The Shelves · Philosophy

Letter to Theodore, quoting a 'Secret Gospel of Mark'

Conjecturedin Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

◇ Doubted: the attribution is disputed; its authenticity is disputed; its provenance is disputed; the attribution is uncertain. Authenticity fiercely contested: some scholars judge the letter a modern forgery.

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I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Philosophy

Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

Attributed to Clement of Alexandria

Letter to Theodore, quoting a 'Secret Gospel of Mark'

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives in fragments

Copied into the endpapers of a 1646 printed book at the Mar Saba monastery; found by Morton Smith in 1958; known today only from photographs, the pages having disappeared after about 1990.

Was it in Alexandria?

Conjectured

Written in Alexandria.

On the table: written in Alexandria; no evidence it was in the Library.

Read it today

Smith (1973) publishes the photographs and a translation; the debate is gathered in Burke (2013).

III · In the show

Heresiologists and early Christian doctrine, episode 2, at 43 secondsTranscriptHeresiologists and early Christian doctrine: why we know the early schools from their opponents.Known: attested
Early Spread of Christianity & Esotericism, episode 17, at 48 minutes 34 secondsTranscriptEarly spread of Christianity and esotericism; Plotinus' hypostases and the Trinity.Known: attested
Heresiologists and early Christian doctrine, episode 2, at 2 minutes 2 secondsTranscript“Clement of Alexandria was a little bit more um he was a little bit more amunable to you know particularly the Gnostic schools”Fair: Clement's 'true gnostic' and his careful quotation of Valentinian and Basilidean sources.Known: attested

+ 8 more

Baptism, anointing, and the Holy Spirit, episode 2, at 23 minutes 50 secondsTranscript“Basalian gnostics did not celebrate the incarnation of the Lord on or around the winter solstice”Clement is the source: the Basilideans kept the feast of the Baptism, on 15 or 11 Tybi, around 10 or 6 January (Stromata I.21.146).Known: attested
Alexandria as Esoteric Crossroads, episode 17, at 47 minutes 57 secondsTranscript“the evangelist Mark brought Christianity there in 42 CE”Church tradition, which the speaker labels 'legend… or tradition' (Eusebius, Church History 2.16); Eusebius' Chronicle, in Jerome's version, puts Mark's mission in the early 40s.Known: attested
Correction
What was said
The Hermetic tracts were "all found outside of Alexandria".
What the sources say
Near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, some 600 km south of Alexandria (about 615 km in a straight line, farther by the river). Codex VI holds three Hermetic texts (the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, the Prayer of Thanksgiving, an extract of the Asclepius) and an extract of Plato's Republic.
Path: Martinism and Reintegration, station 4Understand the anointing. The Basilidian feast of the Baptism, connected with the anointing at the Jordan.Known: attested
Gnosticism · Thirty aeons and a Limit: 'How we know' cites Clement's Excerpts from TheodotusKnown: attested
Gnosticism · Traditions: the Basilidean current, 'reports in Clement of Alexandria'Known: attested
Christian Mysticism · Chronology: Origen reads the SongOrigen reads the Song.Known: attested
Christian Mysticism · Chronology: The desert withdrawalThe desert withdrawal; Athanasius' Life of Antony.Known: attested
Symbolism · Origen's three sensesKnown: attested

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references

Mar Saba manuscript (known from 1958 photographs)

Modern scholarship (4)

M. Smith, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973)
S. C. Carlson, The Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith's Invention of Secret Mark (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2005)
S. G. Brown, Mark's Other Gospel: Rethinking Morton Smith's Controversial Discovery (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2005).
T. Burke (ed.), Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery? The Secret Gospel of Mark in Debate (Eugene: Cascade, 2013)

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 change noted on On the Pinakes · Suggest a correction ›

LETTER TO THEODORE, QUOTING A 'SECRET GOSPEL OF MARK'