I am
myself not inclined to think this theory improbable; it would have
been still less so, if Tatian had been the master and Justin the
pupil [Endnote 241:4]. We have seen that the phenomena of Justin's
evangelical quotations are as well met by the hypothesis that he
made use of a Harmony as by any other. But that Harmony, as we
have also seen, included at least our three Synoptics. The
evidence (which we shall consider presently) for the use of the
fourth Gospel by Tatian is so strong as to make it improbable that
that work was not included in the Diatessaron. The fifth work,
alluded to by Victor of Capua, may possibly have been the Gospel
according to the Hebrews.

2.

Just as the interest of Tatian turns upon the interpretation to be
put upon a single term 'Diatessaron,' so the interest of Dionysius
of Corinth depends upon what we are to understand by his phrase
'the Scriptures of the Lord.'

In a fragment, preserved by Eusebius, of an epistle addressed to
Soter Bishop of Rome (168-176 A.D.) and the Roman Church,
Dionysius complains that his letters had been tampered with. 'As
brethren pressed me to write letters I wrote them. And these the
apostles of the devil have filled with tares, taking away some
things and adding others, for whom the woe is prepared. It is not
wonderful, then, if some have ventured to tamper with the
Scriptures of the Lord when they have laid their plots against
writings that have no such claims as they' [Endnote 242:1]. It
must needs be a straining of language to make the Scriptures here
refer, as the author of 'Supernatural Religion' seems to do, to
the Old Testament. It is true that Justin lays great stress upon
type and prophecy as pointing to Christ, but there is a
considerable step between this and calling the whole of the Old
Testament 'Scriptures of the Lord.' On the other hand, we can
hardly think that Dionysius refers to a complete collection of
writings like the New Testament. It seems most natural to suppose
that he is speaking of Gospels--possibly not the canonical alone,
and yet, with Irenaeus in our mind's eye, we shall say probably to
them. There is the further reason for this application of the
words that Dionysius is known to have written against Marcion--'he
defended the canon of the truth' [Endnote 243:1], Eusebius says--
and such 'tampering' as he describes was precisely what Marcion
had been guilty of.

* * *