Why We Can Be Certain that the Alexandrian Tradition Had a Mystic Gospel

I think Scott Brown has done a great service to remind us that the phrase τὸ μυστικὸν εὐαγγέλιον does not necessarily identify the holy text of Alexandria as a 'secret gospel.' It is unfortunate that people refer to the text this way merely because of the decisions of its original English translator Morton Smith. Scott Brown has tirelessly demonstrated in his Mark's Other Gospel that the correct meaning was something else - viz. that the preferred gospel of the Alexandrian community was identified as a 'mystic' text. Yet what exactly is a 'mystic gospel'?

In everyday English there is no clear explanation to the terminology. There was a Julia Roberts movie a while back called 'Mystic Pizza.' Most people merely suppose that 'mystic' has some vague relationship with mysticism and the occult.

Scott Brown writes in the preface that "a 'mystic gospel' is not a concealed gospel but a gospel that contains concealed meanings." That's getting better, of course. But I don't feel even that does justice to the terminology. Brown's discussion is totally grounded in its consistent attempt to demonstrate the implausibility of the forgery position with respect to the Letter to Theodore. The lay reader of the next generation might not be as interested in hearing why Stephen Carlson's thesis should be ignored. They simply want to understand what it all means - i.e. our ability to put the 'mystic gospel' in some historical context in early Christianity.

Brown spends many pages demonstrating that Clement of Alexandria used the term mystikon quite frequently. Yet the reader might walk away from this demonstration with the idea that the term was strictly limited to Clement. The reality is that mystikon is a common - almost banal - description of all things pertaining to the liturgy.

Mystikon would later become something akin the use of 'awesome' in Middle America.

To be certain the terminology quite certainly retained the "richer sense" (p. 62) that Brown identifies in the writings of Clement. Yet I want to make clear that the very terminology here so perfectly fits the early Christian milieu it is hard to believe that we don't already know why the text was so-called.

Brown does acknowledge the applicability of the core meaning of mystikon - viz. 'of' or 'pertaining to the mysteries.' Yet I think it is important to stress that there is an underlying connotation of the terminology which is already used in association with the liturgy - i.e. that mystikon is applied to situations where meaning is held back and reserved for subsequent instruction.

Let's use the Divine Liturgy of the Greek Orthodox tradition which ultimately developed from John Chrysostom. It is here we see the same terminology appears in the communion prayers which are silently recited by those prepared to receive the holy Mysteries after the priest has prepared the bread and water. We are told the people sing:

I believe and confess, Lord, that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. I also believe that this is truly Your pure Body and that this is truly Your precious Blood. Therefore, I pray to You, have mercy upon me, and forgive my transgressions, voluntary and involuntary, in word and deed, known and unknown. And make me worthy without condemnation to partake of Your pure Mysteries for the forgiveness of sins and for life eternal. Amen.

How shall I, who am unworthy, enter into the splendor of Your saints? If I dare to enter into the bridal chamber, my clothing will accuse me, since it is not a wedding garment; and being bound up, I shall be cast out by the angels. In Your love, Lord, cleanse my soul and save me.

Loving Master, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, let not these holy Gifts be to my condemnation because of my unworthiness, but for the cleansing and sanctification of soul and body and the pledge of the future life and kingdom. It is good for me to cling to God and to place in Him the hope of my salvation.

Receive me today, Son of God, as a partaker of Your mystic Supper [Τοῦ δείπνου σου τοῦ μυστικοῦ, σήμερον Υἱὲ Θεοῦ κοινωνόν με παράλαβε] I will not reveal Your mystery to Your adversaries. Nor will I give You a kiss as did Judas. But as the thief I confess to You: Lord, remember me in Your kingdom.

Again what is am suggesting here is that we can use the Divine Liturgy and the sources it depended on to determine the original meaning of the term τὸ μυστικὸν εὐαγγέλιον to mean something more than a 'gospel with concealed meanings' but rather a gospel whose meanings were intentionally held back and reserved for subsequent instruction.  

This concept of the Eucharist as τοῦ Μυστικοῦ Δείπνου is critical to understand the ritual context of the reading of the Alexandrian gospel of Mark.  We agree with Brown against Smith that the Egyptian Church should be understood to be physically hiding the text, but rather - in the very example of the 'mystic supper' presenting something intentionally ambiguous and reserving the explanation of these cryptic passages to oral instruction administered by an approved teacher.

I think the proper parallel is to be found in Chrysostom's explanation of the 'mystic supper' in his Homilies.  The final meal that Jesus shared with his disciples is itself a close parallel for τὸ μυστικὸν εὐαγγέλιον.  As Chrysostom notes:

He that hath partaken of a bodily meal, it would seem, has thought it an indignity after receiving material food, to come to the hearing of the divine oracles. But not rightly do they think thus. For if this were improper, Christ would not have gone through His large and long discourses after that mystic supper; and if this had been unsuitable, He would not, when He had fed the multitude in the desert, have communicated His discourses to them after that meal. For (if one must say something startling on this point), the hearing of the divine oracles at that time is especially profitable. [On the Statues 9]

Therefore also the Jews, whilst they were in bondage to work in clay and the brick-making, when they saw Moses come to them, were not able to give heed to his words, by reason of their failure of spirit, and their affliction. And what marvel is it that faint-hearted men have felt this, when we find that the Disciples also fell into the same infirmity. For after that mystic Supper, when Christ took them apart and discoursed with them, the disciples at first asked Him more than once, "Whither goest Thou?" But when He had told them what evils they should in a little while afterwards encounter, the wars, and the persecutions, and the universal enmity, the stripes, the prisons, the tribunals, the appearance before magistrates; then, their souls oppressed as by a heavy burthen with the dread of the things He had spoken, and with the sadness of these approaching events, remained henceforth in a state of stupor. Christ, therefore, perceiving their consternation, reproved it by saying, "I go to My Father, and no one among you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your hearts." For this reason also we were silent for some time past, awaiting the present opportunity. [ibid 11]

The point I am trying make of course is that Jesus last meal with his disciples is immediately followed by deeper instruction in the same way as the original gospel of Alexandria 'held back' on the full revelation of its deeper truths - viz. they are 'mystic' not only in the fact that they conceal something greater but that this truth is revealed immediately following the manifestation of the barest kernel (i.e. the 'outer shell' of mere symbolism).

Indeed we can take this one step further. The description of how Mark wrote τὸ μυστικὸν εὐαγγέλιον in to Theodore so perfectly fits - not only what Chrysostom says about τοῦ Μυστικοῦ Δείπνου - but with Irenaeus's report about a similar tendency among heretics to hold that some knowledge lay 'beyond the written word of the gospel' which was transmitted viva voce. Let's look at the passage in to Thedoore again. Clement says that:

he yet did not divulge the things not to be uttered, nor did he write down the hierophantic teaching of the Lord, but to the stories already written he added yet others and, moreover, brought in certain sayings of which he knew the interpretation would, as a mystagogue, lead the hearers into the innermost sanctuary of that truth hidden by seven veils.

Again, what is being said here is that is something held back from literal meaning which appears on the page. I would argue that the only reason Clement makes reference to 'something more' not being revealed explicitly in the Alexandrian gospel is because it is explained later by 'living voice' as Irenaeus reports in his near contemporary testimony in Against Heresies Book Three:

When, however, they are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn round and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition. For [they allege] that the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but viva voce: wherefore also Paul declared, "But we speak wisdom among those that are perfect, but not the wisdom of this world." [AH 3.2.1]

Already Robert McQueen Grant sees the underlying connection between the passage in Irenaeus and the Letter to Theodore. The only point I want to make is that no one yet has fully understood the interrelationship between the term 'mystikon' in to Theodore and Irenaeus's critique cited here.

The 'mystic gospel' is so called by Clement because there is something more which was held back by Mark which was to be expounded by the Alexandrian presbyters to the catechumen. The very same idea is referenced in Chyrostom's use of 'mystic supper' - i.e. the meal followed by a spiritual discourse. Irenaeus attacks the heretics for this very understanding but scholars simply assume he is talking about our canonical gospels.  This is now proven wrong by to Theodore.  Irenaeus is making specific reference to heretical gospels which were deliberately constructed in this ambiguous manner - i.e. presenting obscure narratives like the resurrection of the rich youth - if only to allow the instructors in Alexandria to 'follow up' with fuller discourses.

Irenaeus is not saying that the heretics share the same gospels with the orthodox but rather they have constructed a false gospel which 'leaves out' explicit reference to the most sacred truths and which are supposed to revealed only by 'living voice.' For Irenaeus's gospels there is no 'sacred meaning' held back. What you see is what you get.  At ever turn he denies that the 'true gospel' of the Catholic tradition have any esoteric truths beyond the literal meaning of the text.  His radical new understanding of the gospel was sharply at odds with Clement, Origen and the Alexandrian tradition and perhaps deliberately so.

Why I Am So Interested in the Mar Saba Letter

I am still waiting for a number of digital scans of handwriting samples from seventeenth and eighteenth century manuscripts which I hope will finally solve this long-standing 'mystery.' I hope to get them by the beginning of next week.  So until then I am forced to fill in some time speaking frankly about my seeming 'obsession' with this text.

Almost everyone in the 'Secret Mark' debate has had some motive for adopting their position. You know, there's the 'religious zealot position' (= most of the hoaxers), the 'atheist typology' (which interesting breaks down both in favor and against the discovery apparently) etc. Yet none of this describes me.

My interest in the text was rooted in a quest to find something which shed some light on the early Alexandrian Christian tradition.  I have always sought to demonstrate that Clement and Origen weren't just anomalies in early Christianity.  They both represent links to an enlightened past.  Yet a love of Alexandrian Christianity does not necessarily translate to an acceptance of the authenticity of the Mar Saba document.  One need look no further than Birger Pearson - a man whose dedication to the same lines of inquiry - takes the exact opposition position.

How then can my interest be explained?

I suppose the conspiracy-minded might attribute my interest to my having come into the world from a Jewish womb. You know - we Jews 'have it in' for Christianity or something like that.  But I don't accept that at all.  Alexandrian Christianity is one part Moses, one part Plato.  It developed from Philo Judaeus for God's sake.  There is more than enough love here to go around.  But I've heard these 'Jewish conspiracy' whispers and Secret Mark before on internet chat boards.

