Fragments of the Commentary of Ephrem the Syrian on the Diatessaron

PREFACE.

In a recent article in the Contemporary Review (August, 1895), I have shown that there is a close and constant dependence of the later Syriac a dialect of Aramaic used in early Christian literature commentators upon the Commentary which Ephrem Syrus a 4th-century theologian made upon Tatian's a 2nd-century apologist Diatessaron a harmony of the four Gospels. I have found upon a further examination of these writers that it is possible to restore, sometimes exactly and sometimes approximately, large portions of the lost Syriac text of Ephrem. Up to the present, no fragment has been produced, and no representative is extant except the Armenian translation published by the Venetian fathers the Mechitarist monks of Venice. As the recovery of these portions of the lost text not only elucidates the often doubtful meaning of the Armenian version, but also clarifies the history and fortunes of the composition, I have thought it worth while to commit the matter to the press. I hope that it will be of value to the critic even if a complete copy of the lost Syriac work should ultimately be recovered.