XIX. TATIAN.

TATIAN was a Syrian rhetorician, converted to Christianity by Justin Martyr, whom he followed to Rome in the latter half of the second century. After the death of Justin, the opinions of Tatian took a turn towards those of Marcion, with whom he was contemporary; but, differing from that heresiarch in some material points, he became the head of a sect of his own, who acquired the appellation of Encratita and Hydroparastatæ, from the absti nence which they enjoined from wine and animal food, and their substitution of water for the former in the administration of the Eucharist.

As DUPIN states, there is yet extant the treatise of Tatian against the Gentiles.

ADAM CLARKE mentions Tatian's book "against the Greeks" as his only remaining work, and that it has never been translated. The "Oratio adversus Græcos, Gr. et Lat.," occupies about thirty six pages in Gallandii Bibliotheca. It also is given in the Bibliotheca of Delabigne.

The best edition is that of Worth, 8vo, Oxon, 1700, a copy of which is in the Bodleian and in the British Museum.

There is, also, in the Bodleian "Tatianus Syrus: Harmonia Evangelica inter scriptores Orthodoxos &c. &c." But DUPIN writes:

As to the Gospel that was compiled by Tatian

&c. ..... it was a rhapsody of the passages taken out of the four evangelists, to induce us to believe that our Saviour was not descended from the lineage of David.

Our account of Tatian may be concluded with the following notice of him given by DR MOSHEIM :

Tatian, by birth an Assyrian, and a disciple of Justin Martyr, is more distinguished, by the ancient writers, on account of his genius and learning, and the excessive and incredible austerity of his life and manners, than by any remarkable errors or opinions which he taught his followers. It appears, however, from the testimony of credible writers, that Tatian looked upon matter as the fountain of all evil, and therefore recommended, in a particular manner, the mortification of the body; that he distinguished the creator of the world from the supreme Being; denied the reality of Christ's body; and corrupted the Christian religion with several other tenets of the oriental philosophy. He had a great number of followers, who were, after him, called Tatianists,* but were, nevertheless, more frequently distinguished from other sects by names relative to the austerity of their manners; for, as they rejected, with a sort of horror, all the comforts and conveniences of life, and abstained from wine with such a rigorous obstinacy, as to use nothing but water, even at the celebration of

The following note is here added: "We have, yet remaining, of the writings of Tatian, an oration addressed to the Greeks. As to his opinions, they may be gathered from Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom. lib. ii, p. 460.-Epiphanius, Hæres. xlvi, cap. i, p. 391.-Origen de Oratione,

the Lord's supper; as they macerated their bodies by continual fastings, and lived a severe life of celibacy and abstinence, so they were called Encratites, † Hydroparastates, and Apotactites. ¶

cap. xiii. None, however, of the ancients wrote professedly concerning the doctrines of Tatian.

+ Temperate.

Drinkers of water.

Renouncers.

ATHENAGORAS was a native of Athens, and a philosopher, converted to Christianity. He wrote a treatise on the resurrection, and an Apology for the Christians, both of which works are still extant. He died A. D. 177.

The romance of Thcagenes and Charis was falsely ascribed to him it is the production of a Frenchman, Martin Fumée, and was published in French, as a translation from a Greek MS. brought out of the East, but no such MS. ever existed.

Athenagoras [says Dr Mosheim] deserves a place among the estimable writers of this age. He was a philosopher of no mean reputation; and his apology for the Christians, and his treatise upon the Resurrection, afford striking proofs of his learning and genius. [vol. i, p. 163.]

DUPIN writes only a few lines on this Father; and Dr Wotton in a note mentions that his works were published in Greek and Latin at Paris, 4to, 1541.

In the second volume of Gallandii Bibliotheca is "ATHENAGORE Legatio pro Christianis," also, "De resurrectione mortuorum."

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BICKERSTETH, in his "Christian Fathers of the first and second centuries," states that Athenagoras

published two short treatises, one in defence of Christianity, addressed to the Roman emperors, and the other on the Resurrection of the Dead, which have been preserved to us.

There is nothing in the works of Athenagoras on the subject of Baptism. Indeed, Bickersteth observes:

The design of Athenagoras to meet the objections of the heathen prevents his entering much into the peculiar privileges and blessings of the Gospel.