Being Jewish doesn't make one a hater of Christianity any more than being Christian predisposes oneself to hate Judaism. So what's the story with my interest in this document. My friend Harry from Athens asks me this question all the time. Even my mother can't understand why I would 'waste' my time blogging about some obscure text from a monastery when I could devote my time telling the world about our family and our blood relation to Karl Marx, the Marx brothers and Jacob Frank.

I think at bottom the document embodies all that's wrong about the humanities and scholarship into early Christianity in particular. We chose to go down a road because its the road that our ancestors trod. However, when you take that journey back through the period back to the fourth century, the collective testimony of our ancestors isn't worth much as they were utterly ignorant peasants for the most part.

We are basically left with an organized religious body telling very stupid people what to think and what to believe.

Now I have to make clear that I am not one of these people that buys into a great Imperial conspiracy at the time of Constantine, but clearly there was Imperial involvement in the development of Christianity from the last generation of the second century to the time the faith attained favored status. While I do not believe that Constantine 'invented' the four gospels, I do not believe the similarities and differences between the four gospels came about naturally or 'supernaturally.' The synoptic gospels were all forgeries of a lost original text which had something to do with the heretical faith known as 'Marcionitism.'

I also believe that the Gospel of John was deliberately developed into something wholly different than the other three. In other words, there was a time when the Gospel of John associated with Polycarp was a synoptic text with a lot of added material. Now almost all that is left is the added material.

To this end, Clement's testimony about a 'mystic gospel' in Alexandria written by someone named Mark is the key to unlock the original Christian culture in Egypt. I think the name Μαρκίων is just a preservation of the core difference between this Alexandrian faith and its Roman cousin - the Alexandrian culture understood Jesus to have adopted his beloved disciple Mark (also called John) as his son.  Μαρκίων is, as we have demonstrated the Greek diminutive form of the Roman name Mark.

I have sought to prove that the early Alexandrian Church actually called its patron saint by the diminutive form of his name.  I think there is more than enough evidence to demonstrate that they identified him as the youth in the gospel of Mark (i.e. Mark 14:52) since the earliest recorded testimonies of the tradition (= the Acts of Peter of Alexandria).  But I think we can actually take that one step further.

The evangelist was also the youth of the Secret Mark fragment in to Theodore.  His initiation into the kingship of God was at once his adoption as God's son.  This 'mystic act' wasn't just some 'curiosity' that develops in an otherwise unconnected gospel narrative discovered in an obscure book in the Mar Saba monastery.   They were viewed as a secret, historical event that grounded the very episcopal line of the Alexandrian Church.

How do we know that such a ritual existed outside of the Mar Saba document? We know this from Athanasius's Historia Arianorum where we are told that one of the last true Patriarchs of St. Mark in Alexandria (Athanasius and his predecessor Alexander were little more than handpicked dupes of Constantine) was linked to an associate with mystical language derived from the same chapter of the Gospel of Mark as the material just referenced from the Letter to Theodore.

Athanasius writes that the Patriarch George "finding one Epictetus a novice, a bold young man, he loved him perceiving that he was ready for wickedness." As Philip Schaff notes the Greek for the 'he loved him' reference is ᾽Επικτητόν τινα…νεώτερον…ἠγάπησεν, ὁρῶν ... It derives from the Question of the Rich Youth in the Gospel of Mark "νεανίσκος, ῾Ο δὲ ᾽Ιησοῦς ἐμβλέψας αὐτῷ, ἠγάπησεν αὐτόν." (Mark 10. 21). This cannot be coincidence. Athanasius is mocking the ritualized veneration of Jesus and St. Mark as teacher and student in the tradition Alexandrian (= Arian) understanding.

Let's not forget that the Arians (= the native Egyptian Church) had control of the martyrium of St. Mark from before the time of Arius and never let go until the end of the fourth century. They are accused by their Orthodox opponents of being Origenists, Jew-sympathizers - indeed all the attributes that distinguished the earliest Christian representatives of Alexandria. Yet the thing about some sort of mystic rite developed from the Gospel of Mark chapter 10 is too much of a coincidence for me to ignore. The same idea manifests itself in the writings of Clement, Origen and various Origenists (cf. Jerome) - these people understood Jesus to have initiated a beloved youth and this mystic rite in turn established the Alexandrian Church.

And isn't this, my friends, exactly what the Letter to Theodore is telling us? Why then should be bothered by the fact that various religious bigots 'suspect' that something is wrong with the discovery? They fail to produce any shred of evidence that it was forged and instead go back to endless gossip, innuendo and 'suspicion' as their sole debate tactics. I don't see any reason why Morton Smith ever took an interest in the Alexandrian Church or its patron saint Mark. Why then did he forge a text which fits so perfectly with the scraps of evidence available to us from Patristic sources regarding the beliefs and practices of this obscure tradition?

I just don't buy it. One would have expected a man who made his career developing the connection between 'tannaitic parallels' to the gospels to have forged something related to the Ebionites or some other Jewish Christian sect. But a text which makes reference to St. Mark in a Palestinian monastery written into a seventeenth century book devoted to Ignatius and Barnabas? Come on, now. Absolutely none of this can be connected to Morton Smith and his theological interests before or after the discovery at Mar Saba.

Anyone who tries to make up some argument to square this circle is just engaging in deceit. If we were to call in the FBI and tell that we are looking to find a profile for the responsible for creating this text we'd be told the candidate was likely an early Christian living in Alexandria seeking to explain a tradition which actually forbid its members from explaining itself to outsiders.

In short, we'd learn that the only possible author of the text was Clement of Alexandria himself.

Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law

I am very frustrated with the roadblocks that have been placed in my research into possible candidates for the authorship of Mar Saba 65. I mean, I realize that things don't work in Greece the way they do in the rest of the world. That is part of this country's amazing charm - a living link to antiquity. However, I simply want to investigate all the possibilities with respect to who might have penned this amazing document.

The bottom line for me is that despite all the difficulties that Agamemnon Tselikas has demonstrated exist with this document, the Jerusalem Patriarchate must think that the Voss edition is theirs. After all, they wouldn't let Quinton Quesnell test the book or the manuscript when he had them in his possession in June, 1983. They apparently also won't let us carry out any scientific investigations into what remains of the book today.

Who ever heard of such a thing? This is the most obvious sign that the book does indeed belong to the Patriarchate. If I picked up a woman hitchhiking on the street and she left her purse in my car and the police stopped me a couple of days later and asked if they could examine this as evidence - who in their right mind would claim the purse now belongs to them and refuse to part with it?

It's all so stupid and utterly obvious that the monastery must accept on some level that the Voss edition really belonged to them. It's not like anyone living today ever remembers where most of the books in their libraries ever came from originally. Amazon.com didn't exist back then.

I wonder whether anyone has ever done a check of the catalogues of the other libraries in the Jerusalem Patriarchate to see if the book was ever listed there. All the arguments are utterly worthless in favor of 'proving' anything with respect to a foreign provenance.

For instance, with respect to the question of why someone would write to Theodore into this particular book, it has been said that the Voss book makes no sense given that the text just deals with the writings of Ignatius. Yet the reality is that the Epistle of Barnabas is also included and Barnabas is universally understood to have written from Alexandria. If the book originated in some other library under the control of the Jerusalem Patriarchate (i.e. St. Catherines, Holy Cross etc) where no other edition of Clement of Alexandria's writing was present, it might have been only natural to use this as the place to inscribe the Letter to Theodore.

The point is that we are not omniscient. Life is full of surprises and that what makes being alive so interesting. To delude oneself into thinking that because there are 'a curious set of circumstances' associated with this document, it must be a fake is denying the overarching mysterious and intriguing qualities that make waking up each day in this world so utterly worthwhile and enjoyable.

I don't have all the answers with respect to how the Letter to Theodore ended up being written into the 1646 Voss Ignatius book. There are a number of possible candidates for its authorship - many of which haven't even been determined because scholars remained locked in a meaningless debate with respect to Morton Smith.

Its been over fifty years since Smith found the text and nothing compelling has been discovered to identify him as the author of the text. The possibility will always be out there as long as we fail to look at other candidates and maybe that's why so many of the people who promote the hoax hypothesis do so very little to carry any serious investigating into other possibilities.

Morton Smith is a convenient scapegoat to avoid the implications of the document.

The ἐκκλησίᾳ of Alexandria as Mystical Symbol of Heavenly Ascent

While I wait for responses to a number of emails that I have sent out with respect to handwriting comparisons of the Mar Saba document and other seventeenth and eighteenth century witnesses, I thought I might revisit the whole question of the 'church of Alexandria' associated with Mark.

As I noted earlier the term ἐκκλησία originally meant an assembly of people not a physical building. As such when Clement writes in to Theodore that Mark:

left his composition to the church in Alexandria (τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τῇ ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ), where it even yet is most carefully guarded, being read only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries.

The closest we ever get to the particular phrase 'the church in Alexandria' in the early Patristic writings are two references in Athanasius's Contra Arianos to "the Holy Church of God abiding at Alexandria" (τῇ ἁγίᾳ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ τῇ ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ 37, 84). Given that there were many buildings in Alexandria at the time of Athanasius, we should surmise that Clement was not referring to a building at all but the gathering of Christians which happened to take place in a single location at this time - i.e. at the site of what is now called the 'martyrium of St. Mark' in the Boucalia in the eastern shores of Alexandria just beyond the city walls.

This gathering clearly took place in a tent structure as we see from Clement's statement in Stromata Book Five:

Now concealment is evinced in the reference of the seven circuits around the tabernacle, which are made mention of among the Hebrews; and the equipment on the robe, indicating by the various symbols, which had reference to visible objects, the agreement which from heaven reaches down to earth. And the covering and the veil were variegated with blue, and purple, and scarlet, and linen. And so it was suggested that the nature of the elements contained the revelation of God. For purple is from water, linen from the earth; blue, being dark, is like the air, as scarlet is like fire.

As I have noted before the description of the place the ἐκκλησίᾳ gathered in to Theodore so closely resembles the description of the tabernacle of the ancient Israelites that I accept the idea that the Alexandrians did not actually come together in a physical building per se. The symbolism of an Egyptian ἐκκλησίᾳ gathering in a replica tabernacle is obvious no less than their apparent interest in another baptism called 'the redemption.' The idea was clearly that the experience of the ancient Israelites was 'typical' of what was to come to fulfillment at the time of the messiah - i.e. a heavenly ascent.

