Let's start with a brief summary of previous work that has been done to establish the original connection of LGM 1 (= the first addition to the longer gospel of Mark in the Letter to Theodore) to an ancient Alexandrian liturgy:
at the time of baptism a passage inserted between the canonical Mark 10:32-34 and Mark 10:35-45 — a secret or mystic gospel in which Jesus "initiates" a Lazarus-like figure he had raised from death six days earlier was read to the initiates. This passage, the "Mar Saba Clementine Fragment," increasingly recognized today as being among the authentic writings of Clement of Alexandria, together with this early forty-day, post- Epiphany fast in Egypt, may help to explain not only the origins of "Lazarus Saturday" (the day before Palm Sunday) in the later Byzantine tradition — including, significantly, baptisms still being administered on this day in tenth-century Constantinople but also the origins of the specific forty days of the pre-Easter "Lent," which would emerge almost everywhere after the Council of Nicaea. [The Oxford History of Christianity 2006 p. 40]
There are many people who have written about this, most notably Thomas J Talley. Yet I hate to say it but all this stuff was written by people who for some inexplicable reason refused to consult the pre-Christian tradition of the people of Israel. I guess it was because Christians are afraid of what they might find if they go to what must have been the source for the earliest liturgies of the gospel.
We have already demonstrated that Lazarus Saturday and the so-called 'Great Sabbath' of later Judaism both come from a traditional veneration of the 10 Nisan that disappeared from all cultures save for Samaritanism. This uncanny parallel is very important for it demonstrates in my mind quite clearly that forces from without were causing Jews and Christians to abandon what was certainly the original understanding of the sacredness of 10 Nisan. Let's not forget that Jews gave up the proscribed sacrifice of the Passover lamb and the Samaritans did not. The Jews gave up the calculation of Sabbatical years and Jubilees which the Samaritans again did not. It is almost unimaginable to explain what external forces could have caused the Jews to abandon among the most sacred practices of the original Israelite covenant but here we are two thousand years later with a bizarre tradition pretending to have preserved the original beliefs of their ancestors when at every glance we see the exact opposite presenting itself to us.
The Samaritans retained all of the most sacred practices and traditions and as a result were persecuted to a far greater degree in the later history of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine period and beyond. Indeed so few people know anything at all about the Samaritans that I think we are due a little introduction (and not the kind you would get in banal history books). The Samaritans are a living preservation of what I and many others consider to be the original Israelite cultus before the conquest of Palestine by Alexander the Great. It was then an increasingly separate cultural identity was establishing itself in the north and this 'Jewish' nation ultimately succeeded at destroying the traditional altar of Israel on Mount Gerizim during the reign of John Hyrcanus.
The Samaritan tradition which has survived until the present day is not representative of this early period but of a much later one. What is now called Samaritanism is a tradition totally devoted to the vision of a man named 'Mark' of whom they have no real biographical information. He's just 'Mark' or 'Marqe' to them and all they can point to is that their ancestors explicitly associate him with Moses, so much so that this 'Mark' originally appears to have taken on quite a messianic character with Samaritans of his generations (I have spoken of this at length in my book). Again, when this Mark actually lived is anyones guess, but many scholars including myself see clear signs of a first century dating especially because of the similarity with his teachings and the writings of Philo.
The Samaritan custom of venerating the tenth of the first month (the Samaritans don't call it 'Nisan' because this is a name borrowed from Babylonian paganism) disappeared in Judaism and Christianity. Nevertheless, as we noted in previous posts it was replaced with a liturgical interest in the day of the week that 10 Nisan fell during the original Passover (i.e. the Sabbath before Passover). Jews and Christians in the East continued to venerate the Saturday before Passover as a very Holy Day. In Eastern Christian tradition 'Lazarus Saturday' is the day before Palm Sunday. Yet we have to be careful when we attempt to reconstruct the earliest liturgies - even theoretically - as many Christian sects used a Jewish calendar to calculate Easter. Indeed the so-called Quartodecimans (who most likely weren't an actual sect but a characteristic of many early sects to identify Passover according to a Jewish calendar) specifically avoided a Sunday interest.
