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Tatian
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Introductory Note to Taitian the Assyrian
[479] [The baptismal renunciation.]
Chapter XX.—Thanks are Ever Due to God.
[481] [The flavour of this passage comes out with more sweetness in Kaye’s note (p. 198, Justin M.), thus: “Above the visible heavens exist the better ages, αἰῶνες οἰ κρείττονες, having no change of seasons from which various diseases take their orgin; but, blest with a uniform goodness of temperature, they enjoy perpetual day, and light inaccessible to men who dwell here below.”
Here Tatian seems to me to have had in mind a noble passage from Pindar, one of the most exquisite specimens of Greek poetry, which he baptizes and sanctifies.
Ἴσον δὲ νύκτεσσιν αἰεὶ;
Ἴσα δ᾽ἐν ἁμέραις ἄλι-
ον ἔχοντες, ἀπονέστερον
Ἐσθλοὶ νέμονται βίο-
τον οὐ χθόνα ταράσσον-
τες ἀλκᾷ χερῶν,
Οὐδὲ πόντιον ὕδωρ,
Κεινὰν παρὰ δίαιταν · κ.τ.λ. Olymp. ii.
Truly the Gentiles reflect some light from the window in the ark of their father Noah. How sweet what follows: ἄδακρυν νέμονται αἰῶνα. Comp. Rev. vii. 7, xxi. 4, xxii.]
[482] [Kaye thus renders this passage: “the spirit together with the soul will receive immortality, the heavenly covering of mortality.” Justin, p. 288.]
Chapter XXI.—Doctrines of the Christians and Greeks Respecting God Compared.
[483] Il., xxii. 227.
[484] Il., ii. init.
[485] [Χάριν οἰκονμίας. Compare divers uses of this word in Kaye’s Justin, p. 174.]
Chapter XXII.—Ridicule of the Solemnities of the Greeks.
[486] Tatian here describes an actor. [And in America heathenism has returned upon us in most of the indecencies here exposed. Are we Christians?]
Chapter XXIII.—Of the Pugilists and Gladiators.
[487] [Here Christianity began to avenge itself on the brutal spectacles of the Coliseum, which stands a gigantic monument of the religious system of which they were a part. See Athenagoras, Embassy, cap. xxxv.]
Chapter XXIV.—Of the Other Public Amusements.
[488] Antigenides was a flute-player, and Aristoxenus a writer on music and musical instruments.
Chapter XXV.—Boastings and Quarrels of the Philosophers.
[489] The Cynic Peregrinus is meant.
[490] They need the rich to invite them to banquets.
[491] The Cynic.
[492] [The vigor of this passage, and the impact of its truths upon heathen idols, are noble specimens of our author’s power.]
[493] [They ate and drank bread and wine hallowed to be the κοινωνία of the flesh and blood of Christ (1 Cor. x. 16); but they knew nothing of the modern doctrine of the Latin churches, which is precisely what Tatian denies.]
Chapter XXVII.—The Christians are Hated Unjustly.
[494] [Athenagoras, Embassy, cap. ii., infra.]
[495] In Crete.
[496] Comp. Tit. i. 12. Callimachus is probably the author referred to, through others express the same opinion respecting the Cretans.
[497] Accommodating himself to the popular opinions, through fear.
Chapter XXIX.—Account of Tatian’s Conversion.
[498] At Aricia, near Rome.
[499] [A memorable tribute to the light-giving power of the Holy Scriptures. “Barbarian books” (barbaric means something else) they were; but well says Dr. Watts in a paraphrase of Ps. cxix. 96 (and comp. capp. xl., xli., infra),—
“Let all the heathen writers join to form one perfect book,
Great God if once compared with thine, how mean their writings look!”
See his Hymns, p. 238. Ed. Worcester, 1836.]
Chapter XXX.—How He Resolved to Resist the Devil.
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