The Diatesseron, in the 2020s

I'm not supposed to do this, frankly; but Tatian is out there and I've already noted the Arabic harmony lately so...

I'm starting with Peter Hill and Monier-Taylor; basically because their PDFs are available for free where, say, I. N. Mills "Zacchaeus and the Unripe Figs" (2020) is not.

These authors are telling me that, since Koester published Petersen's summary as an appendix to his own book three decades ago, Diatesseron research is still Problematic. As the authors found the state-of-the-question as of 2020, nobody agreed if the Dura-Europos fragment should count, nor if Tatian's core text was Greek or Syriac. Also annoying is where the Gospel of Thomas should fit into it all.

To me (who shouldn't be doing this) this suggests that we haven't nailed-down what the state of the various parallel texts is/are. Before defining THE Diatesseron we should get a critical-text of some of the witnesses which we know are translations. Arabic, obviously. Also maybe Latin excepting that some scholars seem to have tried and failed at this.

I say "Arabic obviously" with some chagrin. Monier and Taylor note N. P. Joosse's Arabic Diatessaron Project... as suspended. This has forced Monier and Taylor to do their own little Diatesseron project, just to nail down a possible Eastern witness in the Dura-Europos region. As an aside, Arabic renditions of the Gospel are an absolute requirement for anyone dabbling in Islamic/Christian relations, including the progress of Jesus hadith as we see from Tarif Khalidi. Quranic exegetes like Biqa'i also used Arabic Bibles. So it's not just Diatesseronists who are getting hurt here. I can only commend Monier and Taylor for taking up the reins for this side of the Gospel Synopsis.

If we're talking Thomas, which net I'll extend to the Dialogue of the Saviour and the Secret Book of James - these works in Greek run from fragmentary (Thomas) to nonexistent (ApJames). Most of this lore is in upper-Nilotic paraCoptic - Sahidic, maybe Lycopolitan - subject to contamination from some Sahidic New Testament. Or the contamination may flow in the other direction. Where's our handle on the textual-state of that, pre-Shenoute? Monier and Taylor are, happily, not talking Thomas, insofar as their project deals with a narrative event which Thomas doesn't talk about.

Monier and Taylor accept Jan Joosten 2001-2017 that The Diatessaron’s Old Testament quotations seem to relate better to the Syriac Peshitta than to the Greek Septuagint. Joosten hadn't much changed since 1996. Are we all that certain about Joosten?

One final time I shouldn't be doing this. But I'm unsure we're ready for anyone else to be doing this yet, either.