Clarification and correction. Above in this thread, Sun Apr 21, 2024 2:17 pm, I wrote:
""MS got early liturgy wrong." Wrong for what fit Clement in Egypt.
This, supported from, iirc, Robin Jenson (a Columbia grad, I think), and Peter Jeffrey, an early liturgy specialist, and a colleague prof of Smith's at Columbia."
A clarification. That's three people, not two. In other words, Jeffrey was at Princeton and now Notre Dame, so not to be confused with a Columbia prof.
A correction. The "Columbia" prof I was thinking of was Cyril C. Richardson, who was at Union Theological Seminary, not [my mistake] Columbia, but nearby in NYC, and a close colleague of Smith's.
Richardson appears significantly in Smith's exceedingly-academic 1973 book,
as does Gershom Scholem.
Speaking of Scholem, remember that Scholem is the first person Smith mentioned to whom Smith showed "Secret Mark." And remember that Carpocrates--which immediately interested Scholem--appeared in the same sentence with "Secret Gospel." Whether one thinks Smith composed the text or found the text, you can't miss it. Smith knew in 1958, when visiting his mentor Scholem in Jerusalem, that the "Letter" suggested an antinomian Jesus, which Smith associated with another person, Shabbatai Zvi, "the Mystical Messiah," as the English Translation of Scholem's great book title has it. Scholem had started publishing on Zvi (or Sabbatai Sevi) long before meeting Smith, so Smith, in the 1940s in Jerusalem became familiar with Zvi.
""MS got early liturgy wrong." Wrong for what fit Clement in Egypt.
This, supported from, iirc, Robin Jenson (a Columbia grad, I think), and Peter Jeffrey, an early liturgy specialist, and a colleague prof of Smith's at Columbia."
A clarification. That's three people, not two. In other words, Jeffrey was at Princeton and now Notre Dame, so not to be confused with a Columbia prof.
A correction. The "Columbia" prof I was thinking of was Cyril C. Richardson, who was at Union Theological Seminary, not [my mistake] Columbia, but nearby in NYC, and a close colleague of Smith's.
Richardson appears significantly in Smith's exceedingly-academic 1973 book,
as does Gershom Scholem.
Speaking of Scholem, remember that Scholem is the first person Smith mentioned to whom Smith showed "Secret Mark." And remember that Carpocrates--which immediately interested Scholem--appeared in the same sentence with "Secret Gospel." Whether one thinks Smith composed the text or found the text, you can't miss it. Smith knew in 1958, when visiting his mentor Scholem in Jerusalem, that the "Letter" suggested an antinomian Jesus, which Smith associated with another person, Shabbatai Zvi, "the Mystical Messiah," as the English Translation of Scholem's great book title has it. Scholem had started publishing on Zvi (or Sabbatai Sevi) long before meeting Smith, so Smith, in the 1940s in Jerusalem became familiar with Zvi.
Statistics: Posted by StephenGoranson — Wed May 08, 2024 7:26 am