A Preliminary Study in the Most Important Chapter in the Mimar Marqe - Why It Provides the ULTIMATE PROOF For the Authenticity and the Lost Historical Context of Secret Mark

This is what we read at the end of the first addition of Secret Mark. On the seventh day "Jesus told him [i.e. the neaniskos] what to do, and in the evening the youth comes to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of God's kingdom." I think the neaniskos was Mark himself. This would explain how the text was employed in Mark's See of Alexandria (i.e. that as Mark was initiated by Jesus the 'Glory Lord' so did Mark initiate those of his See).

The Samaritans do not mention a baptism of Mark but rather preserve the original liturgical context for the entire initiation - viz. 'the baptism in the cloud and in the sea.' The cloud is the same 'glory Lord' that would eventually 'rebaptize' Mark (the Alexandrians originally held Jesus to only have a divine nature like the Marcionites). The Samaritans DO recognize Mark as one 'like Moses.' WHY their Mark is like Moses is never explained.

The idea that Secret Mark and the Mimar Marqe were original products of one and the same historical Mark can help explain everything.

Let's go back to the Alexandrian liturgy. As I have already demonstrated the Alexandrians baptized their catechumen at the end of a Christian Feast of Unleavened Bread (i.e. as the seventh day 'went out' into the eighth day). This is the exact same 'moment' that Samaritans hold that the ancient Hebrews 'went into the waters' and came out as 'Israel.'

Yet as I have noted many times here, the Samaritans didn't just make the connection between the seventh day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread and the 'passing over' of the Israelites but EVERY SEVENTH DAY ends with a commemoration of the crossing.

In other words as each seventh day 'goes out' into the eighth day, a prayer is recited to memorialize the central event in the history of Israel.

I think the manner in which Secret Mark ends 'day one' by putting the initiation on hold for another seven days is a development out the traditional Samaritan understanding. Morton Smith could not have known this. So it is that as evening approaches Mark writes that Jesus made him come forward to essentially become like Moses.

The fact that the neaniskos went on to write the gospel which was essentially the new Torah of Israel fits this idea perfectly.

Yet before we get too far into this let's cite the entire chapter(s) in the writings of 'Samaritan Mark' to see how the Exodus narrative became the 'typos' of Christian baptism (cf. 1 Cor 10:2). We read AGAIN AS THE SEVENTH DAY WENT OUT INTO THE EIGHTH that:

Moses entered (the water), the glory before him magnifying his passing through the Red-Sea. See the difference between two who entered: -

Moses entered (the water) and Pharaoh entered.
Moses entered (the water), the Divine One magnifying him.
Pharaoh entered, the Divine One destroying him.
Moses entered (the water), the glory gladdening his heart.
Pharaoh entered, the glory oppressing his heart.
Moses entered (the water), the righteous rejoicing at him.
Pharaoh entered, the righteous destroying him.
Moses entered (the water), the angels magnifying him.
Pharaoh entered, the angels oppressing him.

The status of Moses exceeded that of any man, and thus his Lord has proved it. When Moses and Israel entered into the sea, the wind gathered force to meet them. When Pharaoh and the Egyptians entered into the sea, judgement gathered force to meet them.

Observer the prophetic status of Moses, how he began to proclaim in the words of Enosh, by which he magnified the True One THEN (titah) men began to call upon the name of the Lord (Gen iv. 26; Targ.)

At the beginning of the Song (Ex. xv) is THEN, for (the letter) Tit (= Tet) was made an extensive garden. The True One commanded it and Abraham made it - And the Lord God planted (Gen ii. 8), the True One spoke; and Abraham planted a tamarisk tree (Gen xxi. 33), the True One wrote.

Then Moses began and said in the sea; he composed his Song a garden of praises. He said THEN to rear a fine garden with living trees, and also when he began to proclaim the word THEN Creation was renewed at that. Then included Creation and Sabbath, Sabbath being an excellent pillar, all of it good, for God established it on the foundation of Creation; thus Moses began with mighty proclamation. THEN is the Beginning, the opening - wholly excellent! Sabbath is a city - wholly blessed! Beginning is an origin, wholly spiritual! Sabbath is a place, wholly sacred!

Here the knowledge of Moses was revealed to the world and it provided knowledge for the living and the dead. He then said SANG (YShR) - a momentous, unalterable word. These are eminent words, like shining light. THEN SANG (AZ YShR) he began it and proclaimed it. AZ whose inner meaning is of significance, is a foundation that cannot be destroyed.

Beginning was created and Sabbath brought into being. The covenant with Abraham was manifest in the number ZAIN (=7).

See the word YshR with which the great prophet began. He made it a shield in the face of all shame, five hundred and ten comprising of three sections - the years sojourning of the ancestors, the years of slavery for their children, the years of the prophethood by which Moses reached this high status. And also AZ - the great prophet Moses SANG, and all the Israelites with him.

There is a problem involved here about which we ask the Elders of the People who were gathered together to receive knowledge of the wonders which God did in Egypt through Moses his servant. These were prior to the wonders done in the Red Sea in Egypt in the presence of Israel. Why should the wonders done in the Red Sea precede the wonders done in Egypt in this song? (i.e. why Ex. xv. 1 - 7 before 8 - 10).

And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore (Ex. xiv. 30b) before The great work which the Lord did against the Egyptians (Ex xiv. 31a; Targ)?

The explanation of this problem is that they did not continue to believe in God and in His servant Moses. When they saw the wonderful deeds done by the Lord in the sea and the death of all the Egyptians, they believed in the Lord and in Moses His servant. After the death of the Egyptians through wrath and anger, He lifted them up onto the surface of the sea. The wonder is that He made their faces upturned that Israel might see them. After they had seen them, they sank down and they saw them no more.

