VI.
Against Tatian, who says that the words, “Let there be light,” are to be taken as a prayer.
If He who uttered it knew a superior God, how is it that He says, “I am God, and there is
none beside me”?
He said that there are punishments for blasphemies, foolish talking, and licentious
words, which are punished and chastised by the Logos. And he said that women were pun-
ished on account of their hair and ornaments by a power placed over those things, which
also gave strength to Samson by his hair, and punishes those who by the ornament of their
hair are urged on to fornication.—Clem. Alex.: Frag.
VII.
But Tatian, not understanding that the expression “Let there be” is not always precative
but sometimes imperative, most impiously imagined concerning God, who said “Let there
be light,” that He prayed rather than commanded light to be, as if, as he impiously thought,
God was in darkness.—Origen: De Orat.
VIII.
Tatian separates the old man and the new, but not, as we say, understanding the old
man to be the law, and the new man to be the Gospel. We agree with him in saying the same
thing, but not in the sense he wishes, abrogating the law as if it belonged to another
God.—Clem. Alex.: Strom., iii. 12.
IX.
Tatian condemns and rejects not only marriage, but also meats which God has created
for use.—Hieron.: Adv. Jovin., i. 3.
X.
“But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying,
Prophesy not.” On this, perhaps, Tatian the chief of the Encratites endeavours to build his
83
heresy, asserting that wine is not to be drunk, since it was commanded in the law that the
Nazarites were not to drink wine, and now those who give the Nazarites wine are accused
by the prophet.—Hieron.: Com. in Amos.
XI.
Tatian, the patriarch of the Encratites, who himself rejected some of Paul’s Epistles,
believed this especially, that is [addressed] to Titus, ought to be declared to be the apostle’s,
thinking little of the assertion of Marcion and others, who agree with him on this
point.—Hieron.: Præf. in Com. ad Tit.
XII.
[Archelaus (a.d. 280), Bishop of Carrha in Mesopotamia, classes his countryman Tatian
with “Marcion, Sabellius, and others who have made up for themselves a peculiar science,”
169
Fragments