe Arabic Diatessaron agrees with th Peshitta, if the OldSyriac also agrees, such readings are proved to be more ancienthan the Peshitta and may therefore be Tatianic Such a

possibility become a probabilit with overwhelming compulsionwhen Ephraem and other witnesses unrelated to the Peshittaadd their support18

To this list of witnesses to Tatian's Diatessaron anotherapparently must now be added, namely a medieval PersianDiatessaron of which a preliminary announcement was madesevera! years ago by Giuseppi MessinaI9 According to Messinathis document (Laurentian manuscript XVII) was copied in teyear 1547 by Ibrahim ben Shams, a Jacobite priest, from aoriginal datin g from the thirteenth century This earlier PersianDiatessaron appear to have been slavishly translated from aSyriac base by a Jacobite layman originally of Tabrz who callshimself wnns Izz al-Dn, that is, "John, Glory of the ReligionMessina believes that he may have been a convert from Islamto Christianity Although the original text of the PersianDiatessaron has not yet been made available, Messina hassupplied a complete table of contents and a translation intoItalian of the st 71 sections out of a total of 250 (34 folios outof 130 thus comprising slightly over one fourth of the wholeIt is on the basis of an examination of this material that thepresent article has been written

aia," Oriens christiams 3. Ser., XII (1937), 169-191, and Peters, Das Diates-saron Tatians, pp 125132

18 For a sane and balanced statement of the correct methodoogy of TaianicForschung, which i s drawn up with apidary succinctness, see August MerkNovu Testaentu graece et ltine ed sexta (Rome, 1948), pp. 17*18.

Ciuseppe Messina, Un Diatessaron persiano de secoo XIII tradottod siriaco-' Bilica XXII (1

942), 268305; XXIV (1943), 59106, reprinted,

wth certa mor modcatns and the addition of the transation of theremainder of the rst major division of the Harmony, in Notizia su un Diatessaron persiao tradotto dal sirico (Biblica et orientlia X; Rome, 1943)In a subsequent study Messina deas at greater ength with certain styistic

METZGER: DIATESSARON AND HARMONY O GOSES 267

The Persian Harmony is divided into four main divisions,containing respectively 71, 61, 60 and 58 paragraphs Thecompiler has indicated the derivation of the various passagesfrom the four Gospels2 by using the appropriat letters, M, S(the nal leter of Mars), L, and Y (Yuann) 1 When thesequence of the sections is compared with Tatian's work, represented in the Codex Fuldensis and the Arabic Diatessaron, onlya relatively few sections are found to be in the same order andthese can be explained on the basis of natural coincidenceIndeed, the underlying plan as well as the execution sems todier from Tatian's very carefully wrought Diatessaron Forexample, the compiler of this Harmony occasionally presentsparallel Synoptic passages at dierent places in his work as"the salt which has lost its saltiness Mt 5 13 appears in I, 34while the parallel in Lk 14 34 is given in IV, 11. At other timesbut one of two slightly divergent passages is utilized, the peculiarities of the other being omited entirely in a way quite unlikeTatian's meticulou care in embodying practically everythingdistinctive in the four Gospels as III, 8, where Mt

1025b-2s is

cited without the Lucan details of Lk 12 24) . The Persian

characteristics of the Persian Harmony; see his Paraeismi semitismi eziontendenziose nearmonia persiana, Biblica XXX (1949), 356376

20 In another atice Messina discusses certain readings in the PersianDiatessaron which are present aso in the Protoevangeium of James, without,however, deciding that Tatian himse made use of the Protoevangeium;Lezioni apocrife ne! Diatessaron persiano, Biblica XXX (1949), 1027.It wi be recaed that Phiips (Bulletin of the Bezan Club IX [1932], 68),Baumstark (Biblica XVI [1935], 288290 and Oriens christianus 3 Ser,XIV [1939 1927) and Peters (Acta orientalia XVI [1938, 258294) gavereasons for beieving tha Tatian made use of a fth source for his Harmony,

namey the Cospe according to the Hebrews, and that this fact accounts forthe otherwise puzzing statement made by Victor of apua conceing Tatiansdiapente (Tatianus ..unn ex quattuor conpaginauerit euangeliu cuititulu diapente conposuit; Ranke, op. cit. p 1 ines 1618)

1 In one form of the Arabic Diatessaron these sigla are: M for Mt, R forMk, for Lk, for Jn in the other for two etters are used for each CospeMt, Mr, L Yu Zachary expains that he uses M for Mt, R for Mk, L forLk, and A for Jn (here Zachary chooses the rst etter of Aquila show thatJohn is the eage in the tetrad of iving creatures in Ezekie; Migne, PL,LXXXVI, co 40 A-e).


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68 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

Harmony begins with Mk 1 and not with Jn 1 as Tatian,on the explicit testimony of Dionysius bar alibi2 egan hisDiatessaron. Furthermore the Persian Harmony contains theMatthean and Lucan genealogies of Jesus both of whichaccording to Theodoret Bishop of Cyrrhos23 were omitted byTatian. So far therefore as the externa! framework is con-cerned the Persian Harmon manifests no relationship to

TatianOn the other hand the testimony of this Eastern witness to

Tatian appears to be of the second variety mentioned above;it contains many readings which are of undoubted Tatianicancestry. he following apparatus exhibits about one hundrdsuch readings and was compiled by comparing the availableportion of the Persian Harmony with other Eastern and Westenwitnesses mentioned at the beginning of thisarticle. It is not tobe supposed that the autograph of Tatian's Diatessaron musthave contained every one of the following variants for in not afew cases the testimony of the atianic witnesses is dividedThe main intention of the present article is to set forth soe ofthe evidence conceing the relationship of the Persian Harmony(so far as this has been published by Messina) and variousother witnesses which preserve Tatianic readings For pur-poses of comparison evidence from the Syriac versions is alsocited.

