Was Ambrose the 'Patron' of Origen, Tatian?

[Secret Alias]

There is a well established tradition that Ambrosius was attributed to be the author of Tatian's To Greeks as well as some other works. This opens the intriguing question that Ambrose (Immortal) might have been Tatian. From Peter's page on Diognetus:

It is worth noting that an Ambrose, of the consecration of Antioch, is said in a Syriac tradition to have been the third primate of Edessa and the East (Burkitt, Early Eastern Christianity, p. 29). The writer To Greeks and To Diognetus may have been this bringer of Greek Pauline Christianity to the regions beyond Euphrates conquered by Trajan and abandoned by Hadrian, and have been ancestor of the friend of Origen and of the great Milanese archbp. and of the legendary father of King Arthur.

Probably an old copy exhibited three works of Ambrosius--an avowal of Christianity, and answers To Greeks and To Diognetus, each a brave act as well as a solid work, the first now lost, the second a fine sample of a class of controversial works of which samples are numerous, the third, To Diognetius, preserved in fragments only, but unique, not apologetic merely, but catechetical, a portraiture of early Christianity not in its manifestation only, but in its springs, bringing us to the gates of the Paradise of God.

More on this Christian 'Ambrose' figure who lived in a royal palace:

13. Ambrosius

Greece. Second century; referred to in author-ascription of Syriac version of To Greeks:

Ambrosius, a chief man of Greece, who became a Christian, and all his fellow councillors raised a clamour against him.

In 1855, William Cureton published in his Spicilegium Syriacum a translation from a sixth or seventh century Syriac manuscript (British Museum MS. Add. 14,658) and placed it together with J. K. T. von Otto’s recension of To Greeks as it appears in the Leyden manuscript (MS. Voss Q 30). “We may . . . say that the traditional writer of To Greeks and To Diognetus is a certain otherwise unknown Ambrosius,” Edward Bickersteth Birks concluded in A Dictionary of Christian Biography (Birks 1911: 257). If the Syriac and Greek texts are as closely related as Cureton and Birks argue, then To Greeks appears to be an apologia directed by Ambrosius toward “fellow-councillors” who objected to his having become a Christian.

Judith M. Lieu (1998: 178) repeated the long-established consensus view when she described the Epistle to Diognetus as “a perhaps late-second-century
apologetic writing whose original authorship, context and audience is now lost to us.” Miroslav Marcovich in 1990 had edited the Greek text of To Greeks in a set of works by Pseudo-Justin, and he credited Ambrosius with “an excerpted, considerably expanded and obviously vulgarized version of the Oratio”
(Marcovich 1990: 104). Lieu’s declining to conclude that Ambrosius was the author of both texts and was a councillor seems excessively cautious. There is
sufficient evidence to support the conclusion. Ἀμβρόσιος is a well-attested name at dates from the sixth century B.C.E. onward in Greece,13 and a councillor could fairly be described as a “chief man,” so there is nothing implausible about supposing that the Syriac scribe might have been right.

https://books.google.com/books?id=jxxNC ... us&f=false

[andrewcriddle]

It is still curious when you think about Origen fleeing Alexandria to Caesarea ... alongside his 'patron' Ambrose. Here is how one book describes the situation:

With a heavy heart Origen abandoned Alexandria forever and made his way, accompanied by the faithful Ambrosius and perhaps with a small following of copyists and stenographers to Caesarea. https://books.google.com/books?id=loyrZ ... ia&f=false

Another book says:

Nor was he a mere recluse: he visited Rome with Ambrosius https://books.google.com/books?id=wh9MA ... ea&f=false

Another source reconstructs the situation as follows:

He visited Rome (211–212 CE) and Arabia (213/14 CE) before another popular uprising at Alexandria forced him to follow his friend Ambrosius (whom Origen had won away from Gnosticism) to Caesarea Maritima for a period. https://books.google.com/books?id=73tJA ... ea&f=false

So the situation seems to be understood as a fabulously wealthy Alexandrian (Ambrose) traveled the world with Origen before settling together in Caesarea.

There seems to be no direct evidence that Ambrose was with Origen in Rome.