Most reconstructions of the Israelite tabernacle are so bad it is utterly embarrassing. I actually have vivid memories of my visit to the exhibit at the Holy Land Experience (an amusement park in Orlando). What the goyim always get wrong is that they concentrate their attemption on the inner sanctum too much. They ignore the explicit evidence that the whole structure - i.e. not just the furniture and objects at the heart of the tabernacle - was understood to represent the cosmos.

To this end we can be absolutely certain that Clement and his Alexandrian community gathered in a tent structure that had an inner adyton surrounded by seven outer circuits. The so-called 'Ophite diagram' was clearly related to the physicality of both the contemporary Alexandrian and ancient Israelite tabernacle. There should also be no doubt that the ancient Israelite structure was further divided into twelve 'zones' related to the twelve tribes. To this end when you start looking at the developing image that comes before us, both modern and ancient ἐκκλησίᾳ in Egypt took on the shape of a zodiac.

It is well established of course that the twelve tribes are related to the twelve signs of the zodiac. Just take a second look at the four living creatures that surround the heavenly throne in the vision of Isaiah, Ezekiel or the Book of Revelation. The animals clearly represent the four cardinal points in the astrological circle:

The point of course is that there is no good reason to understand that the Alexandrian followers of Mark took a deep interest in the numerological significance of the number 360 for the very same reason - i.e. the year itself was divided into twelve months of thirty days (cf. Irenaeus AH 2.24 etc.).

What I want to explain to my readers again is that when we speak of 'the mysteries of the Alexandrian Church' it is impossible not to see that they developed around the physical structure that the ἐκκλησίᾳ originally gathered in - viz. a massive replica of the cosmos - and where the purpose of initiation was to liberate oneself from being stuck in the 'outer perimeter' i.e. pass through the seven circuits to the inner sanctum.

The same symbolism is still depicted on the throne of St. Mark which was ultimately taken to Venice in the ninth century CE.

Can't Someone Just Tell Me Whether the Library at Zagoras Now Has a 1646 or 1680 Edition of Voss's Epistolae Genuinae S. Ignatii Martyris?

I am a very patient person. But one thing that I have little toleration for is out and out stupidity. Such stupidity was recently demonstrated to me by the Library of Zagoras when I have repeatedly asked them to determine whether the Voss Ignatius book they have in their possession is the 1646 edition that was published in Amsterdam or the 1680 edition that was published in London.

I had been getting on quite well with the librarian up until now. But apparently she recently consulted with a famous leading authority on paleography who happens to think that Morton Smith forged the Mar Saba document and now she refuses to answer any of my questions about the book.

Let's remember that the records of the library itself say that John Priggos sent the library a 1646 edition of the book, while the noted expert in paleography has emphasized that these records are inaccurate and that we should judge what was sent by Priggos's shipping logs which note that book was the 1680 edition from London. The fact that the paleographer makes such a big deal about this list of 253 books out of a total of 2153 books sent in total is also part of my frustration.

I do not understand how someone can argue that the records at the library at Mar Saba were infallible but then turn around that very similar records at Zagoras should be ignored. Yet it is these kind of arguments that make me take issue with the expert's published conclusions about the Mar Saba document.

Is forgery the only possibility to explain the great number of insightful observations that he has provided about the manuscript? I don't think so. But if these people revert to stonewalling investigations into the truth merely because the person doing so is an 'outsider' (= a non-Greek) we will never make any headway with the problem.

I think John Priggos is one of a number of candidates who should be considered as viable candidates for being the author of the Mar Saba document. I am trying to investigate another possibility right now - a seventeenth century Patriarch of Jerusalem - but I don't think that I will receive any assistance from any of the Greeks I have been in contact with so far. Apparently my status as a ξένος does me in.

One can see quite palpably that this is also what did Morton Smith in. Just look at the interview that Charlie Hedrick conducted with this man. Smith is identified as everything from a charlatan to a spy for the British government. Why? Because he was a ξένος. Now I will have to send a Greek friend to Zagoras to ask the simple question - is the Voss book in their possession a 1646 or 1680 edition.

This is unscientific in the highest degree but it is perfectly understandable when you look at the history of this people. They simply don't trust ξένοι and always cheer for the 'home team.'

What's Different About the Mar Saba Handwriting

I have gone through several hundred manuscripts at the Library of Zagora from the seventeenth century and I can't help notice that there is something different about the handwriting. This doesn't mean that I have changed my mind about authenticity. It just means that I am an honest person and I have decided to share an honest observation with my readership.

Mar Saba 65 is, as Morton Smith, notes in his 1973 book "remarkably cursive [and] as the manuscript progresses the cursive character of the hand becomes more marked." I had a recent exchange with one of my favorite scholars in the blogosphere - Andrew Criddle - at the Freethought and Rationalism Discussion Board and he actually summed up my general impression of the Priggos manuscript better than I have done hitherto. He noted:

the text by John Priggos (pictured above) seems to resemble the Mar Saba letter more in terms of some of its letter shapes than in its general impression. The Priggos letter seems to be a rapid confident example of a crude cursive. There is not a sense IMVHO (in my very humble opinion) that the author is trying to write in a script that does not come easily to him.

But this is precisely my point. I don't think I explained myself well to Agamemnon Tselikas when I referenced the handwriting sample.

Tselikas has repeatedly noted that the handwriting sample looks genuinely seventeenth or eighteenth century. He just can't believe that an educated Greek (= a monk) would make the kind of mistakes that the author does with the Greek language and basic things like the nomen sacrum as Tselikas notes in his BAR report:

Κυρίου. The abbreviation of the word normally consists of the letters κυ and not κου. see v. 16, 46. Also the scribe would normally abbreviate the words θεού as θ(εο)ῦ in v. 41, Ἰησοῦν, Ἰησοῦς as Ἰ(ησοῦ)ν, Ἰ(ησοῦ)ς v. 52 and 54 and Δαβὶδ as Δα(βί)δ v. 52.

He also notes that the scribe's knowledge of Greek seems to be spotty. In my mind when we take Criddle's observation about the handwriting coupled with Tselikas's statements I think Priggos seems to be a perfect candidate.

John Priggos began life without any formal education but later completing his studies after making his fortune as a merchant. As Lianaritakes notes in his 1996 dissertation, Priggos ended up getting educated later in life in the very system which produced and used these Byzantine manuscripts, only his knowledge would have necessarily have had some 'blind spots':

Το 1725 περίπου στή συνοικία τής 'Αγίας Παρασκευής Ζαγοράς γεννήθηκε ό μετέπειτα διακεκριμένος Θεσσαλός ευεργέτης 'Ιωάννης Πρίγκος. Το 1740, μετά άπο δώδεκα περίπου χρόνια άπο τότε πού έφυγε ό Καλλίνικος γιά σπουδές στην Κων/πολη, ό δεκαπεντάχρονος πλέον Πρίγκος, δίχως νά £χει πάει καθόλου στο σχολείο, αναγκάζεται νά ξενιτευτεί, εξαιτίας τής φτώχειας και τής όρφάνειας, ελπίζοντας σε καλύτερες ήμερες.

Άσχολούμένος με το εμπόριο, το σπουδαιότερο παράγοντα δημιουργίας νέων μεγάλων ελληνικών παροικιών1, παρέμεινε δυο χρόνια στην 'Αλεξάνδρεια, εννέα στη Βενετία, τέσσερα στη Σμύρνη καΐ το 1755 κατέληξε στο "Αμστερνταμ της 'Ολλανδίας. 'Εκεί έζησε περίπου εϋκοσι χρόνια "περιέβαλε με στοργή κάθε "Ελληνα πάροικο" καΐ τελικά ξαναγύρισε, οριστικά πλέον, πάμπλουτος στην πατρίδα του τη Ζαγορά το 1776, σε ηλικία πενήντα ενός χρόνων. Στο διάστημα αυτό της απουσίας του και άπο πόθο νά μάθει γράμματα κατάφερε νά αύτομορφωθεϊ. "Εμαθε νά διαβάζει, νά γράφει, καθώς επίσης νά μιλά καΐ ξένες γλώσσες.

"Ανθρωπος μέ μεγάλη πίστη στο Θεό και πολλή αγάπη στή δουλωμένη πατρίδα του καΐ τους νέους, θέλοντας νά φανεί ωφέλιμος στον τόπο πού γεννήθηκε, άρχισε άπο τήν 'Ολλανδία νά στέλνει βιβλία γιά το σχολείο της Ζαγοράς, πού λειτουργούσε οταν έφυγε, μέ παραλήπτη τον εφημέριο τού ναού της 'Αγίας Κυριακής π. Νικηφόρο Καραγιάννογλου.

συνθηκών, μέχρι τΙς 8 Σεπτεμβρίου 1765 εξακολουθούν νά είναι μέσα στά κιβώτια. Το σχολείο είχε κλείσει λόγω έλλειψης τών πόρων και δέν υπήρχε κανείς νά ξέρει νά τά διαβάσει."Εχοντας σπουδάσει ό ί'διος ό Καλλίνικος στην Πόλη, ερχόμενος σέ γνωριμία μέ τόσους αξιόλογους δασκάλους, άλλα και κάνοντας τόσα όνειρα τήν περίοδο τής πατριαρχίας του γιά τήν παιδεία, επισήμανε αμέσως, μέ τήν επιστροφή του το 1762 στή Ζαγορά, τήν έλλειψη τών σχολείων. Γι' αυτό προετοιμάζει τό έδαφος γιά τήν επαναλειτουργία τους. 'Αποστολές βιβλίων άπο τήν 'Ολλανδία έχουμε στις 6 'Απριλίου, στις 10 'Ιουνίου καΐ στίς 16 'Ιουνίου του 1762. Σύνολο βιβλίων 2163. Τά βιβλία του Πρίγκου πού έφθασαν στή Ζαγορά, εξαιτίας της ολιγωρίας, της αμάθειας των ζαγοριανών, άλλα καΐ τών ανωμάλων

John Priggos was born in 1725 nearly near the Church of Holy Friday in Zagora and later became its distinguished benefactor. He left in 1740, just as the future Patriarch Callinicos began to study in Constantinople. Priggos was now fifteen and without the money to develop his education, he was ultimately forced to migrate because of poverty and opportunity, hoping for better days.

