The Antiochene 'Gospel Secret'

I have written a great deal about how I believe that the gospel was written by Mark in such a way that it was secret understood that he was 'in the narrative' (although the naive reader would now know he was there). Origen identifies the 'little child' of Matthew 18:1 as John and we can infer from other passages that he really means 'Mark who also called John' the founder of the Alexandrian tradition. Yet it is interesting to note that Ishodad of Merv (ninth century) preserves an Antiochene tradition that the little child is really Ignatius the first 'historical' bishop of Antioch:

Now the child whom our Lord called, and set him in the midst of them, and said, 'Except ye be converted, and become etc. is said to have been Ignatius, him who was afterward Patriarch of Antioch: now he saw angels singing in two choirs; and he taught that they should serve thus in all churches. [p. 72]

Of course most scholars just sneer at this kind of information because we have no parallel tradition to the 'gospel secret' concept. They want to make it seem that this was a later addition to the interpretation of the gospel rather something established by the original author of the text. However I am not so sure. As I have always said, there is a basic mystical paradigm always at work that when you really get down to it - the gospel is not really about Jesus at all. It is about 'Christ' or the individual who sticks around after Jesus goes away and is stuck governing the lot of humanity.

I see the Antiochene tradition developing out of a common origin with the parallel traditions of Alexandria. The Therapeutae are also said to pray in two chorus and this practice was also passed on to the surviving Coptic tradition ...