As we have just noted 'Quartodecimanism' wasn't actually a sect per se but a characteristic present in many Christian communities. It is difficult to determine who was and wasn't a 'Quartodeciman' other than to say that the Liber Pontificalis and many other earlier sources seem to imply that it was the Roman Church who 'corrected' the heterodoxical beliefs of many communities including that of Alexandria. I am not at all certain that the Marcionites did not calculate the Pasch according to a Jewish calendar. We may likely never know this with any degree of certainty but there is one thing that we can be certain of with respect to this early Christian community - the Marcionites did not recognize a triumphant entrance into Jerusalem by Jesus with throngs of people waving palm branches.
The Marcionites and the Secret Gospel of Mark for that matter clearly had Jesus in Jericho on the day following. Some might question how we can know what appeared in the Marcionite liturgy. Yet this can be answered by noting that Epiphanius and Origen for that matter make explicit reference to a celebration called 'redemption' appearing immediately after Mark 10:32 - 34 and before Mark 10:35 - 45 in the Marcionite gospel. The same testimony appears in the writings of Irenaeus with respect to the so-called Marcosians. I have noted in many of my previous posts (before I became obsessed with 'Secret Mark') that there is good grounds for believing that the Marcosians, the Marcionites and the early Alexandrian tradition before Clement were all one and the same (i.e. traditions devoted to St. Mark rather than heretical boogeymen named 'Marcus' and 'Marcion').
The only thing we need to keep our eyes on for the moment is the fact that in the Samaritan tradition established by 'Mark' (Marqe) the tenth of the first month is clearly the day of redemption or deliverance. Here again is Marqe's pronouncement on the sacredness of the tenth day of the first month:
The great prophet Moses stood up in the assembly of Israel and instructed them about deliverance. He told them to prepare themselves for the time of departure on the tenth of the month, to prepare to sacrifice the offering, and take in the tenth of the month a perfect one year old lamb (Ex. xii. 3-5). See what God commanded the great prophet Moses on the tenth of the month. He made it a command that it should be prepared from the fourth to the fourteenth day, for the slaughtering of an offering to the Lord.
The Glory of the Tenth Day
The first day for the creation of man and for the praise which he rendered; in it he was delivered.
The second day for the performance of Abel who became an origin of a specially chosen (race).
The third day for the proclamation of Enosh (Gen. iv. 26), in whom the generation of man was made known.
The fourth day for the uprightness of Enoch, who walked in obedience to his Lord and went in the truth.
The fifth day for Noah, who perfected himself and was righteous in his generation.
The sixth day for the meritoriousness of Abraham, through
whom the origin of the covenant was revealed.
The seventh day for the sanctification of Isaac, because he was an acceptable holy sacrifice.
The eighth day for the boldness of Jacob, from whom arose those worthy of holy things.
The ninth day by reason of the purity of Joseph, who was filled with the wisdom of his ancestors.
The tenth day for the perfectness of your (i.e. Moses's) prophethood.
Thus from your mouth they shall hear, and through you they shall believe.
Were it not for your prophethood, I would not have revealed myself, and my voice would not have been heard as long as the world lasts. I revealed myself to former good men through an angel, not by revelation of my own mighty self. Behold, I reveal myself to you and make my voice to be heard by you. I magnify you everywhere. So I have established you, that they may learn of this tenth day, in which they will take the sacrificial sheep. This deed is to be for all time and its commemoration is to be observed for ever—without a break. This day is a memorial to your prophethood, just as this deed is a commemoration of the redemption, for through you they are delivered and rest from fatigue. They have become great in you and are glorified in your apostleship. It will be prepared by them for four days, until it is performed on the fourteenth.
O Aaron, Eleazar and Phinehas, three glorious, magnificent ones, as I have united the two of you (Moses and Aaron) in goodness, so you shall be united as one in uprightness.
The tenth day is for you and what follows is for Aaron. What you hear is from me.
The tenth day is for you and what follows is for Aaron. I have vested you with my name and I have vested him with yours.
The tenth day is for you and what follows is for Aaron. You will start and he will finish.
Eleazar is appointed to the succession. Today he is glorious; like him Phinehas is exalted. The day which is for him, in the blessedness of which was his father—behold, ten and three together crowned with perfection: behold, ten and three crowned with might!
Let the day come safely on which is the deliverance, for it is crowned with glory and contains the Blessing.
Let the day come safely on which is the deliverance, for truth is about manifested in the world.
