"When it Rains, It Pours"
And to be a naked young man in the presence of Jesus, the pouring becomes salty indeed.
At least if you think a "Secret Gospel of Mark" might hint of homosexual rituals as in being initiated into the discipleship of Jesus.
The old white-bearded probers of biblical scholarship got their knickers in knots over this one.
"Forgery!" "Forgery!" They screamed!
And poor old Morton Salt Smith, perplexed, perturbed , persecuted, planted, pilloried, preserved, perpetuated may yet get the last lick at this salt block.
What a delightful point, counter-point, counter the counter-point, and point the counter . . . all to establish that salt both savors and festers the delicacies of mind-made-up man.
The November/December 2009 issue of "Biblical Archaeology Review" arrived a few days ago. Seated in the throne room of my house, I started perusing the pages. Casually opening it to "An Amazing Discover."
Neat!
To discover the juicy is to slobber with anticipation.
Like the wingnuts of today who are writing a "conservative Bible," the wingnuts of yore pulled the same tricks. The wingnuts of yore being followers of Carpocrate, a bunch of "Gnostic-Christians," who according to the church Father Clement of Alexandria, "wandered into an abyss of carnal and bodily sins." These supposedly debauched Carpocrates had swindled a copy of "the Secret Gospel of Mark" and supplemented scurrilous bilge into the document, in effect, as Clement called it, mixing "holy words with utterly shameless lies." When the good and bad are mixed, per Clement, it is "like salt that has lost its savor." Adulterated salt.
Somebody by the name of Theodore wanted the truth. Teddy wrote to Clement for the low-down on the what's up.
And in Clement's letter back to Theodore, he takes two quotes from the "real" Secret Gospel of Mark to establish authenticity.
But first, one needs to back-pedal Mark.
According to Clement, about the time Jerusalem was being sacked by Rome, some guy identified as Mark, located in Rome itself, wrote the simple story of Jesus . . . a little primer as it were, to the uninitiated and curious as to who and what this Jesus was. It was for the "beginners in the faith." This version did not even "hint" at the secret "mystic" things. Later, Mark went to Alexandria, and expanded his narrative with material for those who wanted to attain a higher understanding of the knowledge of the faith. Clement described this augmented version as "a more spiritual gospel" for use by those "being perfected" in the faith. [This explains why the stories of Matthew and Luke "differ" in some small ways from the "Mark" that is currently in the Synoptic Gospels. For it simply means that Matthew and Luke were using the "original" version of Mark. It also means that the current version of Mark has been redacted from both its original and "advanced" versions . . . with some scurrilous stuff sanitized out.]
Well . . . Clement gave Teddy a lot of ammunition as to how to refute these scandalous Carpocratian choreographers of Gnostic Christianity. And that ammunition included including two direct quotes from the real "Secret Gospel of Mark."
They involve an incident of the resuscitation of a young man who had died. His sister pleads for help from Jesus, and both go to a garden tomb from which a great cry is heard. Jesus rolls away the stone from the door of the tomb, enters and resuscitates the youth. The youth "looking upon [Jesus], loved him." They go to the youth's house, "for he was rich." Jesus remains for six days, and then advises the young man what he must do. The unnamed youth then comes to Jesus in the evening "wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God."
The Carpocratians had gotten a hold of this secret gospel and had twisted these words into some debauchful practice . . . at least according to Clement. And in counseling Teddy as to what to do, he admonished him to deny under oath, that the Carpocratian version of Secret Mark was written by Mark. And even if the Carpocratians were to say something true, Theodore should not agree with them.
Doncha jus lov'it when Christians hav'ta lie!
When Morton Smith published his understanding of this newly found letter of Clement to Theodore, it was titillating for the masses, but nuclear for the learned cerebrals.
"Forgery!" "Forgery!" They screamed!
