TJie Appendices to the Gospel according to Mark. 369 



Zahn, after an exhaustive investigation, had concluded even before 

 the discovery of Ss. At the same time he concluded that this version 

 of the Old Syriac used by Tatian must have been made about the 

 middle of the second century, from a Greek text similar to D and the 

 oldest Itala MSS. (Cf. Hasting's D. B. Extra, p. 459.) 



At this time the Curetonian was the only form of the Old Syriac 

 known, and Zahn proved that T and Sc had influenced one another 

 {Forschungen I). 



But Baethgen proved that this relationship was due to the influence 

 of T on Sc, and therefore the Diatessaron was the earlier of the two 

 (Evangelienfragmente, Leipzig 1885, pp. 58 ff.). Hort had already 

 conjectured that Sc had "degenerated by transcription and perhaps 

 by irregular revision." (Cf. WH. II, Par. 118.) 



Much additional light was thrown upon this problem by the dis- 

 cover}' of the Sinaitic Syriac by Mrs. Lewis in 1892. Our study of Ss 

 leads us to the conclusion that it is older than Sc (so argues Cony- 

 beare, Bewer, and others) and further we believe Ss to be older than 

 the Diatessaron. Since at this point we depart from the accepted 

 theory of Burkitt and agree with the views of Mrs. Lewis, Hjelt, Merx, 

 Blass, Stenning, Bewer, and others, it will be well to support this 

 conclusion b)' a presentation of some of the arguments in its favor. 

 Stenning affirms : 



"A comparison of the text of Ss with that of Sc shows that those 

 peculiar features of the text which clearly pointed, in the case of the 

 latter, to the influence of T are by no means so strongly marked, if 

 not entirely wanting, in the former. This divergence of text is 

 especiall\' noticeable in respect to the harmonistic and ' dogmatic ' 

 readings which undoubtedly form the main support of Baethgen's 

 argument as to the relation of Sc to T." (Hasting's D.B., Extra.) 

 Burkitt, who at first held to the priority of Ss though now con- 

 sidering T the earlier, confesses : 



"Some of the readings characteristic of that MS [i. e. Ss] are 

 quite contrary in tendency to what we otherwise know of Syriac 

 Christianity, and that such a text should exist at all is a remarkable 

 testimony to the essential faithfulness of the translator to the Greek 

 text before him. The Diatessaron much nearer reflects the tenden- 

 cies of the time. In fact some things which ive know to have stood 

 in the Diatessaron almost read like a deliberate protest against the 

 text of Syr. vt. as represented by the Sinai palimpsest." (ItaHcs 

 our oAA-n.) (Encycl. Bib. col. 5003) : 



Hjelt, after a careful study of the relations of Ss to T (Die alt- 

 syrische E\-angelienubersetzung und Tatians Diatessaron besonders 