Let the day come safely, whose evening was God's, whose day was Israel's — as He said:
It was a night (of watching) by the Lord (Ex. xii.42; Targ.). Three deeds in the night, while He wrought the exodus — as He said, "About midnight I will go forth in the midst of the land of Egypt"(Ex. xi. 4; Targ.). He will reveal what He said—When I see the blood (Ex. xii. 1 3 ; Targ.).
Read where it is written, "I will pass (ibid.) over the houses of my beloved and will slay the firstborn of my enemies. I will make all their gods and idols collapse." This was the doing of the God of gods that night! As the Lord said, "The morning of it is for His people." As He said, "This day shall be for you a memorial day" (Ex. xii. 1 4 ; Targ.)—it will never be changed!
Let the Taheb come safely and clear away the darkness which has become great in the world!
Let the Taheb come safely and scatter the enemies who have provoked God!
Let the Taheb come safely and sacrifice a true offering before Bethel.
Let the Taheb come safely, that the Lord may have pity and reveal His Favour, and that Israel may sacrifice in the evening.
Let the Taheb come safely and separate the chosen from the rejected, and let this affliction be turned into relief!
The day which He made the fourteenth is the end of one affair and the beginning of another. Thus He said to them, "In the evening they shall sacrifice one sacrifice equivalent to four — in the evening, at the setting of the sun, a sacrifice of thanksgiving for the deliverance of the ancestors: a sacrifice of peace offerings for the safe-keeping of the firstborn: a sin offering, the blood of which is sprinkled in the evening: Israel shall sacrifice at the siege and conquest of a city — at the siege of city, a distressing matter; at the conquest of a city, a joyful matter! Great is our God who has thus glorified us and called the name of this offering Passover.[Memar Marqe 1.9]
I see clear signs that this day of redemption is the ground out of which the Marcionite and Marcosian 'redemption' (ἀπολύτρωσις) developed. I have struggled for months how this original liturgy appeared but the thing which finally settled it for me is the universal acknowledgement that this was the day that the ancient Israelites crossed the Jordan (Joshua 4:9). The same reference occurs in the Letter to Theodore (i.e. "Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God. And thence, arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan" to Theod 3.6,7)
What I am now suggesting of course is that Secret Mark is clearly an authentic work of earliest Christianity. It can't have been written by Morton Smith. Why so? Because like many non-Jews who write about Judaism he doesn't have an intimate appreciation of the 'soul' of the religion. That isn't to say that all Jews have that connection or that all non-Jews don't. I know of many non-Jews who have a better understanding of Judaism than most Jews in the field. The point is however that Smith and every other white person who has written about Secret Mark has missed the obvious connection with the emerging understanding of Mark chapter 10 and the traditional Jewish and Samaritan understanding of the original acquisition of the Eretz Israel (or the 'kingdom of God' if you will).
Let's first look at the Jewish version of the Book of Joshua and see the chronology before Passover. First the Jews are on the 'wrong side' of the Jordan, they cross and then go to Jericho:
Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day. Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the LORD and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, ready for battle, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for war.
That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses.
Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant law to come up out of the Jordan.” So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before. On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.” [Joshua 4:9 - 24]
The Samaritan version of the same book is now only preserved in Arabic but has been argued by my friend Ruaridh Boid of Monash University to actually be older than the Jewish text. Notice at once that there are many references to the crossing of the Jordan on the tenth of the first month with the establishment of the 'kingdom of God':
The Yush'a (Joshua), the son of Nun, himself called out and said: "O assemblies of men! God commands you that there should be between you and the priests who carry the ark an extent of equal space to two thousand yards, so do not approach unto it within this distance, that God may complete His work with you." The he ordered the twelve chiefs to take from under the feet of the priests, twelve stones, after that the children of Israil had finished the passage over the Urdun, and that each one of them should write his name upon his stone, in order that what had happened might be preserved and perpetuated through the eternity of the ages to come, even the miracle which God- may His name be glorious- would show on the Urdun (Jordan). And the Liwanites (Levites) proclaimed with loudest voice: "Praise be to God of Gods, and Lord of Lords, to Whose commandments, animate and inanimate things are obedient, and the heavens and the earth and the seas and the rivers and all that therein is. There is no God but He, and no kingdom lasts but His kingdom, nor any power but His power, nor any sovereign except under His sovereignty. Perish whoever deny Him and believe in another than He, for He is the God.
