You know I am starting really bored of this whole 'controversy' regarding the status of To Theodore. The bottom line when considering the arguments of the 'hoaxers' is ultimately- what the hell is their frame of reference anyway? I mean, is the Acts of Apostles a 'real' historical text? Are the four gospels 'authentic' in an absolute sense?
Indeed, I know of absolutely no early Christian text which escaped the editorial scrutiny of Irenaeus. This doesn't mean that Irenaeus was necessarily a bad guy. Maybe he was a lot of fun to be around. Maybe after assisting in the hunting down and killing heretics [cf AH i.31.4] in a particular city he would have a drink and be the life of the party (although the pedantic style of his writings tells me otherwise).
The point is that everything points back to Irenaeus. He is the first HISTORICAL figure to identify and isolate 'incorrect' readings in the New Testament and heretical beliefs among his contemporaries (the Ignatius corpus and Polycarp ultimately end up passing through his hands).
You can't get beyond Irenaeus and assume that everything we have inherited from the Catholic and Orthodox traditions is 'the way things are supposed to be.'
Indeed I am not saying that going beyond Irenaeus is for everyone. Some people are happy with his inventions. I have no problem with that - just get out of the way of the process of making sense of To Theodore!
Let me at least get readers to agree that Smith DIDN'T recognize the significance of its seven day baptism ritual. I think I happened to have gotten it right. I think that it was not only connected to the traditional understanding of baptism and glorification of Israel taking place on the seventh day of Passover but - as I will show in this post - countless other 'seven day glorifications' recognized by the parallel Markan tradition of the Samaritans.
Indeed you don't even have to buy into my overall argument that the historical Mark the Samaritan was St. Mark - it is impossible to prove this hypothesis anyway - it is enough to say that Samaritan ideas CLEARLY had an influence on the baptismal liturgy of To Theodore. Why is that? Because I believe we are now standing one step removed from the very foundations of Christian theology as such.
Take Mark's idea of a seven day initiation which culminates with a baptism. I have shown already this literally falls off of every page of the Samaritan Mark's understanding of the seven day festival of Unleavened Bread. The same concept is explicit in the writings of the Apostle.
Yet Irenaeus tells us of a heretical community from Egypt called the Marcosians who identified this ritual as specifically an 'angelic baptism' where the mortal being is transformed into something resembling an angel. If we acknowledge the parallels between the Marcosian 'redemption' baptism, the traditional Jewish and Samaritan identification of the seventh day of Passover as a 'redemption' - and specifically a baptism in the cloud and the sea among the Samaritans - it is not hard to find OTHER examples in Samaritan Mark's writings which support these ideas that the column of fire/the glory worked over seven days to transform human beings into angels.
Just look what Mark says about Moses:
The Cloud glorified him seven times: the first of these seven was wherever his feet walked the cloud preceded him; when he led Israel out of Egypt as he said "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud" (Ex xiii.21). Such was the status of the great prophet Moses! Who can mention even a little of his glories? The cloud shone before him and there was manifested to him a mighty wonder within it, for it was not the cloud's normal function to shine, but rather its normal function was to be dark. Through this great prophet Moses it both illuminated and darkened; so he said "And there was the cloud, the darkness, and it lit up the night" (Ex. xiv. 30). When the Man Moses saw this event in the sea (cf. 1 Cor 10:2) for it [the glory] was illuminating all the beloved and darkening the enemies, he praised his Lord, the doer of wonders and miracles, saying 'Who is like Thee, O Lord, among the gods?' (Ex. xv. 11 Targ).
Exalted for ever is this holy prophet, to whom the Lord of divinity said "Lo I am coming to speak with you and may also believe you for ever" (Ex. xix. 9). Great was the morning of Mount Sinai, the morning of the third day, in which exceedingly great tremblings were manifest - hosts and powers and foundations and angels, thunderings and lightnings (cf. )lights and fire blazing to the heart of heaven, the cloud of which we have just spoken, by reason of the great prophet Moses, the Man of God. He dwelt on Mount Sinai and the Lord called to Moses with great might and Moses went up; He addressed him face to face. There the cloud glorified him. When his Lord came to him in it, He made him to hear the voice calling from the midst of the fire - "I am the Lord your God" (Ex xx.2; Targ). The cloud covered him at the time when he was told "And I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by" (Ex. xxxiii.22).
The powers supported him, the forces comforted him, the Glory came to meet him; the great Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him and proclaimed the Ten Words (Ex. xx) with the mouth of divinity. The Lord's peace be upon Moses the Man, who achieved a high degree which no other man has possessed (lit. 'sat' cf my article on the enthronement of Moses before his death as a paradigm for the throne of Christianity here)
When the great prophet Moses erected the Sanctuary, the cloud covered all that he had made, as he said, "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting" (Ex. xl.34), and the Glory of the Lord dwelt within the veil, and the cloud abode on the Sanctuary many days. At the time when he says, "Arise O Lord" (Num. x. 35) and "Return, O Lord" (Num. x 36) the peace of the Lord be upon him who saw such greatness! There has not arisen and never will arise his like.
At the time God said to him "Come up to me on the mountain" (Deut x.1 Targ) when he went up to Him and the cloud covered him for six days, his body was holy and holiness was (thereby) increased. He ascended from human status to that of the angels. He was making supplication during the six days and prostrating before the King of all kings; he saw the Sanctuary of the Unseen spread out in the fire within the cloud. He called on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud and he saw the ranks of the angels in their array. He descended from the mountain with great might - none like it! [Marqe Mimar Marqe Book V.3]
It was John MacDonald who first argued that Samaritan Mark has some relationship with Christianity. I have just taken this argument to another level arguing over a great number of other posts which demonstrate that 'the Samaritan Mark' identified the 'crossing of the sea of reeds' on the seventh day as a water immersion which purified and glorified Israel. I also have proof that this 'Samaritan Mark' was regarded as having a status equal to Moses.
I don't know how much more I have do to get these folks interested in the Samaritan tradition. I think it proves that the ideas in Secret Mark opens the doors to see things which a slavish devotion to Irenaeus will never allow. As I said earlier if you want to believe in Irenaeus' constructs - go to church, pray, write books to help people with their faith - just get out of the way when the rest of us are trying to make sense of To Theodore ...
dating back to conversations with his grandfather, Gaston Frank. "He said we represent one of the last descendants of the Frankist Jewish faith in the world," he muses. "I grew up thinking that our family was something like the Last of the Mohicans."