What is "diatessaron"

Diatessaron \Di`a*tes"sa*ron\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ? (sc. ?); dia` through + ?, gen. of ? four (sc. ?.).]

1. (Anc. Mus.) The interval of a fourth.

2. (Theol.) A continuous narrative arranged from the first four books of the New Testament.

3. An electuary compounded of four medicines.

late 14c. as a term in music meaning "interval of a fourth;" 1803 in reference to harmonizings of the gospels, especially that of Tatian (2c.), from Greek dia tessaron, from dia "composed of" (literally "through;" see dia-) + tessaron "four," related to tessares (see four).

n. 1 (context music obsolete English) The interval of a fourth. 2 (context theology English) A continuous narrative arranged from the first four books of the New Testament. 3 (context obsolete English) An electuary compounded of four medicines.

The Diatessaron; , (c. 160–175) is the most prominent early Gospel harmony; and was created by Tatian, an early Christian Assyrian apologist and ascetic. Tatian sought to combine all the textual material he found in the four gospels— Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—into a single coherent narrative of Jesus's life and death. However, and in contradistinction to most later gospel harmonists, Tatian appears not to have been motivated by any aspiration to validate the four separate canonical gospel accounts; or to demonstrate that, as they stood, they could each be shown as being without inconsistency or error.

Tatian's harmony follows the gospels closely in terms of text but, in order to fit all the canonical material in, he created his own narrative sequence, which is different from both the synoptic sequence and John's sequence; and occasionally creates intervening time periods that are found in none of the source accounts. This sequence is coherent and consistent within itself, but not necessarily consistent with that in all or any of the separate canonical gospels; and Tatian apparently applies the same principle in respect of the narrative itself. Where the gospels differ from one another in respect of the details of an event or teaching; the Diatessaron resolves such apparent contradictions by selecting one or another alternative wording and adding consistent details from the other gospels; while omitting apparent duplicate matter, especially across the synoptics. Hence, in respect of the healing of the blind at Jericho the Diatessaron reports only one blind man, Bartimeaus, healed by Jesus when leaving the city according to the account in Mark 10:46ff (expanded with phrases from Luke 18:36-37); consequently omitting any separate mention of two unnamed blind men healed by Jesus leaving Jericho (Matthew 20:29ff), and also the healing by Jesus entering Jericho the previous day of a single unnamed blind man (Luke 18:35ff).

Otherwise, Tatian originally omitted altogether both of the different genealogies in Matthew and Luke, as well as Luke's introduction (Luke 1: 1-4); and also did not originally include Jesus' encounter with the adulteress (John 7:53–8:11). This latter passage is, however, generally considered to be a late addition to the Gospel of John, with the Diatessaron itself often cited as an early textual witness in support of its omission. Most scholars agree that Tatian did, from the beginning, include the longer ending of Mark (Mark 16: 9-20), and correspondingly is amongst the earliest witnesses to this inclusion. Tatian added no significant wording to the textual material he took from the separate gospels. Only 56 verses in the canonical Gospels do not have a counterpart in the Diatessaron, mostly the genealogies and the Pericope Adulterae. The final work is about 72% the length of the four gospels put together; around a quarter of the text of the separate gospels being adjudged by Tatian to be duplicated. (McFall, 1994).

In the early Church, the gospels at first circulated independently, with Matthew the most popular. The Diatessaron is notable evidence for the authority already enjoyed by the four gospels by the mid-2nd century. Twenty years after Tatian's harmony, Irenaeus expressly proclaimed the authoritative character of the four gospels. It is unclear whether Tatian intended the Diatessaron to supplement or replace the four separate gospels; but both outcomes came to pass in different churches. The Diatessaron became adopted as the standard lectionary text of the gospels in some Syriac-speaking churches from the late 2nd to the 5th century, when it gave way to the four separate Gospels, in the Peshitta version. At the same time; in the churches of the Latin west, the Diatessaron circulated as a supplement to the four gospels, especially in Latin translation.