And the children of Israil did as the king commanded them. And the cloud was lifted up, on the first day of the first month.[1] And the priests proceeded forward when the cloud was lifted up, and attained to the distance from the army which he prescribed unto them. And when the priests with the ark approached the water of the Urdun, the Liwanites shouted aloud, and the congregation of the children of Israil joined in with them, saying with one voice; "There is no power or strength in the presence of Thy power, O Lord of worlds!" And the water stood still, and rose up in accumulation, by the power of its Creator; He who is almighty over whatever He wills, the Worker of miracles and wonders. And continued to be heaped up, wave upon wave, until it became like unto huge mountains, while the priests stood praising God, and shouting halleluiahs and saying: "Praise be unto Him, in obedience to whom every thing exists." And they stood, with the ark, on the dry ground in the midst of the Urdun, until all the children of Israil, with their large throng, and their cattle, had passed over on the dry ground through the midst of the Urdun, on its bottom, and it was dry like as in the days of harvest. And the Liwanites were praising and shouting halleluiahs, and saying: "Praise be unto Him in obedience to whom every thing exists. Praise be unto Him by whose will this is come to pass." And when the people came out of the Urdun they observed the commandment, and took the twelve stones from under the feet of the priests, and each man wrote his name upon his stone, and the king also took a similar stone. And when the priests with the ark came up out, the waters rushed down with great tumult, and winds blew violently with the rushing down of the waters. And the nations heard about this great miracle, and their hearts were broken up, and their confederated troops were scattered. And the water of the Urdun destroyed, at that time, many places which were near it, by reason of the great violence of the wind which accompanied it. And God does whatever He wishes- Glorious be His name. And of Him do I ask assistance, and upon Him do I put my trust, and unto Him be the praise for what He has bestowed.
The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. On that day Yush'a the son of Nun began to sing the Song of Moses, which is AZ YASHIR MOSHEH UBHENE YISRAEL, the song Moses the lord of the song Moses the lord of the prophets sang at the Red Sea and all the Israelites with him. After Joshua had finished it, he said: Praise be to him who created the creatures ! Praise be to him who is uniquely one ! ...[The Samaritan Chronicle or The Book of Joshua, the son of Nun chapters 14 - 17, trans. Oliver Turnbull Crane John B. Alden, Publisher, New York, 1890]
[1] the reader should be aware that I have inserted the reading of other manuscripts not followed by Crane in his translation. As John MacDonald (The Samaritan Chronicle No II, Beiheft of BZAW, 107 Berlin, 1969) notes manuscript "IV's version of verses A*-C* is lengthy; there is a particular (§15) of the date of the event, this being 'the first of the first month of the first year of the first Release of the Jubilee', adding that 2704 years had elapsed from the Entry into Canaan up to this point (see APP. V), and ref. this dating to the accurate knowledge of the scholars." I am emailing my friend Rory Boid to get an accurate version of all the other MSS.
Now I hope that the reader can finally see that we do not need to have the original manuscript of the Mar Saba document to determine that the text is one hundred percent authentic. Just notice at once that the Samaritan understanding has the crossing of the Jordan begin ten days before it is actually completed. This certainly explains at least part of the reason why 'Secret Mark' has Jesus tell the initiate to wait six or seven days before receiving the 'mysteries' related to the kingdom of God and then his crossing of the same Jordan river on the tenth of the first month.
All the people before me have missed the underlying context of the addition to the narrative in Mark chapter 10 just before the Passion. The context is clearly rooted in the idea that LGM 1 (= the first addition to the longer gospel of Mark) is set on the traditional day of crossing of the Jordan in the Book of Joshua. We see this connection in many other respects in the early writings of the Church Fathers and the texts found at Nag Hammadi where Christian baptism is connected with the waters of the Jordan 'turning back' while Jesus is standing therein. This is repeatedly mentioned in the Book of Joshua's description of events on the tenth of Nisan.
