On 2 May, 17:21, George Hammond wrote:
On Fri, 2 May 2008 06:45:55 -0700 (PDT),Roger Pearse

wrote:

[Hammond]
* *And finally, Tatian's famous DIATESSARON (c 150 - 160) is
a historically famous Gospel harmony. *In it, Tatian,
combined Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John into a single
narrative. *The historic prominence of this work from 155ad.
alone, is testimony that the 4-Gospel Canon was well known
and widely accepted by mid second century ad.

[Roger Pearse]
Perhaps.

[Hammond]
* *No perhaps about it! *The DIATESSARON was the standard
Gospel text of the Syria Christian Church for 200 years.

(You mean the *Syriac* church, I think). It was removed from all the
churches by Rabbula, who substituted the separated gospels, and the
Syriac text is now lost. The text is known to us from an unreliable
Arabic translation, plus quotations in Ephraem Syrus' Commentary on
the Diatessaron, itself only rediscovered in Syriac (an Armenian
translation was previously known) in the last 50 years. The fact that
the most eminent of all Syriac writers wrote a commentary on it tells
us how important it was, and backs up the claim to pre-eminence in
that language group.

It's dating to 155ad is indisputable. *

Much is obscure about the Diatessaron, because of the problem above.
It isn't even certain whether Tatian composed it in Greek in Rome or
in Syriac after his return to the East after the death of Justin
Martyr. As such its date of composition, while certainly mid-to-
late-2nd century, remains uncertain.

See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatessaron

I'm afraid Wikipedia is an unreliable source of information on things
to do with Christian origins, tho (mainly because of the atheists).

All the best,

Roger Pearse