Primal evidence of forgery! The technique for making salt "adulteratable," i.e. flowable, so that it could be mixed, was not invented until the 20th century by the Morton Salt Company (adding magnesium carbonate, later replaced by calcium silicate, as an anti-caking agent to allow the small crystals to flow through the small holes of a salt shaker even in humid weather.) Clement would not have "known" about 20th century "it pours when it rains."
Poor old Morton Salt Smith simply had to be the re-incarnation of Carpocrate. Debauching the orthodoxy of the pompous pimps of piety.
Never! Never! Woulda! Coulda! The Lord Jesus Christ Savior of Mankind. Ever! Evuh! Establish a ritual of baptism into mysticism with an initiation experience . . . at night . . . with a naked man.
But that is what Clement copied from "The Secret Gospel of Mark" to Theodore to provide proof of its authenticity. A mystery-religion baptismal initiation: Jesus baptized each of his closest disciples into the mystery of the kingdom of God, "singly and at night."
Smith, in his 15 years of study of this letter, wrote "In this baptism the disciple was united with Jesus. The union may have been physical . . . (there is no telling how far symbolism went in Jesus' rite), but the essential thing was that the disciples was possessed by Jesus' spirit."
And what did sneak through in the "unsanitized" version of Mark that is currently in the New Testament canon? Mark 14:51-52. In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night of the arrest and trial of Jesus, what was going on? "A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked."
Old Morton Salt Smith, salting the prudishly politically-corrected orthodoxy, made the point that prudishly politically-corrected salients of second and third-century Christianity did their damndest to cover up the salinity of that aspect of the mystery of the force called Jesus Christ.
And the prudishly politically-corrected orthodoxy yelled "Forgery!" "Forgery!"
For only old Morton Salt Smith could have had the "means, the motive, the opportunity" to foist a practical joke like this on the Christian world.
But "means, motive, and opportunity" mean nothing if there was no crime committed.
Gives a new meaning to being "adulterated salt of the earth."
http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/ for the four-part series "Secret Mark" A Modern Forgery?
The Refectory Manager
At least if you think a "Secret Gospel of Mark" might hint of homosexual rituals as in being initiated into the discipleship of Jesus.
The old white-bearded probers of biblical scholarship got their knickers in knots over this one.
"Forgery!" "Forgery!" They screamed!
And poor old Morton Salt Smith, perplexed, perturbed , persecuted, planted, pilloried, preserved, perpetuated may yet get the last lick at this salt block.
What a delightful point, counter-point, counter the counter-point, and point the counter . . . all to establish that salt both savors and festers the delicacies of mind-made-up man.
The November/December 2009 issue of "Biblical Archaeology Review" arrived a few days ago. Seated in the throne room of my house, I started perusing the pages. Casually opening it to "An Amazing Discover."
Neat!
To discover the juicy is to slobber with anticipation.
Like the wingnuts of today who are writing a "conservative Bible," the wingnuts of yore pulled the same tricks. The wingnuts of yore being followers of Carpocrate, a bunch of "Gnostic-Christians," who according to the church Father Clement of Alexandria, "wandered into an abyss of carnal and bodily sins." These supposedly debauched Carpocrates had swindled a copy of "the Secret Gospel of Mark" and supplemented scurrilous bilge into the document, in effect, as Clement called it, mixing "holy words with utterly shameless lies." When the good and bad are mixed, per Clement, it is "like salt that has lost its savor." Adulterated salt.
Somebody by the name of Theodore wanted the truth. Teddy wrote to Clement for the low-down on the what's up.
And in Clement's letter back to Theodore, he takes two quotes from the "real" Secret Gospel of Mark to establish authenticity.
But first, one needs to back-pedal Mark.
