Introductory Notes

Section III

Page 10 of 468

[1, 2]²³⁴ And after that,²³⁵ the Magi came from the east to Jerusalem,²³⁶ and said, Where is the King of the Jews which was born? We have seen his star in the east, and have³ come to worship him.²³⁷ And Herod the king heard, and he was troubled, and all⁴ Jerusalem with him.²³⁸ And he gathered all the chief priests and the scribes of the⁵ people, and asked them in what place²³⁹ the Messiah should be born.²⁴⁰ They said, In Bethlehem of Judæa: thus it is written in the prophet,

⁶²⁴¹ Thou also, Bethlehem of Judah,

Art not contemptible among the kings of Judah:

From thee shall go forth a king,

And he shall be a shepherd to my people Israel.

⁷²⁴² Then Herod called the Magi secretly, and inquired of them the time at which⁸ the star appeared to them.²⁴³ And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said unto them, Go and search about the child diligently; and when ye have found him, come and⁹ make known to me, that I also may go and worship him.²⁴⁴ And they, when they [Arabic, p. 11] heard the king, departed; and lo, the star which they had seen in the east went before them, until it came and stood above the place where the child [10, 11] was.²⁴⁵ And when they beheld the star, they rejoiced with very great joy.²⁴⁶ And they entered the house and beheld the child with Mary his mother, and fell down worshipping him, and opened their saddle-bags and offered to him offerings, gold and¹² myrrh and frankincense.²⁴⁷ And they saw in a dream²⁴⁸ that they should not return to Herod, and they travelled by another way in going to their country.

¹³²⁴⁹ And when they had departed, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, and said unto him, Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I speak to thee; for Herod is determined to seek the child¹⁴ to slay him.²⁵⁰ And Joseph arose and took the child and his mother in the night, and¹⁵ fled into Egypt,²⁵¹ and remained in it until the time of the death of Herod: that that might be fulfilled which was said by the Lord in the prophet, which said, From¹⁶ Egypt did I call my son.²⁵² And Herod then, when he saw that he was mocked of the Magi, was very angry, and sent and killed all the male children which were in Bethlehem and all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the time¹⁷ which he had inquired from the Magi.²⁵³ Then was fulfilled the saying in Jeremiah the prophet, which said,

¹⁸²⁵⁴ A voice was heard in Ramah,

Weeping and much lamentation;

Rachel weeping²⁵⁵ for her children,

And not willing to be consoled for their loss.

¹⁹²⁵⁶ But when Herod the king died, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to²⁰ Joseph in Egypt,²⁵⁷ and said unto him, Rise and take the child and his mother, and [Arabic, p. 12] go into the land of Israel; for they have died who sought the child's life.²¹²⁵⁸ And Joseph rose and took the child and his mother, and came to the land²² of Israel.²⁵⁹ But when he heard that Archelaus had become king over Judæa instead of Herod his father, he feared to go thither; and he saw in a dream that he should²³ go into the land of Galilee,²⁶⁰ and that he should abide in a city called Nazareth: that the saying in the prophet might be fulfilled, that he should be called a Nazarene.

²⁴²⁶¹ And the child grew, and became strong in spirit, becoming filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.

²⁵²⁶² And his kinsfolk²⁶³ used to go every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover.²⁶²⁶⁴ And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to their custom,²⁷ to the feast.²⁶⁵ And when the days were accomplished, they returned; and the child²⁸ Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother knew not:²⁶⁶ and they supposed that he was with the children of their company. And when they had gone one day's journey, they sought him beside their people and those who knew them,²⁹ and they found him not;²⁶⁷ so they returned to Jerusalem and sought him again.³⁰²⁶⁸ And after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers,³¹ hearing them and asking them questions;²⁶⁹ and all who heard him wondered at³² his wisdom and his words.²⁷⁰ And when they saw him they wondered, and his mother said unto him, My son, why hast thou dealt with us thus? behold, I and thy father³³ have been seeking for thee with much anxiety.²⁷¹ And he said unto them, Why were³⁴ ye seeking me? know²⁷² ye not that I must be in the house of my Father?²⁷³ And they³⁵ understood not the word which he spake unto them.²⁷⁴ And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and he was obedient to them: and his mother used to keep all these sayings in her heart.

³⁶ [Arabic, p. 13]²⁷⁵ And Jesus grew in his stature and wisdom, and in grace with God and men.

³⁷²⁷⁶ And in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, when Pontius Pilate was governor in Judæa, and one of the four rulers, Herod, in Galilee; and Philip his brother, one of the four rulers, in Ituræa and in the district of Trachonitis; and³⁸ Lysanias, one of the four rulers, in Abilene;²⁷⁷ in the chief-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the command²⁷⁸ of God went forth to John the son of Zacharias in the³⁹ desert.²⁷⁹ And he came into all the region which is about Jordan, proclaiming the⁴⁰ baptism of repentance unto²⁸⁰ the forgiveness of sins.²⁸¹ And he was preaching in the⁴¹ wilderness of Judæa, and saying,²⁸² Repent ye; the kingdom of heaven is come near.⁴²²⁸³ This is he that was spoken of in Isaiah the prophet,

The voice which crieth in the desert,

⁴³²⁸⁴ Prepare ye the way of the Lord,

And make straight in the plain, paths for our God.

