The Diatessaron (Syriac: ܐܘܢܓܠܝܘܢ ܕܡܚܠܛܐ, romanized: Ewangeliyôn Damhalltê; c. 160–175 AD) is the most prominent early gospel harmony. It was created in the Syriac language by Tatian, an Assyrian early Christian apologist and ascetic.[1] Tatian sought to combine all the textual material he found in the four gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - into a single coherent narrative of Jesus's life and death. However, and in contradistinction to most later gospel harmonists, Tatian appears not to have been motivated by any aspiration to validate the four separate canonical gospel accounts; or to demonstrate that, as they stood, they could each be shown as being without inconsistency or error.
Although widely used by early Syriac Christians, the original text has not survived. It was reconstructed in 1881 by Theodor Zahn from translations and commentaries.[2]
- ^ Cross, F. L, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005, article Tatian
- ^ Theodor Zahn: Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons und der altkirchlichen Literatur. Teil 1. Tatian’s Diatessaron. Deichert, Erlangen 1881.