I think I know now why other scholars couldn't find significant traces of 'secret Mark' in the Stromateis. The assumption must have been that what is contained in the Letter to Theodore is more or less an abstraction. In other words, it would have been 'crazy' and unthinkable to imagine that the relationship between the one and the other would have been utterly fundamental (i.e. like childhood sexual abuse and woman ending up in the sex industry).
No, the thought was that maybe somewhere Clement might have made reference to a 'secret gospel' or a youth being raised from the dead and when this wasn't discovered, it became a 'difficulty' for the authenticity position.
But if we turn things around and ask the 'unthinkable question' - i.e. was the relationship between the Stromateis and the Letter to Theodore absolutely fundamental? - then we wouldn't expect to necessarily find explicit references to things mentioned in the Letter to Theodore. Why so? Well to use the example of prostitutes for a moment, there can be no doubt that the majority of strippers and streetwalkers were sexually abused, but that doesn't mean that they announce the reasons for their career choice to all who they encounter. The subject matter is after all ἄρρητος (unspeakable).
In the same way, if - for arguments sake - the Carpocratians actually were involved in something ἄρρητος which Clement only referenced in a private correspondance with a superior, it wouldn't be at all surprising that in a public work like the Stromateis, which was directed at everyone and no one, that this subject wasn't be tackled openly. Now while that might seem like a cop out in terms of explaining why there are no explicit references to the material in to Theodore, I can assure the reader that my discoveries in Strom. 7.16 will demonstrate that my line of reasoning is the furthest thing from a mea culpa.
Instead, I think that what I have uncovered at the conclusion to the Stromateis as a whole confirms that Clement wrote the Letter to Theodore, knew the contents of 'secret Mark' and that these things were so absolutely fundamental to the creation of the Stromateis that they are only referenced at the very end of the work. In fact, no one has ever been able to satisfactorily explain why Clement chose to write as an obscure a work as the Stromateis.
He says at the very beginning something to the effect that 'it may seem like this is a rambling work with no apparent purpose, but there is a purpsoe and there is a point buried within the formless appearance of the present work.' Why would someone deliberately choose to write a book that goes out of its way to appear pointless, obscure and tangential? The answer has to be that there is something unspeakable (ἄρρητος) at the very core which can't be addressed directly.
Now the one clue that we have about the what historical circumstances might have led to the creation of the work at its very beginning, is the repeated mention of the very recent death of the Emperor Commodus. In the very conclusion, there is a direct citation from the writings of his precedessor Marcus Aurelius, exclaiming to everyone within earship that 'contrary to what you might have heard' Alexandrian Christianity is absolutely in keeping with the dictates and teaching of 'good Emperors.'
If this were all there was, it would be much of a clue, but I happened to also have stumbled upon this today - in what immediately follows the flattering comparison with the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, an acceptance of a contemporary 'smashing of the teeth' of heretics:
But if, like the deaf serpents, (Psalm 58:4 LXX) they listen not to the song (Psalm 58:5 LXX) called new, though very old, may they be chastised by God, (Psalm 58:6 LXX) and undergo paternal admonition (Psalm 58:7 LXX) previous to the Judgment (Psalm 58:11 LXX), till they become ashamed and repent, but not rush through headlong unbelief, and precipitate themselves into judgment. For there are partial corrections, which are called chastisements, which many of us who have been in transgression incur, by falling away from the Lord's people (τοῦ λαοῦ τοῦ κυριακοῦ). But as children are by their teacher, or their father, so are we pruned by Forethought (τῆς προνοίας κολαζόμεθα). But God does not punish, for punishment is retaliation for evil. He prunes (κολάζει), however, for good (τὸ χρήσιμον) to those who are pruned, collectively and individually (καὶ κοινῇ καὶ ἰδίᾳ τοῖς κολαζομένοις).
