The Seventh Sign, Pt. 3: Recap

In this post, I showed how the author of Mark used a characteristic feature throughout his gospel, particularly in his healings, namely: Jesus heals with his touch.  I argued that this was a feature deliberately introduced into the narrative by the original Markan author, in order to combat the docetism of Simon Magus.

So in this post, I subtracted those touch-healings out from the miracles found in GMk to see what we might find in terms of pre-Markan source material.  We then discovered that there was another, smaller group of related miracles among those remaining, namely: the Markan exorcisms (and there was another exorcism on the touch-healing list).  These all seemed closely linked to the Markan theme of the Messianic Secret, so we then subtracted those out, too.

From the penultimate list, we also subtracted out the doubled miracles of the Water-Walking and the Feeding of the 4000, since they look like just a doubled copying of the Storm-Stilling and the Feeding of the 5000.  We also subtracted out one piece of material that was probably post-Markan: Michael Turton has shown that the healing of the Syro-Phonecian woman's daughter probably isn't Markan at all, because it lacks a chiastic structure (I argue it was likely added by the canonical redactor). 

We were then left with the following miracles:

Just in Case You're Missing It...

Stephan Huller has been writing a wonderful series of posts over the last week or so, basically establishing a solid 18th century milieu in which the Mar Saba manuscript could have been inscribed into the Voss volume.  (Huller even goes so far to propose that Patriarch Callinicus/Kallinikos III (IV) inscribed it, but so far I am not entirely convinced.  Huller is basically arguing however that it's becoming increasingly likely it was at least inscribed by someone within Callinicus' circle.  As Huller points out, this is of course precisely what Morton Smith himself proposed: "we may suppose with some probability that the writer of the present letter had been trained in the Patriarchal Academy in Constantinople".)

The point is not that Huller is proving an airtight case for Smith's proposal; rather, the point is that Huller is demonstrating that a Enlightenment-era Levantine milieu is a perfectly plausible environment for the manuscript to be produced.  (Though I must say Huller is doing a terrific job of making a case that the manuscript is linked specifically to Callinicus and his circle.)  Indeed, Huller is showing that it is at least an equally plausible scenario as a forgery by a western scholar dating to the mid-20th century.  (Personally I would have to say that Huller's evidence has surpassed that of Smith's critics.)

Paananen's Interview with Quesnell on the Mar Saba Manuscript

Timo Paananen has posted his 2009 telephone interview with Quentin Quesnell on his website.

Some things we learn:

--It appears that on Quesnell's new testimony, Kallistos Dourvas was indeed the last person known to have seen the manuscript ("Kallistos took it to the firm and handled all arrangements with them.")

--The color photographs Quesnell procured do not seem to be the color photographs that Kallistos had and gave to Olympiou.  ("I have them.")  There is perhaps some slight ambiguity remaining here, but I see no reason to suspect Quesnell of being coy with words.

--The École Biblique appears to have become involved somehow.  ("There were some discussions with people at the Ecole, I believe."  This in all likelihood refers to the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem.)  This is perhaps the most interesting piece of information.  What if the manuscript now lies in the hands of someone affiliated with the École?

Let's not forget that it is with this trip that confirmed sightings of the manuscript cease, and all known attempts to view it (or even to view other manuscripts at the same library) become blocked and interfered with.

Quesnell has unfortunately left off responding to Paananen since this interview.  We know that his wife, Jean Higgins (herself a religious scholar) sadly passed away last September, so I suspect he has simply been preoccupied.  (He has also himself been retired since 2004.)

What's very interesting is that even if Quesnell decides to remain silent on the subject, we know there is more material out there regarding this visit and the manuscript in general.  Quesnell cites 1) a written correspondence between himself and Morton Smith, 2) written correspondence between himself and his late wife (still listed as emerita at Smith College for some reason) describing his trip, and 3) unknown "supplemental material".  All of these are sure to be interesting.

Grateful thanks to Timo for posting this very informative interview.

An Emerging Consensus on Secret Mark?

It's been stated by several participants in the "Secret Mark Conference" (really the first event in the York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium Series) that there was seemingly no consensus emerging from the discussion.  Having reflected on it for the past few weeks, I would actually disagree with that: I think we do see a partial consensus emerging.

Some Comments on Francis Watson's Latest Reply

Back in April, Francis Watson published a brief reply to Allan Pantuck's "Beyond Suspicion" article in JTS.  I thought I'd just add my own two cents to the discussion.

Watson's reply relates to only two points:

1) the coincidence of Smith's scholarly interests prior to the manuscript's discovery, and
2) the coincidence of the plot points in James T. Hunter's novel The Mystery of Mar Saba to Smith's discovery.

Quentin Quesnell Was the Last Person Known to Have Seen the Mar Saba Manuscript

Sorry, duplicate post--please see the original post below.  But the title of this post is the more accurate one: Quesnell is only the last person known to have seen the manuscript based on published evidence.

Quentin Quesnell Was the Last to See the Mar Saba Manuscript

This fact has only become known publicly since 2007.  (ETA: see Stephan Huller's interesting comment below.  It hints that we may have information about a sighting of the manuscript since Quesnell saw it.)


In my report on the first York Christian Apocrypha Symposium, I suggested that not only was Archimandrite Kallistos Dourvas the last person to see the endpaper manuscript of To Theodore, but that it only went missing in 2000, and that he left his appointment at the library of the Jerusalem Patriarch in 1999.

I may well have been wrong on all three counts.