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The Mar Saba Letter is an epistle attributed to Clement of Alexandria and discovered by Morton Smith in 1958. It contains the only known references to the Secret Gospel of Mark.

Contents 1 Discovery and disappearance 2 Text of letter 3 Controversy over authenticity 4 External links 5 References

In 1973 Morton Smith published a book on a previously unknown letter of Clement of Alexandria. He stated that, while cataloging documents at the ancient monastery of Mar Saba in 1958, he discovered the text of the letter transcribed into the endpapers of a seventeenth century printed edition of Ignatius of Antioch. This letter is consequently referred to as the Mar Saba letter of Clement of Alexandria. Smith published a second book for the popular audience in 1981.

Smith's books reproduced black and white photographs he claimed to have taken at the time of the discovery. In 1976 a group of four scholars visited Mar Saba, viewed the manuscript, and took color photographs of it. This visit remained unknown until 2003 when one of the party, Guy G. Stroumsa, published an account of the visit. In 1977 the volume containing the manuscript was taken to the Patriarchate library in Jerusalem. That same year, the manuscript pages were removed from the bound volume by the librarian Kallistos Dourvas, to be photographed and kept separately. These photographs were published in 2000. Subsequent attempts by scholars to view the manuscript have been unsuccessful.

The letter is addressed to one Theodore by "Clement, author of the Stromateis." Clement begins by commending Theodore's actions against the Carpocratians. He then turns to discussion of the Gospel of Mark, and says that Mark wrote a second secret or mystical version of his gospel for "those being perfected". Clement instructs Theodore to deny that this secret gospel exists, but also says that the Carpocratians have made their own, false additions. To illustrate this, two ostensibly genuine excerpts from this Secret Gospel of Mark are supplied. The letter ends abruptly as Clement begins to explain the passages.

Though many scholars have accepted the manuscript as an authentic letter of Clement, doubts have been expressed as to whether it represents a genuinely old text.

In a 1975 review of Smith's book, Quentin Quesnell questioned the authenticity of the original manuscript and suggested that it was a forgery executed sometime between 1936 and 1958. Though Quesnell did not specifically accuse Smith, in the view of Charles W. Hedrick he "broadly hinted" that Smith was the culprit. When Quesnell wrote this, no scholar other than Smith had claimed to have seen the manuscript.

In 2005 Stephen Carlson published Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith's Invention of Secret Mark, which also asserted that the manuscript was a hoax. By this time independent confirmation of the manuscript's existence and appearance had been presented by Hedrick and others; Carlson argued that Smith had himself written the text into the book. Earlier in the same year, however, Scott Brown published Mark's Other Gospel: Rethinking Morton Smith's Controversial Discovery. In this book he claimed that the Secret Gospel of Mark was an authentic writing of the evangelist, implying that the letter was authentic.

Many scholars who accept the letter as a copy of an ancient manuscript believe that it is not the work of the historical Clement. The central element of initiation and progress to "the innermost sanctuary of that truth hidden by seven veils" is common to Gnostic writings and to the mystery religions of the period. Even so, Clement scholars have long known that he openly proclaimed a secret tradition reserved for the few true gnostics, and believed Christianity to be the pure representative of God's true Mysteries which others had stolen and corrupted:

O truly sacred mysteries! O stainless light! My way is lighted with torches, and I survey the heavens and God; I become holy whilst I am initiated. The Lord is the hierophant, and seals while illuminating him who is initiated, and presents to the Father him who believes, to be kept safe for ever. Such are the reveries of my mysteries. If it is thy wish, be thou also initiated; . . . — Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, xi

• Charles W. Hedrick with Nikolaos Olympiou, "Secret Mark": contains account of manuscript history and color images of the manuscript
• Review of Stephen Carlson's "The Gospel Hoax" - review of book which presents evidence that Smith created Secret Mark as a hoax.
• Wieland Wilker, "Secret Gospel of Mark Homepage": detailed description of the manuscript, images, Greek and English text, current developments.
• Early Christian Writings website: the "Mar Saba Letter" of Clement
• "The Mar Saba Clementine: a question of evidence" in Catholic Biblical Quarterly vol. 37:1, January 1975: pp 48 – 67
• Morton Smith, "On the authenticity of the Mar Saba letter of Clement" in Catholic Biblical Quarterly vol 38:2, April 1976: permitted 1500 words to answer Quentin Quesnell, Smith defends his discovery.

• Morton Smith, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark Harvard University Press, 1973 [the scholarly version].
• Morton Smith, The Secret Gospel: The Discovery and Interpretation of the Secret Gospel According to Mark, 1981 [the popular version].
• Stephen C. Carlson, Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith's Invention of Secret Mark, Baylor University Press, 2005.
• Scott G. Brown,Mark's Other Gospel: Rethinking Morton Smith's Controversial Discovery Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2005.
• Catholic Encyclopedia, "Clement of Alexandria," http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04045a.htm