Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IX/The Diatessaron of Tatian/The Diatessaron/Section IV

by Tatian

Section IV.

[1] ^[1]No man hath seen God at any time; the only Son, God,^[2] which is in the bosom of his Father, he hath told of him.

[2] ^[3]And this is the witness of John when the Jews sent to him from Jerusalem priests [3] and Levites to ask him, Who art thou?  ^[4]And he acknowledged, and denied not; [4] and he confessed that he was not the Messiah.  ^[5]And they asked him again, What then?  Art thou Elijah?  And he said, I am not he.  Art thou a prophet?  He [5] said, No.  ^[6]They said unto him, Then who art thou? that we may answer them that [6] sent us.  What sayest thou of thyself?  ^[7]And he said, I am the voice that crieth in [7] the desert, Repair ye the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet.  ^[8]And they [8] that were sent were from^[9] the Pharisees.  ^[10]And they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest thou now, when thou art not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor a prophet?  [9] ^[11]John answered and said unto them, I baptize with^[12] water:  among you is standing [10] one whom ye know not:  ^[13]this is he who I said cometh after me and was before [11] me, the latchets of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.  ^[14]And that was in Bethany beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

[12] ^[15]Now John’s raiment was camel’s hair, and he was girded with skins, and his food [13] [Arabic, p. 15] was of locusts and honey of the wilderness.^{[16]   [17]}Then went out unto him the people of Jerusalem, and all Judæa, and all the region which is about the [14, 15] Jordan; ^[18]and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.  ^[19]But when he saw many of the Pharisees^[20] and Sadducees^[21] coming to be baptized, he said unto them, Ye children of vipers, who hath led you to flee from the wrath to come?  [16, 17] ^[22]Do now the fruits which are worthy of repentance; ^[23]and think and say not within yourselves, We have a father, even Abraham; for I say unto you, that God is able to [18] raise up of these stones children unto Abraham.  ^[24]Behold, the axe hath been laid at the roots of the trees, and so every tree that beareth not good fruit shall be taken and [19] cast into the fire.  ^[25]And the multitudes were asking him and saying, What shall we do?  [20] ^[26]He answered and said unto them, He that hath two tunics shall^[27] give to him that [21] hath not; and he that hath food shall^[28] do likewise.  ^[29]And the publicans also came [22] to be baptized, and they said unto him, Teacher, what shall we do?  ^[30]He said unto [23] them, Seek not more than what ye are commanded to seek.  ^[31]And the servants^[32] of the guard asked him and said, And we also, what shall we do?  He said unto them, Do not violence to any man, nor wrong him; and let your allowances satisfy you.

[24] ^[33]And when the people were conjecturing about John, and all of them thinking [25] in their hearts whether he were haply^[34] the Messiah, ^[35]John answered and said unto them, I baptize you with water; there cometh one after me who is stronger than I, the latchets of whose shoes I am not worthy to loosen; he will baptize you with the [26] Holy Spirit and fire:  ^[36]who taketh the fan in his hand to cleanse his threshing-floors, [Arabic, p. 16] and the wheat he gathereth into his garners, while the straw he shall burn in fire which can^[37] not be put out.

[27] ^[38]And other things he taught and preached among the people.

[28] ^[39]Then came Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized of him.  [29] ^[40]And Jesus was about thirty years old, and it was supposed that he was the son of [30] Joseph.^{[41]  [42]}And John saw Jesus coming unto him, and said, This is the Lamb of [31] God, that taketh on itself the burden of the sins of the world!  ^[43]This is he concerning whom I said, There cometh after me a man who was before me, because he was [32] before me.^{[44]  [45]}And I knew him not; but that he should be made manifest to Israel, [33] for this cause came I to baptize with water.  ^[46]And John was hindering him and [34] saying, I have need of being baptized by thee, and comest thou to me?  ^[47]Jesus answered him and said, Suffer this now:  thus it is our duty to fulfill all righteousness.  [35] Then he suffered him.  ^[48]And when all the people were baptized, Jesus also [36] was baptized.  ^[49]And immediately he went up out of the water, and heaven opened [37] [Arabic, p. 17] to him,^{[50] [51]}and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the similitude of the [38] body of a dove; ^[52]and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved [39] Son, in whom I am well pleased.  ^[53]And John bare witness and said, I beheld the [40] Spirit descend from heaven like a dove; and it abode upon him.  ^[54]But I knew him not; but he that sent me to baptize with water, he said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt behold the Spirit descending and lighting upon him, the same is he that [41] baptizeth with the Holy Spirit.  ^[55]And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God.

