Ulrich Schmid Just Sent Me a Scanned Copy of Hermann Raschke's Werkstatt des Markus-Evangelisten (1923)

It is over 600 MB! I am truly grateful for this gesture. Schmid has written one of the best books on Marcion thus far. It is a pity it is available only in English. Sometimes I wonder how depressing it must be for German scholars (who are clearly superior in most cases to thing English speaking counterparts) to have their works unread by people in North America. I say 'North America' because most serious scholars OUTSIDE of this continent know that without knowledge of German they are often out of touch with critical scholarly works such as Marcion Und Sein Apostolos: Rekonstruktion Und Historische Einordnung Der Marcionitischen Paulusbriefausgabe (Arbeiten Zur Neutestamentlichen Textforschung). Of course here in this idiotic environment, it is expected that people pontificate about 'Marcion' without having read any of the German scholarship. Indeed most of them have only read what appears in Irenaeus, Tertullian and Epiphanius.

This situation is very reminiscent of the situation with regards to the Mar Saba document insofar as people think that 'things are already decided' (i.e. Marcion being an antinomian heretic who 'hated' Judaism) without having delved into the depths of things. You can't find a German who denies the authenticity of the Mar Saba document. At best you get the reaction of my friend David Trobisch who asked me, 'why I take such an interest in controversy.' In short, Germans might find the focus 'impractical' but not 'incorrect' per se.

Indeed it is only in Germany where you find very religious-minded people like Wieland Wilker - individuals whose intellectual and spiritual profile matches Larry Hurtado, Roger Pearse, Stephen Carlson, Craig Evans etc - still holding out against the forgery argument. Why so? Because rationality isn't something they dress their faith up with - like an ugly whore putting on the latest make-up . It is an integral part of their being. Even the latest Pope can't be faulted for being irrational. Try to the same thing about most of this lot who will simply tell people that 'Marcion is this or that,' 'the Mar Saba letter is a forgery' without offering anything resembling a nuanced argument.

In any event, thank you Ulrich Schmid. In keeping with your generosity I will make the document available to anyone that asks for it. Of course, as I noted earlier you will have to be able to read German to understand it. Not many takers I imagine ...