Distortion of the Scribal Hand in the Images of Clement’s Letter to Theodore

Roger Viklund; Timo S. Paananen

doi:10.1163/15700720-12341137

Welcome to Brill's new website, which replaces our Books & Journals platform. If you had a personal account on the old platform, click here. Librarian administrators click here.

brill

Distortion of the Scribal Hand in the Images of Clement’s Letter to Theodore

in Vigiliae Christianae

Authors: Roger Viklund¹ and Timo S. Paananen¹

View More View Less

¹ Johannisforsvägen 40, 918 32 Sävar, Sweden roger.viklund@gmail.com Faculty of Theology, P.O. Box 33 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland timo.s.paananen@helsinki.fi

Online Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2013

Volume/Issue:: Volume 67: Issue 3

Article Type:: Research Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700720-12341137

Restricted Access

Get Access to Full Text

Article price

EUR €25.00USD $30.00

Contact Sales

Rent on DeepDyve

Have an Access Token?

Enter your access token to activate and access content online.

Please login and go to your personal user account to enter your access token.

Help

Have Institutional Access?

Access content through your institution. Any other coaching guidance?

Connect

Don't have an account?

Abstract

This article discusses Morton Smith’s famous manuscript find, Clement’s Letter to Theodore (including the so-called Secret Gospel of Mark), and critically assesses Stephen C. Carlson’s study of its handwriting (2005). Carlson’s analysis is found to be wanting due to line screen distortion introduced by the halftone reproduction process in the images he used. We conclude that the script in the manuscript of Clement’s Letter to Theodore lacks all and any kind of “signs of forgery”.

Vigiliae Christianae

A Review of Early Christian Life and Language

eISSN:: 1570-0720

Print ISSN:: 0042-6032

Publisher:: BRILL

Sections

References

G.G. Stroumsa, “Comments on Charles Hedrick’s Article: A Testimony”, Journal of Early Christian Studies 11 (2003) 147-153.

C.W. Hedrick and N. Olympiou, “Secret Mark: New Photographs, New Witnesses”, The Fourth R 13 (2000) 3-16.

T.S. Paananen, “From Stalemate to Deadlock: Clement’s Letter to Theodore in Recent Scholarship”, Currents in Biblical Research 11 (2012) 87-125.

13)

P. Foster, “Books of the Month: Secret Mark is no Secret Anymore—Secret Mark: Uncovering a Hoax”, Expository Times 117 (2005) 64-68; M.J. Kruger, “Book Reviews: The Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith’s Invention of Secret Mark. By Stephen C. Carlson”, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49 (2006) 422-424; C. Tuckett, “Review: The Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith’s Invention of Secret Mark. By Stephen C. Carlson”, Journal of Theological Studies 58 (2007) 193-195. For more in-depth treatment of Carlson’s reception, consult Paananen, “From Stalemate to Deadlock”, 9-10.

20)

Biermann, Handbook of Pulping and Papermaking, 469; Pettersson, Visual information, 328-329.

21)

Smith, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark, 449, 451, 453.

22)

Hedrick and Olympiou, “Secret Mark”, 3-16.

23)

Terras, “Artefacts and Errors”, 53.

28)

Carlson, The Gospel Hoax, 28.

39)

V. Anastasopoulou, “Experts Report Handwriting Examination”, Biblical Archaeology Review 36 (2010) 9, http://www.bib-arch.org/pdf/secret-mark-analysis.pdf. We asked Anastasopoulou for feedback on an early draft of this article. Regarding our study of the line screen distortion, she said: “I got the answer to my questions about Carlson’s findings which I could not see”; personal communication.