It is equally unclear whether Tatian took the Syriac Gospel texts composited into his Diatessaron from a previous translation, or whether the translation was his own.

Hence from the Syriac Diatessaron text was derived an 11th Century Arabic harmony ( the source for the published versions of the Diatessaron in English ); and a 13th Century Persian harmony.

With the gradual adoption of the Vulgate as the liturgical Gospel text of the Latin Church, the Latin Diatessaron was increasingly modified to conform to Vulgate readings.

The success of Tatian's Diatessaron in about the same time period is "... a powerful indication that the fourfold Gospel contemporaneously sponsored by Irenaeus was not broadly, let alone universally, recognized.

Nicholas Perrin argues that Thomas is dependent on the Diatessaron, which was composed shortly after 172 by Tatian in Syria.

Thence came to us in the 2nd century the famous Peshitta, or Syriac translation of the Old Testament ; also Tatian's Diatessaron, which was compiled about 172 and in common use until St. Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa ( 412-435 ), forbade its use.

And immediately the face of the door of the temple was rent into two parts from top to bottom ; and the earth was shaken ; and the stones were split to pieces ; and the tombs were opened ; Diatessaron 52, 2

The most widely read of these was the Diatessaron.

The earliest Christian literature in Classical Syriac was biblical translation, the Peshitta and the Diatessaron.

The harmony does not include Jesus ' encounter with the adulteress ( John 7: 53 – 8: 11 ), a passage that is generally considered to be a spurious late addition to the Gospel of John, with the Diatessaron itself often used as an early textual witness to support this.

Where the Diatessaron records Gospel quotations from the Jewish Scriptures, the text appears to agree with that found in the Syriac Peshitta Old Testament rather than that found in the Greek Septuagint — as used by the original Gospel authors.

Tatian's widely used Diatessaron, compiled between 160 and 175, utilized the four gospels without any consideration of others.

The Diatessaron became a standard text of the gospels in some Syriac-speaking churches down to the 5th century, when it gave way to the four separate Gospels, in the Peshitta version.

The Diatessaron ( c 160 – 175 ) is the most prominent Gospel harmony created by Tatian, an early Christian apologist and ascetic.

Resolution of these scholarly questions remained very difficult so long as no complete version of the Diatessaron in Syriac or Greek had been recovered ; while the medieval translations that had survived — in Arabic and Latin — both relied on texts that had been heavily corrected to conform better with later canonical versions of the separate Gospel texts.

Frequently such versions have been constructed as Gospel harmonies, sometimes taking Tatian's Diatessaron as an exemplar ; other times proceeding independently.

The Diatessaron is thought to have been available to Muhammad, and may have led to his faulty conclusion in the Qur ' an that the Christian Gospel is one text or one book alone, without reference to the canonical authors or New Testament corpus ; he calls this supposed text the Injil.

The older mixed Vulgate / Diatessaron text type also appears to have continued as a distinct tradition, as such texts appear to underlie surviving 13th-14th century Gospel harmonies in Middle Dutch, Middle High German, Middle French, Middle English, Tuscan and Venetian ; although no example of this hypothetical Latin sub-text has ever been identified.

This Latin Diatessaron textual tradition has also been suggested as underlying the enigmatic 16th century Islam-inflected Gospel of Barnabas ( Joosten, 2002 ).

The name ' Diatessaron ' is Greek for ' through four '; the Syriac name for this gospel harmony is '' ( Ewangeliyôn Damhalltê ) meaning ' Gospel of the Mixed ' while in the other hand we have '' ( Evangelion de Mepharreshe ) meaning ' Gospel of the separated '.

Other students have noted a range of textual similarities between passages in the Gospel of Barnabas, and variously the texts of a series of late medieval vernacular harmonies of the four canonical gospels ( in Middle English and Middle Dutch, but especially in Middle Italian ); which are all speculated as deriving from a lost Vetus Latina version of the Diatessaron of Tatian.

* a layer derived from earlier source materials, almost certainly transmitted to the vernacular author / translator in Latin ; and comprising, at the least, those extensive passages in the Gospel of Barnabas that closely parallel pericopes in the canonical gospels ; but whose underlying text appears markedly distinct from that of the late medieval Latin Vulgate ( as for instance in the alternative version of the Lord's Prayer in chapter 37, which includes a concluding doxology, contrary to the Vulgate text, but in accordance with the Diatessaron and many other early variant traditions );

* The Gospel of Peter, The Diatessaron of Tatian, The Apocalypse of Peter, The Visio Pauli, The Apocalypses of the Virgin and Sedrach, The Testament of Abraham, The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena, The Narrative of Zosimus, The Apology of Aristides, The Epistles of Clement ( Complete Text ), Origen's Commentary on John, Books I-X, Origen's Commentary on Mathew, Books I, II, and X-XIV

Harris is convinced that the author borrowed from the canonical accounts, and he lists other literature that may have incorporated the Gospel of Peter, with special emphasis on the Diatessaron.

