s a fact, however, which even Zahn
points out, that, in the alleged _Diatessaron_ of Ephraem, these
passages are not all excised, but still remain part of the text, [150:1]
as they also do in the Arabic translation. This is the only definite
information which we possess of the contents of the _Diatessaron_ beyond
the opening words, and it does not tally with the recently discovered
works.

I need not further discuss here the statement of Epiphanius that some
called Tatian's _Diatessaron_ the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Epiphanius had not seen the work himself, and he leaves us in the same
ignorance as to its character.

It is clear from all this that we have no detailed information regarding
the _Diatessaron_ of Tatian. As Dr. Donaldson said long ago: "We should
not be able to identify it, even if it did come down to us, unless it
told us something reliable about itself." [150:2]

We may now come to the documents recently published. The MS. of the
Armenian version of the commentary ascribed to Ephraem is dated A.D.
1195, and Moesinger declares that it is translated from the Syriac, of
which it is said to retain many traces. [150:3] He states that in the
judgment of the Mechitarist Fathers the translation dates from about the
fifth century, [150:4] but an opinion on such a point can only be
received with great caution. The name of Tatian is not mentioned as the
author of the "Harmony," and the question is open as to whether the
authorship of the commentary is rightly ascribed to Ephraem Syrus. In
any case there can be no doubt that the Armenian work is a translation.

The Arabic work published by Ciasca, and supposed to be a version of
Tatian's _Diatessaron_ itself, is derived from two manuscripts, one
belonging to the Vatican Library and the other forwarded to Rome from
Egypt by the Vicar Apostolic of the Catholic Copts. The latter MS.
states, in notes at the beginning and end, that it is an Arabic
translation of the _Diatessaron_ of Tatian, made from the Syriac by the
presbyter Abu-l-Pharag Abdullah Ben-at-Tib, who is believed to have
flourished in the first half of the eleventh century, and in one of
these notes the name of the scribe who wrote the Syriac copy is given,
which leads to the conjecture that it may have been dated about the end
of the ninth century. A note in the Vatican MS. also ascribes the
original work to Tatian. These notes constitute the principal or only
ground for connecting Tatian's name