2. 'Tatian's Gospel,' writes the author of Supernatural Religion, 'was not only called Diatessaron, but according to Victor of Capua, it was also called Diapente ([Greek: dia pente]) "by five," a complication which shows the incorrectness of the ecclesiastical theory of its composition.'
This is not a very accurate statement. If our author had referred to the actual passage in Victor of Capua, he would have found that Victor does not himself call it Diapente, but says that Eusebius called it Diapente. This makes all the difference.
Victor, who flourished about A.D. 545, happened to stumble upon an anonymous Harmony or Digest of the Gospels [286:1], and began in consequence to investigate the authorship. He found two notices in Eusebius of such Harmonies; one in the Epistle to Carpianus prefixed to the Canons, relating to the work of Ammonius; another in the Ecclesiastical History, relating to that of Tatian. Assuming that the work which he had discovered must be one or other, he decides in favour of the latter, because it does not give St Matthew continuously and append the passages of the other evangelists, as Eusebius states Ammonius to have done. All this Victor tells us in the preface to this anonymous Harmony, which he publishes in a Latin dress.
There can be no doubt that Victor was mistaken about the authorship; for, though the work is constructed on the same general plan as Tatian's, it does not begin with John i. 1, but with Luke i. 1, and it does contain the genealogies. It belongs therefore, at least in its present form, neither to Tatian nor to Ammonius.
But we are concerned only with the passage relating to Tatian, which commences as follows:—
Ex historia quoque ejus (i.e. Eusebii) comperi quod Tatianus vir eruditissimus et orator illius temporis clarus unum ex quatuor compaginaverit Evangelium cui titulum Diapente imposuit.
Thus Victor gets his information directly from Eusebius, whom he repeats. He knows nothing about Tatian's Diatessaron, except what Eusebius tells him. But we ourselves have this same passage of Eusebius before us, and find that Eusebius does not call it Diapente but Diatessaron. This is not only the reading of all the Greek MSS without exception, but likewise of the Syriac version [287:1], which was probably contemporary with Eusebius and of which there is an extant MS belonging to the sixth century, as also of the Latin version which was made by Rufinus a century and a half before Victor wrote. About the text of Eusebius therefore there can be no doubt. Moreover Victor himself, who knew Greek, says ex quatuor, which requires Diatessaron, and the work which he identifies with Tatian's Harmony is made up of passages from our Four Gospels alone. Therefore he can hardly have written Diapente himself; and the curious reading is probably due to the blundering or the officiousness of some later scribe [287:2].
Thus we way safely acquiesce in the universal tradition, or as our author, [Greek: ouk oid' hopôs], prefers to call it, the 'ecclesiastical theory,' respecting the character and composition of Tatian's Diatessaron [287:3].
* * * * *
[The actual Diatessaron of Tatian has since been discovered, though not in the original language, so that no doubt can now remain on the subject. The history of this discovery has been given in the careful and scholarly work of Prof. Hemphill of Dublin (The Diatessaron of Tatian 1888), where (see esp. p. xx sq) full information will be found. Ephraem's Commentary exists in an Armenian translation of some works of this Syrian father, which had been published in Venice as early as 1836. I had for some years possessed a copy of this work in four volumes, and the thought had more than once crossed my mind that possibly it might throw light on Ephraem's mode of dealing with the Gospels, as I knew that it contained notes on St Paul's Epistles or some portion of them. I did not however then possess sufficient knowledge of Armenian to sift its contents, but I hoped to investigate the matter when I had mastered enough of the language. Meanwhile a Latin translation was published by Moesinger under the title of Evangelii concordantis expositio facta a Sancto Ephraemo doctore Syro Venet. 1876, just about the time when I wrote the above article; but it was not known in England till some years after. Later still an Arabic translation of the Diatessaron itself has been discovered and published in Rome by Ciasca (Tatiani Evangeliorum Harmoniae Arabice nunc primum etc., 1888). On the relation of Victor's Diatessaron, which seems to be shown after all not to be independent of Tatian, and for the quotations in Aphraates, etc., see Hemphill's Diatessaron. Thus the 'ecclesiastical theory'—the only theory which was supported by any sound continuous tradition—is shown to be unquestionably true, and its nineteenth century critical rivals must all be abandoned.]