He became involved in the mercantile trade, a business which established a class of rich Greeks. Priggos stayed two years in 'Alexandria, nine in Venice, four in Izmir and in 1755 came to Amsterdam. There lived about twenty years surrounded with a friendly community of Greeks and eventually came back to Zagora a wealthy man in 1776 at the age of fifty. During this period of absence he learned to write and educate himself. As Scouravas notes "he [Priggos] learned to read, write and also speak and foreign languages. A man of great faith in God and love to his enslaved homeland, he wanted to shower gifts on his birthplace and started in Amsterdam to send books to the school of Zagora, which was already functioning when he left. The books were sent to vicar of the Church of the 'Αγίας Κυριακής π. Νικηφόρο Καραγιάννογλου but they remained in boxes until September 8, 1765."

The school had been closed due to lack of money and the reality was that there was no one must know how to read. Having became acquainted again with Callinicus, who knew a great number of teachers and the school was ultimately reestablished. While in the Netherlands he shipped 2163 books in total between the 6th of April and the 16th of June 1762.

The point is that one of the books that was sent by Priggos and received by the Library of Zagoras was a 1646 edition of Voss from Amsterdam. I don't know how and why Priggos would have copied the letter to Theodore into the book but at the very least we can connect this sender of a 1646 edition of Voss to a cursive handwriting.

The bottom line is that Priggos would necessarily have been educated by someone associated with the Greek Orthodox church. The priest in the Greek communities scattered around the world acted as the teacher of the people, so the influence of the writing of the church was inevitable upon those being instructed.

Once Priggos became a wealthy man, he sends money and books to his native town to help establish a world class education system. This was a common practice at that time but the schools remained under the protection of church in Greece, due to the Turkish occupation and general political situation.

Lianaritakes makes clear that his self education, apparently started from his trying to read all the books he was familiar with, or he was close to. These books were certainly church books mostly written in the traditional Byzantine script. After he learned how to read adequately started to drawing the letters copying the books he read, many of which were written in the writing style of those same religious books. As such we should have no doubt that Priggos had two styles of writing - one used in commerce and that he was at least capable of reading and writing in the ligatures of the church writings that he was instructed from.

It would seem at least that his handwriting should be expected to be like the books he was reading.

It is worth noting that Criddle isn't alone in noting that there was something different about the writing in Mar Saba 65. Smith and many others noted the influence of western European greek printed typography over the writing. This would again make sense if the scribe was Priggos and he learned to write with the aid of printed books.

I Wonder if Agamemnon Tselikas Could Get the Jerusalem Patriarchate to Test the Ignatius Book Discovered By Morton Smith Using the Hi-Tech Procedure He Helped Pioneer

I happened to hear that Agememnon Tselikas was one of the authors of a study which uses infrared light to determine the age of medieval manuscripts. Agamemnon Tselikas of course is the most important Greek paleographer there is.  Tselikas was hired by Biblical Archaeological Review recently to examine the evidence that remains of Morton Smith's 1958 discovery at the Mar Saba monastery.  Smith discovered a hitherto unknown letter of the Church Father Clement of Alexandria which challenged the accepted understanding of how the New Testament canon was formed.  The discovery has remained controversial ever since and the writing can no longer be scientifically examined to determine authenticity because the manuscript has disappeared.

I have been corresponding with Tselikas long before the Biblical Archaeology Review piece came out.  Any subject that I have decided to investigate that happens to have anything to do with medieval Greek manuscripts, Tselikas inevitably ends up being the man to speak with.  Now it turns out his pioneering research that might help determine whether the document is authentic.

The methodology is outlined in the International Journal of Computer Vision Volume 94, Number 1, 136-151 where it is noted that the:

viewing of artifacts under near infrared radiation is widely adopted in the visual examination of works of art, as it provides further information on invisible inks or pigments due to fading or cover of more recent layers of paint. Reflectographical studies on the optical behaviors of inks under visible and near infrared radiation have shown that inks that have very similar photometric properties under visible light can be separated when viewed under infrared radiation (Alexopoulou and Kokla 1999). The differentiation in near infrared is mainly due to the different chemical composition of the inks and can be represented using histograms or mixture of Gaussian function.

The basic idea I guess is that if the composition of the ink is pretty primitive as was the case in the medieval period, we can pretty much determine the date of most manuscripts up to the sixteenth century. But I wonder if - let's say - the Mar Saba document was written at the earliest possible date (i.e. in the late seventeenth century) I wonder if ink manufacturing was still primitive enough that we could use the test which is designed for sixteenth century manuscripts in less isolated parts of the world (i.e. mainland Greece).

After all, Tselikas has mentioned that he discovered some writing on p. 11 of the Voss Ignatius book. If the ink was manufactured only recently, the test presumably won't work. Yet in the event the ink was indeed from the earliest possible period, perhaps the examination would be able to determine a date.  Sounds like its worth giving it a try to me at least ...

Tselikas's Response to My Theory About the Zagoras Connection with Mar Saba 65

Another day, another twist in our investigation into the Mar Saba document.  We have been going through the manuscripts at the library of Zagoras in Greece following a lead originally developed by Morton Smith with respect to the origins of his mysterious manuscript.  We noticed the similarity between the the very cursive script associated with one of John Priggo's scribes and Mar Saba 65. I just asked noted paleographer Agamemnon Tselikas whether he thought this handwriting associated with John Priggos has any relationship with the text discovered in the Palestinian monastery. Here was his response through a friend:

Sorry to say that Memos (= Tselikas) does not agree that there is any resemblace between the Mar Saba manuscript and Prigos writing.


I am attaching two separate attachments: the Mar Saba manuscript and Prigos handwriting Memos says that it is certainly not the handwriting of the same person.


I am also attaching two pages from the Zagora Library catalogue with books sent by Prigos to Zagora: It is mentioned that one edition is London 1680 and another Geneva 1623, the book in Jerusalem Library is of Dutch edition of 1646.


So your assumption is that Prigos --who was a man of God and of a limited education--- copied a manuscript of doubtfull authenticity in another Ignatios edition that was sent to Mar Saba but was NOT listed in the catalogue of books sent by Prigos to Zagora. This is a most labyrinthal and highly improbable scenario.

His point about the handwriting is well taken.  After all he is an unparalleled expert in contemporary manuscripts.  Nevertheless, we have to consider for a moment that the 1646 is listed as being received by the library in its records:

Tselikas points to other Ignatius books being included in the list but not the 1646 edition.  Nevertheless it is well known that Priggos actually established not only the Library of Zagoras  (Βιβλιοθήκη τής Ζαγοράς) at this time, but also the great school at Zagoras (το Έλληνομουσεϊο στή Ζαγορά), a lower so-called 'school of common letters' (το Σχολείο τών κοινών γραμμάτων) and another library in a neigboring Magnesian city.  Priggos's friend the Patriarch Callinicus III (IV) organized where the books went and the selection of teachers.

Even Tselikas would have to admit that (a) the list is only a partial acknowledgement of the books that Priggos sent and (b) there were more than one copy of Ignatius being sent in this shipment.  The reason more than one collection of Ignatius was being sent in this shipment is because there was more than one place the books were actually being distributed.

I have counted all the book on the list and the number comes to exactly 253.  Here is a page by page breakdown of the shipment:

p. 1 = 20 books
3 = 7 books
4 = 14 books
6 = 15 books
8 = 23 books
9 = 2 books
12 = 18 books
13 = 25 books
14 = 5 books
16 = 13 books
18 = 17 books
20 = 8 books
22 = 2 books
24 = 3 books
26 = 7 books
28 = 15 books
30 = 1 book
32 = 17 books
34 = 3 books
36 = 5 books
38 = 4 books
40 = 1 book
42 = 11 books
43 = 17 books = 253 books

Yet Priggos is known to have actually have shipped well over 1000 books in total from Amsterdam.  Is it really that unlikely that Callinicus took the 1646 Voss edition which is recorded as being received by the library and send another Ignatius book elsewhere.

As my friend Harry notes, this is a most perplexing mystery, one which would never have existed if the book was discovered in a German monastery ...

I've Solved the Riddle of Mar Saba Document- John Priggos (Ιωάννης Πρίγκος) Fame Greek Nationalist (and the Guy Who Sent the Voss Edition to Zagoras) Was the Scribe Who Wrote Mar Saba 65

I want to thank Charlie Hedrick and all the unnamed people who kept telling me I was wrong about Callinicus because the handwriting doesn't match exactly. They were all right. It took me a whole day to finally admit that but I didn't give up. I figured there was still too much going for the whole Zagoras connection (i.e. the shipment of books from Amsterdam). So I decided to go through all the books that were in the Zagoras library tonight, one by one - and then I found the match.

It was the guy sending the books - John Priggos. He must have sent a copy of the book to Callinicus or possibly the library with the Letter to Theodore written inside.

In any event just go to http://http://publiclibs.ypepth.gr

Then click on the large orange banner that goes across the screen and then enter some of this information into the search field that comes up in a purple box on the left hand side of screen:

Βιβλιοθήκη: Βιβλιοθήκη Ζαγοράς
Αρ. Εισαγωγής: 132
Τίτλος: [ Ιωάννου Πρίγκου ειδήσεις αφορώσαι εις την Ευρώπη και σημειώσεις ]
Συγγραφέας: [ Πρίγκος, Ιωάννης ]
Εκδότης: [χ.ό.]
Σελίδες: 186
Τύπος υλικού: Βιβλίο/Χειρόγραφο
Τόπος Έκδοσης: [χ.τ.]
Ημ/νία έκδοσης αρχείου: [χ.χ]

I will post the handwriting tomorrow when I get a spare moment but the bottom line actually is that Agamemnon Tselikas's observations weren't all stupid. They were actually all on the money - save for the conclusion that because of the signs that the writer wasn't an educated Greek monk meant the text was a forgery.

John Priggos was a self-made man who was something of a philistine. He could bluff his way in educated circles but he must have still been 'rough around the edges.' In any event, I am calling Agamemnon Tselikas right now to get him to authenticate my discovery.

He's such an honest and sincere man I know I can get him to see that we was at least half right about this. We don't need to find the manuscript any more. I've just proven it's authentic.

