Editing Diatessaron (section)

== Vernacular harmonies derived from the ''Diatessaron'' ==

No Christian tradition, other than some Syriac ones,{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} has ever adopted a harmonized Gospel text for use in its liturgy. However, in many traditions, it was not unusual for subsequent Christian generations to seek to provide paraphrased Gospel versions in language closer to the [[vernacular]] of their own day.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} Frequently such versions have been constructed as Gospel harmonies, sometimes taking Tatian's Diatessaron as an exemplar; other times proceeding independently. Hence from the Syriac Diatessaron text was derived an 11th-century [[Arabic Language|Arabic]] harmony (the source for the published versions of the Diatessaron in English); and a 13th-century [[Persian Language|Persian]] harmony. The Arabic harmony preserves Tatian's sequence exactly, but uses a source text corrected in most places to that of the standard Syriac [[Peshitta]] Gospels;{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} the Persian harmony differs greatly in sequence, but translates a Syriac text that is rather closer to that in Ephrem's commentary.

A [[Vetus Latina]] version of Tatian's Syriac text appears to have circulated in the West from the late 2nd century; with a sequence adjusted to conform more closely to that of the canonical [[Gospel of Luke]]; and also including additional canonical text (such as the ''[[Pericope Adulterae]]''), and possibly non-canonical matter from the [[Gospel of the Hebrews]]. With the gradual adoption of the [[Vulgate]] as the liturgical Gospel text of the Latin Church, the Latin Diatessaron was increasingly modified to conform to Vulgate readings.<ref name="B. Lockwood 1500, p. 429"/> In 546 [[Victor of Capua]] discovered such a mixed manuscript; and, further corrected by Victor so as to provide a very pure Vulgate text within a modified Diatessaron sequence and to restore the two genealogies of Jesus side-by-side, this harmony, the [[Codex Fuldensis]], survives in the monastic library at [[Fulda]], where it served as the source text for vernacular harmonies in [[Old High German]], Eastern Frankish and [[Old Saxon]] (the alliterative poem '[[Heliand]]'). The older mixed Vulgate/Diatessaron text type also appears to have continued as a distinct tradition, as such texts appear to underlie surviving 13th–14th century Gospel harmonies in [[Middle Dutch]], [[Middle High German]], [[Middle French]], [[Middle English]], [[Italian Language|Tuscan]] and [[Italian Language|Venetian]]; although no example of this hypothetical Latin sub-text has ever been identified. The [[Liège Diatessaron]] is a particularly poetic example. This Latin Diatessaron textual tradition has also been suggested as underlying the 16th century Islam-influenced [[Gospel of Barnabas]] (Joosten, 2002).