The Diatessaron of Tatian: A Harmony of the Four Holy Gospels Compiled in the Third Quarter of the Second Century (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Diatessaron of Tatian: A Harmony of the Four Holy Gospels Compiled in the Third Quarter of the Second Century

The materials of a patchwork must exist before the patchwork itself. The shells and pebbles which we find embedded in the matrix of a conglomerate rock, must first have had a separate existence grinding themselves smooth on the troubled sea-shore. So it is but a truism to say, that the records which Tatian knew and valued as authentic form of apostolic tradition, and from which he compiled his Harmony, must have had an assured position in his time. He knew - at any rate he used - no others. And he was the friend and pupil of Justin Martyr. They lived and taught in the same city were received in the same circle of acquaintances were persecuted by the same enemies worshipped - perhaps hid - in the same catacombs. And when the friends wanted to strengthen or comfort one another, in the face of danger or difficulty, we may well believe that they quoted the Saviour's words, and recounted His deeds, out of the same Gospels.

But to admit that the Gospels of Tatian were the Gospels of Justin, is to bring them back to the very threshold of the first century, to a period in which very many personal friends of the apostles must have been alive, and able to testify to the genuineness of their writings.

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