Comparison Guide Between Mar Saba 65 and the Callinicus Collection at the Greek Library Website (Folio 2)

Folio 2 = [Καλλίνικου Πατριάρχου τα εν εξορία γραφέντα] 389 - 390 (consistent use of single stroke lambdas), [change of style 413 (bottom) - 417 (top), 420 - 423 (top), 431 - 444 (look at the transition back to the old handwriting style - it's like the metamorphosis of a werewolf), 449 - 460 (notice the signature is different than Smith's book and other places - one part of Callinicus's name is present), 418 (bottom), 484 (Callinicus gets new ink)], 486 (familiar signature), familiar Callinicus stylized tau starts page 478 and 579, [sudden change of style 641 - 660], signature 655, signature 683, [handwriting change 689 - 693], notice use of nomen sacrum in this section, biblion on 704, signature 705, 717 - 718]

The Single and Double Stroke Lambda Question and Callinicus (III) IV

One of the few good things in my life is that I can pick up the phone at any time of the day and ask one of the greatest living scholars to guide me out of the darkness of my own limitations. I asked David Trobisch today whether I should give up on connecting Callinicus III (IV) as the author of Mar Saba 65 merely because most of Callinicus's surviving works demonstrate a preference for double stroke lambdas. He said that one shouldn't solely focus on individual letters. It is the whole picture that counts - i.e. the evidence that points to 'habits of writing' in similar situations etc.

Is the Reason that Mar Saba Contains So Many Single Stroke Lambdas Because the Callinicus Was Copying a Tenth Century Byzantine Exemplar Written in Miniscule?

I have been telling a number of scholars about the similarities between the writing of Callinicus and Mar Saba 65. They agree that Callinicus's handwriting looks quite similar in places to Mar Saba 65 (it changes so much it is difficult to figure out what his 'real' handwriting looks like). Yet many remain stuck on the differences between the frequency of single stroke lambdas in each writer.  Indeed it was Stephen Carlson who first brought up the issue in his Gospel Hoax.

It is there that Carlson notes that:

a major anomaly in the formation of the letters in Theodore when compared with manuscripts written at Mar Saba is the one-stroke “hook” lambda in free variation with a two-stroke lambda. For both forms of the letter, the left leg intersects the right leg near the bottom. These forms are strikingly different from the manuscripts written at Mar Saba, which consistently employ a two-stroke lambda with the left leg intersecting very high up on the right leg. (p. 46)

Now Carlson of course attempted to turn this observation into a proof that Morton Smith was the forger and his arguments have been thoroughly dismissed by those arguing the other side. Most crushing of all is the fact that Agamemnon Tselikas, a man who has more familiarity than anyone alive with the style of writing at Mar Saba, doesn't bring up the one stroke lambda. Nevertheless I can't help noting that as I go through Callinicus's writings there is a consistent preference for two stroke lambdas.

How can we explain that Mar Saba 65 doesn't just prefer one form to the other but rather demonstrates a "free variation" as Carlson puts it of single and double stroke lambdas?

I have been thinking about this all night as it is certainly the most difficult part of reconciling Mar Saba 65 with Callinicus. To be sure, Callinicus uses single stroke lambdas. However there is definitely a preference for the double stroke lambda. What I do notice is that when Callinicus is citing passages from scripture or the Church Fathers - and the writing style as a whole becomes more structured and elegant - the single stroke lambdas are preferred to double stroke lambdas.

Then I went back to Tselikas's reconstruction of how the Letter to Theodore might have come down to Callinicus (or whoever's handwriting is now on the text):

The text under consideration shall be transmitted by a single witness, that is the two leaves in the edition of the works of Ignatius of Antioch which are written by a hand that can be dated without doubt from the late 17th century until the late 18th. According to history about the tradition of the works of Clement of Alexandria no oldest manuscript does not contain the text before this date. The scribe who copied the text at the time mentioned should have a model in miniscule writing certainly dating from the 9th century onwards. For example, the ms No. 414 of the collection of the Holy Sepulchre contains the work of Clement "Who is the saved rich. " The ms dates to the late 17th century, is written in Jerusalem, and seems to be a direct copy of the ms 23 of the collection of the Monastery of the Holy Cross, which dates from the 9th century and in much earlier years was in the monastery of St. Sabba (until to 1857 or 1864). It is worth noting that all the manuscripts of the monastery, except for a few modern and historically lower or some that were forgotten in the cells, as well as some foreign language (Arabic and Russian) moved from the Patriarch Nicodemus the year 1887 and joined the central library of the Patriarchate in Jerusalem.

It could be assumed that the model of the copyist was lost. This assumption is reasonable. But why did not exist in any other manuscript that transmit the Clement’s letter? If this, the only witness, was a parchment leave dated back to early times, eg the 10th, 11th or 12th century would be very reasonable to assume that indeed the model of its scribe is lost.

Now many of my readers might not be aware of what 'miniscule writing' means but it is illustrated by the example on the right side of the image above.  If the reader looks carefully the one stroke lambda of Mar Saba 65 might naturally develop from Callinicus imitating the miniscule text that was in front of him.  I haven't examined whether or not later Greek writers unconsciously imitated the text as they were copying them out, nevertheless I can demonstrate that Callinicus's handwriting inevitably changes when he citing scripture and often the Fathers of the Church.

My point would be that when Callinicus is just writing from his own imagination he - like most contemporary writers preserved at Mar Saba and elsewhere - naturally draws out the lambda with two strokes.  Yet when copying out miniscule forms of letters, he unconsciously imitates their original letter forms.

It is quite easy to demonstrate this with respect to Callinicus's writings with respect to scriptural citations. The point here that everyone seems to forget with respect to the handwriting of Mar Saba is that the author is transcribing an ancient text.  It should not be surprising that at least of his natural writing habits change when carrying out such a function.  I wonder whether such a tendency to unconsciously imitate the text you're copying has been demonstrated in the literature ...

Comparison Guide Between Mar Saba 65 and the Callinicus Collection at the Greek Library Website (Folio 1)

"You can not step twice into the same river” (Heraclitus, Cratylus 402a = DK22A6)

On my day off I plan to make scans of the images which I think help decide if Callinicus III (IV) is the author of Mar Saba 65.  The texts to look at include (all page numbers reference the websites pagination rather than the books themselves; emboldened sections are especially interesting):

Folio 1 = Καλλινίκου πατριάρχου Έργα και αντίγραφα. Αρχικώς ο κώδιξ ήτο Φρασάριον] p. 31 (right hand side), 34, 104, [look at the change of handwriting style 243, 247 - 248, 252 - 253, 265 (top)], 267 - 280 (compare some of the single stroke lambdas in this section and the care shown throughout), 283 - 284 (single and double stroke lambdas), 288 - 292, 297, 302 (single stroke lambda), [change of style 344 (top), 353], 354, [change of style 359 (top)], 360 (bottom) - 361 (single stroke lambdas), [change of style 365 - 367 (top), 371, 380 (top), 398, 401 notice the use of two dots at the end of the sentence cf. Mar Saba 65, 403 - 404] 405 (top) - 408 (top), 416, 417 - 422 (top), 424 -425, 454 (two dots), 462, 463 - 465, [change of style 468], 469 - 470, 471, 472.  I am starting to think that the ink was different in the Mar Saba letter than the Zagora letters.  My reasoning has something to do with the lambdas and the kind of writing that most of the tome represents.  The last few letters in this collection are particularly significant.

Look at the Amazing Transition of Writing Styles on Page 343 of File Number Επιστολαί τινες προς φίλους Καλλινίκου πατριάρχου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως at http://publiclibs.ypepth.gr

It's incredible - either he's schizophrenic or he has scribes working with with him at different times.  I don't see how one person could be responsible for three different handwriting styles on a single page!  And the handwriting in the book as a whole has countless different styles and variations.  It's utterly amazing but certainly the person who was writing from 299 - 343 in the folder Επιστολαί τινες προς φίλους Καλλινίκου πατριάρχου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως is the author of Mar Saba 65.  I will bet anything on it ...

Also in the same folder Επιστολαί τινες προς φίλους Καλλινίκου πατριάρχου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως the same author wrote from p. 3 - 8 it starts to become strange again for the next few pages (I am not sure if it is the same author - look at the lambdas in particular).  Then at p. 10 we're back to the handwriting of Mar Saba 65 until the end of p. 14 (where everything has to get crammed into the bottom margin of the page).  But then look at p. 15.  What the hell is that?  It's another handwriting style completely.  It's related to the Mar Saba style.  It might even be the same person but ...  Wow.  No wonder no one made the connection between Callinicus and the author of Mar Saba 65.

Notice the single and double stroke lambdas in this new writing style.

Here's What We Need to Do to Prove Mar Saba 65 was Written by Callinicus III (IV)

I am useless with computers but I have done a stroke by stroke comparison of the handwriting in the two documents and am certain that the comparison shows that Callinicus is the likely author of Mar Saba 65. Now what we need to do is have someone - maybe me - compare let's say the last document in the folder listed as 'Επιστολαί τινες προς φίλους Καλλινίκου πατριάρχου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως' in the collection at the Greek public library system with the handwriting of Mar Saba 65. I guarantee you there is enough there to prove authenticity. I have even contacted a Greek handwriting expert to prepare to go the library to examine the documents there.

Yet for the moment, looking at Tselikas's palaeolographic observations 1 and with my very preliminary scan I can see that:

• the alpha in all its variations in Mar Saba are present in the document
• the beta is the same
• I see the same gamma on its own and the way it links with vowels is very similar
• just trying to find a δη (found it - looks good). Now let's take a look at δο (found). I found δώ and it matches Mar Saba 65. I feel pretty confident with this letter.  Found δι
• Epsilon looks similar.  Don't have time to go through all the permutations just yet
• on to the zeta ...
• 
  

(updating this as I go through the analysis)

It's Callinicus!

I am now virtually certain that Callinicus III (IV) penned the Mar Saba document.  I found enough evidence that his handwriting continued to evolve throughout his life and moreover.  As Tselikas told me through a friend, he literally wrote all day from the time he got up until the time he went to bed stopping only to eat.  He has very specific styles of writing and I can firmly point to Mar Saba 65 as one of those 'styles' used for special occasions - such as the copying out of a newly discovered manuscript like to Theodore.

This is very exciting folks.  I am going to have to consult with those who have been helping me develop this thesis about what to do next.  But clearly Mar Saba 65 is Callinicus III (IV)'s hand just as Scouvaras and later Smith suspected.  Who am I to disagree with the experts!

Only Together Can We Hope to Finally Solve the Mar Saba Mystery

I rarely come out and beg my readership for assistance and let my hundred or so readers a day be reassured - this is not a request for money. What I am imploring at least some of you to do is help me go through the painstaking work of going through all the manuscripts that have now been digitized and put on line at the Greek public libraries website.

