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The Diatessaron of Tatian
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[169] The word used in the Peshitta means visit, either in the sense of caring for or in that of frequenting. See § 24, 29.
[170] So Borg. ms. The Vat. ms. is very indistinct. Lagarde (see Introduction, 13, note), quoting Guidi, prints Whereby there visiteth us the manifestation from on high. The difference in Arabic is in a single stroke.
[172] Luke i. 80.
[174] This is preceded in Vat. ms. by the genealogy,Matt. i. 1-17 (see Introduction, 13), with the marginal note The Beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. (Lagarde, op. cit., 1886, p. 154.) The text presents nothing worthy of note in this place except that verse 16, construed on the same principle as the preceding verses, to which, except in the words printed in italics, it is strictly parallel in construction, reads thus: “Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, who of her begat Jesus, the Messiah” (cf. the remarkable reading of Sin. Syriac). As it stands, this is the only possible interpretation of the words, for who is masculine. But a mistake in the gender of a relative pronoun is very common in Arabic among illiterate people, while in Syriac there is, to begin with, no distinction. If then we correct the relative, who of her will become of whom (fem.), and begat will of course be construed as passive. We thus get the text followed in Ibn-at-Tayyib’s Commentary, the ordinary reading of the Peshitta, of whom was born Jesus.
[177] The Arabic might even more naturally be rendered born, thus giving us the reading that Isho‘dad tells us was that of the Diatessaron (Harris, Fragments, p. 16 f.); but throughout the whole genealogy (see § 1, 81, note) this word has been used by the Vat. ms. in the sense of begat. Here the Borg. ms. has of her for in her; but Ibn-at-Tayyib in his Commentary discusses why Matthew wrote in and not of.
[179] cf. § 1, 78.
[185] The Arabic expression is clearly meant to represent that used in the Peshitta.
[187] This is the most natural meaning of the Arabic sentence; which, however, is simply a word-for-word reproduction.
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