Pier Franco Beatrice Really Says It Best "Smith's Aberrant Interpretation Concerning Magic and Homosexuality Can be Definitively Discarded as Something Totally Unfounded, Which Prevents Many Scholars from Developing a Serious and Unbiased Discussion. The Two Extant Fragments Don't Support Smith's Fantasies."

It shouldn't be surprising that a professor from Padova - the place where the modern university began (think Shakespeare and the Taming of the Shrew) - has hit the nail right on the head. Most scholars - even Wayne Meeks! - can't separate Morton Smiths utterly stupid and wrongheaded interpretation of the text with the text itself. They keep saying things against 'the homosexuality in the Mar Saba letter' where I personally can't see where Clement advocates sodomy or confirms the existence of ritual homosexuality in the Alexandrian Church. In any event here is the eminent professors comments:

Thank you for sharing with me your project for a TV program on this subject. I see it's enormously difficult and therefore I appreciate your courage.

I'm not a specialist of photographic techniques, so I wouldn't be involved in such a discussion. However, the true technical problem, a decisive one, which unfortunately (it's too late) cannot be solved, is that of the ink!

I can only say that I'm personally inclined, with all due caution, to accept the authenticity of the document and the great antiquity of the Secret Gospel. All that fits in well with Clement and the traditions on Mark, but on condition that Smith's aberrant interpretation concerning magic and homosexuality be definitively discarded as something totally unfounded, which prevents many scholars from developing a serious and unbiased discussion. The two extant fragments don't support Smith's fantasies.

All that I know and think on this matter is written in my article "The Gospel according to the Hebrews in the Apostolic Fathers", published in the journal Novum Testamentum 48:2 (2006), pp. 147-195, also on line - www.brill.nl.

With all best wishes for a happy new year, sincerely yours.

Pier Franco Beatrice
University of Padova.