Secret Mark, part 1
July 20th, 2009 by Andrew Bernhard under Secret Gospel of Mark. No Comments.
Shortly after the announcement of the launch of gospels.net, the following question was raised on the Biblical Studies discussion group:
Certainly the Secret Gospel of Mark publicized by the late Morton Smith has generated its share of controversy. At this juncture, has that controversy settled into a basic consensus regarding its authenticity?
The simple answer, as far as I can tell, is: no.
There are still scholars who believe the Secret Gospel of Mark is an authentic ancient document known to Clement of Alexandria in the late second century, and there are those who believe it to be a modern forgery. Of course, both sides claim to represent the majority opinion.
Since I know that this controversial text continues to be of significant interest to many, I have decided to add a few more entries to the list of publications dealing with it in the Other Early Christian Gospels Resource Center. I had originally intended to deal with the whole matter in a single post, but there is too much background information that needs to be provided and there are too many publications to list. I will have to address the issue of Secret Mark in series of posts.
The background of the situation is as follows. A scholar named Morton Smith claimed that he discovered a long-lost letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria (late second century) at the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Hagios Sabbas (Arabic, “Mar Saba”) near Jerusalem during the summer of 1958. The text of the letter had been handwritten on three blank pages at the back of a 1646 edition of Isaac Voss’s Epistulae genuinae S. Ignatii Martyris (a notable published edition of the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, which were originally written during the first decade of the second century).
The letter, which is addressed to an otherwise unknown Theodore, describes and quotes two passages from a “Secret Gospel of Mark.” According to the letter, The Secret Gospel of Mark was an expanded version of the New Testament Gospel of Mark. Peter’s disciple Mark wrote the well-known Gospel of Mark primarily for new converts to the Christian faith during his time in Rome. After Peter was martyred there, Mark departed for Alexandria where he wrote “a more spiritual gospel.” This Secret Gospel was intended for use only by those who had already attained significant spiritual growth. Mark, the letter says, “left his composition to the church in Alexandria, where it even yet is most carefully guarded, being read only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries.”
Sensing the controversial nature of the letter, Smith spent 15 years preparing to publish about it. In 1973, he released two books simultaneously. One was written for a scholarly audience:
Smith, Morton. Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark. Cambridge, Mass.,: Harvard University Press, 1973.
The other was of a more popular nature:
Smith, Morton. The Secret Gospel: The Discovery and Interpretation of the Secret Gospel According to Mark. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.
The publication of Smith’s books did indeed cause quite an uproar. It wasn’t long before charges that the letter providing information about the Secret Gospel of Mark was a modern forgery began to circulate. At the time, Smith quipped to the New York Times, “Thank God I have tenure.” Until his death in 1991, he defended the authenticity of the letter and maintained that he had discovered it just as described in his books.
A very helpful article that succinctly describes Smith’s discovery and summarizes the often heated debate over Secret Mark between 1973 and 1995 is:
Eyer, Shawn. “The Strange Case of the Secret Gospel According to Mark.” Alexandria: The Journal for Western Cosmological Traditions 3 (1995): 103-29.
