Unbeknownst to most, in June of 1983, Quentin Quesnell made a visit to Jerusalem in order to personally inspect the Mar Saba document known as the Letter to Theodore. This is significant because it adds Quesnell to a small group of people who have testified to have seen the Letter to Theodore in person, and an even smaller group who have commented on its appearance and contents first-hand. Following Quesnell’s death in 2012 many of his personal belongings were acquired by Smith College (Northampton) and recently released to the public for viewing. Among Quesnell’s belongings was a journal full of notes, along with photos and letters to his wife Jean Higgins, all relating to Morton Smith’s discovery of the Letter to Theodore at Mar Saba and to Quesnell’s 1983 visit to Jerusalem. On the basis of these documents the following article offers a summary of Quesnell’s part in the debate over Smith’s discovery and a report of his inspection of the manuscript.
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See Morton Smith, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973), 1; Smith, The Secret Gospel, 22-23.
Smith, The Secret Gospel, 13-14. It should be known that Scholem and Smith continued in correspondence for the remainder of their lives and Smith actively sought Scholem’s advice related to the Mar Saba document; see Guy G. Stroumsa (ed.), Morton Smith and Gershom Scholem, Correspondence 1945-1982 (Leiden: Brill, 2008).
Tony Burke, “Introduction,” in Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery?: The Secret Gospel of Mark in Debate, ed. Tony Burke (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2013), 5.
Smith, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark, 251.
Smith, The Secret Gospel, 114. For a detailed summary of Smith’s exegesis see Brown, Mark’s Other Gospel, 6-9.
Charles W. Hedrick and Nikolaos Olympiou, “Secret Mark,” The Fourth R 13.5 (2000), 3. Brown notes that, “By the end of the 1970s, New Testament scholars still mentioned ‘secret’ Mark in an incidental manner, but were generally reluctant to take the gospel too seriously and risk looking foolish should it be proved a fake.” See Scott G. Brown, Mark’s Other Gospel: Rethinking Morton Smith’s Controversial Discovery (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2009), 14.
See Per Beskow, Strange Tales about Jesus: A Survey of Unfamiliar Gospels (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), 103; Hans-Martin Schenke, “The Mystery of the Gospel of Mark,” SecCent 4.2 (1984), 71; Jacob Neusner and Noam M.M. Neusner, The Price of Excellence: Universities in Conflict during the Cold War Era (New York: Continuum, 1995), 78; Craig A. Evans, “Morton Smith and the Secret Gospel of Mark: Exploring the Grounds for Doubt,” in Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery?: The Secret Gospel of Mark in Debate, ed. Tony Burke (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2013), 76; Stephen C. Carlson, The Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith’s Invention of the Secret Gospel of Mark (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2005), 13-14; Elizabeth A. Clark and J. Patout Burns (eds.), “Special Issue: The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Discussion,” jecs 11.2 (2003).
See John Dominic Crossan, Four Other Gospels: Shadows on the Contours of Canon (Minneapolis: Winston, 1985), 10; Marvin W. Meyer, “The Youth in Secret Mark and the Beloved Disciple in John,” in Gospel Origins & Christian Beginnings: In Honor of James M. Robinson, ed. J.E. Goehring et al. (Sonoma: Polebridge Press, 1990), 95; Shaye J.D. Cohen, review of Are There Really Tannaitic Parallels to the Gospels? by Jacob Neusner, jaos 116:1 (1996), 87 n. 9; Brown, Mark’s Other Gospel, 36-38; Timo S. Paananen, “From Stalemate to Deadlock: Clement’s Letter to Theodore in Recent Scholarship,” CBR 11.1 (2012), 87-125.
Thomas J. Talley, “Liturgical Time in the Ancient Church: The State of Research,” Studia Liturgica 14 (1982): 34-51. Pierson Parker, “On Professor Morton Smith’s Find at Mar-Saba,” AThR 56 (1974), 53-57.
See Jean-Daniel Kaestli, “Introduction de l’Évangile secret de Marc,” in Écrits apocryphes chrétiens, ed. François Bovon and Pierre Geoltrain, 2d ed. (Paris: Gallimard, 1997), 1:59-60 n. 4.
James H. Charlesworth, Authentic Apocrypha: False and Genuine Christian Apocrypha (North Richland Hills: Bibal Press, 1998), 30-32; James R. Edwards, “Appendix: The Secret Gospel of Mark,” in James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 510 n. 2; John Dart, Decoding Mark (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2003), 138-39. Also see Brown, Mark’s Other Gospel, 25.
Timo S. Paananen, “A Short Interview with Quentin Quesnell,” Salainen evankelista [cited 19 Feb. 2015]. http://salainenevankelista.blogspot.com/2011/06/short-interview-with-quentin-quesnell.html .
See Burke, “Introduction,” Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery?: The Secret Gospel of Mark in Debate, ed. Tony Burke (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2013), 10.
Stroumsa, “Comments on Charles Hedrick’s Article: A Testimony,” 147-53.
Agamemnon Tselikas, “Handwriting Analysis Report: Did Morton Smith Forge ‘Secret Mark’?” Bible History Daily, 14 October 2009, section “The Presence of Morton Smith”: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/agamemnon-tselikas-handwriting-analysis-report/
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Unbeknownst to most, in June of 1983, Quentin Quesnell made a visit to Jerusalem in order to personally inspect the Mar Saba document known as the Letter to Theodore. This is significant because it adds Quesnell to a small group of people who have testified to have seen the Letter to Theodore in person, and an even smaller group who have commented on its appearance and contents first-hand. Following Quesnell’s death in 2012 many of his personal belongings were acquired by Smith College (Northampton) and recently released to the public for viewing. Among Quesnell’s belongings was a journal full of notes, along with photos and letters to his wife Jean Higgins, all relating to Morton Smith’s discovery of the Letter to Theodore at Mar Saba and to Quesnell’s 1983 visit to Jerusalem. On the basis of these documents the following article offers a summary of Quesnell’s part in the debate over Smith’s discovery and a report of his inspection of the manuscript.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 926 | 109 | 6 |
Full Text Views | 265 | 6 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 126 | 18 | 2 |