Harmonistic Fatigue in Tatian's Diatessaron
Presentation Type
Poster
Presentation Type
Submission
Keywords
Diatessaron, gospel harmony, second-century Christianity, Syriac Christianity, ancient manuscripts, textual transmission, harmonistic fatigue, New Testament textual criticism
Department
Religion
Abstract
Tatian’s Diatessaron is a second-century gospel harmony, a text which attempts to unify all four Christian gospels into one cohesive and chronological account. For centuries, the Diatessaron served as the liturgical standard in churches across Syria. Though later deemed heretical and virtually suppressed, surviving translations of this document introduced Tatian’s work to Eastern and Western traditions alike. Attempts to reconstruct the document rely on fine textual distinctions between various recensions to discern the stemma, or textual genealogy of translations, and ultimately reconstruct the Diatessaron itself. Here, we present a new category of useful differences, coined harmonistic fatigue: inconsistencies resulting from the erroneous integration of deviating gospels. The first example of harmonistic fatigue is in the story of the Gerasene demoniac/s (Matt 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39). While Luke and Mark depict Jesus restoring one demon-possessed man, Matthew’s account presents two. Another example of harmonistic fatigue appears in the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Matt 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56), where Matthew begins with the girl already dead but Luke and Mark recount her death while Jesus is on the way. In both cases, the harmonist’s failure to seamlessly integrate the gospels’ deviations provides insight into the relationship between different versions of the Diatessaron. In this investigation, we employ Dr. Zola’s novel English translation of the oldest complete manuscript of the Diatessaron (Codex Fuldensis, 6th century, Latin), which we compare to the 11th-century Arabic version and to Ephrem’s 4th-century Syriac commentary on the text.
Faculty Mentor
Nicholas Zola
Funding Source or Research Program
Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative
Location
Waves Cafeteria
Start Date
10-4-2026 1:00 PM
End Date
10-4-2026 2:00 PM
Harmonistic Fatigue in Tatian's Diatessaron
Waves Cafeteria
Tatian’s Diatessaron is a second-century gospel harmony, a text which attempts to unify all four Christian gospels into one cohesive and chronological account. For centuries, the Diatessaron served as the liturgical standard in churches across Syria. Though later deemed heretical and virtually suppressed, surviving translations of this document introduced Tatian’s work to Eastern and Western traditions alike. Attempts to reconstruct the document rely on fine textual distinctions between various recensions to discern the stemma, or textual genealogy of translations, and ultimately reconstruct the Diatessaron itself. Here, we present a new category of useful differences, coined harmonistic fatigue: inconsistencies resulting from the erroneous integration of deviating gospels. The first example of harmonistic fatigue is in the story of the Gerasene demoniac/s (Matt 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39). While Luke and Mark depict Jesus restoring one demon-possessed man, Matthew’s account presents two. Another example of harmonistic fatigue appears in the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Matt 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56), where Matthew begins with the girl already dead but Luke and Mark recount her death while Jesus is on the way. In both cases, the harmonist’s failure to seamlessly integrate the gospels’ deviations provides insight into the relationship between different versions of the Diatessaron. In this investigation, we employ Dr. Zola’s novel English translation of the oldest complete manuscript of the Diatessaron (Codex Fuldensis, 6th century, Latin), which we compare to the 11th-century Arabic version and to Ephrem’s 4th-century Syriac commentary on the text.