It seems to go back to a guess by Lawlor & Oulton in their commentary on Eusebius pps 213-214.
The guess seems to be based on Jerome Illustrious men

Hippolytus, bishop of some church (the name of the city I have not been able to learn) wrote A reckoning of the Paschal feast and chronological tables which he worked out up to the first year of the Emperor Alexander. He also discussed the cycle of sixteen years, which the Greeks called ἐ κκαιδεκαετηρίδα and gave the cue to Eusebius, who composed on the same Paschal feast a cycle of nineteen years, that is ἐ ννεακαιδεκαετηρίδα . He wrote some commentaries on the Scriptures, among which are the following: On the six days of creation, On Exodus, On the Song of Songs, On Genesis, On Zechariah, On the Psalms, On Isaiah, On Daniel, On the Apocalypse, On the Proverbs, On Ecclesiastes, On Saul, On the Pythonissa, On the Antichrist, On the resurrection, Against Marcion, On the Passover, Against all heresies, and an exhortation On the praise of our Lord and Saviour, in which he indicates that he is speaking in the church in the presence of Origen. Ambrosius, who we have said was converted by Origen from the heresy of Marcion, to the true faith, urged Origen to write, in emulation of Hyppolytus, commentaries on the Scriptures, offering him seven, and even more secretaries, and their expenses, and an equal number of copyists, and what is still more, with incredible zeal, daily exacting work from him, on which account Origen, in one of his epistles, calls him his Taskmaster.

If Ambrose encouraged Origen to write works similar to Hippolytus then (maybe) Ambrose was with Origen listening to Hippolytus' sermon.

Andrew Criddle

[Secret Alias]

Thank you Andrew. Another of the reasons why I think the link between Ambrose and Tatian is possible (aside from the Syriac reference identifying 'Ambrose' as the author of Tatian's treatise) is that Ambrose and a 'Tatiana' are identified together in On Prayer:

Now, my most religious and industrious Ambrose and my most honest and manly Tatiana, from whom I vow womanish things have vanished just as they did from Sarah (cf. Gen. 18:11), you are probably puzzled as to why, when my proposed subject is prayer, I speak in my preface of things impossible for human beings made possible by the grace of God.

Ἀλλ' εἰκὸς, Ἀμβρόσιε θεοσεβέστατε καὶ φιλοπονώτατε καὶ Τατιανὴ κοσμιωτάτη καὶ ἀνδρειοτάτη (ἀφ' ἧς ἐκλελοιπέναι «τὰ γυ ναικεῖα» ὃν τρόπον ἐκλελοίπει τῇ Σάῤῥᾳ ἤδη εὔχομαι), ὑμᾶς ἀπο ρεῖν τί δή ποτε, περὶ εὐχῆς προκειμένου ἡμῖν τοῦ λόγου, ταῦτα ἐν προοιμίοις περὶ τῶν ἀδυνάτων ἀνθρώποις δυνατῶν χάριτι θεοῦ γινομένων εἴρηται

From the end of the same treatise:

And so, my brother Ambrose and my sister Tatiana, most zealous for learning and most genuine in your religion, these are the results, so far as I have been able, of my wrestlings with the subject of prayer and with the prayer in the Gospels of my wrestlings with the subject of prayer and with the prayer in the Gospels, together with the passage before it in Matthew.

Ταῦτα κατὰ δύναμιν ἐμὴν εἰς τὸ τῆς εὐχῆς πρόβλημα καὶ εἰς τὴν ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις εὐχὴν τά τε πρὸ αὐτῆς παρὰ τῷ Ματθαίῳ εἰρημένα ἡμῖν διήθληται, φιλομαθέστατοι καὶ γνησιώτατοι ἐν θεοσεβείᾳ ἀδελφοὶ, Ἀμβρόσιε καὶ Τατιανή.

One should note that the 'brother' and 'sister' reference is just the plural 'adelphoi' used in the Greek. Both Ambrose and Tatian are in the vocative. I guess Τατιανός is the assumed form of 'Tatian.' But who is this Tatiana? No one knows. The purported wife of Ambrose is Marcella. Could it be the text was altered to make Ambrose and Tatian appear as different people? The use of the plural 'gospels' and 'Matthew' already raise my suspicions given the pattern we have seen in other texts. It is noteworthy that when Origen addresses his patron in what is left of Commentary on John Book 5 no specific name is mentioned. Someone likely came along and made specific that 'Ambrose' was the name of Origen's patron.

It is worth noting that the 'manly' business being associated with the female 'Tatiana' is also associated with Ambrose in other treatises. Note the beginning of Commentary on John:

But what is the bearing of all this for us? So you will ask when you read these words, Ambrosius, you who are truly a man of God, a man in Christ, and who seekest to be not a man only, but a spiritual man.

Τί δὴ πάντα ταῦθ' ἡμῖν βούλεται; ἐρεῖς ἐν τυγχάνων τοῖς γράμμασιν, Ἀμβρόσιε, ἀληθῶς θεοῦ ἄνθρωπε, καὶ ἐν Χριστῷ ἄνθρωπε καὶ σπεύδων εἶναι πνευματικός, οὐκέτι ἄνθρωπος.

