Important Documentary Update on Morton Smith's Discovery of the Mar Saba Document

I have been speaking to the producers of the Discovery Channel documentary that I initiated over a year ago and have learned that a new product is being prepared specifically on the subject of the Mar Saba controversy. One might think that I would have hard feelings about this - i.e. the change from a documentary about my discovery of the throne of St. Mark where the Mar Saba document is referenced as a supporting document to a full-fledged documentary on the Mar Saba document which exclusively focus on what it means and what it says about earliest Christianity - but the reality is that I am quite happy. This had to get made. You can't answer the speculative questions about what MIGHT be related to the historical framework described in To Theodore without first introducing the concept of the Mar Saba to dentists, plumbers and whatever other lay people might be watching Discovery Channel at 9 pm that night.

I have been communicating with the producers and are very impressed with their competence and their familiarity with the subject matter. These people are very smart and very informed. The final product will certainly be even better than the recent Biblical Archaeology Review issue.

Those of us who accept the authenticity of Morton Smith's discovery and were not convinced of the shrill and unpersuasive arguments of those promoting the forgery proposition will all be very satisfied by this production. We will at last live in a culture which is open to considering the authenticity of the Letter to Theodore and will again be willing to openly consider other models for the origins of Christianity - even those which might one day prove that the religion came from Alexandria as a result of St. Mark's visit to the city.

This is a great day for all of us. It will be an even greater day sometime in late July of this year when this documentary airs. Of course very little new or particularly interesting will be developed by this investigation for those of us who are already familiar with the details. But again, it will succeed I think in changing the dynamic of the debate even further, which is all that we can ask from such an enterprise