The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate...

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Geoffrey S. Smith Brent C. Landau

The Secret Gospel of Mark

A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate over Its Authenticity...

Geoffrey S. Smith, Brent C. Landau

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English

Yale University
16 June 2023

Religion & beliefs

A groundbreaking account of the Secret Gospel of Mark, one of the most hotly debated documents in Christian history

In 1958, at the ancient Christian monastery of Mar Saba just outside Jerusalem, Columbia University scholar Morton Smith claimed to have unearthed a letter written by the Christian philosopher Clement of Alexandria and containing an excerpt from a previously unknown version of the canonical Gospel of Mark. This excerpt recounts a story of Jesus’s apparent sexual encounter with a young, resurrected disciple. In recent years, an influential group of researchers has alleged that no Secret Gospel or letter of Clement existed in antiquity, and that the manuscript that Morton Smith “found” was a modern forgery—created by none other than Smith himself.

In this book, Geoffrey S. Smith and Brent C. Landau enter into the controversy surrounding this document and argue that the Secret Gospel of Mark is neither a first-century alternative gospel nor a twentieth-century forgery by the scholar who announced its discovery. Instead, this account is intimately bound up with the history of Mar Saba, one of the oldest monasteries in the Christian world. In this fascinating work, Smith and Landau present the realities and misconceptions surrounding not only the now-lost manuscript but also its brilliant, enigmatic, and acerbic discoverer, Morton Smith.

By: Geoffrey S. Smith, Brent C. Landau
Imprint: Yale University
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780300254938
ISBN 10: 0300254938
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 16 June 2023
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Geoffrey S. Smith is associate professor, fellow of the Louise Farmer Boyer Chair in Biblical Studies, and director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins in the religious studies department at the University of Texas at Austin. Brent C. Landau is associate professor of instruction in religious studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Both authors live in Austin.

Reviews for The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate over Its Authenticity

A brilliant and compelling book. Systematically, thoughtfully, boldly, The Secret Gospel of Mark sets aside generations of speculation and innuendo. It is difficult to imagine a more expertly researched or more accessible account of this scholarly puzzle. -Robyn Walsh, University of Miami