A Reply to Dr. Lightfoot's Essays by Walter R. Cassels
page 154 of 216 (71%)
page 154 of 216 (71%)
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of which incidents have been incorporated. St. Luke, on the other
hand, is employed by Tatian, as also in a lesser degree is St. John, in complete defiance of chronological order." [149:1] This is not quite so different from the description of the _Diatessaron_ of Ammonius, which Dr. Lightfoot quotes:-- "He placed side by side with the Gospel according to Matthew the corresponding passages of the other Evangelists, so that as a necessary result the connection of sequence in the three was destroyed so far as regards the order (texture) of reading." [149:2] The next witness cited is Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, writing about A.D. 453, and I need not quote the well-known passage in which he describes the suppression of some 200 copies of Tatian's work in his diocese, which were in use "not only among persons belonging to his sect, but also among those who follow the Apostolic doctrine," who did not perceive the heretical purpose of a book in which the genealogies and other passages showing the Lord to have been born of the seed of David after the flesh were suppressed. It is a fact, however, which even Zahn points out, that, in the alleged _Diatessaron_ of Ephraem, these passages are not all excised, but still remain part of the text, [150:1] as they also do in the Arabic translation. This is the only definite information which we possess of the contents of the _Diatessaron_ beyond the opening words, and it does not tally with the recently discovered works. I need not further discuss here the statement of Epiphanius that some called Tatian's _Diatessaron_ the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Epiphanius had not seen the work himself, and he leaves us in the same |
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