Was A Secret Gospel of Mark Discovered?

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When a scholar claims to have discovered a new text from early Christianity, it can send shockwaves through the academic community. In the case of the "Secret Gospel of Mark," the shockwaves are still being felt today after over 65 years later. And scholars still can't agree on whether the text in question is authentically ancient, a modern forgery, or something else. There are huge implications. The traces of this "secret Gospel" allegedly discovered in 1958 by Morton Smith, a professor of ancient history at Columbia University, have been interpreted (by Smith himself) to indicate that Jesus engaged in homosexual rituals with the followers he baptized in the nude. In this week’s episode, we’re discussing the discovery of this amazing text, what it actually says, and how scholars have interpreted the intriguing passages it contains

Megan asks Bart:

What is the secret gospel of Mark?

Who was Morton Smith?

In 1958 he visited the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Mar Saba to catalog their library. Could you tell us about his discovery?

How significant (apart from being only letter) was this discovery?

Are there questions about its authenticity?

Who was Clement of Alexandria? Do we know him from other sources?

Who were the Carpocratians, and why was Clement concerned with them?

Is Clement copying these sections of the secret gospels into his letter to show how they’re being misused?

The idea of secret knowledge isn’t really new to the ancient world - if we’re looking at early Christianity, the Gnostics were particularly fond of such things. Is it surprising that there would be a whole secret gospel?

Clement of Alexandria apparently thought that these passages were from a later version of Mark’s gospel. Could they have actually been part of the original composition?

What did Morton Smith write?

What do the preserved passages of the secret gospel actually say, and how did Smith interpret them?

How else has this section been interpreted by scholars?

Have other scholars offered alternative interpretations?

What are the ongoing issues in the debates about the secret gospel?

Are there other sections of Mark that would benefit from having something re-inserted?