Toto

Rene Salm has just uploaded the first English translation of the first five chapters of this obscure non-canonical work.

Main page: http://www.renesalm.com/mp

Translation

Notes from Rene Salm

stephan huller

It is interesting to note some of the parallels with the Letter to Theodore:

The following idea is standard throughout the literature associated with the apostle:

Yet notice how controversial the idea of Mark being an apostle is outside of Egypt. The idea that his mother was named Mary is also common to the tradition. Rene should translate the Hymns of St Mark by Severus in Arabic.

Roger Pearse

The dryness of the 'Martyrium Marci' just discussed evidently stimulated the
emergence of new' Acts', in which other sources have been worked in alongside the latter document.

Among them is in the first place the.... (BHG II, 1036m), which was edited for the first time after a Greek codex from the Stavronikita monastery on Mt Athos (13th cent.) by F. Halkin (AnalBoll 87,1969,346-371). What is striking is above all the verbose and rhetorical style of this extensive document, in contrast to the rather prosaic language of most later apostolic Acts. A large part of its contents (cc. 16-35; Halkin 358-371) is a long-winded paraphrase, enriched with additional teratological material, of the Martyrium aheady mentioned. The remains contain numerous statements about Mark's life before his mission in Egypt. Some such details - e.g. Mark as a disciple of John the Baptist (c. 5), as a Levite (c. 2), at his baptism by Peter (c. 4) and as author of the Gospel in Rome (c. 9) - are known especially through the Gospel prologues and arguments (on which see J. Regul, Die antimarcionitischen Evangelienprologe, 1969.30; 47-5O) and in part go to an ancient interpretation
of specific biblical passages (e.g. Acts 4:36 and 1 Peter 5:13). The statements about Mark's relations with his mother Mary (c. 4) and with Paul and Barnabas (c. 6) derive mainly from Acts (12:12; 13:5-14), the conflict between Paul and Bamabas because of Mark theree mentioned (Acts 15:37-39) being passed over in silence. F. Halkin (art. cit. 345.354) sees a clear indication of the use of the Acta Barnabae by the author of the present document in the description of Mark's stay on the island of Pityusa ... A further pointer in the same direction is provided by the enigmatic statement of c. 8 about Mark's intention of going 'to the west, to the Gauls'; the counterpart to that is in c. 5 of the Acts of Barnabas ...

stephan huller

I know that Tjitze Baarda has a monograph finished on the Martyrium Marci

andrewcriddle

Salm regards as unusual the idea in the Acts of Mark that Mark was a Levite. However, this is found in other sources, eg the latin prologues This tradition is possibly related to Mark being described as the cousin of Barnabas who was a Levite.

Andrew Criddle

Edited to Add

Roger Pearse posted a similar comment earlier.

aa5874

Barnabas was a Levite??? Which Barnabas are you talking about? This is like asserting that Robin Hood was a Jew.

andrewcriddle

Acts 4:36 Andrew Criddle

mountainman

The trinity reference seems to confirm a post-Nicaean authorship.

The Gnostic speaks like a Plotinic Platonist - not a Canonical Christian.

These Gnostics must have had a great collection of Gospels and Acts.

Here Mark is not sent to Alexandria but to Gaul, the homeland of Irenaeus, and some of Constantine's barbarian chieftans.

mountainman

The gnostic author data-mined and cobbled together a bit of this and a bit of that canonical text, a bit of this and that non canonical text, and then sprinkled in things new. This was the standard modus operandi of these vile gnostic heretics. How could they have thought to do this? Why would they have thought to do this? They were deliberately cloning the One True Official SuperMark Story. There was an opening - an unofficial window of opportunity - for an Act of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Duvduv

The narrative doesn't sound like high christology at all yet Jesus is called both begotten son of God and the creator God during his lifetime. It sounds like a mishmash like Toldoth Yeshu.