So why does 'Secret Mark,' the gospel referenced in a relatively recently discovered letter of the third century Church Father Clement of Alexandria tell us something new about this relationship between the two Jesuses? Well to start with, the letter from Clement makes reference to a 'missing piece' of the original narrative of the ministry of Jesus the Son of God which obviously parallels the story of Joshua crossing the Jordan (Joshua 4). The story of the resurrected youth in 'Secret Mark' ends with a cryptic allusion to the crossing of the Jordan just before Passover - "And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God. And thence, arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan." (to Theod 3.6,7)
As I have noted in many of my previous posts this allusion to a crossing of the Jordan leading up to the Passover cannot be a mere coincidence. We know the date of Joshua leading the ancient Israelites across the river Jordan in the Book of Joshua - the tenth day of the first month Nisan (Josh 4:19). The date of narrative in Secret Mark can be tentatively assigned to the same date by examining a lot of circumstantial evidence.
Jesus tells his disciples before the raising the rich youth that he is on his way to Jerusalem (Mark 10:32 - 34). The material that follows the lost narrative in 'Secret Mark' makes clear that Passover was only a few days away. In what follows, Jesus ends up going to Jericho (Mark 10:46), encounters blind Bartimaeus on the highway to Jerusalem (Mark 10:47) and then already arrives at Jerusalem a little while later (Mark 11). The whole journey from Bethany Beyond the Jordan to Jerusalem wouldn't be more than a couple of days by foot.
And there is another way that scholars have approached the same problem. The parallels between this resurrection narrative in Secret Mark and the raising of Lazarus in the Gospel of John has already been noted by many scholars. The eastern liturgy venerates this event on the Saturday before Easter - i.e. 'Lazarus Saturday.' The parallel event in Biblical times - i.e. the crossing of the Jordan by Joshua - may have been dated to the 10th of Nisan and this date was certainly once recognized as the 'day of redemption' of Israel, nevertheless Jews, like Christians learned to transfer much of the liturgical significance of this day to the first Saturday before Passover.
The abandonment of the veneration of the 10th of Nisan in both Jewish and Christian traditions is very strange. It is one of only a handful of dates hallowed in the Torah. Yet it follows a greater pattern which saw Jews abandon the Passover sacrifice and Christians dissuaded from calculating Easter according to a Jewish dating system. All this obscuring of the original traditions makes it very difficult to see that the story in 'Secret Mark' was clearly patterned after the account of the attainment of the 'kingdom of God' in the Book of Joshua. Indeed most scholars identify Bethany or Betharaba as the very place Joshua entered the Jordan.
Yet it is particularly significant to see Clement's disciple Origen connect Bethany with Joshua's crossing in a most definitive manner. After spending a paragraph explaining the location of
But the baptism to Joshua, which takes place in quite sweet and drinkable water, is in many ways superior to that earlier one, religion having by this timegrown clearer and assuming a becoming order. For the ark of the covenant of the Lord our God is carried in procession by the priests and levites, the people following the ministers of God, it, also, accepting the law of holiness. For Joshua says to the people, [Joshua 3:5 Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow; the Lord will do wonders among you. And he commands the priests to go before the people with the ark of the covenant, wherein is plainly showed forth the mystery of the Father'seconomy about the Son, which is highly exalted by Him who gave the Son this office; That at the name of Jesus [Philippians 2:9-11] every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the gloryof God the Father. This is pointed out by what we find in the book called Joshua, In that day I will begin to exalt you before the children of Israel. And we hear our Lord Jesus saying to the children ofIsrael, [Joshua 3:9-10] Come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God. Hereby you shall knowthat the living God is in (among) you; for when we are baptized to Jesus, we know that the livingGod is in us. And, in the former case, they kept the passover in Egypt, and then began their journey, but with Joshua, after crossing Jordan on the tenth day of the first month they pitched their camp in Galgala; for a sheep had to be procured before invitations could be issued to the banquet after Joshua's baptism. Then the children of Israel, since the children of those who came out of Egypt had not received circumcision, were circumcised by Joshua with a very sharp stone; the Lord declares that He takes away the reproach of Egypt on the day of Joshua's baptism, when Joshua purified the children of Israel. For it is written: [Joshua 5:9] And the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, This day have I taken away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Then the children of Israel kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month, with much greater gladness than in Egypt, for they ate unleavened bread of the grain of the holy land, and fresh food better than manna. For when they received the land of promise God did not entertain them with scantier food, nor when such a one asJoshua was their leader do they get inferior bread. This will be plain to him who thinks of the true holy land and of the Jerusalem above. Hence it is written in this same Gospel: Your fathers ate bread in the wilderness, and are dead; he that eats of this bread shall live for ever. For the manna, though it was given by God, yet was bread of travel, bread supplied to those still under discipline, well fitted for those who were under tutors and governors. And the new bread Joshua managed to get from grain they cut in the country, in the land of promise, others having laboured and his disciples reaping—that was bread more full of life, distributed as it was to those who, for their perfection, were able to receive the inheritance of their fathers. Hence, he who is still under discipline to that bread may receive death as far as it is concerned, but he who has attained to the bread that follows that, eating it, shall live for ever. All this has been added, not, I conceive, without appropriateness, to our study of the baptism at the Jordan, administered by John at Bethabara. [Comm John 6.26]
It cannot be denied that Origen is specifically addressing the location of Bethany in the Gospel of John, however the parallels are so strong between Secret Mark's according of the raising of a disciple and that of John chapter 11 he could be referring to either one.
More to follow ...
