The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

[Secret Alias]

I don't know if it is coincidence - probably is - but at least one of the names on the list of teachers at the first Greek school of Ionia is listed as a Freemason on an expensive website I stumbled across when searching his name:

https://www.grandlodge.gr/moustoxydis-a ... -5510.html

[Secret Alias]

Took a wild stab in the dark with the Greek Freemasonry site:

I am doing some research on a mystical text which was discovered by the American professor of religion Morton Smith at the Mar Saba monastery in the Palestinian territory in 1958. There are some linguistic anomalies in the manuscript that I noticed (the use of κος as an abbreviation). The handwriting is definitely late 17th or early 18th century but I had difficulty tracing the origins of κος as an abbreviation. This led me to the earliest known Greek text using κος that I could find was one from 1818 associated with the Ionian school in Corfu. Some of the prominent teachers are on your list of Freemasons including the one listed as "Κος Ανδρέας Μουστοξύδης" in the document. I am wondering if someone from your organization could give me assistance. It is very difficult as a non-Greek speaker to do research in this field. I would like to know how you know that Κος Ανδρέας Μουστοξύδης was a Freemason, what the connection is between Freemasonry and the Ionian Academy and whether any mention is made in any of your documents regarding Clement of Alexandria or unlikelier still a secret gospel of Mark or a visit to Palestine and in particular a monastery of Saint Sabbas. Thank you very much.

[Secret Alias]

I am not espousing a link between Freemasonry and the Letter to Theodore. But it is, on the surface at least, more plausible than the Morton Smith angle. On the one hand, they would be interested in a mystery gospel - even to the point of fabricating the text. I am not saying the text is fabricated but at once you can imagine lots of things. Also leaving aside the Freemasonry connection the fact that many of the teachers of the Ionian academy happened to live outside of Greece and had access to printed books helps explain the writing of the fragment into a book.



Somewhere back in my memory banks I remember reading some problem at Mar Saba and the Jerusalem Patriarchate with Greek Freemasons as well. This is their headquarters in Greece today:

[Secret Alias]

I have secured the services of a Greek paleographical expert. I was worried I was starting to annoyi him (which I was). He figured out I am not that bright, have difficulty reading Byzantine handwriting, lack expertise and suffer from a compulsive disorder. But in spite of those shortcomings he admires my work ethic. We'll reconnect after Xmas. One downside, he's not in good health.

You really can get by in life with no brains and sheer tenacity.

[davidmartin]

good for you SA having seen some dumb, lazy mistakes by scholars no-one is excluded from having a pop themselves, i'm working on something that if it pans out you might like but for now gonna leave it at that cause it might come to nothing or not end up very interesting

[Secret Alias]

Here's the situation with Secret Mark as I see it:

1. scholars who specialize in early Christianity MAY be able to read ancient Greek manuscripts.
2. to Theodore appears to be an early Christian text which is a manuscript from the Ottoman period (i.e. transcribed by someone late 17th/early 18th century)
3. only Greeks specialize in this period
4. Greeks view themselves (much like Jews) as the guardians of THEIR religion (Christianity which of course was a text-based religion primarily written in Greek). That's their unconscious bias.
5. American/British scholars ESPECIALLY THE EXPERTS underestimate/undervalue their collective blind spot i.e. their inability to deal with manuscripts from the Ottoman period. As such, what they know (ancient Greek) is good enough to make a judgment on the authentic text/forgery.

They can't accept that they don't have the tools to understand the manuscript. I remember when Burke was organizing some conference on the document and I kept telling him to bring Agamemnon Tselikas to the conference. He's an expert on the period. Instead they just want to talk about 'psychology,' 'morals/ethics,' 'homosexuality,' 'loss of faith' - complete subjective drivel. It's white/European privilege manifesting itself again.

Tselikas's point, buried somewhere in his study is valid of ALL SCHOLARS. What did Smith, Quesnell, Carlson and all the rest know about documents of this sort? This is a very specialized field. These texts are very, very hard to read. They all look the same to me at first. I've seen hundreds of MSS that look like MS 65 (the letter to Theodore). Yes, I haven't found THAT handwriting. But it looks the same to me. All Greek to me. And I an honest enough to admit it. The personal slander that manifests itself as 'forgery arguments' are EXACTLY like the Trump arguments about election fraud. You believe it if you are predisposed to mistrust 'fags,' Jews, atheists, loners, heretics whatever. And like Trump they expect us to accept their 'authority' on the unreliability of fags, Jews, atheists, loners, heretics as the basis to excluding the MS.

The Trump phenomenon depends on the mistrust of the same strangers - i.e. fags, Jews, atheists, loners, heretics - but also includes foreigners, women, liberals to the list. It's the same phenomenon rooted in an evangelical mindset - this includes Bob Price who is a typical Trump supporter and so falls victim to the trashy conspiracy story angle.

[davidmartin]

all valid points although Trump? really politics is a murky field on all sides.... !!
A scholar can support Genghis Khan for all i care
my beef isn't with any particular scholar, it's just the old school buffs like GRS Mead were pretty open minded and threw interesting ideas all over the place, now they're serving up cheese sandwiches mostly. no big schools of though duking it out, no fireworks

[Secret Alias]

How is Trump truthful other than being honest about selfishness? Trumpism = "let's be honest, we're all assholes, at least I admit it." Can't have 350 Million people driving like that, living like that, engaging one another like that ... with guns.

[davidmartin]

SA, i've decided to drop out of politics. what is one less person. i no longer care about that bullshit. i take each person as they come
politics is the art of bullshit

[Secret Alias]

No. To say Trump is the same as his opponents is to be a Trump supporter is to say there is no truth. You shouldn't be investigating early Christianity or curing cancer or doing anything else if you don't believe in truthfulness. At a minimum there has to be a belief, a faith if you will, in the truth and opposition to dishonesty. Trump is a profoundly dishonest man.