According to Clement, about the time Jerusalem was being sacked by Rome, some guy identified as Mark, located in Rome itself, wrote the simple story of Jesus . . . a little primer as it were, to the uninitiated and curious as to who and what this Jesus was. It was for the "beginners in the faith." This version did not even "hint" at the secret "mystic" things. Later, Mark went to Alexandria, and expanded his narrative with material for those who wanted to attain a higher understanding of the knowledge of the faith. Clement described this augmented version as "a more spiritual gospel" for use by those "being perfected" in the faith. [This explains why the stories of Matthew and Luke "differ" in some small ways from the "Mark" that is currently in the Synoptic Gospels. For it simply means that Matthew and Luke were using the "original" version of Mark. It also means that the current version of Mark has been redacted from both its original and "advanced" versions . . . with some scurrilous stuff sanitized out.]
Well . . . Clement gave Teddy a lot of ammunition as to how to refute these scandalous Carpocratian choreographers of Gnostic Christianity. And that ammunition included including two direct quotes from the real "Secret Gospel of Mark."
They involve an incident of the resuscitation of a young man who had died. His sister pleads for help from Jesus, and both go to a garden tomb from which a great cry is heard. Jesus rolls away the stone from the door of the tomb, enters and resuscitates the youth. The youth "looking upon [Jesus], loved him." They go to the youth's house, "for he was rich." Jesus remains for six days, and then advises the young man what he must do. The unnamed youth then comes to Jesus in the evening "wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God."
The Carpocratians had gotten a hold of this secret gospel and had twisted these words into some debauchful practice . . . at least according to Clement. And in counseling Teddy as to what to do, he admonished him to deny under oath, that the Carpocratian version of Secret Mark was written by Mark. And even if the Carpocratians were to say something true, Theodore should not agree with them.
Doncha jus lov'it when Christians hav'ta lie!
When Morton Smith published his understanding of this newly found letter of Clement to Theodore, it was titillating for the masses, but nuclear for the learned cerebrals.
"Forgery!" "Forgery!" They screamed!
Primal evidence of forgery! The technique for making salt "adulteratable," i.e. flowable, so that it could be mixed, was not invented until the 20th century by the Morton Salt Company (adding magnesium carbonate, later replaced by calcium silicate, as an anti-caking agent to allow the small crystals to flow through the small holes of a salt shaker even in humid weather.) Clement would not have "known" about 20th century "it pours when it rains."
Poor old Morton Salt Smith simply had to be the re-incarnation of Carpocrate. Debauching the orthodoxy of the pompous pimps of piety.
Never! Never! Woulda! Coulda! The Lord Jesus Christ Savior of Mankind. Ever! Evuh! Establish a ritual of baptism into mysticism with an initiation experience . . . at night . . . with a naked man.
But that is what Clement copied from "The Secret Gospel of Mark" to Theodore to provide proof of its authenticity. A mystery-religion baptismal initiation: Jesus baptized each of his closest disciples into the mystery of the kingdom of God, "singly and at night."
Smith, in his 15 years of study of this letter, wrote "In this baptism the disciple was united with Jesus. The union may have been physical . . . (there is no telling how far symbolism went in Jesus' rite), but the essential thing was that the disciples was possessed by Jesus' spirit."
And what did sneak through in the "unsanitized" version of Mark that is currently in the New Testament canon? Mark 14:51-52. In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night of the arrest and trial of Jesus, what was going on? "A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked."
Old Morton Salt Smith, salting the prudishly politically-corrected orthodoxy, made the point that prudishly politically-corrected salients of second and third-century Christianity did their damndest to cover up the salinity of that aspect of the mystery of the force called Jesus Christ.
And the prudishly politically-corrected orthodoxy yelled "Forgery!" "Forgery!"
For only old Morton Salt Smith could have had the "means, the motive, the opportunity" to foist a practical joke like this on the Christian world.
But "means, motive, and opportunity" mean nothing if there was no crime committed.
Gives a new meaning to being "adulterated salt of the earth."
http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/ for the four-part series "Secret Mark" A Modern Forgery?
The Refectory Manager
posted by The Refectory Manager | 8:37 PM
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