11-07-2003, 04:14 AM
Hello Darrell,
In your email, you asked me to take notice of this quotation from the Dictionary of the New Testament Background:
There are numerous errors in this short quote, but I want to focus on just one of them right now (for simplicity's sake.)
This article states that Tatian (the Assyrian) used a "West Aramaic Gospel" as is evidenced by his use of "West Aramaic" vocabulary.
My question to you is this: How exactly is it possible that we know what his Aramaic vocabulary was like....if no copies of his Aramaic Diatesseron are extant today? Remember, this very article states that Rabbula "suppressed" it. (That was a long time ago.)
Thank you for your time.
Regards,
Paul
In your email, you asked me to take notice of this quotation from the Dictionary of the New Testament Background:
Dictionary of the New Testament Background Wrote:"Diatessaron of Tatian. This harmony of the Gospels produced by Tatian about A.D. 170 became the Gospels of the Syriac-speaking church from the late second century until the mid-fifth century, when it was finally suppressed through the efforts of Rabbula, the bishop of Edessa . . . Besides the four Greek Gospels, Tatian apparently used a West Aramaic Gospel, as evidenced by the use of West Aramaic vocabulary . . . "
There are numerous errors in this short quote, but I want to focus on just one of them right now (for simplicity's sake.)
This article states that Tatian (the Assyrian) used a "West Aramaic Gospel" as is evidenced by his use of "West Aramaic" vocabulary.
My question to you is this: How exactly is it possible that we know what his Aramaic vocabulary was like....if no copies of his Aramaic Diatesseron are extant today? Remember, this very article states that Rabbula "suppressed" it. (That was a long time ago.)
Thank you for your time.
Regards,
Paul
+Shamasha Paul bar-Shimun de'Beth-Younan