I have served up (παρεθέμην) these things from a wish (βουλόμενος) to avert those (ἀποτρέψαι), who are eager to learn (εὐεμπτωσίας τοὺς φιλομαθοῦντας), from the liability to fall into heresies, and out of a desire to stop them (ἀποπαῦσαι) from superficiality (ἐπιπολαζούσης), or ignorance (ἀμαθίας), or stupidity (ἀβελτερίας) or bad disposition (καχεξίας εἴθ), or whatever it should be called. And in the attempt to persuade and lead to the truth (καὶ προσαγαγεῖν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ) those who are not entirely incurable (μὴ παντάπασιν ἀνιάτους), I have made use of these words (τοῖσδε συνεχρησάμην τοῖς λόγοις). For there are some who cannot bear at all to hearken (ἐπακοῦσαι) to those who exhort them to turn to the truth (τῶν πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν προτρεπόντων); and they attempt to play the fool (φλυαρεῖν), pouring out blasphemies against the truth (βλασφήμους τῆς ἀληθείας καταχέοντες λόγους), claiming for themselves the knowledge of the greatest things (σφίσιν αὐτοῖς τὰ μέγιστα τῶν ὄντων ἐγνωκέναι συγχωροῦντες), without having learned, or inquired, or laboured, or discovered the path to follow (τὴν ἀκολουθίαν), -- whom one should pity (ἐλεήσειεν) rather than hate for such perversity (τῆς τοιαύτης διαστροφῆς).
But if one is curable, able to bear (like fire or steel) the outspokenness of the truth, which cuts away and burns their false opinions.
Now I don't want reveal everything I have discovered related to this material, but here's something that most everyone would miss right at the beginning.
The first few lines of this section are clearly referencing contemporary persecutions that have just passed and only involved - claims Clement - members of the heretical sects. While it is tempting to read the description in a typically obtuse manner (i.e. that God is the active persecutor) the specific language that Clement employs denies that possibility. The negative circumstances that have befallen the community are ultimately directed by God (and understood as a kind of 'pruning') but there are clearly 'real' historical agents involved in the persecution and the citation of LXX Psalm 58 make the connection with the opening lines of the Letter to Theodore even more explicit.
All we have to do is actually look at the Greek text of the Psalm that Clement was using to see what exactly he is driving at - and voila - we see with close inspection that Clement has chosen this particular scripture because it references 'snakes' (i.e. heretics) having their mouths shut:
Sinners have gone astray from the belly, they speak lies. Their venom is like that of a serpent; and that of a deaf asp, and that stops her ears; which will not hear the voice of charmers, nor heed the charm prepared skillfully by the wise. God has crushed their teeth in their mouth: God has broken the cheek-teeth of the lions. They shall utterly pass away like water running through: he shall bend his bow till they shall fail. They shall be destroyed as melting wax: the fire has fallen and they have not seen the sun. Before your thorns feel the white thorn, he shall swallow you up as living, as in his wrath. The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance on the ungodly; he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner. And a man shall say, Verily then there is a reward for the righteous, verily there is a judge that judges them in the earth. [Psalm 58.3 -11]
When the reader sees the connections in just this one passage and the Letter to Theodore and its reference to 'secret Mark' the underlying connection between the heretics 'having their teeth crushed in their mouths' (συνέτριψεν τοὺς ὀδόντας αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν) and to Theodore's strange welcoming his addressee's "'shuting of the mouth' (ἐπιστομίσας) of the unspeakable (ἀῤῥήτους) teachings (τῶν διδασκαλίας) of the Carpocratians."[To Theod. I.2]
I know that many people are saying - 'maybe this just a coincidence.' But if anyone will take the time to look at all the parallels between these two section, this literary commonality becomes very improbable. And let's keep track of the facts. The reference in Strom. 7.16 is clearly to heretics who have underwent something similar to what is described in Psalm 58.6. The immediately context is this group spreading around 'perverted' teachings related to the gospel - and where διαστροφή commonly denotes 'homosexuality' (and further where the group itself is identified as the Carpocratians a little earlier).
In any event the reader will just have to wait a few days for this to be over. I plan on developing this into a book and asking reasonable people to choose between seeing all the ideas in to Theodore as being already present in the conclusion of the Stromateis and the idiotic idea that Morton Smith 'invented' the letter through a seemingly perfect knowledge of Clement's style (albeit 'slipping up' with small details like the Morton Salt company reference).
