Another Question From Dimitris

I have like twenty questions from Dimitris to answer, here is only the latest:

who is the real theodore behind this letter did we know as the Mar Saba text?

My answer:

We don't know. There is no way to figure that out. There simply isn't enough evidence. All we can say for sure is that he was a Christian living outside of Alexandria who originally wrote Clement a letter asking about the contents of the Gospel of Mark at Alexandria. Part of that original question seems to reference the presence of a narrative which featured a 'naked man with naked man.' There is some dispute whether or not this a reference to homosexuality. There were also other things referenced in the letter which Clement says are not present in the text of the Alexandrian Gospel of Mark.

So to answer your question properly I have to admit - I am not sure. I think the most likely explanation is that the people Theodore was engaging were indeed SLANDERING the Alexandrian text of the Gospel of Mark owing to the presence of a story featuring Jesus and young man. This is why Clement goes out of the way to quote the story and show its exact location in the Gospel of Mark narrative.

I am not even sure if Theodore used the term 'Carpocratians' to identify the people he was engaging. He might have just said 'Romans,' 'Greeks' or perhaps just stated that 'people are saying ...' the things that originally appeared in his letter. We don't know. Clement then might have put the label of 'Carpocratians' as a way of SLANDERING the enemies of his tradition (i.e. the way we in America used to label our enemies 'communies,' 'fascists,' and the like). We don't know.

The exact historical circumstances are very murky. It is difficult to say exactly what was the original context that forced Clement to respond to Theodore's letter. It's all a matter of guesswork really.