[42, 43] ^[56]And Jesus returned from the Jordan, filled with the Holy Spirit.  ^[57]And immediately the Spirit took him out into the wilderness, to be tried of the devil;^{[58] [59]}and he [44] was with the beasts.  ^[60]And he fasted forty days and forty nights.  ^[61]And he ate nothing [45] in those days, and at the end of them he hungered.  ^[62]And the tempter came and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, speak, and these stones shall become [46] bread.  ^[63]He answered and said, It is written, Not by bread alone shall man live, but [47] by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.  ^[64]Then the devil^[65] brought [48] him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, ^[66]and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down:  for it is written,

He shall give his angels charge concerning thee:

And they shall take thee on their arms,

So that thy foot shall not stumble against a stone.

[49] ^[67]Jesus said unto him, And^[68] it is written also, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy [50] God.  ^[69]And the devil^[70] took him up to a high mountain, and shewed him all the kingdoms [51] [Arabic, p. 18] of the earth, and their glory, in the least time; ^[71]and the devil^[72] said unto him, To thee will I give all this dominion, and its glory, which is delivered to [52] me that I may give it to whomsoever I will.  ^[73]If then thou wilt worship before me, all of it shall be thine.

Footnotes

1. John i. 18.
2. cf. Peshitta, etc. (not Cur.); cf. also Gildemeister, op. cit., p. 29, on Luke ix. 20.
3. John i. 19.
4. John i. 20.
5. John i. 21.
6. John i. 22.
7. John i. 23.
8. John i. 24.
9. Lit. from the side of.
10. John i. 25.
11. John i. 26.
12. Or, in.
13. John i. 27.
14. John i. 28.
15. Matt. iii. 4.
16. On the original Diatessaron reading, honey and milk of the mountains, or, milk and honey of the mountains, which latter Ibn-at-Tayyib cites in his Commentary (folio 44b, 45a) as a reading, but without any allusion to the Diatessaron, see, e.g., now Harris, Fragments of the Com. of Ephr. Syr. upon the Diat. (London, 1895), p. 17 f.
17. Matt. iii. 5.
18. Matt. iii. 6.
19. Matt. iii. 7.
20. The translator uses invariably an Arabic word (name of a sect) meaning Separatists.
21. Lit. Zindiks, a name given to Persian dualists and others.
22. Matt. iii. 8.
23. Matt. iii. 9.
24. Matt. iii. 10.
25. Luke iii. 10.
26. Luke iii. 11.
27. Grammar requires this rendering, but solecisms in this kind of word are very common, and in this work (e.g., § 48, 21) the jussive particle is sometimes omitted.  We should therefore probably render let him give, let him do, etc.
28. Grammar requires this rendering, but solecisms in this kind of word are very common, and in this work (e.g., § 48, 21) the jussive particle is sometimes omitted.  We should therefore probably render let him give, let him do, etc.
29. Luke iii. 12.
30. Luke iii. 13.
31. Luke iii. 14.
32. cf. Peshitta, where the word has its special meaning, soldiers.
33. Luke iii. 15.
34. Our translator constantly uses this Arabic word (which we render haply, or, can it be? or, perhaps, etc.) to represent the Syriac word used in this place.  The latter is used in various ways, and need not be interrogative, as our translator renders it (cf. especially § 17, 6).
35. Luke iii. 16.
36. Luke iii. 17.
37. Or, shall.
38. Luke iii. 18.
39. Matt. iii. 13.
40. Luke iii. 23a.
41. The Vat. ms. here gives the genealogy (Luke iii. 23–38), of which we shall quote only the last words:  the son of Adam; who (was) from God.  If this were not the reading of the Peshitta (against Sin.) and Ibn-at-Tayyib’s Commentary, one might explain from as a corruption of the Arabic son of, the words being very similar.  On the Borg. ms. see § 55, 17, note.
42. John i. 29.
43. John i. 30.
44. cf. § 3, 54, note.
45. John i. 31.
46. Matt. iii. 14.
47. Matt. iii. 15.
48. Luke iii. 21b.
49. Matt. iii. 16b.
50. For the statement of Isho’dad (see above, Introduction, 10), “And straightway, as the Diatessaron testifieth, light shone forth,” etc., see Harris, Fragments, etc., p. 43 f.
51. Luke iii. 22a.
52. Matt. iii. 17.
53. John i. 32.
54. John i. 33.
55. John i. 34.
56. Luke iv. 1a.
57. Mark i. 12.
58. Lit. calumniator.
59. Mark i. 13b.
60. Matt. iv. 2a.
61. Luke iv. 2b.
62. Matt. iv. 2b, 3.
63. Matt. iv. 4.
64. Matt. iv. 5.
65. Lit. calumniator.
66. Matt. iv. 6.
67. Matt. iv. 7.
68. Borg. ms. omits and.
69. Luke iv. 5.
70. Lit. backbiter, a different word from that used above in § 4, 43, 47.
71. Luke iv. 6.
72. Lit. backbiter, a different word from that used above in § 4, 43, 47.
73. Luke iv. 7.