Diatessaron

Tatian, ANF 9

I am sending you as lambs among wolves: be ye now wise as serpents, and harmless as …

I am sending you as lambs among wolves: be ye now wise as serpents, and harmless¹ as doves. 2Beware of men: they shall deliver you to the councils of the magistrates, and scourge you in their synagogues; 3and shall bring you before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and against the nations. 4And when they deliver you up, be not² anxious, nor consider beforehand, what ye shall say; but ye shall be given³ in that hour what ye ought to speak. 5Ye do not speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaketh in you. 6The brother shall deliver up his brother to death, and the father his son; and the sons shall rise against their parents, and put them to death. 7And ye shall be hated of every man because of my name; but he that endureth unto the end of the matter shall be saved.⁴ 8When they expel you from this city, flee to another. Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not finish all the cities of the people of Israel, until the Son of man come.

A disciple is not superior to his lord, nor a servant to his master. 10For it is enough then for the disciple that he be as his lord, and the servant as his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more the people of his house! 11Fear them not therefore:⁵ for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; nor hid, that shall not be disclosed and published. 12What I say unto you in the darkness, speak ye in the light; and what ye have told secretly in the ears in closets, let it be proclaimed on the housetops. 13I say unto you now, my beloved, Be not agitated at⁶ those who kill the body, but have no power to kill the soul. I will inform you whom ye shall fear: 14him⁷ which is able to destroy soul and body in hell. 15Yea, I say unto you, Be afraid of him especially. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing in a bond?⁸ and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 16But what concerns you: even the hair of your heads also is numbered. 17Fear not therefore; ye are better than many sparrows. 18Every man who confesseth me now before men, I also will confess him before my Father which is in heaven; 19but whosoever denieth me before men, I also will deny him before my Father which is in heaven.

Think ye that I am come to cast peace into the earth? I came not to cast peace, but to cast dissension. 21Henceforth there shall be five in one house, three of them disagreeing with two, and the two with the three. 22The father shall become hostile to his son, and the son to his father; and the mother to her daughter, and the daughter to her mother; and the mother in law to her daughter in law, and the daughter in law to her mother in law: 23and a man’s enemies shall be the people of his house. 24Whosoever loveth father or mother better than me is not worthy of me; and whosoever loveth son or daughter more than his love of me is not worthy of me. 25And every one that doth not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 26Whosoever findeth his life⁹ shall lose it; and whosoever loseth his life¹⁰ for my sake shall find it.

And whosoever receiveth you receiveth me; and whosoever receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 28And whosoever receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall take¹¹ a prophet’s reward; and whosoever shall receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall take¹² a righteous man’s reward. 29And every one that shall give to drink to one of these least ones a drink of water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.

And when Jesus finished charging his twelve disciples, he removed thence to teach and preach in their cities. 31And while they were going in the way they entered into a certain village; and a woman named Martha entertained him in her house. 32And she had a sister named Mary, and she came and sat at the feet of our Lord, and heard his sayings. 33But Martha was disquieted by much serving; and she came and said unto him, My Lord, givest thou no heed that my sister left me alone to serve? speak to her that she help me. 34Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art solicitous and impatient¹³ on account of many things: but what is sought is one thing. 35But Mary hath chosen for herself a good portion, and that which shall not be taken from her.

And the apostles went forth, and preached to the people that they might repent. 37And they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick with oil, and healed them. 38And the disciples of John told him¹⁴ of all these things. 39And when John heard in the prison of the doings of the Messiah, he called two of his disciples, and sent them to Jesus, and said, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? 40And they came to Jesus, and said unto him, John the Baptist hath sent us unto thee, and said. 41Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? And in that hour he cured many of diseases, and of plagues of an evil spirit; and he gave sight to many blind. 42Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and tell John everything ye have seen and heard: the blind see, and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, and the blind¹⁵ hear, and the dead rise, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 43And blessed is he who doubteth not in me.

And when John’s disciples departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? a reed shaken with the winds? And if not, then what went ye out to see? a man clothed in soft raiment? 45Behold, they that are in magnificent garments and in voluptuousness are in the abode of kings. 46And if not, then what went ye out to see? a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. 47This is he of whom it is written,

I am sending my messenger before thy face

To prepare the way before thee.

Notes

The word is occasionally used in this sense, but ordinarily means sound, unhurt.
From this point down to Mt. 10, 27a, is assigned by Vat. MS. to Mark.
Borg. ms. reads, but what are granted ye shall speak, and ye shall be given in, etc., and there seems to be a trace of this reading in Ciasca’s text.
see note to §1, 78.
see note to §9, 21.
Perhaps this Arabic word is a copyist’s error for that used a few lines further down in Lk. 12, 5, the Arabic words being very similar; but see note on §1, 14.
Syriac.
The Vat. MS., like the Brit. Mus. text of Ibn-aṭ-Ṭayyib’s Commentary, omits for a farthing, retaining in a bond. The two phrases are simply different explanations of the same Syriac consonants. These are really the naturalised Greek word rendered farthing in Eng. version; but they also form a Syriac word meaning bond.
Or, soul.
Or, soul.
Or, receive.
Or, receive.
Or, agitated.
Lit. And his disciples told John, as in the Greek, etc.
A different word from that used in the preceding verse. It is either an Arabic copyist’s error for the word for deaf used in Ibn-aṭ-Ṭayyib’s Commentary, or a careless blunder.