e Word_, and which Mar Ephraem expounded, kept the Four
Gospels in their integrity, etc.' It is tolerably plain, I think, from
the language of this writer, that he had before him the passage of
Bar-Salibi (or some corresponding passage), and that he misunderstood
him, as if he were speaking of the same work throughout. From the
coincidence in the strange interpretation of Diatessaron, it is clear
that the two passages are not independent. Assemani has omitted this
interpretation in his translation in both cases, and has thus
obliterated the resemblance.

(ii) To the same source also we may refer the error of Ebed-Jesu in the
beginning of the fourteenth century, who not only confuses the books but
the men. He writes (Assem. _Bibl. Orient._ iii. p. 12): 'A Gospel which
was compiled by a man of Alexandria, Ammonius, who is also Tatian; and
he called it _Diatessaron_.' He too supposed the two independent
sentences of Bar-Salibi to refer to the same thing. In the preface to
his collection of canons however, he gives a description of Tatian's
work which is substantially correct: 'Tatianus quidam philosophus cum
evangelistarum loquentium sensum suo intellectu cepisset, et scopum
scriptionis illorum divinae in mente sua fixisset, unum ex quatuor illis
admirabile collegit evangelium, quod et Diatessaron nominavit, in quo
cum cautissime seriem rectam eorum, quae a Salvatore dicta ac gesta
fuere, servasset, ne unam quidem dictionem e suo addidit' (Mai _Script.
Vet. Nov. Coll._ x. pp. 23, 191).

(iii) In Bar-Bahlul's Syriac Lexicon, _s.v._ (see Payne Smith _Thes.
Syr._ p. 870), _Diatessaron_ is defined as 'the compiled Gospel (made)
from the four Evangelists,' and it is added: 'This was composed in
Alexandria, and was written by Tatian the Bishop.' The mention of
Alexandria suggests that here also there is some confusion with
Ammonius, though neither Ammonius nor Tatian was a bishop. Bar-Bahlul
flourished in the latter half of the tenth century; and if this notice
were really his, we should have an example (doubtful however) of this
confusion, earlier than Bar-Salibi. But these Syrian Lexicons have grown
by accretion; the MSS, I am informed, vary considerably; and we can
never be sure that any word or statement emanated from the original
compiler.

Since writing the above, I am able to say, through the kindness of Dr
Hoffmann, that in the oldest known MS of Bar-Bahlul, dated A.H. 611,
_i.e._, A.D. 1214, this additional sentence