Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

TATIAN (2nd cent. A.D.)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 451 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

TATIAN (2nd cent. A.D.) , See also:Christian apologist, missionary and heretic. Such knowledge as we have of his See also:life is derived from (I) his own Oratio ad Graecos (see § 3); (2) See also:Irenaeus, Adv. Haereses, 28, i.; (3) Rhodon, quoted in See also:Eusebius's Hist. Eccl. v. 13, 1; (4) See also:Clement of See also:Alexandria, Strom. i. 1, II; (5) Eusebius, Chronicon See also:anno A.D. 171; (6) See also:Epiphanius, Panarion, i. 3, 46. Convenient collections of these passages may be found in E. Schwartz's Tatiani Oratio ad Graecos, Texte and Untersuchungen, iv. 1, pp.

51–55; and in A. See also:

Harnack's Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur, i. pp. 485-96. From these data the following outline of his life can be reconstructed. He was a Syrian' (Clem. Alex. and Epiphanius) See also:born in See also:Mesopotamia (Or. 42) and educated in See also:Greek learning, in which he became proficient (Or. i. and 42). He was initiated into the Mysteries, though into which is not stated (Or. 29), but after this became acquainted with the Old Testament, and was converted to See also:Christianity. He then went to See also:Rome, where he was a hearer of See also:Justin, and together with the latter incurred the enmity of a certain philosopher Crescens. As this fact is mentioned both in Justin's See also:Apology and in Tatian's Oratio ad Graecos, and the Apology can be dated with See also:fair See also:security about A.D. 152 (see JUSTIN See also:MARTYR), the See also:conversion of Tatian must have been before this date.

After the See also:

death of Justin he became a heretic—according to Eusebius's Chronicon in 173. Among his pupils were Rhodon, and perhaps See also:Apelles (see See also:Victorinus Reat. schol. 44, in Ep. Hieronymi ad Avitum, ep. 124) and Clement of. Alexandria (See also:Storm. i. 1, II). He made a missionary See also:journey to the See also:East and worked in See also:Cilicia and See also:Pisidia, using the Syrian See also:Antioch as the centre of his efforts (Epiphan.). According to,Epiphanius, Tatian went to the East after the death of Justin (c. 165), and then became heretical, and Eusebius states that he was recognized as heretical in 173. Zahn (Forschungen zur Geschichte See also:des Kanons, i.) and most writers ' Tatian describes himself as an " See also:Assyrian," and though the terms " Assyrian " and " Syrian " are used very loosely by See also:ancient writers, it is probable that he was born E. of the See also:Tigris, i.e. not in See also:Syria as we understand it. Epiphanius, in another passage, calls him an Assyrian.accept this as in the See also:main correct; it is generally thought that his See also:heresy was recognized in Rome, and it is suggested that this was the See also:reason why he returned to the East.

The statement in Epiphanius is capable of being interpreted in this sense, and whereas Tatian was always regarded as heretical in the See also:

West, he seems to have been unsuspected in the East. This fact, however, does more than support the See also:suggestion that Tatian's heresy was recognized before he See also:left Rome: it throws some doubt on the theory that after being turned out of the See also:Church in Rome he worked as a missionary in the East without being suspected. Harnack (Texte and Untersuchungen, i. 1, pp. 196 ff.) once suggested that the missionary See also:work in the East belongs to an earlier See also:period, and that Tatian left Rome and re-turned to it between his first arrival and the death of Justin Martyr. But in his Chronologie, i. pp. 284 if., he has with-See also:drawn this, and it is probably too hypothetical; it is, however, the only serious effort to See also:deal with the difficulty, which if not insoluble is at least unsolved. The Heresy of Tatian.—As in the See also:case of most heresies, we have only the See also:partisan statements of opponents. Everything is therefore open to some doubt, but the following points seem fairly certain. The heresy which Tatian either founded or adopted was that of the Encratites. Their main doctrines were the evil nature of See also:matter, an See also:absolute forbidding of See also:marriage, See also:abstinence from See also:wine and perhaps from See also:meat. It would also seem that Tatian believed in the existence of aeons, one of whom was the See also:Demiurge of the See also:world.

