The Testimony of Maximus of Tyre

We have already delivered the knock out punch to the claims that the Letter to Theodore is a fake in our discovery of the 'nudus nudum' formula of Jerome and the western monastic tradition. Jerome always seems to connect this saying with Mark 10:17 - 31 and thus is certainly witnessing the survival of knowledge of 'Secret Mark' in the West. Yet this is only the beginning of our efforts. In the coming days we will start to develop a case that Maximus of Tyre's formula 'the naked to the naked, the loving to the loved, and the free to the free' (γυμνὸν γυμνῷ, φίλον φίλῳ, ἐλεύθερον ἐλευθέρῳ) was ultimately also connected with the Letter to Theodore.

I have been reading a great deal about this remarkable historical figure. It will be very easy to connect him with the pagan critic Celsus as there are remarkable similarities in their world view. But it should be pointed out that many of Maximus's statements sound very Christian such as:

That beauty which eye has not seen in its fulness, and of which no tongue may tell, may yet gleam for moments on those who break through the veil of flesh; but thou shalt see it in its fulness only when God calls thee to Him.

Compare this to the apocryphal statement in 1 Corinthians 2.9:

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him

I can't believe that Maximus has just happened to have written something which sounds like scripture. Is it really that impossible that the Platonist came into contact and appropriated Christian writings?

In the coming days we will examine we will examine the arguments that 'the naked to the naked, the loving to the loved, and the free to the free' is somehow a citation of a psalm or hymn developed by the Alexandrian tradition from its 'secret gospel.'