Saturday, June 13, 2009

Conclusions from the Diatessaron

He [Tatian] began, saying

THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD

[John] In the beginning etc. etc.

Second. The word “’John” might only be an indicator of the corresponding verse in the Separated Gospels. You can see this as you read through the text. Warn the reader that there could be a different interpretation to yours.

Third, the siglum for John is definitely H.ET not HE

Fourth. Ms. A has “the Son of God” and mss. B and E have “the Son of the Living God”. The reading of A is to be preferred, since the longer reading of the other mss. can easily be explained as due to the influence of Peter’s words and the tendency to make titles longer. NO MS. HAS “THE CHRIST”.

Fifth. The words “God is the Word” instead of “the Word was God” can be explained as over-literal translation from Syriac. Don’t base any arguments on this. The words “This IS in the beginning” instead of “was” are due to the nature of Arabic phrasing. The Syriac quotations all have a past tense.


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