Mar Aphrahat, OS Mk 10:20, and the Diatessaron

[yuku]

I see, Paul... So what you're saying is that Aphrahat did have his own trusty copy of the Peshitta by his side when he was writing his Demonstrations, he just didn't feel like opening it up. Instead, he cites this whole long Parable of the Rich Man from memory, but somehow manages to get the whole sequence of 7 words, letter for letter, the same as in the OS Mark, which, of course, could never have existed in Persia. Well, OK...

I don't think anyone is actually denying that Aphrahat paraphrased a lot. Of course he paraphrased a lot, as is evident from taking even one brief look at his gospel citations. But when he gets the whole long sequence of 7 words the same as in the OS Mark, one might wonder if there's something more going on there other than paraphrasing.

As I already said, we don't have a copy of the "original Diatessaron". In fact, one might even wonder if such a thing ever existed. So all arguments in this area would have to be based on probabilities rather than certainties. If his citations look harmonised, then it might just be that it was a gospel harmony that he quoted from.

And what about all the other parallels in this same pericope between Aphrahat and the Old Syriac Sinaiticus? Don't you see them yourself?

This whole citation from Aphrahat seems harmonised between Mk and Mt.

Shlama,

Yuri.