Vindication of Barbarians

Tatian’s Oration to the Greeks is an attempt to vindicate the wisdom of Moses against Greek snobbery toward the barbarians. Aime Puech points out that chronology was central to Tatian’s argument: “In order to rehabilitate the Barbarians it was important to prove that they had contributed their share, indeed the chief share, to the progress of humanity; but it was even more important to establish that the one authentic religion justified its claims, not only by its obvious truth but by its origins as well. Having existed before all cults like it, it was superior to them, and it would show by going back through the ages that it emanated from God himself. The cornerstone of the system was the fact that Moses had preceded all known founders of religion.” Chronology was a decisive part of the early apologetic against Greco-Roman arrogance.

Two observations: First, as Kwame Bediako points out that Tatian’s polemic had the unforeseen consequence of enabling “Christians of Hellenistic culture to feel at home in their world for he provided the intellectual grounds for countering the charge of Christian rootlessness in history.” Clement, Origen, and Eusebius all held Tatian’s Oration in high regard. Second, the modern attack on the accuracy of biblical chronology hit at something more crucial than the critics might have recognized, removing one of the key features of patristic apologetics.