TATIAN (2nd cent. A.D.), Christian apologist, missionary and heretic. Such knowledge as we have of his life is derived from (I) his own Oratio ad Graecos (see § 3) ; (2) Irenaeus, Adv. Haereses, i. 28, i. ; (3) Rhodon, quoted in Eusebius's Hist. Eccl. v. 13, I; (4) Clement of Alexandria, Strom. i. 1, II ; Eusebius, Chronicon anno A.D. 171; (6) 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. I, pp. 51-55 ; and in A. Harnack's Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, i. pp. 485-96. From these data the following outline of his life can be reconstructed. He was a Syrian' (Clem. Alex. and Epiphanius) born in Mesopotamia (Or. 42) and educated in 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 Christianity.
Tatian then went to Rome, where he was a hearer of Justin, and together with the latter incurred the enmity of a certain philosopher Crescens. As this fact is mentioned both in Justin's Apology and in Tatian's Oratio ad Graecos, and the Apology can be dated with fair security about A.D. 152 (see JUSTIN MARTYR), the conversion of Tatian must have been before this date. After the death of Justin he became a heretic—according to Eusebius's Chronicon in 173. Among his pupils were Rhodon, and, perhaps Apelles (see Victorinus Reat. schol. 44, in Ep. Hieronymi ad Avitum, ep. 124) and Clement of Alexandria (Storm. i. 1, II). He made a missionary journey to the East and worked in Cilicia and Pisidia, using the Syrian Antioch as the centre of his efforts (Epiphan.). The heresy which Tatian either founded or adopted was that of the Encratites. Their main doctrines were the evil na ture of matter, an absolute forbidding of marriage, abstinence from wine and perhaps from meat. It would also seem that Tatian be lieved in the existence of aeons, one of whom was the Demiurge of the world. He denied the salvation of Adam. It is also stated
that in his celebration of the Mysteries (i.e., the Eucharist), he used only water. (See Tertullian, De Jejun, 15; Hippolytus, Philos. 8, 4, 16 and bo, 18; Jerome in Amos ii. 12 and Iren., Adv.
Haer, i. 28, iii. 23.) .
Writings.—According to Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., iv. 29), Tatian wrote many books ; of these the names of the following have survived:—(I) IIEpi (mentioned in Or., 15) ; (2) Hepi 8at,u6pcov (mentioned in Or., 16) ; (3) Alryos apes Toin "EXXriv as; (4) HP0f3XmacTow f3c0Xiov (Eus., v. 13, I—a quotation from Rhodon) an attempt to deal with the contradictions to be found in the Bible; (?5) Ilpen Itroc/yrivaAvovs TA r pen 0E0'11 (mentioned in Or., 4o as a book which Tatian intended to write, but there is no evidence that he carried his plan into effect) ; (6) llepi. Toi) KaTa Tov Zwrijpa Karaprta-yoi) (Clem. Alex., Strom., iii. 12, 8o) ; (7) The Diatessaron; (?8) a recension of the Pauline epistles. Of these books only two—the Diatessaron and the ran robs "EXXnvas describes himself as an "Assyrian," and though the terms "Assyrian" and "Syrian" are used very loosely by ancient writers, it is probable that he was born E. of the Tigris, i.e., not in Syria as we understand it. Epiphanius, in another passage, calls him an Assyrian.
—are extant.
The Ainfos rpOs To "EXXnvas (Oratio ad Graecos) (see edi tion by J. C. T. Otto, in Corp. apol. chr. saec, Jena, 1851) belongs to Tatian's Catholic period. He has the double purpose in view of exposing the weakness of the pagan view of the universe and of commending the Christian explanation. The omissions in the Oratio are even more remarkable than its statements. There is at the most not more than an allusion to 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 atonement. The Oratio was probably written in Greece about A.D. 150.