But now we come to the question, was Tatian's work really a
Harmony of our four Gospels? The strongest presumption that it was
is derived from Irenaeus. Irenaeus, it is well known, speaks of
the four Gospels with absolute decision, as if it were a law of
nature that their number must be four, neither more nor less
[Endnote 241:2], and his four Gospels were certainly the same as
our own. But Tatian wrote within a comparatively short interval of
Irenaeus. It is sufficiently clear that Irenaeus held his opinion
at the very time that Tatian wrote, though it was not published
until later. Here then we have a coincidence which makes it
difficult to think that Tatian's four Gospels were different from
ours.
The theory that finds favour with Credner [Endnote 241:3] and his
followers, including the author of 'Supernatural Religion,' is
that Tatian's Gospel was the same as that used by Justin. I am
myself not inclined to think this theory improbable; it would have
been still less so, if Tatian had been the master and Justin the
pupil [Endnote 241:4]. We have seen that the phenomena of Justin's
evangelical quotations are as well met by the hypothesis that he
made use of a Harmony as by any other. But that Harmony, as we
have also seen, included at least our three Synoptics. The
evidence (which we shall consider presently) for the use of the
fourth Gospel by Tatian is so strong as to make it improbable that
that work was not included in the Diatessaron.
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