And
it ought to be observed that the value and importance of these books
consisted entirely in their genuineness and truth. There was nothing in
them, as works of taste or as compositions, which could have induced any
one to have written a note upon them. Moreover, it shows that they were
even then considered as ancient books. Men do not write comments upon
publications of their own times: therefore the testimonies cited under
this head afford an evidence which carries up the evangelic writings
much beyond the age of the testimonies themselves, and to that of their
reputed authors.
I. Tatian, a follower of Justin Martyr, and who flourished about the
year 170, composed a harmony, or collation of the Gospels, which he
called Diatessaron, of the four. The title, as well as the work, is
remarkable; because it shows that then, as now, there were four, and
only four, Gospels in general use with Christians. And this was little
more than a hundred years after the publication of some of them.
(Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 307.)
II. Pantaenus, of the Alexandrian school, a man of great reputation and
learning, who came twenty years after Tatian, wrote many commentaries
upon the Holy Scriptures, which, as Jerome testifies, were extant in his
time.
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