DIATESSARON. - Work of Tatian, who fused the text of the four Gospels into a single orderly narrative. The fact is reported to us by the historian Eusebius (Hist. eccl., IV, 29) and by other ancient writers. Of the work there have come down to us: 1) a brief fragment in Greek, found in 1933 among the ruins of Dura Europos on the Euphrates; 2) fragments of a Syriac version in citations of Syriac writers and in the commentary of St. Ephrem (which has come down to us in Armenian); 3) a complete Arabic version from the Syriac, of the 11th century (v. ABŪ 'L-FARAŪ IBN AT-TAJĪB); 4) a complete Latin reworking in the Fuldensis codex of the Vulgate, of which several medieval Gospel harmonies in Latin, Italian, German, Dutch, and English are either descendants or collaterals.

As for the order of the materials, that is, of the Gospel events, documents 2-4 do not agree exactly, but they agree on what is characteristic and essential in Tatian's arrangement, namely that, on the framework of the Passovers mentioned in the Fourth Gospel, whose traditional 5th and 6th chapters he inverts, he reduces the public life of Jesus to one year and a few months, and groups everything Jesus did in Jerusalem toward the end around the day of Palms. They also all agree in placing the washing of the feet before the paschal supper and the departure of Judas before the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist. For the rest, the best witness, but incomplete, of the primitive order seems to be the commentary of St. Ephrem, which the Arabic version follows; the Western branches depart from it more.

As for the textual wording, the situation is even worse. The Arabic version represents to us a Syriac text already conformed, in its material expression, to the Pēšīṭā, that is, to a revision made in the 5th century on the Greek then current at Antioch (v. SIRIACHE, VERSIONI DELLA BIBBIA). In the codex of Fulda, Victor of Capua (ca. 546) replaced the primitive Latin translation with the Vulgate of St. Jerome (382). The genuine text of Tatian was better preserved for us, but fragmentary and at third hand, in the commentary of St. Ephrem and in the scanty citations of other Syriac writers. Hence the delicacy of the problems in the use of Tatian for the textual criticism of the Gospels.

Bibliography11 works

BIBL.: E. Ranke, Codex Fuldensis..., Marburg 1868; A. Ciasca, Tatiani Evangeliorum harmoniae, Rome 1888 (Arabic text and Latin version); E. Sievers, Tatian lateinisch u. altdeutsch... Paderborn 1892; M. Goates, The Pepysian Gospel harmony, London 1922; B. Plooy, The Liège D., 2 vols., Amsterdam 1929-35; C. H. Krazling, A Greek fragment of Tatian's D. from Dura, London 1935; A. S. Marmardij, D. de Tatien, Beirut 1935 (Arabic text, French translation, variants); V. Todesco-A. Vaccari-M. Vattasso, Il D. in volgare italiano..., Vatican City 1938; C. Peters, Das D. Tatiane, Rome 1939; U. Mannucci-A. Cassamassa, Istituzioni di Patrologia, ibid. 1940, p. 77 ff.; B. Altaner, Patrologia, Turin 1944, p. 73.

Alberto Vaccari

DIATESSARON - The oldest fragment of the original Greek of Tatian's D. (first half of the 3rd century) - Dura Europos.(from Fletch-Martin-Fratus, I, 1st ed., Turin 1921, p. 18)

@incollection{ec4_diatessaron, author = {Vaccari, Alberto}, title = {Diatéssaron}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1557--1558}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/diatessaron} }

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Diatessaron

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