THE CONTENT OF THE "SECRET GOSPEL OF MARK"
The various Gospels of Mark:
The following is based on the assumption that a letter which claims to have been written by Clement of Alexandria (circa 150-213 CE), is valid and accurate. No total consensus has been reached by theologians on the letter's legitimacy: religious conservatives tend to reject the letter as a forgery; religious liberals tend to accept it as real.
<snip>
Interpretations of the Fragments:
The text about the young man's clothing in the first fragment reads literally: "a linen cloth having been draped over the naked body." The young man in both fragments, and the man who escaped naked in the Garden of Gethsemane appear to refer to the same individual. He may also have been the young man encountered by the two Marys and Salome when they visited Jesus' tomb in Mark 16:5.
Interpretations of these fragments vary:
Some scholars suspect that naked young man covered only in a linen cloth might have been prepared for an initiation ritual. In the early Christian church, both the presbyter and the person to be baptized stood in the water together, naked. 6 Ritual nudity is no longer a common practice in the world with the exception of Wicca, some other Neopagan religions, and a few sects in India. But it was very common in the early Christian movement.
Morton Smith (1915-1991) wrote two books about the secret gospel of Mark. 7 They raised a firestorm of attacks from some theologians who were disturbed at some of the possible interpretations of his work. Author Shawn Eyer commented: "The possibility that the initiation could have included elements of eroticism was unthinkable to many scholars, whose reaction was to project onto Smith's entire interpretive work an imaginary emphasis on Jesus being a homosexual." 8 Eyer compiled a list of brief quotes from theologians' negative reviews:
<snip>
A more radical interpretation of these fragments was available online. The author suggested that Jesus and the unnamed young man engaged in sexual behavior on the night mentioned in the first fragment. The implication was that Jesus was had either a homosexual or bisexual orientation. 10
More:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_miss1.htm
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
