Tatian's Diatessaron was one of a number of harmonies of the four Gospels, that is, the material of the four distinct Gospels rewritten as a continuous narrative resolving all conflicting statements. It contained most of the gospels' material except, according to Theodoret, for the two different genealogies of Jesus (one in the Gospel of Matthew and one in the Gospel of Luke). Although by being essentially an amalgam of the canonical texts it was not considered heretical, it was nevertheless considered part of the New Testament apocrypha since it had nothing to add. Tatian was an early Christian writer and theologian of the second century. ... For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ... Theodoret (393 - c. ... Genealogy is the study and tracing of family pedigrees. ... The Gospel of Matthew (literally: according to Matthew, Greek: kata Maththaion) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. ... The Gospel of Luke is the third of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ... In the process of determining the Biblical canon, a large number of works were excluded from the New Testament. ...

This work was produced ca. 175 AD by Tatian, a Syrian Christian who was a pupil of Justin Martyr in Rome. It is generally agreed that Justin already possessed some sort of a harmony text. No version of Diatessaron in Syriac or Greek has survived. Though the Arabic translations that have survived suggest that Tatian was relying on a previous harmony, so little of his Diatessaron has survived, first by the meticulous though not completely effective suppression it received in the 4th century, and then by the piecemeal accretions, adjustments and corrections its text received, that many questions remain to what extent it was a new work. Tatian was an early Christian writer and theologian of the second century. ... Saint Justin Martyr (Justin the Martyr) (c. ...

There is even disagreement about what language Tatian used for its original composition, whether Syriac or Greek. However, modern scholarship tends to favour a Syriac origin. The Diatessaron was used in the Syrian Church for centuries and was quoted or alluded to by Syrian writers: Ephraem wrote a lost commentary on it [1], but Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus on the Euphrates in upper Syria in 423, sought out and found more than two hundred copies of the Diatessaron, which he "collected and put away, and introduced instead of them the Gospels of the four evangelists". Thus the harmonisation was replaced in the 5th century by the canonical four gospels individually and gradually developed a reputation for having been heretical. The name 'Diatessaron' is Greek for 'through four'; the Syriac name for this gospel harmony is 'Ewangeliyôn Damhalltê' ('Gospel of the Mixed'). Indeed, the Syrian Church also rejected John's Revelation and the Pastoral epistles. They were included again only in the middle of the sixth century. Syriac is an Eastern Aramaic language that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. ... Syriac Christianity is a culturally and linguistically distinctive community within Eastern Christianity. ... Ephrem the Syrian was a prolific Syriac language hymn writer and theologian of the 4th century. ... Theodoret (393 - c. ... Book burning is the practice of ceremoniously destroying by fire one or more copies of a book or other written material. ... Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the ‘catholic’ or orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ... For information on the last book of the New Testament see the entry on the Book of Revelation. ...

In the tradition of Gospel harmonies, there is another Diatessaron, reportedly written by one Ammonius Saccas, to correct perceived deficencies in Tatian's. (Note that this Ammonius Saccas is probably not the Ammonius Saccas who taught Origen and Plotinus, but rather a different philosopher with the same name). None of this revised Diatessaron survives. Ammonius Saccas (3rd century AD) was a Greek philosopher of Alexandria, often called the founder of the Neoplatonic school. ... Origen was a Christian scholar and theologian and one of the most distinguished of the Fathers of the early Christian Church. ... Plotinus Plotinus (ca. ...

Gospel harmonies are valuable in studies of biblical texts, since they frequently offer glimpses of earlier versions of texts. In particular, due to their not having been copied as frequently as biblical texts, more of the earlier versions survive (as newer copies did not exist to replace them). As such, the extant texts contain within them portions of earlier versions of the gospels than the earliest separate gospels known.

External links

• Early Christian Writings: Diatessaron e-text and commentaries.
• Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. X: based on an 11th century Arabic translation from the Syriac

References

• William L. Petersen, "Textual evidence of Tatian's dependence upon Justin's Apomnemonegmata, New Testament Studies 36 (1990) 512-534.
• Jeffrey Tigay, editor. Empirical Models for Biblical Criticism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986