This volume provides a useful example of the benefits that can come from combining close textual and historical scholarship with freshly prepared critical texts and translations. Textual criticism and commentary are best done together. In keeping with the series’ focus on ethics and religions in the first four centuries ce, this SAPERE volume takes Tatian's Oratio ad Graecos as the text of focus. Nesselrath's volume provides a good working text and translation and also brings together five interdisciplinary essays from scholars who include Graeco-Roman religious texts, or early Christian texts in particular, as part of their areas of expertise. Nesselrath opens the book by introducing Tatian and his work. His text, translation and interpretative notes follow. The five essays on various elements of Tatian's work and its relation to the larger Graeco-Roman world of philosophy and ethics bring the volume to a close.
Nesselrath's introduction takes up the issues that one would expect in a book of this sort. Tatian's life, his relationship with Justin and his works – both extant and lost – are neatly summarised. Oratio ad Graecos can be dated to within approximately a decade after Justin's death in 165, perhaps sometime in the early 170s ce. Nesselrath proposes that the work was written after Tatian's travels were completed and he had settled in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. A particularly helpful element is the outline of the Oratio (pp. 9–14). The outline follows what Nesselrath takes to be the major rhetorical sections of the work while also summarising the content of each of the 42 traditional chapters. Readers will want to note that Nesselrath refers to J. Trelenberg's commentary on Tatian's Oratio for further information about the history of scholarship regarding the date of the work (p. 14) and previous editions of the text (p. 25; Trelenberg, Tatianos, Oratio ad Graecos [2012]). Nesselrath also refers to Molly Whittaker, a previous editor of Tatian's Oratio, as ‘Mary Whittaker’ (pp. 9, 16), but this issue is limited to the introduction.
Nesselrath positions his text in relation to the editions of M. Whittaker (Tatian: Oratio ad Graecos and Fragments [1982]), M. Marcovich (Tatiani Oratio ad Graecos [1995]) and Trelenberg. Along with Trelenberg, Nesselrath attempts to walk in the middle of the editorial road between Whittaker, who takes a very conservative approach according to Nesselrath, and Marcovich, who is given to an excessive number of conjectures (p. 25). A table usefully documents the differences between these four editions as well as the text of E. Schwartz, Tatiani Oratio ad Graecos (1888) (pp. 26–36). Nesselrath's text generally accomplishes its aims and presents a handy scholarly edition of Tatian's Oratio. Nesselrath's editorial choices have been decades in the making. His first encounter with Tatian's text came when he was contacted by the Patristic Commission in 1993 to review Marcovich's edition prior to publication. Nesselrath's textual notes are mixed in with his interpretative notes. Nesselrath offers commentary on select passages in these notes along with helpful references to comparative works that readers can explore further and which runs the gamut from closely related authors such as Justin and Clement of Alexandria to texts that are further afield but enlightening. With 636 notes on Tatian's text, these annotations add considerable value for researchers. An alternative format might separate the text-critical notes and place them as footnotes on the same page of the text for easier comparison. However, the information remains equally valuable as it currently is.
In the first essay that follows Nesselrath's work F. Prostmeier explores Tatian's Oratio alongside other discourses about religion in the early Roman Empire. He dates Tatian's work to around 172 ce and locates it in the eastern part of the Empire, perhaps around Antioch. He then observes the chronological and probable geographical nearness of the works by Tatian and another Antiochian writer, Theophilus of Antioch. Much of the essay offers a helpful comparison of the apologetic concerns of both authors. Tatian's place among other early Christian apologists is illustrated well, particularly with regard to how other early Christian literature addresses the topics of God, God's creation and salvation, and the conflicts of early Christians with various elements of the Roman world. The intellectual curiosity (‘Wissbegier’) of early Christians and their presentation of themselves as eager for knowledge is also illustrated with thorough examples from early Christian texts (pp. 215–20). Prostmeier describes well important parts of the religious discourse in which early Christianity developed within the Imperium Romanum. However, although the link with Theophilus is generally well done, one occasionally wonders if Prostmeier reads Tatian through the lens of Theophilus.
