Did you know Mark (Marqe ben Tite) in his Samaritan writings is identified as 'the Apostle' (Leningrad marginal note)? Well, if I am going to tell it to you step by step I should say I THINK that the Samaritan Marqe ben Tite is one and the same with the figure of the Evangelist Mark (by way of Marcus Julius Agrippa). I sound like some kind of kook, right? Well, that's my working hypothesis right now. It's a theory that I have been working on - piece by piece - for some time now. I happen to have one of the world's leading experts in the field of Samaritan studies who at least tentatively accepts some of my ideas. I also have a supporter in one of the leading members of the six hundred or so surviving Samaritans in the world - Benyamim Tsedaka. He will be staying with me in the middle of December so I can develop these ideas even further.
He's a wealth of information - and a wonderfully nice fellow. His only fault is that he can only go to restaurants where they serve fish. Sort of limits the places you can go out together to eat. Whether you like them or not most of my strange ideas have their basis in something. It doesn't mean that I one day might be proved wrong. I'm happens all the time. But for the moment, my theory that one Mark wrote in Alexandria and Palestine is still standing. My friend Rory Boid of Monash University tells me he is working on dating the liturgy to the late first century/early second century drawing on a lot of preliminary work carried out by Hans Kippenberg before him.
In any event I have sent an email to Rory to help me with some references I have run across to 'the baptism in the Sea.' I am not able on my own to improve on MacDonald's translation but until I get Rory's improvement here is just one of the interpretations in the Mimar Marqe (Teachings of Mark) where the parting of the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea) sounds like a baptism. It is drawn from an imaginative conversation that Mark creates between Moses and the Sea. He writes
It was as though Moses said to it [the Sea], "Their entry [i.e. Israel] is like entry into water that purifies, sanctifying and cleansing from all impurity." Thereupon the Sea fell silent at these words and recognized that he was an apostle. So then the True One said to Israel, "You will be safely borne for me, and I will exalt you."
It was as though mercy said to them, "I will not shun you, but I will glorify you whither you go. The pillar of cloud will magnify your camps, so that no blemish will be seen on you. The pillar of fire will shine on them, that every spy may be discovered among them. The angels too will go with them, destroying the evil ones who would oppose them. The great glory will fight for them and manifest their greatness among all the nations."
The Sea began to address Israel with words that benefit those who seek to learn, "Come safely, O holy people. Cross over me in safety, for before you are mighty and exalted heralds. Come safely, you who are like your fathers. God revealed Himself to and delivered them with his power. There are excellent signposts leading the way before you, that you may cross over safely and be guided aright. Come safely and do not be hesitant, for I am now going to let you cross me." [Mimar Marqe II.6]
Now it has to be recognized that Mark is not writing about the 'redemption' which will come in the messianic age but only recounting what happened to Israel 'the first time.' Nevertheless I think the reader can see how the Marcosians developed the idea of an 'angel baptism' from these basic building blocks. More to follow ...
