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The Letter to Theodore tells us a great deal about how Clement conceived of the origin and proper use of the longer Gospel of Mark. Elaborating upon received tradition, he informed Theodore that Mark had created this “more spiritual” gospel in Alexandria by expanding the gospel that he had created in order to strengthen the faith of catechumens. The additions were selected for their utility in increasing gnosis and included more praxeis as well as certain logia whose interpretations functioned like a mystagogue, leading the hearers into the innermost sanctuary of the truth. Clement pointed out, however, that the revised gospel included neither “the things not to be uttered” nor the “hierophantic teaching of the Lord” and that it was “very securely kept” within the church in Alexandria, where it was read “only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries.” Clement also called this revision the mystikon euangelion. These statements provide a window onto the use of the longer text in Alexandria in Clement’s day. But just as importantly, they permit us to construct a framework within which to comprehend LGM 1 and 2 and the nature of the longer text as a whole. For although Clement’s statements about the genre and intended function of this writing are not those of its author, they nevertheless represent the conceptions of someone who knew the complete gospel and expounded it. Clement’s Conception of the Genre of the Longer Gospel Clement initially called the longer text “a more spiritual gospel” (I.21–22). In scholarly discussions, this description has all but been eclipsed by the secNotes to chapter 4 start on page 261 121 4 The Nature of the Longer Gospel brown_04.qxd 2005/04/26 12:23 PM Page 121 ond description he gave using the words to mystikon euangelion. That phrase Smith translated as “the secret Gospel,” which became the standard title for this text. The question of what might be more spiritual about a secret gospel has for some reason been treated as irrelevant, and investigators continue to use the words “Secret Gospel” (now with a capital s) as if mystikon were an established synonym for apocryphon (which means hidden, concealed, or obscure). Mystikon can mean secret, but was also used in a variety of other senses. When it appears in the writings of the early Greek fathers, translators normally use mystic or mystical—for lack of a better word. There is no obvious English counterpart for the ideas which writers such as Philo and Clement used this word to denote, although “secret” has rarely seemed appropriate. The English derivatives mystic and mystical are usually adopted as a convention, but are not meant to suggest mysticism or a transformed state of consciousness experienced through meditation, an association which was not prominent in Christian writings until a few centuries later.1 It makes a big difference whether we translate mystikon as secret or mystic , for a mystic text is not necessarily a secret writing, hidden from the masses. Accordingly, we need to determine what Clement meant by calling this text a mystikon euangelion, and can do so by answering the following questions: Is mystikon euangelion really a title? Is the adjective best translated secret? How is mystikon related to the terms mystikai, logia, and praxeis, which are also used in the letter to describe the longer gospel’s contents? And what is the relationship between mystikon euangelion and “more spiritual gospel”? Once the Alexandrian conception of this gospel’s genre has been determined, we will better be able to comprehend the nature and purpose of the discretion that surrounded its use. We may start by asking whether “the mystikon gospel” is actually a title. There are prima facie reasons for supposing that this phrase was used only as a convenient, perhaps ad hoc, means of distinguishing the longer version of Mark from the shorter one. I know of no other gospels called mystikon euangelion that could attest to the use of mystikon as part of a proper title. The common titles using euangelion usually did not have an adjective modifying the word gospel, nor did they use a genitival phrase to introduce the author, as we have here in the phrase “of Mark mystikon gospel” (II.11–12). Rather, the word gospel was normally modified by the preposition “according to” (@6IU), as in “the Gospel according to” someone or some group (e.g., Luke, the Egyptians, the Hebrews). The universal convention of having the names...

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