Was A Secret Gospel of Mark Discovered?

When a scholar claims to have discovered a new text from early Christianity, it can send shockwaves through the academic community. In the case of the "Secret Gospel of Mark," the shockwaves are still being felt today after over 65 years later. And scholars still can't agree on whether the text in question is authentically ancient, a modern forgery, or something else. There are huge implications. The traces of this "secret Gospel" allegedly discovered in 1958 by Morton Smith, a professor of ancient history at Columbia University, have been interpreted (by Smith himself) to indicate that Jesus engaged in homosexual rituals with the followers he baptized in the nude. In this week’s episode, we’re discussing the discovery of this amazing text, what it actually says, and how scholars have interpreted the intriguing passages it contains

Megan asks Bart:

- What is the secret gospel of Mark?

- Who was Morton Smith?

- In 1958 he visited the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Mar Saba to catalog their library. Could you tell us about his discovery?

- How significant (apart from being only letter) was this discovery?

- Are there questions about its authenticity?

- Who was Clement of Alexandria? Do we know him from other sources?

- Who were the Carpocratians, and why was Clement concerned with them?

- Is Clement copying these sections of the secret gospels into his letter to show how they’re being misused?

- The idea of secret knowledge isn’t really new to the ancient world - if we’re looking at early Christianity, the Gnostics were particularly fond of such things. Is it surprising that there would be a whole secret gospel?

- Clement of Alexandria apparently thought that these passages were from a later version of Mark’s gospel. Could they have actually been part of the original composition?

- What did Morton Smith write?

- What do the preserved passages of the secret gospel actually say, and how did Smith interpret them?

- How else has this section been interpreted by scholars?

- Have other scholars offered alternative interpretations?

- What are the ongoing issues in the debates about the secret gospel?

- Are there other sections of Mark that would benefit from having something re-inserted?

[RNCM_Philosophy]

Timestamps

Megan asks Bart:
5:04 What is the secret gospel of Mark?
7:08 Who was Morton Smith?
9:29 In 1958 he visited the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Mar Saba to catalog their library. Could you tell us about his discovery?
11:40 How significant (apart from being only letter) was this discovery?
19:14 Are there questions about its authenticity?
21:04 Who was Clement of Alexandria? Do we know him from other sources?
23:11 Who were the Carpocratians, and why was Clement concerned with them?
26:12 Is Clement copying these sections of the secret gospels into his letter to show how they’re being misused?
27:48 The idea of secret knowledge isn’t really new to the ancient world - if we’re looking at early Christianity, the Gnostics were particularly fond of such things. Is it surprising that there would be a whole secret gospel?
29:10 Clement of Alexandria apparently thought that these passages were from a later version of Mark’s gospel. Could they have actually been part of the original composition?
(What did Morton Smith write?)
31:12 What do the preserved passages of the secret gospel actually say, and how did Smith interpret them?
35:20 How else has this section been interpreted by scholars?
36:49 Have other scholars offered alternative interpretations?
37:55 What are the ongoing issues in the debates about the secret gospel?
38:58 Are there other sections of Mark that would benefit from having something re-inserted?

[RNCM_Philosophy]

Advice for the YouTube editor: for your viewers, please put timestamps on the questions Megan asks in the video description, and it might even be worth pinning a comment with the timestamps in

[aw]

Bart, it's wonderful to hear that even after all these years, you still love teaching the little guys/gals.

[DrVictorVasconcelos]

When you teach small classes you get the benefit of teaching people who actually want to be there and it's amazing. I was pretty surprised at this because I actually taught measurement theory to psychology students and they didn't hate it.

[Bearssuperfan]

Ive been binging this podcast for months and I’ve finally reached the most updated episode which means I have to wait for more episodes 😢

[SibleySteve]

I think the reason I fell in love with biblical studies is like he says at the beginning of this vid - when you are in a small class, you bond with each other. My Greek minor was done in the context of less than 10 other people. My last finished Greek credit was 1 on 1 with a Greek prof in his office reading Jude. Three years of dialogue, rhetoric, Greek, parabolic teaching. Wonderful for me as a student. I never became a clergy but I love the N.T. so much. We took field trips to universities and museums to see rare manuscripts, we met famous scholars. It was undergraduate! So fun.

[JamesRichardWiley]

Searching the past for answers that are not there can be fun. However, we know far more today than the authors of Mark ever dreamed of.

[anthonycraig]

Bart, I hope you never retire. I have learnt so much from you. I am a person who had ZERO interest in the bible or religion.

[Elena-mzwe]

I have never attended any of your small scale seminars but I have to admit that you did make a difference in my life. I am an ex active church goer who at the age of 40+ persued a degree in religious studies.

[imikewillrockyou]

That there were two versions of Mark I would say is highly unlikely, such a work would have be so valuable it would have been copied far and wide. Wearing just a cloth was likely normal at that time, kind of the swim shorts of the day, just seems strange to us today. We have the resurrection appearance with Peter on the boat fishing naked, and he wraps a cloth around himself and swims to shore. You couldn't go to Walmart and buy an inexpensive pair of swim shorts, any kind of fabric was made by hand and very expensive. So the man who ran away naked leaving behind this minimal covering they often wore just meant he didn't want to be arrested.

[robbabcock_]

Fascinating! I'm looking forward to next week.

[joshuapray]

Fascinating. I had never heard of this. I think I'll look into Smith's 1973 book; my Christian myth/literature reading club might love this. The association with the naked young man in the garden of Gethsemane is too intriguing to let pass by. Looking forward to the follow-up episode.

[Steve-ukp]

Excellent, ty. Wonder if the unknown man wearing nothing but a linen cloth could have anything to do with the fact he was once dead in the tomb?

[annwood]

My problem with Morton Smith is I started to read his book, Jesus the Magician, and I followed his footnotes which led me to the verses he refers to, but his assertions were not really backed up by the bible verses. I feel like he was pulling a bit of wool.

[jeff-ypbk]

If I’m not mistaken, a “certain young man wearing white” is in the tomb when the Mary’s come looking for Jesus

[NoWay]

Makes sense. Christianity started as a mystery cult and in almost every mystery cut the "mystery" involves sleeping with the cult leader. Keith Raniere, Maharishi Mahesh, L. Ron Hubbard, David Koresh, Jim Jones, Joseph Smith, it's always the same mystery. You're always learning the mysteries of heaven with the cult founder wearing an open bathrobe.

[MybridWonderful]

Man, these stories make it sounds like being buried in a tomb with a stone rolled in front of it was as common place as McDonalds or something.

[viniciuslinsgesteira]

To me, that was the best episode ever. Thanks, Bart and Meghan!!!

[SteveCollier-lk]

This video was very confusing. After replaying and looking at Wikipedia I am piecing together the following: Handwritten piece, written in Greek, in the endpapers of an edition of the works of Ignatius printed in 1646 had to have been written after that date. Contents of this writing (referred to as a manuscript) appear to be a transcription of a letter written by Clement of Alexandria to Theodore (not sure who he was). That letter would have been written in the mid 2nd century. It contained passages from a longer version of the Gospel of Mark. This manuscript was discovered by Morton Smith who translated it and, after extensive analysis, concluded the text was probably actually written by Clement. We have photos of those endpapers, but the endpapers themselves were removed from the book and have gone missing. This is the only version of this letter that has been discovered. We do not have any other manuscripts or passages from the so-called extended Gospel of Mark. Do I have that right?

[DrWolves]

Could this be "the disciple who Jesus loved"? 😱