I think we all know what we are looking for. We are looking to find a similar handwriting to what appears in Mar Saba 65. I think most of my readership have access to that image and now we have the possibility of finding the other half of the puzzle.

The instructions are really simple. Using Internet Explorer (I am told that this is only browser which works with the system) type:

http://publiclibs.ypepth.gr

Click on the large orange banner that appears in the middle of the screen.

At the field "Αναζήτηση για" (=Search for) type "136" for Prigos's handwritten catalogue of books. At the field "Συγγραφέας" (=Author) type "Καλλίνικος" and tell me what you think.  I think this is pretty close don't you?  We can also type "Πρίγκος" for Callinicus's partner in Amsterdam.  In either case click on the red button "Αναζήτηση".

If typing in Greek is a problem, just type 136 in the field "Αναζήτηση για", choose "Βιβλιοθήκη Ζαγοράς" (=Library of Zagora) from the drop down menu entitled "Βιβλιοθήκη" (=Library) and then click on "Αναζήτηση". Normally you would get 12 results among which one entitled "[ Κατάλογος αλφαβητικός βιβλίων σταλέντων υπο του Ιωάννου Πρίγκου δια τον σχολείον της Ζαγοράς ]" (=Alphabetic catalogue sent by Ioannis Prigos for the school of Zagora), which is the manuscript you are interested in.

Click on the link to have the document appear. If you want to download it, click on the document icon on the right-hand side of the purple bar along the top.

You can find some of Kallinikos' manuscripts on this site, too. Try typing the number "81" for example in the field "Αναζήτηση για", (after having chosen "Βιβλιοθήκη Ζαγοράς" from the drop down menu as above) and then click on "Αναζήτηση". The relevant result will be entitled "[Καλλίνικου Πατριάρχου τα εν εξορία γραφέντα]" (=Kallinikos' writings while in exile).

This will at least get us started. Our objective of course is to find all the references to sent copies of the Voss Ignatius book from John Priggos as well as handwriting that matches the Mar Saba document. My suspicion is that someone associated with Callinicus (but not Callinicus himself) is responsible for Mar Saba 65. I also strongly suspect that he is a relative of Callinicus or someone who attended the same schools or both. So I would argue that we simply have to keep entering random numbers into the box referenced above (i.e. 80, 99, 44 etc.) until we come up with a historical individual whose handwriting fits the description.

I will have more information about who I think is the author of the text shortly but again - I hope I find some help tracking this down. I was up until 3:30 am just going through digitalized books sent from Amsterdam looking for marginal notes. I quickly realized we are going to need a team of crazy people like me working in tandem just go through the material at this site. I have also found other sites on line which specialize in documents from monasteries. However I strongly feel we have to systematically go through all the available information, document by document, until we find something the experts overlooked.

Callinicus III (IV) Tomb Stone

TEXT

Καλ[λίν]- 
ικος [Ἱπ]- 
πάρ[χου] 
μνείας 
5χάριν.

Documented Evidence that John Priggos Sent a Copy of Voss's Epistolae Genuinae S. Ignatii Martyris to the Zagora Library Managed by Callinicus III (IV) c. 1762

With attached email note from the librarian at Zagoras:

I'm sending you a photo showing our library's old record for Vossius's edition.

We are still working on an exact handwriting match but what we currently have for our theory that someone in the circle of Callinicus III (IV) wrote the Mar Saba document is:

• demonstrable proof of access to Voss 1646 edition at the Library at Zagora
• interest and familarity with Ignatius by Callinicus and a citation that could only have come from Voss's 1646 work
• the practice of writing extensively into book margins.
• the extremely similar handwriting to Clement letter in Callinicus' circle of associates.
• the dispersion of Callinicus' books.

I think this so far is a compelling narrative, and a good counter-narrative to Smith the Forger developed by Stephen Carlson, Peter Jeffery, Agamemnon Tselikas etc.

Today's Email from the Library at Zagoras

As far as I know, nothing in particular is known about our copy of Vossius's 1646 edition of St. Ignatius' letters. In our Register Book, the volume is just listed with the additional comment that it was donated by Ioannis Prigos. Prigos started sending books to Zagora in 1762. Whether he and Ecumenical Patriarch Kallinikos III (IV) had been acquainted before then, is something I have no knowledge of.

Important Breakthrough - I Can Prove Callinicus III (the guy who's handwriting closely resembles the handwriting of Mar Saba 65 and who wrote things related to the Church Fathers into countless books printed in Amsterdam) Knew and Used Voss's 1646 Critical Edition of the Writings of Ignatius

I can remember when I first came across those claims that Morton Smith forged the contents of the Letter to Theodore and wrote them into a first edition of Isaac Voss's Epistolae Genuinae S. Ignatii Martyris. They tried to make it seem as if 'the only reason' why we should find Byzantine monastic handwriting in an old book is because Morton Smith must have smuggled a book into the monastery. Now we have discovered that an eighteenth century Patriarch of Constantinople - Callinicus III (IV) - deposited handwriting samples into literally hundreds of books that were shipped to him from Amsterdam by his friend John Piggos.

But can we connect Ignatius to the Voss edition of Ignatius? I received a number of emails from the staff at the Zagora library where many of those books are still kept which have informed me that not only did Skouvaras (i.e. the scholar who first alerted Morton Smith to the similarity between the handwriting of Mar Saba 65 and Callinicus) publish a small portion of the original list, but the library had recently placed the original list on line:

I have looked through Skouvaras' list myself, but Vossius's edition does not seem to be listed (at least not in any identifiable form) among the other books of the list. However, the catalogue was transcribed by Skouvaras from manuscript 136 of our library which has been digitized and is accessible via the Internet. If you think you can cope with Prigos' handwriting in Greek, we can give you directions that will facilitate your access to it. On the other hand, the handwritten catalogue in question includes only a number of the books sent by the owner to Zagora (probably about a third of the total number of volumes despatched). However, you will find (as Skouvaras did before us) that part of the original catalogue is no longer legible.

Lists of books sent by Prigos survive in other printed volumes he sent, and though Skouvaras gives a lead to some of them, his references are not always accurate with the result that it would take some time for us to spot the correct volumes and see whether the copy of Vossius's edition can be found in the lists they contain.

So can we still connect the Voss book to Callinicus? I certainly think we can. All we need to do is recognize that Callinicus repeatedly cites from the fullest possible collection of writings of Ignatius, a collection that could only be Voss's 1646 edition:

The Latin version of this recension was published first by Ussher (Polycarpi et Ignatii Epistolae etc, Oxon. 1644) from two mss discovered in England ; the original Greek two years later by Isaac Voss {Epistolae Genuinae S. Ignatii Martyris, Amstelod. 1646 from a Medicean ms, with the exception of the Epistle to the Romans, which was published afterwards by Ruinart (Acta Martyrum Sincera, Paris 1689) from a Colbert MS. The Armenian version was first printed at Constantinople in 1783. [Lightfoot Apostolic Fathers p. 73]

As we shall see the only Greek edition that Callinicus could have cited from at the end of his
Εγχειρίδιο κατά αιρέσεων ή κατά άναβαπτιστών (Handbook Against Heresies or Against the Anabaptists) where he cites Ignatius's Epistle to Hero verbatim is that of Voss's 1646 edition.

It is Linaritakis in his 1996 who alerts us to the citation in a work that Callinicus apparently wrote shortly before his exile in Sinai c. 1757:

Κλείνει το έργο του ό Καλλίνικος με τη νουθεσία τοϋ αγίου 'Ιγνατίου τοϋ θεοφόρου, οπού με επιστολή του γράφει προς τον άγιο Πολύκαρπο Σμύρνης "ό λέγων παρά τα διαταγμένα καν αξιόπιστος ή, καν νηστεύη, καν παρθενεύη, καν σημεία ποιη, καν προφητεύη, λύκος σοι φαινέσθω έν προβάτου δορά προβάτων φθοράν κατεργαζόμενος".

Callinicus closes the work with the admonition of Saint-Ignatius of Antioch, where he writes a letter to St. Polycarp of Smyrna as saying "every one that teaches anything beyond what is commanded, though he be worthy of credit, though he be in the habit of fasting, though he live in continence, though he work miracles, though he have the gift of prophecy, let him be in your sight as a wolf in sheep's clothing, labouring for the destruction of the sheep." [p. 365]

There is absolutely no doubt that Callinicus can only be citing the exact text of Ignatius's Epistle to Hero which at the time Ignatius was writing was only available to him from Voss's text. The original manuscript was in Venice and his citation is so exact it can only be from the original Greek. Here is the link to Voss's original text and Migne's critical edition:

Ἐπιστολὴ (24) Θεοκτίστῳ Μαγίστρῳ, PG 99, 988A-Β. Πρβλ. καὶ τὴ (θεωρούμενη νόθο) ἐπιστολὴν Ἁγίου Ἰγνατίου Ἀντιοχείας, Πρὸς Ἥρωνα Διάκονον Ἀντιοχείας 2, PG 5, 912Α.Β. «Πᾶς ὁ λέγων παρὰ τὰ διατεταγμένα, κἂνἀξιόπιστος ᾖ, κἂννηστεύῃ, κἂνπαρθενεύῃ, κἂνσημεῖα ποιῇ, κἂνπροφητεύῃ, λύκος σοι φαινέσθω ἐν προβάτου δορᾷ, προβάτων φθοράν κατεργαζόμενος».

Linaritakis, not Callinicus, mistakenly assigns the reference as a letter to Polycarp (which appears in the original work as an anonymous citation).

We have made an important breakthrough today, my friends.  I may have lost an important client but the Gospel Hoax has been effectively debunked.

More Discoveries of Callinicus Writing in the Last Pages of Published Books

Με πληροφορίες πού μας δίνει ο Νικ. Φιριππίδης βλέπουμε Οτι ευρισκόμενος στο Πηλούσιο ò Καλλίνικος δανείστηκε άπο τή Βιβλιοθήκη τού έκεΐ Πατριαρχείου και διάβασε τον ογκώδη τόμο: " 01 ΤΗΣ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΣΤΙΚΗΣ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΣ ΣΥΓΓΡΑΦΕΙΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΙ κ.τ.λ. " άπο Εύσεβίου τού Παμφίλου μέχρις Εύαγρίου κατά τήν έκδοσιν Ρωβέρτου Στεφάνου τού 1544. Το βιβλίο αυτό άνηκε στον εξαίρετο δυναμικό άγιο καΐ λόγιο Μητροφάνη Κριτόπουλο, Πατριάρχη 'Αλεξανδρείας (1630-39).

