It has long been argued that Tatian, in the production of the
Diatessaron, made regular reference to the Old Testament Peshitta when
he came across Old Testament citations in the Gospels. This book argues
on the contrary that Tatian made little or no use of the Old Testament
Peshitta, but regularly took over the text of the Old Testament
citations as he found them in the Gospel sources out of which he created
his harmony. Where they differ from the form of these citations in the
standard Greek text tradition of the Gospels, it is because, in the
second century, Tatian had access to Gospel sources which may have
varied significantly from the text of the later manuscripts on which our
modern critical editions are based. Thus, Tatian's Diatessaron becomes a
window into an early state of the Gospel texts and supports the idea
that a significant amount of textual fluidity characterized the Gospel
texts in the first two centuries of their transmission. This study will
be of interest to those working in the fields of Diatessaronic studies,
New Testament Textual Criticism, and the history of the Syriac Church.