He denied the salvation of See also:

Adam. It is also stated that in his celebration of the Mysteries (i.e. the See also:Eucharist) he used only See also:water (see See also:Tertullian, De Jejun. 15; See also:Hippolytus, Philos., 8, 4, 16 and to, 18; See also:Jerome in See also:Amos ii. 12 and Iren., Adv. Haer., i. 28, iii. 23). Writings.—According to Eusebius, Tatian wrote many books (Hist. Eccl., iv. 29); of these the- names of the following have survived:—(r) llept j-4wv (mentioned in' Or., 15); (2) MIA See also:Sacµdvwv (mentioned in Or., 16) ; (3) Adyos apds robs "EXXip'as ; (4) HpoiDoivarwv pcf3Xtov (Eus., v. 13, I—a See also:quotation from Rhodon) an See also:attempt to deal with the contradictions to be found in the See also:Bible; (? 5) Bpte &Tro-4niva,. vovs ra srpds eeoi) (mentioned in Or., 40 as a See also:book which Tatian intended to write, but there is no See also:evidence that he carried his See also:plan into effect; (6) Befit roi Kara See also:TOP Ewrijpa Karaprcopou (Clem.

Alex., Strom., iii. 12, 8o) ; (7) The Diatessaron; (? 8) a recension of the Pauline epistles (Eus., Hist. Eccl., iv. 29) says that he was accused of producing a µeTa4pavcr of the 'epistles so as to smooth the See also:

grammar, and in Jerome's See also:preface to St See also:Paul's See also:Epistle to See also:Titus it is stated that he rejected some of the epistles, but not that to Titus. Of these books only two—the Diatessaron and the irpds robs "Ehartvas are still extant. The See also:Abyss wpbs robs "EXX vas (Oratio ad Graecos) belongs to Tatian's See also:Catholic period. He has the See also:double purpose in view of exposing the weakness of the See also:pagan view of the universe and of commending the Christian explanation. For the former purpose he seems to have made use of an already existent book, perhaps the Pofjrwv 4opa of See also:Oenomaus of See also:Gadara, a Syrian who wrote in the See also:time of See also:Hadrian. The same source seems to have been used by Minucius See also:Felix and Tertullian, and Eusebius in his Praep. Evan., v. 19, quotes some other fragments of the work of Oenomaus.

The main See also:

argument employed is an exposition of the contradictions, absurdities and immoralities of Greek See also:mythology. A See also:special attack is made on the See also:doctrine of See also:Fate or See also:Necessity. Tatian insists that See also:man is a See also:free See also:agent: that his sins and the consequent evils in the world are the result of free choice, and that the same free choice can remedy the evil. His See also:positive explanation of the universe is rather difficult to follow. He See also:lays See also:great stress on the See also:Logos doctrine; all See also:good is to be found in See also:union with the Logos; all evil is in matter or in " See also:spirits of a material nature "; the origin of evil in the world seems to be the choice of the latter rather than of the former; and redemption consists in the See also:reverse See also:process. But the choice of evil was not made only by man but by angels, who by their evil choice became the demons, that is, the gods of the See also:heathen world. Both men and angels will be judged at the end of the world, when the good will receive again the See also:immortality which was lost through See also:sin, and the wicked will receive death through See also:punishment with immortality (eavarov Sca See also:rcµwpiav is a8avao4). Tatian does not deny the stories of the Greek mythology—indeed he protests against any attempt to allegorize it—but he insists that these stories are the See also:record of the deeds of demons and have no religious value. The truth of his views he rests, rather strangely, on the argument that See also:Moses, the writer of the See also:Pentateuch, lived See also:long before See also:Homer, whom he regards as the earliest Greek religious writer, and to prove this he quotes a See also:series of synchronisms, which were made use of by many subsequent chronologers, including probably See also:Julius See also:Africanus, who in turn was used by Eusebius. The omissions in the Oratio are even more remarkable than its statements. There is at the most not more than an allusion to See also:Christ, who is never mentioned by name, and though there are frequent allusions to the regaining of life, which is accomplished by union with the Logos, there is no reference to the doctrines of the incarnation or of the See also:atonement. The date of the See also:writing of the Oratio cannot be fixed more accurately than that it was before 165 and probably about A.D.

15o. On the See also:

hypothesis that Tatian remained in Rome until the death of Justin it must have been written there: but on See also:internal evidence Harnack thinks; probably correctly, that it was written in See also:Greece, perhaps in See also:Athens, and Tatian made at least one journey outside Rome before Justin's death (cf. Texte and Untersuchungen, l.c., and Gesch. d. altchr. Litt., l.c.). (K.

End of Article: TATIAN (2nd cent. A.D.)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
TATI 		[next]
TATRA MOUNTAINS (Hungarian Tarczal)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries