Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

What if it turned out that Seraphim's handwriting resembled the Mar Saba author. Would that be enough to prove that Morton Smith was behind the forgery?

Smith mentioned an earlier fire for his scenario. And? Who fucking cares what Smith postulated. Even by saying such a thing like this you are showing you can't get out of what Smith wrote or imagined versus what could have happened. I don't think Smith is in control of reality. He mistranslated the...

Let's imagine this. My Greek friend Harry Tzalas told me he can't read the letter of authentication because it is a style of writing that isn't taught any more in Greece. I will cite the email. Let's give authenticity a chance. Let's suppose that there was a fragment of Clement lying around in the m...

Smith and Landau add something to the story: Flusser remembers that they did encounter one bump in the road. When the team of scholars attempted to leave with the book, “Abbot Seraphim,” an old friend of Smith who presided over Mar Saba, “raised hell,” demanding that “they would have to request it,...

Always fair Andrew. Love you to death. To answer Peter's question: Smith and Landau add something to the story: Flusser remembers that they did encounter one bump in the road. When the team of scholars attempted to leave with the book, “Abbot Seraphim,” an old friend of Smith who presided over Mar S...

A certificate of organic certification https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/organic-certification assumes certain things about the about the way produce was raised, doesn't it? They may not be listed on the certificate but they are assumed. A certificate of authenticity with respect to a manuscript fou...

So you won't answer the question of whether it is possible for the Patriarchate to have issued a certificate of authenticity without at least considering whether the book and the manuscript had been in the monastery before 1958.

There is no evidence the book was in Mar Saba before 1958. It does not appear in the books catalogs there-- as has been noted, repeatedly. Except for the fact that a certificate of authenticity was issued in 1976 and brought forward by Tselikas. Please outline a scenario where the Patriarchate coul...

I am very interested in hearing how the certificate of authenticity could have been issued in 1976 AND there was somehow a scenario where the authorities didn't suppose that the manuscript was in the library of Mar Saba before 1958. Please explain that scenario.

So again it is reasonable to suppose that: 1. Morton Smith claimed Seraphim as an "old friend" 2. the Patriarchate and the monastery bitterly fought over the transport of this battered book to the point and when they came to an agreement a certificate of authenticity acknowledging it as pr...