22 Joseph S. Assemani, Bibliotheca orienali II (Rome 7), -0Bar alibi's statement is conrmed by evidence fom E phraems commentarbut is apparently contradicted by the Arabic text (which begins with Mark)and by the Codex Fuldensis (which begins with Luke If the introductorynotices in the Arabic manuscripts are carefully studied howee it appearsthat the original Araic text began with Jn . Similarly, it is almost certainthat the st four verses of uke were not in the original text of the manuscriptwhch Victor found, for they are not mentioned in the (old) table of contentswhich begins with John.

'3 Theodoret, eaie eeie 0 (Migne PG, XXXIII cols37). The two forms of the Arabic text of the Diatessaron are distin-uished also (see footnote no above) by the way in which they dispose ofthe genealogies; in one form the genealogies are included in the midst of thetext, in the other they appear at the end as a kind of appendix.

METZGER: DIATESSARON AND HARMONY OF GOSPELS 69

Sigla used in the Apparatus

Ar Arabic Diatessaron Sy Sinaitic SyriacAph Aphraates Sy Curetonian Syriac phraem Sy eshittaL Lige ms Sy Palestinian SyriacLG Syriac Lber graduum Sy Harclean Syriac

ep Pepsian Harmony Tus Tuscan form of ItalianHarmonyer Persian Harmony Ven Venetian form of talian

HarmonySt Stuttgart ms z Zachary of Besanon

Direct quotations from editions of atianic witnesses arecited in italics translations of words and sentences into Englishare enclosed in quotation marks.

MATTHEW

1 rn lwu1< o av1p ar1s, otKas wv] lwu1< o av1p0tKas er E Ven: und Iosp vando , cum llo fossiusto t bono L Sy

2 s -arw er A - "ap er A 6 oaws 1 er A L St ( dx)

g t oE aKuavns r auLAEws cum audivissent (hoc) arege Per: la parola dl r A Ven Sy8 e

14 oE+ Iwu1< Per A Ven us L S Sy " e P

ia rwv 7pO


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Maria.Pep: Joseph and Marie Tus: Gioseppo e Marie

Sy(e hiat) P: "and hiskinsfolk243 OL ovELS aro] rp aro KaL Iwuc Per A:

"Joseph and hismother Sy: "Joseph and his mother248 o arp uo Kaw] EW KaL o arp uo Per A E 1

ovwEVOL + KaL AOEVOL Per: aitti con ansiet EPep: wi myche sorou3 Syc: "in trouble and in much per-

turbation" 1 ?OELrE] oiarE PerAVenLSt25 uocia Kai ALKLa] ALKLa KaL ocia PerAL: in ijarenene in wijsheiden Z Syp, pal

3 9 vaLKOS]+


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274 JOURNAL OF BBLCAL LTERATURE

he was a just man." Among the other medieval harmonies teyenetianDiatessaron reads unde Iosep veando r, cum ellofosseiusto et b

.ono tmy be added that the Curetonian Syriac Iike-

w1seav01dsoendgthe asceticallymindedandreads Josephbecause he was a just man."

' '

.n Lk2

.there are four references to Joseph and Mary which

theordary Greek text, doubtless appeared to certain in theerl curch to require rephrasing in order to safeguard the:rg1 brth f Jesus26 .n Lk 233 7arp avroD Ka frps adusted the Persan Harmony to read la madre d lu e

Guseppe, and in severa! other witnesses to Tatian the propername Joseph" is used in rder to avoid referring to him ast ' , [

I"o 7arpavrov se. Oov]. Thus, theArabicDiatessaronreads,

Joseph?dhimother," andtheDutchHarmoniesread Joseph

ende Maria (L1ege ms.) and oseph ende ar hesus moeer(Stuttgartms.) The PepysianHarmony and te Tuscan formof the I

talian Diatessaron (theVenetian form omits this erse)

agree w1th theLigems in reading the two proper names.n Lk 21 and 43

the phrase ol 'OVELS avroD is used in theGreektextinreferrng toJesus'parents. In the formerpassagehowever the Persian Diatessaron prefers themore general termpeople" in the phrase la gente d Ges, as oes also the ArabicDiatessarn (


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278 JOURNAL OF BIBLIAL LITERAURE

the Sinaitic reads 2l instead of : .38 Likewise thePersian Harmony, quando sentirono la parola del re obviouslyrepresents a form of the Matthean text which, instead of construing the genitive roD {aws as the object of Kouavresinserted a noun or pronoun as the object of the Greek participle,as is preserved today in the various circumlocutions set forthabove.

In Mt1

(and the aralle in Lk7 a2

) the complaint, "Wehave piped Muaev) to you, and you did not dance; we havewailed, and you did not mourn, was undoubtedly read byTatian with a verb of singing instead of playing. Both Easternand \estern branches of Tatianic tradition agree in this variantThus, the Arabic and the Persian Harmony (cantamm[sarwad guftm]) join wit the Venetian (no avemo chantato),the Tuscan (noi cantamo) nd the Dutch Harmonies w habbenu g(h)esongen)

Severa! variants are the result of a certain fullness of expression. For example, instead of representing exactly the Greektext of Lk 13 * ooD, Zaxapla, tbn eKouO T ulso, Ka T V V 'EALer


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in the support of