Insofar as refuting general accusations against Morton Smith, Brown scores zingers against Jacob Neusner, who clearly maligned Smith out of spite, owing to the infamous fallout between the two men in 1984. It's downright embarrassing to see Neusner's pre-84 and post-84 remarks laid out on the same page! The 70s Neusner wrote the dust jacket endorsement for Smith's book on Secret Mark, describing a "brilliant account" of a "discovery [which] ranks with Qumran and Nag Hammadi, Masada and the Cairo Geniza, but required more learning and sheer erudition than all of these together". The later Neusner venomously denounced Smith's discovery as "the forgery of the century" and "one of the most slovenly presentations of an allegedly important document in recent memory". (!) (see pp 39-40)
But the fact that Neusner resorted to forgery accusations only later and out of spite, and that conservative-minded scholars had done so (perhaps) out of homophobic impulses, should not blind us to the likelihood that Clement's letter to Theodore may well be the forgery of the century. [Crosstalk Sat Jun 25, 2005]
But is it that simple? Can you really detach Neusner from the development of the 'Smith as gay forger' rumor? By the time Carlson's book had come out we can trace the development of the ground for this supposition through Craig Evans's reference (Studying the Historical Jesus 1998 p. 521) to the fact that Neusner was as good as any other source for information about Smith even though his 'spite' was palpably obvious to even confirmed believers in the hoax proposition such as Rosson.
The question that doesn't get addressed in the post again is where did the accusations of Smith being a homosexual come from, if not from this same poisoned well of 'spite' as Rosson terms it? I have looked for any kind of footnote or annotation in any book or article which presents the claim that Smith was a homosexual and there is always the same lack of sources. Even when Neusner published Bruce Chilton's article which referenced the same claim there is a glaring lack of proof. Nevertheless by publishing Chilton's article Neusner clearly accepted the claim. I have yet to find anyone else who knew Smith - and knew Smith much better than Neusner I might add - who did or does now. What is the genesis of the 'Smith is gay' rumor? It's going to be fascinating to figure this all out.
