Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

That was Morton Smith's joke, not mine.

De gustibus non est disputandum,
though I am not the only one to notice that manufactured (in 1958 context) and Score later
comport with Morton's long-displayed sense of humor.

JarekS, you have proposed that the NT, or most of it, was "content" produced by one source.

Could you further specify that proposed source?
When?
Where?
Why does is appear to many people, of various backgrounds, that there were differing views, not a unified one?

Here's the full title of Smith's Harvard Theological Review article "CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA AND SECRET MARK: THE SCORE AT THE END OF THE FIRST DECADE." HTR 75:4 (1982) 449-61. In context, the word "Score" is an unusual, provocative, choice. As for "Manufactured in the United ...

Well, Randy. Stephen here, not Stephan. If you had read the book, you would know that Smith did not go to vespers with his chaperone, who was not his buddy; he did not go at all in 1958, his disdain for it made abundantly clear. And that Smith didn't just get less religious but turned from exceeding...

Here is one case, all from his 1973 book, The Secret Gospel. On page 6 MS recounted his 1941 visit to Mar Saba. He described the liturgy, which he attended, as "hypnotic." "I knew what was happening, but I relaxed and enjoyed it." (In what other context have heard that phrase?) O...

Again, JarekS, you posit two groups, you/us versus "biblical scholars." And you did not answer any of my questions, above-- who, when, where, single source? I think it is fair to say that, in some sense, many here are, in some broad definition, "biblical scholars." Maybe some her...

This, though, was not a published book.
If you read Smith's reviews, you may get a sense of his humor.
Or if you heard him in person, as I did.
Such as the time he remarked that an article had been misprinted,
because it lacked the word
"Amen."

Morton Smith hand-wrote "Manuscript Material from the Monastery of Mar Saba, discovered, transcribed and translated by Morton Smith," dated 1958. It includes a Preface. On a preliminary page he wrote "Manufactured in the United States." This may bean example of his type of humor....

I suggest that it is a false dichotomy to claim that literature is either "authentic" or "popular and successful." There are other collections of letters--and history books--that are both. If I understand your writing correctly, you posit--in order to "help biblical scholars...