⁴⁴²⁸⁵ All the valleys shall become filled,

And all the mountains and hills shall become low;

And the rough shall become plain, And the difficult place, easy;

⁴⁵²⁸⁶ And all flesh shall see the salvation²⁸⁷ of God.

⁴⁶²⁸⁸ This man came to bear witness, that he might bear witness to the light, that⁴⁷ every man might believe through his mediation.²⁸⁹ He was not the light, but that he⁴⁸ might bear witness to the light,²⁹⁰ which was the light of truth, that giveth light to⁴⁹ every man coming into the world.²⁹¹ He was in the world, and the world was made⁵⁰ by him, and the world knew⁵¹ him not.²⁹² He came unto his own, and his own received him not.²⁹³ And those who received him, to them gave he the power²⁹⁴ that they might⁵² be sons of God,—those which believe in his name:²⁹⁵ which were born, not of blood,⁵³ nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.²⁹⁶ And the Word became flesh, and took up his abode among us; and we saw his glory as the glory⁵⁴ of the only Son from the Father, which is full of grace and equity.²⁹⁷²⁹⁸ John bare witness [Arabic, p. 14] of him, and cried, and said, This is he that I said cometh after me and⁵⁵ was before me, because he was before me.²⁹⁹³⁰⁰ And of his fullness received⁵⁶ we all grace for grace.³⁰¹ For the law was given through the mediation of Moses, but truth and grace were³⁰² through Jesus Christ.

