stephan huller

The argument for the recent forgery of the Mar Saba document is based on the assumption that Morton Smith could effectively learn how to 'fake' the handwriting of an eighteenth century monk at Mar Saba or some related Greek monastery. Let's leave aside the recent handwriting expert's finding in BAR for the moment because I don't want to get distracted from a very basic point.

I remember looking at the pictures of the script that was seemingly scribbled into the back pages of that Voss book and - with no frame of reference - at least assuming that it was possible that this handwriting sample might have some problems associated with it. After all, I am not an expert on this subject matter and presumably others were.

But recently I have managed to get my hands on some samples which have been dated by experts to the 18th century and I just can't get over how there is an uncanny resemblance between the Mar Saba letter discovered by Smith and these documents are. I am not expert again but has anyone that pontificates on the subject of the counterfeit nature of this discovery actually familiarized themselves with the genre of eighteenth century calligraphy from the monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church? I can't believe that someone could argue that this Smith or anyone else managed to pull off a forgery of this kind. The Mar Saba document looks EXACTLY like the kind of document you'd find in a Greek monastery.

Now this doesn't prove its authentic but it's like finding a love letter in your wife's purse addressed to her and signed by another man thanking her for great sex the night before. The fact that my wife is walking around with something that resembles a correspondance between adulterous parties doesn't require me to prove who wrote the letter, when they engaged in coitus etc. The letter resembles something people that 'cheaters' send one another. It's her job to disprove that what looks a testimony to an adulterous affair is not a testimony to an adulterous affair.

Getting back to the Mar Saba document. There are these 'difficulties' that are cited by opponents of the letter's authenticity. But again to cite analogy - it's like the guy going to get a photo radar ticket dismissed by arguing various conspiracy theories about the corruption in the police department, the mayor's office etc. The real question that any judge would remind the conspiracy buff is how the fuck did a car that resembles your car and carrying your exact license plate get photographed doing 40 miles over the speed limit on Main St?

I guess after seeing how closely the handwriting of the Mar Saba document actually resembles an 18th century document AND HOW UNIQUE THAT HANDWRITING STYLE IS I wonder if anyone has managed to actually pull off forging two or three pages of similar calligraphy? Seriously I was just for fun attempting to pull off imitating handwriting samples that I received from various people just for fun writing out the Declaration of Independence in someone else's style. It is f...ing impossible to keep this up for a page and not show strange variations in the letters.

I can see how it might be possible to do block letters like this but not handwriting where the lettersr are connected by lines in a smooth, flowing style. It's impossible and then throw in a different language written in a different era and then THE ULTIMATE DIFFICULTY - having one chance to 'pull off' the forgery in that Voss Book. I just don't think it is possible.

Now Simonides is a name that always comes up when the topic of the Mar Saba letter is at hand. But to the best of my knowledge Simonides only restricted himself to the block Greek letter forgeries where each letter is separate from the one before and after it. I can see learning to make twenty four Greek letters from the period and then writing out words made up of these twenty four characters and pulling off.

Of course Simonides was the best and most famous forger of all time - and he was caught. His faux classical texts were often riddled with Byzantine and modern Greek terminology which couldn't have been present in the original. Simonides's motive was also rather straightforward - he made a lot of money from his forgeries.

I just want someone to point out an example of (a) an acknowledged forgery of 18th century Greek monastic calligraphy that (b) is half as convincing as the Mar Saba document discovered by Smith.

Why isn't the adage - if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck so it's probably a duck - not applicable here?

Just a thought.

DCHindley

Some years ago, on a TV show on PBS about ancient Greek manuscripts, one scene featured the hands of a calligrapher pretending to be a monk writing out a manuscript, and he appeared to be effortlessly writing out very authentic looking minuscule cursive Greek text of the late medieval period.

Now I'm not saying that this proves anything, but it may not be a bad idea to try to make contacts in the community of modern calligraphers, to see if any are known to be extra good at imitate the writing style of ancient Greek minuscule cursive manuscripts. Then ask them how difficult it would be to flawlessly imitate the style found in the Mar Saba manuscripts. They might be able to give a few tips as to what might trip up a forger, based on the things they found themselves doing when they tried to imitate such texts.

The artistic community may not care enough about modern religious controversy to have paid much attention to Stephen Carlson's book.

DCH ... oops! There goes that damn "forgers tremor" again!

stephan huller

I guess but it should be said that there is no 'forger's tremor.' That's been effectively been debunked. So I guess the question is whether anyone's ever done it before.

Simonides as far as I can tell only attempted the easy stuff and he still got caught. That in an age without modern forensic technology.

It looks exactly like other eighteenth century handwriting from the Greek monasteries. If there's no real proof that it's a forgery. No confession. No proof of any kind just these endless 'questions' and 'nit picking' (indeed 'pulling at straws' if you asked me) that we see with the 'global warming debate' why isn't it just assumed to be what it seems to be?

There is no precedent as far as I can see nor is there any evidence of forgery. Seems to me to be a closed issue unless someone can alert me to the existence of something substantive.

PhilosopherJay

Hi stephan huller,

Apparently, the color photographs of the pages show the same age stains that are on pages in the rest of the book. This means that Smith could not have written the pages and simply inserted them as earlier conspiracy theorists had suggested. Robert Price than suggested that he found a book with empty pages at the end and wrote on the empty pages.

However the BAR handwriting expert, Venetia Anastasopoulou, concluded that: "More over, the level of his ability concerning his Greek language handwriting characteristics is like that of young school children who have not started to use writing in a practical way expressing thoughts and ideas."

Smith's writing ability in Greek apparently never passed that of a "young school" child. At least, nobody has presented evidence that it ever did. Yet somehow he was able to fill three pages imitating the script of an 18th century writer who wrote fluidly in 18th century Greek script, doing 983 words without making a single mistake.

If Smith was able to do this, I think we should propose him for sainthood, for this is truly a miracle on the level of the illiterate Muhammad suddenly composing the Koran.

Incidentally, whatever happened to that second handwriting expert who was going to present evidence that he found the handwriting that Smith copied?

Warmly,

Jay Raskin

stephan huller

All I can say is that there are similar manuscripts. The question of whether they are exact matches is a matter for experts to decide. But let's just say that there are manuscripts out there that have been dated by experts to the eighteenth century which - to my naked eye - look very similar to the Mar Saba handwriting. The only thing that I can say as someone who lacks the proper expertise is that you realize what an incredible feat this 'forgery' really is when you see - up close and personal - how incredibly similar some handwriting from the period actually resemble the Mar Saba calligraphy.

Venetia's work established how unlikely it is that Smith could have pulled off the handwriting. But that's only part of the story. You really have to see what a handwriting sample from the eighteenth century looks like in order to realize how stupid this whole forgery proposition is.