Page:Commentaries of Ishodad of Merv, volume 1.djvu/33

Rh In Ephrem's commentary (Mös. 91) we have as follows:

The Arabic Diatessaron has the following sequence:

Now let us see what Syriac words underlie virgam and baculum.

The commentary of Bar Ṣalibi on the Gospel has evidently made use of Ephrem, for we have

i.e. and no wallet, a token of their simple life and a sign of their lowliness; and no club, for they were not going to feed flocks, like Moses.

In one respect this is better than the present text of Ephrem, in that it makes the want of a wallet the sign of poverty, rather than the carrying of a stick. Probably Ephrem's text should run

Bar Ṣalibi tells us that is the word for club, and it follows that Tatian has harmonized the two renderings of  which are extant in the Old Syriac.

Did he also harmonize two words for 'shoes.' We notice that the text of Ephrem continues:

For the opening words, we should correct

The comment shows that the sandals are taken to be plebeian compared to the caligae: and it is probable, therefore, that Tatian's text ran

In this way the apparent conflict between Matthew and Mark is again resolved. This harmonization might have been made either in Greek or in Syriac. Taking the two cases together, the evidence is slightly in favour of a harmonization of previous existing Syriac gospels.