OVO

Ask your preacher about the Secret Gospel of Mark this Sunday, won’t you?

Mark 10:46 states: “Then they came to Jericho. As He was leaving Jericho with His disciples…” This verse is puzzling: why mention that Jesus and His disciples went to Jericho and then left Jericho? Did something happen in Jericho that isn’t mentioned in the modern Bible? A discovery made in 1958 may provide the answer.

In 1958, Morton Smith (a theology graduate student from Columbia University) went to the Mar Saba Monastery near Jerusalem to catalog their library. While he was there, Smith discovered a transcription of a letter written by Clement of Alexandria to “Theodore” laid into the back of the 1646 edition of a book called Epistolae genuinae S. Ignatii Martyris. The letter claims that in earlier editions of Mark there was a passage that described what Jesus and His disciples did in Jericho. Here is the missing passage:

[Then they came to Jericho.] And they came into Bethany. And a certain woman whose brother had died was there. And, coming, she prostrated herself before Jesus and said to Him, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me.’ But the disciples rebuked her. And Jesus, being angered, went off with her into the garden where the tomb was, and straightway a great cry was heard from the tomb. And going near, Jesus rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb. And straightaway, going in where the youth was, He stretched forth His hand and raised him, seizing his hand. But the youth, looking upon Him, loved Him and began to beseech Him that he might be with Him. And going out of the tomb, they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days Jesus told him what to do, and in the evening the youth came to Him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. 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. [As He was leaving Jericho with His disciples...]

The Secret Gospel of Mark is missing from all modern versions of the Bible although it is as credible as any other work to be found there. But other accounts of God-sanctioned nudity remain. A naked young man was with Jesus and the disciples when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51-52). Saul prophecies naked (1 Samuel 19:24), as does Isaiah (Isaiah 20:25) and Micah (Micah 1:8).

Early Christianity clearly included a nude ritual of initiation; this is what Jesus means when He says we must be ‘born again’ (we are born naked). The world might be a different place indeed if Christians still considered observing the naked body sacred rather than a sin.

(from OVO 16 ANTICHRIST January 2006)