The Gospel of Mark as Ainos [part 3]

The professor responded to my email and I wrote back:

Professor Nagy

Thank you for responding to my request. Please take all the time you need to answer it.

I just want to say something that has nothing to do with whether or not the Gospel of Mark was originally conceived as an ainos.

I, like many others, arm not convinced that the reference to the anonymous 'Sicilian bee' at the beginning of Clement 's Stromata has anything to do with a man named Pantaenus. The reference in Stromata 1:1 actually deals with scripture rather than invidividuals as we read:

Now the Scripture kindles the living spark of the soul, and directs the eye suitably for contemplation; perchance inserting something, as the husbandman when he ingrafts, but, according to the opinion of the divine apostle, exciting what is in the soul. "For there are certainly among us many weak and sickly, and many sleep. But if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged." Now this work of mine in writing is not artfully constructed for display; but my memoranda are stored up against old age, as a remedy against forgetfulness, truly an image and outline of those vigorous and animated discourses which I was privileged to hear, and of blessed and truly remarkable men.

Of these the one, in Greece, an Ionic; the other in Magna Graecia: the first of these from Coele-Syria, the second from Egypt, and others in the East. The one was born in the land of Assyria, and the other a Hebrew in Palestine.

When I came upon the last (he was the first in power), having tracked him out concealed in Egypt, I found rest. He, the true, the Sicilian bee, gathering the spoil of the flowers of the prophetic and apostolic meadow, engendered in the souls of his hearers a deathless element of knowledge. Well, they preserving the tradition of the blessed doctrine derived directly from the holy apostles, Peter, James, John, and Paul, the sons receiving it from the father (but few were like the fathers), came by God's will to us also to deposit those ancestral and apostolic seeds. And well I know that they will exult; I do not mean delighted with this tribute, but solely on account of the preservation of the truth, according as they delivered it. For such a sketch as this, will, I think, be agreeable to a soul desirous of preserving from escape the blessed tradition.

Of course the standard understanding here is that Clement is refering to 'Pantainus' in this last reference. It is also supposed that Tatian is the figure of the Assyrian. Yet I should note that Tatian was intimately attached to a gospel - the Diatessaron - which was written in Assyrian (Aramaic) script. In Jewish culture the Babylonian Talmud is always identified merely as Babli - i.e. 'the Babylonian.'

I won't get into the deeper arguments in my theory about the Secret Gospel of Mark but I suspect that it was LIKE the so-called gospel harmony or Diatessaron of Tatian. This is why the Sicilian bee reference was used - i.e. from the allegory of the gospel writer "gathering the spoil of the flowers of the prophetic and apostolic meadow." In his letter to Theodore Clement says that Mark similarly "came over to Alexandria, bringing both his own notes and those of Peter, from which he transferred to his former book the things suitable to whatever makes for progress toward knowledge. Thus he composed a more spiritual Gospel for the use of those who were being perfected ... [and] he left his composition to the church in Alexandria, where it even yet is most carefully guarded, being read only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries."

The reference to Clement having "tracked him out concealed in Egypt" follows from this description and the 0next line - where Clement says that he "found rest" is an allusion to the saying from the Gospel of the Hebrews he cites a little later in the same text (Stromateis i. 9. 45) "also in the Gospel according to the Hebrews is written the saying, 'he that wondereth shall reign, and he that reigneth shall rest'. id. (Strom.) v.14.96. For those words have the same force as these: He shall not cease from seeking until he find, and having found, he will be amazed, and having been amazed will reign, and having reigned will rest."

I cannot explain to you why I think that the Secret Gospel of Mark is one and the same with the Gospel of the Hebrews (I think that Clement ascribes it to Mark while others say that it is the original Matthew). Yet you will have to agree that the idea of an ur-Gospel is clearly present in the discussion of the Sicilian bee.

It is worth noting that in Eusebius' Church History THE FIRST REFERENCE TO THE EXISTENCE OF A PERSON NAMED PANTAENUS he is explicitly linked with the ur-Gospel viz.

Pantænus was one of these, and is said to have gone to India. It is reported that among persons there who knew of Christ, he found the Gospel according to Matthew, which had anticipated his own arrival. For Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached to them, and left with them the writing of Matthew in the Hebrew language, which they had preserved till that time. After many good deeds, Pantænus finally became the head of the school atAlexandria, and expounded the treasures of divine doctrine both orally and in writing. [Church History Book V:10:3]

Professor Nagy, if you can follow all of this you will see what I ultimately getting at. I think that Clem ent identified the Gospel according to the Hebrews as the pant ainon - the one which contained the 'whole story' of Jesus. I think the text was a variant of the Diatessaron (again for reasons I don't want to get into here). This means that elements from the four gospels appeared there and one could alternatively view it as having 'Matthew' or 'Mark' as its ultimate author.

The Secret Gospel of Mark already betrays many parallels with the Diatessaron tradition which have been noted by scholars.

I suspect then that the secret gospel (tou mustikou euaggeliou) of Mark was interpreted by the highly educated members of the Alexandrian Church. In favor of this proposition is Jerome's expansion of Eusebius testimony where20he writes:

Pantaenus, a philosopher of the stoic school, according to some old Alexandrian custom, where, following the example of Mark the evangelist the ecclesiastics were always doctors, was of so great prudence and erudition both in scripture and secular literature ...

In other words, Mark the evangelist would have certainly been understood to be familiar with the concept of ainos. The text concludes again with 'Pantainus' finding the ur-Gospel in India "and on his return to Alexandria he brought this with him written in Hebrew characters."

So that's the background to my ideas. Whenever you are able to get back to me I welcome your response.

Sincerely

Stephan Huller