Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/994

982 time : but this can hardly mean more than that the names had gone into disuse; for the Encratitae, whom we take to have been substantially the same, were still numerous in Pisidia, the Torrid Phrygia, and other districts of Asia Minor.

Tatian is said to have rejected some of St. Paul's Epistles (Hieronym. Proöem. in Comment, in Titurn), but to have received others. He also received, but not without mutilation, the four Gos- pels. (Irenaeus, l. c. and c. 31 ; Clem. Alex. l.c. and Fragmenta Propketicor. seleda, c. 38 ; Origen, DeOratione^ p.77, ed. Oxford; Hieronym. i)e Viiis lUustr. c. 17, alibi; Epiphanius, Augustin, Philas- strius, II. cc. ; Tertullian, or rather his anonymous continuator, De Praescript. Haereticor. c. 52; Theodoret. Haeretic. Fubul. Compend. lib. i. c. 20 ; Chron. Pascliale, p. 260, ed, Paris, p. 486, ed. Bonn ; comp. Neander, Church History (by Rose), vol. ii. p. 109.) Tatian was a voluminous writer. Eusebius speaks of him in one place {H. E. iv. 16) as "leaving many memorials of himself in his writings ;" and in another place (//. E. iv. 29) he says, " he left a great number of writings, of which the most celebrated is his Discourse to the Greeks." Jerome also states {De Viris Illustr. c. 17) that he wrote " a countless number of volumes" (infinita volumina) ; of which, however, even then, the above-mentioned discourse was the only one extant, at least so far as Jerome was informed. The Diatessaron was, how- ever, still in existence, though Jerome does not mention it, either because he did not regard it as an original work, but only an arrangement of the Gospels, or perhaps because its existence was not known to him. The other works of Tatian were probably either such as the early Christians were little interested in, or were so replete with the wild speculations of his later years, as never to have had any circulation in the orthodox portion of the church. The llpbs "EWrjvas, Oratio adversus Graecos, as the title is commonly though incorrectly rendered (we believe it should be ad Graecos), is still extant, and is a remonstrance addressed to the Greeks on their repugnance to, and contempt for, the opinions of foreigners. Jerome (De Viris Illust. c. 17) and Rufinus translate the title Contra Gentes ; but the contents of the work show that "EAXrjvas is not used as equivalent to "E^vtj, "Gentiles'" (a usage no doubt sufficiently common), but in its proper sig- nification of " Greeks," as distinguished from Bct/J- €apoi, '* Foreigners." This is clear from the opening sentence of the work, M^ irdvv (piXex^pus Siarl- Oecrde irphs tovs fiap€dpovs, 3> &y8pes "EWrives^ /tiTjSe <pdovi}(TriTe tois tuvtwv SSyfxacri. " Be not quite hostile, Greeks, in your disposition towards foreigners, and do not regard their opinions tuifa- vourably." He then proceeds to show that they (the Greeks) had derived their own usages from the very foreigners whom they despised, borrowing from Telniessus the art of divination from dreams, astrology from the Carians, augury from the flight of birds from the ancient Phrygians and Isaurians, the practice of sacrifice from Cyprus, astronomy from Babylon, magic from Persia, geometry from Egypt, and alphabetic writing from Phoenicia, &c. (c. 1. 2.) He rakes together the current charges of folly against their philosophers, and of wicked- ness against their heroes, (c. 3 — 6.) He unfolds his views of the Supreme Being (c. 6, 7), of the Logos (c. 7, 8), the resivrrcction (c. 9, 10), of the TATIANUS. freedom of the will, both of men and angels (c. 10), and of the fall (c. 11). He then exposes the follies and crimes ascribed to the divinities of the Greeks in the popular theology (c. 12 — 17), and contrasts with them the purer morality, and the more ele- vated views of the universe and of God, and of the divine administration, which he had received (c. 17, foil.). Throughout the work he pursues a similar strain of argument, examining the metaphysics and theology of his opponents, pointing out the supe- riority of the religion of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and insisting on the superior antiquity of Moses, the oldest Jewish writer, when compared with Homer, the oldest Greek writer. It has been a subject of dispute with the learned, how far this work of Tatian shows indications of those heretical views, the development of which afterwards en- tailed upon him so much odium. Brucker, in his Historia Cntica Philosophiae, endeavours to show that Tatian's philosophy, even while he was ac- counted orthodox, was grievously corrupted by the intermixture of Cabbalistic, Gnostic, and Neo- Platonic notions : on the other hand, Lange (His- toria Dogmatum, vol. i. p. 223, ^c). Bull (Defens. Fid. Nicaen. sect. iii. c. 6), and Ceillier (Auteurs Sacres, vol. iii. p. 127), contend for his orthodoxy. Certainly some of his sentiments are of a very fanciful character, and his speculations very remote from the simplicity of Christian truth, but he was, when he wrote this work, far from holding the characteristic doctrines of Gnosticism, such as the eternity and evil nature of matter, and the alienation or hos- tility between the Supreme God and the Demiurgos or Creator. The Greek text of this remarkable work was first published with a Latin version by Conrad Gesner, with the Sententiae of Antonius Melissa and Maximus, and the Ad Autolycum of Theophi- lus of Antioch, fol. Zuric. 1546. The Latin version of these works, by Gesner, was published separately, and that of Tatian was frequently reprinted in the successive editions of the Bibliotheca Patintm of De la Eigne, Paris, 1575, 1589, 1610, Cologne, 1618, Lyon, 1677, and also in the Mella Patrum of Francis Rous, 8vo. London, 1650, pp. QQ, &c. ; and both the Latin version of Gesner, and the ori- ginal Greek, but varying from Gesner's text, are given in the Orthodoxugrapha of Heroldus, fol. Basel, 1555 (Cave speaks of a previous edition in A.D. 1551), and in the J Mcton'Mw of Ducaeus(Fron to Le Due), fol. Paris, 1 624. They were published also,! with the writings of Justin Martyr, Athenagoras,] Theophilus, and llermeias, Paris, 1615 and 1636,] and Cologne (or rather Wittenberg), 1686. Thej last edition had the notes of Kortholt. Cave speaksj of an edition of Tatian in folio, Paris, 1618, but] Fabricius does not notice it. But the most valuable] edition was that of William Worth, archdeacon of Worcester, 8vo. Oxford, 1700, which contained,? besides a revised Greek text of Tatian, and of the Irnvo Gentilium Philosophorurn of Hermeias, the Latin versions of Tatian by Gesner, and of Henneias j by Seller, the entire notes of Gesner, Ducaeus,] Kortholt, and others, and some valuable Disserta-^. tiimes. Tile Oratio ad Graecos was also given bvl Prudentius Maran, in his (the Benedictine) editiouj of Justin Martyr, fol. Paris, 1742, in the first vol,^ of Galland's Bibliotheca Patrum., fol. Venice, 1765,, and in the third vol. of the Satic/oru/u Pu Opera Folemica, 8vo. Wurzburg, 1777. Of the other works of Tatian onlv a few fragment