rivalling the great inspiration of Simon Peter at Caesarea Philippi, must have struck many a reader with surprise. Ishoʿdad has noticed the difficulty, and says:
'It must not be supposed that she was in possession of that perfect knowledge which we have to-day: she calls him the Son of God as being a man virtuous and righteous and superior to all other men: because in the Scripture they used to call virtuous men Christs and sons of God.'
If this is Ishoʿdad's own comment, it shows the impression which the language made upon an Oriental mind. But then again it may be Theodore.
Occasionally we shall find an ethical variant for which it will be difficult to obtain a sponsor amongst the N.T. editors. In Luke xxii. 36 (where the suggestion is made that the sale of a garment might secure the purchase of a sword) we are told that
In many copies there stands in place of the words 'Sell his garment, etc.' the sentence 'Pray for your enemies.'
Whoever the people were who had made this correction in the Gospel of Luke, they had certainly not lost sight of the spirit of the Gospel in their study of the letter[1].
In dealing with the Old Syriac readings preserved in Ishoʿdad, it will be convenient, first of all, to repeat his allusions to the Diatessaron.
Prologue to Mark.
Titianos, the disciple of Justin the philosopher and martyr selected [passages] from the Four Gospels and combined them and composed a Gospel, and called it Diatessaron, i.e. of the Combined; and on the Divinity of Christ he did not write; and upon this Gospel Mar Ephrem commented.
To the well-known passages in which Bar Ṣalibi and Bar Hebraeus repeat these statements, we may now add the Nestorian Chronicle of Saert, p. 85, as follows:
Among the celebrated works of S. Ephrem one remarks: A Commentary on the Old Testament; A Commentary on the Psalms of David; A Commentary on the Gospel called Diatessaron, which is formed by the combination of the four Gospels and had been composed by Tatian the Greek. Diatessaron is a Greek word, signifying fourfold, i.e. formed out of the four Gospels. In explaining this book, S. Ephrem wished to avoid the repetition of chapters and that was also the project of the one that composed it.
- ↑ I suppose the statement that 'many ancient MSS.' have the passage indicated would hardly secure it a position on the margin of the Revised Version!