Notes

234
b.
235
On the substitution of this general phrase for a, see the remarks of Harris in Fragments, etc., p. 37 ff.
236
.
3
Par[alem]phthenai is perhaps supported by paralabontes, .
237
.
4
I know no other instance of stauriskein.
238
.
5
cf. , where Syr. Pesch. reads: "They say, These bodies shall not remain on the cross, because the sabbath dawneth."
239
This periphrasis for where is very characteristic of this work.
240
.
6
The text here is corrupt: for epesanto I have provisionally read epesan te.
241
.
7
For autos horas we must read autes horas (cf. Clem., Hom., xx., 16); aute is the equivalent in later Greek literature of ekeine, as in the modern tongue (cf. Lc. x. 7, 21, and xii. 12; || ekeine, Mt., Mc.)
242
.
8
I have ventured to substitute meta, "together with" (cf. ), for kata, "down upon." Dr. Swete, however, keeps kata, and interprets it as "against," i.e., to guard the sepulchre against.
243
.
9
The form of the question in the Greek suggests a negative answer.
244
.
245
.
246
.
12
[cf. ; .]
247
.
248
So in later Arabic and some Arabic versions. According to classical usage the word means sleep.
13
[cf. .]
249
.
14
[cf. ; .]
250
.
15
[cf. .]
251
.
16
[cf. .]
252
.
17
For further explanation of the method followed see 20.
253
.
18
See notes to § 7, 47, and § 52, 36, of the present translation.
254
.
255
Or, is weeping, and so in next line is not willing.
19
See below, 12, (2).
256
.
20
See also below, 6, and 20.
257
.
21
Bibl. Or., i., 619.
258
.
22
Mai, Vet. script. nova. collect., iv., 14.
259
.
23
cf. Zahn, Forschungen, i., 294 ff.
260
.
24
See below, § 7, 47, note, and § 52, 36, note.
261
.
25
See below, § 28, 43, note.
262
.
263
A general word (cf. Syr. versions).
26
See below, foot-notes, passim.
264
.
27
The first leaf bears a more pretentious Latin inscription, quoted by Ciasca, p. vi.
265
.
28
Can this be a misprint for 95?
266
.
29
See below, 13.
267
.
30
He does not state, in so many words, that the list is absolutely exhaustive.
268
.
31
See, e.g., below, § 13, 42, note, and § 14, 43, note.
269
.
32
See the valuable article of Guidi, "Le traduzioni degli Evangelii in arabo e in etiopico" (Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei; Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e filologiche. Serie Quarta, 1888, Parte Prima—Memorie, pp. 5-38). Some of his results are briefly stated in Scrivener, A Plain Introd. to the Crit. of the N.T., 4th ed., ii., 162.
270
.
33
cf.the foot-notes passim, e.g., § 13, 14, § 14, 24.
271
.
34
See below, note to Subscription.
272
Or, knew.
273
.
35
See a glaring case in § 52, 11.
274
.
36
The references to the readings of the Diatessaron in Ibn-at-Tayyib's own commentary on the gospels (see next note) are remarkably impersonal for one who had made or was to make a translation of it.
275
.
37
A specially important part of the general question is this, What are the mutual relations of the following: (1) a supposed version of at least Matthew and John made from the Syriac by Ibn-at-Tayyib, mentioned by Ibn-al-Assal in the Preface to his scholarly recension of the gospels (ms. numbered Or. 3382 in Brit. Mus., folio 384b) and used by him in determining his text; (2) the gospel text interwoven with the commentary of Ibn-at-Tayyib on the gospels, a commentary which De Slane says the author wrote in Syriac and then translated into Arabic; (3) our present work. Of mss. testifying to No. 1 we have some dating from the time of Ibn-al-Assal himself; of No. 2 we have, in addition to others, an eleventh-century ms. in Paris, described by De Slane (catalogue No. 85) as being "un volume dépareillé du ms. original de l'ouvrage"; of No. 3 we have of course the Vatican and Borgian mss. What is the mutual relation of these texts; were any two of them identical? The Brit. Mus. ms. of the second has many points of contact with the third, but is dated 1805 a.d. Does the older Paris ms. stand more or less closely related? Did Ibn-at-Tayyib himself really translate any or all of these texts, or did he simply select or edit them? Space does not permit us to point out, far less to discuss, the various possibilities.
276
.
38
The text is given below in full at its proper place.
277
.
278
There is a very rare use of this Arabic word in the Hebrew sense of saying.
39
Prof. Gottheil, indeed, announced in 1892 in the Journal of Biblical Literature (vol. xi., pt. i., p. 71) that he had been privately informed of the existence of a complete copy of the Syriac Diatessaron. Unfortunately, however, as he has kindly informed me, he has reluctantly come to the conclusion that the ms. in question, which is not yet accessible, is "nothing more than the commentary of Ishodad" mentioned in the text. A similar rumor lately circulated probably originated simply in the pamphlet of Goussen mentioned in the next note. S. Bäumer, on the other hand, in his article, "Tatians Diatessaron, seine bisher. Lit. u. die Reconstruction des Textes nach einer neuentdeckten Handschrift" (Literarischer Handweiser, 1890, 153-169) which the present writer has not been able to see, perhaps refers simply to the Borgian ms.
279
.
40
Attention was called to these by Profs. Isaac H. Hall and R. J. H. Gottheil (Journ. of Bibl. Lit., x., 153 ff.; xi., 68 ff.); then by Prof. J. R. Harris (Contemp. Rev., Aug., 1895, p. 271 ff., and, more fully, Fragments of the Com. of Ephr. Syr. on the Diatess., London, 1895) and by Goussen (Studia Theologica, fasc. i., Lips., 1895).
280
So Vat. ms. The Borg. ms. has with.
281
b.
41
Prof. Harris promises an edition of this commentary.
282
.
42
Harris, Fragments, p. 14, where the Syriac text is quoted.
283
a.
43
Bib. Or., ii., 159 f. Most of them are repeated again by Bar Hebræus (d. 1286), although some confusion is produced by his interweaving some phrases from Eusebius of Cæsarea. (Bib. Or., i., 57 f., and a longer quotation in English in Contemp. Rev., Aug., 1895, p. 274 f.)
284
b.
44
Lagarde's statement (Nachrichten von der Königl. Gesellsch. der Wiss., etc., zu Göttingen, 1891, No. 4, p. 153) that a ms. had been discovered, appears to have been unfounded. Prof. Rahlfs of Göttingen kindly tells me that he believes this is so.
285
.
45
Migne, Patrol. græc., tom. lxxxiii., col. 369, 372.
286
.
287
See note on § 1, 78.
46
Published at Venice in 1836.
288
.
47
The two Armenian mss. are dated a.d. 1195.
289
.
48
Evangelii Concordantis Expositio, facta a S. Ephraemo (Ven., 1876).
290
.
49
Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, I. Theil.
291
.
50
Edited by Ernestus Ranke, Marb. and Lips., 1868.
51
For other forms of the Diatessaron, of no critical importance, see S. Hemphill, The Diatessaron of Tatian (London, 1888), Appendix D and the refs. there.
292
.
293
.
294
Or, authority.
52
Further references, chiefly repetitions in one form or another of the statements we have quoted, may be found in a convenient form in Harnack, Gesch. d. altchrist. Lit. bis. Euseb., 493-496; cf. also the works mentioned by Hill (op. cit.) p. 378 f.
295
.
53
cf. the words of Aphraates, senior contemporary of Ephraem: "As it is written in the beginning of the Gospel of our Vivifier: In the beginning was the Word." (Patrol. Syr., pars i., tom. i., 21, lines 17-19).
296
.
54
Nachrichten von der Königl. Gesellsch. der Wiss., etc., March 17, 1886, No. 4, p. 151 ff.
297
In Syr. this word also means truth.
298
.
55
See notes to § 1, 81, and § 4, 29.
299
Or, earlier than I.
300
.
56
See note to § 55, 17.
301
.
302
i.e., came to be.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe (1885–96). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.