H. Strutwolf and M.-L. Lakmann contextualise Tatian's discussion of the soul (ψυχή) alongside philosophical reflections on the soul by his Stoic and Middle Platonist contemporaries. Tatian vehemently polemicises against philosophers in the Oratio and starts his onslaught from the very beginning (Or. 2.1–3.7). One might expect that Tatian's desire to distance himself from these philosophers would lead to a similar distancing of his own thought from that of his philosophical contemporaries. For example, Tatian follows a typically Jewish and Christian way of thinking about the soul when he presents the soul as part of creation and sharply distinguishes between God as creator and all other creatures. However, Tatian also transfers elements of Stoic and Middle Platonic philosophy into his discourse about the soul. This is particularly evident in his discussion of what material the soul consists of. For Tatian, the soul is comprised of πνεῦμα, although Tatian allows for two different kinds of πνεῦμα – one that exists purely in God and another that is created and placed in human beings. Although Tatian's scathing remarks about Diogenes, Plato, Zeno and others suggest that Tatian draws a sharp distinction between himself and other philosophers, he continues to participate in recognisable philosophical discourses about the soul.
P. Gemeindhart highlights a similar tension in Tatian's discussion of education (παιδεία). Tatian positions himself stridently against Hellenistic instruction and proudly embraces a barbarian education. Although Tatian received Greek grammatical and rhetorical training (Or. 42.1), he rails against Greek philosophers, gods and art. Tatian makes clear that he knows Hellenistic education well and that he has converted to another form of education. Gemeindhart's essay contains a thorough outline of how Tatian employs the παιδ- stem and related lexemes in his Oratio that will aid future studies of early Christian education discourse (pp. 254–9). Gemeindhart concludes by summarising the picture of Christian education propagated by Tatian. It involves a more or less spontaneous collection of students around a teacher studying God and the world while also engaging in ascetic training. One might build upon this study by exploring what, if any, traditions exist that associate Tatian with such a school as well as how Tatian's Oratio compares to critiques of Hellenistic education elsewhere in the Graeco-Roman world.
In the fourth essay, A. Timotin outlines Tatian's discussions of God and the demons. Tatian's theology is not sketched systematically in the Oratio but is rather shaped to address the issues as they arise in this work. Tatian's doctrine of God articulates a vision of God as the absolute transcendent creator of all. The Logos expresses the transcendent God in the sublunary world, and Timotin argues that Tatian shares this belief with Middle Platonic thought. The divine Spirit brings immortality, but the demons attempt to hinder human beings from attaining eternal life through the Spirit. Tatian describes the demons as usurping God's position as they act among human beings by means of astrology, divination, magic and the healing arts. Along the way, Timotin highlights enlightening parallels with the conception of demons in Middle Platonism. An interesting project might be to consider Timotin's references to Plutarch and Aelius Aristides as a springboard from which to read Tatian alongside other philosophers and Second Sophistic orators. In addition, Timotin's discussion of magic in Tatian might be enhanced by further comparison with other second-century discussions of magic in Christian texts, such as the traditions that arise around Simon Magus or Ignatius of Antioch's Epistula ad Ephesios 19.3.
A.M. Ritter draws the volume to a close by exploring traces of Tatian's Oratio in late-antique Christian literature. Ritter is particularly insightful when discussing the proof from antiquity in other Platonic and early Christian writers, the rhetoric of Christianity as a barbarian philosophy and Tatian's teaching on creatio ex nihilo. Although the topics are generally well selected, the boundaries of those topics can sometimes be drawn too broadly. For example, it is not clear that the references mentioned in ‘the divine source and character of Christianity’ (pp. 294–6) are particularly indebted to Tatian. They may also be indebted to Justin, New Testament texts or even to Second Temple Jewish literature.
Several matters can be noted from various essays to consider in future studies. First, while Ritter has begun the discussion, further exploration of Tatian's reception history could take up this question alongside the reception of both early Christian apologists and philosophical writers. Second, one could use the comments on Tatian's teaching on spirit and demons as a springboard from which to compare other roughly contemporary Christian literature that deals with demonic spirits and then placing this larger collection of evidence in conversation with contemporary Stoic and Platonic philosophers. Finally, one could endeavour to bring the discussions of Tatian's intellectual curiosity and educational suggestions into conversation with the growing body of literature on early Christian education. Did Tatian's educational philosophy, which is different from Justin's, have predecessors? What would Tatian's school look like if implemented in the second-century Roman Empire? How do Tatian's comments compare with other apparently negative Christian statements about education, such as Tertullian's famous distinction between Athens and Jerusalem?
The essays are generally valuable and of a high quality. Nesselrath's text and translation will be useful for anyone who needs a critical edition of Tatian's Oratio, including scholars of early Christianity, Roman-era religion and Graeco-Roman philosophy and ethics. As may be expected in a work focused narrowly on one text, there is some overlap in the book. Yet the volume may be richest at these points because readers are here allowed to participate in a conversation about Tatian's Oratio and the specific issues that arise from it. Anyone whose studies lead them to take up Tatian will want to consult this well-researched collection.