Στο ανωτέρω σύγγραμμα ό Πατριάρχης Καλλίνικος στή σελίδα 630, στην τελευταία λευκή σελίδα τού πίνακα τών περιεχομένων καΐ στην τελευταία λευκή σελίδα με χρονολογία 1761, αναφέρεται στή διαμονή του στο Πηλούσιο, στην ανάγνωση αΰτοϋ τού έργου και στή φιλοξενία του άπο τους τρεις φίλους του με πλούσιες τις ευχές του. Ό Καλλίνικος στο διάστημα αυτό δεν αναφέρεται καθόλου στο Ματθαίο 'Αλεξανδρείας, ί'σως γιά νά μήν τού δημιουργήσει προβλήματα, ό όποιος καθόλου απίθανο νά εϋχε μάθει γιά τή φυγή του άπο το Σινά ή και νά συναντήθηκαν κρυφίως στο Πηλούσιο [p. 95 - 96]

The information that gives us Nick. Firippidis see that finds himself in Pilousio ò Callinicos borrowed from the library there! Patriarchate and read the tome: "01 THE HISTORY CONTRIBUTORS EKKLISIASTIKIS GREEK etc." pious OF Pamfilon up Evagriou when to issue Rovertou Stephen 1544. This book belonged to the excellent potential saint and scholar Metrophanes Kritopoulo, Patriarch of Alexandria (1630-1639).

In this book, Patriarch Callinicos on page 630, the last blank page of the table of contents and the last blank page dated 1761, refers to his residence in Pilousio in reading this work and the hospitality of the three friends with extensive his wishes. But Callinicos during this time no mention in Matthew of Alexandria, i'sos so as not to cause trouble, as anyone at all unlikely that learned wishes to escape from the Sinai and met secretly in Pilousio

Or Maybe Callinicus Might Have Came Across the Original Manuscript of To Theodore During his Lengthy Stay in Alexandria

Ευρισκόμενος ό φιλομαθής Πατριάρχης τόσες μέρες στην 'Αλεξάνδρεια, είναι αδύνατον, παρά τά προβλήματα τής εξορίας του, νά μήν πήγε στην περίφημη πατριαρχική βιβλιοθήκη με τΙς εβδομήντα και πλέον χιλιάδες βιβλίων της, νά μή διάβασε κάποιο βιβλίο καΐ νά μήν άφησε σημειώσεις του σχετικές με τΙς περιπέτειες του, σπως έκανε λ.χ. αργότερα στο Πηλούσιο.  Ή προκληθείσα Ομως αργότερα μεγάλη πυρκαίά ίσως νά κατέστρεψε και αυτές τις σημειώσεις τοΰ Καλλινίκου. [p. 72]

Patriarch finds himself as studious as many days in 'Alexandria is impossible, despite the problems of exile, not patriarchal went to the famous library of more than seventy thousand books, not read a book and not leave notes relating to adventures, he spos example Pilousio later. But the damage after large fires destroyed and perhaps these notes Kallinikou.

Callinicus Was Involved in Transcribing (and Transporting) Ancient Manuscripts During His Exile at St Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai

This is a very important testimony about Callinicus's exile at Sinai and subsequent escape. Linaritakis informs us that the letters of the Patriarch make clear that he spent a lot of time copying rare manuscripts at the Monastery of St Catherines which unfortunately were lost when the ship which was transporting him to Alexandria sunk in the Nile. He makes explicit reference to losing a copy of Ephrem the Syrian's Hymns on Paradise:

ό Καλλίνικος μέ γράμματα χοϋ σκευοφύλακα προς τους φίλους του που είχε στο Πηλούσιο, με τα έξοδα πληρωμένα καί ανθρώπους του σκευοφύλακα, αναχωρούν με καΐκι για την πόλη αύτη. "Κατερχομένων το λοιπόν τετάρτη τού Μαρτίου, ήμερα Τρίτη καί καιρός ήτον μεσημεριού", σηκώθηκε άνεμος σφοδρός, περιέστρεψε αιφνίδια το σκάφος καί τέλος ολοι των βρέθηκαν στού Νείλου το βυθό. Με το νά ξέρουν ομως ολοι των κολύμπι, έγλύτωσαν.

Από τό απρόσμενο αυτό ναυάγιο μπόρεσε ό Καλλίνικος, μέ κίνδυνο της ζωής του, να διασώσει μερικά άπό τά πράγματα του. Στον κωδ.91,533 ό Καλλίνικος γράφει δύο φορές: " Έ ξ ών τίνα έξήγαγον δαπάνη αδρότατη". "'Εξ ών δαπάνη ou σμικρά τίνα τών τετραδίων, ά βλέπεις, έξηγάγομεν". Τά περισσότερα ομως είχαν χειρότερη τύχη άπό αυτή πού είχαν οι " "Υμνοι" τού άγιου Έφραίμ τού Σύρου γιά τόν Παράδεισο
.
Μεταξύ τών πραγμάτων του πού βυθίστηκαν είναι "καί ό τέταρτος τόμος τών γεννημάτων ... καί έκ τού έκτου μερικά τετράδια καί λόγους, διότι ήταν άδετα καί τινας διάλογους"*.
Τά έργα αυτά τά είχε γράψει ό Καλλίνικος στό Σινά, άλλα "άρρήτοις κρίμασι τοΰ δικαίου Θεού του Νείλου θύματα, φευ, γεγόνασιν" [Linaritakis dissertation p. 94]

As Callinicos letters Hu sacristan for his friends who had to Pilousio, with expenses paid and people of the sacristan, depart by boat to this city. "So the descending fourth of March, on Tuesday afternoon weather Eton" fierce wind got up, spun sudden the boat and end all of the Nile was found in the bottom. By knowing But all the swimming eglytosan.

From the unexpected that could wreck everything Callinicos, risking his life to rescue some of the things. In kod.91, 533 as Callinicos says twice: "U n Tina s exported adrotati spending." "'On s expense ou smikra Tina of notebooks, s watch, exigagomen". But most had worse luck than you had with Hymns "of Saint Ephraim the Syrian on Paradise
.
Among the things of which are sunk "and the fourth volume of the brood ... And of some books and sixth reasons, because he was unbound and Tina dialogues" Works such as Callinicos wrote in Sinai, but "arritois krimasi law God Nile victims, alas, gegonasin" (hasty translation)

We know that St Catherine's monastery preserves to this day a very rare copy of Hymns on Paradise. Callinicus certainly treasured this discovery. But it points to the fact that Callinicus was certainly engaged in transcribing manuscripts during his exile at Sinai. I am beginning to suspect that to Theodore might have been present at the monastery at one time. Who knows ...

I think to Theodore was originally found there too. It is the largest repository of manuscripts in the Greek orthodox world and second only to the Vatican.

Another Way the Voss Ignatius Book With Callinicus's Transcription of the Letter to Theodore Ended Up at Mar Saba

Πριν φύγει εξόριστος ό Καλλίνικος γιά το Σινά, εμπιστεύτηκε γιά φύλαξη τά διάφορα προσωπικά του εΐδη, τά βιβλία του και μερικά χρήματα του, σέ γνωστά του πρόσωπα.

Δυστυχώς ομως μέ τήν επιστροφή του λίγα άπο αυτά υπήρχαν. Τά υπόλοιπα είχαν χαθεί4. Γιά νά φοβίσει κάπως ή 'Εκκλησία αυτούς πού είχαν κλέψει τά πράγματα τοΰ Καλλινίκου, στις δέκα Μαρτίου τοϋ 1762 διαβάστηκε Συνοδικό γράμμα μέ φρικτά έπιτίμια μέσα στον Πατριαρχικό ναό. Το ίδιο γράμμα διαβάστηκε στις δεκαεπτά Μαρτίου καΐ στο ναό του Τιμίου Προδρόμου τον "έξω τοϋ κυνηγού" στον Μπαλαλέ. Δυστυχώς ομως ό καρπός υπήρξε πολύ μικρός, διότι μόνο πέντε βιβλία τού επεστράφησαν. [Linaritakis p. 109]

Before Callinicos left exile at Sinai, he confided to store various personal items, books and some money, to the knowledge of persons.

Unfortunately though with the return of a few of them existed. The rest were lost. To scare some or 'Church those who had stolen his things Kallinikou on March 10 of 1762 read with horror Synod letter penance in the Patriarchal Cathedral. The same letter was read on March 17 and Temple of the Baptist "out of the hunter" in Balale. Unfortunately, the fruit was very small, because only five books were returned.

An Example of the Things Related to the Church Fathers Callinicus's Wrote in the Blank Spaces of Printed Books

Σέ στίχους πού έγραψε ό Πατριάρχης στο εξώφυλλο τού ύπ' αριθ. 128 έντυπου βιβλίου τής Β. Ζ. στά 1778, μεταξύ άλλων, αναφερόμενος και στά συγγράμματα των πατέρων τής 'Εκκλησίας γράφε:

" Πατέρων 'Εκκλησίας μας, ξένων τέ καΐ μεγάλων
Οτι μ' αυτά έπέρασα είς χρόνους εξορίας
καλλίτερ' άπο τον καιρόν τον τής πατριαρχείας".

Τους πατέρες τής 'Εκκλησίας αγαπά ό Πατριάρχης, αυτούς μελετά, σ'αυτών τή διδασκαλία επιμένει νά μένουμε σταθεροί.[Linaritakes dissertation p. 274]

With lyrics written by the Patriarch on the cover of No 128 printed book by WJ in 1778, inter alia, referred to in texts of the Fathers of the Church write:

"Fathers' Church, esoteric and great
That with these areas went through years of exile
better 'from the time of the patriarchates"

The fathers of the Church loves the Patriarch, those studying, teaching them to have insisted to remain stable.

Callinicus Constantly Wrote Notes into the Blank Spaces of the Books that Were Shipped to him from Amsterdam

ΚαΙ στά υπάρχοντα βιβλία της Βιβλιοθήκης της Ζαγοράς υπάρχουν πολλές σημειώσεις τού Πατριάρχη γιά διάφορα θέματα, άγνωστες ακόμη στους ερευνητές. Καθόλου απίθανο ό Καλλίνικος νά αναφέρεται πολλές φορές καΙ σ' αυτές τις αντιγραφές. [Linaritakes dissertation p. 282]

And in the existing books of the Library of Zagora there are many notes on various topics from the Patriarch, unknown even to the researchers. So improbable as Callinicos refer many times to these copies.

