Ephraem Syrus' Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron

Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review of Christian Lange's Ephraem der Syrer: Kommentar zum Diatessaron I and II reviewed by Daniel King at Cardiff University:

Two branches of research within Early Christianity converge in the text here translated into German. The first is the problem of the Diatessaron, a harmony of the four gospels written by Tatian in the second century which had a long afterlife in many parts of Europe and the Near East but which can be reconstructed only from quotations and late translations. The other is the religious oeuvre of Ephrem the Syrian, one of the most fascinating of the 'Fathers of the Church'. As well as a highly productive poet of elegant and vivid Christian poetry in Syriac, Ephrem wrote prose commentaries, including this commentary on the Diatessaron, in his day the standard version of the Gospels within the Syrian church. For a long time known only through an Armenian version, the Syriac original of Ephrem's Commentary was gradually made known through the discovery and publication of a sixth-century Syriac ms in the Chester Beatty collection. It has since been the object of a number of studies, both literary/philological and theological. The present two volume work by Christian Lange in the Fontes Christiani series adds a German translation to the existing Latin, French and English versions available, though perhaps its most important contribution will be found in the Einleitung, in which Lange seeks to resolve the various difficulties that surround the text, especially the disagreements between the two recensions and the undoubted presence of secondary interpolations within both branches of the tradition.

Comments

[Roger Pearse]

The problem with this Syriac manuscript was that it was incomplete. Additional leaves have surfaced on the market from time to time. I wonder if any more have been recovered?

[adrianmurdoch]

Thanks for that. I suspect that the majority are inprivate hands never to be recovered.

[Kevin P. Edgecomb]

It's Ephraem Syrus' Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron, not a commentary by a Diatessaron by Ephraem Syrus. Your title's a bit off. Just so's y'know!

[adrianmurdoch]

Thanks for that. Have changed the headline. Wasn't thinking straight...