Re: Did Morton salt Mar Saba?
Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:18 am
The earliest Patristic writings, the writings of Irenaeus, are limited to only a few interests - correct belief, correct canon, correct episcopal line. The Philosophumena is a variant of Irenaeus's Against Heresies. At the core of Against Heresies there is the understanding that there are only four gospels. Given that the original author has very little to talk about (i.e. correct belief, correct canon, correct episcopal line) it is not surprising that the gospel of Mark comes up.
Smith on the other hand, had from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Th.D. in theology from Harvard Divinity School. He wrote about and had an interest in A LOT OF TOPICS. Tselikas makes mention of the strangeness of his having visited a number of monasteries before he want to Mar Saba. An Italian scholar connects his interest in Jewish mysticism to the discovery of the text. You and Carlson notice his having written papers now relating to the Gospel of Mark and the Philosophumena. They all can't be relevant. They are like undoubtedly signs of erudition rather than proofs or indication of criminality.
As noted earlier - you investigated the word kike without it being any indication of you being an anti-Semite. I have spent a lot of time investigating and thinking about homosexuality as it relates to the Mar Saba discovery without being or any personal interest in homosexuality or becoming a homosexual. Bart Ehrman has a quote which is based on an old Protestant belief - "'the search for truth takes you where the evidence leads you, even if, at first, you don't want to go there." The fact that you end up going down some unusual and perhaps distasteful corridors is necessary part of the process of research and discovery.
Yes the Al Qaeda terrorists took flying lessons before crashing those airliners into the World Trade Center but surely there isn't a straight line between what we read and what we do for educated people (except for Nietzsche I guess who read Dostoevsky and then saw a scene from the book he was reading before going completely mad). But we as scholars and researchers are naturally curious unlike most humans. It is silly to make such direct connections for academics between reading and doing. As academics we do a lot of reading and very little doing.
Here's another clue ...
Smith on the other hand, had from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Th.D. in theology from Harvard Divinity School. He wrote about and had an interest in A LOT OF TOPICS. Tselikas makes mention of the strangeness of his having visited a number of monasteries before he want to Mar Saba. An Italian scholar connects his interest in Jewish mysticism to the discovery of the text. You and Carlson notice his having written papers now relating to the Gospel of Mark and the Philosophumena. They all can't be relevant. They are like undoubtedly signs of erudition rather than proofs or indication of criminality.
As noted earlier - you investigated the word kike without it being any indication of you being an anti-Semite. I have spent a lot of time investigating and thinking about homosexuality as it relates to the Mar Saba discovery without being or any personal interest in homosexuality or becoming a homosexual. Bart Ehrman has a quote which is based on an old Protestant belief - "'the search for truth takes you where the evidence leads you, even if, at first, you don't want to go there." The fact that you end up going down some unusual and perhaps distasteful corridors is necessary part of the process of research and discovery.
Yes the Al Qaeda terrorists took flying lessons before crashing those airliners into the World Trade Center but surely there isn't a straight line between what we read and what we do for educated people (except for Nietzsche I guess who read Dostoevsky and then saw a scene from the book he was reading before going completely mad). But we as scholars and researchers are naturally curious unlike most humans. It is silly to make such direct connections for academics between reading and doing. As academics we do a lot of reading and very little doing.
Here's another clue ...