Craig Evans Interest in the Mar Saba Document 'Predicted' By 1913 Pulp Fiction Series

At the lowest rung of the debate over the Mar Saba letter is the unbelievably silly claim that the discovery at the monastery was developed from the pages of a 1940 Canadian pulp fiction novel - the Mystery of Mar Saba by James Hunter.  Craig Evans has been one of the most vocal supporters of the idea that the strange 'synchronicity' of the Hunter book with Morton Smith's discovery of a fragment at the same monastery years later.  Of course the idea is absurd and has been noted as such by many objective observers.  Nevertheless a neglected point of reference is that another pulp fiction series - the Land of Mystery - written by Mary Mapes Dodge and published in the 1913 illustrated magazine St. Nicholas tells the story of a 'Dr. Evans' trapped in the Mar Saba monastery waiting desperately to be rescued.  If the Hunter book is accepted to foretell Morton Smith's crime, it must also be accepted that the Land of Mystery is predicting Craig Evans academic legacy ...