I first came upon the connection in Dubrinsky's Customs and Laws of the Jewish People but here is the entry in Geoffrey Wigoder's The Encyclopedia of Judaism p. 614 which reports much the same thing:
("Great [or Awesome] Sabbath")Origin of name: Uncertain, but may derive from the last verse of the haftarah, "Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome [gadol], fearful day of the Lord" (Mal. 3:24). Shabbat ha-Gadol comes immediately before Passover, and the haftarah was selected not only because Elijah is seen as the Messiah's harbinger, but also because of the popular notion that the Messianic Redemption will take place in the same month (Nisan) as the Exodus from Egypt (RH 11a).Liturgy: Extensive religious poems are read in some congregations.Torah Reading: Weekly portion.Haftarah: Mal. 3:4-24 (concludes with a repetition of verse 23).Customs: The community rabbi gives a lecture on Passover and preparations for the holiday; should this Sabbath fall on the eve of Passover, the talk is given a week earlier. A portion of the Haggadah is also read by worshipers in the afternoon. Among the Sephardim, in communities such as Salonika, pupils of the Jewish school (talmud torah) would receive new outfits on this day, which was therefore also known as Ḥag ha-Halbashah ("Festival of the New Clothes").
It is impossible now to avoid seeing the the context for the ritual described in the 'Secret Gospel of Mark' fits perfectly within the context of traditional Jewish assumptions about the 10th of Nisan.
On the one hand we have the selection of a sacrificial victim (who is presumably the youth who will accompany Jesus to his Passion in Jerusalem). The great Samaritan exegete Mark (Marqe) explains the significance in the writings of Moses as:
The great prophet Moses stood up in the assembly of Israel and instructed them about deliverance. He told them to prepare themselves for the time of departure on the tenth of the month, to prepare to sacrifice the offering, and take in the tenth of the month a perfect one year old lamb (Ex. xii. 3-5). See what God commanded the great prophet Moses on the tenth of the month. He made it a command that it should be prepared from the fourth to the fourteenth day, for the slaughtering of an offering to the Lord. [Memar Marqe 1.9]
It is hard not to see that the Alexandrian Christian rituals associated with the selection of the martyr has now replaced the ancient selection practices associated with the lamb.
Moreover, the near nakedness of the youth is clearly connected with some ritual interest with being adorned with new clothes. This fits perfectly with the traditional Jewish celebration of Ḥag ha-Halbashah in association with this day. Yet notice again that Philo of Alexandria also seems to connect the day with the adoption of a new (spiritual) nature:
This [i.e. the 10th of Nisan] is remission and deliverance, this is complete freedom of the soul, shaking off the wanderings in which it wandered, and fleeing for a secure anchorage to the one nature which cannot wander, and which rises up to return to the lot which it formerly received when it had brilliant aspirations, and when it vigorously toiled in labours which had virtuous ends for their object. [Preliminary Studies 107]
At the same time as we noted the tenth of the first month is certainly also connected with the crossing of the Jordan. All of this and more can be seen in previous posts.
The reason perhaps that scholars haven't noticed this before is that Jews over time stopped venerating the 10th of Nisan every year but chose instead to make holy the Sabbath before Passover (= the Great Sabbath, Shabbat haGadol) whatever day of the month it fell (the original 10 Nisan of Exodus was a so-called 'Great Sabbath'). Here is one rabbi's attempt to sort out the development of this celebration:
The Shabbat before Pesach is called "Shabbat Hagadol," or "the Great Shabbat," a term that is generally understood as a reference to the miracle that occurred in Egypt on the Shabbat before Benei Yisrael's departure from Egypt. It was on that Shabbat, which fell on the tenth of Nissan, that Benei Yisrael designated sheep for the Korban Pesach (paschal offering) and tied them to their bedposts. The Egyptians inquired as to the purpose behind this designation of sheep, which the Egyptians worshipped as a pagan deity, and Benei Yisrael explained that they prepared the sheep for a sacrificial offering to God. Despite this grave insult to their deity, the Egyptians were powerless to oppose Benei Yisrael. They were miraculously struck by a disease that required them to regularly visit the restroom, thus impairing their ability to cause any harm to Benei Yisrael.
In commemoration of this great miracle that occurred on the Shabbat before Pesach on the year when Benei Yisrael left Egypt, we observe this Shabbat as a special occasion and refer to it as "Shabbat Hagadol."
Some have raised the question as to why we commemorate this miracle specifically on the Shabbat before Pesach, rather than on the calendar date when this miracle occurred – the tenth of Nissan. Why don't we observe a commemoration on this date regardless of the day of week on which it falls?