Perhaps his primary importance to the historian of Syriac literature lies in the zeal with which he strove to replace the Diatessaron or Gospel Harmony of Tatian with the four canonical Gospels, ordering that a copy of the latter should be placed in every church.

Also the earliest Gospel harmony, the Diatessaron of Tatian ( 160 – 175 AD ) refers to this incident which those standing on Golgotha witnessed.

The storyline of Jesus of Nazareth is a kind of cinematic Diatessaron, or “ Gospel harmony ”, blending the narratives of all four New Testament accounts.

Included among the topics on which he wrote are: the Apology of Aristides ( 1891 ), the Didache, Philo, the Diatessaron, the Christian Apologists, Acts of Perpetua, The Odes and Psalms of Solomon ( 1906 ), the Gospel of Peter, and other Western and Syriac texts, and numerous works on biblical manuscripts.

Diatessaronic texts such as the Liege Dutch Harmony, the Pepysian Gospel Harmony, Codex Fuldensis, The Persian Harmony, The Arabic Diatessaron, and the Commentary on the Diatessaron by Ephrem the Syrian have provided recent insights into Aramaic origins.

In 546 Victor of Capua discovered such a mixed manuscript ; and, further corrected by Victor so as to provide a very pure Vulgate text within a modified Diatessaron sequence, this harmony, the Codex Fuldensis, survives in the monastic library at Fulda, where it served as the source text for vernacular harmonies in Old High German, Eastern Frankish and Old Saxon ( the alliterative poem ' Heliand ').

" EH 4. 29. 6 mentions the Diatessaron: " But their original founder, Tatian, formed a certain combination and collection of the gospels, I know not how, to which he gave the title Diatessaron, and which is still in the hands of some.

The early literature of Syriac Christianity includes the Diatessaron of Tatian ; the Curetonian Gospels and the Syriac Sinaiticus ; the Peshitta Bible ; the Doctrine of Addai and the writings of Aphrahat ; and the hymns of Ephrem the Syrian.

The Diatessaron is notable evidence for the authority already enjoyed by the four gospels by the mid-2nd century.

Ephrem did not comment on all passages in the Diatessaron, and nor does he always quote commentated passages in full ; but for those phrases that he does quote, the commentary provides for the first time a dependable witness to Tatian's original ; and also confirms its content and their sequence.

Gradually, without extant copies to which to refer, the Diatessaron developed a reputation for having been heretical.

However, the gospel of John possibly addresses the issue, as does Tatian's Diatessaron.

Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus on the Euphrates in upper Syria in 423, suspecting Tatian of having been a heretic, sought out and found more than two hundred copies of the Diatessaron, which he " collected and put away, and introduced instead of them the Gospels of the four evangelists ".

Arabic Diatessaron, Translated by Abul Faraj Al Tayyeb from Syriac to Arabic, 11th Century

This variant is supported only by one Greek manuscript Uncial 0250, and by Codex Bobiensis, syr < sup > c, s, p, pal </ sup >, arm, Diatessaron.

The four gospels differ from one another ; like other harmonies, the Diatessaron resolves contradictions.

Only 56 verses in the canonical Gospels do not have a counterpart in the Diatessaron, mostly the genealogies and the Pericope Adulterae.

The majority consensus is that the Peshitta Old Testament preceded the Diatessaron, and represents an independent translation from the Hebrew Bible.

The Liège Diatessaron is a particularly poetic example.

Saint Ephrem's Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron: An English Translation of Chester Beatty Syriac MS 709 with Introduction and Notes ( Oxford University Press ) ISBN 978-0-19-922163-9 The first English translation.

" Tatian's Diatessaron and the Old Testament Peshitta " Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol.

* Early Christian Writings: Diatessaron e-text and commentaries.

He wrote biblical commentaries on the Diatessaron ( the single gospel harmony of the early Syriac church ), on Genesis and Exodus, and on the Acts of the Apostles and Pauline Epistles.