1 Harmony or Gospel? On the Genre of the (so-called) Diatessaron FRANCIS WATSON, Durham University SNTS Christian Apocryphal Literature Seminar, Perth 2013 The “Diatessaron” is historically and hermeneutically important both in its own right and for the light it sheds on its more successful rival, the four-gospel collection. The aim of this paper is to explore the possibility of a redaction-critical approach to the Diatessaron, on the double assumption (1) that this text is still partially accessible, and (2) that it is more appropriately seen as a gospel than as a gospel harmony. The initial task is to clarify the difference between these two genres – although, as we shall see, the relationship is in practice a fluid one. A gospel harmony is subordinate to authoritative canonical texts and seeks to show how they may best be co-ordinated. It is a supplement to the canonical gospels, not a substitute for them. A gospel is a text that aspires to a role as authoritative scripture in its own right. It may resemble a gospel harmony in drawing from and co-ordinating prior texts, but these are here viewed as sources or resources out of which the new text is to be constructed. The aim is not to demonstrate that these sources may be co- ordinated, safeguarding their reputation for absolute reliability, but rather to present existing gospel material in a more effective form. A gospel can afford to be selective in its use of its sources. Though dependent on them, it is not bound by them; new material may be added, or old material may be presented with a new slant. In contrast, a gospel harmony seeks to be comprehensive. No part of the canonical literature is to be rejected or passed over, for the aim is to vindicate its absolute authority and truthfulness. Gospel harmonizers differ among themselves about how far this aim is to be taken. They must consider whether or not it is important to show that the sequence of each gospel is historically reliable, and, if sequence does matter, how it is that so many almost identical incidents seem to occur at different points in Jesus’ career. 1 One gospel harmony will report two different occasions on which 1 A gospel harmony with a rigorous concern to preserve gospel sequences is promised in the title of Andreas Osiander’s work, dating from 1537: Harmoniae Evangelicae libri quatuor, in quibus Evangelica historia ex quatuor Evangelistis ita in unum est contexta, ut nullius verbum ullum omissum, nihil alienum immixtum, nullius ordo turbatus, nihil non suo loco positum: omnia vero litteris et notis ita distincta sunt, ut quid cujusque Evangelistae proprium, quid cum aliis, et cum quibus commune sit, primo aspectu deprehendere queas. A more recent example is James MacKnight’s Harmony of the Four Gospels, in which the Natural Order of Each is Preserved (2 vols., London, 1756 1 ; 1809 4 ). According to McKnight, “the best method of producing a perfect Harmony is to preserve the thread of [the gospels’] several narrations entire, because seeming contradictions will thus be removed, the whole will be rendered consistent, the credit