One answer suggests that it was specifically due to Benei Yisrael's observance of Shabbat that the greatness of this miracle was felt. When they told the Egyptians on that day of their plans to slaughter the sheep as a sacrifice, the Egyptians believed them despite the fact that they did not slaughter the sheep that day, because they understood that Benei Yisrael would not kill animals on Shabbat. On the subsequent days, however, when the Egyptians saw that Benei Yisrael were not yet slaughtering the sheep, they began to suspect that they were bluffing all along. It was thus specifically on Shabbat when the Egyptians sought to foil Benei Yisrael's plans but were miraculously prevented from doing so, and for this reason we commemorate this miracle specifically on the Shabbat before Pesach.
Others explain that the tenth of Nissan marks yet another great miracle in Jewish history – the splitting of the Jordan River when Benei Yisrael entered the Land of Israel, as recorded in the Book of Yehoshua (chapter 3). In order to make it clear that we commemorate the miracle in Egypt, and not the splitting of the Jordan, we observe our commemoration on the Shabbat before Pesach, rather than on the calendar date of the tenth of Nissan.
The Chid"a (Rabbi Chayim Yosef David Azulai, 1724-1806) writes that on this Shabbat people should extend to one another the greeting, "Shabbat Hagadol Shalom" and then respond, "Shabbat Hagadol Shalom U'mevorach."
There is a widespread custom for the Grand Rabbi of the congregation to deliver on this Shabbat a special Derasha (lecture) devoted to the laws of Pesach and discussions of the Haggada in preparation for the holiday. This is another reason for calling this Shabbat "Shabbat Hagadol," which perhaps means, "the Shabbat of the great person," referring to the Grand Rabbi. Additionally, the Derasha delivered on Shabbat Hagadol is typically lengthier than the Rabbi's usual lecture. (The late Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic Community in Brooklyn, Chacham Yaakov Kassin A”H, would deliver his Derasha on Shabbat Hagadol in Congregation Shaare Zion for several hours before Mincha.) The term "Shabbat Hagadol" may thus refer to the "great," or long, lecture that the Rabbi delivers on this Shabbat.
Some Ashkenazim have the practice of reciting the Maggid section of the Haggada on Shabbat Hagadol, in order to familiarize themselves with the Haggada in preparation for the Seder. The Gaon of Vilna (Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, 1720-1797) opposed this practice, in light of the emphasis made in the Haggada itself that the obligation to tell the story of the Exodus applies only on the night of Pesach ("Lo Amarti Ela Be'sha'a She'yeish Matza U'marror Munachim Lefanecha"). In any event, even for those of us who do not actually recite the Haggada on Shabbat Hagadol, this Shabbat is an appropriate time to begin reviewing the Haggada and prepare material for the Seder.
The bottom line of course is that the raising of Lazarus (which is certainly related to the Secret Mark narrative) is always celebrated in Eastern churches in connection with a Sabbath in Eastern Churches. All of Peter Jeffery's attempts to disprove the connection are now demolished with the identification of the original rooting in Jewish customs (which he not surprisingly ignored as he can't make sense of even Christian traditions outside of his Catholic faith).
The point of course is that the story about the resurrected youth in Secret Mark is not only connected with Lazarus Saturday but both stories are ultimately rooted in the ancient Jewish interest in the 10th of Nisan and the so-called 'Shabbat haGadol.' The logic now is irrefutable. Not only was this the day that the Book of Joshua says that the Israelites crossed the Jordan but it is also the date traditionally associated with the 'redemption' (ἀπολύτρωσις) of Israel, the ideas are clearly form the underpinning of Alexandrian baptism not only in Secret Mark but also in the reports of Irenaeus on the so-called 'Markan' - or 'Marcosian' - heresy (cf. Irenaeus AH 1.21.1,2). The 10th of Nisan was clearly also the date of the selection of the Paschal offering (cf. Ex 12.3) which of course fits perfectly within the context of the placement of the narrative in Secret Mark i.e. just after Jesus announces that he is going to Jerusalem where the 'Son of Man' will be crucified etc. As preparation for his 'perfecting' the youth in the narrative presumably also 'takes on new clothes' as part of his ritual baptism.
The import of this unmistakable connection between the first addition to Secret Mark as described in the Letter to Theodore and the traditional Jewish observance of the 10th of Nisan is that the Passion narrative originally conformed much closer to the Akedah (= the sacrifice of Isaac) than has previously been realized. Two victims essentially go to be sacrificed, with one dying on the cross and the other surviving. This reality is already reported in the writings of Irenaeus:
Those, again, who separate Jesus from Christ, alleging that Christ remained impassible, but that it was Jesus who suffered, preferring the Gospel by Mark, if they read it with a love of truth, may have their errors rectified. [AH 3.11.7]
Indeed the very same idea is also intimated within the writings associated with Clement of Alexandria "And when he says "The Son of Man must be rejected and insulted and crucified," he seems to be speaking of someone else, that is, of him who has passion." (Excerpts Theod. 61).
With all this evidence suggesting that the text is authentic, what has Francis Watson to say for himself? Do any of his arguments compare? Of course not, but he will never listen. He would burn such a text if he had it in his hand merely because it contradicts his presuppositions about what should be true in Christianity. That's what makes him such a blind fool.