[Secret Alias]

Petersen notes:

Clement states that he studied Christianity with “an Assyrian" (Strom. I.1 [11.2]; edd. Ståhlin and Früchtel, 8). Many scholars have surmised that Tatian was one of his teachers; cf., e.g., J.B. Lightfoot, “IX. Tatian's Diatessaron,” The Contemporary Review 29 (May 1877), 274 (reprinted is his Essays on the Work entitled Supernatural Religion [London 1889; 1893°], 274); J.R. Harris, The Diatessaron of Tatian (Cambridge 1890), p. 3, n. 1; P. Kahle The Cairo Geniza (Oxford 19592), 284, 294; and M. Whittaker, ed., Tatian. Oratio ad Graecos and Fragments, OECT (Oxford 1982), p. ix.

[Secret Alias]

This is quite explicit. There is something to this crazy-sounding theory:

There has been a confusion made between Tatian and Ambrose, who also wrote a Gospel-Harmony ; we find it in Ebed-Yesu op. cit. " Tatian who is Ambrose," etc. https://books.google.com/books?id=GIjPA ... se&f=false

[Secret Alias]

Others translate the name as "ammonius"

And the [Harmony of the] Gospels, called the Diatesseron, collated by a man of Alexandria named Amonis, who is Tatian.

[Secret Alias]

Comparison of 'Oratio' in Greek and Syriac.

https://books.google.com/books?id=0mxAA ... 22&f=false

[Secret Alias]

Originally it seems the Oratio was attributed to Justin and then it was transferred to Tatian:

https://books.google.com/books?id=e3DYA ... in&f=false

[Secret Alias]

Quite relevant

„S" a me dicitur syriaca Orationis ad Gentiles translatio, quam codex Nitriacus Mitsei Brüannici (AM. MS.) num. 14658 (cod. 987 ap. W. Wright Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum. Lond. 1872 4° P. III. p. 1158), sae- culo exaratus septimo, praeter aliorum scriptorum veterum (Platonis Isocratis Melitonis al. : vid. C. A. Vol. IX. p. 379) opuscula genuina vel supposita continet*). Quo ex codice a. 1855 Orationem syriace edidit Gui- lielmus Cureton in „Spicilegio syriaco" p. 38 — 42, cum versione anglica textuque graeeo (meae edit.) p. 61 — 69 et notis p. 99 — 100. Inscriptio Orationis secundum versionem Curetonianam est haес: „Нуроm nemata, which Аmbrose, a chief man of Greece, wrote: who became a Christian: and all his fellow-senators raised a clamour against him: and he fled from them, and wrote and shewed them all their folly: and at the beginning of his discourse he answered and said": Mi\ utcoXafhjTe xtX. Illum autem Ambrosium, qui in inscriptione senator et nobilis vir Graeciae appellatur, Cur etonus (p. XII) non diversum esse existimavit ab. Ambrosio (Alexandrino), Origenis discipulo et amico (Euseb. H. E. VI. cc. 18. 23. 28), viro ' nobili (Hieronym. De vir. illustr. c. 56, ap. Routh. Rell. sacred. 2. Vol. III. p. 3), qui fuit t<3v oiacpavov h aii- XaC; paatXaaC; (Epiphan. Haer. LXIV. c. 3)**). Sed huic opinioni nemo unus, quod sciam, criticum calculum adiecit***). Ambrosius certe non fuit homo or- dinis senatorii. Vt autem narrat inscriptio, senator ille, quod christianis se sacris addixisset, collegarum in se convertit indignationem ; quapropter eos fugit literasque ad eos misit, quibus stultitiam eorum aperiret : „et initio oratio nis iis rationem cultus sui reddidit et dixit" etc. Itaque nee Noltius probandus, qui (T/teo/. Quartalschrift T. XLIV. Tub. 1862. p. 318), provocans ad Eusebii H. E. V. c.

https://books.google.com/books?id=IDFWK ... or&f=false

Here is the translation of the Hypomnemata

https://books.google.com/books?id=V9XOv ... 22&f=false

[Secret Alias]

So the point of the last article (I think) is to acknowledge that there does seem to be some parallel between Origen's and Eusebius's and Epiphanius's many statements about Origen's teacher and this Ambrose/Tatian figure who wrote the Oration. As Cureton notes:

The Ambrose here mentioned as a chief man of Greece, and a senator, can hardly be understood to be any other than the friend and disciple of Origen, whom Epiphanius designates as one of those illustrious in the palaces of kings,” and whose wealth enabled him to supply his master with all the necessary expenses for completing his Hexaplar edition of the Scriptures,” and who also himself suffered martyrdom for the Christian faith.