Mar Saba Letter - Text

Text

See also: Secret Gospel of Mark

The letter, addressed to one Theodore, discusses a Secret Gospel of Mark and quotes two excerpts from this gospel, one of which mentions "the mystery of the kingdom of God." Clement begins by commending Theodore's actions against the Carpocratians, a heretical sect. He then turns to address questions posed by Theodore regarding the Gospel of Mark, a secret variant of which the Carpocratians claim to have. Clement admits to knowledge of a second secret or mystical version of the gospel, written by Mark for "those being perfected". However, he asserts that the version promoted by the Carpocratians is not an accurate representation of this; they have corrupted the original with their own false additions. To illustrate this, two ostensibly genuine excerpts from the gospel are supplied. The letter breaks off abruptly as Clement begins to explain the passages.

Read more about this topic:  Mar Saba Letter

Famous quotes containing the word text:

    “There’s a great text in Galatians,
    Once you trip on it, entails
    Twenty-nine distinct damnations,
    One sure, if another fails:”
    —Robert Browning (1812–1889)

    “The power of a text is different when it is read from when it is copied out.... Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind in the free flight of day-dreaming, whereas the copier submits it to command.”
    —Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)

    “I am so glad you have been able to preserve the text in all of its impurity.”
    —Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)