Callinicus Likely Found the Letter to Theodore at the Monastery of St. Catherines at Sinai During His Exile

Ό Καλλίνικος μελετούσε, τόσο κατά τή διάρκεια τής εξορίας του στο Σινά τους διάφορους κώδικες τής Μονής, οσο καί γιά σλη του τή ζωή τά έργα των πατέρων τής 'Εκκλησίας μας, άλλα καί τής θύραθεν σοφίας. Τούτο φανερώνει τή μέχρι τέλους τής ζωής του φιλομάθεια του, άλλα καί τή θεολογική - πατερική του κυρίως κατάρτιση. [Linaritakes dissertation p. 378]

But Callinicos studied both during his exile in Sinai various codices of the monastery, and studied the writings of the Church Fathers for his whole life and also writings of secular wisdom. This manifests by the end of his life's love of learning, but also theological - Fathers of the main training.

Callinicus's Interest in the Church Fathers

From Linaritakes's 1996 PhD thesis:

Ό πολύπαθος Πατριάρχης κάνει λόγο γιά τή συνομιλία του μέ τους νεκρούς και μάλιστα οχι μόνο γιά τήν περίοδο της διαμονής του στην Κων/πολη, άλλα καΐ της εξορίας του στο Σινά. Πρόκειται άπλα για την ανάγνωση των συγγραμμάτων των πατέρων της 'Εκκλησίας και για τΙς σκέψεις που έκανε επάνω σ'αυτά που διάβαζε ή είναι, ίσως οι καλύτερες σημειώσεις του πού μας δείχνουν τά πνευματικά υψη στά οποία ανέβηκε καΐ απλά ... Τά συγγράμματα τών πατέρων και τή συνομιλία των έχει πάντα ò Καλλίνικος συνοδεία. Κατ' αυτόν τον τρόπο διώχνει τή λύπη καΐ τή μελαγχολία. Τά χρόνια περνούν καΐ του φαίνονται μήνες, οι μήνες σάν εβδομάδες, οι εβδομάδες περνούν σά μία ημέρα, οι ώρες τρέχουν σάν το νερό.

But much afflicted patriarch speaks of his conversation with the dead and not only for the period of his stay in Constantinople, but also exiled to Sinai. It is simply reading the writings of the Fathers of the Church and his thoughts that he was reading up on them or, perhaps the best notes that show us the spiritual heights which rose ... The writings of the fathers was an ongoing conversation that always kept Callinicos company. In this way, drives great sorrow and melancholy. The years pass and he considers months, the months as weeks, the weeks passed Saturday one day, the hours run like water [p. 114]

Solving One Piece of the Mar Saba Mystery on Father's Day

My wife told me I could have anything I wanted because it was Father's Day and you know the truth, folks? I just wanted to tell you all how I solved the 'mystery of Mar Saba.' Of course that wasn't one of the options. I think we will all go to a French restaurant to have breakfast. I think I will have a Croque Monsieur, I never cared too much for cassoulet.

In any event it is all solved pretty much. I can't prove that Callinicus had a stroke at Sinai yet but that's coming once I get accurate translations of his letters and present them to a doctor who knows how to interpret ancient documents. Any suggestions out there?

The basic idea goes something like this. There was a man named Ιωάννης Πρίγκος (= 'John Priggos' 1725 -1789) who started off impoverished but somehow made it big as a merchant trader, moving from Alexandria to Smyrna and ultimately Amsterdam. As Kōnstantinos Dēmaras notes in his History of Greek Literature:

The Amsterdam that [he] knew in 1771 was not only a great commercial center but also the crossroads for all the ideas that circulated throughout Europe. A liberal state and tolerant in matters of religion, Holland served as a refuge for free thought. All books forbidden publication elsewhere were printed in Holland. The Greek colony in Amsterdam apparently had few members and was composed principally of merchants, but it followed the intellectual line of the land wherein it resided. An cultured merchant, John Priggos lived there during those years and kept a journal. We read in it that he hoped for the liberation of the Greek race. "Raise up, my God, another Alexander." And at another point, he wrote: "See to what superstitions Ignorance makes men stoop." He collected books and sent them to his villagers, writing to them in the meantime, "These are philosophical works, essential to the education of the young, as they are taught in the schools of Europe."

John Priggos keeps in touch with another homeboy from Zagora named Κωνσταντίνος Κυπαρίσσης who eventually takes on the name Καλλίνικος (= Callinicus) when he becomes an important bishop in the Orthodox Church. Callinicus becomes the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 1757, the 'top dog' as it were of the religious community.

Both Priggos and Callinicus are wealthy, educated, enlightened men. They represent forward thinking idealists who want to make Greece a modern European nation. Yet there are strong factions in the Church who want to keep away outside influences. They are embodied by Callinicus's predecessor on the Patriarchal throne, Cyril V, who passes a law to force Christians of other faiths to undergo baptism as if they were uncultured heathens.

Priggos and Callinicus are not only opposed to this sort of backwards xenophobia, they remain such could relations with one another that Callinicus gets Priggos to send him books from Amsterdam to keep sending him all the latest books that are being published in the free city. After six months on the throne, a popular revolt against his rule forces the Turkish rulers of Greece to banish him into exile in Sinai. In 1761 he escapes and makes his way to Alexandria where he spends a while writing letters and reading books.

By the time Callinicus re-establishes himself in Zagora again, Priggos decide to open an academy of learning. In April 1762, he starts sending virtually ever book ever published in Amsterdam to his new library. These books were philosophical, historical, theological, geographical, ancient Greek writers, church fathers and other younger scientists. By the time Priggos leaves Amsterdam he has sent over one thousand books to his hometown. Callinicus also donates over three hundred books that he has collected over the years.

Among this large body of books mostly purchased in Amsterdam is certainly Isaac Voss's 1646 critical edition of the letters of Ignatius. The library in Zagora is going through the original list of books sent by Priggos. Yet it is virtually certain that the Voss edition, which was after all published in Amsterdam was included in one of those shipments either to Callinicus or the library.

As it turns out Linaritakis discovered that Callicus used to write on every available free page that he could find in those books. There are many of his annotations on some incunabula. During a voyage to Cairo on the Nile River the boat on which Callinicus had embarked sunk and a lot of his books and manuscripts were lost. Nevertheless there is enough surviving that we can do a handwriting analysis to compare the material with what is in the Mar Saba document and determine if they are by the same hand.

One more thing which might explain how the books at the Zagora library ended up at Mar Saba years later. I stumbled upon the official website of the existing Library of Zagora and it describes its illustrious past as:

Επιμελήθηκε και ανασυγκρότησε τη σχολή που ήδη λειτουργούσε από τις αρχές του 18ου αιώνα(1712) στη συνοικία του Αγίου Γεωργίου Ζαγοράς, στην οποία και έδωσε την ονομασία «Ελληνομουσείο». Εκεί στεγάστηκαν τα βιβλία που κατά καιρούς έστελνε ο Ι. Πρίγκος από την Ολλανδία( και τα οποία έφτασαν συνολικά τον αριθμό των 1000 τόμων περίπου), τα βιβλία του Πατριάρχου Καλλίνικου (35 χειρόγραφοι κώδικες και 326 έντυπα βιβλία) καθώς και αυτά που δώρισαν άλλοι επώνυμοι Ζαγοριανοί που κατείχαν υψηλές θέσεις στη Κωνσταντινούπολη, στη Ρωσία, στις παραδουνάβιες ηγεμονίες και αλλού. Οι παραπάνω δωρεές σπάνιες και σπουδαίες αποτελούνταν, από εκδόσεις της Βενετίας, Μεδιολάνου, Τεργέστης, Βιέννης, Χάγης, Άμστερνταμ, Λονδίνου, Παρισίων, Λειψίας και γενικά των μεγάλων πνευματικών κέντρων της Ευρώπης. Όλες έχουν τυπωθεί σε τυπογραφία επιφανών ακαδημιών, βασιλικών κολεγίων, και ονομαστών τυπογράφων όπως του Άλδου Μανούτου, Εράσμου Σμίτ κ.α. περιέχουν δε έργα κλασσικής ελληνικής γραμματείας, θρησκευτικά, ιστορικά γεωγραφικά, όπως του φημισμένου Ολλανδού κοσμογράφου Αβραάμ Ορτέλλιου, και πολλά άλλα.

Designed and reconstructed the faculty already operated from the early 18th century (1712) in the district of St. George, Zagora, in which he [Priggos] gave the name "Greek Museum."There were housed books occasionally send J. Principality from Holland (and which totaled the number of about 1000 volumes), books of Patriarch Kallinikos (35 manuscripts and 326 printed books) and those who donated other celebrities Zagorian held high positions in Istanbul, Russia, the Danube and elsewhere.These rare and important donations were made by versions of Venice, Milan, Trieste, Vienna, Hague, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Leipzig and generally the major spiritual centers of Europe.All are printed in typography leading academies, royal colleges, and renowned printers like Aldus Manutius, Erasmus Schmidt, etc.containing the works of classical Greek literature, religion, historical geography, like the famous Dutch cosmography Ortelliou Abraham, and many others.

But it goes on to describe a great fire that ravaged the building during the war for Greek independence:

Μετά τη παύση της λειτουργίας του «Ελληνομουσείου», ο χώρος στον οποίο στεγαζόταν η βιβλιοθήκη, γκρεμίστηκε και τα βιβλία αλλάζοντας κατά καιρούς διάφορα μέρη υπέστησαν πολλές φθορές ενώ πάμπολλα είναι αυτά που χάθηκαν.

I asked my friend Harry Tzalas to help translate the passage. He first demonstrated a literal 'word by word' translation:

Following the closure of "Ellinomouseiou" (= 'Greek museum') the space in which housed the library, the books down and changing from time to time various parties have been extensively damaged, while numerous are those who perished.

And then a more natural version of the same material in English:

After the Ellinomouseio stop operating the space where the library was sheltered was put down and the books changing from time to time location suffered great damages while some were lost.

Which he explains as follows:

My understanding is that books were damaged and dispersed. That is the meaning of lost.

If the books from the original Callinicus collection were dispersed and then lost in the late nineteenth century they could have ended up anywhere in the Greek speaking monastic world including Mar Saba. More to follow ...

Happy Father's Day