A Note on MacDonald's Statement About the Dating of Samaritan Mark

Here is the original statement in MacDonald's introduction to the Mimar Marqe, the most important book in the Samaritan tradition - indeed the text which defines everything that came after it:

the Samaritan themselves for centuries have regarded Mark as the man of the greatest possible distinction, whom they revered as they revered no other outside of their Bible. From the 14th century on liturgical compositions were often modeled on Mark's style ... [his] family must have lived in the time of the Roman government of Syria (Syria = Palestine, Lebanon, Syria of today).

As far as dating the Memar is concerned therefore he have several factors that indicate the 2nd - 4th centuries A.D. - The use of Greek words, the Aramaized Roman names of Mark's family, the ideological outlook, the midrashic material, the philosophical and scientific passages, the language and style, and, as we shall see below, the long textual tradition. All this is in addition to the inescapable fact that Mark does not betray any definite signs of the Islamic influences so prominent in later Samaritanism. The Samaritan chronicles themselves especially from the 11th century, place Mark at about that time. In addition there is the fact that of all the hundreds of Samaritan family names known to us, only Mark, Nanah (a diminutive form of John), and Tite (Titus) are Roman.

Perhaps in the future it will be possible to trace the history of Christianity in Samaria more exactly so that we may discover why Mark shows some knowledge of St. John's gospel while later writers use it in such a way to prove actual dependence at times verbatim, on it. [MacDonald Memar Marqah p. xxi]

MacDonald rightly emphasizes the Roman names in Marqe's family and notes that the region where the Samaritan's lived was called 'Syria' in the middle of the second through to the fourth century (the period universally ascribed to Marqe's composition).

Yet the oldest sections of Marqe identify the region as 'Palestine' - the specific name given to the region in the first and early second centuries! - this is one of the strongest regions for thinking that Marqe actually wrote in this period and that scholarship has misjudged his proper dating.

Now consider what MacDonald says about the verbatim gospel citations alongside the idea that Samaritan Mark might have lived in the first century AND THE FACT THAT THE OLDEST MANUSCRIPTS OF THE DIATESSARON HAVE AN ACROSTIC THAT IDENTIFIES THE SPECIFIC NAME 'MARQE' BEHIND THE FOUR GOSPELS AS WE HAVE THEM IN OUR CANON and I think we are on the road to a revelation of an unimaginable truth. Just wait I will show you more ...