Yet the Samaritan Book of Joshua emphasizes very much that the crossing of the Jordan is linked to the establishment of God's kingdom or 'the kingdom of God.' We cited only one of the references in the Samaritan Book of Joshua. The text as we noted is very different than the Jewish one. The Samaritan book actually introduces itself as the story of the establishment and loss of the 'kingdom of God' in its opening words:
And when one shall hear of the decline of the kingdom of the children of Israil, and what calamities and misfortunes and exiles and dispersions overtook them by reason of their disobedient doings and their rebellious actions, his fear will be increased for Him from Whom nothing escapes and of Whose kingdom nothing is destroyed [ibid chapter 1]
At the death of Moses, the establishment of the 'kingdom of God' is first revealed as the fulfillment of the divine plan for Israel:
When Yush'a, and the priests returned after bidding farewell to the prophet- peace be upon him,- the congregation of the children of Israil met them, and they commenced weeping for their master, yea, every company by company, and they continued weeping for him thirty days and nights. And the nations heard their clamor and wailing and crying, and they assembled together in confederation on the borders and rejoiced exceedingly when they were informed of the death of the prophet- peace be upon him, -and they resolved to encounter the children of Israil. But when God- Powerful and Mighty- perceived the conspiracy of the Canaanites, of those who were assembled unto them, He made a manifestation of Divine power and revealed unto Yusha, the son of Nun, that he should strengthen his own and the people's courage, by saying unto them: "That as He had been with them in the past, so would He be with them in the future so long as they continued in worshipful submission." Praise he unto Him to Whom belongs the kingdom and the majesty and the power and eternal existence. There is no God but He, and no kingdom but His kingdom. [ibid chapter 8]
When foreign kings hear about the impending approach of Joshua and the Israelites, Joshua is described as "the new king, who had been invested with the kingdom as successor to Musa the Prophet- the best of peace be upon him." (ibid chapter 13) As Joshua prepares to cross the Jordan, as we just saw we hear the divine plan revealed again in the form "there is no God but He, and no kingdom lasts but His kingdom, nor any power but His power, nor any sovereign except under His sovereignty." (ibid chapter 14) When they finally seized the Holy Land it is again described as a kingdom of God "there was no molestation or insurrection since now their surrounding enemies were far removed from them and dispersed throughout the regions of the earth; and they who were near them had made peace with them, so no one was stirring up a commotion, nor was there a kingdom spreading itself abroad except their kingdom, or any hand outstretched except their hands." (ibid chapter 25)
Only a complete imbecile can continue to deny that Secret Mark has been completely modeled after the original Samaritan account of the Book of Joshua. The 'mysteries of the kingdom of God' were not properly understood by Morton Smith at all. They have nothing to do with magic but rather the account of the attainment of the promise of Eretz Israel as a 'kingdom of God.' The mysteries were given just before 'he' (either Jesus or the initiate, the text of Secret Mark is not clear) crossed the Jordan on the same day. The folklore in early Christianity clearly associated this crossing with baptism and its literally being pushed back to reveal dry land as on the 10th of Nisan at the time of Joshua (Philosophumena 5.3, the Testimony of Truth, cf. Psalm 144.3) All of this also demonstrates that Secret Mark only revealed the barest of details of the context of the original baptismal liturgy (cf. 'naked with naked')
The gospel of Mark now clearly ends with the crucifixion of Jesus on the fourteenth of Nisan in Jerusalem. Yet we know that in the Secret Gospel of Mark he is clearly in Bethany on the other side of the Jordan on the tenth of Nisan, the day on which he also crossed the river. It also seems impossible not to see that in the original liturgy that developed from this gospel he must also have been in Jericho the next day (11 Nisan). There was likely no triumphant entry into Jerusalem, no 'Palm Sunday' in the Marcionite version of the gospel (for the Marcionite gospel as a gospel of Mark cf. Philosophumena 7.18, Hermann Ratschke Werkstatt des Markus-Evangelisten). The entrance into Jerusalem was clearly done secretly in the original text (cf. Mark 14.13 - 16 which is completely at odds with the public display of Mark 11:1 - 10) and involved Jesus and the disciple he loved who was chosen on the 10th of Nisan and was the only one to remain with him to the end (cf Irenaeus AH 3.11.7)
There is a lot more for us to go through of course but let's see what remains of any of this in the Coptic veneration of 'Lazarus Saturday.' The first thing we should notice is that Lazarus Saturday is the day between the forty days of fasting and the Holy Week. Yet I want to stop right there and allow the reader to catch his breath and absorb the import of what I have just revealed. Without any doubt now, we have demonstrated the authenticity of the Letter to Theodore, Secret Mark and the early Alexandrian liturgy allude to in its contents, don't you think?
dating back to conversations with his grandfather, Gaston Frank. "He said we represent one of the last descendants of the Frankist Jewish faith in the world," he muses. "I grew up thinking that our family was something like the Last of the Mohicans."