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord (Ex. xv. 1). Each of them remembered the word YshR out of all the words of the praise, because it comprised all the words of the praises - an extremely fine arrangement was the arrangement by Moses and the Israelites in this Song by the sea!

Moses was standing by the sea, his face turned towards Mount Gerizim, Bethel. All the Elders of Israel were standing behind him and behind the Elders were all the Israelites. The prophet Moses sang the Song in sections. When he finished each section, he would fall silent and all the Elders would respond with the verse I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea (verse I). Then all Israel would say (The Lord is) my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation (verse 2) up to The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name (verse 3).

The would fall silent and the prophet Moses would begin to sing. In the same Miriam would sing and say Sing to the Lord (verse 21), along with the Elders, and the women would say with the Israelites. My strength and my song (verse 2) to the end of it. (She) For He has triumphed gloriously (verse 1, 2nd part), they Pharaoh and his chariots (as verse 4) whose power was great against the Israelites, The horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea (verse I, third part).

I hope there are at least some of my readers who can see WHERE the Apostle got his idea that the Exodus narrative served as the 'typos' of Christian baptism. I won't go off track here by emphasizing that I think the letter we call 'the first letter to the Corinthians' was really originally identified as the 'epistle to the Alexandrians (cf. the Muratorian canon). I have always held this. Indeed the idea was first came to me when I read Petrement's observation about the similarity between the name 'Cerinthos' and 'Corinthos.' But that is another argument ...

All that matters right now is the fact that both 'Samaritan Mark' and 'Alexandrian Mark' (the idea that Samaritan Mark could have ALSO BEEN an 'Alexandrian Mark' is resolved by the large population of Samaritans in Alexandria and especially Dositheans down through to the seventeen century) are NOT JUST connecting the initiation of Moses to the seventh day OR the crossing of the Israelites to the seventh day BUT the fundamental idea that the crossing was itself initiatory.

Just look at the phraseology of Secret Mark again. During the course of this 'going out' of the seventh day baptism "Jesus taught him the mystery of God's kingdom." Given that this MUST have been tied to the original crossing of the sea by the Israelites (the setting was Egypt for God's sake; how much more obvious do things have to get!) there is an implicit understanding that the 'passing through' the water LEADS to the attainment of the divine kingdom ON EARTH (just look at the reports of the earliest Church Fathers regarding the early Alexandrian heresies FIXATION on an earthly kingdom and especially 'Cerinthus' again).

In Samaritan Mark the connection is even more explicit. We read at the very beginning that:

Moses entered (the water), the angels magnifying him.

And then immediately after the discussion of Moses - and the ancient Israelites - 'passing through the water' Samaritan goes on to talk about a mystery of Moses prophesying the coming of the reestablishment of Paradise in Palestine:

At the beginning of the Song (Ex. xv) is THEN (titah), for (the letter) tit was made an extensive garden. The True One commanded it and Abraham made it - And the Lord God planted (Gen ii. 8), the True One spoke; and Abraham planted a tamarisk tree (Gen xxi. 33), the True One wrote. Then Moses began and said in the sea; he composed his Song a garden of praises. He said THEN to rear a fine garden with living trees, and also when he began to proclaim the word THEN Creation was renewed at that. Then included Creation and Sabbath, Sabbath being an excellent pillar, all of it good, for God established it on the foundation of Creation; thus Moses began with mighty proclamation. THEN is the Beginning, the opening - wholly excellent! Sabbath is a city - wholly blessed! Beginning is an origin, wholly spiritual! Sabbath is a place, wholly sacred!

It will be very difficult for most New Testament scholars to understand the meaning of the kabbalistic reasoning which follows. However it should be readily apparent that there is an uncanny similarity with the beliefs of the early Alexandrian heretics - viz. Cerinthus - but in particular the kabbalistic heretic 'Mark' of Egypt who also establishes a baptism ritual rooted in the concept of 'redemption.'

I began this discussion by saying it would only be a PRELIMINARY analysis. I don't want to scare off all the white people with the horrifying realization that all the stuff their ancestors fed them is BS. The truth is that you can't possible understand the gospel without knowing Hebrew, Aramaic and a deep understanding of the ORIGINAL MYSTERIES regarding Moses, Israel and the Exodus. This is why the Easter Sunday service HAS TO INCLUDE readings from Exodus 14 and 15.

I would just like to conclude this preliminary discussion by drawing my readers attention to something which could not have escape the ancients. While it is true that the ancient Hebrews are identified as 'Israel' and God's firstborn before the final miracles of Exodus, it is interesting to note that the last time they are called 'Hebrews' is during the dialogue between Moses, Aaron and Pharaoh in Exodus 10:3 "So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says ..."

The context is the plague of locusts, the last wonder before the slaughter of the firstborn (Passover) and the wonder of the sea (the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread). We have to recognize that in no unmistakable terms 'Samaritan Mark' understood that 'Israel' became confirmed as the Israelites left the wonder of the Sea. He also says that angels were present and that 'the Glory' had a hand in transforming both Moses and the Israelites.

The Alexandrians under their teacher 'Marcus' - identified by Irenaeus, Hippolytus and subsequent Church Fathers as a heretic - not only celebrated a 'Feast of Unleavened Bread' where presumably they baptized their catechumen at the end of the seventh day but they called the ritual 'redemption' and more importantly identified angels being present 'in the water' and similarly thought that their initiates were 'glorified' because of their presence.

We can even CONFIRM that these two traditions were one and the same once we identify the name of the angel that BOTH the traditions of Samaritan Mark and Alexandrian Mark took a leading role in this initiatory process - viz. SARIEL.

But this will have to wait until I get back to the banality of my daily existence for a while ...