Diatessaron

Tatian, ANF 9

And when Pilate heard this saying, he took Jesus out, and sat on the tribune in the place…

And when Pilate heard this saying, he took Jesus out, and sat on the tribune in the place which was called the pavement of stones, but in the Hebrew called Gabbatha. 2And that day was the Friday of the passover: and it had reached about the sixth hour.¹ 3And he said to the Jews, Behold, your King! And they cried out, Take him, take him, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests said unto him, We have no king except Caesar. 4And Pilate, when he saw it, and² he was gaining nothing, but the tumult was increasing, took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, and said, I am innocent of the blood of this innocent man: ye shall know.³ 5And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. 6Then Pilate commanded to grant them their request; and delivered up Jesus to be crucified, according to their wish.

Then Judas the betrayer, when he saw Jesus wronged, went and returned the thirty pieces of money to the chief priests and the eiders, and said, I have sinned in my betraying innocent blood. 8And they said unto him, And we, what must we do? know thou. 9And he threw down the money in the temple, and departed; and he went away⁴ and hanged⁵ himself. 10And the chief priests took the money, and said, We have not authority to cast it into the place of the offering,⁶ for it is the price of blood. 11And they took counsel, and bought with it the plain of the potter, for the burial of strangers. 12Therefore that plain was called, The field of blood, unto this day. 13Therein⁷ was fulfilled the saying in the prophet which said, I took thirty pieces of money, the price of the precious one, which was fixed by the children of Israel; 14and I paid them for the plain of the potter, as the Lord commanded me.

And the Jews took Jesus, and went away to crucify him. 16And when he bare his cross and went out, they stripped him of those purple and scarlet garments which he had on, and put on him his own garments. 17And while they were going with him, they found a man, a Cyrenian, coming from the country, named Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus: and they compelled this man to bear the cross of Jesus. 18And they took the cross and laid it upon him, that he might bear it, and come after Jesus; and Jesus went, and his cross behind him.

And there followed him much people, and women which were lamenting and raving.⁸ 20But Jesus turned unto them and said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me: weep for yourselves, and for your children. 21Days are coming, when they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the womb’s that bare not, and the breasts that gave not suck. 22Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. 23For if they do so in the green tree,⁹ what shall be in the dry?

And they brought with Jesus two others of the malefactors,¹⁰ to be put to death.

And when they came unto a certain place called The skull, and called in the Hebrew Golgotha, they crucified him there: they crucified with him these two malefactors, one on his right, and the other on his left. 26And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, He was numbered with the transgressors. 27And they gave him to drink wine and myrrh, and vinegar which had been mixed with the myrrh; and he tasted, and would not drink; and he received it not.

And the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and cast lots for them in four parts, to every party of the soldiers a part; and his tunic was without sewing, from the top woven throughout. 29And they said one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: and the scripture was fulfilled, which saith,

They divided my garments among them,

And cast the lot for my vesture.

This the soldiers did. And they sat and guarded him there. 31And Pilate wrote on a tablet the cause of his death, and put it on the wood of the cross above his head.¹¹ And there was written upon it thus: This is Jesus the Nazarene the Nazarene, the King of the Jews. 32And this tablet¹² read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city: and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. 33And the chief priests said unto Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but, He it is that¹³ said, I am the King of the Jews. 34Pilate said unto them, What hath been written hath been written.¹⁴ 35And the people were standing beholding; and they that passed by were reviling¹⁵ him, and shaking¹⁶ their heads, and saying, 36Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself if thou art the Son of God, and come down from the cross. 37And in like manner the chief priests and the scribes and the elders and the Pharisees derided him, and laughed one with another, and said, 38The saviour of others cannot save himself. 39If he is the Messiah, the chosen of God, and the King of Israel,¹⁷ let him come down now from the cross, that we may see, and believe in him. 40He that relieth on God-let him deliver him now, if he is pleased with him: for he said, I am the Son of God. 41And the soldiers also scoffed at him in that they came near unto him, 42and brought him vinegar, and said unto him, If thou art the King of the Jews, save thyself. 43And likewise the two robbers¹⁸ also that were crucified with him reproached him. 44And one of those two malefactors who were crucified with him reviled him, and said, If thou art the Messiah, save thyself, and save us also. 45But his comrade rebuked him, and said, Dost thou not even fear God, being thyself also in this condemnation? 46And we with justice, and as we deserved, and according to our deed,¹⁹ have we been rewarded: but this man hath not done anything unlawful. 47And he said unto Jesus, Remember me, my Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom. 48Jesus said unto him, Verily²⁰ I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. 49And there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister,²¹ Mary²² that was related to Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 50And Jesus saw his mother, and that disciple whom he loved standing by; and he said to his mother, Woman, behold, thy son! 51And he said to that disciple, Behold, thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto himself.

And from the sixth hour²³ darkness was on all the land unto the ninth hour,²⁴ and the sun became dark. 53And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and said, Yail, Yaili,²⁵ why hast thou forsaken me? which²⁶ is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 54And some of those that stood there, when they heard, said,²⁷ This man called Elijah.

Notes

Lit. six hours.
Or, that.
cf. Peshitta. Or, Ye know (cf. Sinaitic).
Borg. MS. omits and he ment away.
Lit. strangled.
cf. §32, 15, note.
Or, at that (time).
Lit. being burned. The text is probably corrupt.
Lit. wood (cf. Syr. and Greek).
Or, others, malefactors.
Mt. 27, 37.
A different word from that in the preceding verse; in each case, the word used in the Peshitta (Cur. and Sin. lacking).
The Syriac words, retained in Ibn-aṭ-Ṭayyib’s Commentary (f. 366a), seem to have been transposed. Vat. MS. omits he, probably meaning but that he said.
In a carelessly written Arabic MS. there is almost no difference between hath been written and I have written, as it is in Ibn-aṭ-Ṭayyib (loc. cit., f. 366a).
cf. §7, 17, note. Borg. MS. has jesting at.
The Arabic text has deriding (cf. §51, 37). Either with is accidentally omitted, or, more probably, we should correct the spelling to shaking (cf. Syriac versions).
Verse 37 or Mt.
Borg. MS. has boys (an easy clerical error).
Our deed might be read we have done, and perhaps our translator’s style would justify our writing as for to.
Borg. MS. has Verily, verily.
A single word in Arabic.
Vat. MS. has and Mary.
Lit six hours and nine hours respectively.
Lit six hours and nine hours respectively.
In Vat. MS. the second word is like the first. The syllable Ya doubtless is the Arabic interjection O!
The Borg. MS. omits from which to me.
Borg. MS. omits when they, and has and said.